G-Force Documentation Version History

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Version History

5.9.2 - 15 November 2024

Fixed engine var breaking loading.
Fixed macOS installer failing on fresh installs.
Fixed Windows G-Force Toolbar skin "Factory Blue (Compact)".
Fixed macOS screen saver not saving prefs.
Successful workaround macOS screen saver issues.
Smoother frame rate regulation on Windows.

5.9.1 - 05 September 2024

Fixed V-Bar not saving prefs on Windows.
Fixed V-Bar not auto-hiding on macOS.
Fixed Standalone and V-Bar not requesting audio permission on macOS.

5.9.0 - 15 July 2024

Now building for modern macOS and arm64 under Xcode.
Now building for modern Windows and compiling using Visual Studio 2022.
Aesthetic tweaks a couple configs.
Addressed stability issues for Win64 Standalone.
Addressed instability with Apple Music (iTunes).
Stay tuned for a big announcement!

5.8.3 - 26 January 2020

New visuals: Vesica Piscis, Divine Feminine, Circular Union (Power, Fire), Curve Into You.
Installer for Windows now handles iTunes installed from Microsoft app store.
Installer for macOS now better accommodates Mojave and Catalina (to the best that is possible).

5.8.2 - 21 June 2018

Added setting 'Prevent Display Sleep'
Improved compatibility with Windows screensavers.
Addressed JRiver Media Center crash.
Major updates to Windows no longer require G-Force reinstallation.
Working-around iTunes for Windows issue causing freeze/lockup.
Fixed OpenGL/Direct3D toggle setting on Windows.
Fixed Mac OS screensaver reverting to main display only mode.
G-Force Toolbar now 64-bit on macOS.
Fixed G-Force sometimes not being detected in Windows Media Player or iTunes.

5.8.1 - 23 December 2017

Added 'Reload Audio Devices' button in Settings.
On macOS, added new user control over which displays show the screensaver.
Help windows now stay hidden when closed.
Fixed iTunes not zeroing audio when paused.
Updated G-Force Standalone docs.

5.8 - 12 December 2017

On macOS, added new user control over which displays show the screensaver.
Now bundling all-new Windows audio driver called SoundSpectrum Audio Cable, offering audio loopback from the system output to G-Force Standalone.
Addressed retina support on macOS High Sierra.
Added 64-bit support for J River Media Center!
Enhanced installer detection on Windows for 64-bit iTunes and Windows Media Player.

5.7 - 12 June 2017

Improved color aesthetics for dozens of WaveShapes!
Three all-new WaveShapes in G-Force Gold and Platinum.
Fixed screen saver for macOS retina displays.
Fixed not restoring Direct3D state under VirtualDJ.
Smarter hotkey support for Winamp and MediaMonkey.
Fixed audio frozen visually when iTunes is paused.
Fixed prefs not always being saved when quitting iTunes.

5.6.2 - 21 April 2017

Added shadows to white icons.

5.6.1 - 19 April 2017

UI size tweaks.
Fixed debug info being printed out in iTunes.
Fixed macOS installer overwriting ~/Library permissions.
Now bundling Virtual Audio Cable with Platinum on Windows.

5.6 - 14 April 2017

Added Retina display support on macOS.
Enhanced UI support for high resolution displays.
Fixed not getting keystrokes in full screen mode in iTunes.
Overhauled support for 'UI Menu Scale' setting.
Album cover art animation is now resolution independent.
Improved text anti-aliasing quality on Windows.
Increased default slideshow interval from 20 to 30 seconds.

5.5.1 - 12 January 2017

Full debug mode no longer generates a debug log file on disk.
Fixed network-based album cover art not loading on Windows.
Album cover art now loads more smoothly under Windows Media Player.
Now looking for album cover art under WMP more aggressively (e.g. folder.jpg).
Now gracefully handling cover art that fails to load.
Fixed track animation not translucent under Direct3D.

5.5 - 28 December 2016

Several new outstanding WaveShapes by Jim Mohr!
Fixed erroneous console message "Undefined function Refresh()"
Fixed flashing of junk frames immediately following a resize or fullscreen change.
Standalone on Windows nows works with Aero's 'auto-snap'
Addressed fullscreen mode state issues under iTunes and in Standalone.
Fixed stability issues for the OS X screen saver.
Standalone for Windows now only changes the input device volume if below 50%.
More console messages when in partial or debug console mode.
Aesthetic tweaks to some track animations.
For large viewports, UI items now auto-scale up in size (UI.AutoScaleFromHeight).
No longer using special key mapping under Winamp.

5.4.3 - 11 February 2016

Workaround for iTunes fullscreen mode flag bug that caused cursor to persistently be hidden and ESC fail to exit fullscreen.
Improved 32-bit iTunes detection for Windows.
Improved artist string extraction logic for Windows Media Player.
Track text animation fixes.

5.4.2 - 04 February 2015

Added 64-bit support for iTunes 12.1 under Windows.
Fixed case where track text didn't always appear when pressing 'T'.

5.4.1 - 13 January 2015

Now using pixel buffer objects under OpenGL for improved performance.
Fixed OpenGL render to texture issue affecting stability.
Fixed audio processing issue that sometimes impaired live audio responsiveness when running G-Force Standalone, V-Bar, or Screen Saver.

5.4 - 12 December 2014

Frames are now synchronized with the display device to prevent frame tearing.
Now supporting VirtualDJ on Windows!
Now only supporting 10.6 and later on OS X.

5.3 - 19 June 2014

Enhanced track text animation cuing, takedown, and aesthetics.
All config types now loaded through the package (VisPackage) subsystem.
Config author attribution now appears under the config's name in the UI.
Enhanced track text support when streaming in iTunes and Windows Media Player.
Scripting now uses Python, making authoring scripts much easier and open-ended.
New WaveShapes from JRM!
The 'Meta' field is no longer used in WaveShapes and Particles since the WaveShapes package now handles configs that are both WaveShapes and particles.
Improved audio responsiveness.
Text Sprites are no longer supported.
Fixed Standalone issue that was causing an audio input error on some Windows systems.
Addressed compatibility issue under OS 10.5.

5.2 - 05 March 2014

Added 7 all-new WaveShapes from SoundSpectrum's very own Peter!
Improved stability of fullscreen mode switching.
Added thumbnails for the OS X System Preferences screen saver panel.
Inserted workaround for ATI driver bug on older Macs that was causing white squares to be displayed in track text animation.
Addressed installer permissions and compatibility issues under OS 10.5.
All python files now use 4 spaces instead of tabs.
Internal python cleanup.

5.1.4 - 17 January 2014

Fixed bug where album cover art would often fail to display in track text animation.
Fixed issue where system font names containing non-ASCII characters would cause an error when track text animation was initiated (common on non-English systems).
Cosmetic edits to the 'Fold' track text animation.
Fixed bug where largest() would hang if given a scalar value (thanks Jim!).

5.1.3 - 03 December 2013

Fixed crash issues when running multiple instances.
Added a button to the main button group that toggles fullscreen mode.

5.1.2 - 27 September 2013

Fixed full screen mode switching issues under iTunes.
Smarter Direct3D DLL installation on Windows.
Now correctly signing the OS X installer, averting OS 10.8 security warnings.

5.1.1 - 22 August 2013

Performance and minor aesthetic improvements in select track animations.
Fixed Standalone, Screen Saver, and V-Bar crash on startup.
Updated the customizing documentation.

5.1 - 19 August 2013

All-new track text animation where track text info is now progressively animated!
Major internal change to improve compatibility on OS X systems (perceived as strobing/flashing when a large Sprite appears).
Increased performance for higher-end Windows systems (now using Direct3D's DYNAMIC_DISCARD flag for textures when appropriate).
G-Force now auto-loads QuickTime if it sees video files present in the Sprites folder.
On OS X, now using Apple's new flat package format, requiring OS 10.5 for installation.
Added album cover art and extended track info support for Winamp!
Added drawer integration support for Winamp.
Added help window close and toggle buttons.
Fixed issue where SHIFT+K failed to kill all running scripts.
Added track year to the track text info animation.
Enhanced jetAudio support.
Fixed the Standalone window not getting focus back after fullscreen mode.
Fixed SHIFT+RETURN not toggling fullscreen when the UI wasn't visible.

