Rereading what I wrote – I think I misunderstood the complexity of reformatting for HiDPI screens. I didn’t consider all the interactive GUIs for individual plugins, particularly 3rd party ones. I would assume that in the future, the new Plugin Sentinel will also function to block plugins that are disrupting graphic performance (fps) or causing havoc in HiDPI modes.
That said, I believe HiDPI and interpolated elements can co-exist. An example would be Kontakt 5.6 within Vienna Ensemble Pro 6.
I know there are hard working people that have been determined to make Cubase Pro 9 a worthy upgrade. Some of the new features are genuinely compelling.
HiDPI is still a significant issue for me. It is understandable that audio developers have not focused on this because - it doesn’t affect the quality of the audio. With desktop monitors, I’m running 100% scaling at 1080p/1200p, so this isn’t an issue. My laptop screen is a different beast, as is any future upgrades to 4K monitors. HiDPI/Retina displays are one of the biggest changes in the Windows and Mac ecosystem. I believe the advantages outweigh the drawbacks, and it’s something developers should embrace as quickly as possible. In software environments where stability is paramount, I recognize this may not be easy.
MT, I’m on LG 4K monitors to my GeForce GTX 1070 and Cubase 9.0.1 looks perfect at 4K.
Some plugins, not so much, but that is not a Cubase problem and the Windows Magnifier can help for quickly viewing the non-vector, non-scaling third-party gui (ahem cough** WAVES!!)
Have you forced HiDPI mode via executable’s properties (so GUI should be tiny) or GUI is blurry (it’s inevitably blurry for all non-DPI-aware applications under Windows)?
Could you share a screenshot of Cubase 9 running on your system? (PNG format is recommended.)
What is the inch size of your 4K monitor?
Thanks.
P.S. You don’t have to quote the entire message you’re replying to. Quoting just a small, most relevant part is generally enough and makes it easier to read and navigate.
Sure, running non-DPI-aware plugins in a DPI-aware DAW can be easily achieved (at least in Windows) by implementing VST host as a separate application, so that Windows could apply DPI scaling to the VST host independently from the DAW itself.
I have successfully tested this in Reaper forced to run in HiDPI mode (using a modified application manifest) and running a non-DPI-aware plugin in a separate/dedicated process.
Moreover, running plugins in separate processes is essentially the only way to protect DAW from crashing together with a crashed plugin. Just autodisabling plugins that sometimes crash is a weak lazy workaround, not a solution.
Think this is a real shame. We are 4 years on from retina mac-books and I really expected significant improvements (if not full retina everywhere) from C9.
Thanks for the screenshot, fretthefret.
As expected, Cubase 9 is blurry at Windows zoom of more than 100% (looks like your zoom is 175%).
To see blur more clearly, compare your screenshot:
with how a HiDPI version of Cubase could look at 200% (below is a simulated screenshot I’ve created just for fun):
I recommend to save images and view those with a standalone image viewer at zoom of exactly 100% to prevent extra blur introduced by browser-level or viewer-level scaling.
Yes. Agreed. But Ed already said ‘no HiDPI’ earlier in this thread.
Not as clean and pretty as the now vectorized FL Studio 12.4 but definitely not sub-par!
In retrospect “perfect” was too strong. “Satifactorily Great” would have been better.
I do appreciate Eds input, my worry is 9.5 will not see it cause its a major change thus more likely to be seen in a X.0 release i.e. not a X.5 release eg 10.0 so at least 2 years
Do they need help?, OK im more of a 3d maths graphics guy (first dude to show a true unified lighting in a realtime environment, before john carmack) but I can do 2d also.
I’m working now but I would love to help them out cause its more interesting on a personal level than what I do, and I speak ziemlich gute deutsch http://zedzeek.com
Well it’s been 6 years since retina was presented. And it seems Steinberg is basically never gonna support it. Am I the only one who wants to leave cubase but is basically stuck with it?
Wavelab Pro 9.5 supports Retina displays, and soon the stock plugin set (also used by Cubase) will too.
They know that people want this, but you have to understand that adding support for this requires changes to big parts of the application.
Cubase 9.5 features greatly improved graphics performance on Mac, along with new icon and knob designs very similar to those found in other Retina-supporting applications. I think it’s pretty clear that they’re preparing Cubase for Retina support.
Thanks. I also noticed that the knowledge-base article says:
The plug-ins are scaled to the correct size, but look blurry.
Given that the Wavelab itself is displayed in HiDPI mode at the same time, this means that plugins run in a VST host implemented as a separate executable — this is required for Windows to be able to scale plugins’ GUI. Such executable is effectively a VST bridge, so this gives us a chance that Steinberg will reintroduce VST bridge built into Cubase.
Every time someone says “it must be easy to add/fix”, a programmer dies.
Not if that someone is a programmer himself and knows well what he is talking about.
I sincerely hope so too. A lot of my friends in the music production industry are already sporting 4K screens, and we’re eagerly awaiting this feature. It shouldn’t be Cubase 10 specific, especially since it is now oddly out of sync with WaveLab. If we’re using both products, they should both be displayed with the same quality for consistency-sake. Pixels are history.
