A Beta for the macOS Catalina supported version of DEX 3 is now available. We’re seeking beta testers to test and report.
Catalina brought a major change to the graphics environment, moving from the OpenGL API to Metal. OpenGL was designed to be a cross-platform framework, thus support for both the Windows and MAC release of DEX 3. While the cross-platform support of OpenGL was solid, Apple realized it was missing the signature integration of the macOS operating system and Apple hardware. Thus, Apple designed the new Metal API specifically for Apple hardware, which can provide up to 10✕ the number of draw calls for DEX 3 and other PCDJ software.
Obviously the move is beneficial for our development plans moving forward, but the move from OpenGL to Metal required a 40% or so re-write of our graphics engine, a major component of our DJ software and karaoke software products. The new DEX 3 beta for Catalina therefore requires further testing before it’s released to the public, but we’ve made am amazing amount of progress over the last 4 months and the result has been a stable alpha version.
(UPDATE: A previous version of this article mentioned that Shaders will not be supported in macOS Catalina for the time being — this is no longer the case. The new release candidate of DEX 3 supports Shaders!)
For now, we are asking for a few DEX 3 customers that are using newer Apple computers running macOS Catalina to test the new DEX 3 beta. If you’re interested in testing the beta please fill out the forum below — we could use your feedback, and we appreciate your support!
Important Notes: 10.14 or 10.15 of macOS is needed to run the Catalina-specific DEX 3 beta. While tested internally, this is a beta release, and should not be used in a venue/production environment. Specifically, the GUI/interface and video/karaoke should be tested as the changes there are massive.
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