HoloEdit 2023.2.0 Release Notes

New Features - HoloEdit

New Feature: Presets

New to HoloEdit 2023.2.0 are Track, Stage, and Interval presets. Track presets provide users with key workflow stages and parameters to facilitate processing and understanding of clip compression, AVV export, and more. Stage presets offer users a variety of pre-made stage parameters for different uses, and can also be applied to specific intervals. All presets can be duplicated and modified for users to tailor their HoloEdit experience.

New Stage: Generate Motion Vectors

The Generate Motion Vectors stage computes the movement for each vertex from the end of one stabilized segment to the next. It does this by deforming the last frame of the previous segment with the first frame of the current segment, then computes the vertex deltas between those frames. This data is used with AVV exports brought into Unreal to compute TAA (temporal anti-aliasing) and motion blur.

Added new Delta Fallback option to Compress Mesh Segment stages

Delta is an alternative method for calculating segment compression which forgoes using bones and animations in favor of storing changing vertex position values. Even when enabled it will only be used if the resulting error from processing exceeds a specified value. The tradeoff for this is that the delta compression will be more accurate to the original changes in mesh surface, but can use more disk space in the resulting file. Whether or not delta compression is used is determined on a per-segment basis, meaning that when generating your output files they can use a mix of both our regular and delta compression to maximize quality and disk size without fully trading one for the other.

Currently Delta is only supported for AVV exports. If it has been used and an OMS or HoloStream are exported, the segment compression will be discarded and individual frames will be used for any affected segments.

HCAP MP4 Support

HoloEdit 2023.2 now supports import of encoded MP4s output from HCAP captures.

Improvements

Added support for numerous stages to be run after Compress Mesh Segments stages

It is now possible to use the Optimize Texture, Generate Normals and Generate Skeleton stages in a composition even after Compress Mesh Segments has been processed. This is a quality of life update, ensuring more flexibility when using the application rather than enabling additional workflows for processing clips.

Added pop-up warnings for some unsupported processing paths

In conjunction with the improved support mentioned previously, a number of guards have also been added which prevent trying to run stages after Compress Mesh Segments which would not be useful and invalidate the results of earlier processing. This is intended as a quality of life improvement to reduce the chance of a user forming an incorrect processing stack or wasting their compute balance on operations without a purpose.

Streamlined mesh asset transfer rate for remote processing jobs

Improvements were made to the process used to package and transfer mesh assets for remote processing. This will allow many stages to run faster when using a remote processing service.

Added api.ini with configurable user settings

An api.ini file has been added to the HoloSuite/holoedit folder that offers user settings that can improve HoloEdit performance. Open this api.ini in a program like Notepad, make changes and save, then re-open HoloEdit. These settings include:

  • Accessible: Set this setting to True if you have User Accessibility enabled on a Windows device

  • MaxThreads: Choose how many threads you would like HoloEdit to have access to if you notice degraded performance in HoloEdit when doing actions like importing or exporting a clip. For example, limiting useable cores to 2 while importing multiple clips will slow the process, but improve the application stability.

Razor and Selection Tool Improvements

Improvements have been made to the razor and selection tools to facilitate editing intervals. This includes:

  • C-key shortcut for razor tool

  • V-key shortcut for selection tool

  • Apply cut to all stages using Shift + Left-click while razor tool is enabled

  • Cut a region by clicking and dragging while razor tool in enabled, even over multiple stages

  • Choose an interval region to maintain by holding CTRL and dragging while the razor tool is enabled

Improvements to returning job results

Improvements have been made to increase speed and stability of job results downloading back to HoloEdit from HPS.

Improvements to Blend Mesh

Improvments have been made to the Blend Mesh stage to reduce visible bumps seen at the transition points between the source stage data.

Installer/Uninstaller improvements

Improvements have been made to the HoloSuite Installer and Uninstaller to allow for more granular install/uninstalls of HoloEdit, and Samples or HoloSuite Player components.

Fixes

Fixed remote processing occasionally sending work to a node that was already processing

It was possible that a job’s work units could be scheduled to nodes that had not completed their existing work. This was problematic as some stages consume too many resources for a node to do concurrent work on multiple tasks, greatly increasing the amount of time it could take for these work units to process. This behaviour has been resolved and nodes will no longer get double-booked.

