Isadora 4 Release Notes Print

Jump to the Isadora 4.0.2 Release Notes

Jump to the Isadora 4.0.0 Release Notes

General Information About Isadora 4

Isadora 4.0 is here!

The future of media design is upon us. Isadora 4 is available for purchase now!

Isadora 4.0 offers several new actors, new features, pleasant cosmetic changes, bug fixes, stability improvements, powerful expansions to existing parts of the program, the new game changing IzzyCast feature, new Control Panel features, and even Python integration! We've worked incredibly hard to bring you an even more powerful and feature-packed version of Isadora.

Keep reading for more exciting news but remember you can always download Isadora 4 from our website and try it for free in demonstration mode!

Isadora 4 Licensing Options

Different projects have different requirements, so we're continuing to offer a variety of options to fit a variety of needs. As always, users with a subscription license can use the most recent version of Isadora. We noticed that the Monthly Subscription mostly saw short-term use, so we are replacing it with a 30-Day Rental; no more having to remember to cancel before the next month rolls around!

Make sure to check out these articles about upgrading Isadora 3 Perpetual and USB Key Licenses to Isadora 4 and the Isadora 4 license options and prices for more information.

Please see this support article for information on how to apply for the academic discount.

Wait! What if I just bought Isadora 3?

If you recently bought an Isadora 3 Perpetual or USB Key License and are worried that you should have just waited for Isadora 4, don't worry, we've got you covered! If you purchased Isadora 3 in 2024, you'll get a discount on the upgrade to Isadora 4 so that the combined cost of your Isadora 3 License and the upgrade will match the price of an Isadora 4 License. See this article about the discounted upgrade process for more details. Upgrade today and save—this exclusive offer ends three months after the release of Isadora 4!

New license model hits the stage!

In order to support the future growth of Isadora, we made a change to the buy-to-own license model; Isadora 4 Perpetual and USB Licenses now include two years of free updates and will work forever with versions of Isadora 4 released before or during this support period. After that, you can either extend this support period to keep using the most recent version or you can continue using the most recent version of Isadora 4 released within your license's support period. This model will let us switch to incremental releases focused on individual features, rather than making you wait for larger changes.

Check our website out for more about the new Isadora 4 buy-to-own license model.

Introducing: IzzyCast!

IzzyCast is the biggest new feature we've added to Isadora. Want to projection map a performer located a thousand miles away onto the set in your theater? Want the movement tracking data from a dancer halfway across the globe to interactively manipulate the theatrical lighting, or the movement of cameras? Want to build a remote kit that meets all your talent's needs—a simple, shippable solution with fully remote-controllable video, audio, and lighting?

By allowing you to send and receive high-resolution video, audio, and data to and from computers anywhere in the world, our newest feature – IzzyCast – allows you to do all of the above! Don't worry about high-level networking knowledge to get it up and running. Just turn it on, and it works. (We do recommend taking a look at our "Understanding IzzyCast" articles though, to go through the basics!)

We can't wait to see what our community will achieve with the creative possibilities offered by IzzyCast!

You can read more about it in the IzzyCast section of the release notes below.

Try IzzyCast for free!

Long story short, you need IzzyCast credits to use IzzyCast, and we are giving them away for free!

For every upgrade or Isadora license you purchase (except 7-Day Rentals), you'll receive a discount code for 500 free IzzyCast Credits. Whether you're upgrading or buying a new license, you can use the discount code you receive to go back to the store and get an IzzyCast Account Key and 500 free IzzyCast Credits to try out IzzyCast free!

With free IzzyCast Credits, our handy IzzyCast example files, and our introductory IzzyCast tutorial trying out IzzyCast will be a breeze, and we also offer bulk discounts on IzzyCast Credits for when you need more.

IzzyCast System Requirements

Minimum

• Each user must have a computer that meets Isadora's system requirements.
• Each user must have a stable internet connection.

Recommended

• The host should have a powerful computer that can handle additional video processing tasks like compositing and livestreaming.
• Wired internet connections are strongly recommended for stability; avoid using WiFi and mobile hotspots.
• If possible, use a dedicated network for IzzyCast; avoid shared networks like university dorms and public libraries.

Updated TroikaTronix Support Policy

Please see this support article for the updated version of the TroikaTronix Support Policy.
 Please note that as of the release of Isadora 4, Isadora 3.2.6 is the only version of Isadora 3 for which we will be providing technical support.

Isadora 4 System Requirements

• Isadora 4 is supported on macOS 10.14 (Mojave) through macOS 13 (Ventura) with a 64-bit Intel or Apple silicon (ARM/M-series) processor, and on a 64-bit version of Windows 10 through 11 with an Intel or AMD processor.
• Isadora 4 will run on almost any contemporary Mac or Windows computer, but your system requirements may vary based on the scope of your project. 
• Isadora is not supported on tablet devices such as the Microsoft Surface Pro, Linux machines, and systems that run macOS on non-Apple hardware.
• Isadora is not designed for use with external graphics cards (eGPUs) or machines that have multiple discrete GPUs. 
• Running Isadora on machines utilizing unsupported hardware configurations may have unexpected and undesirable results in terms of performance and usability.
• We recommend you carefully research computer equipment to find the best option for your project needs and budget. If you’re looking for help finding the right computer, feel free to post on the TroikaTronix Community Forum to ask for suggestions.

Please check out this support article for the full details on Isadora 4’s System Requirements.

Using Isadora on a Windows Laptop

Windows users on laptops should follow these steps to properly configure their computers before working with Isadora.

Most Windows laptops with dedicated graphics cards also have integrated Intel graphics chips and energy-saving features, (which are enabled by default), that dynamically switch which graphics card any given application is using based on its current performance requirements. This process of switching graphics cards on the fly causes problems with Isadora (and several other live video applications).

To run Isadora properly on a Windows laptop with both a dedicated and integrated graphics card, you must configure your computer to utilize only your dedicated graphics card for Isadora.

New Isadora 4 Manual

We’ve been working hard on the Isadora 4 Manual. There are still some sections that need to be updated, but the numerous sections, including Tutorials and Controls Reference, have been completely updated. The Actors Reference section is much more up-to-date than it was, but boy do those 3D actors have a lot of inputs with a lot of text .) The updated manual will be online soon!

Isadora 4.0.2 Release Notes (October 2, 2024)

Isadora:

• NEW: Isadora now offers a "Python Virtual Environment" item in the "Open Plugin Folder" item of Isadora's help menu. Selecting this item will open the folder of the active virtual environment used by the Pythoner actor. If this item is grey, no virtual environment has yet been activated.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug on Windows where the Stage output could freeze when using a particular combination of Windows 11 and certain GPU hardware.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where macOS would not properly recognize the number of channels of audio output for a device with multiple streams (e.g., analog, ADAT) or Aggregate Audio devices created in Audio MIDI Setup.)
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug on macOS where Isadora would refused to quit automatically if the Pythoner actor was active, and you then attempted to Restart, Shutdown or Log Out from the Apple menu.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug in the code editor window for GLSL Shaders, Javascript, and Pythoner where attempting to search for text would select all text in the window instead of the matching text.

Isadora Plugins:

• JSON Bundler v1.0.4: Fixed a bug in the JSON Bundler (v1.0.4) where, if all the value inputs were text, and all those inputs were empty, it would output a JSON array instead of a JSON object.
• Skeleton from JSON v1.0.1: Fixed a bug in the Skeleton from JSON actor where the 'valid' output  would not correctly indicate if the skeleton input was valid or not.

Pythoner (v1.0.3):

• NEW: If you open an Isadora file with the Pythoner actor, and if there is a valid Python virtual environment called "virtual_env" at the same level as your Isadora file, Pythoner will activate this virtual environment automatically. (Note that no other virtual environment can have been activated previously for this to work.)
  In coordination with this addition, a new script has been added to the Python_Support_Scripts folder called virtual-environment-from-requirements. It will create a virtual environment called 'virtual_env'  from a pip 'requirements.txt' file, making it more convenient for users to share patches that use the power of Python.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where the Pythoner actor would not accept video input.
• Bug Fix: Fixed a crash when either 1) transitioning from one scene to another when both have Pythoner actor in them or 2) adding and deleting a second Pythoner actor to an existing Scene.

Isadora 4.0 Release Notes (July 28, 2024)

Highlights

Isadora 4.0 offers several new actors, new features, pleasant cosmetic changes, bug fixes, stability improvements, powerful expansions to existing parts of the program, the new game-changing IzzyCast feature, new Control Panel features, and even Python integration! We've worked incredibly hard to bring you an even more powerful and feature-packed version of Isadora.

Isadora 4 is FRESH – When you open Isadora 4, you'll see an updated interface with a more modern color palette, rounded patch cords, color-coded title bars for different types of actors, and more. Alongside these changes we also added some accessibility improvements. You can read about the details in the User Interface Improvements section of the Isadora 4 Release Notes.

Unleash the Power of Python* – The new Pythoner actor allows for script execution, data analysis, web scraping, machine learning, access to powerful Python libraries, easier integration with a wider range of hardware, software, and web APIs, and much more! There truly is no limit to what Isadora can do with the integration of Python. See the Pythoner Actor section further down in the Isadora 4 Release Notes for more information.

*The coding language, not the reptile. TroikaTronix does not encourage or condone using our software to unleash the power of snakes.

Get Those Cameras Moving – The new VISCA PTZ Controller and Video In PTZ Image Control actors interface with VISCA and UVC cameras (like the BirdDog P200 and Insta360 Link), to offer interactive control of pan, tilt, and zoom (aka, PTZ) from within Isadora. When combined with IzzyCast, you can remotely control cameras anywhere in the world! You can find more information about these powerful, new Isadora PTZ actors in the Actor Improvements section of the Isadora 4 Release notes below.

Quality Control (Panels) – We've made major updates to Isadora's Control Panel. The new look and feel of Isadora's controls allows you to create user interfaces that behave like a self-contained application. Combined with the powerful new Show-Hide Control actor, which allows you to show or hide controls based on logic in Isadora, you can create user experiences that are flexible and dynamic. Additionally, to make learning how to use Control Panels easier, all the Controls and their properties in the Control Edit Dialog now have help text that shows up in the Information View when you mouse over that element of the User Interface. You can find out more about the exciting changes to the Control Panel in the Control Panel Improvements section of the Isadora 4 Release Notes below.

