New Community Discussion Forum

I just added a new community discussion forum, feel free to ask questions or comment about Onyx, or your new dog, or what happened to you after your morning run. http://www.onyx-vj.com/forum/

Onyx 3.0.5 Online Beta

Onyx 3.0.5 is now available online only. The Windows and MAC releases will be put up on the web soon. This was originally going to be a small release, but it ended up being bigger than I thought it would be (as usual).

Here is the list of new features:

  • Fixed the output display so that it didn’t look so pixellated
    I was noticing in my performances that the output was extremely pixellated. This should look a lot better and smooth now.

  • Created cross-fader functionality for mixing between layers
    I got a lot of e-mail surrounding a cross-fader. I’ve added this in — but it might be a little hard to figure out. You first have to assign each layer to the A or B channel (you’ll see the buttons under the filter drop-zone). Once you’ve selected a channel, you can then move the cross fader and it will dissolve correctly. Even cooler than this, you can apply a transition to the crossfader — so you don’t always have to just dissolve between layers.

  • Added font and text support
    I’ve been meaning to get around to this for a while — you can now load fonts into Onyx, and use them in your custom movies. I created a basic text SWF, open up the beta, open up BasicText in the swf_custom folder. Click [EDIT] on the text control to edit the text, and you’ll see that the text shows up. For added fun, I added a typewriter button that will make the text enter in over time. I added just 5 fonts, if you want to get deeper with it — open up BaseFonts in the OnyxModules/plugins/ directory. You will also notice a new ControlFont control type.

  • Cleaned up the user interface
    I cleaned up the user interface quite a bit, layer transitions, global tempo settings, and mix file saving are all within the same window. The global display will also display at the correct spot upon opening Onyx as well.

  • Added a couple new transitions, and custom movies
    I added a Pixellate Transition and a Repeater Transition. For you developers, this shows you how you can use a custom filter to apply to a layer via a transition.

    For those of you who have seen the Video Painting post, you can now play with that yourself. Load swf_custom/LayerDraw into a layer, then use the layer drop down to select a target video to paint with. Then, hold down the control key, and click and drag the mouse in the layer preview area. You should see it draw to the video.

I fixed tons of bugs and began re-designing the site — hopefully it looks better to you guys. I’m going to be adding more videos to the homepage, and hopefully some user mixes, as well as adding more information and documentation.

Demo Onyx 3.0.5 online now!

On another note, Onyx surpassed the 35,000 download mark!

Pardon the Mess

While I re-design the site. Who knew wordpress skinning was such a pain in the ass. Onyx 3.0.5 will be released in conjunction with the redesign, hopefully be finished tomorrow.