TiXL v4.2 - Release Notes (WIP)

UI Features

4.2 is a huge step forward with a focus on 3 areas: Timeline, Video-Playback and Documentation. And of course there are plenty of other improvements on the side.

New Timeline

We've completely rewritten TiXL's timeline window.

• Timeline Ruler is now easier to use at the top of the area and no longer interferes with the Win11 taskbar
• It features a new Selection Range Area to quickly rescale or even time warp animations.
• Below is a new Selection Set area to quickly select or move all keyframes at once.
• The Inline Curve Editor is now integrated and can be opened for each parameter of the dopesheet by clicking the curve icon.

New Animation Curve

We've completely reimplemented TiXL's animation curve system (Nerd speech: We switched the interpolation from Monotone Hermite Bézier to Cubic Bézier). This allows us to stretch tangents (hold Ctrl+Shift) and define much more expressive animation curves.

Along the way we've also cleaned up the names of the keyframe interpolation types.

Sadly, this is a breaking change. That means that although older TiXL versions can still open these projects, some of the new animation data will be lost.

Audio Clips

You can now create and edit [AudioClip]s directly on the timeline. This can be useful for editing and adding audio effects.

Recording IO Tracks

You can now record live sets as io-data- and audio-clips. io-Clips can then be replayed, with simulated MIDI and OSC events sent to the existing operators. That's a great way to prepare for a live show!

Better Video-Playback with ffmpeg

With this version we finally switched from Windows' MediaFoundation to ffmpeg. This is huge, because it brings...

• frame precise seeking
• caching
• super fast GPU-accelerated playback
• many more supported file formats like MKV, HAP, or animated GIFs.

We went through a number of iterations on how to implement this on the operator side and finally added [PlayVideo], [VideoClip] and [VideoClipPlayer]. Combined with [AudioClip]s this unlocks non-linear video editing with TiXL.

Render-export now also uses FFmpeg: This unlocks HEVC and HAP export and hardware-accelerated NVENC encoding if available. This completely replaces Microsoft MediaFoundation and should allow rendering videos on Linux / Wine. We also use FFmpeg to generate proxy videos that allow fast seeking. You can trigger this with the context menu on video operators.

Settings are Project-specific

Many settings are now saved directly with your project:

• Output Resolution, Loop Range, Layout, Pinned operators, etc.

New Parameter Control View

You can now flag individual parameters as Controlled by Snapshots. These will then be shown nicely grouped in the Parameter Window when no other operators are selected. In the Parameter Control view you can also quickly create snapshots and crossfade them with the new slider list dropdown. In the control view you can also arrange the snapshots as scenes for MIDI controllers like the APC Mini.

The same dropdown is also used to present Operator Presets right in the [ui:ParameterWindow].

We think that this is working so well that we've adjusted the main window layouts and replaced the Variations Window with the new Help Window (see below).

Variations by Project

Before v4.2 all Presets and Snapshots (i.e. Variations) were lumped together in a single folder and saved by the GUID. To clean things up, these will now be sorted into their project's .meta/Variations/ directories.

Documentation

Markdown Format in the Editor

Most documentation and description texts are now displayed with Markdown formatting, including links. References like [Layer2d] will directly link to the Symbol Library. You can also drag any of these references right onto the graph.

Help Window

We added a new help window that shows documentation for the current or hovered operator or topic. You can toggle the hover interaction with the icon.

Video Example References

We used voice-to-text analysis to transcribe all previous meet-up recordings. We could then automatically cross-link operators to relevant sections of these videos on YouTube.

New Alpha-Version Workflow

Testing "alpha" versions is crucial for development. But it shouldn't interfere with production work: TiXL now clearly separates directories used by preview versions. To help with this, you'll be greeted with the new "Welcome to Alpha" window that gives an overview of the new features, how to test them, and helps you import your projects.

Guided Testing

TiXL now ships with a suite of guided test sets that cover many of TiXL's editor features. Interactive features are notoriously hard to test automatically. Although these tests were initially planned to test for regressions, the guided tests turned out to be great for walking users through new features and discovering all the details.

