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All preview rendering in Masterselects runs on the GPU via WebGPU — from the main preview canvas to additional output windows. This means every frame you see, even during scrubbing, is a fully composited GPU render.
All preview rendering — compositing, effects, and frame caching — is performed on the GPU. A discrete GPU or a GPU with dedicated VRAM will significantly improve preview performance on complex compositions.

RAM Preview

RAM Preview is an After Effects-style cache that pre-renders frames to memory so playback is smooth even on complex compositions.

How it works

  1. Click RAM ON/OFF in the timeline toolbar to enable.
  2. Press Space to start playback — frames render outward from the playhead and are stored in the cache.
  3. A green bar on the timeline ruler shows which ranges are cached. Cached ranges play back instantly without re-rendering.
  4. Frames are only cached where clips exist; empty areas are skipped.

Cache limits

Cache typeMax framesMemory limitStorage
Scrubbing (VRAM textures)300~2.4 GBGPU VRAM
RAM Preview composite900512 MBCPU RAM
GPU frame cache60~500 MBGPU VRAM
The 900-frame composite cache stores fully rendered ImageData on the CPU side and uses LRU eviction when either the frame count or byte limit is reached. The 60-frame GPU cache holds those same frames as GPU textures for zero-upload-cost playback.

Preview quality

You can reduce the internal render resolution to save memory and improve caching speed:
SettingRender resolutionCache savings
Full (100%)1920×1080
Half (50%)960×54075%
Quarter (25%)480×270~94%
Quality is set via the dropdown in the bottom-left of the Preview panel. Export always uses the full composition resolution regardless of preview quality.

Scrubbing and the 3-tier cache

Dragging the playhead triggers the scrubbing cache, which is a 3-tier system designed to deliver the fastest possible frame for any playhead position: Tier 1 — VRAM texture cache GPU textures keyed by source file and quantized frame time (30 fps boundaries). Holds up to 300 frames (~2.4 GB at 1080p). Provides instant display for recently visited frames with no CPU–GPU upload. Tier 2 — Last-frame cache One GPU texture per video element that stores the last valid decoded frame. Displayed immediately when seeking to an uncached position, preventing a black flash while the correct frame decodes. Tier 3 — RAM Preview composite cache If a fully composited frame is cached for the target time, it is displayed directly from the CPU-side ImageData buffer. This is the most accurate representation and requires no further rendering.

Edit mode and transform handles

Edit mode lets you move, scale, and rotate layers directly on the preview canvas without touching the properties panel.

Enabling edit mode

Click the Edit button in the preview panel toolbar, or press Tab to toggle edit mode on and off.

Selecting a layer

Click any layer in the preview canvas to select it. The corresponding clip is also selected in the timeline. Non-selected layers show dashed white outlines; the selected layer shows a solid bounding box with handles.

Transform handles

HandleActionModifier
CenterDrag to move position
CornerDrag to scale from cornerShift = lock aspect ratio
EdgeDrag to scale from edge

Zoom and pan the preview canvas

ActionInput
ZoomScroll wheel
PanMiddle mouse button drag, or Alt + drag
Horizontal panAlt + scroll
Reset zoomReset button in the top bar
Use edit mode with keyframe recording enabled to animate a layer’s position by dragging it on the canvas at different playhead positions — no need to type coordinates.

Multiple output windows

Each preview panel is an independent render target with its own source and destination.

Adding a preview panel

Click the + button in the preview panel toolbar, or go to View → Panel visibility. Each panel has its own composition selector:
  • Active — follows whichever composition is currently open in the timeline editor.
  • Specific composition — renders a saved composition independently of the editor.

Multi Preview panel

The Multi Preview panel shows a 2×2 grid of independent preview slots. It supports two modes:
  • Custom — each slot has its own composition selector.
  • Auto-distribute — select one composition and the first four layers are distributed across the four slots (slot 1 = layer 0, slot 2 = layer 1, etc.).
Press 1, 2, 3, or 4 to temporarily highlight a slot.

Source types

SourceWhat is displayed
Active CompThe currently open composition
CompositionA specific composition by ID
LayerSpecific layers from a composition
Layer IndexA single layer by index (used by auto-distribute)
SlotA slot from the Slot Grid
ProgramAll layers composited (main mix)

Slot Grid

The Slot Grid is a Resolume-style performance launcher — a 12-column × 4-row grid where each cell triggers a composition.
  • Rows A–D each represent an independent playback layer. All active rows play simultaneously.
  • Click a slot to activate it on its row and play from the beginning.
  • Click a column header to trigger all compositions in that column at once.
  • Each active slot shows a mini-timeline with the current playhead position.
Toggle the Slot Grid from the toolbar. The view animates between the standard timeline and the grid — slotGridProgress of 0 is timeline, 1 is grid.

Playback speed

The Speed property on any clip supports varispeed scrubbing. With speed keyframes you can ramp smoothly between rates within a single clip. Negative speed values reverse playback. See Keyframe animation — speed keyframes for details on animating speed over time.

Statistics overlay

Click the FPS counter in the top-right corner of any preview panel to expand the statistics overlay. It shows:
  • FPS (color-coded: green ≥55, yellow ≥30, red below 30)
  • Render time in ms
  • Decoder type: WC (WebCodecs), VF (HTMLVideo + VideoFrame API), NH (NativeHelper), PD (ParallelDecode), HTML (HTMLVideoElement)
  • Frame drops per second
  • Audio drift
  • Pipeline breakdown (Import / Render / Submit as % of a 16.67 ms frame budget)
  • Playback bottleneck identification

Timeline

Set in/out points and use RAM Preview indicators on the ruler.

Keyframe animation

Animate layers whose transforms you adjust in edit mode.

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