qcRev technical details

If your like my self this may interest you. This is an overview how this works from Runtime Revolution. It is a similar method to how it is processed from cocoa with out the pre made views found in IB. Most of the info in these tutorials are presented in a non low level technical way because of the high level tool where using it with.

We are using the quartz composition to process the data. The Composition is rendering off screen on the video card of the system using open GL pBuffer. 

We can then pipe in attributes by a programming method known as key-value Coding. KVC provides a way for accessing an objects properties indirectly. 

Key-value coding is laced heavily with in OS X to provide automatic support to execute commands. This provides an generic way to query, and set values and keys. There are three methods that can be accessed with Key-value coding they are, attributes, to one and to many. 

If we take advantage of Revolution 3.0 new array feature we can now do all 3 methods. 

I am no way an expert in this . I just researched and tested until we found a way to get it to work. Then built on top of that a working model, that can keep expanding. This includes also finding more efficient ways of doing this process.

You will not need to know this, because the qc library we made for revolution takes care of this for you. It just gives a little bit of detail how this works. These methods used for this, can be used for many more technogies found in OS X. That can mean many more Libraries for runtime revolution in the future.

Quartz Composer part 2 for REV

 

Example of an image processed threw quartz with a custom filter.

First off I going to just list the screen cast here link to post, and will update that list. Clicking on the hilited text will go to the screen cast. It easier to list all that in one area and update it as new ones are ready to view. 

 

The part 2 overview finishes of part 1 for 3 to 4 minutes. Then we talk about the templates witch give some key info on what patch we use to pipe media from revolution into the quartz process and back out to revolution to present to the user.

Third we will review and give info on how to get started with the built in OS quartz processes, the same one apple uses for all there apps, and the same ones many 3rd party tools also use. There available for us to use in our programs also. Then we also go over a few other things. I am thinking of doing one more quartz video on advance basic stuff, but I going to edit down into quick little segments. less talking and more presenting.

That will be follow up with open revolution and starting the set routines that will be needed to use these processes, followed by the code we need to run that. Then the actions needed to add these process to life ,will follow.

I am sorry if some of this is slow, but hey I do not want to miss something for some newbie. The overview video, is sort of long I going to replace that with an intro video that will show a few of the quartz processing revolution built apps I made instead, makes more since, now that I think of it.

so part 2 along with the other video can be seen here.

We are getting just Quartz Composer/ Apple users and none revolution developers also hitting these quartz posts. Any thing that talks about rev or revolution stands for Runtime Revolution. A 3rd party cross platform developers tool for application building. Check it out by going here Download the demo, it is a great tool. Worth checking out.

Quartz in revoution how to

1. Overview
2. Using Quartz composer Part 1
3. Using Quartz Composer Part 2
4. Using Quartz Composer part 3
5. prepping quartz files and rev
6. Scripting with revolution
7. rpxQCLib and using it with revolution
8. Advance Rev and Quartz part 1
9. Advance Rev and Quartz part 2
10. Advance Rev and Quartz part 3
11. Final overview

The highlighted links are uploaded the other are not yet ready to watch.

I recommend watching them in order and the overview does not included any screens.

Using Quartz Composer part 1

To do most of the meat and potatoes of processing we are going to use quartz. So you will need to know how to use quartz and quartz composer. This is a basic overview and getting started, if you never use this tool before.

This will be presented in multi parts of 10 mins each so we do not miss anything important. This will be the bulk tool you will use in adding this functionality to revolution built apps. The understanding on how to use it is important, even if your going to use the built in Composition Repository filters and compositions from the system. 

Video part 1  can be seen here: Video

The video is presented in a playlist and is name QCpart1 the other is the overview that is listed below.

The 1st part will talk about paramenters and a basic overview how they work from revolution.

Will show the interface, the patches and how to use to the tool very basic. Inculing rendering an image to screen using a bloom filter. Each part will progess to being more advance, but I trying to present it in a way if you never used it before, to understand how this works.

Using Video screencast products, what best?

I decided to go over this because there so many options but the key is file size and quality. Also we just tested a number of options today. From capture tools, to settings, and server space.

There is Jing. it is free, In 5 minutes (there limit) a screen cast with mic audio is 84MB in file size. They use flash video. Why so big ?

Then there is option two, a quicktime screen grabber like: Screenium. Screenium cost just $20.00 and there is no limit on recording time, but 10-15 minutes seems wise because it does eat up system memmory. a 15 minutes quicktime with audio (system audio and mic mixed) and video with, H264 video set to high and apple Loseless audio codecs a file is only 40MB under half the size and triple the time .

So 15 minutes 40Mb break that down to 5 minutes that would be 13.3 MB file size over the 84MB flash file jing makes with the exact same quality. That a major bandwidth savings and cash in your pocket choosing quicktime over flash. 

In all honesty before this test I really thought flash would have won over quicktime in bandwidth usage and file size. But it didn’t even come close.

Just another reason why not to use flash, save on server space and bandwidth. The $20.00 for screenium is a deal because it records system audio and not just the microphone and has onscreen titles and mouse clicks. I even find that it makes screenflow seem useless and super expensive. 

Interesting info if you wanted to know the deal with screen casts and file settings. We could even knock down the quality even more and make it smaller but I am unsure how wise that is.

 

This is another reason it good to test out multiple options. It can save money down the road.

Screencast.com is one place where you can set up a professional level video server, there is free options and pro – paid options. The paid option is pretty reasonable. Unlike Vimeo or uTube people can not steal your video as easy. and the server will not sell it, like vimeo says it may do with in there licensing.

This could be a great way to overview your products on a web site, pictures are worth a thousand words. Well a video is  worth a billions words and keeps consumers coming back to your site.

The only major time consuming process of doing this is uploading content. even with a 6bps upstream it seems to take forever. Also depending on what your trying to do you may find your self recording a number of times because your mind when blank on the word action.

I highly suggest checking into adding some form of this to product marketing or user support. Image is everything and may help you sell more products. In this day in age the cost is reasonable to consider it.

Overview using quartz with revolution

To see an overview of what we need to start and what is quartz watch this; QTZ Overview Part 1

I will follow up with an overview using quartz composer because we need to have an understand how this works to know how things work, when we present what and how to work and script from revolution. Stay tune, to the site to see how this works. I am doing these video’s and screen casts during free time, so I can only publish them when I finish a screen session between normal paying work.

 

The Library will be available once the rev version of the video is done. so You do not need to worry. Maybe stacks or references, not sure.

The overview is my basic comments with using quartz technologies with in revolution built applications, and is a test of the video server. I feel this is the best way to present this. 

 

Till next time.