[PD] gem newbie questions

[chris clepper]

On Sep 2, 2004, at 1:19 AM, adam overton wrote:
> let's get started...
> i'm running Mac OS 10.4, am using PD 0.37-2, and Gem 0.90 for G3.

Are you really running a 10.4 developer seed?  I have it around here 
somewhere but have yet to install and test anything on it.

> 2. is there a way to make the Gem output window come to the front and 
> sit on top of the other open pd windows? i can't move the window, and 
> i know that's because you can only control that with the 'position' 
> command to gemwin (will that ever change?? it'd be nice to be able to 
> drag it around...).

Cmd+click the title bar and then drag it around.  There is currently 
work on a version of Pd that allows for the GEM window to be a real 
window.  It does work, but I have no idea when it will surface (I'm not 
the one developing it so don't bug me).

> but if i'm doing a fullscreen thing with gem, then my patch is stuck 
> in front of the image, and i can't close the patch window or else that 
> stops everything and closes the gem window too.
> so - can i hide the main patch window?

Well you shouldn't do that!  Cmd-w might kill the window, but the thing 
you absolutely have to do is make a key command in your patch that 
triggers a 'destroy' message to the gemwin.

> 4. i get lots and lots of errors when i use pix_image and pix_film 
> with pix_mix (tutorial 8) if the multiple pictures or videos being 
> mixed together are not the exact same dimensions. will this limitation 
> ever be changed, or is there already an easy way around this besides 
> actually going and changing all of my images to the same size?

Use OpenGL to composite if the images are of different sizes.  The CPU 
based pix_ objects restrict dimensions as an optimization - the first 
thing anyone working with video usually does is make all of their media 
the same dimensions to avoid costly scaling.  GL will do all the 
scaling on the GPU at a much faster rate than the CPU could ever hope 
to achieve.

> 5. i've found that pd won't stop playing sound from my quicktime 
> movies in the pix_film mixing examples (tutorial 8) even when i turn 
> off the individual gemhead and/or 'auto' toggles. if i then 'destroy' 
> the gemwin, the sound finally goes off with it after about a second, 
> but as soon as i 'create' another gemwin the sound from the already 
> stopped videos goes back on right where they left off... is there a 
> way or will there be a way to make these videos and their soundtracks 
> completely stop after starting?

I though I made the sound off by default for those objects, but it 
looks like that code is not actually in CVS.  I must have done a custom 
build for someone and forgot to add it.

cgc