5.0.3 - 20 June 2013

Fixed texture caching bug, sometimes reducing performance.

5.0.2 - 15 June 2013

Fixed presets/favorites sometimes not starting when pressed.

5.0.1 - 29 May 2013

Fixed issue causing installation to fail on OS 10.5.
Fixed external Sprites folder feature on the G-Force Toolbar for Windows.
Fixed settings panels in the G-Force Toolbar for Windows auto-closing.

5.0 - 06 May 2013

All new GUI, offering a new level of customization and control within G-Force!
All new Theme and Category config management and customization!
New ColorMaps and WaveShapes! Special thanks to and BT and JRM!
Added dozens of new Sprites and remastered existing Sprites!
Aesthetic edits to existing select WaveShapes and increased WaveShape resolution.
Added mouse scroll and middle button support to the UI.
Fixed possible flashing/strobing issues in the OS X Standalone.
Pixel doubling is now rolled into the 'Graphics Quality' setting.
Major edits and enhancements to the G-Force Toolbar.
Major enhancements to the G-Force Screen Saver.
Fixes and improved support for Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, RealPlayer, J River Media Center, and iTunes.
Particle-only WaveShapes are now located in the Particles directory.
Boot.txt is now gone and has been absorbed into SSEngine.py.
Added debug 'HUD' to display performance metrics (via SHIFT+D).

4.4.0 - 18 September 2012

Fixed BASS config var not receiving the proper audio level.
New ColorMaps from BT!
Stability enhancements to the V-Bar.
Multi-display systems now run multiple G-Force instances properly.
Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center overhaul, fixing various issues for both x86 and x64.
G-Force now detects Windows Media Player overlays and offsets its UI elements accordingly.
Fixed install/registry issues associated with J. River Media Center.
Added 64-bit support for the Screen Saver and Standalone on Windows.
No longer using CGDisplayCapture() on OS X to capture the full screen display device, allowing context menu support and improved interoperability with other apps.
Improved support for RealPlayer 15.
Major improvements to Winamp idle mode detection and frame rate control.
Added workaround for OS 10.5 pkg install deficiency, fixing installation of multiple SoundSpectrum products.
For improved full screen mode compatibility, alternative full screen resolution modes has been removed.

4.3.2 - 4 December 2011

Now using the new iTunes visual API on 32-bit iTunes on OS X (not just 64-bit).
Restored legacy suport for iTunes versions earlier than 10.5 on Windows.
Enhanced error handling support for the OS X installer under PowerPC.
Stability enhancements when running under 64-bit iTunes.
Fixed the OS X installer not detecting if iTunes is running during installation.

4.3.1 - 16 November 2011

Several ColorMap edits to make less dull or higher contrast.
Addressed issue where license code validation would mistakenly fail or the engine would mistakenly report that it needs to be reinstalled.
If the installer detects OS 10.5, it will now remove the x86_64 binary from the Standalone app so that the Finder doesn't attempt to run it in 64-bit mode (which will result in a crash since 10.5 only has limited 64-bit support).
OS X installer improvements for better compatibility.

4.3 - 14 November 2011

FFT audio data is now auto-normalized, offering automated visual response sensitivity adjustment based on incoming audio. This ensures that you get a visually responsive experience, whether you're listening to Bach or the Beastie Boys.
Added audio auto-detect, which auto-scans all audio input sources for an active audio source. This new feature is enabled by default for the screen saver and can be enabled for the V-Bar and Standalone.
Added UI elements in the screen saver control panel/settings to set the audio auto-detect, the preferred audio source, the frame rate, and the current visual preset.
Improved screen saver and V-Bar support, including the internal sharing of audio devices so that multiple engine instances can now visualize the same audio source.
Added over 30 new ColorMaps from BTT!
The V-Bar for Windows now supports multiple display devices.
Fixes to various tile modes in the V-Bar.
Added 64-bit support for iTunes and Standalone on OS X.
Added 64-bit support for Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center.
Addressed an issue where G-Force would hang on exit due to a deadlock.
PREF_AUDIO_INPUT_SOURCE now stores an audio name instead of an index so that the wrong source will no longer be used when if audio devices are added or removed from the system.
Now mangling ObjC classnames to prevent OS X namespace collisions within iTunes and the OS X screens aver subsystem.
Fixed issue where clicks were not hitting UI elements.
Significantly improved OS X and Windows audio input source detection and handling.
Now using the latest DirectX SDK, increasing drawing performance on some Windows systems.
Fixed issue under Windows where the full screen resolution selection list was empty.
The G-Force Toolbar for OS X now scrolls the current WaveShape, ColorMap, and FlowField into view whenever it changes.
Prev/Next WaveShape, ColorMap, and FlowField slideshow buttons in the G-Force Toolbar now step alphabetically when slideshow mode is disabled.
Various install/uninstall registry fixes for J. River Media Center.
The console now has multiple verbose modes.
Removed Google Desktop support (it has been discontinued by Google).

4.2.0 - 11 April 2011

Several new ColorMaps from BT, and new WaveShapes from JRM and Andy!
Reduced CPU load by 15-20% if the frame dimensions are both less than 2048 pixels.
Fixed string concat bug that was causing stability issues in some environments.
Fixed G-Force Toolbar issue that was causing an error saying that the engine version didn't match the toolbar version.
Fixed bug where the engine would check for updates on every launch instead of using the period specified in the prefs and would sometimes falsely report an update was available.
Added GIF file format support.

4.1.3 - 09 December 2010

Fixed the cursor not hiding in full screen mode under Windows.
Enhanced support for legacy Windows graphics hardware.
Fixed full screen and possible hang issues under iTunes.

4.1.2 - 24 November 2010

Fixed FlowField Unions -- thanks JayPro!!
Restored support for some legacy Windows hardware.

4.1.1 - 19 November 2010

Now using new approach to regulate frame rate under iTunes in order to address erratic frame rates introduced under iTunes 10.
Added new keystroke-based save and recall scheme to replace the "CTRL X" scheme. Press SHIFT+W and then 'X' to write the script "Key X.txt", or press SHIFT+R and then 'X' to read the script "Key X.txt".
Due to reports of legacy Windows machines having compatibility issues, G-Force now reports an 'insufficient hardware' message if the Direct3D vertex shader model is earlier than 2.0.
Enabling/Disabling FlowField Unions from the G-Force Toolbar now persists between G-Force sessions.
Added new pref PREF_FORCE_CPU_COLORIZATION.

4.1 - 12 November 2010

Internal graphics engine enhancements for more consistent performance and quality across systems. SoundSpectrum now uses an all-shader model for vertex and fragment processing under Direct3D (see the Resources/Shaders dir).
Many excellent new ColorMaps from BT!
Added "Slideshow.EnableOnStartup" pref for ConfigSets to prevent slideshow mode from being enabled on startup.
Added "MostRecent.ResumeOnStartup" pref for ConfigSets to cause the most recently run config to load on startup.
Resolved switch to full screen mode issues on multiple display device setups.
Fixed iTunes crash on exit under OS X.
Fixed RealPlayer support.
Fixed OS 10.4 compatibility issues.
Worked around OS 10.6 screen saver issue causing error messages to appear in the system log (Apple bug report filed).
Fixed CTRL+SHIFT failing to write the appropriate script under Windows.

4.0.1 - 16 September 2010

Various fixes to full screen mode on OS X.
Fixed hang on exit under OS X if the local network doesn't have an internet connection.

