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2D tracker status states in Fu17 - "don't retrack" gone

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JP Docherty

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2D tracker status states in Fu17 - "don't retrack" gone

PostMon Nov 01, 2021 4:07 pm

In Fu9 a 2D tracker had three possible states, selected by the little check box visible to the left of the tracker name in the tracker node. The first was active - shown by a check mark, which meant that the track was used for matchmove calculations etc, and that if "track forward" or "track backward" was run (at the top of the tracker node) it would be retracked for the active frame range.

The second state reached by clicking was "off". This makes the click box blank, and the track is not used for calculation like matchmoving or retracked when track forward or backward was run. But it was still there, you could turn it back on if you decided you wanted it back.

The third state reached by clicking this box was active but not to be retracked, signified by a white ball in the checkbox. This was extremely useful. It meant that while creating a new tracker and running "track forward" or backward you did not destroy or change the tracks already done. This is especially important if you have done a load of by hand tweaks to a track as they will be wiped out if a retrack is run.

And that's exactly what's happening in fu17. There appears to now be only two states - on and off. So now if you run "track forward" on a new tracker and have forgotten to turn all the others off all your by hand work is destroyed. And if you turn the trackers off the green track path still displays in the viewport, so you have to explicitly check the checkboxes to see if they are turned on or off before running any new tracking. As I found out today after a mornings hard work was wiped.

Bizarrely, if you set the checkbox to active but no retrack (the white ball) in Fu9 then read the file in fu17 it comes up and works, white ball and all. So the functionality is all still there. But you only get one chance - if you click the white ball to get to on or off status the ball is gone for good. Which really sucks.

BM - can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE turn it on again and make the white ball status selectable? It was there for a very good reason and hiding it marks yet another small step backwards in degrading a fast usable UI into one that it is near impossible to work with . . . it's bad enough that the 2D tracker hasn't had any development for over a decade, but now it's actively getting worse!
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birdseye

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Re: 2D tracker status states in Fu17 - "don't retrack" gone

PostTue Nov 02, 2021 7:55 pm

I noticed that was absent in v17.4. It does make prospect of accidently wiping out hours of adjusted tracking more likely, although maybe, 'undo' might get it back, I'm not sure. It would be wise to lock the node if you spend a lot of time on a track/tracks.
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TheBloke

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Re: 2D tracker status states in Fu17 - "don't retrack" gone

PostTue Nov 02, 2021 9:31 pm

Yeah I agree this is a bad regression. Hopefully it is considered a bug and will be rectified.

I did a quick test, and it's easy to fix it via a script. Example:
Code: Select all
Tracker1.Enabled1 = 2
to set the white ball for "Tracker 1" of node Tracker1. For the second tracker it would be Tracker1.Enabled2, and so on.

Below is a basic workaround node which you can save as a .setting (or Set Default). It adds a button and a slider. Choose the tracker number with the slider, then press the button to set the 'ball' on that tracker.

Demo:
Image

Node:
Code: Select all
{
   Tools = ordered() {
      Tracker1 = Tracker {
         Trackers = {
            {
               PatternTime = 0,
               PatternX = 0,
               PatternY = 0
            }
         },
         CtrlWZoom = false,
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 1618, 496 } },
            UserControls = ordered() {
            TrackerBallNumber = {
               LINKS_Name = "TrackerBallNumber",
               LINKID_DataType = "Number",
               INPID_InputControl = "SliderControl",
               INP_Default = 1,
               INP_Integer = true,
               INP_MinScale = 0,
               INP_MaxScale = 9,
               INP_MinAllowed = 0,
               INP_MaxAllowed = 9,
               ICS_ControlPage = "Trackers"
            },
            TrackerBallButton = {
               INP_Default = 0,
               INPID_InputControl = "ButtonControl",
               BTNCS_Execute = "comp:Execute('comp.' .. comp.ActiveTool.Name .. '.Enabled' .. comp.ActiveTool:GetInput('TrackerBallNumber', time) .. ' = 2')",
               IC_ControlPage = 0,
               LINKID_DataType = "Number",
               LINKS_Name = "Tracker Ball",
            },
         }
      }
   },
   ActiveTool = "Tracker1"
}
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JP Docherty

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Re: 2D tracker status states in Fu17 - "don't retrack" gone

PostThu Nov 04, 2021 7:17 am

Many thanks for this! As I said on WSL I've hacked it into Secondman's TrackerPlus macro (which I use instead of the tracker node as it correctly deals with reference frames) and it works great. Of course a reactor update of TrackerPlus would mean I'd have to do it again unless BM put this much needed functionality back in before then.
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Hideki Inoue

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Re: 2D tracker status states in Fu17 - "don't retrack" gone

PostMon Nov 29, 2021 10:08 am

TheBloke wrote:Yeah I agree this is a bad regression. Hopefully it is considered a bug and will be rectified.

I agree. It's not fixed in 17.4.2 either. I hope it's not a spec change.

@TheBloke Thank you for nice tips.
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Kel Philm

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Re: 2D tracker status states in Fu17 - "don't retrack" gone

PostTue Nov 30, 2021 6:49 pm

No comments from BMD? Their support for Fusion is getting pathetic.
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Manuel López

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Re: 2D tracker status states in Fu17 - "don't retrack" gone

PostWed Dec 01, 2021 10:03 am

Well, in page 1367 of Fusion manual says: "Suspended (white circle): A Suspended pattern does not re-track when the track is initiated. The data is locked to prevent additional changes"
So it should be a bug... I hope :(
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Hideki Inoue

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Re: 2D tracker status states in Fu17 - "don't retrack" gone

PostWed Dec 01, 2021 11:47 pm

Tracker has other problems as well. And there is a lag in the view after about 100 frames. However, there are workarounds for all of them, so BMD may not be taking them seriously. Or I hope they are working on fundamental improvements.

Of course, it's possible they're not aware of it at all...
Fusion Studio v18.6.4 / DeckLink Mini Monitor 4K
Intel® Core™ i9-13900KS / 128GB RAM / Nvidia Geforce RTX 4090 (546.33) / Windows 10 Pro 22H2
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