Fixed export issue generating AVV files without stabilized data

When generating an AVV file using a composition with data that had not been stabilized, the exported file would have an inaccurate texture mapping and vertex colours. While this workflow will be very rarely used, the output has been fixed to now correctly texture and colour the clip.

Fixed Manage Workspace crash when referencing missing assets

When using the Manage Workspace tools to remove compositions, it was possible for HoloEdit to crash when attempting to reference an asset that was missing or deleted. This has been resolved, ensuring the cleanup process is more reliable and straightforward to use.

Fixed re-import crashes with certain datasets

An issue has been resolved where re-importing certain datasets would cause HoloEdit to crash.

Fixes for Reconstruct Texture stage

An issue has been resolved where Reconstruct Texture stage jobs would fail shortly after the job was executed.

Fix for the Manage Workspace Disk Cleanup Tool causing a crash while any saved composition has available job results

A fix has been implemented that solves a crash when running the Manage Workspace Disk Cleanup Tool while there is a composition awaiting job results.

Fixed HoloStream exports having visible frame encoding bars

The frame encoding bar could sometimes be seen appearing across HoloStream export actors when viewing the Low and Very Low quality profiles. This issue has been resolved, and the frame encode bar will not be visible now.

Fixed My Machine Job Server windows failing to open on second selection

A fix has been implemented for My Machine Job Server windows failing to open if they had previously been closed once before during the same HoloEdit session.

Fixed Execute Missing including all frames of interval

An issue was fixed where using the Execute Missing feature to send remaining frames would send all frames instead of only those without data.

Fixed Compress Mesh Segments Work Unit Dependancy failures

An issue has been fixed where Compress Mesh Segments data from a multi-stage job could return with unacceptable results.

Fixed crash when quickly swapping between compositions

An issue has been addressed where quickly swapping between compositions several times could cause HoloEdit to crash.

Fixed Match Template Mesh jobs appearing to fail

Fixed an issue where Match Template Mesh jobs complete successfully but show “Failed” for their status in the job viewer window, and the results on the timeline will be marked as dirty.

Fixed Transfer Normals calculation issues with rotated mesh

An issue has been fixed where rotating the actor using the Transform section of the Inspector panel would cause errors during calculation of the Transfer Normals stage.

Fixed application slow-down caused from inspecting textures

An issue has been fixed where viewing large texture data in the Inspector panel would cause HoloEdit to have reduced performance.

Fixed crash when viewing OMS with Vertex Colors

An issue has been fixed where selecting Vertex Colors from the Shading Menu with an OMS in the composition would cause HoloEdit to crash.

Fixed ‘Z is Up’ import option for OMS

An issue has been fixed where the ‘Z is Up’ import option would not affect OMS clips.

Changes

Replaced Blend stage deformation algorithm

The Blend stage has been updated to use a completely new deformation algorithm. We’re presently investigating which parameters should be exposed for users to tweak the blending process, so for now the deformer for blends is completely automated.

Blend Mesh is no longer a beta stage

We have removed the beta tag to Blend Mesh as changes to the stage.

Updated AVV export default parameters

To streamline the simplicity of exporting quality AVV files, we have updated the default values of the export type. By default multi-resolution will be enabled, and the Full/Half/Quarter resolution percentages have been adjusted to 30/20/20 respectively.

Composition panel changes

With the addition of presets to HoloEdit, menus in the Composition panel now appear when you hover over a track or stage. These will appear as kebab, or three dots, menus.

Known Issues

Small Audio Skip On Clip Loop In Editor

When playing back a composition with the Looping option enabled, audio isn’t buffered for the first 200ms of playback. The audio does exist and will export accordingly, but unfortunately makes it hard to preview if it is at the very beginning of the composition/clip.

HoloStream Export Jobs Can Fail With Large Clips

Unfortunately the definition of “large clips” is nebulous, as it depends on the size of the mesh and textures in combination with the clip’s length. You will see this manifest as a failed Finalizing work unit. We apologize for the inconvenience, but know that a fix is in development for this issue which will also improve audio handling.

