Fusion 8.1 Release

[Steve Roberts]

Fusion 8.1 is now released.

This version introduces Fusion Connect for Avid MC on MAC OSX as well as Windows.
Fusion Connect will work with the free version of Fusion and Avid MC with the Artist DNxIO box
and also work in Fusion Studio.

There is also a number of bug fixes and enhancements.
Download it now from the Support section of the Blackmagic Design website.

Dear Steve,

After I downloaded 8.1, I removed version 8.0 from my system, and installed the new version.

When checking the version using the "About" dialog as the first step, the program set itself into an infinite loop of generating error dialogs, that I only could resolve by a hard power down of the machine. The application did not respond to any Quit commands or responses to creating hundreds of dialog windows. The dialog was hard to read since new ones popped up all the time, but was something with "[string .. ... .. nil]".

I am running a MacBook Pro, Mid 2015 with AMD R9 M370X, OS 10.11.5, Wacom driver 6.3.16-10.


edit: After having a bit more time and uninstalling the version 8.0 I reverted to, Fusion 8.1 appears functioning fine, i.e., the "About" dialog not causing a crash. Perhaps it only fails immediately after installing and if it is the first thing you do?

Best Regards,
Erwin Berkers, MSc

There is also a number of bug fixes and enhancements.

Hi Steve,

Great news for those on AVID.

Do any of those enhancements mean the addition of an actual changelog? Makes it easier to troubleshoot/report bugs.

Cheers,

Sander de Regt

Congratulations on the release.

And I do second the request for a changelog. It would certainly save some of my time.

Well, off to see if 8.1 can replace 7.7 here...

Edit: And... no, showstopper: The [ ] keys still don't work on a German language keyboard (I suspect other non en-* keyboards as well).
Also, the scripts are still not included any more. Fu8 Studio that is.

Cheers,
Mike

still not working for me on windows 10 pro x64 as already discuss in an other thread
fusion get stuck on launch screen

i have tried with fusion studio, it start correctly then ask for dongle (so everything is normal)
tried back free version, not working...

please fix it ! i'm not the only one in this case

I was hopeful but I guess Fusion Connect for Avid still does not allow you to automatically launch Fusion with the connect-generated Fusion project - I'm guessing we either need to buy Fusion Studio or Avid DNxIO - The blurb on the support page was misleading:

"This software adds the Fusion Connect for Avid plug-in that is compatible with Avid edit systems, so you can send any clip or stack of clips from an Avid Media Composer timeline directly into Fusion or Fusion Studio. Now Avid editors can have access to Fusion’s powerful 3D compositing and animation tools!"

Made it sound like Free version now supports Fusion Connect...

Is this true or is there something wrong with my setup?

BTW - Fusion integration into Resolve 12.5 is really great!

I second the request for changelog. Just mentioning "a number of bug fixes and enhancements" has very little value without any specific details.

Bugs aside, I would love to try the new enhancements, but I have absolutely no idea what they are and where are they located.

For example one of them is in the preferences under the flow there is additional Link grab distance slider I found this very useful as I love to keep everything tiny and hate missing clicking and grabbing the pipes and links of the nodes. I cranked up the slider to 20 and now it's hard to miss!

And there is an additional How to directory in the bins/templates which is very cool

That's indeed very nice, but still, finding new features and improvements should not be Easter egg hunt

I was hopeful but I guess Fusion Connect for Avid still does not allow you to automatically launch Fusion with the connect-generated Fusion project - I'm guessing we either need to buy Fusion Studio or Avid DNxIO - The blurb on the support page was misleading:

"This software adds the Fusion Connect for Avid plug-in that is compatible with Avid edit systems, so you can send any clip or stack of clips from an Avid Media Composer timeline directly into Fusion or Fusion Studio. Now Avid editors can have access to Fusion’s powerful 3D compositing and animation tools!"

Made it sound like Free version now supports Fusion Connect...

Is this true or is there something wrong with my setup?

BTW - Fusion integration into Resolve 12.5 is really great!

I tested out Fusion 8.1 on Avid MC 8.5.3 on a MacBook Pro running 10.11.5 and was able to get it to
work. Your note sounds like what happened to me at first where Fusion is blank when it launches.
You have to go to where the .comp project has been placed and double-click it to load.

You can do this 2 ways: from the Mac Finder or from within Fusion.

In Fusion, select File>Open and traverse the file structure to the .comp file. On my system, this was:
Devices/MacIntosh HD/Users/my_name/FusionConnect/proj_name/sequence_name/*.comp

Double-click the .comp file and it should load.

