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Ventuz 5 Quick Guide

  • Introduction
  • Getting Started
  • Ventuz Editions
  • Designer Overview
  • Ventuz System Requirements
  • Configuration
  • Video/Audio Configuration
  • Machine Configuration
  • GPI Configuration for Runtime or Director
  • Optimize Rendering Performance
  • Supported Formats
  • Supported Hardware
  • Multisampling / Anti-Aliasing
  • Input Subsystem
  • Ventuz Proprietary Files
  • What's new
  • FAQ
  • Common Mistakes
  • Deployment
  • Migration Guide
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Ventuz 5 Designer

  • Index
  • Getting Started
  • Designer Options
  • Designer Overview
Projects & Scenes
  • Projects and Scenes
  • Project Browser
  • Project Properties
  • Project Maintenance
  • Project and Scene Data
  • Scene Tree
  • Scene Management
  • Scene Statistics
  • Deployment
Interface
  • Designer Interface
  • Renderer Window
  • Realtime Rendering
  • Optimize Scene Performance
  • Performance Statistics
  • Transformation Gizmo
  • Render to Disk
  • Camera Navigation
  • Isolated Objects
  • Manipulate Objects with Gizmos
  • Layer Editor
  • Common Layer Properties
  • IPP Effects
  • Color Correction FX
  • Distortion FX
  • Filter FX
  • Layer Editor Shortcuts
  • Hierarchy Editor
  • Working with Nodes
  • Containers
  • Find and Replace
  • Shortcuts Hierarchy Editor
  • Content Editor
  • Working with Nodes
  • Containers
  • Content Editor Shortcuts
  • Toolbox
  • Available Nodes
  • Property Editor
  • Project Data and Scene Data
  • Shader Editor
  • Text Editor
  • Scene Tree
  • Message View
  • Stage Editor
  • Animation Nodes
  • Animation Editor
  • Animation and State Engine
  • Templates
  • Template Engine
  • Shortcuts Animation Editor
  • Text Nodes
  • Text Rendering
  • Text Editor
  • Character Sets
  • Geometry Import
  • World Nodes
  • Geometry Nodes
  • Texture Nodes
  • Material&Color Nodes
  • Render Option Nodes
  • Interaction Nodes
  • Input Subsystem
  • Multitouch
  • TUIO Protocol
  • Open Sound Control
  • VR Nodes
  • How to work with Head Mounted Displays
  • Cluster
  • Multi Display Setups and Shaping
  • Warping, Soft Edging and Masking

Ventuz 5 Node Reference

ANIMATION
  • Mover
  • Alternator
  • Simple Control
  • Timeline Control
  • Keyframe Animation
  • Animation Group
GEOMETRY
  • Rectangle
  • Rounded Rectangle
  • Gradient Rectangle
  • Overlay Rectangle
  • Cube
  • Circle
  • Sphere
  • Cylinder
  • Cone
  • Torus
  • Chart
  • Random Points
  • Mesh Loader
  • Geometry Import (Live)
  • Volume
DATA
  • Database
  • Excel
  • JSON
  • RSS Feed
  • Resource Linker
  • Text File
  • XML
INTERACTION
  • Touch Button
  • Touch Excluder
  • Touch Marker
  • Touch Paint
  • Touch Pattern
  • Touch Proxy
  • Touch Ripples
  • Touch Transformations
  • Web Browser
  • Touch Teleport
  • Touch Simulator
INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O)
  • GPI
  • Joystick
  • Keyboard
  • MIDI
  • Mouse
  • Network
  • Open Sound Control
  • Serial
  • Timecode
LOGIC
  • Array Processing
  • Convert To Text
  • Cluster Synchronization
  • Counter
  • Date Time
  • Directory
  • Dispatcher
  • Enumeration
  • Expressions
  • Invert
  • Log
  • Loop Breaker
  • Math Effects
  • Matrix Operations
  • Scene Event
  • Script
  • String Operations
  • System ID
  • Text Splitter
  • Timer
  • Toggle
  • URL
  • Value Switch
  • Value Buffer
  • Variables
  • Visual Indexer
COLOR/MATERIAL
  • Alpha
  • Fog
  • Ground Fog
  • Sky Box
  • Color to RGBA
  • HSLA to Color
  • RGBA to Color
  • Color Transformer
  • HLSL Shader
  • Color
  • Material
LAYER
  • 3D Layers
  • 3D Layer Reference
  • 2D Layers
  • PSD Import Layer
  • Others
RENDER OPTIONS
  • Alpha Blending
  • Alpha Testing
  • Clip Plane
  • Filter
  • Mask
  • Mirror
  • Effect
  • Point Options
  • Render Cube Map
  • Render Options
  • Stencil
  • ZTesting
LIGHT
  • Light Sources
TEXT
  • Text Effects
  • Text Layouts
  • Text Rendering
VR/AR
  • Tracked Devices
  • Draw Tracked Devices
WORLD
  • Axis
  • Billboard
  • GetWorld
  • SetWorld
  • Arrange
  • Ticker
  • Layout
  • Group
  • World Z Sort
  • YesNo
  • Switch
  • Spread
  • Filter Pass
  • Set Pass
  • Hierarchy Container
  • Scene Port
  • Content Container
  • Template Port
  • Container Info
  • Camera
TEXTURE
  • Background
  • Hatch
  • Image
  • Texture
  • SVG Loader
  • Live Video
  • Movie Stream
  • Movie Frame
  • Movie Clip
  • Texture Loader
  • Snapshot
  • Gradient Texture
  • Texture Saver
  • Video Source Selector
  • VIO Input
SOUND
  • Audio Clip
  • Sound
  • Volume Control
  • FFT Audio Analysis
SLIDES
  • Slide Manager
  • Slide
  • Slide Port
  • Pivot