4.0 - 14 July 2010

Added multi-threaded processing for pixel flow, resulting in a 2x-4x performance increase on multi-core systems!
Many new FlowFields and WaveShapes by Andy, Jim Mohr, and Nigel, in addition to several dozen content revisions and tweaks to existing content!
Increased the FlowField vector max addressable size, removing the frame size limit previously imposed by previous versions of G-Force.
Increased FlowField vector resolution, resulting in higher visual quality pixel flow for particular FlowFields.
Oncoming FlowFields are now calculated in another thread, significantly decreasing the average time needed to prepare the next FlowField on multi-core systems.
Added native 64-bit support for OS X, allowing 64 bit operation under the OS X screen saver engine.
The OS X Standalone application has been rewritten for Cocoa.
Removed frame limiting prefs and related functionality.
Addressed a screen saver stability issue when running OS X on PowerPC.
Fixed several WaveShape particles that became semi-broken when the 't' variable was changed to always start from 0 (special thanks to JayPro for catching this!)
Addressed issue where double-clicking in WMP would cause a blank screen or crash.
'CTRL+SHIFT+X' scripts are now written to the prefs directory instead of the engine directory to accommodate the fact the current user may not have write permission to the engine directory.
Added support for J. River Media Center 15.
Fixed issue where G-Force would crash when taking a screen shot.
G-Force alerts the user if an older version of the GF Toolbar is used with a newer engine in order to prevent problems.
Now signing exes and screen savers on Windows to prevent anti-virus false positives.
Fixed issue where video sprites would fail to start.
Fixed implementation of floor() on ppc, fixing various FlowFields and configs behaving erratically or appearing improperly.
Fixed FlowField Unions checkbox not working in the G-Force Toolbar.
New VectorC functions (see VectorC.h).

3.9.4 - 18 December 2009

Compatibility improvements for the G-Force Toolbar under Windows when iTunes (ie. Bonjour) is present.
Fixed issue where user sprites of large size would downscale to poor quality or would cause a hang.

3.9.3 - 02 November 2009

New WaveShapes from Jim M!
Minor performance improvements to FlowField transitions.
Now compiling with GCC 4.2 on OS X for enhanced performance.
Fixed issue where screen shots were sometimes being saved improperly resulting in a corrupted-looking image.

3.9.2 - 05 August 2009

New FlowFields from Rainer (RG) -- thanks Rainer!
Added install support for non-ASCII OS X user names.
Movie sprites now honor all flags, including expand to fit.
Restored unofficial Mac OS 10.3 support.
Fixed issue on older machines where G-Force would appear to freeze on the splash screen.

3.9.1 - 19 March 2009

Improved audio response under WMP on slower systems.
Added two new WaveShapes.
Fixed case where G-Force would fail to start under Vista x64.
Fixed text sprites (including 'Blend with Visuals' track text mode).
Fixed issue where some upcoming configs weren't precached, resulting in an occasional visual stutter.

3.9 - 23 January 2009

Replaced .MAP-type ColorMaps with PNGs, allowing easier ColorMap authoring.
Internal implementation enhancements.
Direct3D compatibility enhancements.
Addressed issue where G-Force would fail to start if the x86 version of WMP is run on Vista x64 system under a non-admin user (due to the NSIS's faulty RegDLL).
By popular request, G-Force no longer overrides the right-click menu in Windows Media Player.
Fixed issue where G-Force for iTunes would sometimes fail to be properly registered if installed by a non-admin user on Windows.
Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player compatibility enhancements.
Added support for J. River Media Center 13.
Pref keys are now arbitrary length strings (rather than four character strings).

3.8.5 - 21 August 2008

New WaveShape "Revolve" by Andy.
G-Force is now built under MSVS 8 and Xcode 3.1.
Improved support for Windows Media Center.
Stability enhancements for Windows Media Player.
Auto frame size limiting now only limits the height when the width is greater than 1440 (was 1200).
The Windows installer now installs a Start Menu group globally rather than just for the current user.
Resolved cases where the G-Force Toolbar for Windows would be unable to connect to G-Force.

3.8.4 - 11 July 2008

Improved full screen support under Windows.
Fixed stability issue triggered when a version update was detected.

3.8.3 - 30 June 2008

Fixed OS X installer permissions issue (error ID 10 or 11).
Fixed G-Force Toolbar crash upon exit.

3.8.2 - 27 June 2008

New Windows screen saver "Display on all monitors" mode.
Fixed issue that was causing multi-account installations to fail under OS X.
Improved frame rate regulation (preventing frame rate degradation on certain Windows systems).
Fixed installer issue that was sometimes causing G-Force to not appear in J. River Media Center.
Improved OS X full screen support for non-standard display devices.
Fixed memory leak when running in software mode.
QuickTime is no longer loaded by default under Windows (and is only loaded if a video sprite is started).
Added workaround for certain IDirect3D9 methods that modify the x87 control word that was causing side effects in host players (e.g. audio encoding).
Fixed issue that was causing the V-Bar to crash when running under Vista or when switching users.
Now using SSE2 to improve performance of low-level operations.
Now using the latest version of Apple's Bonjour SDK.
Enhanced performance in iTunes.
Removed support for XMPlay.

3.8.1 - 13 May 2008

Fixed ColorMap flickering issue sometimes observed when starting G-Force or when toggling full screen mode.
Fixed G-Force Toolbar issue under Windows where menu items in its popup menus would appear white.
Fixed Windows installer issue where a message would appear on startup saying that an error occurred and to contact SoundSpectrum support.
Added workaround for a Mac OS 10.3 installer issue where files from a previously installed version were not being overwritten by the files from a newly installed version.
The default full screen resolution mode is now the display device's currently set resolution mode (rather than a preset factory value).
Fixed "error 18" issue occurring on certain Mac OS X systems.

3.8 - 30 April 2008

Added Direct3D support, greatly enhancing performance on many Windows setups.
Fixed several Windows Vista compatibility issues.
Fixes and enhancements to fullscreen support.
Fixed certain configs not being disabled despite being unchecked in the G-Force Toolbar.
Fixed issue where control text would appear blurry in the G-Force Toolbar for Windows if ClearType was enabled.
Fixed issue where jpeg images and sprites would fail to load (resulting in an on-screen error message).
Fixed the G-Force Toolbar's 'Show Sprites Folder' under Mac OS X.
Fixed stability issue present under QMP, Winamp, and iTunes.
Screen saver fixes and improved multiple display device support.
No longer calling SetProcessAffinityMask(), resulting in enhanced performance on modern multi-core/CPU Windows systems.
Increased default track text size.
The installer is now VirtualStore aware, meaning that Windows' default behavior of retaining previously stored installations of G-Force will no longer corrupt newly installed versions (which was resulting in numerous problems on certain systems, indicated by the message "the expected version in boot.txt doesn't match the actual version" when G-Force would start up).
On players where keyboard input is available, the arrow keys now switch to the previous/next ColorMap and WaveShape.
Added new WaveShapes created by Andy.

3.7.5 - 04 January 2008

Fixed ColorMaps being displayed incorrectly on some PowerPC Macs.
Corrected the default placement of the Standalone window.

3.7.4 - 18 December 2007

Increased the sprites limit from 1,000 to 10,000 images.
Added V-Bar support for legacy machines (and machines without full OpenGL support).
Compatibility fixes for J. River Media Center.
Improved fullscreen support under Windows.
Fixed cases where G-Force would choose the incorrect display device when entering full screen mode on a multi-display Windows setup.
Fixed keyboard and mouse focus issues in the Mac OS X Standalone.
Worked around stability issue imposed by RealPlayer.
Made the Mac OS X installer package more robust.
Fixed issue where the G-Force Toolbar's "FlowField Union" checkbox was not always being applied.
Fixed issue where the iTunes window would activate several seconds after G-Force was exited.

3.7.3 - 04 October 2007

OpenGL is now used by default under Windows Vista (assuming adequate drivers are installed and sufficient hardware features are present).
Fixed issue causing album cover art to sometimes appear slanted/corrupted.
Fixed issue where G-Force visual output would freeze/stop under WMP.
Fixed issue where G-Force could crash or hang on exit.
Added 10.3 installer bug/crash workaround.
Removed support for QCD and added support for QMP.
Fixed Rage128 (TiBook) support.

3.7.2 - 12 September 2007

New FlowFields.
By popular request, pixel doubling support has been added (SHIFT+D).
Enhanced audio response quality when running under iTunes.
Added support for non-OpenGL mode in Mac OS X (for legacy machines).
Added inline literal vector support, allowing discrete vectors to be easily expressed.
Fixed case where the check for updates feature would fail to function.
Track info now appears initially if the track info duration setting is longer than 30 seconds.
Track info now fades in and out.
Fixed issue where increasing the WaveShape slideshow frequency (via the G-Force Toolbar) was not always causing a WaveShape change.
Crash workaround for the fact that QuickTime was causing WMP to crash if an OpenGL context is created after InitializeQTML() is called.
Fixed deadlock scenario where SSFS maintenance was blocking the completion of queued SSURL_Verb_Decode items.

