What's new in DaVinci Resolve 18.5

July 21, 2023
March 17, 2024
DaVinci Resolve
new version

Question

What's new in DaVinci Resolve 18.5, released July 21, 2023?

Answer

Now available from the support site.

www.blackmagicdesign.com

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/jp/support/family/davinci-resolve-and-fusion

Support Center | Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design's Support Center provides the latest software updates, support notes and instruction manuals. It also includes contact information for any product questions.

Focus

At first glance, 18.1 → 18.5 is a minor version upgrade, but it includes many functional enhancements comparable to major version upgrades.

The reason we didn't change it to version 19 this time is that there were no big changes that can be seen at a glance, such as Blackmagic Cloud support (version 18), Speed Editor support (version 17), and the addition of cut pages (version 16). In other software, it is a function enhancement treated as a major version upgrade, but this time it is a minor version upgrade as a number.

About DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.5

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT PROJECT LIBRARY MANAGEMENT

With DaVinci Resolve 18.5 we have made our project libraries compatible with DaVinci Resolve 18.1.4. This made the project library accessible in 18.1.4 as well, but individual projects created or opened in 18.5 will no longer be accessible in 18.1.4.

Before opening any project in 18.5, it is recommended to do a full backup of the project library and an individual backup of the project.

It is highly recommended to back up existing (disk-based and PostgreSQL-based) project libraries before upgrading.

Main function

Improved multiple functions on cut page
Support for Blackmagic Cloud Presentations
Support for generating DaVinci Neural Engine-based subtitles from audio in Studio
Supports text-based editing with DaVinci Neural Engine in Studio
Support for Universal Scene Description-based workflows in Fusion
New Fusion multimerge tool to combine multiple layers
Multiple remote monitoring improvements
Support for fast backups by timeline
Resolve color management per timeline
Support for Fairlight edit and mix groups
Support for AI-based audio classification in Studio

media

Support for AI-based audio classification in Studio
Supports fast backup by timeline
Supports adding automatic smart bins
Importing and exporting timelines using the OpenTimelineIO format
2x Enhanced Superscale Algorithm
Ability to set media superscale settings from the inspector
Marker subclip support in metadata panel
Added support for clearing in-out ranges of multiple clips
Added support for changing the start timecode of multiple timeline selections
Added support for sorting favorites in media storage
Added support for clearing recent media history in source viewer
Support for custom pixel aspect ratios in clip attributes
Improved proxy links for clips without timecode

cut

Improved display of multiple timelines
Subtitle support in cut timeline
Click icon in track header to expand track
Option to show clip name and indicator
Improved display of smart indicators and edit points
Out-of-sync indicator for edited sync clips
Improved multiple timeline actions
Automatically detect and create captions from timeline audio
Execute DaVinci Neural Engine scene cuts in cut timeline
Add audio, video and subtitle tracks
Splitting and joining adjacent clips
Ripple option to toggle ripple editing on main track
Add markers and set default marker colors
New edit action
Supports the ability to roll or trim audio to create split edits
Added ability to bypass ripple on Alt or Option trim and add gaps to the main track
Trim, extend edit clip start or end to playhead
Resyncing out-of-sync clips
Reorganized toolbar for quick access to view options and editing actions
Right-click on Smoothcut to access favorite transitions in toolbar
Unify track number on cut page with other pages
Export current frame as still image from media, scene and edit page viewers
Adds new motion graphics effect templates and transitions for cutting and editing
Support for selecting all clips under the playhead in Cut, Edit and Fairlight pages

edit

Support for creating subtitles from audio using the DaVinci Neural Engine in Studio
Support for editing DaVinci Neural Engine-based text in Studio
Add and remove keyframes with keyboard shortcuts
Ability to change keyframes during playback on the edit timeline
Export current frame as still image from viewer on media, cut and edit pages
Supported the function to change the order of the track index by dragging the video track.
Added support for stabilizing multiple clips selected from the timeline
Changed retime curve to call speed curve by default
Option to copy grades from flattened multicam to multicam angles
Added support for managing render caches between projects
Added support for manually relinking lost VFX Connect clips
Support for selecting all clips under the playhead in Cut, Edit and Fairlight pages
Added support for setting key shortcuts for timeline view options and volume control
Smoother video updates when the system cannot play in real time
Improved text wrapping for caption previews in Subtitle Inspector
Timecode display window now shows a preview of timecode entries
Export edit index action is now part of the edit index options

