Digital Light & Color

An update is available to Version 8.0.408 (21-Dec-2023)
Download Link: https://www.dl-c.com/Downloads.html

The changes (taken from the update log) are:

Crop transformation: fixed a problem with proportion changes not happening in certain cases. Also, changing proportions or orientation now maximizes the crop rectangle.

Added new Show Dependencies command to the Edit submenu in the main menu (also accessible by right clicking on a thumbnail in the image browser). This lets you select (display as yellow check marks in the thumbnail caption), various transformations depending on their relationship to the current transformation. You can select upstream (transformations the current transformation depends on) and/or downstream (transformations that depend on the current transformation). In addition, you can select transformations that depend via auxiliary inputs or via masks. This selects just the transformations that have a first level dependency – not those that are more than one level removed from the current transformation. You can use this, for example, to show which transformations use the current transformation as an auxiliary input (upstream/input), or which transformations depend on one of the masks in the current transformation (downstream/mask). For details, see the updated help file.

I'm playing with the new Dependencies command, and I wonder if I'm getting it right.

- The dependencies are shown as yellow checkmarks - i.e. they Select transformations just like the Select/Deselect buttons?

- Hitting OK or Cancel doesn't make a difference as the transformations remain selected after closing the Dependencies control window?

- It is not possible to use the Dependencies to select the upstream or downstream transformations within the same branch (as they follow the obvious flow 'down the branch'), only those that are not directly dependent on the current transformation and are either masks or auxiliary inputs?

- The Upstream or Downstream checkboxes don't work by themselves, only in combination with either Input or Mask? Mask and Input also need Upstream and/or Downstream distinction? If this is the case, maybe it would be better to have Upstream/Downstream/Both as an option toggle instead of independent check boxes?

- In general, one could find all levels of dependency by looking at colours? With the Dependencies command, one can Select two types of first-level dependencies only (either upstream or downstream or both): masks and auxiliary inputs?

Yes, you have it right.

I am in the process of reworking this dialog box for the next release in several ways to make it less awkward to use.

First I renamed it to Show Indirect Dependencies to make it clearer that it does not show direct dependencies.

I also make it modeless so, for example, you can click on the image browser thumbnails to select a new current image and the dialog box will update with the information for the new current image.

Also, it now displays a list of up to 16 dependencies at the bottom of the dialog box and lets you go directly to any of those images.

I also converted from the checkboxes to drop down lists that let you select one of the three available combinations (A, B, A or B)

This dialog box gives you more information than just the colors since, for example, if you have an image the is an auxiliary input to several transformations you can find exactly which ones they are. The colors alone don't distinguish between the different types of dependency and for the colors to be useful, you need to be able to see all the thumbnails at once which can be a problem with a complex image tree or a small display.

Cheers! Would indirect dependencies include Copy transformation too?

Yes -- Copy has one auxiliary input.

It would be nice if a user could navigate using dependencies from the image browser, without entering the edit menu and then clicking and selecting check boxes.

Compare to navigating in the structured favorites of Chrome or Edge web browsers : simply hovering over a folder opens it and allows navigating further down in the favorites hierarchy, at nested levels without using buttons.

Similarly, simply hovering over an image thumbnail or associated miniature inputs could open image traceability navigation, thus allowing tracing upstream or downstream the dependencies chain.