Ventuz 5 Director

  • Application Settings
  • Assets
  • Channels
  • Command Line Options
  • Content References
  • Designing Templates
  • Environment
  • Glossary
  • Index
  • Introduction
  • Pages
  • Playlist
  • Plug-Ins
  • Project Data
  • Property Editor
  • Shortcuts
  • GPI Configuration
  • Shot Box
  • Show
  • Taking Action
  • Timeline
  • Topology
  • User Interface
  • Director Mode

How To

  • How to Run Ventuz
  • How to Work with Designer
  • Ventuz Designer Drag&Drop workflow
  • How to use Head Mounted Displays
  • How to work with Shadows
  • How to use Emoijs
  • How to Build a Template
  • How to use Newtek NDI
  • How to Create Visuals Loader Node
  • How to Remote Control with a Phone
  • How to Setup a Cluster Render
  • How to use a Mixed Frame Rate Cluster
  • How to use Tracking
  • How to work with 3D Reference Layers

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Summary Shortcuts
  • Layer Editor Shortcuts
  • Hierarchy Editor Shortcuts
  • Content Editor Shortcuts
  • Animation Editor Shortcuts
  • Director Shortcuts

Advanced and Development

  • Command Line Options
  • Remoting Overview
  • Remoting 4
  • Deprecated Remoting
  • Ventuz IP Ports
  • Ventuz Machine Service
  • Remoting Machine Signature
  • TUIO
  • .NET Scripting
  • HLSL Shader Programming
  • Ventuz API and SDK
  • Ventuz VIO API

General Reference

  • Terminology
  • Manual Index

Miscellaneous

  • Presets
  • PropertyGroups
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Nodes

This Node overview contains a full list of all Ventuz Nodes.

Table of Contents

  1. Animation
  2. Color/Material
  3. Data
  4. Geometry
  5. Interaction
  6. IO
  7. Layers
  8. Light
  9. Logic
  10. Render Options
  11. Slides
  12. Sound
  13. Text
  14. Texture
  15. VR/AR
  16. World

Animation

KeyframeAnimation This node contains the animation curves and the animation logic for all bound properties.
Animation Group Groups different Keyframe Animations to be concurrent in the Template Engine.
Simple Control This node offers the complete animation between the very first and the last keyframe in a timeline as a progress value ranging from 0% to 100%
Timeline Control This node offers a functionality similar to Simple Control, but it manages the animation on a time base.
Mover This is a multi-purpose node for generating values within a specific range.
Alternator This node alternates values by true or false. The duration of each state can be specified.

Color/Material

Alpha This node controls the transparency of rendered objects.
Color This node sets the object color without any lighting influence. This results in a flat, light independent shading.
Material This node controls the lighting, texturing and shading of an object. It provides shading, layering, blending and masking tools to combine various elements, techniques and styles.
Sky Box Simulates an environment and is able to light the scene using an image.
RGBA to Color This node sets the values for Red, Green, Blue and Alpha independently and outputs a Color property.
Color to RGBA This node splits a Color property into its RGBA components.
HSLA to Color This node sets the values for Hue, Saturation, Luminance and Alpha independently and outputs a Color property.
Color Transformer This node offsets the values for Hue, Saturation, Luminance and Alpha independently and outputs a Color property.
Fog This node blends the color of objects with a chosen fog color based on the depth of objects in a scene.
Ground Fog This node blends the color of objects with a chosen fog color based on the depth of objects in a scene and behind a defined plane in space.
HLSL Shader A customizable HLSL shader implementation.

