Troubleshooting 22.3

Projects

Opening a Project in editor takes a long time

Projects may take a long time to open the first time they are opened in a new version of Pixotope as the system has to build local caches. The second and subsequent times a project is opened on a system, the process is much quicker as the caches are used.

Compiling shaders takes a long time

Once a Project opens in the Editor, it may still take some time to compile the shaders depending on the complexity of the Project. Once compiled, ensure that you Save All before exiting the Project cleanly to make sure that the compiled shaders are correctly saved. The next time the Project is loaded you will not need to compile shaders again.

Enabling DX12 causes shaders to recompile

If the shaders have been compiled in DX11 they will need to be recompiled when switching to use DX12 to use raytracing. Once recompiled in both display modes, they will not need to be recompiled again on the same machine and version.

Rendering/Compositing

Something is translucent that is not supposed to be

Check custom stencil, in AR no custom stencil value means that it will be rendered always additively on top of the video.

Something is not translucent that's supposed to be

Check custom stencil, make sure it's set up correctly

There are strange boxes around my translucent objects in AR

By default, all objects render to custom stencil 1, which is not correct for translucent materials and particles. Make sure they get the correct stencil value

Something is wrong with masked materials compared to standard Unreal

Check the value of the setting "opacity clip mask value" in the material parameters, by default in vanilla Unreal it's set to 0.3, but in Pixotope it's at 0.001 by default

Something's weird about the screen-space reflections

Pixotope is using a custom screen space reflections based on custom depth, meaning objects not rendering custom depth won't reflect properly, to disable this uncheck "Custom SSR" in world settings, but you will lose the screen space reflections of the video feed.

I'm having problems with shadows in AR

Make sure to use the "new shadows" - checkbox, for coloured shadows, use "adaptive coloured shadows" as well. Use the shadow options in world settings and the specific shadow controls on each light under the "Pixotope" tab. Shadows will only render on top of custom stencil 2, the shadow catcher channel.
For more detailed explanation please check: AR Shadow, Reflection & Light Catcher

I'm not happy with the quality of the blur or light wrap

In the editor you can change the resolution of the blur and light wrap blur kernels under VS compositing settings, however, this decreases performance.

I'm having problems hitting rate

My scene is quite complex and I need to gain a few more FPS to have reliable output. There are two general approaches to solving this:

Check Performance debugging from the Pixotope Academy

1. Using the GPU analyzer to try to optimise the Scene, usually by removing unnecessary shadows on lights or consolidating lights etc.
2. Using DLSS for upsampling to the output resolution

Editor / Playback / VR

Slow playback or stuttering when no video input on a configured port

If an input is not attached the system will continually poll for the input on that port. To resolve this, change the port number value to a "-". Change back when you connect an input.

Occasional stuttering when rendering with a tracked camera

There can be many causes for this including delayed or unreliable tracking data.
First, verify with a Pixotope calibration scene to confirm that the problem is unrelated to scene performance.
Another cause if the interruption is periodic and around every 60 seconds, could be Garbage Collection. You can defer Garbage Collection in the Project Settings under Engine → Garbage Collection → Time Between Purging Pending Kill Objects from 61.1 to 86400. This will defer Garbage Collection for 1 day. This interval is now set by default in Pixotope projects.

Video output

Odd problems with Video performance

"The video on my system used to work well until upgrading to Pixotope 2.1, but since upgrading I have had issues." Pixotope 22.3.5 uses the latest AJA SDK and should be used in conjunction with the 16.2 drivers and firmware. For Blackmagic Design Decklink cards, Pixotope 22.3.5 needs the 12.4 drivers. See System Requirements for more details.

Output video quality looks low resolution

Usually, this can be seen in the Editor in PIE mode when using a small viewport. In PIE, the viewport is used as the target render resolution, and the video is scaled from that image. To achieve higher resolution, either press F11 to make the viewport full screen, or else view in Live mode.
In World settings - Pixotope World you can enable “Upscale to Video Resolution” to always render the selected output resolution. 

Output video has black bars 

If the output video has black bars top and bottom (letter-boxed) or at the left and right sides (pillar-boxed), this can be caused by a mismatch between the camera filmback dimensions and the chosen output video format. Ensure that your camera matches your chosen video output format.

All predefined Pixotope cameras have sensor sizes that are either 16:9 or 17:9 in aspect ratio. The camera names have a suffix of HD, UHD, 2K or 4K. HD and UHD are 16:9; 2K and 4K are 17:9 in aspect ratio and these match directly with the selectable video formats.

Tracking data visible in Director but not in Editor

Check that Windows firewall or third-party Antivirus software is not blocking the data by temporarily turning them off.

Verify that you have set up your routing correctly in director. - If you have migrated the showfile from an older install, try to redo your routing setup.

Pixotope Director is not starting

Check that you do not have any lingering processes still running in Windows task manager.
If you do, kill all PX_ processes and try launching Pixotope again.

If you have recently updated from an older version of Pixotope, you might have a corrupt User.db file.

Delete the User.db file from: C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\The Future Group\Director\Data

After you have done this, make sure there are no lingering processes in Windows task manager, and try launching Pixotope again.

*Keep in mind that deleting the user information is also linked to licence, contact support if you are in Offline mode. 

In some cases Antivirus software might interfere with the launch process.

Try temporarily disabling the software, check if you have any running Pixotope processes you need to end, and launch Pixotope.

Pixotope control panel is not responding when triggering events

If you are using a tablet, cell phone, laptop etc. - Verify that the device is on the same network as the render engines.