We've Added On the Add-Ons – To save you all time, our GLSL Shaders and most of the downloadable actors from the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page, (like NDI Watcher and Screen Capture), will be built into Isadora from now on. You can read the full list below under the header "Newly Integrated Actor Plugins from the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page".

Long-Standing Issues Addressed – We fixed two long-standing and infuriating issues on macOS. The first was a focus issue where clicking away to another application and back to Isadora in specific cases could result in not being able to move actors around in the Scene Editor. The second was right-clicking and keyboard shortcuts being broken when using keyboard layouts other than English because Apple decided to automatically enable a "helpful" feature in their program XCode.

NEW: IzzyCast

IzzyCast is a powerful new feature that allows you to send and receive high-resolution video, audio, and data to and from computers anywhere in the world. All five IzzyCast actors are included in the regular download of Isadora.

Control Panel Improvements

Specific Control Updates

There have been significant updates made to the Button, Slider, Number, Edit Text, List Selector, and Popup Menu Controls. You can find more information under the header “Control Panel Improvements”.

New Feature: Control Help Text

While inside the Control Edit Dialog, mousing over any control property now shows help text for that property in the Information View. Additionally, while in Control Edit Mode:

• Mousing over any control in the Control Panel now shows help text for that control in the Information View.
• While in Control Edit Mode, mousing over any control’s name in the Control Toolbox List now shows help text for that control in the Information View.
• While in Control Edit Mode, right-clicking any control in the Control Panel now provides the option “Show Control Help in Browser” which will open an HTML page with a description of the control and all its properties.

NEW: Show-Hide Control Actor

This powerful new actor allows you to show or hide one or more controls in the Control Panel programmatically. This allows for the construction of app-like Control Panels that change what controls are visible based on user input, e.g., you can have Edit Text Controls to enter text, Popup Menu Controls to select options from a list, a “Next” button, a “Back” button, etc. Be sure to check out the example file for the Show-Hide Control actor on the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page!

Controls are targeted using their “Control Address” and the ‘ctrl address’ input property of the Show-Hide Control Actor can contain the wildcard characters. Using these wildcards, you can show or hide an entire group of Controls, allowing you to create “tabs” of Controls you can switch between. For an example of this, please see our template file for the VISCA PTZ Controller actor.

NEW: Set Control Focus Actor

Allows you to programmatically give the keyboard focus to a specific control. This actor is helpful when used in tandem with the Show-Hide Control actor when making “app-like” Control Panels where users can fill out fields, press buttons, and navigate through different sets of Controls that become visible under different circumstances.

Downloadable Actor Plugin Improvements

NEW: Pythoner Actor

Allows you to run Python scripts from within Isadora, install Python packages via pip, import Python script files (.py) from external locations, and supports Python virtual environments!

NEW: OSC Address Listener Actor

Receives Open Sound Control messages from specific OSC addresses, allowing for the use of an infinite number of OSC addresses, and allows the use of wildcards so that it can listen to multiple different OSC addresses that follow a similar format.

NEW: VISCA PTZ Controller Actor

Allows you to interactively control the pan, tilt, zoom, and focus for any camera that responds to the VISCA over IP protocol or any device that uses the Datavideo DVIP protocol.

This actor comes with five different device presets, as well as creating a JSON file in the external Plugins folder that allows you to create your own device presets.

NEW: File Reader Actor

Like the Read Text from File actor, but much simpler (for when you don’t need all the extra features available with the Read Text from File actor or when you want to import all the text in a file and then parse it yourself).

UPDATE: Skeleton Decoder Actor

Can now output JSON via its new ‘send json’ input and ‘json out' output properties. This converts a skeleton package to JSON for use with the new Skeleton From JSON actor. Since this turns skeleton data into a single string, this is a great way to send skeleton data anywhere in the world with an IzzyCast Broadcaster actor.

The list of skeleton points from the Skeleton Decoder’s help text were removed and instead the OpenNI Tracker and Rokoko Studio Live Watcher have had their specific lists of skeleton points added to their help text.

NEW: Skeleton From JSON Actor

This new actor converts a JSON record representing a skeleton to a skeleton package that can be passed to actors that have a ‘skeleton' input.

UPDATE: JSON Bundler & JSON Parser Actors

Can now generate a JSON array by filling in the 'value' inputs while leaving all the 'key' inputs empty.

UPDATE: Rokoko Studio Live Watcher Actor

New ‘units’ input property allows it to output the skeleton data in mm, cm, or m.

Now supports use with the new Rokoko Studio software with both the v1 and v2 Rokoko SmartSuit Pro.

Actor Improvements

NEW: Open Isadora File Actor

This new actor allows you to programmatically open Isadora (.izz) files.

UPDATE: User Actors, Macros, User Inputs, and User Outputs

NEW: User Actors, Macros, User Inputs, and User Outputs can finally be given custom help text! You can read the new default help text on these actors in the program or see the section Custom Actor Help Text for User Actors, Macros, User Inputs, and User Outputs of the Isadora 4 Release Notes.

UPDATE: GLSL Shader Actor

A “Help” button was added to the GLSL Shader actor’s code editor window that opens an HTML document with links to both written and video tutorials.

Actor Auto-Snap Improvements

When Auto Snap is enabled in the View menu, if an actor is completely enclosed by another actor (e.g., the Background actor), the actor will auto-snap not only to the edges of the enclosing actor but also to the edges plus a 10-pixel margin.

When Auto Snap is enabled in the View Menu, Background and Comment actors will now auto-snap to align with the edges of other actors in the Scene Editor.

UPDATE: Multi-Channel Audio Routing with 64 Channels

Because one of our users needed more audio channels for an installation in a prestigious museum in New York City, we increased the number of channels available when using Isadora for multi-channel audio routing. Isadora’s Audio Panel, the Sound Player actor, the Tone Generator actor, IzzyCast Receiver actor, and the Core Audio actors (macOS only) have been updated and can now handle up to 64 channels of audio!

UPDATE: Live Capture Improvements

• Isadora has been updated to use the 12.4.2 Blackmagic SDK.
• Isadora has been updated to use the v5.6.0 NDI SDK.

NEW: Run Multiple Instances of Isadora on Windows

You can now run multiple instances of Isadora on Windows! (This was already possible on macOS.)

UPDATE: Isadora SDK

The Isadora SDK (which can be found on TroikaTronix’s Isadora Get It Page under “Related Downloads”) has been updated and now has additional documentation.

New Look!

NEW: Actors and Links Have Rounded Corners

In an effort to reduce workplace injuries, actors and links have been re-issued with their dangerous sharp edges replaced by OSHA-approved rounded corners.

NEW: Color-Coded Actor Names

There are now different colors for the 13 different types of Actors.

NEW: Port Shape and Fill Indicate Scaling and Mutability State

Port Shape Indicates Scaling State

There are now different port shapes to denote different scaling states.

• Circular ports have scaling enabled (both ‘scale min’ and ‘scale max’ are set to an actual number).
• Square ports have scaling disabled (either ‘scale min’ or ‘scale max’ is MIN or MAX).
• Triangular ports are non-linkable (these are inputs that increase or decrease the number of inputs or outputs an actor has).

Port Fill Indicates Mutability State

There are now different fill states to denote different mutability states.

• A solid (filled-in) port shape indicates that the data type for a port is fixed and cannot be mutated.
• A hollow (empty) port shape indicates that the input is mutable and can be changed to a different data type by linking it to another actor.

NEW: Visual Update to Vertical and Horizontal Sliders for Actors

The horizontal and vertical sliders used to adjust actors’ values in the Scene Editor have been given a visual update.

UPDATE: Actor Toolbox

NEW: Two New Actor Groups

We’ve added two new Actor Groups to the Actor Toolbox Filter; Sensors and Devices (the actors inside might still be shuffled around some before the final release though).

Sensors

The following actors are in the new Sensors Actor Group:

• Blob Decoder
• Blob Minimum Distance
• Blob Target Proximity
• Eyes
• Eyes++
• OpenNI Tracker
• Rokoko Studio Live Watcher
• Skeleton Decoder
• Skeleton From JSON
• Skeleton Visualizer

Devices

The following actors are in the new Devices Actor Group:

• Arduino Firmata
• ArtNet Receive
• ArtNet Send
• DV Device Control
• HID Value Listener
• LanBox Channels
• LanBox RGB Out
• LanBox Text
• Send PJLink
• Video In PTZ Image Control
• VISCA PTZ Controller

General Actor Toolbox Improvements

• The following actors have been moved to the Scene Control Actor Toolbox Group:
  1. Jump By Name
  2. Take Snapshot
  3. Recall Snapshot
  4. Update Snapshot
• The size of the image used in the Actor Toolbox Filter has been doubled and refined to make it look better on higher-resolution displays.

User Interface Improvements

Theme Editor

The theme “Modern Shaded” has been added to the list of built-in themes and is now the default.

You can always revert to the old Isadora 3 colors by choosing the theme "Modern". (This won't change the rounded rectangles, etc., but the colors of the various parts of the actors will go back to how they were in Isadora 3.)

Accessibility Improvements

The text in the Property Inspector will increase in size if you are zoomed in, so that the size of text inside it matches the size of the text shown in the actors. This should help visually impaired users who need to zoom in to read the text more easily.

The text in the Property Inspector will also never get smaller than 9pt even if you zoom all the way out.

Updated Link Colors

Since using green and red for the links created an accessibility issue for color-blind users, we have changed these colors in the most recent default theme.

