Compatibility and Performance

Bedlam requires a Mac 2011 model or newer.  Laptop GPUs perform more slowly than iMacs.  More GPU memory is key to optimized speed.  A 4GB GPU card or greater is recommended.

Bedlam is an ambitious product because it uses Navier Stokes equations for a hires fluid simulation that traditionally can only be found in dedicated and expensive 3d applications. Those systems typically require many minutes to render just a single frame and usually need render farms to be productive.  Bedlam however achieves breakthrough performance for 2d fluid simulation directly on the FCPX timeline.  

Please keep in mind the performance is directly related to the size of the simulation.

A full screen 4k render will be slow but a flaming title may only encompass one quarter or less of the screen and will perform much faster.

Be sure to view the Bedlam 15 minute Learning video to become familiar with performance expectations.

Best Workflow

Since Bedlam is built on the FxPlug API that Apple provides exclusively for Motion,

the plugin does tend to run better and faster in Motion (the host) versus FCPX.

Each instance of Bedlam on the FCPX timeline is equivalent to running concurrent heavy GPU operations which even dedicated 3d applications avoid.  You can easily overwhelm your GPU with several Bedlam simulations rendering in a single FCPX timeline.

We recommend the best workflow for multiple instances is to work with one effect at a time in Motion and render a QuickTime movie to edit in FCPX. Or build your Bedlam effect in a separate FCPX empty project and render the QuickTime to import and use with more complex timeline projects.

This is essentially the standard workflow for the industry.

Render the effects and then edit with the resulting Video layer which also provides the ability to composite multiple layers, experiment with blend modes, glows and color adjustments as well as affect the playback speed for more advanced results.