General

There are no future plans for a macOS version. Notch utilises the DirectCompute framework for GPU compute functions which is Windows specific, but hardware agnostic. Since Notch Builder is GPU accelerated, it also relies on high-performance GPUs, of which sadly none exist for Apple computers. Therefore we won’t be offering macOS support anytime soon.

Windows is constantly monitoring the GPU and it’s drivers to ascertain if it is in a ‘good state’. This mechanism is called Timeout Detection & Recovery (TDR). Part of TDR is making sure that render requests come back in a timely fashion. However, the timeout detection can sometimes be a bit too aggressive when you are rendering huge scenes.

In these cases you may need to extend the Timeout Detection Delay, by adding/updating the TdrDelay registry setting.

KeyPath   : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers
KeyValue  : TdrDelay
ValueType : REG_DWORD (32bit)
ValueData : Number of seconds to delay. 2 seconds is the default value.

We recommend extending the TdrDelay to 60 seconds if you are experiencing issues. Make sure the value type is set to Decimal.

How to add/change the TDR Delay #

1. Run regedit, the Windows Registry Editor
2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers
3. If the TdrDelay key exists, double-click on it and change it’s value to 5 or 8.
4. If the TdrDelay key does not exist, add the key by:
   1. Edit -> New -> DWORD (32bit Value)
   2. Name the key TdrDelay
   3. Double-click the key, make it a Decimal (instead of Hexadecimal) value and set it to 60.
5. Reboot your system.
6. The changes will now be in effect. Be advised that updating Windows can reset this value so you might need to repeat this process in the future.

One of our users said it best: “When you arrive in a game engine, you (re)build a known outcome. When you arrive in Notch, you start with the idea and discover the outcome.”

Notch was built from the ground up to be artist accessible. In Notch, you create your content (be it video, interactive, VR or camera-based) using easy to understand nodes. There is no programming, external compiling/building or other game engine-like pipeline work involved.

Game engines use the same rendering techniques and APIs as Notch, and the only major difference between a game engine and Notch is that Notch is not focused around game-like mechanics and features that are required to build games. Notch is built to make real-time non-game rendering easy and accessible for everyone, especially those with a motion graphics background, and comes bundled with effects and examples made specifically for real-time VFX.

You can find Notch log files on your install drive, under Documents/Notch/Logs. When dealing with issues starting Notch, please provide a copy of the most recent files in this directory when contacting Notch support.

Not right now, but this is under development.

Notch does allow media servers to render Notch frames on additional GPUs, however, there are some reasons why most media servers have opted not to do this.

In a media server input to output latency is often a top priority. If Notch is run on a separate GPU all live camera feeds have to be copied from the primary GPU to the generative GPU to be processed and then the treated content needs to be transferred back again. These copies are slow and sometimes outweigh the advantages of the additional GPU when live camera effects are used.

When running two GPUs that require multiple copies/sync per frame there are complexities in timings and render-sync between the GPUs (further complicated by genlock and multi-machine setups).

Again, this choice is media server vendor specific and may change over time. You may wish to talk further with your vendor.

Yes (from 0.9.19). Go to File->Preferences->GPU

Notch supports a wide range of codecs. Some are handled natively and can be played back without modification. Others will be automatically transcoded to NotchLC on import.

The list of video codecs with native support:

• NotchLC
• DXV2
• HAP
• HAPQ
• PhotoJPEG
• Animation

Codecs that can be automatically transcoded on import:

• H.263
• H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
• HEVC
• MagicYUV
• DNxHD
• MPEG1/2/4
• VP8 / VP9

Auto-transcoding is available from Notch Builder 0.9.22.