Hello everyone! I am a musician who occasionally does VJ-ing. I currently use a MacBook Pro M1 on which I run MainStage (for real-time audio) and VDMX for video. I launch both programs at the same time – music and video. I have a question about how to optimize VDMX performance for live shows. I have already converted the essential clips to HAP, and my resolution is set to 1080p. Are there any additional settings that could improve playback performance? Thank you for your response.
Hi @punkshift , could you tell us a little more about your setup? Based on the number of clips you are launching, their length, your internal and external SSD speeds, etc., there are certain use cases for “pre-load” media in the media bin.
HAP is a great start from a video codec perspective, so it all depends on what you are trying to do with your system in order to optimize it.
Thanks for reply.
Computer: MacBook Pro M1 Pro, Sonoma 14, 16 GB RAM.
In VDMX, I use three layers in full HD resolution:
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The first layer usually contains a longer clip – up to 6 minutes.
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The second layer contains looping clips.
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The third layer contains short videos or images, preloaded in the media bin – I trigger these with the keyboard (a random video on a C3 MIDI input keyboard).
On the layers, I use a maximum of three effects at the same time (lightweight ones – e.g., color invert, displace, dot screen). I also use master effects such as 3D rotate, which is triggered by an audio signal.
For live performance, I use scenes: 10 scenes that I trigger with a MIDI controller. Each scene has its own effects, its own preloaded videos, etc.
At the same time, I am also running audio in MainStage.
I want to improve stability and reduce CPU or GPU peaks.
The 16GB of memory could be an issue. How much memory are you using on average when VDMX is running this project?
If your system needs more memory, it will use SWAP, which requires more bandwidth from your internal SSD.
Pre-Load media will also require more memory depending on how many files are in that bin.
And Images can use up a lot of resources depending on how big they are and which codec you are using.
If you need to use SWAP for memory, then make sure your SSD is less than 80% full and/or put your media on a separate external SSD.
I’m not sure which resources MainStage uses, but I would assume it is more CPU / Memory based than GPU. So the main bottleneck could be around memory and the internal SSD being used for playback and SWAP (memory).
Yes, that helps some. Do you need Google Chrome open while you are running VDMX? It seems to be taking up a lot of your memory.
Of course not. I had Chrome open when I took the screenshot.