FaceRig 0.953b, 0.956b "nextversion" update, new Visage|SDK and DX11 fixes.

Hello Awesome People!

We've just updated FaceRig across all BETA branches, the brand new v0.953b is now live on the "nextversion" branch.
[30'th of January Edit]: v0.956b is now also deployed on the main branch.

This v0.953b version has two BIG updates. The Visage|SDK version is incremented (should help the folks who have issues with Visage|SDK activation) and also the underlying rendering engine is updated (a lot more DX11 issues are fixed, at this point we can safely recommend using DX11 over DX9, also starting with the next version we will take off the "experimental" label from the DX11 option.)

Here is the Change log for FaceRig v0.953b

(for the Change Log of previous versions please visit this forum thread )

• updated the Visage|SDK (FaceTracker)
• (DX11) fixed DOF issue. DOF looked and was customized differently than on DX9. Also, this update will fix all the ultra-blur when opening any background for the first time.
• (DX11) fixed ambient cube map issue. When customizing the background, the Ambient Xn, Xp, Yn, Yp, Zn, Zp light colors wouldn't update correctly.
• (DX11) fixed changing resolution crash.
• (DX11) fixed webm movie export.
• (DX11) fixed loading custom texture. It would try to load textures from PC (the dx9 data folder). Please note that all custom textures you'd like to add to FaceRig (avatar masks, background backdrops) need to reside in one of the folders: \SteamApps\Common\FaceRig\Mod\PC (for DX9 version), \SteamApps\Common\FaceRig\Mod\PC_DX11 (for DX11 version)
• added MJPEG support for webcams (tested on Genius Widecam F100 and now works on higher res). This is due to a report that the 1080p webcam wouldn't go above 640x480 resolution, the cause was that we did not support MJPEG format above 10 refresh rate. Adding MJPEG support will provide a wide range of resolutions and refresh rates when choosing the webcam.
• fixed crash related to Kinoni epocCam.
• added several checks so that unsupported cameras would stop crashing FaceRig. Please note that any depth sensor cameras are still unsupported by FaceRig, though there are some hacks that can make them work as normal webcams (do them at your own risk)
• fixed load video crash related to .avi files encoded with .h246.
• bundled VB Audio Cable with FaceRig (will start installation when FaceRig updates/installs. Note: If you already had it installed manually from back when it was not bundled, this update will ask you to uninstall it, so make sure you leave it installed :P ). For information on how to stream the audio streamed by FaceRig please follow this guide: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=311589681
• tongue now autosaves in config.usc file (including the key bindings for tongue) and also gets recorded when recording a performance.

[EDIT : New update 23'rd of January 2015: Was appended to this post to prevent announcement spam, as it happened quite fast after the previous one.]

Here is the Change log for FaceRig v0.956b

• modified FaceRig Virtual Cam DirectShow filters:
  • resolution is now fixed to 640 x 360. There have been reports of glitches of the streamed feed, we have found that if several clients (Skype, OBS, Chrome) accessed the feed simultaneously with different resolutions, FaceRig would have streamed in those resolutions in an uncontrollable manner. To solve this we either have to stream a different copy (at a different resolution) for every process/client, which would be add a significant performance drop, either set a fixed resolution until alternate solutions can be investigated.
  • streamed feed should be smoother (for best results, we advice setting the Main Loop Frame-rate Cap to a minimum of 60; to do so, go to General Options in FaceRig - second button from bottom to top, on the left side menu, then go to Performance. If needed, lower the overall rendering resolution to achieve this on lower specced GPU's.