3.7.1 - 02 July 2007

Fixed the cause of a rarely occurring freeze/crash.
Updated G-Force Toolbar themes.

3.7 - 22 June 2007

All new multi-threaded file and image loading subsystem, decreasing visual stutter.
The G-Force Toolbar now uses the G-Force engine for sprite and particle slideshow states rather than storing them.
Improved fullscreen support for iTunes for Mac OS X.
Fixed issue that was causing cryptic audio error messages in Windows Media Center.
Fixed issue where explore.exe would stop responding when in WMP was in Windows "Toolbar" mode.
Fixed crash caused when imaging blank track text.
Improved album cover art detection for WMP.
Fixed bug where random video sprites would sometimes be displayed with an inverted intensity.

3.6.2 - 05 April 2007

Enhanced unicode compliance and support (addressing a various issues caused by non-ASCII pathnames and strings).
Fixed issue in fft code that was sometimes resulting in bad fft output (only affects the Standalone and V-Bar).
Fixed bug where lines drawn on overlays would exhibit color banding.
Fixed issue where certain sized sprite images would cause a crash.
Fixed issue in the G-Force Toolbar where themes would sometimes fail to be deleted.
Splash text now has a shadow to make it more readable.
The Standalone and V-Bar no longer mute other audio sources in Windows.
Higher performance text imaging.

3.6.1 - 16 March 2007

Three new FlowFields by Rainer!
Improved line drawing performance and quality.
Added new pref: PREF_ANTIALIASED_DRAWING.
Added new pref: PREF_FULLSCREEN_REFRESH_RATE.
No longer using deprecated portions of the QuickTime API.
Fixed G-Force Toolbar instability inserted when a theme was deleted.
Fixed case where G-Force would fail to exit from fullscreen mode in iTunes.
Background sprites already running now automatically fade out if a new background sprite starts due to shuffle mode (previously, a new background sprite would not appear until the current one expired).
The Windows installer now works around Windows 64 bit System32 (SysWOW64) redirection when installing the screen saver.
Because of the present state of brokenness of OpenGL drivers in Windows Vista, G-Force will no longer OpenGL by default if it's running under Vista (unless nOGL=0 explicitly appears in the global prefs file). This behavior will be removed once video hardware companies (e.g. Nvidia, ATI, and Intel) stabilize their driver support for Windows Vista. You are encouraged to contact these companies and ask that they improve their support of OpenGL in Vista.
Added anonymous usage stats reporting (which is enabled via a checkbox in the Windows installer).
The "External Folder" feature on the G-Force Toolbar for Windows will now only add items to the sprites list they have a standard image or video file extension.

3.6 - 11 January 2007

Eleven new WaveShapes by Andy!
New internal "lazy" expression evaluation scheme, enhancing performance in certain cases.
The G-Force Toolbar now allows newly created themes to be saved over existing themes.
Fixed issue where the external sprites folder feature was causing the enabled state of the built-in sprites to always enable.
The platinum installer now installs the screen saver (so platinum users no longer need to separately download and install the screen saver).
In Windows, now using a child window scheme when using OpenGL, improving stability in fringe usage scenarios and environments.
When running on an Intel Mac, G-Force now uses native 32 bit pixel format (vs. big endian pixel format), enhancing texture upload performance.
Improved audio hardware compatibility on Windows for certain hardware manufacturers.
Fixed permissions problems in the Mac OS X installer for Mac OS 10.3.
Fixed issue in the G-Force Toolbar for Windows where the particle and sprite shuffle speed sliders weren't always accurately transferred to the engine, resulting in an incorrect particle frequency or duration being set.
Added support for QCD's opGetVisualsWnd mode.
Fixed skin support in Windows Media Player.
On Windows, G-Force now sets process affinity to CPU 0 (vastly improving performance on multiprocessor setups).
Fixed issue that was causing G-Force to fail to load in Google Sidebar.

3.5.7 - 11 November 2006

New configs -- thanks Rainer!
In Windows, the preferences folder has been moved from the user profile folder to the user's Application Data folder and in Mac OS X, ~/Library/Preferences/SoundSpectrum.
Fixed order of operations bug in the interpreter for comparison operators and logical operators.
Fixed line drawing bug, sometimes resulting in erratically drawn lines.
Fixed bug introduced in G-Force 3.5.6 that broke movie sprites.
Now building WMP/MC glue using MSVS8, enhancing G-Force's stability (resulting from a code generation bug present in the VS6 compiler).
Fixed issue in the G-Force Toolbar for Mac OS X where enabling/disabling configs was not being communicated to the engine, resulting in changes not having any effect until the next time the theme was loaded.
Fixed XMPlay 3.3 detection in the G-Force installer.
Added SS_AUTO_FRAME_DIMENSION behavior for PREF_MAX_SIZE_X and PREF_MAX_SIZE_Y, and added support in the G-Force Toolbar for this new option.
Fixed issue in the G-Force Toolbar for Windows where user themes were not being fully applied to G-Force when the toolbar first starts up.
Fixed issue in WMP where the incorrect album cover art would sometimes be displayed.
Fixed issue in WMP where user-specified album cover art images were failing to load.
Because WMP doesn't properly handle unhandled keystroke messages, hotkey handling has been removed in G-Force when running under WMP.
The Mac OS X installer now installs the G-Force Toolbar, G-Force V-Bar, and Standalone in the Applications folder.
The G-Force Toolbar now lets the user select different track text appearance styles.
Until iTunes 7 for Windows is unbroken for non-native fullscreen modes, fullscreen resolution has been hardwired to the native display resolution.
The Mac OS X installer now prompts the user for their license code during installation (instead of G-Force asking for it when it runs for the first time).

3.5.6 - 24 August 2006

Preprocessor macro string substitution fix.
The Mac OS X screensaver no longer prevents sleep.
Improvements to fft latency in the Standalone and V-Bar.
WMP's auto-retrieved album cover art is now used when no other cover art is available.
Fixed possible instability introduced when handling some 8 bit images.
Added hotkey (SHIFT+O) to toggle OpenGL mode in Windows.
Fixed many problems in Windows resulting from pathnames containing extended characters or pathnames being a network or protocol path.
Added new drop-shadow track text style.
Resolved Windows Vista compatibility issues.
Added J. River Media Center 12 install support.

3.5.5 - 09 June 2006

More graceful refresh behavior on Windows.
Windows Media Center compatibility fixes.
Fixed various OpenGL compatibility issues on Windows.
Fixed garbled (or black) album cover art issue on Windows.
Fixed WMP issue where G-Force would stop drawing frames.
Fixed PNG support on non-QuickTime systems.
VectorC internal reorganization in preparation for AltiVec/SSE acceleration.

3.5.4 - 12 May 2006

Smarter file name extension stripping from track info.
Fixed failed full screen switch in Standalone for Mac OS X.
Stability improvements to the G-Force Toolbar for Windows.
Fixed "flickering" issue under specific conditions.
Frame drawing (at 10fps) now occurs when Winamp is stopped or paused.
In full screen mode, the mouse cursor now automatically shows and hides itself based on mouse activity (vs. always being hidden).
Removed 'PDur' in Sprites/(Default).txt so that it wouldn't always override the G-Force Toolbar sprite interval slider.
If in organic full screen mode, G-Force now prevents the operating system's screen saver from activating.
Fixed line drawing bug sometimes resulting in sparse-looking lines.

3.5.3 - 05 May 2006

New ColorMaps from Benton Kimura.
OpenGL stability improvements.
Fixed erratic crash introduced in 3.5.2.
Fixed frame rate regulation issues for Mac OS X Standalone.
Fixed image loading bugs for Windows (when QuickTime isn't available).
Fixed frame flickering issues triggered by frame limiting.
Fixed bug that caused junk colors to result for RGB ColorMaps.

3.5.2 - 27 April 2006

Fixed skin mode support for WMP.
Added built-in PNG support for Windows.
Fixed toolbar crash on Mac OS X when non-ASCII named configs were present.
Fixed issue where the toolbar for Windows was repeatedly getting disconnected.
Fixed Windows Media Center window focus issue.
Fixed issue where running scripts were being prematurely terminated.
Frame rate regulation is now more tolerant of poor OS time accuracy.
Added full mouse and keyboard support for iTunes for Windows.
Major revisions to engine glue for Winamp/Musicmatch/jetAudio.
Pixel flow optimizations (now leveraging x86's conditional move).