Fusion

Support for importing Universal Scene Description (USD) files
Introducing the USD toolset for managing USD assets
Supports USD Hydra based renderers including Storm
New multimerge tool to combine multiple layers
Support for native AI-based depth map tools in Studio
GPU accelerated clean plate
Anaglyph with GPU acceleration
Up to 3x faster rendering when using the Fusion Split Tool
Clips on the Fusion page and searching in the media pool for MediaIns
Supports OpenEXR DWA compression in Fusion saver
Support for BMD Film Gen 5 in Fusion's CineonLog tool
Support for previewing individual shape tools
Added project settings option to disable tonemapping for Fusion transforms
Media pool relink, replace and publish for USD, FBX and Alembic assets
Project archives now include USD, FBX and Alembic assets
Media pool indicator for offline USD, FBX and Alembic assets

(Reference) Official video DaVinci Resolve 18.5 New Features | Fusion

Color

Resolve color management per timeline
Support for Magic Mask's matte finesse post filter control
Support for undoing Camera RAW changes for each clip
Added support for setting compositing mode on collector nodes
Support for marker overlays and annotations in the viewer
Added support for displaying missing LUTs as viewer overlays
Added support for managing missing LUTs from the LUT manager
Added support for sorting stills, LUTs and PowerGrade albums in the gallery
Generated LUTs now include Spatial Resolve FX DCTL effects
Gallery stills update automatically in the background in multi-user projects
Improved highlight mode behavior during HDR grading
Copy and paste Vivid HDR trim metadata between clips
Improved performance when grading HDR footage
Up to 2x faster spatial noise reduction on Apple silicon
Improved tracking and cache management for Magic Mask
Supports Dolby Vision control for DaVinci Resolve Mini panels
Support for color warper controls on the DaVinci Resolve Mini panel
All modifiers can now be reset in the DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel
Advanced panel in tracker mode now shows active power window controls
external mat node label default changed to mat file name
Changed to preserve node labels when converting to shared nodes
Supports Leica L Log color management
Color space and gamma options organized by vendor

(Reference) Official video DaVinci Resolve 18.5 New function | Color

Resolve FX

Add virtual lighting to your studio with AI-based Resolve FX Relight
Dark glow effect with Resolve FX Glow's Invert Effect option
Resolve FX Flicker Addition Added option to export analysis as alpha channel
Support for color space swapping in Resolve FX Color Transform
Improved blanking handling in Resolve FX depth map analysis
Improved patch replacer results on patch edges
Bright region recovery control for Resolve FX Glow and Light Rays
Automatic input/output management for Resolve FX grading nodes
Dragging Resolve FX now applies it as a color grading node
Alt or optionally drag Resolve FX to create FX nodes
Supports smart initialization of OFX alpha mixed state
Warper and Surface Tracker now maintain proportions when resizing a selection while holding Alt or Option
Up to 2x faster beauty, watercolor and stylization on Nvidia systems
Up to 1.5x faster lens blur and aperture diffraction on Nvidia systems

(Reference) Official video DaVinci Resolve 18.5 New Features | Resolve FX

Fairlight

Trackgroup support in Fairlight
Added voice-optimized tone options using Elastic wave time stretch.
Supports VCA nesting
Enhanced Dolby Atmos support in Studio
Voice isolation support in Studio for Linux
Dialog leveler support for Linux
Improved metering preview for muted or soloed tracks and monitors
Configurable shortcut key to scroll to selected track in Mixer
Changed track solos to persist across project sessions
Ability to pan the bus
Support for selecting all clips under the playhead in Cut, Edit and Fairlight pages
Added support for specifying track and bus monitor sources by track index
Multiple audio separation improvements in Studio
Supports Fairlight FX monitor controls for third-party Rewire integration
Supports stream and spot functionality from applications like Soundminer
Supports shift modifier action for automation level trimming with 0.1dB resolution

(Reference) Official video DaVinci Resolve 18.5 New Features | Fairlight

General

Supports Blackmagic Cloud Presentations
Added ability to sign in and upload videos directly from DaVinci Resolve to TikTok
Improved remote monitoring in Studio
Supports remote monitoring from Mac OS
Improved Mac OS client to support more formats
New iOS client for monitoring on iPad and iPhone
Supports client connections using Blackmagic ID
Supports streaming to multiple clients
Support for viewing streams on computer displays
Supports HDR stream monitoring
Ability to upload new versions to Dropbox Replay in Studio
Rocky Linux 8.6 based installation environment for DaVinci Resolve
Faster playback from the DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel by pressing play multiple times
Changed DRT export to include groups and shared nodes
Changed DRA project archives to include VFX Connect media
Optimized Blackmagic Cloud project library connection
New vertical resolution timeline and project default to full frame with crop
Added speed warp option to default motion estimation mode in project settings
Show analysis speed in stabilization, scenecut and other progress dialogs
Added quick export icon to edit and color pages
General performance and stability improvements

