- Overview
- Opening Reactor Window
- Using the Reactor Package Manager
- Installing Atom Packages
- Updating Atom Packages
- Removing Atom Packages
- Searching for Atom Packages
- Reactor Categories Explained
- Resync Repository
Overview
- The Reactor About Window
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Reactor is a package manager created by the We Suck Less Community for Fusion and Resolve. Reactor streamlines the installation of 3rd party content through the use of "Atom" packages that are synced automatically with a Git repository.
Opening Reactor Window
After you have installed Reactor in Fusion/Resolve you can access the Reactor window using the Reactor > Open Reactor... menu item.
Reactor for Fusion:
- Reactor for Fusion
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Reactor for Resolve:
- Reactor for Resolve
Using the Reactor Package Manager
The Reactor window shows a view filled with the atom packages that can be installed. This is a big list that shows everything that is included in the Reactor package manager's GitLab repository. This list runs into the hundreds of atom packages you can browse through.
If you want to find specific content by type, you can use the category section on the left side of the Reactor window to narrow down the list. If you want to find Macros, Fuses, or Plugins you could click on the
Tools section. If you are looking for Lua or Python scripts check out the Scripts section. There are example Fusion composites and templates that can be found in the Comps section.- The Reactor Window in Resolve
The column headings in the main view can be clicked on if you want to sort the list of atoms. This allows you to sort the available content by topics like
Name, Category, Author, Date, or ID. If you click on a heading multiple times the list will be sorted alphabetically by ascending or descending order.- Reactor Headings
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As an example of this heading sorting approach, if you wanted to see the newest packages that were recently added to or updated in Reactor, click on the
Date heading. The Status heading provides a quick indication if an atom is compatible with your current Fusion/Resolve version and operating system platform.There is a search field at the top center of the Reactor window that can be used to search for specific content in Reactor.
- The Search Field
When you click on an atom package in the list view the atom's description text will be shown in the lower part of the window. This description text will give you a summary of what the package does, a list of the files that will be installed, and an indication if the atom is compatible with your copy of Fusion/Resolve.
Atom packages are able to define a suggested donation amount that is due to the author if you use the item. A dialog window will pop-up when you go to install or update an atom that has a donation value defined. This dialog allows you to contribute to that person by clicking on the link and going to the suggested internet URL such as PayPal, a custom webpage, or an email address link.
This is a preview of a PayPal.me based donation link shown by a Reactor atom package:
- Reactor's Donation View
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Installing Atom Packages
To install an atom package on your computer you simply have to select the item you want to use in the Reactor list view. Then press the Install button at the bottom right corner of the window.- Reactor's Install Button
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The selected atom package will then be downloaded from the Reactor GitLab repository and installed into your
Reactor:/Deploy/ PathMap based folder in Fusion/Resolve. If the atom you are installing includes a .fuse, .fu, or .plugin file you will need to restart Fusion/Resolve for it to become available.An atom package can also add supporting items that are required for the content to work through the use of a
dependencies entry in the atom file. This means a Macro .setting file, or an example Fusion composite that is delivered by Reactor is capable of adding any extra elements like a fuse or plugin that might be needed if that add-on is also accesible inside of Reactor. This dependencies feature is useful when you need a supporting .fuse like Cryptomatte, xf-chroma, KAK, or if you needed a plugin like Krokodove.When an atom package is installed on your system you will see a white checkmark icon placed next to the atom's
Name field in the list view.- An Installed Atom
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Sometimes you can have duplicate items installed in Fusion/Resolve if you have previously added 3rd party content both manually and via Reactor. There is now a simple way to search for any of these duplicate files and assist you in the process of removing them. The Reactor bundled
Fuse Scanner and Plugin Scanner scripts can be accessed in the Reactor > Tools > menu. These scripts will automatically find any of the fuse or plugin items that are present and work by scanning in all of the active Fusion PathMap locations on your system and then displays the results in a list. You can quickly sort the results in the view and see version, filename, and file path details.- Reactor Repository Selector Menu
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It is possible to set up multiple GitLab repositories for use with Reactor. The Repository selector combo control at the top left of the Reactor window allows you to switch between a combined "All" view that lists every atom available from all of the active repositories, an "Installed" view that lists only the atoms that are currently installed on your system, and a "Reactor" view that lists the atoms that come from the main WSL Reactor GitLab repository. If you have manually added additional Reactor repositories they would also show up in this combo control menu.
- Select All Repositories
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The Reactor repositories that are active on your system are configured in the
Reactor:/System/Reactor.cfg file. When you go to edit the Reactor.cfg file in a programmer's text editor like Notepad++ (Windows) / BBEdit (macOS) / Gedit (Linux) it is helpful to know that the file's language syntax is formatted like a Lua table structure.Updating Atom Packages
- Reactor's Update Button
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Reactor makes it simple to update an existing atom package that is installed on your system. Select the atom in the list view. Then press the
Update button. The old item will be uninstalled from Fusion/Resolve, and then the newest version will be downloaded from the internet and installed.If you need to update a Windows based Fusion plugin on your system that is write locked by Fusion, you should look at the tip in the Removing Plugins on Windows section of the Reactor documentation.
Removing Atom Packages
- Reactor's Remove Button
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To remove an existing atom package that is installed on your system, select the item in the list and then click the
Remove button.If the package you are removing has any
Dependencies listed in the description field you can optionally decide to click on those items in Reactor and remove them manually as well.- Atom Dependencies
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After you remove an atom package from Reactor and then restart Fusion/Resolve you will notice the item is no longer visible in either the Fusion Bin Window / the Resolve Effects Library, or in the Select Tool window that is shown by pressing the Control + Space hotkey on Windows/Linux or the Command + Space hotkey on MacOS.
