Category: Software News

Fugio Friday: 2nd March 2018

Happy Fugio Friday!

There’s been another busy week working on the upcoming 3.0.0 release, the results of which can be downloaded in the latest development builds.

  • NEW: Freeframe plugin with support for 1.0 and FFGL plugins.  Set the paths to the plugins in the Fugio preferences.  Please remember that only 32-bit builds can load 32-bit Freeframe plugins (and vice versa for 64-bit).
  • NEW: Experimental fast input pin setting – press and hold the left mouse button on an input pin until the slider pops up
  • NEW: Spout to Image example
  • NEW: Flip image flag added to Spout Sender
  • UPDATED: Rate Control has a proper trigger pin now
  • FIXED: Issues with new Windows installer that fixes the application icon and plugin loading (thanks truthcollins)
  • FIXED: OpenGL debugging was still on in release builds

I’m flying off to Texas tomorrow for an exhibition, so there almost certainly won’t be a Fugio Friday next week.

Have a great weekend.

Fugio Friday: 23rd February 2018

Happy Fugio Friday!

I’m currently in Belfast having just given a talk for the Northern Ireland Science Festival.

Check out this cool patch that uses your webcam to create two areas on the screen that act like buttons, which you can use to trigger off whatever you like!  Yes, I know my hand is blue – I’m working on that…  It’s available under the Video Capture examples in the File menu.

The latest development builds are available for download with new command line options for controlling the loading of plugins.

You can install the snap build using the following:

snap install --edge fugio --devmode

  • NEW: Command Line Options (see below for examples)
  • NEW: Experimental Linux snap builds for i386, x64, and armhf
  • NEW: Core/ProcessClick node
  • NEW: Two Video Buttons and Multiple AND examples
  • UPDATE: OpenCV/CountNonZero accepts a Region Of Interest (ROI)
  • FIXED: Kinect wasn’t working properly after image changes

Command Line Options

The new command line options for Fugio allow you to enable or disable plugin loading, set the OpenGL backed, set the language, and define variables for plugins.

The path to the Fugio or FugioShow executable is different on each platform:

Windows:

C:\Program Files\Fugio\bin\Fugio.exe

macOS:

/Applications/Fugio/Fugio.app/Contents/MacOS/Fugio

Linux:

which fugio

Replace [fugio] in the examples below with the path to the Fugio or FugioShow application on your platform.

Show the command line options:

[fugio] -h

Only load the core and math plugins:

[fugio] --enable-plugin fugio-core --enable-plugin fugio-math

Don’t load the PortAudio plugin:

[fugio] --disable-plugin fugio-portaudio

Run Fugio in German:

[fugio] --locale de

Run Fugio in Spanish:

[fugio] -l es

Load a patch:

[fugio] path/to/your/patch.fug

You can load more than one patch by listing them all on the command line.

Have a good weekend!

Fugio Friday: 16th February 2018

Happy Fugio Friday!

I made the mysterious image at the top of this post using Fugio to process some footage I shot when recently in Venice.  I’m currently working on a series of these “algorithmic photographs” for an upcoming exhibition (plus talks and workshops!) at Texas A&M university in a few weeks.  You can see the latest images on my Instagram feed.

This week we have an updated 3.0.0 development release for all platforms that has a few key changes:

  • NEW: Hovering your mouse cursor over nodes in the insert node dialog will show you their description (if they have one)
  • NEW: EasyShader2D supports multiple texture render targets
  • UPDATE: VariantPin now has tooltips for QPoint and QSize
  • UPDATE: OpenGL examples use EasyShader2D where possible
  • UPDATE: Implemented more portable OpenGL VAO support
  • FIXED: FilenamePin wasn’t saving default value paths correctly
  • FIXED: GetSize wasn’t setting its variant count properly
  • FIXED: Stepping through media using Media Processor, or streaming media should work much better now
  • FIXED: There were missing dependencies on the Raspberry Pi build (thanks Winfred!)

Have a good weekend!

Fugio Friday: 9th February 2018

Happy Fugio Friday!

Despite having been away in Venice for most of the week for a rare holiday, we have a new Fugio development update for you to download.

There is still some work to do before a final release of 3.0.0 but we’re getting closer…

NEW

  • New nodes for chopping up strings: Left, Right, Mid, Chop
  • New node for finding text in a string: Contains
  • New boolean logic node: Boolean Latch
  • New control node: Block Updates
  • New options on initial patch prompt

FIXED

  • All translations now working again
  • Fixed wrong libswresample-ffmpeg2 dependency
  • Examples and snippets weren’t being found
  • WebSocket was disabled

Have a good weekend!

Fugio Friday: v3.0.0 dev for Win 32/64, Mac, Linux, RPi

Happy Fugio Friday!

We have a binary release for Linux!

Following on from last week, I’ve been putting the finishing touches to my new Jenkins based build system for Fugio.

