Wire: Need to be able to pause processing

[webel]

Wire: 7.8.0

If there is already a way of achieving this please advise.

AFAIK one can pause the Transport (which affects nodes using transport), but not the entire patch.

When I have large patches, especially when using images into Grid Pattern or when using 16bpc, the patch processing can become very slow. It would be nice to be able to pause the entire patch, but still perform other actions such as Export. I find myself having to close Wire entirely in between trying things out (in between exports) so that I can do other things on my machine, such as review the exports. Note I am not a VJ, I am mostly generating high resolution content. I explore it at lower resolution and 8pbc, then upgrade when I am ready to export.

A Pause button with some indicator across the patch that the processing is paused would be really nice.

[Zoltán]

Most nodes have a Bypass inlet, which you can wire up to a bool.
Right click on a node, go to visibility, and check it to make it show up.

You could use the single bool to disable the heavy nodes.

[webel]

Hi Zoltán,

By-passing selected "heavy" nodes using a patch-wide switch might be a workaround but it's not very practical with large patches. I'll use that in the meantime, but I really need to be able to conveniently pause the processing in an entire patch easily, so my feature request remains.

May I note again that the current apparent lack of sub-patching makes the patches larger and makes it harder to isolate heavy nodes (if you could sub-patch a heaving processing region that would make the workaround more practical).

thx

Darren

[webel]

@Zoltán

Further, the "heavy node" by-passing switch idea doesn't really achieve what I want anyway, because if I bypass heavy nodes they won't Export.

If I prepare patches using lower specs (like only 8bpc), then switch to 16bpc pre Export, it takes sometimes minutes (!!!) to navigate the Export dialog and get it running (choose filename, export settings, click Export button etc.), because 16bpc is a much heavier load. I need to be able to pause, switch to 16bpc, then initiate Export.

I also need to be able to simply silence Wire a bit while doing other stuff on my computer, without having to close it or fiddle with it.

I have dozens of patches I'd need to use the bypass workaround trick on, it's not practical.

[Zoltán]

The final export will be 8 bit, also if you select 16 bit internal processing, but I get that you get better accuracy with multiple stages.

I guess what goes on here is that by switching to 16 bits, you suddenly need twice the VRAM. If you fill the VRAM and the GPU starts to swap to disk, that can slow down the system a lot!
Do you have a specific patch where you see this happen and can share it with us?

[webel]

Thx Zoltán for your ongoing interest in this. You wrote:

The final export will be 8 bit, also if you select 16 bit internal processing, but I get that you get better accuracy with multiple stages.

I don't understand this at all. Why 8 bit? If I export as ProRes422 it's 10-bit and at DXV3 High (which I assume is 16-bit). I can in any case tell a clear difference between exporting at those or exporting at DXV3 Normal (8-bit) or MJPEG (worse banding). As you know from my other recent postings, I've been doing exhaustive comparative tests on gradient banding, with the gradient driven/changing, as I want to use that a lot for many scenes of many videos. (Note also, BTW, that dithering vs 8 bpc does not always work, it can cause artefacts when combined with other FX downstream like Bendoscope, as shown here: https://vimeo.com/675254871)

I guess what goes on here is that by switching to 16 bits, you suddenly need twice the VRAM. If you fill the VRAM and the GPU starts to swap to disk, that can slow down the system a lot!

Yep. With 3 Image inputs (scaled to 2000px squares) and some Transforms into Repeat with 3 x 4 then Bendoscope or PolarKaleido it's really slow on my 5K iMac 2017. With GridPattern the entire machine nearly grinds to a halt, and I can barely navigate the Export popup!

Do you have a specific patch where you see this happen and can share it with us?

I'll share something with you via Dropbox by email to Resolume (it might be a day or so) with a link to this forum posting.

I have an entirely family of patches that use variations on 3 x Image into Repeat or GridPattern and then Bendoscope and GridPattern, which create different scenes for a longer video. I want to then use those with different sets of Images as "inputs". The source images are from high resolution macro photography, and the aim is to maintain highest quality throughout (recall I don't care about live performance speed, just end result quality, so I'm taking Wire a bit out of its comfort zone).

I am in fact making really good progress, the results thanks to Wire are truly stunning. But I will be doing such exports over and over, so it would be good to be able at least pause a patch so I can launch the Export easily.

BTW I thought of taking a screencast of just how much it slows down and how hard it is to navigate the Export dialog when using 16pbc in the patch, but of course running the screencast with the machine nearly stalled is not ideal.