Scripts and APIs

Script API support for importing and exporting DRT and DRB files
Support for loading data write presets via scripting API
Support script API to get node label
Scripting API support for applying ARRI CDLs and LUTs to clips
Script API support to query and set clip enable state
Script API support for adding, removing, enabling, and locking timeline tracks
Scripting API support for deleting and linking timeline clips
Supports scripting API to trigger object mass tracking
Support script API to trigger stabilization
Scripting API support now allows triggering timeline scene cut detection
Supports scripting API to enable smart reframing of clips
Supports script API to create subtitles from timeline audio
Script API support for adding subclips to media pool
Added track and record frame inputs when adding clips to timeline
Additional record frame input when creating timeline from media
Encoding API now lists supported containers for the selected codec
Data and video ranges can now be specified in the encoding API

codec support

Supports Blackmagic RAW SDK 3.3
Supports rendering of JPEG and PNG image sequences
Support for rendering animated GIF clips
Support for AC3 audio decoding on Linux
LogC3 ARRI clips can now be decoded as LogC4
Support for RAW control of Sony XAVC clips
Import MKV chapters as media markers
Ability to export timeline markers as MKV chapters
Hardware accelerated VP9 decoding in Resolve for supported Nvidia cards
Up to 50% faster encoding for Sony XAVC 420 8-bit clips
Supports AV1 decoding from MKV and WEBM clips
Supports FFV1 format encoding and decoding
Supports ProRes, AV1, H.264, H.265, MP3 and AAC encoding of MKV clips
Customize compression level when rendering ZIP format EXR
Increased bitrate and quality when encoding AAC audio on Windows 11
Hardware accelerated encoding support for AV1 on AMD systems
Allow multiple hardware encoders on supported AMD systems
Up to 30% faster encoding with Apple ProRes hardware acceleration
Improved disk usage estimation when rendering ProRes clips on Apple silicon
Quick export renders now include active subtitles and data writes

Notes before installation

Before opening any project in 18.5, it is recommended to do a full backup of the project library and an individual backup of the project.

Mac OS minimum system requirements

macOS 12 Monterey
8 GB system memory.
Blackmagic Design Desktop Video version 12.0 or later
when using Fusion Integrated or discrete GPU with minimum 2 GB VRAM.
A GPU that supports Metal or OpenCL 1.2.

Windows minimum system requirements

Windows 10 Creators Update.
16 GB system memory.
Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 10.4.1 or later
when using Fusion Integrated or discrete GPU with 2 GB or more VRAM GPU
supporting OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 11
– as required by GPU

Linux minimum system requirements

Rocky Linux 8.6 or CentOS 7.3
32 GB of system memory
Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 10.4.1 or later
Discrete GPU with at least 2 GB of VRAM GPU
that supports OpenCL 1.2 or CUDA 11
– as required by GPU

How to install DaVinci Resolve software on Mac

Double-click the DaVinci Resolve Installer icon and follow the on-screen instructions. Double-click the Uninstall Resolve icon to remove DaVinci Resolve from your system.

How to install DaVinci Resolve software on Windows

Double-click the DaVinci Resolve installer icon and follow the on-screen instructions. To remove DaVinci Resolve from your system, select DaVinci Resolve in the Programs and Features control panel, click Uninstall, and follow the on-screen instructions.

Migrating Legacy Fairlight Projects to DaVinci Resolve on Windows

To import legacy Fairlight DR2 projects into DaVinci Resolve, download and install the following utility on your Windows system. downloads.blackmagicdesign.com/DaVinciResolve/Fairlight-Project-Importer.zip After installing the utility, you will see an “Import Fairlight Project” option in DaVinci Resolve's Fairlight menu.

Installing DaVinci Resolve software on Linux

Double-click the DaVinci Resolve installer and follow the on-screen instructions. To remove DaVinci Resolve from your system, select the uninstall option after running the installer.

Additional Information

Please refer to the latest DaVinci Resolve Setup Guide for your platform for support details, including certified driver versions for third-party hardware. Available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/support.

You will also need to download and install the latest Blackmagic Design Desktop Video software for monitoring with Blackmagic Design video hardware. Desktop Video at www.blackmagicdesign.com/support.

© 2001-2023 Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd. All rights reserved. Blackmagic Design, Blackmagic, DeckLink, Multibridge, Intensity, H.264 Pro Recorder and “Leading the creative video revolution” are trademarks of Blackmagic Design Pty. Ltd., registered in the US and other countries. Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems. Avid Media Composer and Avid Pro Tools are registered trademarks of Avid. Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, and Apple Soundtrack Pro are registered trademarks of Apple Computer.

Updated July 19, 2023