Removing Plugins on Windows
There is an extra step required if you want to remove a compiled Fusion plugin on Windows.
While Fusion is running, plugin files are write protected by the Windows OS since they are considered "in-use". Please follow these steps if you want to update or remove Krokodove, VLAM, or similar compiled plugins:
Step 1. Use the Reactor > Tools > Plugin Scanner menu item to locate the installed plugin file on your system. Double click on the plugin name in the list to open an Explorer folder browsing view.
Alternatively, you can select the Reactor > Tools > Show Reactor Folder menu item. An Explorer folder browsing window will appear. Navigate to the
Reactor:/Deploy/Plugins/ folder using the Explorer folder browsing window.Step 2. Quit Fusion so the plugin file is not write locked.
Step 3. Manually throw out the plugin file. If you wanted to remove an old Krokodove plugin you would look for an item named
Krokodove.plugin.At this point Fusion can be restarted and the new plugin can be installed using Reactor.
Searching for Atom Packages
- The Search Field
There is a search field at the top center of the Reactor window. It has a magnifying glass icon next to the text entry field. When you type text into the search field, the list of atoms is refreshed to show you the filtered search results. The title of the Reactor window will also update to indicate the content you are searching for.
You can search for the name of the atom, the author, the text in the description, any of the filenames in atom package, or even part of the filenames like searching by file extension. This search system allows you to easily search for specific items quickly such as typing in
.fuse to find atom packages that include a fuse.Reactor Categories Explained
- Reactor Categories
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The Reactor window has a set of categories on the left side of the view that can be used to filter the atom packages that are displayed. Categories allow you to find specific content by type, which makes it easy to narrow down the list of atoms compared to having to scroll manually through hundreds of items.
If you want to find Macros, Fuses, or Plugins you could click on the
Tools section. If you are looking for the Krokodove plugin, you would navigate to the Tools > Plugins category and then select "Krokodove".If you are looking for Lua or Python scripts check out the
Scripts section. There are example Fusion composites and templates that can be found in the Comps section.If you are using Reactor inside of Resolve you can check out the special
Resolve category that has a Resolve Essentials atom that will improve your productivity.If you want to install some pipeline tools that have have been customized and packaged for use with Reactor check out the
Bin category that has things like ffmpeg, sqlite3, wintee, and Notepad++ for Fusion.The
Console category has tools that work inside of the Fusion Console tab. These scripts are implemented using a feature called a Console Fuse and will act on the commands you type into the single line entry field in the Console.The
Fun category has some cute atom packages that can help you have some needless fun inside of Fusion/Resolve.The
Menus category works in Fusion 9 and allows you to add Config: based menu additions through the use of .fu files. These atoms add handy features like a Restart Fusion menu item, or menu entries for quickly closing all comps, or sending your current composite to a script editor too.The
Hotkeys category allows you to add Config: based hotkey additions through the use of .fu files. There is a Nudge Playhead atom that makes it easier to step between keyframes in your Fusion timeline.The
viewshaders category is where you can find special view LUTs that are implemented as either fuses or MacroLUTs. They can be used to modify how content is displayed in the viewer windows.Here is a quick summary of the typical Reactor categories that are supported in a Reactor:
- Bin
- Brushes
- Comps
- Comps/Templates
- Console
- Docs
- Fun
- LUTs
- Menus
- Modifiers
- Modules
- Resolve
- Scripts
- Scripts/Bin
- Scripts/Comp
- Scripts/Job
- Scripts/Slave
- Scripts/Reactor
- Scripts/Tool
- Scripts/Utility
- Scripts/Views
- Testing
- Tools
- Tools/3D
- Tools/Color
- Tools/Composite
- Tools/Creator
- Tools/Effect
- Tools/Filter
- Tools/Flow
- Tools/Miscellaneous
- Tools/Optical Flow
- Tools/Particles
- Tools/Plugins
- Tools/Tracking
- Tools/Warp
- Viewshaders
Resync Repository
The Resync Repository tool is used to reset the Reactor sync reference point. This action will redownload the main Reactor repository files. A resync operation may take up to 1 minute to complete. This process is useful if you have manually deleted .atom files from the
Reactor:/Atom/ folder and your Reactor package manager window is empty.Step 1. Select the Reactor > Tools > Resync Repository menu item.
- Resync Repository Menu
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Step 2. A "Resync Repository" confirmation dialog will appear. Click the Continue button.
- Resync Confirmation Dialog
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At this point your
Reactor:/System/Reactor.cfg file's PrevCommitID entries will be reset. This causes Reactor to re-download all of the atom files from the Reactor repository. The Reactor package manager window will open automatically and start downloading the .atom files again from scratch to your Reactor:/Atom/ folder.- Resyncing Atoms...
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What is a PrevCommitID Value
The
PrevCommitID entry is used by Reactor to save a record of the last differential sync point. This allows Reactor to download only the newest atom package files that were added to the GitLab repository since the last time you ran the Reactor package manager in Fusion/Resolve.This is a preview of what a
Reactor:/System/Reactor.cfg file looks like when a PrevCommitID value is present:- {
- Repos = {
- GitLab = {
- Projects = {
- Reactor = "5058837"
- }
- }
- },
- Settings = {
- Reactor = {
- PrevCommitID = "ea2df981da1a98c4aecc1fac03d865fc16edd4a6",
- Token = ""
- }
- }
- }
The
PrevCommitID value changes every time a new git commit is pushed to the Reactor online repository.When you open the Reactor package manager window and a sync is performed the newest .atom files are downloaded to your system and the corresponding
PrevCommitID value is updated.