• A link is “Active” when data is running through it.
• A link is “Inactive” when no data is running through it.
• A link “Selected” if you’ve clicked on it, if you’ve selected actors that it's connected to at both ends, or if you’ve clicked and dragged over it while holding down the keyboard shortcut for selecting only links (Cmd+Option on macOS and Ctrl+Alt on Windows).
• A link is “unselected” when nothing is selected or when something other than the link is selected.
• You can play with this yourself by changing these properties in the Theme Editor:

Theme Editor Improvements

• NEW: Sixteen new options (including the five for the links mentioned above) have been added to the Theme Editor:
  1. The color of all actor output properties:
     • ACTOR_PROPERTY_TITLE
  2. The starting and ending colors for the vertical gradation in graphic buttons (e.g., the Add Bin buttons at the top of the Media View) when the button is off (not pressed):
     • UI_GRAPHIC_BUTTON_BKG_GRADATION_START_OFF
     • UI_GRAPHIC_BUTTON_BKG_GRADATION_END_OFF
  3. The starting and ending colors for the vertical gradation in graphic buttons when the button is on (pressed):
     • UI_GRAPHIC_BUTTON_BKG_GRADATION_START_ON
     • UI_GRAPHIC_BUTTON_BKG_GRADATION_END_ON
  4. The image color for graphic buttons when they are enabled or disabled:
     • UI_GRAPHIC_BUTTON_IMAGE_COLOR_ENABLED
     • UI_GRAPHIC_BUTTON_IMAGE_COLOR_DISABLED
  5. The background color for popup menus when they are enabled or disabled:
     • UI_POPUP_MENU_BACKGROUND_COLOR_ENABLED
     • UI_POPUP_MENU_BACKGROUND_COLOR_DISABLED
  6. The text color for popup menus when they are enabled or disabled:
     • UI_POPUP_MENU_TEXT_COLOR_ENABLED
     • UI_POPUP_MENU_TEXT_COLOR_DISABLED

Tooltips and Information View Improvements

• In order to give help text to Controls and their properties, a change was made to allow any user interface element in any view to display help text in the Information View when the mouse is over it. This paves the way for us to add help text to more elements of Isadora’s user interface.
• The Property Inspector and its various elements now all have help text that shows up in the Information View when you mouse over them.

General User Interface Improvements

• User interface elements that render video live (Stage Setup Window, floating Video Preview in the Scene Editor when hovering over a link between video actors, and the Monitor and Stage Preview Controls) have been modified in an effort to eliminate black flashes (which were seen mostly on Windows).
• On macOS, fixed an issue where the height of the help text was not being calculated correctly in some instances, which previously caused the spacing in the Information View to be incorrect in certain cases.
• On Windows, changing the display percentage while in the Control Panel and then switching to the Scene Editor now correctly resizes the actors.
• On Windows, the cursor shape is always correct while resizing Comment actors, Background actors, and Controls.

NEW FEATURE: IzzyCast

IzzyCast is the biggest new feature we've added to Isadora. Want to projection map a performer located a thousand miles away onto the set in your theater? Want the movement tracking data from a dancer halfway across the globe to interactively manipulate the theatrical lighting, or the movement of cameras? Want to build a remote kit that meets all your talent's needs—a simple, shippable solution with fully remote-controllable video, audio, and lighting?

By allowing you to send and receive high-resolution video, audio, and data to and from computers anywhere in the world, our newest feature – IzzyCast – allows you to do all of the above! Don't worry about high-level networking knowledge to get it up and running. Just turn it on, and it works. (We do recommend taking a look at our "Understanding IzzyCast" articles though, to go through the basics!)

We can't wait to see what our community will achieve with the creative possibilities offered by IzzyCast!

For every upgrade or Isadora license you purchase (except 7-Day Rentals), you'll receive a discount code for 500 free IzzyCast Credits. Whether you're upgrading or buying a new license, you can use the discount code you receive to go back to the store and get an IzzyCast Account Key and 500 free IzzyCast Credits to try out IzzyCast free!

All of the IzzyCast actors can be found in the Communications Group of the Actor Toolbox Filter.

NEW: IzzyCast Create Session Actor

• An Isadora actor that allows the host to create an IzzyCast Session in Isadora.

NEW: IzzyCast Join Session Actor

• An Isadora actor that allows a participant to join an IzzyCast Session. 

NEW: IzzyCast Broadcaster Actor

• An Isadora actor that sends one stream of video, one stream of audio, and one or more streams of data into an IzzyCast Session.

NEW: IzzyCast Receiver Actor

• An Isadora actor that receives a specific user’s video, audio, and data streams, any of which can then be used with other actors inside Isadora.

NEW: IzzyCast Devices Actor

• This Isadora actor lists the video and audio devices recognized by IzzyCast and allows the selection of a video input device, an audio input device, and an audio output device via numerical inputs.
• This can be used to send the list of a participant’s video and audio devices to the host via data streams in the IzzyCast Broadcaster actor which, with minimal programming, would then allow the host to use their own IzzyCast Broadcaster actor to send the participant back a number for each device in order to remotely control which video and audio devices a participant is using, (e.g. allow the host to programmatically switch between three different camera angles for a participant being interviewed or switch between multiple different cameras, microphones, and speakers as the performer moves around a large space or into different rooms).

NEW FEATURE: Integrated Installer

No longer will you show people how to download and install the actor plugins your Isadora file needs!

No longer will you need to re-install all the downloadable actor plugins when moving to a new computer!

With this release of Isadora, we decided to make using our extra actors as easy and simple as we possibly could so, as of this release, almost all of the publicly-available downloadable actor plugins available on the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page are now included in Isadora itself!

The installer creates a new “Isadora 4” folder if one doesn’t exist already. Don't worry, you can have Isadora 2, 3, and 4 installed on the same computer without them interfering with each other.

NEW FEATURE: Load Newest Plugin

As part of the change to an integrated installer, Isadora now checks the version of the internal versions of each one of these actor plugins against any versions in the external Isadora Plugins folder and automatically loads up the newest version. This means:

• Having an old version of one of these in your external Isadora Plugins folder won’t cause a problem.
• If we need to release an update to one of these downloadable actor plugins between releases of the Isadora software itself, we’ll be able to upload the updated version to the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page.
• If, between Isadora releases, we use the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page to release any updates to the downloadable actor plugins now included in the integrated installer, the function inside Isadora that checks whether new versions of these downloadable actor plugins are available will pop up and tell you about the available update(s), giving you the option to go directly to the Add-Ons Page entry for the updated actor plugin(s).

Newly Integrated Actor Plugins from the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page

As previously stated, almost all our actor plugins from the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page have been integrated into the Isadora installer itself, and some new Add-Ons have been included as well.

• UPDATED: Arduino Firmata v1.0.5
• UPDATED: ArtNet Receive v1.0.5
• UPDATED: ArtNet Send v1.0.5
• NEW: File Reader v1.0.0
• UPDATED: Grapher v1.0.0
• NEW: IzzyCast Broadcaster v1.0.0
• NEW: IzzyCast Create Session v1.0.0
• NEW: IzzyCast Devices v1.0.0
• NEW: IzzyCast Join Session v1.0.0
• NEW: IzzyCast Receiver v1.0.0
• UPDATED: JSON Bundler v1.0.3
• UPDATED: JSON Parser v1.0.1
• UPDATED: Jump By Name v1.1.4
• UPDATED: NDI Watcher v1.0.9
• NEW: OSC Address Listener v1.0.0
• NEW: Pythoner v1.0.0
• UPDATED: Read Text From File v1.1.4
• UPDATED: Rokoko Studio Live Watcher v1.0.3
• UPDATED: RTMP Streamer v1.0.2
• UPDATED: Screen Capture v1.0.3
• UPDATED: Seek Target Value v1.0.0
• UPDATED: Send PJLink v1.0.1
• NEW: Skeleton From JSON v1.0.0
• UPDATED: Skeleton Decoder v1.0.0
• UPDATED: Skeleton Visualizer v1.0.0
• UPDATED: SRT Subtitle Player v1.0.0
• NEW: VISCA PTZ Controller v1.0.0
• NEW: Video In PTZ Image Control v1.0.0

Integrated Installer Can Install TroikaTronix GLSL Shaders

The installer for Isadora now gives you the option to also install the TroikaTronix GLSL Shaders so that they can be available to you right after a fresh install on a new computer, giving you even more video effects at your fingertips immediately!

Non-integrated Actor Plugins from the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page

Unfortunately, there were a few of the downloadable actor plugins that we could not integrate into the Isadora installer itself due to various reasons, these are:

• Leap Motion Watcher
• OpenNI Tracker
• Rutt Etra
• TroikaTronix FFGL Plugins

Actor Improvements

NEW: Video In PTZ Image Control Actor

This actor allows you to control video input devices that comply with the UVC standard; usually, these are webcams. It offers the possibility to control the positioning of the camera itself (pan, tilt, zoom, etc.), how the camera's sensor captures the image (exposure, iris, etc.), and other properties.

• To control a camera, you must first select it in the video section of Isadora's Live Capture Settings window and start capturing from the device by choosing 'Start Live Capture' from Isadora's 'Input' menu. Then, set the 'capture channel' input to the capture channel of the video device you wish to control. (The name of the video device associated with the specified 'capture channel' will be sent to the 'device name' output of this actor to make it clear what device you've chosen.)
• Once you are capturing from the device, the control inputs of this actor will be activated, and you will be able to control those properties by changing their values. If an input or output shows 'n/a' (not applicable), it means that this particular property is not supported by your camera. (All control inputs are marked as 'n/a' if you are not actively capturing video on the specified capture channel.)
• As always, you can right-click the actor and choose the top option “Show Actor Help in Browser” to learn about the actor, its input properties, and its output properties.

NEW: Pythoner Actor

• The installer also provides additional tools to manage your Pythoner environments on your computer.
• To empower users who want to debug Python code using an external IDE, Pythoner has an ‘ext file’ input that allows a user to select a source code file by specifying a partial or full path name to the file. For more information, hover over the ‘ext file' input of the Pythoner actor in Isadora, or place one in Isadora, right-click it, and select the first menu option “Show Actor Help in Browser” to see all the help text plus a large amount of additional information about how to use Pythoner.

Security Features

Executing code from unknown sources can be risky business!

