ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX is the dazzling fast software that will enable you set up outstanding video shows in a matter of seconds. Build a full performance using only a few simple video loops from your hard drive, mixing and altering them using more than 100 real-time effects.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Take control of your show
ArKaos VJ DMX lets you control every aspects of your live visual show from within your console: assign visuals to be displayed, trigger effects, use camera inputs, drive effect parameters… all of this live and directly from your sliders and buttons. You can now seamlessly integrate a professional video control system into your existing lightshow architecture.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Real time high quality visuals
ArKaos VJ DMX also takes advantage of graphic card acceleration through its Hardware Accelerated video engine (HW Mode) which produces an unprecedented visual smoothness and image quality and makes it possible to rotate, zoom and change the color for each layer in real time from the DMX Fixture Control Mode.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Tons of effects, so many parameters
On top its 60+ original effects or 40+ Hardware Accelerated effects, ArKaos VJ DMX supports additional FreeFrame effects (an open cross-platform real-time video effects plug in standard) and comes shipped with 42 pre-loaded FreeFrame effects!

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Works with mostly any lighting desk
Version 3.6 allows a better integration on most lighting desks making it possible through a simple network connection to see the file names and thumbnails of your visuals and monitor the output directly from the lighting desk thanks to the new MSEX protocol (Media Server EXtension) which has been implemented in collaboration with Capture, ETC and Chamsys.

In order to adapt to an even wider range of consoles, ArKaos VJ DMX features two different DMX control modes:

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Simple Control Mode:
This mode is targeted to low-end consoles. It allows triggering pre-defined setups of visuals & effects using dimmers. Even a simple 24 faders controller is enough to control your visuals in this mode!
Fixture Control Mode:
Targeted to professional DMX consoles, the Fixture Control mode transforms your computer into a full-fledged media server. When enabled, eight video layers are available and you can control the visual & effect selection, position, scaling, rotation, RGB levels, effect parameters, Chroma/Luma keying … for each layer directly from your console!
Multiscreen and widescreen with Soft-Edge
Finally we've added to version 3.6 an option to define a custom output resolution allowing - from a single computer! - to output your visuals on multiple screens (i.e. different visuals on separate screens) or on a wide screen (i.e. a large visual on several screens next to the other) with a Soft-Edge option for seamless blending between the screens.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Flexible and powerful, yet so affordable
These solutions offers much more flexibility than most hardware media servers while lowering your costs since most recent low cost computers are capable of playing high quality video; triggering ArKaos visual effects from a DMX lighting console offers the ease of a simple and inexpensive setup to control both your projection screens and your light show.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - How does it works?
To connect a DMX control machine to a PC running ArKaos, you can use either the ArtNet Ethernet protocol or a DMX-USB interface.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - HW Mode

ArKaos VJ 3.6 introduces the HW Mode, a brand new video engine which takes advantage of the capabilities from the latest hardware accelerated graphic cards. In this mode, all video treatment, mixing and effects application is now computed in the GPU using special algorithms designed towards image processing.

This new video engine will let you experience an unprecedented visual smoothness and image quality and guess what? It is available in both ArKaos VJ 3.6 MIDI and DMX provided that your graphic card supports the Pixel Shaders II (see the system requirements page for more info).

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - It's all about Shaders
Thanks to the Pixel Shaders accelerated multimedia technology, all video treatment, mixing and effects are now computed by the graphic card using special algorithms designed towards image processing. This makes it possible to position and resize videos, apply advanced 2D & 3D effects to them and mix several layers together with luminance/chrominance keying as well as many different copy modes...

All this in real time and with a very high image quality allowing top notch projection on big screens!

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Advantages:
All image processing is done through the GPU*: the CPU* has more time for other heavy processing such as video decompression; this result in a much better frame rate and visual smoothness.

All video treatment is accomplished in full resolution and benefits from a hardware texture filtering which makes the pixel artifacts disappear, even with low-resolution videos; the image quality is greatly improved.

*The GPU is the processor from your graphic card, as opposition to the CPU - Computer Processor Unit -, which is your computer’s main processor.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Hardware acceleration, technically speaking
By using the hardware GPU pipeline processing rather than a standard CPU processing, the approach to image processing becomes radically different: every image or video is equivalent to a texture in the video memory; updating several videos together consumes a high amount of AGP/PCI-X bus data bandwidth. The ArKaos engine reduces this bandwidth to a minimum to achieve the best possible frame rate.

