OpenFX TSC — Meeting Minutes

Date: Mon, Nov 4, 2025 (monthly)

Duration: ~1:03

Attendees: Gary Oberbrunner (Dark Star Systems), John-Paul Smith "JP" (Boris FX), Pierre Jasmin (RE:Vision Effects), Guido Veldkamp (Assimilate), Phil Barrett (FilmLight)

Regrets / Unknown: Paul Miller (Boris FX – Silhouette), Resolve/Blackmagic team

Paul Miller has implemented the obsolete plugin property on the host side (Silhouette). This feature allows plugins to mark themselves as obsolete and signal to hosts that they should be hidden or treated specially in the UI.

Decision: Feature is implemented and ready for testing.

JP provided status update on the conform extension proposal from last month.

• Outstanding work: The multidimensional parameter handling needs to be updated in the PR as discussed in the October meeting. JP has not yet pushed this update.

• Blackmagic feedback: JP has not received feedback from Blackmagic/Resolve team despite attempts to reach them. Will try reaching out again.

Decision: JP to update the PR with the multidimensional parameter changes discussed last month.

Gary reported progress on the YAML-backed property definitions driving a new type-safe C++ layer. Work continues on the incremental test plugin.

Status: In progress, ongoing development.

Pierre provided update on parameter interpolation types implementation.

• Implementation is complete and running in current builds

• Still needs proper testing and confirmation before merging

Status: Ready for testing phase. Pierre to coordinate with Paul Miller on delivering a test build.

Brief discussion about Resolve implementation status. Blackmagic previously indicated they would implement the color management mode, primarily using their internal pipeline with OCIO as a bridge. No new updates or timeline provided.

Status: Awaiting Blackmagic implementation (no new information).

Extensive discussion about a new proposed property to control plugin behavior when unlicensed. This addresses how plugins should behave during render farm operations versus interactive previews.

Current situation: Many plugins render watermarks when unlicensed, which works for interactive use but causes issues in automated render scenarios (render farms, background renders).

Proposed solution: New property that hosts can set to request specific behavior from unlicensed plugins:

1. Property not set: Plugin behaves normally (current behavior, typically watermark for unlicensed)

2. Property set to false: Plugin renders watermark AND returns kOfxStatUnlicensed status code

3. Property set to true: Plugin fails render immediately without rendering anything, returns kOfxStatUnlicensed

Key points:

• Gives hosts control over whether failed licensing should stop automated renders

• Allows users/hosts to decide appropriate behavior for their workflow

• When property is set to false, plugin MUST render something (even if just watermark) before returning the unlicensed status

• Replaces vendor-specific config file approaches (e.g., Sapphire's config file for license failures)

• Plugin should log licensing errors to help diagnose issues in render farm scenarios

Decision: Consensus reached on three-state approach. Gary added comments to PR, team to review and push forward for inclusion in 1.6 release.

• Update conform PR to implement the multidimensional parameter handling as discussed in October meeting

• Reach out to Blackmagic team again regarding conform extension feedback

• Continue work on color management extension implementation coordination with Resolve team

• Coordinate with Paul Miller to deliver a build exposing parameter interpolation types for testing

• Report test confirmation results to allow merge of parameter interpolation feature

• Continue development on C++ property checker / metadata client layer

• Generate and distribute meeting minutes (AI-generated as usual)

• Review and comment on licensing behavior PR

• Review and comment on the licensing behavior property PR before it's finalized

• Provide feedback on conform extension proposal if not already done

Recording and transcript are at https://zoom.us/rec/play/Zt-2JJvXvgkn8wAtB1cb4bn3S6Mm079vUZ_7fOxCIU8Zi6QDkdi_X0CCA9c1H9P3V49g2uUOawmTIPJP.pCMYg4XDSKxBTOLK?eagerLoadZvaPages=sidemenu.billing.plan_management&isReferralProgramEnabled=false&isReferralProgramAvailable=false&accessLevel=meeting&canPlayFromShare=true&from=share_recording_detail&continueMode=true&componentName=rec-play&originRequestUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fzoom.us%2Frec%2Fshare%2FCPxEit2I7n_9P7VcUTXqHkf6FfCa4m3pLgCt3UKaJT263ymhz0svkJSBeVcy-PdP.uvwYAomsr-CKYzie

Date: Tue, Dec 2, 2025 (monthly)

Note: Standard schedule continues after DST adjustments.