In general the software functionality of Mistika Ultima and Mistika Boutique products is pretty similar in all platforms. But there are important aspects to consider, mainly related with hardware support and codecs:
Mistika Boutique is a software-only product based on a pay-per-use subscription. It is available for Windows and macOS and it is designed to run on client hardware. Basically it is the same application as Mistika Ultima, but software only.
Mistika Ultima is a turnkey solution including a Mistika workstation, Mistika Storage, and high performance connectivity solutions for sharing the storage at high speeds (up to realtime 8K uncompressed for multiple systems). Mistika Ultima configurations are designed by SGO for the specific workflow of each client, also providing a realtime warranty for the agreed formats and integral support for the whole solution. It's specialities are client attended sessions and complex productions using multiple systems in parallel.
Notes: Both Mistika Boutique and Mistika Ultima have similar optional modules that are specified in the SGO Shop. This document is not about optional features but about the technical differences of each platform (Windows, macOS, and Linux)
Platform differences:
MultiGPU, Totem, Ultima BatchManager, Version Manager
Those features are.only available on Mistka Ultima (Linux)
MultiGPU is only supported on Mistika Ultima, trough the Totem & BatchManager tools (also Linux only)
Totem (multi-GPU cluster rendering) and Ultima BatchManager (render manager for render farm control) are linux only and are not planned to be supported on other platforms.
However, since version 8.10 Mistika Boutique supports the submission of render jobs to external render managers (like Uberware Smedge and others, similar to what was already available in Mistika VR). This capability may provide a good alternative for batch render management for the case of Windows and Mac (Smedge is free of cost for the first computer). Also, if you have two GPUs you may launch Mistika Boutique in one of them and Smedge in the other one, so each one using a different GPU.
Version Manager: On Linux it is possible to have multiple Mistika versions installed in a same system at the same time, and then switch to a particular version at user request. (this is not possible on Mac and Windows)
Realtime capabilities for uncompressed formats and Mistika effects
Mistika Ultima provides warranted realtime playbacks up to 8K 60p 10bit uncompressed, depending on the configuration. The SGO provided workstations, storage, and connectivity are extremely optimized for Mistika performance and deeply tested in terms of stability.
Thanks to all these optimisations Mistika Ultima is faster than Mistika Boutique in general, but the exact differences will depend on each client hardware.
Mistika Boutique does not come with a realtime warranty, but it is known to work in realtime up to 2 x 4K 60p (Sterreo 3D) uncompressed if the client provides a fast enough configuration.
In any case the Mistika Boutique software is agnostic about the brands of the storage components, so if it is given a fast & stable configuration for other applications then Mistika should also behave fast and stable on it.
The same can be said both about compressed and uncompressed formats, although the speed differences between both products are expected to be more noticeable with uncompressed formats. Mistika Ultima hardware is specialized in uncompressed workflows, while Mistika Boutique should work particularly well with compressed formats, but it is not limited to those.
Image format limitations and encoders.
Our objective is to fully support all formats in all platforms. However this is not always possible for all codecs, these are the current limitations:
- NVidia hardware encoder/decoder (h264, h265/HEVC encoding and RED R3D Cuda decoder): At the date of this document Apple does not support NVidia hardware encoder (nvenc) & decoder (nvdec ). For this reason the NVidia hardware encoders for h264/h265 and hardware decoder for R3D are currently available on Linux and Windows only.
- Maximum image size: Mistika is an opengl application and it does not have a resolution limitation in itself, but each GPU and each operating system can have its own limitations. At the date of this document:
Linux and Windows: High end NVidia boards have a practical resolution limit of 32K x 16K
macOS: The current limit is 16K x 8K. (As per the Apple official OpenGL Capabilities Tables. For further updates search for MAX_RECTANGLE_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXT on that tables).
Video boards:
Windows and Mac versions support Aja and Blackmagic videoboards. Linux versions support Aja and DVS video boards.
8K Video IO
Mistika Ultima supports 8K 60p video modes using Aja KONA 5 boards (uncompressed playback and video capture at 8K 60p 10bit, trough 4 x SDI 12G signals).
For the case of 8K TVs, converters from Quad SDI to HDMI 2.1 are also available as an option for Mistika Ultima.
8K SDI modes are not supported on Mistika Boutique (although it is planned as a future development).