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- What is G-Force?
- G-Force is an audio visualization plug-in for media players and can also visualize auxiliary or "line-in" audio. G-Force features fast anti-aliased effects, millions of possible effect combinations, savable and scriptable effects, video file export capabilities, and unparalleled expandability. G-Force is designed to entertain you on its own, but there are many ways it can be customized and extended.
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- What are the system requirements?
- G-Force only requires a PIII or G3 processor (or later) and doesn't require 3D or other special video hardware. If you plan to use G-Force as a plugin to your audio player, you must have the player already installed, and if you plan to use the stand-alone version of G-Force (to visualize line-in audio) then you don't need anything further.
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- Can G-Force visualize "line-in" audio?
- Yes. The first method is to simply use the stand-alone version of G-Force (see the G-Force as an Application section for more). The second method to visualize line-in audio is some audio players allow you monitor line-in audio. For example, in Winamp go to "Open Location" and enter "linein://".
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- How do I increase frame rate?
- G-Force doesn't use any special hardware, so even the newest graphics hardware won't increase your frame rate—your CPU and RAM bus speed are the most limiting factors. However, here's some ways to increase frame rate:
- Disable background tasks (ex, virus scanners, file sharing apps, system monitoring)
- Keep the full screen size low —Press M to switch the full screen resolution mode G-Force will use when it goes full screen.
- Keep the frame size low — When G-Force is told to draw in a given rectangle, you can confine G-Force to an even smaller rectangle. This is useful because it sets an upper limit on how many pixels G-Force must render, allowing you to avoid low frame rates when screen resolution is set high (1024x768 or greater). See 'MaxX' and 'MaxY' in the customizing section as well as other items in this FAQ.
- Use pixel doubling — Press P to turn on pixel doubling. Note that on some OSes and setups, pixel doubling can actually lower frame rate (due to reasons beyond the scope of this FAQ).
- Experiment with full screen color depth — Almost all systems have higher full screen frame rates when running in 8 bit mode (See the question "What color depth is best?")
- Disable CPU power saving features — For example, on Mac OS, enabling "Processor Cycling" or "Reduce Speed" in the Energy Saver Finder preference panel can will down the CPU (in an effort to reduce power consumption).
- Use 8 bit full screen mode — Assuming your media player and/or OS supports it, using 8 bit full screen mode can greatly increase full screen mode performance. Press SHIFT+M to toggle between 8 and 32 bit mode, and see other items in this FAQ for more.
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- How do I change the full screen resolution settings?
- Your display device may show G-Force best in a resolution different than the default full screen resolution. 640x480 is the default because most monitors and projectors show it well, it's very compatible, and it yields excellent frame rates for a typical setups. If you have a faster setup or use a display device that looks best in a particular resolution, then you'll want to change the full screen resolution mode. While running G-Force, press M (the key for "Switch full screen resolution") to step through the available full screen resolutions. Be warned that because G-Force's frame rate is proportional to how many pixels it must render, frame rate decreases as full screen resolution increases. Also, see "How can I increase frame rate?" as well as the following items. Note: some media players, such as Sonique, sadly don't allow plugins to request a particular full screen mode, so any full screen settings that you alter (via M, SHIFT+M, or pref file edit) will have no effect.
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- How do I specify which display device G-Force uses for full screen?
- Whichever display device the G-Force window currently resides in is the device G-Force will attempt to use for full screen mode. Also note that the available list of screen resolution modes will change when you move the G-Force window to a different display device (because it now intends to use that display device for full screen mode). For example, if you have a LCD projector and want G-Force to use it as the full screen device (ie, not the monitor), drag the G-Force window so it's in the projector display rect, then press M to choose a desired full screen mode, and then start full screen mode.
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- What color depth mode is best for full screen mode?
- In general, 8 bit full screen mode yields a much higher frame rate than 32 bit mode (G-Force internally uses 8 bit color, so there's no color-quality disadvantage running G-Force in 8 bit full screen mode). However, some device hardware, certain OS versions, and certain media players do not properly support 8 bit mode (G-Force is not running properly in 8 bit full screen mode if the colors are random-looking, discontinuous, or if there's only a few dozen colors visible after a few minutes of full screen operation). To switch between 8 bit and 32 bit full screen mode, press SHIFT+M (the "switch full screen depth" key). 32 bit mode is the most compatible full screen mode, but the frame rate is much lower in 32 bit mode than it is in 8 bit mode (because four times the data is being bussed-around by the hardware in 32 bit mode). Again, assuming 8 bit mode is supported properly on your setup, G-Force output is identical under 8 bit mode and 32 bit mode, so you'll want to use whatever mode gives you a higher frame rate while displaying colors properly. If you run in 8 bit mode and the colors look strange or of poor quality, then stay in 32 bit mode. Note that in 8 bit mode, album cover art and overlay text will be "paletteized" in order to avoid a drastic performance penalties.
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- Why are there horizontal bands at the top and bottom (aka "letterboxing")?