Cancelling An Export Does Not Cancel The Export

If you cancel an export task, the task will appear cancelled in HoloEdit, but the export can still continue. This is more likely to occur with short jobs.

Cannot Modify Multiple Intervals Settings Simultaneously

If you select multiple intervals from the same stage or stage type, modifying any value in the Inspector window will only update that value for the last interval that was clicked.

Using Texture Reconstruction And Texture Transfer In A Single Job Returns Bad Results

An issue was discovered with our work-unit dependency calculation which results in a particular set of inputs and outputs being incorrectly handled for the order they should be processed by the server. Dependencies are calculated for complex jobs with numerous stages submitted for processing at once, so in this case the workaround is to ensure you don’t process both of these stages in one job.

Windows 11 Update Invalidates Held License

This issue is the result of the Windows update causing the computer to look like a different one than the license is currently assigned to. Licenses are automatically released after 24 hours, at which point the license can be re-acquired and everything will work fine again. Unfortunately to perform this action any sooner requires contacting our support team.

It is recommended that you release your HoloEdit license before updating to Windows 11 as this will sidestep the issue entirely.

Windows 11 Local Job Server additional warnings

On Windows 11 when running the local job server, the log will constantly return failed to get access token and failed to get compute time along with another two lines which reference “payment”. Using the local job server does not consume compute time - you can still run jobs and it will not eat into your compute time balance. This notification is effectively harmless and you are still able to run jobs on the local server.

Mesh Capture Tool First MVE Camera Capture Error

Unfortunately due to a timing issue with shader compilation in Unity 2019, the first MVE camera capture takes place before the model is correctly textured. This will be addressed in another version, however for now a workaround does exist within Unity:

  • Open the Mesh Capture Tool project

  • Edit > Project Settings > Editor

  • Scroll to the bottom and find the Shader Compilation section

  • Disable Asynchronous Shader Compilation

Large-Scale Clips Generating Bad Skeletons and SSDR Results

A “large-scaled volumetric clip” is now identified on clip creation via a warning popup. If you recieve this error the Generate Skeleton process will likely produce no visible result, and SSDR is likely to encounter precision errors resulting in bad visual noise during playback. As per the warning dialogue, you can correct this issue by right-clicking the clip, reimporting it and adjusting the Import Scale Factor value until you do not receive the warning.

Compare View Mode Poorly Handles There Only Being Visible Data On One Stage

There are several display bugs tied to this case, however as you would typically be using Compare to review processed data with its source or an earlier stage, this is an outlier behaviour and you likely will not encounter it.

Textures inaccurately applied after Blend Mesh stage

There is a known issue with Blend Mesh where textures are not accurately applied to the mesh after stabilizing the blended interval. Currently there is a work-around for this by adding a Clean Mesh stage between Blend Mesh and Stabilize Mesh.

Using alternative import settings in ‘By part of name’ field causes HoloEdit crash

There is a known issue where adding characters like asterisks or hashes in the ‘By part of name’ field can cause HoloEdit to crash while importing a clip. There is a warning for this in the Import Clip window.

My Machine crashes with Sequelize Error

My Machine local processing can crash with Sequelize errors. The current workaround for this bug is detailed below in a step-by-step list:

  • Restart your computer. This is necessary to make sure there is no Postgres database server running in the background.

  • Edit the C:\Program Files (x86)\HoloSuite\HoloEdit 2023.2.0\JobAPI\package.json file to remove the node-10duke dependency.

    • The line to remove is: "node-10duke": "./local_modules/node-10duke",

  • Open HoloEdit.

    • If you’ve selected My Machine previously, click Jobs > Run First-Time in the application menu.

    • Some console windows will open and close, this time with no red error text.

  • Select My Machine in the service selection control when the console windows resolve.

You should get a console window running the JobAPI. If successful, the last message printed to the console is: 2024-01-19T15:50:38.882 INFO jobAPI 8092 src\queuemanager.js:291 Initialized NodeManager: NodeManagerLocalhost

If you haven’t selected My Machine previously then select it now, and the install should proceed as normal.