Skill Quest Tips

The skill quest tutorials are awesome. But sometimes hunting down the precise float parameter value can be frustrating. TiXL 4.2 comes with an improved tutorial guidance system that will point out if unnecessary parameters have been modified and nudges you toward what to try next.

More UI-Improvements

• You can drag files or Assets directly into the timeline. This will then create Audio, Video or DataClips.
• The Asset Library will automatically update when files are created or removed.
• Projects using an external audio device can now leave the input set to Default Audio Input, which resolves to each machine's own configured device — so shared projects no longer break on hardware-specific device names.
• Undo/Redo now works for most interactions
• Improve the Performance Popup with some new graphs. It can now be opened as a window.
• In the Variations window, live-rendered thumbnails and hover preview can be toggled with icons.
• Tweak the design of many Dialogs like adding/renaming inputs
• Align the visual display of menus
• Improve the visual display of the Project, Render, and User settings
• Outputs can now be renamed
• On the graph you can now select and connect multiple operators to a Multi Input.
• The search window (Ctrl+F) now finds Sections (Annotations) and renamed operators
• Indicate Selections or highlights outside the visual canvas area with a white border line.
• The light theme got some polish
• We switched the default Editor font from Roboto to Inter to increase readability.
• Improved searching for Variable names
• Keyboard Shortcuts for rendering Screenshots (Ctrl+Alt+R) and Videos (Ctrl+Shift+R) work in focus mode
• Switching to focus mode and back will no longer result in two background images
• We fixed the hover of enum-parameter popups
• Dialogs are automatically resized to avoid scrolling or hiding important buttons.
• Modifier keys like Alt, Ctrl and Shift work more reliably when switching between applications.
• Slightly improved mouse-cursor style consistency.
• Parameter window shows current or available presets dropdown.
• You can scroll in most windows by dragging the right mouse button.

Graph

• Splitting connections now works when coming from outputs and input nodes
• Shaking off operators will restore more connections
• You can duplicate operators with their connections by pressing Ctrl+Shift+D
• Working with multi-input slots should be much more stable
• Hovering over a GetVar operator now indicates the SetVar operator
• You can now create connections by dragging from an input in the graph or from the Parameter window.
• Sections automatically resize and move to avoid overlaps.

More Features

• You can now import MIDI files as a DataClip and map channels to events and data.
• Update window layout while resizing Application window
• There is a continuous screenshot mode for producing making-ofs.
• Incrementing the rendered video number is more stable.
• We added a new Continuous render mode that keeps rendering from the current time. This can be useful for capturing Feedback effects without rewinding time.
• We added thumbnails for most Image operators
• We extracted many IO operators (MIDI, Serial, OSC, DMX) into a separate project.
• Image operators now support .tiff
• Per-project backups — backups now live in <project>/.temp/Backup, are minimal by default, and don't bump versions when unchanged.
• Annotations are now called Sections. They can be collapsed and resized on all edges and corners.

New Operators

• [SwiftCamDevice] access to Swift microscope cameras

• [ReadPointColors] a simple helper to read colors from points

• [WLedSerialOutput] Sends LED color data to WLED.

• [Vec3ToString]

• [VideoClip], [VideoClipPlayer] and [PlayVideo]

• [AudioClip], [AudioClipPlayer]

• [DataClip] can load IO data like MIDI or OSC recordings

• [SimulateIoData] can be used to play back recorded MIDI signals

• [ChromaBlur] only blurs the color components in OKLab space. This can be useful to reduce chromatic aberration

• [AnalyzePianoMidi] is a simple helper to convert a control range to normalized note and velocity.

• [LoadMidiFile] can load a MIDI sequence into a data clip and play back MIDI signals or events

• [SampleFloatFromDataClip] and [SampleGateFromDataClip] can be used to play back events

• [SequenceAnim] got a new interpolation mode

• [DampSpring] now works when rendering videos -- ❤️newemka

• [Grain] has a new CleanMode -- ❤️newemka

• [AdvancedFeedback2] now uses [FastBlur] for better quality/performance.

• [Gradient] is a simple cousin of [SampleGradient]

Stability and performance

• We detected and fixed a number of ways to create cycles in the graph (which would result in freezing the editor).
• We've fixed many potential exceptions and crashes.