If you poked around on internet forums in the very early days, you may remember an executable file called “Free Cup Holder.exe”. If one downloaded ran this file, it would open the disk tray of your computer. This code was written and distributed as a harmless (and hilarious) joke, but it could have just as easily been malware (and sometimes it was!)

Fast-forwarding to the present day and, while it’s very sad that most modern computers no longer come with a built-in cup holder, executing random code can still do just about anything. So, while having Python in Isadora 4 is an extremely powerful feature, it would have been irresponsible of us to not take the potential cybersecurity issue for our users into consideration and thus we've included some security features in the Pythoner actor.

By default, the first time you encounter a Pythoner actor in your current Isadora session, you will be shown a warning and be given the option to either allow Pythoner to execute code during this session (i.e., until you close Isadora) or to not allow it (which will prevent Pythoner from executing any code and will prevent any further Pythoner warnings until the next time you launch Isadora).

If you allow Pythoner to execute code, all Pythoner actors will look normal.

If you do not allow Pythoner to execute code, all Pythoner actors will indicate visually that they are disabled.

You will see this warning when you encounter one of the following situations for the first time since you last launched Isadora:

• Placing a Pythoner actor into a file that previously did not have any Pythoner actors in it.
• Placing a Macro or User Actor containing a Pythoner actor into a file that previously did not have any Pythoner actors in it. (This functions the same whether you place the Macro or User Actor from inside the program or if you drag it into the Scene Editor from Finder/File Explorer.)
• Opening a file that contains a Pythoner actor for the first time after launching Isadora.

If you really know what you’re doing and want to permanently allow Pythoner to execute Python code without seeing these warnings again, you can use the main menu to Isadora > Preferences/Settings > Plugins > Pythoner and uncheck “Warn User Before Executing the Pythoner Actor”. It is our strong recommendation that you leave this warning enabled unless all you’re doing is executing the same Python code every day (e.g., a computer at the heart of an art installation or a show computer during the run of a production).

Unchecking this will show you one final warning, after which Isadora will always allow Pythoner to execute code without getting your explicit permission first.

Our staff knows Python code and will be carefully reviewing submissions to the TroikaTronix Add-Ons page by users which include the Pythoner to minimize the change of any malicious code being distributed via the Add-Ons Page, but you should still be careful when executing Python code on your computer. Additionally, after an Add-Ons is updated, it is submitted to us for approval and review again before it’s available to the public, so it’s not possible for someone can upload harmless code to the Add-Ons Page and then switch it out for malicious code without us having a chance to review it before it’s made public.

Importantly though, we do not have a mechanism for detecting if someone has included a Pythoner actor in an Isadora file or User Actor/Macro uploaded to the forum, and forum posts do not require post-approval so anytime you download and open a patch from the forum, we advise you to have the warning enabled in Isadora Preferences, then click “Don’t Allow” to inspect the Python code before you decide whether or not to allow it to run (which you could do after quitting and re-launching Isadora so that you get the warning and choice again).

NEW: Show-Hide Control Actor

This powerful new actor allows you to show or hide one or more controls in the Control Panel programmatically. This allows for the construction of app-like Control Panels that change what controls are visible based on user input, e.g., you can have Edit Text Controls to enter text, Popup Menu Controls to select options from a list, a “Next” button, a “Back” button, etc. Be sure to check out the example file for the Show-Hide Control actor on the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page!

Controls are targeted using their “Control Address” and the ‘ctrl address’ input property of the Show-Hide Control Actor can contain the wildcard characters. Using these wildcards, you can show or hide an entire group of Controls, allowing you to create “tabs” of Controls you can switch between. For an example of this, please see our template file for the VISCA PTZ Controller actor.

More About Wildcards

• '*' matches any number of characters, while '?' matches a single character. For example, the address '*video' would match all addresses that end with the string 'video'; the address '/button*' would match all addresses that start with '/button', etc.
• By using these wildcard characters, you can show or hide an entire group of Controls, effectively letting you create “tabs” of Controls you can switch between. To do this you could have Button Controls in a row in your Control Panel that is connected to a series of Show-Hide Control Actors that toggle which “tab” of your Control Panel is shown by targeting groups of Controls that have Control Addresses starting with, for example, “/lighting”, “/rehearsal”, “/show”, “/izzymap”, “/audio”, etc.
• Previously it was not possible to use and update a single Control Panel for Scenes that were not next to each other in the Scene List but now it is possible to do so. By showing and hiding Control Panels, you can create Isadora files where, for example, Scenes 1 & 20 use a shared Control Panel and Scenes 2 & 37 use a shared Control Panel. Feel free to check out our Show-Hide Control Actor Example File on the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page.

NEW: Set Control Focus Actor

This new actor allows you to programmatically give the keyboard focus to a specific control. When you trigger it, it looks for a Control with a matching Control Address that is currently visible. If it finds a match, it gives the keyboard focus to that Control.

At the moment this is only meaningful for the Edit Text Control, as you currently cannot type into any other Control.

This actor is helpful when used in tandem with the Show-Hide Control actor when making “app-like” Control Panels where users can fill out fields, press buttons, and navigate through different sets of Controls that become visible under different circumstances.

NEW: Open Isadora File Actor

This new actor allows users to programmatically open the Isadora (.izz) files by specifying a full or partial path name.

It has two inputs: a path specifier and an ‘open’ input. When the ‘open’ input is triggered, and if a valid .izz file exists at the given path, Isadora closes all open Isadora files and opens the specified file.

The path specifier uses the same convention as all other Isadora path specifiers. If you specify a partial path, it is relative to the Isadora file in which the Open Isadora File actor lives. If it is a fully specified path name (starting with a slash on macOS or a drive specifier on Windows) then it will attempt to open the file at that path.

NEW: Custom Help Text for User Actors, Macros, User Inputs, and User Outputs 

User Actors and Macros can finally be given custom help text! This makes it much easier to leave notes for yourself or create a User Actor that can be more easily understood by your operator or someone who downloads it from the TroikaTronix Add-Ons Page. The dialog to edit this custom help text can be opened by going inside a User Actor or Macro and then:

Left-clicking the new ‘Question Mark+Pencil’ button in the User Actor/Macro tab at the top left of the Scene Editor:

Right-clicking in the Scene Editor and selecting “Set User Actor/Macro Help Text…” from the contextual menu:

Using the menu to select Actors > Set User Actor/Macro Help Text…:

User Input and User Output actors can also be given custom help text. The dialog to edit this custom help text can be opened by going inside a User Actor or Macro and then double left-clicking on the desired User Input or User Output.

• Please note that we needed to change the format of User Actors in order to give custom help text, so User Actors created and modified in Isadora 4 won’t load into older versions of Isadora anymore.
• Launching Isadora will now make any “.iua4” copies of your “.iza/.iua/.iua3” User Actor files in your Global User Actor folder to preserve the original of each User Actor to ensure that it can still be used for the version of Isadora in which it was created.
• The help text for User Actors, Macro actors, User Input actors, and User Output actors has been updated to mention the new capability for custom help text. (This is only shown when you mouse over a User Input or User Output while you are inside of a User Actor or Macro.)

General User Actor and Macro Improvements

• The resolutions of the icons for the User Actor/Macro tabs have been doubled.
• The help text for the User Input, User Output, and User Actor On/Off actors has been updated to reflect that they can be used for Macro actors (previously the help text only mentioned User Actors).
• You can place a User Actor or Macro made in Isadora 1 by dragging .iza files into the Scene Editor.
• Fixed an issue where Isadora used to try to load invisible files from the Global User Actor Folder on hard drives formatted using the MS-DOS File System.
• Fixed a crash caused by mousing over the ‘stage' input of a Projector actor set to a Virtual Stage while inside a User Actor that had been turned off with a User Actor On/Off actor.
• Fixed a crash caused by dragging User Actor/Macro files into the Scene Editor from a Finder/Explorer Window.

UPDATE: GLSL Shader Actor

• Unlike the JavaScript actor, the GLSL Shader actor’s default code did not include comments and examples for properties. Since this is an advanced actor, we decided that more comments and instructions as to where to get more information would be helpful.
• NEW: A “Help” button was added to the GLSL Shader actor’s code editor window that opens an HTML document with links to both written and video tutorials. The additional documentation also has details about the various special comments (specific to the GLSL Shader actor’s code editor in Isadora) that allow you to pass values into uniform variables.
• UPDATE: A comment has been added to the default code in the GLSL Shader actor’s code editor that mentions the new “Help” button where additional documentation can be found.
• UPDATE: The actor help text has been updated to mention the new “Help” button where additional documentation can be found.
• UPDATE: We have revised the text in the warning that appears when opening a GLSL Shader for the first time since launching Isadora.
• Fixed an issue which previously prevented the “Show Actor Help in Browser” command from working with the GLSL Shader actors.

UPDATE: Skeleton Decoder Actor

Can now output JSON via its new ‘send json’ input and ‘json out' output properties. This converts a skeleton package to JSON for use with the new Skeleton From JSON actor. Since this turns skeleton data into a single string, this is a great way to send skeleton data anywhere in the world with an IzzyCast Broadcaster actor.

The list of skeleton points from the Skeleton Decoder’s help text were removed and instead the OpenNI Tracker and Rokoko Studio Live Watcher have had their specific lists of skeleton points added to their help text.

Behavior Change Summary

The Skeleton Decoder actor has been updated to make its behavior more consistent with what one would expect when certain actions are performed. 

Full Changelog

• If a valid skeleton is present at the ‘skeleton’ input, the joint outputs will be displayed normally. When no valid skeleton is present, all the joint outputs are marked ‘n/a’ to indicate they are meaningless without a valid skeleton input.
• When a valid skeleton is present, changing the ‘offset x/y/z’ and 'relative to' will update the JSON and joint outputs even if the skeleton input is not changing (i.e., Rokoko Studio is playing back a recording and the recording is paused.)
• When no valid skeleton is present, changing the ‘offset x/y/z’ and 'relative to' have no effect because these properties are meaningless without a skeleton. This is also reinforced by the fact that the outputs say “n/a” when no skeleton is present.
• When the ‘send json’ input is on and if there is a valid skeleton, the ‘json out’ output will be displayed normally. If the ‘send json’ input is off or if no valid skeleton is present, then ‘json out’ will be marked as not applicable (“n/a”).
• If there is a valid skeleton and you switch off the ‘json out’ input, the ‘json out’ output will be set to an empty string.
• When disconnecting the input link to the ‘skeleton’ input, the ‘json out’ output will be set to an empty string and all the joint outputs will be reset to '0'. (All of these outputs will also be marked as not applicable at the same time, as described in #1.)

