I miss ANSI art. In the character-only days of the online world (pre-Web), these text-based graphics had a strangely pop-art quality, with hard edges, digital textures, and bold colors. This is not to be confused with ASCII art, mind you — ANSI art had lots of extra graphical features. Even by the early 1990s, landing on a modem-based BBS with ANSI art felt like leaving the grungy dullness of the country for the Los Vegas strip.

Which brings us to the relevance to this site. I’ve seen lots of cheesy ASCII art filters for video, implemented in environments like Processing, for one. But how about motion graphics with ANSI? Now that’s an interesting challenge. Or, for that matter, given infinite choices, how can you make your own creative constraints to do something essential and artistic? ANSI’s appeal might be purely nostalgic, but it suggests that more power over pixels has sometimes given us less freedom, not more. Something to ponder while you’re coding / editing / visualizing — there’s a chance to make up your own restrictions.

20 goto 10 in San Francisco will feature “ANSI”, curated by Acid Jazz from artists Somms & Lord Jazz.

20 goto 10 gallery page

Rhizome News: Escape Code to the Past

Okay, I spoke too soon. Just one day after a ZDNet blogger announced he could build a cheaper version of Apple’s high-end Mac Pro, Apple themselves have announced they can make their Mac Pro significantly faster and cheaper. I think the ZDNet machine still works out to be cheaper, but not by nearly as large a margin. Some of you wrote in to say you still want, you know, a cool case design, system-wide warranties, the Mac OS, and not having to, um, build your own system. Whatever. That sounds boring. It might even work out of the box. I’m just glad one of you mentioned hacking Mac OS support in. Needlessly risky and difficulty hacky methods? Now you’re speaking my language!

So, what about this new Mac Pro? It’s better and faster and cheaper and stuff. And it doesn’t have a Blu-Ray drive, whatever that’s worth.

Mac Pro

Seriously, Apple makes a really terrific, high-end system. You can get a number of PCs for significantly less that don’t match up spec-for-spec — and the PC market generally gives you more choices — but there’s no question the Mac has a small selection of really good choices that run both Windows and Mac OS X. You know what you want.

Apple is sticking with ATI graphics by default: the Radeon HD 2600 XT. I think the 8600-series NVIDIA is an all-around better 3D card, but for the Mac’s content creation-geared workflow, the Radeon makes sense. For 3D pros, there’s the NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600, which is of course overkill price/performance-wise for all but high-end applications. But the real story here is the Xeon architecture from Intel. Think dual 45-nm Quad-Core Xeon processors up to 3.2GHz, starting at US$2799, with 1600 MHz front side bus and 800 MHz memory. I like Apple’s description: “the ideal system for creative professionals, 3D digital content creators and scientists.” I think we should just opt for the “scientist” description, fellow visualists.

One thing I’m not going to repeat that many blogs are is Apple’s hyperbolic-yet-obvious tagline, “fastest Mac ever.”

Actually, wait a minute: oil prices rising, polar ice caps melting, the potential of running out of oil, global terrorism and the potential collapse of the world economy — maybe some day we will see “The New Mac Green: Much Slower and More Expensive Than Last Year’s Model!”

No, scratch that — Obama’s campaign is gaining momentum. I’m sure we’ll avoid all of that; it’s like one of those nasty alternate realities in the sci fi movies we manage to escape.

Apple slipped in some almost silent updates last night to its portable line: MacBooks have been updated to come pre-installed with Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), and sport Intel’s Santa Rosa chipset. This provides frontside bus speeds up to 800Mhz (up from 667Mhz), and includes a new integrated graphics chipset, the Intel GMA X3100 which should offer a speed boost for end users and increased shader support for developers.

Apple also silently updated the MacBook Pro, which now has an optional 2.6Ghz CPU upgrade (up from 2.4Ghz), for a mere $250.

Leopard improves not only OpenGL performance with some advanced backend llvm compiling, optional Quartz GL rendering, but also enhanced OpenGL extension and shader model support on certain cards. According to the Mac OpenGL dev list (which just today posted some new information regarding 10.5 - ironically the OpenGL cababilities matrix does not yet list the GMA X3100), Apple supports Shader Model 4.0 on newer ATI hardware, and possibly on NVIDIA 8-series cards (yet to be confirmed).

Both of these are good news for visualists - better graphics capabilities in 10.5 and updated integrated graphics chipsets will support more advanced visual effects for those who want the slimmer MacBook, and who doesn’t want dual 2.6Ghz of power in the MacBook Pro?

