Fusion clips cache but still don't playback smoothly

Sometimes a Fusion clip which has cached (blue on the timeline) won't playback. Other Fusion clips will. I can force it to play if I comp something else on the edit page (like another video layer scaled down) so the cache settings must be good.

I haven't tracked down anything specific to the Fusion clips it doesn't like, anyone else?

(Win 10 Pro 32GB RAM, GTX 1080 also 2011 iMac 16GB Sierra)

Yeah, same here.

If my Fusion Composition is bigger, the Playback wan't be smooth.

Hopefully will be fixed in upcoming updates.

I was wondering if there were something specific about the comp that causes this bug not just complexity of the comp? If there's no Loader/MediaIn mine will play back OK once rendered.

At my side there are several backgrounds, animated paint tools, and some transfomations. Nothing fancy, no tracking, no keying etc.
I'm just using basic tools to create some imagery for a tutorial I'm working on.

I was wondering if there were something specific about the comp that causes this bug not just complexity of the comp? If there's no Loader/MediaIn mine will play back OK once rendered.

This sounds like there is something going on in the background although it should just read and play the cache if it is valid. As if Resolve still decodes the source footage besides cache.

Maybe there is some sort of guide to how to set all cache options properly to get realtime playback?

At some complexity level, Fusion Comps get unusable.

At the moment I just copy nodes back to Fusion standalone and export PNGs.

It is definitely a bug, don't waste time on trying to figure out why it is happening.

It will be fixed. I hope soon!

this problem has not be fixed in 15.2

I tested this on my iMac this morning and you're right, same problem. I'll upload a drp and see if support can use it.

I have this same problem, Fusion caching basically doesn't work. That's largely true of Fusion standalone too, the node caches are upredictable at best, often completely broken and are bypassed by calculations upstream even when locked (same issue in the Resolve page).

What I've gotten into the habit of doing is inserting manual caches in line with my comp with a saver --> loader node which just writes out EXRs of whatever is upstream then brings them back into the comp for use downstream. Takes a little more work to set up but it has the nice side benefit of letting me use a farm to "cache" things.

That hack is the only way I've ever gotten Fusion comps to play back reliably in Resolve.

Can confirm this behaviour. I'm testing out some very basic techniques like 3D tracking a text into a shot etc. Nothing complex. but neither "cache to disk" with the prerender option nor the smartcacheing in Resolve itself works. Clip is shown with blue line over it but it still runs at a mere 10-11 fps, oftentimes it doesn't even render the clip only a fe frames here and there, the rest ist either freeze frame or even black frames... Really hope this gets fixed soon, as of now it's rather unusable

just wanted to chime in.

i have the same problem: fusion clips not playing back in the edit page, stuttering 10 frames before and 10 after approximately.

There is a workaround for the moment: place a transparent clip above your fusion clip (png for example) in the edit timeline. render. it now plays smoothly.

this being just a workaround: BMD needs to fix this ASAP. It makes the whole fusion tab worthless, if playback is not working.

Anyone tried this in the latest release, is it fixed yet?

[Peter Chamberlain]

It’s a deep issue we are working on

OK, many thanks for the update

It’s a deep issue we are working on

Nice. I think this is by far the most important stability issue for me. fusion integration ist great, but without playback its not what the app is for and until this is "resolved" davinci is no match to AE and PR. If it is sales will probably drive you nuts, because a lot of people want to go away from Adobe with their unnerving price model.

Please keep us updated.

I am having this issue with 15.2.2 in a bad way. Doing a credits sequence in fusion and playback (even when the clip is cached) is horrible... like 1-2fps and brings all of Resolve to a crawl until I click off the fusion clip to another area in the sequence. I see there have been no updates on this in over a month. Has the issue been isolated? Been fixed? Or is it still a mystery? Any updates at all on this?

I'm still having the same problem too. I don't know why more people aren't complaining about it, I guess it doesn't affect everyone? Could it be only GTX range (Pascal?) GPUs? Actually, no because my old iMac has the same issue with its AMD.
I have every faith there'll be a fix out for this soon (I hope!)

A workaround that works for me is to put a text over the Fusion clip with the opacity set to zero in the Inspector.

This forces daVinci to generate a proper cache and the Fusion clips plays smoothly.