UPDATE: ArtNet Receive Actor

• The ‘channels’ input of the ArtNet Receive has been made non-linkable. There is no practical use for programmatically changing the number of outputs an actor has because those outputs won’t be connected to anything. Actors like Router and Selector already work this way.
• On Windows, corrected an issue where the ArtNet Receive actor wouldn’t show its version number in the Information View.

UPDATE: Tone Generator Actor

• Tone Generator actors with their ‘enable’ input properties set to ‘on’ that are created with the “paste” and “duplicate” edit commands now correctly generate sound immediately (instead of requiring the user to leave and re-enter the Scene).
• Made large improvements to an issue where rapidly changing the volume of a Tone Generator actor would cause clipping and many audible clicks.

UPDATE: NDI Watcher, OpenNI Tracker, RTMP Streamer, Screen Capture, VISCA PTZ Controller

• Fixed an issue where actors that have an additional Read Me HTML file would incorrectly cause the dialog announcing the Read Me to open the HTML file in the browser if you just hovered over the actor in the Actor Toolbox. This bug appeared when a feature was added to allow users to see the actor’s description in the help view.

Specific Actor Improvements

• Background: If a Background actor is already selected, you can now click anywhere on it and then drag it to move it (instead of having to click and drag it around by its name at the top).
• Background: To give some more visual feedback, the Background actor is now lighter when it selected vs when it is not selected.
• Data Array: The Data Array actor now properly loads files that have file paths or names that contain international characters.
• Edge Blend Mask: The Edge Blend Mask actor no longer has a 5000-pixel limit and should now work for displays and Stages of any size.
• Movie Player: Switching a Movie Player actor to Timecode and then choosing “Reset to Default Values” now properly changes it back to being percentage-based immediately instead of that change happening once you’ve clicked away from the actor after resetting it to default values.
• Picture Player: The correct help text is now assigned to each input (previously they were shifted).
• Simultaneity: The Simultaneity actor no longer incorrectly allows you to set the data type for its inputs to ‘number’.
• Skeleton Visualizer: Some typos were fixed.
• Sound Player: The Play, Stop, and Pause buttons at the bottom of the Sound Player actor now correctly respond after a single click instead of incorrectly only responding after being double-clicked.
• Data Array: On Windows, the Data Array actor can now read files that are actively open and being edited in other applications (e.g., Microsoft Excel).
• JavaScript: A crash caused by a very specific piece and layout of code in the JavaScript code editor has been fixed.
• Text Comparator: On Windows, fixed an issue where the Text Comparator actor would not work as expected when one of its input properties was empty.
• Text Draw: On Windows, fixed an issue where the Text Draw actor would not update after changing the font when the original font was missing.

General Actor Improvements

• NEW FEATURE: When Auto Snap is enabled in the View menu, if an actor is completely enclosed by another actor (e.g., the Background actor), the actor will auto-snap not only to the edges of the enclosing actor but also to the edges plus a 10-pixel margin.
• NEW: When Auto Snap is enabled in the View Menu, Background and Comment actors will now auto-snap to align with the edges of other actors in the Scene Editor.
• Fixed an issue where the Auto Snap was not calculating distances properly when the actor you were dragging was above the actor to which you were auto-snapping.
• UPDATE: The function that sorts the list of actor names when searching for a specific actor by typing into the Actor Toolbox Search is now faster.
• UPDATE: The size of the images used in the Actor Toolbox Filter has been doubled and refined to look better on displays with higher resolutions.
• UPDATE: A change was made internally to Isadora that allows actors to use PNG files for their icons. The new PNG format allows the icons to be stored at twice the rendered resolution which will improve the image quality of new icons and paves the way to replacing all the actor icons with double-resolution images that will look much better on 4K and Retina displays. Additionally, this change makes it possible for a user of the SDK to create their own icon(s) for their custom-coded Isadora actor(s).
• UPDATE: The HTML page shown after using “Show Actor Help in Browser” can now handle Unicode characters.
• Fixed an issue where using the “Reset to Default Values” command would send the default values twice.
• Fixed an issue where using “Reset to Default Values” on actors with input and output properties that have custom data types like ‘blob’ or ‘skeleton’ would prevent you from connecting them to other actors with the same custom data type.
• Actors with output names that can change (such as the Skeleton Decoder) now correctly have their output properties renamed (if applicable) and any relevant data is now forced out of the outputs when the "Reset to Default Values" command is used on them.
• Fixed an issue with actor help text where double ampersands weren’t being handled properly.
• Increasing the number of inputs or outputs for JavaScript, Send Serial Data, and TCP Send Data actors no longer produces the “Inconsistent Links” warning dialog when re-opening the file.
• Fixed a crash caused by resizing an actor’s input or output property, moving to another Scene, and then undoing the property size adjustment.
• Fixed an issue with actors with a variable number of inputs that could cause values to be sent twice while changing the number of inputs.
• Fixed a crash that could occur under specific circumstances when changing the number of inputs or outputs on an actor.

Control Panel Improvements

As part of this update, the Control Panel was given the biggest overhaul it has had in years. Many controls were given new features, several controls were made more customizable, and all controls and their properties were given help text so that they’re easier to understand.

NEW FEATURE: Control Help Text

While inside the Control Edit Dialog, mousing over any control property now shows help text for that property in the Information View.

While in Control Edit Mode, mousing over any control in the Control Panel now shows help text for that control in the Information View.

While in Control Edit Mode, right-clicking any control in the Control Panel now provides the option “Show Control Help in Browser” which will open an HTML page with a description of the control and all its properties. This is a great way to learn how the controls in the Control Panel work!

While in Control Edit Mode, mousing over any control’s name in the Control Toolbox List now shows help text for that control in the Information View.

NEW FEATURE: Control Addresses

Thanks to the new Show-Hide Control actor, controls can now be programmatically shown and hidden. To do this, we needed to provide a way to target specific controls and, thinking forward to a program-wide addressing system that we want to implement in the future, controls now have Control Addresses that follow the format of OSC addresses.

• The new “Control Address” property replaces the previously unused “Control Title” property at the top of the Control Edit Dialog.
• As of this release of Isadora, when an Isadora file that was saved in the 3.x.x format is read, the Control Address field (previously called Control Title) will be initialized to an empty string.
• The text field for the Control Address property forces the user to enter an OSC-style address, using the same algorithm as the Stream Setup dialog except that the wildcard character ('*') is not allowed.
• The key filter for this text field is the same as with the Stream Address in the Stream Setup dialog in that the user can type printable characters but not the space character.
• If an invalid address pattern is entered into this text field a dialog will be shown informing the user when they try to click “OK” in the Control Edit Dialog.
• You can copy a Control’s Address by right-clicking a Control and choosing “Copy Control Address” from the contextual menu.
• You can also now right-click a Control and choose “Edit Control Settings…” to open the Control Edit Dialog.

Specific Control Improvements

UPDATE: Button Control

Summary

The Button Control has been given a visual overhaul and has several new control properties that implement long-requested features such as being able to set different button and text colors for on and off as well as being able to display different text when the button is on or off.

New and Updated Properties

• UPDATE - Button Text: The text displayed inside of this control in its released state. When 'Button Pressed Text' is empty, this text is used for the pressed state of the button as well.
• NEW - Button Pressed Text: The text displayed inside of this control in its pressed state. When empty, the 'Button Text' text is used for the pressed state as well.
• NEW - Display Only: When checked, this control ignores mouse clicks. Useful when this control is only intended to provide feedback to the user about the actor property to which it is linked.
• UPDATE - Button Style: Gives the option of adding an indicator to this control. The 'Small' option exists for backwards compatibility with older patches. 
• NEW - Button Color Off: The color of this control when in its released state.
•  UPDATE - Button Color On: The color of this control when in its pressed state. 
•  NEW - Text Color Off: The color of this control's text when in its released state.
• NEW - Text Color On: The color of this control's text when in its pressed state.
• NEW - Indicator Color Off: The color of the indicator when this control is in its released state. (If 'Button Style' is set to 'Button', this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Indicator Color On: The color of the indicator when this control is in its pressed state. (If 'Button Style' is set to 'Button', this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Corner Radius: The radius of this control's corners. (When set to zero, it will have right angle corners.) 
• NEW - Border Size: The size of the border drawn around the edge of this control, specified in pixels. (When set to zero, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Border Color: The color of the border drawn around the edge of this control. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear. (If 'Border Size' is set to zero, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Bevel Size: The size of the shaded border around this control, specified in pixels. This creates the illusion of depth. (If 'Corner Radius' is set to a non-zero value, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Bevel Intensity %: The intensity of the shaded border around this control, specified in pixels. This creates the illusion of depth. (If 'Bevel Size' is set to zero, this property has no effect.)

UPDATE: Edit Text Control

Summary

The Button Control has been given a visual overhaul and has several new control properties that implement long-requested features such as being able to set different button and text colors for on and off as well as being able to display different text when the button is on or off.