3.5.1 - 08 April 2006

Fixed Mac OS 10.3 compatibility issues.
Fixed permissions and behavior issues with the Mac OS X installer.
Added support for older Apple hardware (TiBooks, G4 iMacs, and certain iBooks).
Fixed Windows issue where switch to full screen failed unnecessarily.
Fixed issue where a failed switch to full screen would cause windowed mode to not be restored.
Added error message to V-Bar for Windows if OpenGL fails to start.

3.5 - 03 April 2006

On supporting hardware, G-Force now uses OpenGL, significantly enhancing performance.
The G-Force Toolbar and G-Force V-Bar for Mac OS X are now shipping!
Improved audio input compatibility for various Windows sound drivers.
Great new look for track text and album cover art overlays.
Added universal binary support for Mac OS X.
Added support for the Windows Google Sidebar.
Improved frame rate regulation.
FlowField playlist traversal bug fixes.
HTML documentation edits and additions.
Three incredible new FlowFields from Roger Bigod!
Fixed Windows issue where pref files were being saved in "All Users" instead of the current user folder.
Changes to StartImageOverlay() and StartTextOverlay() — see "Script Command Reference.txt" for details.
The open/close state of advanced pref drawer in the G-Force Toolbar for Windows now persists.
Stability enhancements when using WMP and J. River Media Center.
Fixed keyboard focus issue in J. River Media Center.
Fixed wyvill(x).

3.1.3 - 01 Feburary 2006

New configs from Rainer and Andy.
Fixed sprite scaling issue that could cause a crash when the sprite dimensions were very large compared to the G-Force frame size (typically the case while running the V-Bar).
Added "Repeating Tiles" mode to the G-Force V-Bar.
In WMP, reduced intentionally padded sleep durations (initially padded in order to address problems on hyperthreaded machines), resulting in significantly higher frame rates. This change may come at the cost of "stuttering" or hangs on particular HT machines (due to thread starvation).
Smarter track change event detection in iTunes.
Fixed issue causing SoundSpectrum Darkroom to get only black frames.
Added many new right-click menu options in the G-Force V-Bar for Windows.
G-Force Toolbar and V-Bar for Mac OS X beta testing continues.

3.1.2 - 06 January 2006

Fixed crash caused by G-Force 3.1.1's image importer.

3.1.1 - 05 January 2006

New configs from Rovastar and Andy O'Meara.
Tweaked the line thicknesses of various WaveShapes to make them look better with 3.1's auto line scaling.
Inserted workaround for iTunes for Windows withholding window messages unless the cursor was over the iTunes window.
Increased the delay time until G-Force will be reset/released in iTunes once it's disabled.
Fixed G-Force to VectorC translation issue where rnd(...) was not properly evaluated if the argument wasn't a scalar value (this affected several FlowFields).
Fixed line drawing bug that reduced line drawing performance and line quality.
The right-click/contextual menu is now configuarable via the boot file.
Added event bindings for mouse clicks (SS_*_CLICK_EVENT).

3.1 - 16 December 2005

Many new configs -- special thanks to Rovastar, Rainer, Erlend Robaye, Brian Trevett, Alan Chekanski, and L'invincible!
WaveShape, FlowFields, and ColorMaps are now computed using SoundSpectrum's all-new VM technology entitled VectorC, increasing VM performance by an order of magnitude from the previous architecture. Many new built-in functions and operators are now available.
WaveShape drawing and morphing completely reimplemented, resulting in lower-load and better-looking WaveShape transitions.
Many bug fixes, improvements, and GUI tweaks to the G-Force Toolbar for Windows.
Revised sprite file layout scheme. The Sprites folder now houses all sprites, and non-automatic sprites are now marked by parenthesis (e.g., "(G-Force Logo).txt").
Any WaveShape, ColorMap, Particle, or Sprite that has a name enclosed in parenthesis (ex, "(G-Force Logo).txt" is excluded from the automatic shuffle/slideshow).
Added lossless compression for screenshot BMPs, significantly reducing their file size in most cases.
The V-Bar is no longer built into the G-Force Toolbar (and is now a separate application launched from the toolbar or the Windows start menu).
Increased PREF_FFT_NUM_BINS FFT bins from 155 to 185 (resulting in higher resolution sound visualization).
Smaller memory footprint (G-Force no longer retains disk items in memory and instead relies on asynchronous file prefetching).
Fixed issue where random config sideshow mode wasn't very random (this was especially apparent when the V-Bar was running in tiled mode).
Fixed issue in iTunes where track text would appear if the window was resized.
Resources are now fully released in iTunes if G-Force is disabled for more than a few seconds.
Fixed clock granularity issue that was causing the sound generators to have jittery movement.
Significantly decreased CPU load of the sound generators.
Manual WaveShape morphs are now more visually graceful when a WaveShape change is ordered when a morph is already in progress.
Modified sprite's 'Pen' and 'EPen' behavior for added flexibility.
Line thickness now scales with frame size (see the pref PREF_AUTO_LINE_SCALE for more).
Line drawing optimizations.
In the G-Force toolbar for Windows, the "start toolbar when G-Force starts" setting is now off by default.
Screenshot numbering now persists through all G-Force sessions.
Screenshot save location is now alterable via the global pref PREF_SNAPSHOT_DIR.
Fixed compatibility issues with certain WMP skin modes.
Fixed crash under XMPlay.

3.0.1 - 15 July 2005

New configs -- special thanks to Rovastar, DaveF, Roger Bigod, "mike", and "thecharles"!
Optimized anti-aliased line drawing.
By request, G-Force now enters an idle mode (unloading the CPU) if the output frame is minimized or 100% obscured (Windows only).
Sprites and particles durations are now overridden by the duration specified in StartSprite() and StartParticle().
Added prefs: PREF_FLOWFIELD_SMOOTH_SWITCH, PREF_FLOWFIELD_LINES_PER_FRAME.
Added G-Force Toolbar GUI checkbox allowing PREF_FLOWFIELD_SMOOTH_SWITCH to be changed.
Added G-Force Toolbar GUI checkbox allowing ENGINE_VAR_NETWORK_MODE to be changed.
Fixed WMP issue where double clicking would not switch to full screen mode.
Fixed WMP issue where the cursor would disappear when WMP is in window mode.
G-Force for iTunes now handles track information contained in radio streams.
Hand-massaged many MAP-type ColorMaps to improve color continuity.

3.0 - 07 June 2005

Added the G-Force Toolbar, an all-new graphical user interface for G-Force, as well as the V-Bar, an all-new repositionable bar with one or more visual "tiles" (both currently available only for Windows).
Added the G-Force Screen Saver.
Decreased the velocity scale of most FlowFields by hand, vastly improving the overall G-Force visual experience.
Background sprite images now auto-fit to the frame size (see Sprites/(Non-Auto)/(Default).txt for flags).
Added anti-aliased line drawing--special thanks to guest developer Steve Ostermiller!
Four different sprite blending modes are now available. See the script logo.txt and boot.txt for a brief description of each blending mode.
Inserted a delay-to-resize (G-Force is now more graceful when it's resized).
New configs -- special thanks to Rovastar, Erlend Robaye, and Roger Bigod!
ColorMap correction has been tweaked for better overall color budgeting.
New install footprint for Mac OS X (the G-Force engine folder is now in the folder "Application Support").
In WMP, G-Force now outputs when WMP is paused or stopped (and displays a zero level).

2.8.1 - 13 April 2005

New splash screen/sequence.
Five new G-Force Gold WaveShapes and FlowFields.
Faster FlowField transitions (resulting in less erratic frame rate changes).
The stand-alone version now has three synthetic sound generators for visualization (press SHIFT A to switch audio sources).
The stand-alone version for Mac OS X now uses carbon event loops (better frame rate regulation).
New prefs: PREF_FLOWFIELD_TRANS_DISABLE, PREF_TRACK_TEXT_APPEARANCE.
Internal reworking of some of the low-level classes.
The Windows installer now properly handles when WMP is running in taskbar mode.