Data

JSON Parser
XML File
XML Text
XSLT
XPATH Expression
Excel Workbook
Excel Cell(Row, Column)
Excel Cell(Name)
Range Array
Custom Range
RSS/RDF News Feed
ResourceLinker
TextFile
Database
Query
NonQuery
Row
ColConcat
Scalar

Geometry

LineChart A line chart geometry automatically generated based on the Values input property.
AreaChart An area chart geometry automatically generated based on the Values input property.
Circle This node provides a circle (and ring) geometry.
Cone This node provides a conical geometry.
Cube This node provides a (beveled) cube geometry.
Cylinder This node provides a cylinder (and tube) geometry.
Torus This node provides a torus geometry.
Sphere This node provides a spherical geometry.
Rectangle A flat, rectangle shaped mesh primitive. By far the most frequently used geometry in a typical Ventuz scene.
Rounded Rectangle Similar to Rectangle but each corner individually can be made either rounded or sharp.
Gradient Rectangle Similar to Rectangle but can be assigned two color values to create a resolution independent gradient.
Volume This node manipulates or overrides the bounding box information of geometries.
Mesh Loader Loads geometry which has been imported in Ventuz and is stored in the Project folder.
Geometry Import Allows importing many 3D content in industry standard formats like Collada, FBX, 3DS, OBJ, etc..
Geometry Import Live Creates Live Link with Maxon Cinema 4D, every changes made in Cinema 4D scene are updated live in Ventuz Scene
RandomPoints This node provides random point clouds of different shapes.

Interaction

TouchButton A simple interaction node for just registering touches.
TouchExcluder Special interaction node to exclude subtrees from the intersection testing used to decide which interaction should be activated by a touch.
Touch Translation Single touch gesture to translate an axis.
Touch Rotation Single touch gesture to rotate around an axis.
Touch Orbit Single touch gesture to rotate around multiple axis at the same time.
Touch Transformation Two-touch gesture to translate, rotate and scale at the same time.
Touch Transformation 3D Two-touch gesture to translate, rotate and scale at the same time - especially build for use in VR.
Touch Pattern Detects abstract patterns of movements like swipes or circular motions.
Touch Paint Paint on the screen or an object using touch.
Touch Proxy Used to isolate geometry that is only used as a touch target but are not visible to the user.
Touch Ripples Ripples are used to visualize touch positions regardless of the gestures a touch might trigger.
Touch Marker Receiver for unique marker objects such as fiducial, bar-coded objects, and so on.
Touch Teleport Teleports the Camera's origin to the Position of the affected object.
3D Touch Simulator Simulate a 3D Touch device to interact with Interaction Nodes.
Web Browser An interactive Internet browser that can be used to render HTML or browse the web.

IO

Timecode Converter
Timecode Event
Timecode LTC LineIn
Joystick
OSC Output
OSC Input
Timecode OSC
Windows Key
DirectInput Key
Textfield Input
Channel Aftertouch
Program Change
Polyphonic Aftertouch
Control Change
Note On/Off
Raw Message
Timecode MIDI
Windows Mouse
DirectInput Mouse
TCP Client
Serial Text
GPI

Layers

Layer Group The Layer Group encapsulates some layers together, that can later be treated as a whole.
Layer Switch The Layer Switch encapsulates some layers together with Properties to control which one is displayed in the final result.
Color Layer The Color 2D Layer creates a 2D layer that is completely filled with a constant Color - often called a Solid Layer in other software packages.
Gradient Layer The Gradient 2D Layer creates a 2D layer that is completely filled with a Gradient or Ramp - often called a Solid Layer in other software packages.
Image Layer The Image 2D Layer creates a 2D layer that is completely filled with an Image - often called a Standard 2D Layer in other software packages.
SVG File Layer The SVG File Layer creates a 2D layer that is completely filled with a SVG drawing.
SVG Text Layer The SVG Text Layer creates a 2D layer that is completely filled with a SVG drawing coming in as XML text.
Movie Clip Layer The Movie Clip 2D Layer creates a 2D layer that is completely filled with a Video Clip - often called a Standard 2D Layer in other software packages.
Movie Frame Layer The Movie Frame 2D Layer creates a 2D layer that is completely filled with an Image Frame from a Video Clip - often called a Standard 2D Layer in other software packages.
Movie Stream Layer The Movie Stream 2D Layer creates a 2D layer that is completely filled with a Streaming Video Clip.
Live Video Layer The Live Video 2D Layer creates a 2D layer that is completely filled with a Live Video signal coming from any of the supported Video input methods.
Texture Layer The Texture Property 2D Layer is very similar to Texture Loader Layer above, but it creates an empty texture Property node in the Content Editor - not connected to any particular type of texture.
3D Layer This is a standard 3D Layer using either Standard or HDRI render Engine.
3D Layer Reference This Layer Renders another 3D Layer a second time, but with the possibility to use another Layout, Camera, IPP Effects, Mask etc.
Scene Layer The Scene Layer loads a Ventuz Scene and treats it as any other Ventuz Layer.
Template Layer Template Layers create a layer that is used to access the Template Engine from within the scene logic.
Photoshop Import Loads a complete PSD File, including individual Photoshop layers and properties.