Full Changelog

New and Updated Properties

• UPDATE - Text Ctl ID (renamed from “Control ID”): The Control ID used to output the text contained in the control.
• NEW - Max Characters: The maximum number of characters that the control will accept. Leave this set to zero to indicate "no limit".
• NEW - Read Only: When turned on, the edit text control becomes read-only; the user can select and copy the text, but not edit it. However, actors can still modify the text. Either by sending text to an actor output linked to 'Text Control ID', or by changing the text for an actor input linked to the 'Text Control ID' and turning on "Show Values of Linked Properties" for this control.
• NEW - Password Display: When turned on, displays the characters typed by the user as a series of "bullet" characters. Because the clear text version the text in the control is usually sent to an actor, the typed text is NOT secure: any user who can view the actors could see text. Only if you lock the patch so that a user cannot examine the actors would the text value be protected.
• NEW - Single Line: When set to true, the control only accepts a single line of text. If a user attempts to type the "return" key, it will be ignored.
• NEW - Text Margin: The margin between the control's border (if any) and the text in the edit box, specified in pixels.
• NEW - Key Filter: Allows you to choose a "key filter" that allows only certain characters to be typed into the control.
  1. 'Standard' allows any character.
  2. 'Alphanumeric' allows only the letters 'A' to 'Z', and the numbers from '0' to '9.'
  3. 'Integer (+/-)' allows positive or negative integers.
  4. 'Integer (+)' allows positive integers only.
  5. 'Float (+/-)' allows positive or negative floating-point numbers.
  6. 'Float (+)' allows positive floating-point numbers only.
  7. 'Hexadecimal' allows only the numbers '0' to '9' and the letters 'A' to 'Z'.
• NEW - Background Color: The background color of the text box, including the margin (if any).
• NEW - Corner Radius: When set to a value greater than zero, encloses the text box in a rectangle with rounded corners. Note that setting this to a value greater than zero disables the 'Inset' and 'Outset" border styles.
• NEW - Border Size: The size of the border around the text box, specified in pixels. Set this to 0 if you do not wish to have a border.
• NEW - Border Color: When 'Border Size' is greater than zero, the color of the border drawn around the text box.
• NEW - Border Style: The style of the border drawn around the text box, which can be either 'Flat', 'Outset' or 'Inset'. If you choose 'Flat', then the border is a single color, and the 'Corner Radius' property allows you to give the border rounded corners. If you choose 'Outset' or 'Inset', a shaded border will be drawn that gives the border an illusion of depth, with 'Outset' coming towards you, and 'Inset' going away. The 'Corner Radius' property is ignored for the 'Outset' or 'Inset' styles; they are always rectangular.
• NEW - Border Depth %: When 'Border Style' is set to 'Inset' or 'Outset', the amount percentage by which the background color will be lightened and darkened to create the depth effect.

Other Edit Text Control Improvements

• On macOS, when you have multiple Edit Text Controls, if one is selected and you hit the Tab key, the selection cursor will now properly move to the next* Edit Text Control and allow you to type there (as well as showing a blinking insertion cursor if the control is empty to make it clear where the keyboard focus is). *Note: For the purposes of this behavior, “next” is defined by the order (back to front) of the controls. The frontmost control, meaning the most recently placed one or one on which you’ve used the “Bring to Front” command, is considered to be “last”.
• On macOS, fixed an issue where undoing typing or pasting into a previously empty an Edit Text Control would not update the linked actor to show an empty string.
• On Windows, fixed an issue where typing text into an Edit Text Control and then spamming undo and redo multiple times each would result in extra text being appended to the original text.
• On Windows, fixed an issue where the Edit Text Control would not allow the use of the Cut or Clear keyboard shortcut after typing in or selecting the control.

UPDATE: List Selector Control

Summary

The List Selector Control has had a few existing properties renamed and gained several new properties, the most exciting of which is “Auto Populate Item List” which finally provides a way for the Control Panel to change the inputs of actors that generate dynamic lists such as the Screen Capture, NDI Watcher, Syphon Receiver, Spout Receiver actors and the ‘stage’ input on various actors, etc. This also works with actor input properties that have the type of ‘Popup’ or offer a limited number of possible values, e.g., the ‘blend mode’ input property of the Projector actor or the ‘mode’ input of an Effect Mixer actor.

Full Changelog

New and Updated Properties

• UPDATE - Unselected Color (renamed from “Background Color”): The background color for the unselected items in this control. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear.
• NEW - Item Bevel: The size of the shaded border around each item in this control, specified in pixels. This creates the illusion of depth. (When set to zero, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Draw Background: When checked, fills this control's background with the color specified in the 'Background Color' property. When unchecked, leaves this control's background transparent.
• NEW - Background Color: The background color of this control. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear. (If 'Draw Background' is not checked, this property has no effect.)
• UPDATE - Border Size (renamed from “Border”): The size of the border drawn around the edge of this control, specified in pixels. (When set to zero, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Border Color: The color of the border drawn around the edge of this control. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear. (If 'Border Size' is set to zero, this property has no effect.)
• UPDATE - Item List (Renamed from “Items”): The items that will be displayed in this control. Each item requires its own line. To set this list dynamically, link an actor's text output property to the 'List Items Ctl ID', and send text in the form of a line-break separated list.
• NEW - Auto Populate Item List: When checked, and when this control's 'Selected Item Ctl ID' property is linked to an actor's input property with a defined amount of input options to choose from, (e.g., the 'blend' input property of a Projector actor), this control will update its item list to match the options for that actor's input. Only use this if the 'List Items Ctl ID' property of this control is not being used. This means, for example, that it can be automatically populated with the names of the eleven different modes available in the 'mode' input of an Effect Mixer actor to allow the operator to choose which mode to use at any given moment. This functionality also makes it excellent for use with the NDI Watcher, Screen Capture, and Syphon/Spout Receiver actors as it shows and allows selection from the list of available sources via the Control Panel.

Other List Selector Control Improvements

• The List Selector Control has been updated to send a new kind of “hybrid” message to actor input properties. This hybrid message contains not only the selected item but also the text of the selected item. Numeric inputs will use the selected item value, text inputs will use the text, and timecode inputs will use the text if it is a valid timecode value (e.g., “00:01:02:03”) or the selected item value if not.
• Fixed an issue where the List Selector’s second Control ID would not link to the text properties of actors.

UPDATE: Number Control

Summary

The Number Control has been given a visual overhaul and has several new control properties that implement new features, for example, it can now have custom colors set for the selected and unselected states of both its background and its numbers. This change will also allow the same options to be made available in the future for the other controls that have value fields, i.e. the Dial, Slider, Timecode Controls, 2D Slider, Color, and FPS Controls. In addition, the new “Corner Radius” property allows you to draw the background as a rounded rectangle for a more modern look.

New Properties

• NEW - Alignment: The horizontal alignment of the number in this control.
• NEW - Corner Radius: The radius of this control's corners. (When set to zero, it will have right angle corners.)
• NEW - Use Custom Colors: When checked, this control will use the color properties below.
• NEW - Text Color Inactive: The color of the number(s) when this control is not being edited by the user. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear. (If 'Use Custom Colors' is not checked, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Bkgnd Color Inactive: The color of the background when this control is not being edited by the user. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear. (If 'Use Custom Colors' is not checked, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Text Color Active: The color of the number(s) when this control is being edited by the user. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear. (If 'Use Custom Colors' is not checked, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Bkgnd Color Active: The color of the background when this control is being edited by the user. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear. (If 'Use Custom Colors' is not checked, this property has no effect.)

UPDATE: Popup Menu Control

Summary

The Popup Menu Control has had a few existing properties renamed and gained several new properties, the most exciting of which is “Auto Populate Item List” which finally provides a way for the Control Panel to change the inputs of actors that generate dynamic lists such as the Screen Capture, NDI Watcher, Syphon Receiver, Spout Receiver actors and the ‘stage’ input on various actors, etc. This also works with actor input properties that have the type of ‘Popup’ or offer a limited number of possible values, e.g., the ‘blend mode’ input property of the Projector actor or the ‘mode’ input of an Effect Mixer actor.

Full Changelog

New and Updated Control Properties

• UPDATE - Selected Item Ctl ID: The number used to identify this control's item list when linking it to actor properties. Sending a line-break separated list of items to this control from an actor's text output property will allow the list to be updated dynamically.
• NEW - Popup Items Ctl ID: The number used to identify the index number of this control's selected item when linking it to actor properties. When a user selects an item in the list, the item's index number is broadcast to any actor input properties with the corresponding Control ID.
• NEW - Arrow Background Color: The color of the background area for the popup button arrow indicator shown at the right side of this control. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear. (If 'Draw Arrow Background' is not checked, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Draw Arrow Background: When checked, fills the area behind the popup button arrow indicator with the color specified in the 'Arrow Background' property. When unchecked, leaves this control's background transparent.
• UPDATE - Item List (renamed from “Popup Items”): The items that will be displayed in this control. Each item requires its own line. To set this list dynamically, link an actor's text output property to the 'Popup Items Ctl ID', and send text in the form of a line-break separated list.
• NEW - Auto Populate Item List: When checked, and when this control's 'Selected Item Ctl ID' property is linked to an actor's input property with a defined amount of input options to choose from, (e.g., the 'blend' input property of a Projector actor), this control will update its item list to match the options for that actor's input. Only use this if the 'List Items Ctl ID' property of this control is not being used. This means, for example, that it can be automatically populated with the names of the eleven different modes available in the 'mode' input of an Effect Mixer actor to allow the operator to choose which mode to use at any given moment. This functionality also makes it excellent for use with the NDI Watcher, Screen Capture, and Syphon/Spout Receiver actors as it shows and allows selection from the list of available sources via the Control Panel.

Other Popup Menu Control Improvements

• NEW: Like the List Selector, there are now two Control IDs associated with the Popup Menu Control.
  1. The Selected Item Ctrl ID outputs the user’s selection when they choose an item from the popup menu.
  2. The Popup Items Ctrl ID allows the user to set the list of items in the popup.
• UPDATE: The control is also drawn differently, putting the up/down arrows on the right and (optionally) drawing a background color behind those arrows.

UPDATE: Slider Control

Summary

The Slider Control has been given a visual overhaul and has several new Control properties that implement new features, for example, the Slider Control now has a “Display Only” checkbox that, if enabled (checked), causes the control to ignore user clicks. This is useful when you want to use a Slider Control purely for feedback in a Control Panel, such as hiding the thumb, hooking it up to the level output of an IzzyCast Receiver or Sound Level Watcher, and using it as a VU meter.