2.8 - 10 Feburary 2005

New FlowFields from Rovastar.
Improved pixel flow algorithm, significantly reducing color granularity.
Improved pixel flow performance by 1-10% (depending on the platform).
ColorMap colors now distributed differently by default, improving foreground contrast.
The ColorMap domain is now arbitrary (new pref: PREF_COLORMAP_I_MAP).
Smoother ColorMap transitions.
Fixed parenthesis bug in the script interpreter.
Fixed case where SHIFT U would not rescan folders.
Renamed the engine prefs file from "Vars.txt" to "Engine Vars.txt".
Fixed crash when WMP was already in fullscreen and G-Force started.
Fixed Win98/ME hang when G-Force exits.
Fixed crash under jetAudio.

2.7.3 - 02 January 2005

Faster and better-looking line drawing.
Fixed Win9X compatibility issue causing G-Force to crash.
Fixed a small FlowField cosmetic issue following a frame resize.
Fixed issue where album was not found when QuickTime was present in Windows.
The G-Force window no longer floats above all other OS windows by default.

2.7.2 - 16 December 2004

New configs (thanks Ted, Rovastar, Ryan, Ethan, and others!).
Added hotkey for toggling "auto" track info.
Fixed significant memory leak (thanks Brian!).
Numerous documentation revisions and edits.
Improved audio input device detection for Mac OS X stand-alone version.
Smoother FADER (resulting in smoother sprite and particle fade ins and fade outs).
Fixed crash caused when two sprites shared the same name (but different extension).
Prefs file has been renamed: (user pref path)/G-Force/Preferences (Player Name).txt
Added support for RealPlayer, Quintessential Player, and foobar2000 (thanks Holger!).
The screenshots hotkey now uses a script to ensure that the console text doesn't appear.
Fixed bug where particles or sprites would not always be in auto after startup (thanks Toby!).
Fixed crash caused when a sprite wasn't found (ex, when a sprite was renamed while GF was running).
Added mixer*() support in the Windows stand-alone version, allowing audio input from any audio source.
Increased robustness under WMP for various skin and viewing scenarios.
Check for updates is no longer blocking for Windows.
Fixed WMP crash when using the WMP skin chooser.

2.7.1 - 25 October 2004

New configs (thanks Ted, Roger B, and Rovastar!).
Tweaks to FlowField load balancing.
New HTML documentation design.
Made FFT more responsive under iTunes.
Replaced PREF_UNION_PROBABILITY with PREF_UNION_INTERVAL.
Much better FFT look and response when running under Musicmatch.
Better looking "ends" on fft()-based WaveShapes (fft(x) was wrapping to fft(0) when x was in the neighborhood of 1+).
Fixed cosmetic issue where a FlowField transition would sometimes be "torn" when manually switching FlowFields.
Whitespace is no longer required between the end of a config line and a comment.
Fixed various issues with the built-in image importer (when QuickTime isn't present).
Fixed Windows issue where "thumbs.db" treated as an image (causing an error message).
Fixed parenthesis bug in preprocessor's directive interpreter.
Fixed WMP issue resulting in a blank screen when WMP was in certain skin modes.
Fixed bug for Sonique and XMPlay causing a phantom vertical line to be seen.
Fixed installer bug causing Winamp 2 or 5 to sometimes be falsely detected.
Fixed installer for XMPlay 3.1.

2.7.0 - 02 September 2004

Added asynchronous config and image preloading (eliminating "burps", formerly resulting from synchronous/blocking OS file calls).
Added a couple dozen great new WaveShapes and FlowFields (thanks Ted, Roger B, TP, and Rovastar!).
Improved FlowField computation load balancing (resulting in less erratic frame rates for low and medium tier systems).
Made Mac OS package installer smarter about detecting if iTunes is running (or not).
Made Windows installer smarter about dealing with non-C drive Windows installs.
Made Windows installer more tolerant of sketchy WMP installs and added support for WMP 10.
Added Windows installer support for MUSICMATCH 9.
Added globals HIEGHT, WIDTH, X_EXTENTS, and Y_EXTENTS to FlowFields and WaveShapes (see "Globals" in the config programming reference).
If an error occurs while reading or processing a FlowField, the error message now shows the FlowField file name.
Scripts are now unaffected by internal clock rollovers (which occur about every nine hours), allowing, for example, a script to call itself in order to repeat infinitely (previously, all running scripts had to be terminated upon a clock rollover).
Config (and pref) files no longer use commas to delimit items (whitespace now delimits key-value pairs).
Added the commands CacheSync() and CacheAsync() (thus allowing file caching via script).
On Mac OS X, configs with file names greater than the Mac OS Classic limit (31), are no longer truncated in the console.
Added check for updates feature for Mac OS X and Windows (and be customized via the PREF_CHECK_FOR_UPDATES pref).
Added commands that allow on-the-fly overlay text and images (commercial version only).
Fixed bug where FlowFields would cease to run or change properly if G-Force was running longer than several hours.
Added protection from a possible crash triggered when a third party plugin improperly uses iTunes' GrafPort while G-Force is running.
By request, the two G-Force background/watermark sprites have been removed from G-Force Gold.

2.6.8 - 22 July 2004

Fixed issue causing G-Force to sometimes fail to start in iTunes when in full screen mode was enabled in iTunes.
Fixed bug causing instability if a single quote or double quote was used to bind an event (thanks Ralf!).
Fixed various issues with extended character handling (thanks Ralf!).
Fixed possible hang when entering full screen mode under Windows.
Fixed invalid syntax in two configs that may have caused G-Force to be unstable.
Fixed time index bug that caused G-Force to drastically slow (or stop) after several hours of operation (thanks Toby and Branden!) .
Fixed bug in the Windows stand-alone application that caused audio input to sometimes not be visible.
Fixed bug in the Mac OS X stand-alone application that caused audio input to be ignored from additional sound devices (ex, iSight, iMic).
Fixed issue where frame rate was erratic and/or choppy under iTunes.
Fixed cases where the Windows installer wasn't detecting Winamp 2 or Winamp 5.
Made the expression evaluator more restrictive for invalid/illegal syntax (so 3rd party configs containing invalid syntax may appear different).
Added URL/network support for album cover art under J River MEDIA CENTER.
Added installer support for J. River MEIDA CENTER 11.
Added keyboard support for WMP (thanks Brian Spangler!)
Added functions: asin(), acos(), and atan2().
Added several configs (thanks Ted!).
Added support to select audio input source (press SHIFT+A while running the stand-alone application to select input sources).
Added support for 16 bit full screen mode.
Improved audio response under iTunes.
Changed pref and license code storage locations to be more in accordance with OS conventions and permissions.

2.6.7 - 12 July 2004

Unbroke HSV ColorMaps that had "wrapped" hue values.
If idle CPU is detected, the oncoming FlowField will be computed in larger chunks.
If a ColorMap is changed when a transition is already in progress, a new transition will occur (ie, there won't be a step change to the new ColorMap).
Fixed file issue that broke G-Force 2.6.6 running under Win98/WinME.
Less overhead for .MAP ColorMaps.
Added about ten new configs (thanks Ted, Rovastar, and Erlend Robaye!).
To accommodate non-US keylayouts, the SS_SHIFT_KEY_CODE flag is ignored when the CTRL key isn't pressed, the character isn't A to Z, and the character is printable (ex, an event bound to backslash will be executed if the backslash key on a US keylayout is pressed or if SHIFT+ALT+7 is pressed on a German keylayout -- thanks Ralf!).
By popular request, a few of the most "busy" FlowFields have been removed.
Fixed bug that sometimes caused pixel doubling to be enabled on startup.
Renamed PREF_TRACK_TEXT_ENABLED to PREF_TRACK_TEXT_AUTO.
Added PREF_TRACK_TEXT_DURATION.