Light

Directional Directional light source.
Point Point light source.
Spot Spot light source.
Lighting Group Defines a group of light sources.

Logic

String
Boolean
Int
Float
Array
Color Value
Event
Event Filter
Event Dispatcher
Value Switch
Multi Switch
Value Dispatcher
URL
Toggle
Timer
Timer
Value Buffer
SystemID
Log
String Splitter
String Casing
String Replace
String Search
String Trim
String Length
C# Script
VB.net Script
SceneEvent
Identity Matrix
Zero Matrix
Manual Matrix
Rotation XYZ
Scaling Matrix
Translation Matrix
Matrix Switch
Matrix Morph
Matrix Operation
Vector Transform
Linear
Decay
Damper
Oscillator
Ease
Ease Morph
Clipping
Delay
Loop Breaker
Invert
Float Expression
Int Expression
String Expression
Boolean Expression
Enumeration
Directory
Counter
Convert to Text
Float Array Fill
Float Array Offset
Float Array Analysis
Int Array Analysis
Array Indexer
Array Mixer
Visual Indexer
Cluster Task
Cluster Data

Render Options

Mirror Renders a mirrored version of the 3D Layer content.
Effect Mirror Renders a mirrored version of the 3D Layer content and can apply effects to it.
Effect Applies an Image Post Processing Effect to a part of the Hierarchy Tree.
Set 3D Mask Defines a 3D Mask inside the Hierarchy tree.
Use 3D Mask Applies a defined mask onto all children Nodes inside the Hierarchy tree.
Clip Plane This node adds a Plane to the 3D World that cuts off the rendering.
Mirror Filter This node can restrict which objects are rendered to a Mirror.
Cubemap Filter The Cubemap Filter can restrict which objects are rendered to a Cubemap.
ClipPlane Filter This node can restrict which objects are clipped by a Clip Plane.
Shadow Filter Filters Objects for the Shadow Map Rendering
Rank Filter The Rank Filter is used in Chroma Keying mode to render parts of the Hierarchy to the Background, Foreground or Garbage Matte.
3D Layer Reference Filter Filters objects for each rendering of a 3D Layer issued by 3D Layer References.
Render Cube Map Renders the whole 3D Layer content into a cubemap.
Stencil Set This node sets a stencil mask to the stencil buffer.
Stencil Test This node tests the stencil mask and renders only those areas where a specified stencil value is set.
Stencil Advanced This node provides advanced and customizable stencil mask and test functionalities.
Clear Stencil This node clears the whole stencil buffer.
Alpha Blending This node modifies the blending rules for superposed pixels.
Blending This node modifies the blending rules for superposed pixels with industry standard presets.
Alpha Testing This node tests if a pixel has to be drawn. This depends on the alpha value of this pixel.
Point Options This node modifies the appearance of point geometries.
Render Options This node provides different settings to modify the rendering of objects.
ZTesting This node modifies the depth information that is written by geometries into the depth buffer (Z-Buffer).

Slides

Slide Manager
Slide
Pivot
Slide Port

Sound

Volume Control This node controls the volume of the audio cable groups configured in the Audio Video Configuration.
Audio Clip This node loads and plays different types of audio files, such as MP3 and WMA.
Sound This node loads and plays sounds and audio clips.
FFT Audio Analysis This node analysis sounds and provides 16 different frequency band characteristics.