Full Changelog

New and Updated Control Properties

• NEW - Shape: The shape of this control's track and thumb.
• UPDATE - Track Color: The color of this control's track. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear.
• NEW - Track Size %: The size of this control's track, expressed as a percentage of the width (if vertical) or height (if horizontal) of this control.
• NEW - Thumb Color: The color of this control's thumb. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear.
• NEW - Thumb Inset: The amount that the thumb will be inset along each of its edges, specified in pixels. (When set to zero, or if 'Don't Draw Thumb' is checked, this property has no effect.)
• UPDATE - Display Value: When checked, this control will display its value as a number below itself (when vertical), or to its right (when horizontal).
• NEW - Display Format: Determines the number of decimal points used in the numeric value display. The 'Variable' option will display between zero and four decimal places as needed. (If 'Display Value' is not checked, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Display Only: When checked, this control ignores mouse clicks. Useful when this control is only intended to provide feedback to the user about the actor property to which it is linked.
• NEW - Split Track Options: Determines the use of an alternate track color for the part of the track before or after the indicator, depending on the selected option. (If this is set to 'No Color Split', this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Alternate Track Color: The alternate color for this control's track. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear. (If 'Split Track Option' is set to 'No Color Split', this property is disabled.)
• NEW - Track Border Size: The size of the border around this control's track, specified in pixels. (When set to zero, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Track Border Color: The color of this control's track border. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear. (If 'Track Border Size' is set to zero, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Track Corner Radius: The corner radius of this control's track, specified in pixels. This produces a rounded rectangle. When set to zero, it will have right angle corners. (If 'Shape' is set to 'Round', or if 'Track Border Bevel' is set to a value greater than zero, this property is disabled.)
• NEW - Track Border Bevel: The size of the shaded border around the track, specified in pixels. This creates the illusion of depth. If 'Track Border Size' is set to a non-zero value, the bevel effect will only apply to the 'Track Color', and not the 'Track Border Color'. (When set to zero, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Track Picture: The image used to display this control's track. Set this to the media index of a Picture in the Media View to provide a custom image for this control's track. When this property has a non-zero value and a picture with that media index number exists in the Media View the 'Color' and 'Track Border Color' properties have no effect. (When set to zero, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Don't Draw Thumb: When checked, the thumb is not displayed. (When checked, the following properties are disabled: 'Thumb Color', 'Thumb Inset', 'Thumb Border Size', 'Thumb Corner Radius', 'Thumb Border Bevel', 'Thumb Size Option', 'Thumb Size Override', and 'Thumb Picture'.)
• NEW - Thumb Border Size: The size of the thumb border for this control. (When set to zero, this property has no effect. If 'Don't Draw Thumb' is checked, this property is disabled.)
• NEW - Thumb Border Color: The color of the thumb border for this control. To select a new color, click on the color box and a color picker will appear. (If 'Thumb Border Size' is set to zero, or if 'Don't Draw Thumb' is checked, this property has no effect.)
• NEW - Thumb Corner Radius: The corner radius of the thumb for this control, (used to produce a rounded rectangle), specified in pixels. (When set to zero or if 'Thumb Border Bevel' is set to a value greater than zero, this property has no effect. If 'Don't Draw Thumb' is checked, this property is disabled.)
• NEW - Thumb Border Bevel: The size of the shaded border around this control's thumb, specified in pixels. This creates the illusion of depth. (When set to zero, this property has no effect. If 'Don't Draw Thumb' is checked, this property is disabled.)
• UPDATE - Thumb Size Option: Determines how the size of this control's thumb is calculated. (If 'Don't Draw Thumb' is checked, this property is disabled.)

Other Specific Controls

• 2D Slider, Dial, & Slider: Fixed an issue where, if the min and max were inverted on a 2D Slider, Dial, or Slider Control the control’s ‘Step’ property could not be set to anything other than 0.
• Background: When Auto Snap is enabled in the View Menu, the auto-snap lines are no longer incorrectly drawn behind Background Controls. These lines now draw on top of all controls, ensuring that the lines are visible.
• Next/Prev Cue: Fixed a cosmetic issue where the placement number in the Next Cue and Prev Cue Controls was slightly off.
• Stage Preview: In previous versions of Isadora, the Stage Preview Control would be disabled while the Control Edit Dialog was open, and then would be re-enabled when the dialog closed. Now the Stage Preview Control responds live to edits being made in the Control Edit Dialog.
• Stage Preview & Monitor: Fixed an issue where changing the border size for Monitor and Stage Preview Controls was not an undoable action.
• Stage Preview & Monitor: On macOS, the content inside Stage Preview and Monitor Controls no longer gets off-center when the control is dragged or scrolled off the screen.
• Timecode: You can now click and drag on the Timecode Control to change its value.
• FPS: Fixed a crash where a file with an FPS Control that was saved on macOS would crash if it was opened on Windows.
• Several controls have been updated to use anti-aliased drawing for any round-rect or oval shapes they draw. This change will only be visible on Windows, since macOS was always drawn with anti-aliasing. However, the functions being called have been changed on both platforms. The affected controls are listed below, including a description of the areas of the control that were changed.
  1. Background: All background shapes and borders
  2. Button: Rounded rect background and border
  3. Next Cue: Inner “badge” showing Scene Number
  4. Number: Rounded rect background and border
  5. Popup Menu: Popup menu rounded rect background
  6. Previous Cue: Inner “badge” showing Scene Number
  7. Scene Select: Inner “badge” with Scene Number, triangle indicating current position, and the scroll bar thumb when the scroll bar is visible.
  8. Slider: All elements of the control

Mac:

Windows:

NEW FEATURE: Control X/Y Position and Size Information

In Control Edit Mode, if you hover your mouse over a control, you can see its Control Address, x/y position, and size in a floating tooltip as well as in the Information View (below the Media View). The x/y position is specified in pixel distance of the top left of the control from 0,0 (the top left of the Control Panel). The size is also specified in pixels. The x/y position of a control cannot be adjusted by value currently (only by dragging) but the size, as always, can be changed by clicking and dragging or by value using the ‘Width’ and ‘Height’ properties of a control near the top of the Control Edit Dialog.

NEW FEATURE: Control Value Conversions for Actor Properties

New conversions have been added that allow actors to receive almost any message sent by a control. This means that in almost any situation, it is now meaningful for a control’s output to be connected to an actor’s input.

Highlights

• 2D Slider, Number, Radio Button, Color, Slider, Dial, or Bin Picker Controls can now be used to send values to actor input properties that use the text and timecode data types.
• The Edit Text Control can now be used to send valid timecode strings to actor input properties that use the timecode data type.
• The Edit Text Control can now be used to send values to actor input properties that use the boolean, integer, float, and range data types.

Full Changelog

• When a 2D Slider, Number, Radio Button, Color, Slider, Dial, or Bin Picker Control is connected to an actor input property that uses the text data type, the floating-point number from the control will be converted to text with no scaling.
• When a 2D Slider, Number, Radio Button, Color, Slider, or Dial Control is connected to an actor input property that uses the timecode data type, if scaling is possible (i.e. if the scale min is not MIN, the scale max is not MAX, and the scale min is not equal to the scale max) then the control’s value is scaled to the input property’s scale min and scale max and then the actor’s timecode input property is set to the scaled value. If scaling is not possible then the control’s value will be limited to the scale min and scale max of the actor’s timecode input and then the actor’s timecode input property is set to the limited value.
• When a Bin Picker Control is connected to an actor input property that uses the timecode data type, because scaling is not possible, the Bin Picker Control will only change the value of the timecode input if the control is outputting a value that it is within scale min and scale max (inclusive) of the timecode input. If the value that the Bin Picker Control is trying to send is outside the scale min and the scale max of the actor’s timecode input property, then the timecode input will not be changed.
• When an Edit Text Control is connected to an actor input property that uses the boolean, integer, or float data types, Isadora attempts to convert the text to a boolean, integer, or float and then set the value of the actor’s input property. If the value is something like ‘aaa’ (i.e., not a number) the value will be zero.
• When an Edit Text Control is connected to an actor input property that uses a boolean, integer, or float data type Isadora attempts to convert the text to a boolean, integer, or float and then set the value of the actor’s input property. If the value is something like ‘aaa’ (i.e., not a number) the value will be zero.
• When an Edit Text Control is connected to an actor input property that uses the timecode data type, if the selected text is a valid timecode string, then Isadora attempts to convert the string to a timecode value and then set the timecode input’s value to the converted value.
• When an Edit Text Control is connected to an actor input property that uses the range data type Isadora attempts to convert the string to an integer or float and set the value of the actor’s range input property. (Both items in the range will be set to the same value.)
• When a List Selector or Popup Menu Control is connected to an actor input property that uses the text data type it will set the actor’s text input property to the selected text.
• When a List Selector or Popup Menu Control is connected to an actor input property that uses the timecode data type, if the selected text in the control is a valid timecode string, it will change the actor’s timecode input property to the selected timecode value. If it is not a valid timecode string, then the actor’s timecode input property is set to several seconds equal to the selected item’s index, e.g., 1 = 00:00:01:00, 2 = 00:00:02:00, etc.

