Idea Magix Vegas Pro 14 - Script NameSpace

Awhile ago it was announced that any scripts working in previous version of Sony Vegas Pro, would need to be modified to work in the forth coming Magix Vegas Pro 14. The modification involves changing the namespace from 'Sony' to 'ScriptPortal'. So any call or reference to 'Sony.Vegas' or 'Sony.MediaSoftware', will need to be changed to 'ScriptPortal.Vegas' or 'ScriptPortal.MediaSoftware'.

From what I have read, many of the 'pay for' script writers are modifying there scripts to function in the new VP14. Some have said they will offer the ver 14 scripts without charge to those customers who purchased previously. Some may charge a small fee. Many of the open source, public domain scripts may need the end user to make the modifications themselves, as the original authors may not be currently supporting something they banged out years ago and gave it away free.

In anticipation of Magix Vegas Pro 14, I took about 30 minutes today to modify the scripts I current have in my Sony Vegas Pro 13. I have 34 scripts, 1 has been complied and end user cannot modify scripts that have been compiled (just so happens I have never used this script 'BatchRender+Events.cs'. But the other 33 were changed without undue labor or complications. I used Windows Notepad to modify the .cs and .js script files.

Now I wait. According to Magix, this modification of the namespace should allow the scripts to function in ver 14. The results will come in about a month when we can get our hands on ver 14 and test them out.


Here is an example of the change made to the 'Disable Resample - ALL.js' script.....

Before.........



After...........

Thank you George. I hope it really is that easy but the cynic in me makes me express my doubts., especially in the light of comments made in the MagixVegas forum and elsewhere. Please do let us know the outcome when you try this as this issue is one of the things that is making me question whether or not to upgrade to v14.

Richard

Hi Richard,

I understand your feelings. I run from my glass being half full to it being half empty! Maybe it depends on how the stars are lined up, or what side of the bed I get out of in the morning! On this one I'm still staying positive, at least for now. I will report back the results.

Fingers and everything else crossed, George. I asked whether the useful Fasst apps from Vasst will be operable in v14 but John Rofrano gave a pretty pessimistic outlook:( (see the Creative Cow forum).

Best Wishes.

Richard

Hi Richard,

Earlier I read your thread and John's reply. I highly respect John for his knowledge, experience, willingness to share and his contributions to the industry. With that said, I have found he seems to lean on the pessimistic side of all things not Apple Mac!!

Although I'm sure there is value in the VASST Fasst plug-ins for yourself and others, and I have tried some, but have never used or relied on them. I'm confident that John and his crew will crank out the necessary changes as soon as practical and put this issue behind him.

Granted it does involve additional labor investment on his part, at the same time it opens an entire new market and that I would assume he is welcome to. It's a gamble for him, like it's a gamble for Magix. If Magix gets Vegas Pro moving up in sales, John will profit from the labor of getting on the train.

Sony Vegas was pretty much dead, so I'm sure John's VASST sales were dwindling. Now he faces an opportunity to capitalize on the changes and provide a fresh start with fresh marketing. If he embraces the change, I think he will do well with it, and the folks using his tools will be happy in short order. Just an opinion from the perspective of a broader light.

I only hope you are right George. I do know for a fact that the very useful TimeLine Tools Plug In is very unlikely to be upgraded for v14 and I wonder what peoplk such as NewBlue, Frederic Baumann, ProDad and AAV ColourLab are likely to do. Fingers(and everything else) cr.

Best Wishes,

Richard

I agree Richard. I installed TLT about 6 months ago, tinkered around with them, but never really used any of the features. I meant to return and explore it a bit more however I haven't had a burning need, so it has been on the back burner.

It may be one of those things I will not really want until I can't use it. I certainly do understand why the developer doesn't plan to modify his tools for ver 14. In a way, us users of past Vegas Pro versions have been spoiled by programs like TLT, which were donated to the community by folks who developed the tools for themselves and donated free to others. Going on to ver 14, in the case of TLT, I guess we can say, the free ride is over.

I do use the ProDad Mercalli plug-in. However in that situation I could fall back to using the Mercalli 4+ SAL, until they update the plug-in to work with ver 14. In fact, there have been a couple times when the plug-in didn't do the trick and I ended up using the Stand Alone version to fix the stabilization issue anyway.

I think 12 months from now, this issue will be just old history recorded as a bump in the road to better things. I do however realize the frustration of the unknown, and most likely there will be ver 13 users who stay put for an extended period until things are worked out, some others who will jump ship, and most will go into ver 14 and help work out the kinks. This is easy for me to say, as I'm retired and use whatever work around I need, and do not suffer from the pressure of daily deadlines. Looking back on history, although not the same, Final Cut and Premier have had similar headaches that put users in a tail spin.

Sony is a company with great pride and lives in a culture of saving face. I have no doubt, the deal included the change of the namespace and was a take or leave condition of the sale. With that said there is one thing, I think Magix may have been able to do and apparently has not, which may have made this transition more palatable. And that is, early in the switch, reach out to the aftermarket add-on developers.

I think it is safe to say they have not done that, and I say that because of some statements made by John Rofrano. I'm not sure if John is one of the biggest aftermarket developers, but he certainly appears to be the most visible. If Magix had contacted him up front with at least an advisory and perhaps some pledge of assistance with code change requirements, John would have publicly said something about it, and in fact he has stated otherwise.

If it were me I would have reached out to ALL the aftermarket developers. Of course I don't know everything going on behind the scenes. Maybe we will learn something about the transition as time goes on.

More of a concern to me is that the interface of Ver 14 is not changed to the extreme point as Magix changed a simple transition like the Vegas forums!! I don't think so because the Vegas development team is part old school and part new, where the forum team is probably based in Germany and already had a poor forum interface with their Magix products. Change is good when it has a purposeful improvement advantage, change for the sake of change makes for disappointment.

Hi George,

I see that John Rofrano has written as follows on the Creative Cow forum. I'm not sure hoe much this will help us but I suppose it is a promise that at least some Plug Ins will still be OK in Vegas 14:-

"No, it has nothing to do with DirectX or OFX plug-ins. It only affects scripts and command extensions that are built on top of Sony's Script SDK that has now changed with MAGIX. They basically broken every script ever written for Vegas Pro because of some legal mumbo jumbo that put lawyers before customers."

I agree with much of what you say and am also a retired but very keen amateur who is wishing for a fairly quiet life whilst still enjoying some challenges at least.

Richard

I just downloaded and installed Magix Vegas Pro 13 build 543. My understanding is this version was for branding only. And although they did change the name of the Sony FX to Vegas FX, the scripting remains the same, as in it recognizes and runs the old Vegas Pro namespace of 'Sony'. It's a bit confusing, but I suppose it was an agreement between Sony and Magix, that Magix could make a final update to Vegas Pro 13 and change only the visible branding.

Thanks George for telling us your experiences re VPro 13 (MAGIX) build 543.
I for one will not update my b 453 to b 543 though. I need e.g. my VASST FasstApps extensions which do not work in build 543.
The same with not updating Movie Studio Platinum 13 build 955 to 960, where it's reported to happen similarly
There are too many reports on the forums that users have needed to go back from the MAGIX-branded builds.