Text

Alpha Effect This node fades text in and out by manipulating the alpha value of the characters.
Scale Effect This node scales characters on the X, Y and Z axes.
Rotate Effect This node rotates characters on the X, Y and Z axes.
Spark Effect This node moves and fades characters in several modes.
Circle Effect This node arranges text on a circle.
ShrinkToFit Effect This node shrinks text to fit a specified bounding box size.
Block Text This node specifies layout and font style information for text rendering.
Scroll Text This node provides functionality for a simple ticker or crawl.
Enriched Block Text This node specifies layout and font style information for text rendering. Different font styles, text colors, scaling and positioning can be applied on a per-character basis.
Text 2D This node renders text using pre-generated texture characters.
Text Style 2D Modify outlines and other effects for Text 2D
Text 3D This node renders text using pre-generated mesh characters.

Texture

Texture This node maps a texture from images, movies or live video on geometries.
Live Video This node provides video input from SDI/DVI input cards, webcams, TV tuners, DV device, etc. as a texture.
Snapshot This node makes a snapshot of the current render output and provides it as a texture.
Texture Loader Loads an image or a DDS textures from the specified file directly and provides it as texture.
SVG Loader Rasterizes Scalable Vector Graphics coming in as File or XML Text.
Movie Frame This node provides single frames of a movie clip.
Movie Clip This node loads movies of many file formats and provides their content as a texture.
Movie Stream This node provides single frames of a movie stream.
Texture Saver This node saves a texture to file.
Gradient Texure Generates a 1D Gradient Texture.
Hatch Texture Creates non-realistic rendering. 3D Elements look like they are sketched or hatched.
Background Renders a Texture that always fills the render window.
Image Renders a Texture in 3D Space without taking lighting into account.
Video Source Selector Allows to change the source of a Live Video input device.
VIO Input Renders a Texture that composites the VIO Input into a 3D Layer

VR/AR

Tracked Device This node can be configured to provide tracking information for connected HMD's, Controller and References
Tracked HMD This node provides the tracking information of a connected Head Mounted Display
Tracked Vive This node provides the tracking information and button presses of a connected ​HTC Vive Controller
Tracked Oculus This node provides the tracking information and button presses of a connected ​Oculus Touch Controller
Tracked Reference This node provides the tracking information for all reference elements i.e ​HTC Vive Light Houses
Draw Tracked Device This node can be configured to provide the meshes for connected HMD's, Controller and References
Draw HMD This node provides the meshes of the connected Head Mounted Display
Draw Vive This node provides the meshes of the connected ​Oculus Touch Controller
Draw Oculus This node provides the meshes of the connected ​HTC Vive Controller
Draw Reference This node provides the meshes of the connected references i.e ​HTC Vive Light Houses
Draw Touch Ray This node draws the ray of the referenced controller regarding its Touch Method.

World

Axis Used to position, orientate and scale complete subtrees with common properties such as position, rotation and scaling.
Get World Used to retrieve the World, View and Projection matrix at a position in three scene hierarchy.
Set World Used to position, orientate and scale complete subtrees with a 4x4 matrix.
Billboard Used to orientate objects so that they always face the camera.
Shear Used to deform single meshes or complete subtrees.
Arrange This node arranges objects according to their bounding box information.
Ticker This node provides the functionality to create advanced tickers, crawls and rolls via the Arrange node.
Layout This node provides the functionality for simple layout via the Arrange node.
ZSort This node sorts subordinate objects for rendering in a sequence depending on their Z order.
Spread The Spread node renders its children multiple times to create the illusion of duplicating objects without the added memory consumption of an explicit copy. Each instance can have a transformation (translation/rotation/scale) that offsets itself from the previous one, creating chain like structures.
Set Pass This node defines a specific render pass.
Filter Pass This node checks if a specific render pass is set and allows or stops further hierarchy tree traversing.
Hierarchy Container This node encapsulates the functionality of any number of Hierarchy (and bound Content) nodes to a single Hierarchy node.
Output This node provides the possibility to link objects to Hierarchy Containers. Must be placed inside the Hierarchy Container.
Content Container This node encapsulates the functionality of any number of Content nodes to a single Content node.
Container Info This node provides information about the name and link index of a Hierarchy Container node.
Yes No Switch that has two outputs where further nodes can be linked. The YesNo node switches between these two sub-trees.
Switch Switch that has multiple outputs where further nodes can be linked. The Switch node switches between these sub-trees.
Camera This node adds a Camera including View and Projection to a 3D Layer
Group Hierarchy node just for structuring the scene hierarchy. It has no special properties or any effect on the rendering result.
ScenePort This node provides the possibility to load a complete Ventuz scene as a hierarchy sub-tree.
TemplatePort This node provides access to the Template Engine from within the scene logic.
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