- By default, G-Force restricts its pixel size to a letterbox in order to prevent low frame rates in high resolution environments (see "How do I increase frame rate?"). When G-Force restricts its size, it paints remaining region (the outer border) the background color (note: in 8 bit full screen mode, certain OS versions instead use the foreground color to paint this region). See 'MaxX' and 'MaxY' in the customizing section for more.
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- Why isn't the album cover art in my media player showing up in G-Force?
- Support for album cover art is available only in the G-Force Gold upgrade. Beyond that, only iTunes, J. River MEDIA CENTER, jetAudio, and MUSICMATCH Jukebox pass album cover art to visual plugins (making it impossible for G-Force to display album cover art under any other media player). If you do not use one of these media players, you are encouraged to email the author of the media player you do use and request that they add support for passing album cover art to visual plugins.
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- How do I customize G-Force?
- See the customizing section.
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- What is a "config"?
- See the config programming section.
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- What is a "sprite"?
- A sprite is a generic term for any small to medium-sized graphic that is drawn to the screen repeatedly. The term originated from early computer games that gave the illusion that a small object or unit was alive or moving by rapidly erasing then pasting a sequence of images to the appropriate place on the screen. Since the size of what was pasted (or "blitted") to the screen was typically small, it took little very computing power to achieve impressive frame rates. As a result, the game objects could be animated very quickly (hence the name "sprite"). Many popular games such as Red Alert and Starcraft give the appearance of animated combat units, but for every unit there's actually a stored image for every possible position, direction, and state.
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- How do I display my own text, images, and movies in G-Force?
- Place the image files (ex, JPG, BMP) and movie files (ex, QuickTime/MOV, MPEG) that your want displayed into either the "Sprites/(Auto Backgrounds)" folder or the "(Sprites/Auto Foregrounds)" folder. Next, either restart G-Force or press SHIFT+U (this will cause G-Force to rescan all its folders). The files you added will automatically be part of the sprite slideshow (and eventually appear automatically). Also, sprite files that are dropped into one of the "Sprites" subfolders will take-on the behavior (ex, how long they display, where they appear on the screen) defined in the "(Default).txt" config file also in that subfolder. To learn how to give custom behavior to your sprites, study the files named "(Default).txt" and the example sprites that come with G-Force. Under Windows, G-Force requires Apple's QuickTime to load files other than BMPs and JPGs (ie, if you have file types other than BMP or JPG, then you must to install QuickTime in order to see them).
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- How do I delete configs and sprites that I don't prefer?
- You may not like all the configs and sprites that come with G-Force, so you'll probably want to remove the ones you don't prefer. First learn the file name of the item you want to remove by pressing L (this lists the names of the configs and sprites currently running in G-Force). If the item you want to remove is a config (a WaveShape, ColorMap, or FlowField), open its respective folder and simply delete the file with the matching name. If the item you want to remove is a sprite, search the "Sprites" subfolders for items with a matching name.
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- Why does G-Force pause or "freeze" when I manually switch FlowFields?
- Calculating/preparing a FlowField is CPU intensive. Normally, these calculations are spread out over 10 to 20 seconds, making the CPU load difficult to observe. However, if you switch G-Force FlowFields manually, G-Force must perform all the calculations immediately, making the system appear to momentarily "freeze".
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- The image or movie I moved in the "Sprites" folder appears inverted when it appears in G-Force. How do I invert it?
- There are two methods that will invert a sprite. The easiest method is to append a '~' onto the end of your sprite's file name. For example, "Andy.jpg" would get inverted if it was renamed to "Andy~.jpg". The other method is discussed inside the config file "(Default).txt" (located in the "Sprites/(Non-Auto)" subfolder).
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- How do I make my images or movies non-automatic (ie, not automatically part of the particle slide show and only activated via script)?
- First, move your image or movie file into the "Sprites/(Non-Auto)" folder. At some point, you'll want to call your sprite (otherwise, it will never appear). You do this by using the "StartSprite( )" command. To see examples, see the example scripts that come with G-Force.
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- How do I make an image or movie show up as a backdrop/background/wallpaper image?
- Simply move your image or movie file into the "Sprites/(Auto Backgrounds)" folder and restart G-Force (or press SHIFT+U). When G-Force rescans its folders, your file will be put into the sprite slideshow and will automatically appear as a background image. Try exploring the "Sprites" subfolders to see examples.
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- Can I store a good-looking config combination and recall it at a later time?
- There may be time when slideshow mode will have a ColorMap, WaveShape, and FlowField combination that looks excellent. G-Force allows you to "save" the current combination for later recall by writing out a script that switches to the given ColorMap, WaveShape, and FlowField when the script is later.
- To save the currently running configs as a key on your keyboard, press CTRL+SHIFT and the key you want associated with the script.
- To run the script at a later time, press CTRL and the key you used to store the script.
For example, suppose you chose '8' to be associated with a combination (ie, you pressed CTRL+SHIFT+8). The above steps makes G-Force generate a text file named "CTRL 8" inside your "Scripts" folder. When you now press CTRL+8, G-Force will search for a script named "CTRL 8" to run. Scripts are capable of much more, but this method is meant to be an easy way to store and recall appealing combinations of configs. See the scripting section for more. Note: certain media players do not pass CTRL keystrokes to the visual plugin (or, in some cases, any keystrokes at all).