From now on you’ll be able to download the latest development build for Windows 32 and 64 bit, macOS, Linux, and Raspberry Pi.

Once the builds are deemed stable, they will be moved to the stable download section and work will begin on the next release.

Apart from being able to keep 5 different build platforms up to date, it means that new features and bug fixes will be available sooner.

On GitHub, the new release branch will now start at the beginning of the release cycle, instead of the end.  The develop branch will be merged with the release branch once new code is ready to be tested.

Please test the new builds and let me know if there are any problems.  Every system has their own complex way of building and distributing software that I’ve had to learn and grapple with.  This release is a whole new implementation across the board so there may be a few problems.

Finally, the whole build system is now cmake based rather than using qmake, which is the culmination of weeks of work.

Have a good weekend!

If you want to support Fugio development then please consider joining my Patreon page to help fund future work.

Fugio Friday: Happy New Year 2018!

Hey, happy new year!

So I’ve been taking a little break from the Fugio Friday as I’m flat out working on the final run up to a new permanent art installation in London that is using… Fugio, of course!

I’m also working on some big changes for the first release of 2018:

For the first time in Fugio’s history, I’m doing some changes that will almost certainly break a few patches.  The main issue I’ve had is how Fugio deals differently with pins that have a single value (say a 2D Point), and a pin that has multiple values (like an array).  I want to simplify this interface, which will enable more succinct patches, faster processing, and easier Lua code.  The example screenshot here shows the Lua script processing an array of 2D points using the new interface.

As Fugio is able to work on more platforms, I’ve finally ventured into the world of automated builds.  I’m now running Jenkins to build Win32, Win64, macOS, Raspberry Pi, and now a Linux binary distribution:

These are all being build off the feature/cmake branch, which will become the default build method in 2018.

I’ve still got a little way to go before these releases will be ready for you to download, but I’m working on it!  Don’t forget you can support the ongoing work by signing up for my Fugio Patreon page!

That’s the news so far for 2018.  Hope it’s treating you well.

Have a great weekend.

Fugio Friday: Raspberry Pi release

Happy Fugio Friday!

I’m delighted to announce the first binary release of Fugio for Raspberry Pi (running Raspbian Stretch – as well as updated Windows and macOS builds).

No longer do you need to worry about compiling or cross compiling from source.  You can even install it via apt-get to handle all the dependencies automatically.

Download Fugio v2.14.0 for Windows and macOS (source code)

Installing Fugio on Raspberry Pi

Open a Terminal window.

If you’re installing Fugio for the first time on your Pi, you need to add my public key so you know the files are signed by me.

sudo apt install dirmngr

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys BC9654E46D3A81C4

Next, you need to add the Fugio source to your system:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

At the end of the file, add the following line:

deb https://www.bigfug.com/releases/ stretch main rpi

Save the file (Ctrl+X).  Now you can update your sources:

sudo apt update

And you’re good to go…

sudo install fugio

This is the first time I’ve done a binary release for Raspberry Pi, so please let me know if you run into any problems in the comments below.

Check out the new GPIO node if you want to access the Raspberry Pi’s pins.  I’m doing some work with this at the moment for controlling RGB LED’s and it’s working for simple I/O.

Currently it’s not possible to utilise the accelerated video decoding on the Pi as there are some incompatibilities that I still have to resolve, so don’t expect the video decoding to work at full speed.

What else is new?

Obviously this wasn’t just a case of compiling the source code on a Raspberry Pi.  I had to do a lot of work on the OpenGL side to support OpenGL ES, allowing accelerated graphics.

To simplify using OpenGL shaders on all platforms, I’ve added a new node called “Easy Shader 2D”, which avoids having to add geometry and other OpenGL support nodes.  See the new examples.

You’ll also notice a big change when you start Fugio up – we have a wonderful new logo that was designed by Eleanor Hyland-Stanbrook.

There’s a new plugin: NDI for sending and receiving video over a network (the 1,000th commit on GitHub).

There’s some new nodes for working with arrays of bits like IntToBits, AndBits, XorBits, etc.  If you’re interested in modelling logic systems, these will save you lots of nodes!

There’s a StringSplit, Min and Max, Cosine, JoinPoint, and OpenGL ArrayToTexture…

This release also has the first build of FugioShow which is a small application for running the patches you’ve designed with Fugio without the editor.

Wow, that was a lot of new stuff!  You’ll have noticed that there hasn’t been a Fugio Friday for a while.  This was mainly because I’m super busy working on my art commission for the Francis Crick Institute, and also the large amount of changes needed to be made to the OpenGL side to support the Pi.

Have a great weekend!

