Features Request from a Home User Prospective

Hi Guys,

From a home user prospective, here's my wish list for Davinci Resolve...

1) More tooltips. Many buttons/links do not show anything when I hover over them. So, I have to Google or look at the help file PDF for answers. Tooltips could make this easier and faster.

2) More on-screen updates of processing happening. For example, when I open a project, I get a percentage bar showing the project opening, but the loading of optimized media shows no status/percentage bar. It would be nice to see how long that is taking.

3) More System/User/"Sticky" settings for disabling/enabling items that affect home users. Such as disabling/enabling Nvidia CUDA, Panels, Bypassing Fusion/Color, etc.

4) Maybe a list of setup schemes to pick from for different computer configurations (low end, high end, etc.). The reason I bring this up is there are a lot of YouTube/Resolve forum suggested app/project setting changes and setup options such as optimized media, 1/4 proxy mode, timeline resolution, etc. for increasing performance. Instead of having to go around so many places in Resolve to make these changes, how about have a list of schemes to pick from to make all these settings.

5) Any changes to reduce resources used by Resolve, in particular cpu and memory footprints.

Have a great weekend everybody!!!

#2 has been one of my biggest gripes with Resolve for quite awhile now. It often leads the user to believe that a process has stalled, because there is no UI feedback that it’s actually working.

There is an existing thread about this issue here:

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=101166


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I'm a home user and rather than rely on tool tips and "sticky" settings, I've learnt how to actually use Resolve. It's not difficult and there are plenty of tutorials including BMDs own. I also use the manual and have a shortcut to it on my desktop. This forum is also full of answers which too many people do not bother to read. A case in point being the number of times poor Dwaine has had to tell people how to post logs.
There, small rant over.

Hi Charles!

I definitely see where you're coming from on that. I do try to put in the right amount of time in a piece of software, but it's hard when there's a lot going on. Personal, family stuff such as picking up kids from school or fixing a faucet at the house. Learning this software along with learning the latest versions of JQuery/Angular, HitFilm Pro, etc. Doing a data integrity check on a SQL Server database. Updating videos on YouTube for church.

So, if I can get just a little help from a few new tool tips and additional user settings, I don't think that's too much to ask. Do you?

I appreciate what you're saying about Dwaine and the log files. I'm glad that BMD finally put a menu option under "Help" to generate the ZIP file containing the log files instead of having to find that CaptureLogs.bat file and running it. Adding that menu item is a good example of what I'm talking about to save time and make things easier.

Have a great week!

Having stuff going on isn't an excuse to not learn the program. If you need something simpler then there are different applications for that.

Hiiiiii Tero!

I don't mind learning a program. But, should I devote all of my time to just that? Life is a balancing act. Right?

If additional tool tips/settings and other shortcuts can save me and others additional clicks and time, what's wrong with that?

Have a great week!

Hiiiiii Tero!

I don't mind learning a program. But, should I devote all of my time to just that? Life is a balancing act. Right?

If additional tool tips/settings and other shortcuts can save me and others additional clicks and time, what's wrong with that?

There's nothing wrong with that, and that's what good UI design is all about.

But what Tero was getting at is that Resolve is a professional application. It was originally designed for post houses in the early 2000's who were able to afford the minimum six-figure cost that it used to cost just to run a bare-bones Resolve setup. But even though the app is now effectively free, it doesn't change the fact that it is a very complex piece of software that would be very difficult (and time consuming) to retrofit a whole tooltip system onto, just to accommodate hobbyists who aren't motivated to spend the time learning the app by reading the excellent manual, and watching the thousands of different tutorials about it on YouTube. I'd rather BMD spend time improving the features of the app and squashing bugs.

This is not a "home user" app, and if you don't have the time or motivation to jump in and learn it, then there are a LOT of other alternatives that are easier to learn, and can do most of what you'd use Resolve for. Resolve's lack of UI tooltips is a legacy result of poor software design priorities, and it's worthy of criticism. But that ship has already sailed, and unlikely to change overnight, if at all.

Would it be great if Resolve had a tooltip system? Of course. After all, Fusion has a good tooltip system. But Fusion was obviously built with tooltips as an important UI feature, even before BMD acquired it from Eyeon Software. Resolve had no such legacy of "making it easy" for users to learn the UI. But the lack of tooltips in no way prevents people from learning Resolve, as it abundantly clear from the large numbers of "hobbyist" Resolve users on the forums and on Youtube who are remarkably proficient at using it.

I have a daughter who just turned 3 years old, and my wife and myself are the only caretakers (no help from our extended family or friends). As a previously proficient Shake user, I've wanted to become proficient at Fusion for a LONG time, but my life and family obligations now make it very difficult for me to just sit down and learn it late into the night like I used to be able to do before I was married and had a kid. But the fact that it's difficult to learn Fusion "intuitively" is not really the fault of Fusion. It's the "fault" (if you could call it that) of the things that I choose to prioritize in life. My family and attempting to try and get a semblance of good sleep every night are more important to me than staying up late every night to learn Fusion, no matter how much I want to do it. That's why I still use After Effects for VFX work.

Tero is simply suggesting that maybe Resolve is not the right tool for you, if you find its lack of tooltips an serious enough obstacle to learning the app. It's not a criticism, it's simply stating a practical reality.

Hi Mel!

Gotcha! Good points!

Have a great week!

1) More tooltips. Many buttons/links do not show anything when I hover over them. So, I have to Google or look at the help file PDF for answers. Tooltips could make this easier and faster.

I think more Tooltips are a good idea. The whole interface is very inconsistent as to what has a Tooltip popup when you hover the cursor over the control -- sometimes it works, sometimes not.

[2) More on-screen updates of processing happening. For example, when I open a project, I get a percentage bar showing the project opening, but the loading of optimized media shows no status/percentage bar. It would be nice to see how long that is taking.

Yeah, there are a few Resolve operations -- even something as simple as exporting a DRP session -- where a progress bar would be a lot more preferable than a spinning beach ball. In fairness to BMD, I think some of this stuff is OS-dependent.

None of this is an excuse for not learning the program, though, and I think Tero makes a good point. You can get a very good working knowledge of at least all the basics by going through Blackmagic's (free) textbooks in a week or two.

Hi Marc,

Thanks dude! Have an awesome week!