Hey everyone!
I'm sure lots of people will be eager to update to the new macOS 10.13 (https://www.apple.com/macos/high-sierra/) today and as usual we have our upgrade FAQ to help you along.
1. Will VDMX in macOS 10.13 (aka High Sierra)?
Yes, the latest version of VDMX that can be downloaded from our homepage will run in 10.13 today.
2. What is the process for upgrading my system to 10.13?
i. Check that your commonly used 3rd party plugins / hardware / software 10.13 are compatible. Make sure you have the latest versions.
(If you aren’t sure, ask the developers)
ii. Back up all of your data.
The easiest way to do this is with a Time Machine backup, or you may feel more comfortable manually copying all of your important files, or using a 3rd party tool like Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable back up drive.
For the extra paranoid, do all of the above.
iii. Next, double check that you actually made a back-up all of your data before proceeding!
iv. If available use a second partition or hard drive so that you can keep a your old OS install if you need to downgrade.
(When possible we also strongly recommend doing a totally fresh OS install and then re-installing any 3rd party software / drivers / plugins, instead of doing a restore or upgrade install)
v. Launch the App Store then download and run the High Sierra installer.
3. Are there any noteworthy differences in 10.13 to be aware of for VDMX?
A few minor points for people who use certain 3rd party software / hardware along with VDMX.
i. Quartz Composer is now bundled as part of the “Additional Tools for Xcode 9” download and does not appear to have any new features from previous releases.
ii. Unrelated to VDMX, many of the system applications and utilities (such as Console) have changed in minor ways.
iii. When installing drivers such as SoundFlower or for BlackMagic hardware, after running the installer you may need to go into the macOS System Preferences under the Security section to allow the drivers to finish their install process.
iv. High Sierra now offers HEVC as a compression type for video files; generally you can use this in situations where h.264 was appropriate but the performance may vary depending on your machine. In general for working with multiple layers of HD or 4k footage you'll still want to use Hap or Hap Q encoded media files.
(From the Apple notes: “A more powerful Mac will deliver better HEVC performance. The playback of 4K HEVC content requires a Mac with a sixth‑generation Intel Core processor or newer.”)
v. CDM has some notes about various commonly audio softwares and their compatibility status with High Sierra: http://cdm.link/2017/09/macos-high-sier ... e-caveats/
4. Are there any issues in VDMX to be aware of? What do I do if something goes wrong?
So far in testing VDMX there is only one small GLSL issue that causes our LUT based FX to not render properly on certain hardware (specifically machines with the NVIDIA 650M / 750M GPUs). Unfortunately we could not find a work around for this but we’ve reported this issue to Apple and hopefully it will be fixed in a future OS update.
Beyond that we are not aware of any issues with running VDMX in 10.13 at this time.
If you are having a problem with VDMX, send us an email at support@vidvox.net or use the Report Bug option in the Help menu.
If you make use of any 3rd party plugins, try removing them in case they are not compatible with 10.13 in some way.
If you installed over an existing OS X install and are having general system problems you may want to consider reinstalling 10.13 and then restoring any backed up data.
- Dave & Ray