Every image-processing is done using texture as source data: it can easily be mixed with other textures, then being scaled, stretched and deformed using geometry meshes. Therefore, the per pixel/vertex processing totally changes the way of working on the image. Pixel Shaders allow advanced image processing in a minimum development time thanks to the per pixel treatment, whereas vertex-shaders allow advanced light effects and volumes deformation thanks to the per vertex treatment.

Using hardware texture filtering in Arkaos VJ produces images with extraordinary high quality. Moreover, all the treatments are done in full resolution, making the pixelization disappear, even with low resolution videos.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Compatibility check
The first time ArKaos VJ 3.6 starts, it will check your GPU’s capabilities and determine if it supports the HW Mode or not.

If your GPU is compatible, ArKaos will automatically enable the HW mode and a logo “ArKaos VJ HW” will be displayed at top left of the Synth window.
 
If your GPU is NOT compatible you can not benefit from the HW Mode’s hardware acceleration; ArKaos VJ will start in Standard Mode and the logo “ArKaos VJ” without “HW” will be displayed in the Synth window.
A new way of working with the effects
New effects taking full advantage of the HW Mode have been added, other effects have been updated to benefit from the hardware acceleration and most of the other ArKaos effects from the previous versions are still available. However, some old ArKaos effects have been removed because they were not compatible with the new hardware accelerated video engine.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - HW effects and Shader effects
These effects have an icon with a red border, they are only available when running ArKaos VJ in HW Mode and therefore they fully benefit from your graphic card’s hardware acceleration capabilities.
Standard effects and FreeFrame effects
When in HW Mode, some of the Standard ArKaos effects and all the FreeFrame effects remains available. Their icons have a blue border. Since these effects are not optimized for the HW Mode, they will be processed by your main CPU. However, once the effect has been applied to your visual, the result is sent to your graphic card and therefore it will still benefit from the hardware texture filtering, giving a better result and faster than the same effect and visual combination if used in Standard Mode. These effects must be associated with a visual placed on the same key; they can’t be used alone on a key (i.e. to apply the effect to a visual from another key pressed simultaneously).
HW-incompatible effects
Standard effects which are incompatible with the HW engine will not be shown in the Effects list when in HW mode.
Opening in HW Mode a Synth made in Standard Mode (or in a previous ArKaos VJ version)
Some changes automatically occur if you open in HW Mode a Synth that was created in Standard Mode or in a version of ArKaos VJ prior to 3.6:

ArKaos VJ will detect in your Synth all the effects that have been updated for the HW Mode and it will update the keys of your Synth with these effects.
All the icons from effects wich are incompatible with the HW Mode will still be displayed on your Patch but pressing the corresponding key will not trigger the effect, it will only trigger the visual on the key (if any).
Switch back to standard mode
As explained above, the HW Mode has less effects than the Standard mode in total (if you don't consider the 73 effects from the Core Image library). If you want to use an ArKaos .kos file that you created in previous software versions and which contains old effects, you can still do so by launching ArKaos VJ in Standard mode: uncheck the option “Use Hardware acceleration if available” in the menus “Edit, Preferences, ArKaos Engine” and restart ArKaos VJ.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Core Image

ArKaos VJ 3.6 for Macintosh supports the optimized video effects from Apple's Core Image library, that's 73 great new effects you can apply to your visuals!

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - What is Core Image?
Core Image is a library of optimized video effects introduced by Apple in Mac OS X Tiger, these effects are pre-installed in your system and can be used in various applications. Core Image allows ArKaos VJ's hardware accelerated video engine to leverage the processing power of recent graphic cards for blistering-fast image processing that can eliminate rendering time delays.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - How does it works?
Basically it works the same way as the FreeFrame effects, if you have Mac OSX Tiger and a compatible graphic card you will notice a new Core Image wrapper effect icon in the first tab of ArKaos VJ's Effects window: drag it on a key and double-click it to select one of the 73 Core Image effects to use on that key, define its parameters, add a visual next to it and press the key. It couldn't be easier..

Each parameter displayed in the effect dialog box can be either set to a fixed value (using the slider), assigned to a MIDI controller or set to a variable value.

Of course, the Core Image effects can be applied and controlled in real-time over your visuals (images, movies, Flash animations or live camera input), just like the other ArKaos effects.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Compatibility
Core Image has been introduced by Apple in Mac OS X 1.4 Tiger, if you have an earlier version you will not be able to use the Core Image effects.