Has anyone with the problem tried going to the Playback menu and choosing to set the Fusion Memory Cache to On instead of Auto?

Has anyone with the problem tried going to the Playback menu and choosing to set the Fusion Memory Cache to On instead of Auto?

of course. then you get the red "render-bar" on top. it renders and you expect it to play back the rendered timeline but it doesnt.

BM, fix this please! otherwise resolve in unusable in combination with the fusion tab. because an NLE that isnt able to play the movie cannot be called one.

I think this is fixed now - thought it wasn't but think it is... People reported that 15.2.3 had fixed this so I tried it and it didn't seem to work but I've been using Render Cache set to User. Now I set it to Smart and all is well.
[Might have posted too early... looks like I also need the workaround of having a dummy clip underneath the Fusion clip]

I've downloaded the latest version of Resolve and still have to cache the fusion work individually for the playback in the edit to play in real time.

The new 15.2.3 version seems to be an improvement but not a complete fix. A Fusion clip that used to get 8 fps regardless of caching now plays at 18 fps after caching. With a dummy image clip under the Fusion clip I get full 24 fps.

[Peter Chamberlain]

Some progress but more in engineering to come.

Some progress but more in engineering to come.

Hope the fix makes it into 15.3 when it comes out this month....?

Having the same problem. Would be amazing if it were fixed.

A workaround that works for me is to put a text over the Fusion clip with the opacity set to zero in the Inspector.

This forces daVinci to generate a proper cache and the Fusion clips plays smoothly.

Thank you so much. I only registered for this forum to say: fantastic! Thank you for that hint!
That works fine!
YMMD !

win 10 pro -- i7 3.9ghz quad -- 16gb ram -- gtx 1070 w/8gb ram

My two cents:

So I had the same issue when I played back an effects laden timeline in the Fusion page. Very choppy.

Then, I clicked a folder in the media panel (top left) and Davinci just closed. So, I researched the closing issue and found that others, that had the closing issue, was because they had SSDs and turned off their Windows paging file, or otherwise limited paging, which I did as well (I had mine set to 1GB min and 1GB max).

Anyway, I set the paging file to the recommended 3GB (initial) and 6GB (max) and the closing issue stopped.

And... the choppy playback in fusion was also resolved for me.

Not sure of the relation, coinicidence or what but maybe this will help others as well.

Update: lol. I spoke too soon. I had fusion open, clicked the 'color curves' tool and... Davinci just closes. Nice!

Holy mother of god! This insane bug is finally gone in 15.3!

Now a clip from fusion renders and plays without stutter. Truly amazed that I can now use a basic function: the one that plays back my video

Anyway, I almost gave up on Resolve having bought the studio version, but seemingly BM listened and fixed things.

So kudos to you.

Are you sure? I did a quick test on my PC yesterday and it wouldn't play back properly. It's always been dependant on exactly what's in the Fusion comp but I've never figured out what or why.

Resolve 16 perhaps?

You sir are right. Spoke too soon. Simple comps work. But anything with particles throw the same stutter in the edit tab again.

Bad. Still. Not. Solved.

What's going there?

This is truly a problem, I go from 60 fps to 6 fps just by using a transform node in the fusion panel.

well, in 16b4 it seems to work. not always, not predictably. but most of the time.

I'm still experiencing this in Resolve 16. Any solutions or is engineering still working on it?

same in 16.1 b3.

the list of fusion related bug / quirks / annoyances seems to be endless or at least too long.

This is unreal. It is just not possible to work this way. I'm not a fan of Adobe but After Effects is way better and smoother and I'm gonna stick to it. I have hidden the Fusion page, and it will stay that way... DaVinci Resolve has lost a lot of weight since the integration of the Cut page, Fusion, Fairlight.
You just can't work on a pro basis like this.
A strong NLE with great color grading possibilities, that's what it should be. Now it's becoming a toy software for vacation movies and stuff like that. NO ONE who does some serious AV work will make a detour through that cut page, and no one in his right mind will do a professional audio job in the Fairlight page. C'mon people... this is just common sence. I find it so frustrating (and not very hopeful) that BM is just not aware of that.
I'll give it some time, but already looking for some serious alternatives.