Hope this helps.

-bruce

Found a bug during launch of Fusion 8.1:

Double-clicked the Fusion app in the Mac Applications folder and it launched.
As it launched I clicked the icon in the dock and selected to Keep In The Dock.
An infinite loop then occurred with an error message being displayed:

[string "Bins_Play:Update"]:1:attempt to index global 'self' (a nil value)

Had to force quit the app from a 2nd display.

-bruce

That's indeed very nice, but still, finding new features and improvements should not be Easter egg hunt

Ah, but there IS an easter egg in 8.1. I doubt it's intentional, but I did a double take when I saw it...

[ ] key doesn't repeat. It works only a frame.

Where is the scripts? Do you have no plan to convert for Fu8?

What is the actual involvement of BM in the user forums? I see Tony and a few others post info every now and then but there seems to be little to no involvement of the people actually responsible for making the product better. I guess I would like to know that posts here are being heard by BM. It would be nice if the suggestions and requests that users make actually had an effect.

What is the actual involvement of BM in the user forums? I see Tony and a few others post info every now and then but there seems to be little to no involvement of the people actually responsible for making the product better. I guess I would like to know that posts here are being heard by BM. It would be nice if the suggestions and requests that users make actually had an effect.

Are they read? Yes. Probably every single one, based on conversations I've had. Developers who have never responded to a post will know not just the content of the post, but who wrote it.

Are they considered? Depends. Lots of posts are essentially garbage, at least from the product development standpoint. Saying you want Fusion 9 to be faster and crash less isn't going to make a product manager sit up and say "You know, now that you mention it...".

There aren't a lot of posts that are actionable, and there aren't a lot of posts that are well reasoned. I'll take the criticism for saying that, I don't mind. If I didn't say it, BMD would either have to say it and look mean or say nothing and look aloof.

The forum itself doesn't really encourage anything like that either. Good ideas get mixed in with bad ideas and both are lost in the sea of "How to I get this software/tool/technique to work" posts that make up the bulk of the posts. Everything here is dead flat. One forum where all the posts go, with no way to sort or categorize them other than a handful of stickied posts.

In Fusion, select File>Open and traverse the file structure to the .comp file. On my system, this was:
Devices/MacIntosh HD/Users/my_name/FusionConnect/proj_name/sequence_name/*.comp

Double-click the .comp file and it should load.

Hope this helps.

-bruce

I've opened the .comp file but it shows me just a RED Solid Footage, like a Red Colored Background Node.

Also, if I open Fusion, it crushes at least half of the time.

Are they read? Yes. Probably every single one, based on conversations I've had. Developers who have never responded to a post will know not just the content of the post, but who wrote it.

Are they considered? Depends. Lots of posts are essentially garbage, at least from the product development standpoint. Saying you want Fusion 9 to be faster and crash less isn't going to make a product manager sit up and say "You know, now that you mention it...".

There aren't a lot of posts that are actionable, and there aren't a lot of posts that are well reasoned. I'll take the criticism for saying that, I don't mind. If I didn't say it, BMD would either have to say it and look mean or say nothing and look aloof.

The forum itself doesn't really encourage anything like that either. Good ideas get mixed in with bad ideas and both are lost in the sea of "How to I get this software/tool/technique to work" posts that make up the bulk of the posts. Everything here is dead flat. One forum where all the posts go, with no way to sort or categorize them other than a handful of stickied posts.

It is good to hear that they are reading the posts... I use Vray daily and i am spoiled with the user forum on their site. One of the co-founders and many of their developers are on the forum daily responding to problems people are having, bugs they are finding, and other questions that people might have. They don't answer all themselves as many questions have been asked before and some are obtuse but the effort they put in interacting with their community is impressive.

[Tony Rivera]

Rony and Steve are very knowledgeable when it comes to Fusion information and as was pointed out by Chad, they and other people within the company do read the posts here. I don't have specifics on what suggestions for updates to the software are taken into consideration but we do evaluate and process the feedback we see here to try and incorporate what we can.

... but we do evaluate and process the feedback we see here to try and incorporate what we can.

I'd just be happy enough if 8.x was at least as usable as 7.x. Currently (see above) there is just no point to even check for improvements if the basics fail.

Cheers,
Mike

...but we do evaluate and process the feedback we see here to try and incorporate what we can.