However, if you have a compatible graphic card you will of course benefit from all the other great features of the HW Mode in ArKaos VJ. Check the system requirements page for more info about system versions and compatible graphic cards.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - More info
A lot of information about the Core Image technology and all the effects can be found on the Apple web site: Core Image

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - New Features

• 43 New or updated effects in HW Mode
• Multiscreen or widescreen projection with Soft-Edge from a single computer
• Mac Intel optimization (Universal Binary)
• New MSEX open protocol allowing on most lighting desks to see the file names and thumbnails of your visuals and monitor the output directly from the lighting desk(DMX version only)
• The compatibility with LightJockey 2.7.1 has been greatly improved: Martin has added built-in ArKaos VJ DMX fixtures tiny and full into their software (DMX version only)
• Bug fixes

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Main Features

• Hardware Accelerated video engine (HW Mode)
• More than 60 totally customizable effects in Standard Mode, 40+ effects in HW Mode
• Core Image support (Mac OS X 10.4 and above only)
• Support for additional FreeFrame effects (comes with 42 effects pre-loaded)
• Allows any MIDI keyboard or device to control images, movies and effects
• Supports still images, video loops and flash animations
• Support for full video streaming of camera (USB, FireWire…)
• Enables full-screen usage for events, e.g. concerts, presentations
• Built-in recorder to create visual remixes
• Direct DV output through FireWire
• Multiple keyboard mapping to trigger images and effects
• Powerful automatic beat-matching technology
• Unlimited number of simultaneous video layers, sophisticated Transfer modes
• MIDI latch on/off for live performances
• Remote Patch selection
• Automatic Fade option
• DMX Fixture mode (DMX version only)
• High optimization for fast frame rate
• Engine integrable with any MIDI sequencer (OMS, ReWire, ...)
• Advanced Movie Loop Control to change the way a movie is played, enabling:
• Movie synchronization to BPM
• Forward / backward playback with constant or MIDI-controlled speed or through BPM sync
• Selection of a loop within the movie
• Definition of the looping zone using MIDI controllers
• Two different random looping modes: with or without BPM sync
• Video For Windows & DirectShow support on the PC's: .avi -including DivX- .mpg .mpeg .asf and .wmv files
• Overlay display support on the PC's: with two monitors, you can switch to another application without shutting down ArKaos' full screen mode

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Minimum requirements (PC)

OS: Windows™ 98 SE / Me / 2000 or XP
Processor: Pentium™ III 500 Mhz; Pentium™ IV 1.2 Ghz recommended
RAM: 256MB; 512MB recommended
Media players:
QuickTime™ 6.5.x or more (to play / export .mov files)
Windows Media Player™ 9 or more (to play .wma / export .wmv files)
Macromedia Flash player 7 or more (to play .swf files)
Other: Direct X™ 9.0c or more (to play / export .mpg .mpeg .asf .wmv files / camera support)
Note: the software installer will check if your media players and DirectX versions are up to date and give you the opportunity to update them if needed.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX Minimum Requirements (MAC)

OS: Mac OS X 10.3.8 and up; Mac OS X 10.4 recommended
Processor: G4 800 Mhz or better, Mac Intel recommended
RAM: 256 MB; 512 recommended
Media players:
QuickTime™ 6.5.x or more (to play / export .mov files)
Note:

ArKaos VJ requires Administrator rights to be installed on Mac OS X, the installer will prompt for an Administrator password during installation.
ArKaos VJ can only play Flash 5 animations on Macintosh because QuickTime does not support Flash animations above version 5.
Effects from the Core Image library will only be available in HW Mode on computers running Mac OS X 10.4 or better, otherwise corresponding effect icons on your keyboard will be replaced by a question mark.

ArKaos VJ 3.6 DMX - Platform independent requirements 
 
Hardware acceleration (HW Mode):
Requires a graphic card supporting the Pixel Shaders II technology.
The most frequent supported cards are:
nVidia GeForce starting from the model 5200 SE/XT
ATI Radeon starting from the model 9550 SE
If your graphic card is not supported, nothing strange will happen, ArKaos VJ will simply start in Standard Mode.

ArKaos VJ DMX:
Can be used with an ArtNet compatible DMX console (which sends and receives DMX signal through Ethernet)
Can be used with any DMX console when combined with a DMX to USB widget (which sends and receives DMX signals through USB)