This is unreal. It is just not possible to work this way. I'm not a fan of Adobe but After Effects is way better and smoother and I'm gonna stick to it. I have hidden the Fusion page, and it will stay that way... DaVinci Resolve has lost a lot of weight since the integration of the Cut page, Fusion, Fairlight.
You just can't work on a pro basis like this.
A strong NLE with great color grading possibilities, that's what it should be. Now it's becoming a toy software for vacation movies and stuff like that. NO ONE who does some serious AV work will make a detour through that cut page, and no one in his right mind will do a professional audio job in the Fairlight page. C'mon people... this is just common sence. I find it so frustrating (and not very hopeful) that BM is just not aware of that.
I'll give it some time, but already looking for some serious alternatives.

I wholeheartedly agree. I too thought a year ago that Resolve would be the AE / Premiere replacement they set out to be. But fusion is joke at best, the cut page is a toy for amateurs and just not needed, the fairlight page is buggy and crash-prone and the list goes on and on and on.

I stuck by BM for over a year now, reinstalled countless versions, got on every beta, tried every trick to make the software work. but other then plain editing and a superb color engine (which worked before all of the stuff they added but just never seemed to work for me) Resolve hasnt won me over. Far from it.

So, no, I will stop using it and recommending the software to other people in the industry. Premiere may be ******* too, but at least it works. Avid, being from the stone age for sure, is also looking quite good now when comparing the sheer stability of it. maybe in a few years when the BM tema finally iron out all the crazy bugs and quirks in Resolve and deliver a stable, working, reliable, not-crashing piece of software that is worth anything, I will come back. But as you: for now I am done.

This is strange. I've asked other people, someone who uses Fusion in Resolve a lot on a good spec iMac, and they've had no trouble with the caches. I can only test it on my under powered MacBook Pro at the moment and it won't play Fusion caches (set to ProRes Proxy). I thought a previous version had fixed it (on my PC anyway).

Maybe this will never be fixed. It gives the impression that they are giving up after so much time without a fix. meanwhile.. manually render to file and import the rendered file on top of the fusion clip. Like the old times. The caching idea was good.

Yep, got a bad feeling about this caching thing. Other workaround; add another mediaout node, which you can then load in the color page with a new source, and cache it there. The color page works really well with most stuff.

On my setup and with recent Resolve version it works without hickups.

Yep, got a bad feeling about this caching thing. Other workaround; add another mediaout node, which you can then load in the color page with a new source, and cache it there. The color page works really well with most stuff.

this workaround seems to work! Thanks !

this workaround seems to work! Thanks !

well.. I spoke too soon... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't

Is this still really an issue? I found this thread thinking it was old but then noticed the latest posts from this month. I have a simple fusion comp on an adjustment clip doing a simple zoom transition. It's rendered blue on my timeline but won't play back realtime no matter what buttons I push. I tried the text over the top workaround but that doesn't work for me either. I refuse to render it out and bring it back in, that is just ridiculous.
I was a long time Premier user and final gave up after it ruined my last project. For all its faults at least when the timeline was cached it was actually cached. I've been loving Resolve, but this is a very disappointing bug.

I have a simple text scramble effect in a fusion clip and not only doesn't it play back in realtime despite being rendered, it also distorts the audio in a pretty ugly way. Not good to work with a client next to me. Also i found out that in a project where i had a lot of flicker effects going on (clips edited one frame out next on and so forth) it couldn't even play the normal video despite the render cache. This is on a very fast system with all the usual tricks applied for better playback (only didn't do optimised media since it's braw footage and if premiere can handle it realtime DR should too.... )

This is still an issue. Almost none of my fusion clips will play back smoothly. It's a headache.

Any official update on this? or even work arounds that consistently work?

My specific issue I am running into is a PNG file (a logo with transparency, and btw also the issue with TIFFs). On its own layered on top of a video clip, plays back fine without render caching. (also plays back fine with the cache forced on for it). I place a preset fusion transition from the transitions library and now the entire duration of the logo is choppy on playback, even the rest of it that has no fusion "effect" applied to it.

VFX Connect works for me. And please remember the "Media In" issue.

or even work arounds that consistently work?

You can try to add an adjustment clip on top, right click on it and enable Render Cache Color Output.
The downside of this workaround is that once you reload the project, the cache will be recreated.