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- Can I capture or take a "snapshot" of the G-Force window?
- To take a snapshot of the G-Force window, press the backquote key (`), and the current frame will be saved as a BMP file on your desktop.
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- Can I make G-Force into a screensaver?
- Athough there are future plans to offer G-Force as a screensaver and as an "active" desktop, this not currently available.
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- Can I make my own G-Force config files?
- If you want to learn the language G-Force and WhiteCap use in their config files, you should already have some familiarity with programming or script writing of some sort. See the config programming section.
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- Can I resize the G-Force window?
- Depending on what media player and platform G-Force is running in, you may or may not not be able to resize the G-Force window. For example, for the standalone versions, drag near the bottom right of the window.
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- Why should I submit feedback, bug reports, or configs to SoundSpectrum?
- G-Force can't improve unless you send us ideas, feedback, and bug reports. Most of the features added to WhiteCap and G-Force in the last few years started out as user comments in informal emails. When WhiteCap was first released, it came with about 20 configs. Today, thanks to users who sent in configs they made, 180 configs now come with WhiteCap. G-Force is the same way: if you submit new configs, you'll make G-Force that much better for everyone else.
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- Can I control how much of my CPU goes to G-Force?
- The PREF_DESIRED_FRAME_RATE pref specifies the desired (or "goal") frame rate. G-Force monitors the current frame rate and attempts to adjust its system priority until the desired frame rate is achieved. Because G-Force uses feedback to change its system priority, it can take take several seconds for G-Force to arrive at the desired frame rate, so be patient when you resize its window (or do anything that significantly changes its load on your system). When G-Force has raised its system priority to the highest limit or "peg" (and cannot raise it further), you will see frame rate start to fall below the desired frame rate. See the customizing section for more.
- How do I customize the appearance of the "track text"?
- The PREF_TEXT_FONT and PREF_TEXT_SIZE prefs specify the track text font size.
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- How do I pre-plan/script a G-Force performance for a particular audio track?
- Using G-Force's scripting services provides some exciting ways to synchronize events in G-Force with events in audio tracks. See the following question and read the scripting section.
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- How do I coordinate the start of an audio track with a script?
- When a new audio track starts in your media player, G-Force will look for a script with a matching name to run (note: if the audio track is an mp3 file and contains ID tag data, then G-Force will use the ID track name instead of the track's filename). For example, suppose you have a script that's timecoded for "Andy Sings Opera.mp3". Rename your script to "Andy Sings Opera.txt", restart G-Force, play the audio track, and G-Force will automatically start the script. The scripting section describes scripts in detail, allowing you to coordinate G-Force with an audio track in exciting ways. In its GUI, SoundSpectrum Darkroom allows you to specify a script to run as the specified audio track is exported to a video file, allowing you to create your own customized music video.
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- How do I edit a sprite (text, image, or movie) "on the fly"?
- Using a LAN, you can edit text and image sprites on the fly. If you were using G-Force at a party, and you were closing the bar, you could edit a text sprite to "Last Call". However, before you do this, you must tell G-Force to load a fresh copy of the file each time it goes to use it. You do this (before G-Force is running) by naming your file a certain way, described in "How do I edit configs while G-Force is running?" (below).
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- How do I edit configs or sprites while G-Force is running (and cache them)?
- To reduce disk use, G-Force caches its files it uses, causing files changes while G-Force is running to not take effect until G-Force restarts (or clears its file cache). However, if you'd like to edit a config "on the fly" (ex, edit a text particle via the LAN then have a preset script call it) you can tell G-Force to load the file from disk each time it goes to use it. If a sprite, script, or particle's filename starts with a '$', then G-Force will not cache it. The other method is to load a fresh copy of a config from disk is to use the U key (the key that "reloads current configs"). Pressing this key will cause G-Force to empty it's file cache, reload the currently running configs from disk. This second method is usefulfor config development and testing. For example, you'd make some changes to a config, save the changes, switch from your text editor to G-Force, and press 'U' to tell G-Force to reload it from disk.
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- Can G-Force be hardware accelerated?
- Yes and no. Look for a big speed jump by winter 2004.
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- How do I uninstall G-Force?
- Use the OS to search for a folder named "G-Force". Once you've found the correct folder (see what it contains and what its parent folder is), simply delete it. In Windows, G-Force doesn't access the registry whatsoever.
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- What was used to make G-Force and WhiteCap?
- Both are written in C++ and compiled using Metrowerks CodeWarrior, a C/C++ development environment that beats the pants of Microsoft products and has many advantages over Apple's Xcode. Both G-Force and WhiteCap have evolved over the course of four years and contain many intricate parts. The logical source size (text size) of G-Force is about two megabytes (this doesn't include outside APIs or source—ie, 100% is ala Andy).
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- Why the name "G-Force"?
- You can learn all about interesting things like this at the About Andy section at the SoundSpectrum Home.
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