Resolve GUI... Undock panels

Apologies in advance... I have no idea how often this question has been asked here...

I know it isn't possible to undock resolve panels and move them about, but is there any reason for this limitation?
I have 7 monitors in my edit suite and 3 monitors (including an ultrawide) dedicated to the resolve GUI.

I would quite like to have my audio mixer for example on my third monitor, while my media bins are on my first monitor.

At least the media bins can be a separate window. Right-click a bin and select Open As New Window.

With the Workspace > Dual Screen option set to On you should be able to get three GUI screens (with the bins). But only two of them can be moved at will I guess.

There is a Dual Screen option in Workspace, and I find that help quite a bit. Also, getting a Blackmagic display card allows you to use an additional "hero" display for final color, which is mandatory in the color business. And we go a step further by using a separate computer just for external scopes, which are on a 4th display.

We could break apart the GUI back in the old daVinci 2K (hardware/software) days of the 2000s, but that went away when Resolve (software only) took over. I was told back in 2010 that if they were to allow infinite moving around of individual panels, it would affect performance. I think at the moment they're working on bigger issues than disassembling and re-writing all the code for the GUI.

BTW, be sure to only post questions once. This place is busy enough as it is without lots of duplicate requests and conversations.

We could break apart the GUI back in the daVinci 2K (hardware/software) days of the 2000s, but that went away when Resolve (software only). I was told back in 2010 that if they were to allow infinite moving around of individual panels, it would affect performance. I think at the moment they're working on bigger issues than disassembling and re-writing all the code for the GUI.

Once again (since this has come up gazillion times already), Resolve uses Qt framework for its UI which supports floating windows, docking and whatnot natively. Having an infinite number of screens also affects performance a lot, yet it is somehow normal, but having a floating undocked tab will kill performance…? You need to provide something a lot more solid than random comment from 2010 that was probably misunderstood in its technical side to support the claim that floating windows, or any UI customization for that matter is a serious perf killer. How big is Resolve performance difference for HD vs 2.5K GUI screen by the way? It takes 2x more pixels to draw the UI elements on the latter, but I don’t see anyone advocating for VGA display to milk the performance.

I would prefer someone from BMD to provide an explanation on this area but as we all know it won’t happen.

is there any reason for this limitation?

Just hasn't been coded to do it.

You need to provide something a lot more solid than random comment from 2010 that was probably misunderstood in its technical side to support the claim that floating windows, or any UI customization for that matter is a serious perf killer.

I'm just repeating what I was told at NAB 2010 (almost word for word). I have no idea what goes on inside Resolve: I'm just a user and colorist.

You can sometimes infer the situation from Blackmagic's lack of official response: there are things they don't want to talk about, partly because it's something being worked on, or they're much too busy with something else, or it's not something that can be easily fixed. Or maybe they simply disagree that the panels need to be split apart. Me, I could go either way. I get an awful lot of work done with the way it is now, but I've had to get used to a lot of different kinds of color software in the last 30-40 years.

You can sometimes infer the situation from Blackmagic's lack of official response: there are things they don't want to talk about, partly because it's something being worked on, or they're much too busy with something else, or it's not something that can be easily fixed. Or maybe they simply disagree that the panels need to be split apart.

This is exactly why one can’t infer anything from silence: it can mean absolutely anything from excited development in secrecy to absolute negligence of feature.

At least the media bins can be a separate window. Right-click a bin and select Open As New Window.

With the Workspace > Dual Screen option set to On you should be able to get three GUI screens (with the bins). But only two of them can be moved at will I guess.

Sure, But it still doesn't give me the flexibility to resize the bins exactly how I like.

You mean two GUI screens, and the bins undocked on a separate monitor? That might work

There is a Dual Screen option in Workspace, and I find that help quite a bit. Also, getting a Blackmagic display card allows you to use an additional "hero" display for final color, which is mandatory in the color business. And we go a step further by using a separate computer just for external scopes, which are on a 4th display.

We could break apart the GUI back in the old daVinci 2K (hardware/software) days of the 2000s, but that went away when Resolve (software only) took over. I was told back in 2010 that if they were to allow infinite moving around of individual panels, it would affect performance. I think at the moment they're working on bigger issues than disassembling and re-writing all the code for the GUI.

BTW, be sure to only post questions once. This place is busy enough as it is without lots of duplicate requests and conversations.

Understood. Yes I do have a decklink card. So it's my 3 GUI screens, and my reference monitor. I also have a client monitor and a few other monitors for different things like a rasterizer.

Sorry didn't really know how many times this question was asked!