I perfectly understand what Travis says about comparision with v-ray forum...developers are listening and reply, they propose, they run to overcome their competitors and , last but not last, very looong changelog pages. This strategy pays a lot.
This forum is another thing, another company with other strategies...cool enought but not the coolest

8.1 seems to startup fine here. Residual uninstall?

no matter what i do, it cant launch for me
beta work well but nothing since it's the full release

[Steve Roberts]

I was hopeful but I guess Fusion Connect for Avid still does not allow you to automatically launch Fusion with the connect-generated Fusion project - I'm guessing we either need to buy Fusion Studio or Avid DNxIO - The blurb on the support page was misleading:

"This software adds the Fusion Connect for Avid plug-in that is compatible with Avid edit systems, so you can send any clip or stack of clips from an Avid Media Composer timeline directly into Fusion or Fusion Studio. Now Avid editors can have access to Fusion’s powerful 3D compositing and animation tools!"

Made it sound like Free version now supports Fusion Connect...

Is this true or is there something wrong with my setup?

BTW - Fusion integration into Resolve 12.5 is really great!

Fusion Connect for Avid will work on Avid MC and Fusion Studio version. It will also work on Avid MC and Fusion (Free) if the system has an Artist DNxIO box attached.

Found a bug during launch of Fusion 8.1:

An infinite loop then occurred with an error message being displayed:

[string "Bins_Play:Update"]:1:attempt to index global 'self' (a nil value)

I'm having the same problem. As soon as I hit shift-space (after opening app)... wham. infinite loop of dialogs. Have to use activity monitor to kill fusion. If I don't use shift-space it seems to work ok. very odd.

Thanks for the clarification, Steve. I wonder if BMD would consider making this functionality available for a token fee - I can't justify the $995 for Fusion Studio at the moment (although I do own Resolve Studio) but would like the full integration into Media Composer... In the meantime, I'll continue experimenting with Fusion (Free) making use of the workarounds to get MC integration.

i didnt get my ofx plugins in, with it installed, fusion only shows one second the starting screen, and then nothing. F.E. Reelsmart Twixtor. Fusion Studio on Win7.

There is still no hotkey for frame forward and backward in 8.1.1!
(talking about some EU keyboards... works ok if i switch to ENG, but that is useless)

Im having problems opening fusion 8.1 its opening like 1000 boxes saying....
[string"Bins_Play:Update"]: attempt to index global 'self' (a nil value)

Found a bug during launch of Fusion 8.1:

An infinite loop then occurred with an error message being displayed:

[string "Bins_Play:Update"]:1:attempt to index global 'self' (a nil value)

I'm having the same problem. As soon as I hit shift-space (after opening app)... wham. infinite loop of dialogs. Have to use activity monitor to kill fusion. If I don't use shift-space it seems to work ok. very odd.

I am having the same issue of 1000s of dialog boxes flashing on the screen forcing me to quit Fusion. Please suggest some resolution to this problem. Thanks.

Found a bug during launch of Fusion 8.1:

An infinite loop then occurred with an error message being displayed:

[string "Bins_Play:Update"]:1:attempt to index global 'self' (a nil value)

I'm having the same problem. As soon as I hit shift-space (after opening app)... wham. infinite loop of dialogs. Have to use activity monitor to kill fusion. If I don't use shift-space it seems to work ok. very odd.

I am having the same issue of 1000s of dialog boxes flashing on the screen forcing me to quit Fusion. Please suggest some resolution to this problem. Thanks.

Have you installed Fusion 8.1.1 and Fusion Connect 8.1.1 to see if that fixes it? According to the release note this problem is fixed in 8.1.1. I have been using 8.1.1 today and did not experience the bug. The thing is, and I posted this in the 8.1.1 thread, is that the support section still says the release is 8.1 when in fact it is now 8.1.1. Not a good release policy but that is the situation at this moment.

Found a bug during launch of Fusion 8.1:

An infinite loop then occurred with an error message being displayed:

[string "Bins_Play:Update"]:1:attempt to index global 'self' (a nil value)

Have you installed Fusion 8.1.1 and Fusion Connect 8.1.1 to see if that fixes it?

8.1.1 fixed this for me.

Found a bug during launch of Fusion 8.1:

An infinite loop then occurred with an error message being displayed:

[string "Bins_Play:Update"]:1:attempt to index global 'self' (a nil value)

Have you installed Fusion 8.1.1 and Fusion Connect 8.1.1 to see if that fixes it?

8.1.1 fixed this for me.

Fixed it for me too