2.6.6 - 29 July 2004

Added prefs: PREF_FORCE_MULTIBLT, PREF_FULLSCREEN_DEVICE
Added support to the iTunes version such that entering full screen mode directly will use the full screen settings in the G-Force prefs (ie, when the current plugin is G-Force, the "Full Screen" menu option is checked, and then G-Force is started).
New implementation to regulate frame rate in iTunes—iTunes users will no longer experience choppiness or high/low frame rate excursions.
Changed pixel doubling hotkey to SHIFT+D.
Fixed typo in boot file resulting in no frequency response under J River MEDIA CENTER and Windows Media Player (ie, fft(0..1) always returned 0).
Pathnames containing extended characters and UNC pathnames are now properly handled under Windows.
Fixed boot file such that the Sprite slideshow now starts/stops with the G/F key commands (thanks Ted!)
For clarity "source scale" has been renamed to "preamp scale".
A couple new ColorMaps (thanks Ted!)
Fixed bug where SetColorMap() would fail if a .MAP ColorMap was given (thanks Ted!)

2.6.5 - 21 June 2004

Removed all but one splash image (for consistency as well as space reasons).
A dozen new configs (thanks Erlend Robaye and Ted!!)
Splash text is now smaller and added link to soundspectrum.com on the splash screen.
Fixed bug in the standalone version for Windows where fft() was not responsive to audio.
By popular request, G-Force only appears in the Windows taskbar when running under MediaMonkey.
WaveShape particles and Sprites are now two separate playlists, allowing complete independent control.
New pref scheme, allowing almost all settings to be edited via the prefs file (vs. boot file); see the customizing section for more.
Boot file is has been greatly simplified (due to the new pref scheme).
WaveShape morphs look much better (during a transition, pen intensity goes from/to 0 for non-morphing segments and fixed bug were the transition rate was sometimes discontinuous).
Tweaks to ColorMap internals in order to increase performance.
ColorMap morphs are now smoother.
Fixed bug causing the SHIFT key to not be seen if a key other than A-Z was used.
Changed WMP 'FMap' function (previous function was outdated and was not resulting in a visible response).
The Windows installer will now only delete the previous "G-Force" folder if a version older than 2.6 is detected (ie, if you have G-Force 2.6 or later installed and you've added your own uniquely-named items to the G-Force folder then they will not be touched by the installer).
G-Force documentation updates and additions continue.

2.6.4 - 13 May 2004

Changed NextColorMap() and NextWaveShape() prototype such that the duration of the morph can be specified (see boot.txt).
Fixed standalone crash when the default audio-in device cannot be opened for input.
Fixed bug under Windows XP where the standalone would hang (and not even show a window).
Fixed bug casuing cursor to be visible in fullscreen under WMP.
Added SetFFTParams() for full control of stand-alone FFT parameters (see boot.txt).
Config (and Pref) files now longer require non-integer numbers to be strings.
Added installer support for MediaMonkey.
Changed the window type/style from a tool palette window to a normal style for Winamp-compatible players.

2.6.2 - 29 April 2004

Fixed Mac OS bug where aliases placed in the Sprites folders were not always resolved (causing the item to error-out when loaded)
Fixed Windows bug that caused BMPs and JPGs to error-out (or look corrupted) when loaded when QuickTime is not present.
Fixed cases where cursor was visible in full screen mode.
Added installer support for XMPlay and JetAudio.
Runtime environment now processes inline character integers (ex, 'F', 'txt').
New event binding scheme in the form of the new function "BindEvent()" (this replaces BindKey()--see boot.txt for examples).
Added two low-level optimizations, resulting in a slight speedup (thanks Eric Postpischil!)
Album cover art text has been reordered from artist, song, album to song, artist, album.
Added documentation to the boot file.
Added 4 new configs and 1 "Gold" config.

2.6.1 - 12 April 2004

Resolved crash on AMD Athlon systems (by disabling SSE—sorry Intel users!). It's not known if the cause is Metrowerks' use of SSE or an AMD compatibility issue.
Fixed bug where the a ColorMap or WaveShape transition during a track change was getting interrupted (resulting in a jump to a new config).
Fixed Mac OS X installer issue where pre-2.6 sprite images were not deleted, causing the engine to read them in as configs (causing a crash).

2.6.0 - 10 April 2004

11 new WaveShapes (1 Gold), 12 new FlowFields, 54 new ColorMaps (8 Gold), and many still under review (ie, soon to come). Special thanks to Ted, Andy Cabrera, and John Protopapas.
New 32 bit overlay layer that allows splash images, album cover artwork, and track text.
G-Force now supports J. River MEDIA CENTER and Sonique 2.
G-Force is now fully compatible with Unicode track info (provided the media player allows access it—currently iTunes, J. River MC, and WMP).
G-Force Gold now draws track artwork and the track text (provided the media player allows access it—currently iTunes and J. River MC).
Completely new internal command processing kernel that supports advanced future functionality.
The iTunes version for Mac OS X is now built under Mach-O.
The iTunes version for Mac OS X now supports 8 bit full screen mode.
The Mac OS Carbon standalone application is now built under Mach-O.
The Mac OS Carbon standalone application full screen mode now uses Quartz (ie, CoreGraphics).
The Mac OS Carbon standalone application sound-in now uses CoreAudio.
More responsive, faster, and better-looking FFT used in the standalone versions and in SoundSpectrum Darkroom.
Complete reimplementation of the ParticleMgr, giving it a smaller memory footprint.
G-Force now optimized to support PIII instruction set and later (and no longer supports PII and Cyrix).
In an effort to be more descriptive, the configs formerly known as "DeltaFields" are now called "FlowFields".
Inserted cosmetic improvement so that WaveShapes passing through (0,0) are slightly offset during a dilation transition.
Fixed Winamp bug causing keystrokes to be ignored.
ColorMaps can now be defined in terms of 'R', 'G', and 'B' functions—see "Clear Blue Water.txt"
ColorMaps now support "B" and "C" vars, allowing greater ColorMap complexity (see "ColorWheel.txt")
In Windows, all system and invisible files are now ignored (ex, "thumbs.db"—otherwise, you'd see a msg saying its not a supported sprite).
G-Force now uses default system font for overlay and screen text (although it can still be changed in boot.txt).
New scheme that associates meta text with configs, designed for future functionality (see docs in "Rotating Corridor.txt" for more). Associated with this, all WaveShape particles are now stored alongside regular WaveShapes (in the "WaveShapes" folder).
Added new math function: flip()
WaveShape particle duration function (ie, 'PDur') now has access to "bootstrap" WaveShape vars (NUM and NUM_S_STEPS).
Fixed WMP bug causing frame rate to not be regulated to the desired boot.txt value.
Image sprites now support the 'Fit' flag (if it's non-zero, the image in shrunk to fit the output frame size).
Fixed bug where WaveShape particle's 'NumS' param was being set to 32 (vs. NUM_S_STEPS) by default.
Fixed bug where cursor would not reappear after exiting full screen mode.
If QuickTime is not present, G-Force uses the IJG image suite to decompress JPEG files, making this software based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.
Fixed crash during image decompression (only applicable in Windows environments when QuickTime was not present).
Internal interpreter now processes if/else blocks. Curly braces are always required and "else if ()" blocks are not supported. See the boot file for examples.
Raised the max allowable G-Force frame size from 1 megapixels to about 4 megapixels.
Carefully hand-tweaked about two dozen .MAP configs in an effort to remove discontinuities.
Changed the of the sprites file hierarchy structure.
Text sprites now store their text content in the parameter 'Text' (and no longer in a separate file—see "Msg1.txt" called by "Example Script.txt").
Major changes to boot.txt
Updated HTML-based documentation.

2.5.3 - 14 January 2004

Changed Set-WaveShape/FlowField/ColorMap prev/next behavior. When you change configs, you must also turn the respective slide show off or else the slide show will continue after an set amount of time (determined by the respective slide show interval).
Added "line boost" feature in response to popular request. It increases the line thickness of all line drawing and is typically useful in high resolution environment. Press 'SHIFT+L' to wrap through 0, 1, 2, and 3.
The prefs file is no longer stored in the "G-Force" folder. Since each OS has a different location to store common application data, search your system for "G-Force Prefs" in order to find it.
Corrected WaveShape prev/next/slide show keys in the on-screen help text.
Fixed bug occasionally causing multiple instances of track text would appear.
Worked-around a WMP bug that caused a crash when WMP exits with G-Force or WhiteCap running (MS does not delete the current plugin when WMP exits from clicking the "x" button, so thread cleanup doesn't happen).