(since this has come up gazillion times already), Resolve uses Qt framework for its UI

Yeah forgive me. Good to know this!

is there any reason for this limitation?

Just hasn't been coded to do it.

Understand

I get an awful lot of work done with the way it is now, but I've had to get used to a lot of different kinds of color software in the last 30-40 years.

Yeah I think it's just a case of getting used to it.

Thanks all.

Yeah I think it's just a case of getting used to it.

In fairness to you, a lot of us daVinci 2K users who had been creating custom desktops were livid when we discovered in 2010 that DaVinci Resolve did not have this (simple, on the surface) feature. In 12 years, I can tell you I've gotten used to it, plus I do use User-Preset Workspaces that expand or reduce the things I need to see in different modes. For example, I use one mode for conform, another for editing, and a completely different one for color. It's not the same as moving around the GUI panels, but with 2 screens, you're most of the way there.

Yeah I think it's just a case of getting used to it.

In fairness to you, a lot of us daVinci 2K users who had been creating custom desktops were livid when we discovered in 2010 that DaVinci Resolve did not have this (simple, on the surface) feature. In 12 years, I can tell you I've gotten used to it, plus I do use User-Preset Workspaces that expand or reduce the things I need to see in different modes. For example, I use one mode for conform, another for editing, and a completely different one for color. It's not the same as moving around the GUI panels, but with 2 screens, you're most of the way there.

Yes, I can imagine!

It's the Apple-ification of software IMO. Such a shame as this is extremely cumbersome for serious editing. It makes perfect sense to want to have your effects panel open on another screen, or GOD FORBID, you wanna have your multicam viewer full screen on a secondary monitor.

It's so short-sighted that they refuse to add any real customization options to the GUI. Like fine, if you wanna preserve the user experience for new customers, just make that the default option and give the rest of us a settings option to undock panels.

It's the Apple-ification of software IMO. Such a shame as this is extremely cumbersome for serious editing. It makes perfect sense to want to have your effects panel open on another screen, or GOD FORBID, you wanna have your multicam viewer full screen on a secondary monitor.

It's so short-sighted that they refuse to add any real customization options to the GUI. Like fine, if you wanna preserve the user experience for new customers, just make that the default option and give the rest of us a settings option to undock panels.

+1
+1
+1

I ran a few test with dual monitor setup. The fixed layout is a quite strong limitation for me. For example, dual monitor on the edit page moves a few things to screen 2, so the effects panel. But when you open that on the second screen it is not even wide enough to read the FX names!
I've tried various setups - a 1600x1200 screen in landscape and another 24" screen in portrait - it just doesn't work well.
I am not talking about freely moving around panels, but it should be possible at least to adjust their width.
Problem is, when opening a panel like the FX panel this does not "unfold" on the UI level but is displayed as a popup on top of the base level. This making it impossible to adjust the size.
The same problem applies to other panels.

IMHO the best option so far is to use a single big screen (and maybe a separate one for preview, only).

It's the Apple-ification of software IMO. Such a shame as this is extremely cumbersome for serious editing. It makes perfect sense to want to have your effects panel open on another screen, or GOD FORBID, you wanna have your multicam viewer full screen on a secondary monitor.

It's so short-sighted that they refuse to add any real customization options to the GUI. Like fine, if you wanna preserve the user experience for new customers, just make that the default option and give the rest of us a settings option to undock panels.

I'm sorry, I have to agree.

Although Yes, I can do most things with the default UI setup, Blackmagic fail to understand that actually, different people have different workflows and ways of working, and although Marc likes the default UI, I would quite like to rearrange it.

Even from an accessibility point of view, I can't find a way to adjust the sizing of text, icon sizing, UI highlight and background colours...

Alexander, I run Resolve on 3 screens, 2 for the GUI and 1 for Video Clean Feed. All the screens are 1920X1080 set to 100% scaling, and I have no problem with showing the full width FX panel.

Dual Screen Edit Page.jpg (801.57 KiB) Viewed 564 times

2 Screen Edit with Clean Feed.jpg (267.22 KiB) Viewed 564 times

In my suite, I would quite like to dock the mixer window to the rightmost monitor in Resolve...

IMG_1921-Enhanced-NR_1.jpg (557.63 KiB) Viewed 437 times

I understand BMD doesn't want to include this feature so that there is a standard for the UI layout but I am furious that the recent update moved some windows. For example, when using two monitors the video preview window was previously on the same window as Media Pool which makes perfect sense, but now it isn't.

I find that unacceptable and because of the lack of feature of undocking I can't return back to the UI I am used to...