Ed.: My only disappointment with Apple is that there’s not much in the mid-range price-wise, and the Intel chips still lag behind dedicated graphics chips like the NVIDIA GeForce Go (8600 in the case of the MacBook Pro). But the flipside for the bargain-hungry: each time Apple bumps its MBP, you have a shot at getting clearance or refurb versions of the previous model at the sweet spot.

Note that the MacBook doesn’t support the advanced 3D features with its integrated video chip. The X3100 video on the PM965 chipset supports only Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 1.5, which leaves out some important shader features, etc., of use to visualists. So, if you can shell out the cash for the MacBook Pro, it will give you far more advanced 3D features — and by extension, hardware-based video. (On the Windows side, it also means DirectX 10 over DirectX 9, but the important thing is the integrated shader architecture.)

In my computing life I’m very much into segregation. Until recently I’ve worked exclusively with PCs and have always had 3-4 machines around, each installed with a certain set of tools to do a specific job:

• Workstation with After Effects, Photoshop, Web Development tools, Content stuff…
• Laptop with Mail, IM and other communication/organization stuff.
• Server with bittorrent downloading, media serving and distributed rendering.
• Gig machine with just Resolume and required codecs.

Since this whole tour thing started I’ve had to consolidate everything onto my MacBook. All of the usual amail, browsing and IM duties remain, but are now encroached by editing in iMovie, flyer and poster design in Photoshop/InDesign, web administration and coding in Coda, Tour and Gig organization with NeoOffice, photo organization in Lightroom… My poor MacBook has been flogged half to death, with constant slowdown and frequent freezes and crashes. Quicksilver especially - my Mac raison d’être - has been having huge problems.

I was very close to just palming my trusty lil BlackBook off to the GirlThing and upgrading to a MacBook Pro. I was talking to Peter about which MBP I should buy when he suggested that perhaps a little RAM upgrade may be in order. Best. Advice. Evar.

Local MacStore price to upgrade to 2GB RAM: AU$400. Price of RAM from local PC bits store: AU$106. The installation was a little nerve-wracking, requiring considerably more force than I’m used to applying to RAM installation, but the machine booted first time and everything seems happy now. Less MacBook slowdowns = more time to play with my new HVR-V1P. 200FPS slow motion. Can I get a hell yeah?

Audio, relying primarily on the CPU, can do fine on the non-pro MacBook: a fast CPU and FireWire 400 can be all you need. But for visualists, the GPU has become more and more vital. The integrated Intel GPU on the MacBooks is surprisingly capable, and certainly gets through basic video mixing. But throw enough shaders at it (even just processing video, without any 3D modeling or gaming), and it can’t keep up. That’s the reason Apple requires the MacBook Pro for Final Cut Studio; with Motion, at least, they’re absolutely right.

You’d be wise to postpone a MacBook Pro purchase over recent months, though, with Intel’s new Santa Rosa architecture coming and NVIDIA working on taking their 8000-series GPUs mobile. Apple today announced they’ve got the new machines with both — and better displays, too.

MacBook Pro [Apple]

For more on the music and CPU side of this, see our sister site, Create Digital Music:
MacBook Pro Revision: Big Santa Rosa Performance Boost, 4GB RAM Option, More

The short version: better displays, finally a 1920px option, the latest-and-greatest NVIDIA GPU for faster performance in Motion and OpenGL goodness for geeks, faster CPUs, more RAM — just generally fewer ways your wallet can avoid buying one of these silver surfers. I got some additional performance details from Apple, and hope to follow up with my own benchmarks.

The Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros are here, and even if you’re a Windows user, these machines deserve a look. See Create Digital Music for the full once-over, but here’s my short list for why the MacBook Pro has appeal for the VJ/visualist/live visuals person, particularly for the intensive requirements of running live visuals in performance:

1. Backlit keys: This one is a huge lifesaver when you’re in the dark, and it isn’t available on most PCs, or on Apple’s cheaper MacBook. Sure, you could plug in one of those USB lights, but do you really want that thing in your face and taking up a free USB slot?
2. It runs Windows: I love the Mac, but Windows has a performance edge when running Java (read: Processing) and for live video input (thanks to DirectX), for Flash (for reasons unknown, it runs faster on PC even with the Intel Macs, and you have better developer tools), as well as running fantastic Windows-only live visual software like vvvv and Resolume. Spend your daily life in Mac OS, then boot up a cleaned-out, stripped-down performance-only rig in Windows.
3. It runs Mac: The Mac has some nice features of its own, especially if you’re using tools like Max/MSP/Jitter. Max runs really well on Windows, but on Mac it has a very nice bonus: you can build custom image filters using Core Image and Quartz Composer. Driver support for audio and MIDI is far better on the Mac, too. You know the rest of the reasons why you like Mac OS. Isn’t it nice to be able to run both everywhere you go? Thanks, Apple. (See also: Linux on Intel.)
4. FireWire 800: This is great for audio, but it’s even more awesome for video. One MacBook Pro, one external RAID array with all your video clips. Need I say more? (Hint: do not try this trick even
   with FW400.)
5. RAM and storage: When you’re comparison shopping Macs with PCs, note that Apple has finally put sensible 1GB / 2GB standard RAM and 120GB / 160GB standard storage specs on these models. ‘Bout time. Most PC makers aren’t. Most PCs also aren’t expandable to a full 3GB RAM, and the MacBook Pro is.
6. ATI X1600: For visualists, this is the other key spec difference between MacBook and MacBook Pro. The ATI X1600 isn’t the most powerful video card on the market (see Alienware’s incredible dual-SLI NVidia 7900 systems, which are surprisingly price-competitive with the Apples), but for most custom live visuals, this is the difference between a truly usable GPU and one that’s bare-bones (like the integrated video on the MacBook and most cheaper PCs). Odds are your custom visuals aren’t putting out the massive polygon counts needed for games, so the X1600 should be just right. If you really want to do crazy simulated fluid models, I’d suggest getting a small form factor PC, anyway, rather than a laptop, so you can upgrade visuals. The truth is, most of the software we use still relies heavily on the CPU, so the Core 2 Duo ultimately becomes more important than having the absolute top-of-the-line video card — and don’t forget, the X1600 can blaze through Unreal Tournament 2004 at around 60 fps, so it’s no slouch. (Try that with your PowerBook G4, or even MacBook. Actually — don’t.)

If you only need to run Windows, I don’t think the MacBook Pro makes much sense. But for those wanting the perfect mobile Mac, or a machine that can run Mac and Windows (for whatever reason), the MBP looks better. And if you were waiting for a speed bump, this is it. I’m guessing Apple will keep the current high-end / low-end configurations of their laptops for the near future.

DVGuru have reminded me about something on my projects list which really should be assigned a higher priority: Networked storage. Australian Tech Blogger of Uberness Dan has touched on this in the past and a more recent article which includes a magic list of NAS devices which allow drive spin-down. This is critical; a consumer hard drive left turned on 24/7 (which is likely for a NAS) will have its live expectancy drastically reduced if the device doesn’t power down the drive when not in use. The Mapower device from the Automated Home article does include customizable spin-down. Dan’s original pick is the Netgear SC101 Storage Central, which has spin-down via a firmware update, accepts up to 2 drives and costs under US$100. It’s PC only though, and the reviews aren’t particularly positive (Requires proprietary software to access the data? Yuck!) so hunting down one of the other options may be worthwhile. Amazon shows a resonable selection.

Personally, I already have a webserver/media server/bittorrent machine which runs 24/7. So I’m going to drop my NAS budget on a gigabit ethernet card, gigabit switch, and a couple of hefty drives.

Laptops and Mac minis are wonderful, but they don’t let you upgrade your CPU or fill two PCI slots with hyper-powerful video cards. I’ve been loving lugging my Shuttle XPC to gigs, in a custom Shuttle case that I can carry on the subway or in cabs. But if it hadn’t tempted you yet, this might:

Shuttle XPC Barebone SD37P2

The new barebones kit lets you add your own Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and, with two x16 slots, ATI CrossFire-compatible video. The Core 2 Duo is not to be confused with the Core Duo in Mac laptops; this is the souped-up desktop-class Core 2 Duo (up to Duo Extreme) that’s the fastest consumer CPU on the planet. Gizmodo has the story, and readers there are confused by the cost. Let me explain: unlike, say, a new Mac Pro, the barebones system lets you customize the machine for your individual needs, and unlike almost every other solution out there, you have an upgradeable machine that you can actually lift to gigs. VJs and live visualists, I’m sure, don’t need an explanation here. Much as I love Apple, the ability to fully customize and transport your machine has a lot of appeal.

The US$537 cost isn’t cheap, but it’s not just a case — as with the Shuttle I covered here, “barebones” includes the motherboard, fans, cables, and little extras like a card reader. The case is definitely first-rate, too.

I’m still happy with my AMD-compatible Shuttle, which has now been through four gigs. This case design is similar, though I don’t like the fact that Shuttle moved the drive eject button so you could accidentally hit power. Full post-gig review of my SN26P coming soon.

Related:

Building a Portable SFF PC for Live Visuals, Music Gigs: Part 1, Assembly in Comic Book Form

Building a Gigging PC, Pt. II: RAID Setup, Installing Windows XP Without Bloat