2.5.2 - 30 December 2003

16 great new FlowFields (thanks Ryan Edwards!).

2.5.1 - 23 December 2003

A message now appears to Mac OS iTunes Gold users that they need to exit full screen in order to enter their license code.
Fixed bug where ".map" ColorMaps in scripts weren't being found (and therefore not loading).
Fixed bug causing duplicate track text to appear under Mac OS players.
"MAP" ColorMaps are no longer rejected if a CR or LF isn't present after the last value or line.
Created a few more "Gold" configs.

2.5.0 - 18 December 2003

Fixed internal RGB to HSV conversion bug introduced in 2.4.3 (Many ColorMaps had reds show up instead of blues).
Fixed cases where track name wasn't always appearing in Winamp.
Fixed bug where QuickTime-supported sprites were not loading under Windows (ex, mpeg).
Fixed crash under Mac OS 10.1.
Fixed FFT appearing jagged/corrupt and related crash for Windows stand-alone.
Fixed bug where proper font was not being set in boot.txt under Windows.
Fixed problem where not all key messages were getting to Winamp (causing some remotes and track-changing utils to not work).
ID and NUM now function in WaveShapes (ie, now valid for WaveShapes as well as Particles -- see "Generator")
fft() and mag() functions now have "wrapped" domains (ex, fft(-1.2) == fft(-.2) == fft(.8) == fft(1.8), etc)
Default full screen depth is now 32 bit (directX has a pitiful reserved palette entry implementation).
New internal text preprocessor
Greatly improved frame rate control/regulation
Screenshots now save to the user desktop (vs. into the G-Force folder)
G-Force now scans recursively in all the config and Sprites folders (allows organization via making sub dirs)
Swapped the image inversion convention (ie, if you use your own images, invert the image itself, use "~", or flip the Invt param).
G-Force prefs file now stored in the Windows "Application Data" folder (when available)
Added pixel doubling (SHIFT+P)
Removed startup EULA message
New config type called "FlowField Union"
On Mac OS, config files now all end with ".txt"
Fullscreen mode improvements (ex, multimonitor savvy--see FAQ, passing keystrokes to the media player).
First release for Windows Media Player, iTunes (Windows), MUSICMATCH, and Winamp 5
Now use an excellent freeware Windows installer called Nullsoft Installer System (NSIS).
Added new advanced command processing, handling, and queueing scheme (to support some big additions around the corner).
The screen console is now off/invisible by default. It's turned on w/ the help key or the turn-console-on key.
Most events are now echoed to the console (and is the justification for turning off the console by default).
The "show config names" has been removed (because config events are now always printed to the console).

2.4.4 - 11 August 2003

Fixed: Crash when running under certain non-PIII processors.

2.4.3 - 06 August 2003

HTML documentation updated. Parts that are still under construction are labeled as such.
Mac OS full screen mode for all versions is more compatible and supportive. Please report further problems.
Added "Switch full screen depth" key (similar to the switch full screen resolution key).
Decreased the size of the main distribution archive: the "More Configs" folder will be distributed separately, the startup images have been converted from BMP to JPG (decreasing their quality slightly), and several of the included/demo sprites have been converted to 8 bit grayscale.
Added a couple new image particles and removed others.
G-Force released for MUSICMATCH and Winamp 2.
G-Force standalone for Mac OS split into "classic" and "carbon" versions—see the G-Force as an Application section. Please report further problems or feature requests so I improve the standalone versions. Most of the scripting stuff is not documented yet, but you can figure out the commands you need from the 6 example example scripts and the Boot file.
Added flag to text particles that shrinks the text particle to fit in the window if it's too long (see 'Fit' in "Track Info").
Native support for JPGs on Windows (ie, QuickTime not required for JPG sprites). QuickTime is still required for Windows user who wish to play movies inside G-Force.
For visual appeal and audio parody, G-Force now morphs to the next WaveShape and ColorMap on the start of new songs (under audio players that pass new track events to plugins). Note: this doesn't happen on players that don't pass events to visual plugins.
UNICODE text sprites now supported (currently only implemented under Windows; Mac OS soon to come). Simply save your text file as UTF-8 UNICODE, and G-Force will take care of the rest (UTF-8 type UNICODE strings are marked by a sequence of thee bytes: "Ô»ø", but you won't ever see this unless you're using a text viewer that does not support UNICODE).
Fixed issue where the output rect was vertically off-center in its window.
Added right-click (command-click for Mac OS) pop-up menu containing commonly used commands.

2.4.1 - 15 July 2003

Fixed: Audion was improperly showing a SoundJam message.
Fixed: Crash when clicking on G-Force pane.
Fixed: G-Force would sometimes crash when exiting fullscreen mode.
Workaround: An Mac OS X color issue prevents G-Force from running in 8-bit mode in fullscreen mode under Mac OS X, so until it can be resolved I've internally hardwired FS_D to32 (for Mac OS X). This will fix G-Force's colors from looking ugly in fullscreen mode when running Mac OS X when FS_D was set to 8, but the frame rate will be noticeably less.
G-Force license agreement now uses a keystroke to go away (vs. a click)
Corrected finder version string to match actual G-Force version.

2.4.0 - 12 July 2003

Completely new pref/"boot" and script scheme--big design additions still ahead.
G-Force "Pro" beta publicly released.
Fixed bug causing slideshow mode to sometimes stop after a few hours.
Lots of new configs (thanks to all contributors, especially Ted!).
Got rid of screen saver mode (this will come back later properly done).
New commands: "Start new sprite, Kill running particles, Kill running scripts".
Fixed two separate low-level bugs that were causing crashes.
Added text justification ('Just') to text particles.
Fixed font and text size not working a lot of the time.
A dozen new splash screens (thanks contributors!!).
Fast, snappy appearance of splash screen.
Automatically detects all possible fullscreen modes -- press H for help.

2.2.2 - 14 October 2002

Did away with Mac OS installer (too many complaints).
Fixed small cosmetic bug causing some fft bins to be drawn to their neighbor's value, not their own.
About 20 new outstanding configs, about 100 new "more" configs (thanks Jay Protopapas!!).

2.2.1 - 16 July 2002

Fixed pref bug causing a variety of pref-related problems.
About 20 new configs (since v2.2).
Fixed minor Mac OS installer issues.
Added new fullscreen resolution modes.

2.2.0 - 31 December 2001

Fixed long-sought problem causing hard freeze on startup.
Fixed bug where invalid/corrupt BMP screenshots were being saved.
About 40 new configs (since v2.1).
Random splash screen each time GF is started up ("Startup Particle N").
My 3 text sprites are removed (GF shouldn't be biased by language).
Added 3 prefs to customize transition rates for fields, colormaps, and waveshapes (DTrs, CTrs, WTrs).
The fullscreen key has changed from TAB to RETURN.
The 'Take Snapshot' key has changed from SHIFT+TAB to ` and is in the GF keymap.
Smoother opening sequence (used to 'burp' half a sec in)
Added new fullscreen resolution modes.
'$' sprites were not being puged from the cache to follow the GF docs.

2.1.0 - 30 September 2001

Fixed occasional large jumps in color during ColorMap morphing/transitions.
Screen/frame capture to file (SHIFT+TAB).
About 50 new configs (since v2.0).
Fullscreen mode is now toggled with TAB.
Fullscreen resolution is determined by OS's resolution (no more FS_X and FS_Y).
(Windows) Changed window style to palette/tool style window.
(Windows) All image and movie formats can be shown (if QuickTime 5 is present).
(Mac OS 9.1) Text and drawing in certain ColorMaps was appearing black.
(Winamp) Scripts more in-sync with track start times.

2.0.0 - 21 Feburary 2001

Image, movie, and text particles (ie, "sprites").
Access to frequency spectrum (and bass level).
Supports *.MAP files in ColorMaps folder (see the ColorWheel config).
Timecoded scripting.
Keystroke scripting.
New customization options.
Config caching (ie, no disk access after startup).
Morphing/Transition of FlowFields.
Screensaver support.
Added frame rate control/tasking priority.
Standalone version for "line-in" input.
All files and configs now located in a master folder, "G-Force Files".
HTML Documentation.

1.0.0 - 09 January 2000

First public release