NEW

  • New logo!
  • OpenGL ES support
  • NDI plugin added
  • FugioShow
  • OpenGL EasyShader2D, ArrayToTextureBuffer node
  • Point and Line support with pin, Lua class
  • OpenCV Hough Lines and Simple Blob Detector nodes
  • IntToBits, Multiplexor, AndBits, BitsToPins, FlipFlop, NandBits, NorBits, OrBits, XorBits, Min, Max, CosineDegrees nodes added to Math plugin
  • SplitList, StringSplit, JoinPoint nodes
  • GPIO Raspberry Pi node
  • Can run Fugio with –opengl, –gles, or –glsw for OpenGL desktop, ES, and software renderer
  • Added OpenGL Barrel Distortion example
  • Added Geometry plugin with PolygonNode (early stage)

UPDATED

  • Iterations added to OpenCV Erode/Dilate
  • Nodes that take a filename will pop up a file dialog when you ‘Edit Default’ so you don’t need a FilenameNode
  • Math Add, Divide, Multiply, and Subtract nodes work on a wider range of input data types
  • Variant pins show useful data when you hover the mouse over them
  • Added lots of new data types to ArrayPin

FIXED

  • Code is Qt 5.7 compatible
  • Fixes to TextureMonitor

 

Resolume 6 and bigfug FFGL plugins

Resolume 6 just came out of beta in the last couple of weeks and I’ve been getting a steady stream of emails from people who find that my FFGL plugins don’t work with it.

UPDATE: Plugins now available for Windows and macOS

This is because – until now – most FFGL utilising software (including Resolume 2, 3, 4, and 5) have been 32-bit based.  Now, with Resolume 6, they’ve gone 64-bit only, which is a great move that I applaud!  If you’re not sure what all this 32/64 bit stuff means, click here to find out!

This means that all existing FFGL plugins (including mine) need to be upgraded to 64-bit in order to work with Resolume 6.

The good news is that I’m working on this right now and should be releasing them in time for Black Friday (24th November 2017).

fugFeedback working in Resolume 6

The other good news is that fugFeedback now works on layers, and fugScope is now a source plugin, not an effect.

There isn’t really any bad news, other than we now have lots of you out there who are probably have some questions about migrating to the new plugins.

Firstly, there will not be an automatic upgrade.  I think you’d agree that the plugins are really cheap so if you can afford to be running Resolume, I reckon you can afford to buy the plugins again.  All the money goes to supporting creative software development and art!

Secondly, I’ve had people buying the 32-bit plugins for Resolume 6 and emailing me that they don’t work.  If you bought these plugins since the beginning of October 2017, I will give you a free voucher so you can get the 64-bit ones when they are released.

Let me know any comments, suggestions, or queries you may have!

Fugio Friday: The Rabbit Hole

You may have noticed a slight break down in the regularity of these posts of late, which is due to too much work rather than a lack of it!

Those of you following Fugio’s progress will know that I’m working hard on supporting the Raspberry Pi as a primary platform.

Recently I got very excited due to the release of Raspbian Stretch, with it’s new experimental OpenGL driver that allows Fugio (and many other applications) to run accelerated graphics within the desktop windowed environment, which is how things work on Windows, Mac, and Linux.  This is what I was showing off at Ars Electronica a few weeks back.

The next stage was to add the code so Fugio could access the Raspberry Pi’s amazing media processing hardware for decoding and encoding H264 HD video, audio, and other tricks.  This is where things started to get tricky…

I’ve spent the past couple of weeks learning about how the new RPi driver, called VC4, plays with the existing systems, specifically the OpenMAX API’s for video decoding.  On the face of it, everything looked like it should play well together.

I won’t bore you by describing the interminable range of combinations I’ve tried, usually resulting in hour long compilations of Qt with different variations of OpenGL, but there were a lot!

Turns out that the new VC4 driver is incompatible with OpenMAX, and to further complicate things, the accelerated EGL/GLES libraries are now renamed to libbrcmEGL.so and libbrcmGLESv2.so, with the standard libEGL/libGLESv2 libraries being Mesa implementations with software rendering, so just disabling the VC4 driver doesn’t wholly fix the problem as Qt seems a bit hard coded to look for libEGL/libGLESv2.

So, now I’m a left a little confused as to what happens with OpenMAX under VC4.  Will it be replaced by something else or will it be made compatible?  If you know, please enlighten me 🙂

The current status for Fugio is that it’s working great under VC4, and is probably the best and easiest entry for users to get it running on a Pi.  While the OpenGL stuff works great, I can’t (yet) support accelerated media processing.  Therefore, I plan to do release Fugio on the Pi like this for now, which I plan to do in the next couple of weeks.

For my own projects where I need the acceleration, I’m planning to drop back to Raspbian Jessie and use the old drivers that are compatible with OpenMAX.

Anyway, that’s where we’re at.  I’m off to Birmingham, Dublin, and Paris next week…

PS: do please consider giving a bit of regular funding to help Fugio along via Patreon.  It really helps keep up the enthusiasm levels for working on open source software when hitting big roadblocks like this one.  Even 1$ a month is really appreciated, thanks!