General Control Improvements

• NEW: Controls can now be resized from any edge or corner.
• NEW: Controls now auto-snap or grid-snap (depending on what is selected in the View Menu) when adding them from the Control Toolbox.
• NEW: When Auto Snap is enabled in the View menu, if a control is completely enclosed by another control (e.g., the Background Control), the control will auto-snap not only to the edges of the enclosing control, but also the edges plus a 10-pixel margin.
• UPDATE: The function that sorts the list of Control names when searching for a specific Control by typing into the Control Toolbox Search is now faster.
• UPDATE: The rectangle that is drawn in Control Edit Mode to indicate that a control is selected (blue for unlocked, red for locked) is no longer drawn inside of the control’s frame and is drawn outside of the control’s frame instead, allowing the user to see the entire control when it is selected.
• UPDATE: While in Control Edit Mode, if any Control ID on a control is set to “0”, instead of not drawing a Ctl ID indicator at the top right of the control, a Ctl ID indicator containing the “-” character will be drawn at the top right of the control.
• UPDATE: Added the functionality to the Control Edit Dialog to be able to show certain properties as enabled or disabled depending on the state of other properties. This allowed and will continue to allow us to offer more complex features for various controls.
• UPDATE: The spacing and layout of the Control Edit Dialog has been adjusted to allow space for more properties.
• When Auto Snap is enabled in the View Menu, controls no longer incorrectly auto-snap to align with controls that are not onscreen.
• When Auto Snap is enabled in the View Menu, resizing a control will no longer incorrectly show auto-snap lines that align with the far side of other controls.
• Fixed a crash caused by moving or resizing a control, leaving the Scene, then undoing.
• Fixed a crash caused by changing one or more properties of a control, leaving the Scene, then undoing.
• Fixed a crash caused by sending string values to the Control IDs of certain controls.
• Fixed an issue where a series of error dialogs would appear if you opened the Control Edit Dialog in two Isadora files at the same time.
• Fixed an issue where certain controls had cosmetic issues when the view was zoomed in. (In non-Edit Mode, Popup Menu Controls would render their menu further and further to the top left the more zoomed in you were, and the value fields associated with Number, Timecode, Slider, and Dial Controls would shrink their font size when clicked.)
• Fixed an issue in Control Edit Mode where the click positions for the Control ID indicators drawn at the top right of controls with multiple Control IDs was being miscalculated.
• Fixed a cosmetic issue in Control Edit Mode where, if the Control ID extended beyond the control’s frame, it would leave behind visual artifacts when dragged around the Control Panel.
• Fixed an issue where entering Control Edit Mode while the value field of a control was selected would prevent you from moving the control via clicking and dragging and would instead adjust the value in the field as if you were not in Control Edit Mode.
• Fixed an issue where the Control Edit Dialog would not prevent you from pasting text that exceeded the character limit into its fields.
• Fixed an issue where redoing a specific chain of actions could cause a control to end up off the screen with no way to scroll up to it until after leaving and re-entering the Scene.
• On macOS, fixed an issue where using the Paste Here command in the Control Panel would scroll the view back to the source of the copied control(s).
• On Windows, fixed an issue where the text fields in the Control Edit Dialog were too short by one pixel.

IzzyMap Improvements

• Fixed a crash caused by triggering the ‘izzymap’ input property on an unmapped Projector actor via a User Input from the outside of a User Actor.
• Fixed an issue where programmatically triggering the ‘izzymap’ input property on an unmapped Projector actor could open multiple dialogs asking if the user wants to create a new projection mapping.

Live Capture Improvements

• Isadora has been updated to use the 12.4.2 Blackmagic SDK.
  1. Note: While testing we experienced issues with Blackmagic capture on macOS until we updated the Blackmagic Desktop Video application to the most recent one supported by the computer’s hardware and operating system.
• Fixed an issue where the Blackmagic Capture Driver no longer allowed input selection in certain situations.
• Isadora has been updated to use the v5.6.0 NDI SDK.

Monitor Window Improvements

Yes, that’s right, you can now copy and paste text from the monitor window! ?

Selecting Lines in the Monitor Window

• To select one line, click on it; if there is an existing selection, it will be discarded.
• To select multiple lines, click and drag.
• To extend a selection, hold down the shift key and click.
• The Select All command will always be available in the Edit menu when the Monitor window is the frontmost window. Choosing Select All will select all lines in the window.
• There isn’t really a deselect procedure at the moment, except when you clear the window entirely using the “Clear” button.

Copying Text

• The Copy command will be available if there is a selection in the Monitor window and the window is frontmost. If you choose Copy, the text of the selected lines will be copied to the clipboard.

Clearing Text

• If there is text in the Monitor window, you can now clear it by choosing Clear from the Edit menu. This functions the same as the Clear button.

Right-Click Menu

• Right-clicking on the text area of the Monitor window will show “Copy”, “Clear”, and “Select All” as appropriate.

Dialog/Window/Sheet Improvements

Stage Setup

• Fixed a cosmetic issue where certain value fields in Stage Setup we not wide enough to display certain 4-digit values.
• On Windows, fixed a rendering issue that could be present in the Display Overview with a blended Stage.

Stream Setup and OSC

• The code in Stream Setup that checks the OSC addresses for invalid characters has been updated.
• Fixed an issue where the PJLink Actor would interfere with OSC communications.
• On macOS, fixed an issue where, if there was an invalid OSC address in Stream Setup, pressing enter to close the resulting error alert would re-open the same error alert.
• On Windows, fixed a rare crash that occurred on quitting Isadora that was caused by Isadora not waiting for the UDP networking threads to complete before shutting down OSC. In rare circumstances, the thread was not finished before the OSC subsystem and its data were deleted while quitting Isadora, which was what caused the crash.

Media View

• Unicode characters can now be pasted into the text edit field for renaming Media Bins.
• Clicking on the Scene Editor while renaming a Media Bin will no longer incorrectly leave that Media Bin’s name highlighted.
• Double-clicking a Media Bin to rename it no longer causes the text to “jump” upwards by a few pixels.
• On Windows, changing the zoom percentage on a display will no longer cause the Media View icons to become misaligned.

Go Triggers Dialog

• On macOS, fixed an issue in the Go Triggers Dialog where keypresses would be incorrectly passed to text input fields when the “Learn” checkbox was turned on.
• On macOS, fixed an issue in the Go Key Triggers Dialog where, when the “Keyboard” checkbox was turned on and “Key” was selected from the popup menu at the far right, the key was erroneously set to “G” each time the dialog was opened.

Cue Sheet

• Right-clicking a Cue in the Cue List will now correctly activate select that Cue, then show the contextual menu.

General Dialog/Window/Sheet Improvements

• Pressing the Tab key now produces identical behavior on macOS and Windows. 
• The About and Splash screens have had their dates updated.
• Fixed an issue where pasting text into a text field (e.g. in dialogs) would break the undo chain, thus preventing you from undoing.
• On macOS, Isadora will no longer show a warning on startup if Adobe Creative Cloud is also running.
• On Windows, fixed an issue where text fields were rendered below the field’s rectangle if the display scaling was not set to 100%.
• On Windows, fixed an issue where the Control Settings dialogs opened with the “Cancel” and “OK” buttons cut off if the display scaling was not set to 100%.
• On Windows, fixed an issue where the multilevel undo built into Windows was not enabled for text fields.
• On Windows, the hover tooltip no longer interrupts the popup menus in Isadora Preferences.

Text-Based Improvements

• Text Views with a character limit now correctly prevent pasting more than the allowed number of characters into them.
• Some typos in the help text for the Tone Generator actor were corrected.
• Some typos in the help text for the Skeleton Decoder actor were corrected.
• Fixed several issues with the help text for the 3D Ropes actor.
• Fixed a typo in the “This Document Contains Inconsistent Links Between Actors” dialog.
• Numerous typos were corrected in various actors and other elements of the program were corrected and several actors had their help text significantly improved and/or clarified.
• On macOS, text fields that only allow single-line text now correctly prevent multi-line text from being pasted into them.
• On macOS, made a change to ensure that text fields always become the keyboard target when clicked.
• On macOS, a change was made to text views to support password protection in the Edit Text Control (i.e., replacing characters with '•' characters).

Scene List Improvements

• Right-clicking a Scene in the Scene List will now correctly activate the Scene, then show the contextual menu.

General Improvements

• On macOS, fixed a long-standing, infuriating, and elusive focus issue where clicking away to another application and back to Isadora in specific cases could result in not being able to move actors around in the Scene Editor.
• On macOS Ventura and later, fixed another infuriating issue where an automatically-enabled feature that Apple snuck into their program XCode was interfering with right-clicking and breaking keyboard shortcuts with keyboard layouts other than English.
• Made an improvement to a function that’s used to highlight cells in tables (e.g. Stages in Stage Setup, Cues in the Cue List, Slices in IzzyMap, etc.) to prevent a possible crash (though none have been reported because of this).
• On macOS, Text Views that only allow a single line of text to be typed into them now also prevent multi-line text from being pasted into them.
• Potential crashes discovered by a software analysis tool have been eliminated in various parts of the program.
• On Windows, some code was added to prevent an issue that could cause Isadora to crash while closing under specific circumstances.
• On Windows, fixed an issue that caused the arrow keys to move/resize the selected actors/controls too much when the monitor scaling was set to 200%.

NEW FEATURE: Running Multiple Instances of Isadora on Windows

You can now run multiple instances of Isadora on Windows (which was already possible on macOS). Example use-case: Using one instance to act as the host of an IzzyCast Session, and the second instance to join that IzzyCast Session as a participant for the purposes of testing the host and participant Isadora files you’re building for a project that will use IzzyCast. 

UPDATE: Isadora SDK

The Isadora SDK (which can be found on TroikaTronix’s Isadora Get It Page under “Related Downloads”) has been updated and now has additional documentation. It is not fully updated to the newest version of Isadora, but it is more recent than what was previously available for download.

Additionally, an update to Isadora itself means that the next version of the SDK will allow users to choose PNG files as custom icons for their own Isadora actors. Furthermore, the new PNG format allows the icons to be stored at twice the rendered resolution which will improve the image quality of new icons.

Compatibility Changes

The file format has changed, so files created in or updated to this version of Isadora will not be able to be opened in older versions of Isadora. As always, if you are opening an older file you will be asked if you want to create a copy of the original file and open the copy in the new version of Isadora (recommended as it keeps the original file as a backup copy) or open the original file in the new version of Isadora (not recommended because then you have no backup copy).

Terms and Conditions of Use and Licensing Conditions

We’ve updated our terms and conditions of use and licensing conditions and you’ll now be asked to agree to them when you make a purchase any TroikaTronix product or install Isadora.

Licensing Improvements

• While implementing the licensing system for Isadora 4 we took the opportunity to clean up all the various dialogs.
  1. The text in all the dialogs has been improved.
  2. Fixed an issue where the USB key registration dialog didn’t accept certain forms of line breaks.
  3. Fixed an issue where the offline activation dialog on macOS had some cut off text.
• The License Portal has received a visual overhaul to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

Download Links

macOS + Windows

TroikaTronix Get It Page