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About
- What is G-Force?
- G-Force is an audio visualization plug-in for media players, as well as a standalone application that can 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 requires Windows XP, Vista, or Mac OS X 10.4 (or later) and requires a G5 or P4 processor (or later). G-Force requires hardware graphics acceleration, so you should install and try the free trial version of G-Force in order to ensure that it runs satisfactorily on your system. Also note that G-Force does not currently support the 64 bit version of Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center.
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- What are G-Force Gold and G-Force Platinum?
- G-Force Gold and G-Force Platinum are enhanced versions of G-Force that offer many special features and functions not available in the free trial version of G-Force. G-Force Gold and G-Force Platinum have dozens of exclusive visual configurations, half a million more visual combinations, additional functionality and complexity. You can visit our upgrade page to learn more about G-Force Gold and G-Force Platinum. Users of G-Force Gold and G-Force Platinum also have access to technical support and free updates for a full year.
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- How can I upgrade to G-Force Gold or G-Force Platinum?
- It’s easy to upgrade to G-Force Gold or G-Force Platinum. Simply go to the G-Force Gold upgrade page and follow the instructions. We currently offer secure credit card payment backed by VeriSign and also accept PayPal. If you do not want to purchase online, you can contact us for alternate payment instructions.
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- What is used to make SoundSpectrum visualization products?
- Our products are written in C++ and compiled using Metrowerks CodeWarrior and Xcode/gcc. All of our products are under continuous development and have undergone many iterations since the first code written in 1998.
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- What are the origins of G-Force and WhiteCap?
- You can visit the personal website of G-Force creator and SoundSpectrum co-founder Andy O’Meara to learn more about the origins of G-Force and WhiteCap.
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- Can I use G-Force to provide visuals for a concert or performance?
- G-Force Free Trial, G-Force Gold, and G-Force Platinum are licensed only for non-commercial, personal use on a personal computer. Any public display, performance, or commercial use of G-Force is strictly prohibited unless written permission is granted by SoundSpectrum. We are happy to offer licenses for commercial use to users who want to use G-Force commercially, upon request. You can request a license for commercial use from the Contact Us page.
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- How do I contact SoundSpectrum if I have a question or feedback?
- Customer Support has extensive documentation that includes a troubleshooting section, so we ask that you look for an answer there before e-mailing us. For general feedback, sales and licensing inquiries, software installation questions, and technical support, please use the Contact Us page. You can also find useful (but unofficial) information in the user forums.
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- I am a developer. Can I use the G-Force engine in my application?
- The G-Force engine offers a powerful C-style API that allows third party developers to drop in the G-Force engine into their own applications with less than a page of code. If your company is interested in using G-Force to enhance your application’s user experience, then we can get you our SDK for engineering evaluation.
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- Why should I submit feedback, bug reports, or configs to SoundSpectrum?
- Our products can’t improve unless you send us your ideas, feedback, and bug reports! Most of the features added to G-Force in the last few years started out as user comments. When WhiteCap was first released, it came with about 20 configs. Today, thanks to users who sent in configs they made, a couple of hundred configs now come with WhiteCap. G-Force is the same way: if you submit new configs, you’ll make it that much better for everyone else.
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Installing/Updating/Uninstalling
- How do I install G-Force?
- After you download the free trial of G-Force Free Trial, G-Force Gold, or G-Force Platinum, please follow the installation instructions.
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- How do I install the G-Force Screen Saver?
- The G-Force Screen Saver is automatically included in your G-Force Platinum download (or your G-Force Gold download, if you also purchased the Screen Saver). On Windows, please follow the on-screen instructions listed in the last step of the installer (select Start | Control Panel | Display | Screen Saver | G-Force). On Mac OS, double-click on "G-Force.saver" and then select G-Force as the current Screen Saver in your System Preferences (note, please close and then restart your System Preferences if the G-Force Screen Saver does not become visible subsequent to install).
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- How do I enter my G-Force license code?
- If you are using Windows, you will be asked to enter your G-Force License Code upon install of G-Force Gold or G-Force Platinum. We recommend that you use your computer’s "copy and paste" functions, but if you enter your license code by hand, please double check your entry and please do not use spaces within your entry. If you are using Mac OS X and iTunes 7 or later, please follow the instructions below:
- From the main menu, select iTunes Preferences => Advanced Preferences and deselect "Display visualizer full screen" (we suggest you also set the visualizer size to Large).
- Restart the G-Force visualizer from the "View" menu (or by pressing "Command T").
- Enter your license code when prompted.
- Please note that once you have placed the visualizer into non full screen mode, you can use the "Command F" keystroke to go full screen and/or use the full screen option from the "View" menu.
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- How do I update G-Force?
- To update G-Force Gold or G-Force Platinum, visit the Downloads & Updates page and enter your license code to download the latest version. Install this new version of G-Force (when prompted, enter your license code)!
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- How do I uninstall G-Force?
- On Windows, go to Control Panel | Add or Remove Programs | G-Force. On Mac OS, use the Finder to search for and delete folders named "G-Force" (the default location of G-Force on Mac OS, is home/Library/Application Support/SoundSpectrum/).
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- Does G-Force Gold/Platinum ever expire?
- No, your ability to use the version of G-Force you have purchased and installed never expires, and you may use G-Force on your personal computer in perpetuity. Your license code also provides you with the ability to download all new updates to G-Force free of charge for one full year after the purchase date, directly from our website. It is this download access that expires one year after the purchase date and not your ability to install and run what you have already downloaded. If you wish to continue to have download access for new versions of G-Force after the first year, you may renew your license code for another year of download access. You will always be able to reinstall the version of G-Force you have already downloaded, using your license code.
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- Is G-Force Gold/Platinum a subscription?
- No, you will always be able to use the version of G-Force you have installed for as long as you operate your computer, provided that your operating system and media player software are compatible. Renewing your license code for continued download access to new releases is up to you. We update our software many times throughout the year with new features, additional visual content, technical enhancements, and bug fixes. Many of our users wish to have continued access to the latest versions of G-Force (see the enthusiastic comments about subsequent product updates throughout our testimonial pages), so they renew their license codes at the end of the initial year to get all new G-Force updates for another year.
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- Will G-Force Gold/Platinum stop working if I do not renew my license code?
- No, your version of G-Force will always work, provided you have not updated or changed your operating system or media player software to a different version that is not compatible. If you choose not to renew your download access when it expires a year after the purchase date, then you must make a backup copy of G-Force to use for reinstallation in the event of a system crash or to install it onto a new computer (it is standard procedure to back up files in case of a system crash). It is particularly important to back up your downloaded G-Force files prior to your free download access expiring one year after purchase. We do not provide older versions for download and we will not be able to provide a replacement if your system crashes and your download access has expired. If you renew your license code, however, then you do not need to back up G-Force because you will be able to download the latest version from our website.
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License Code Validation
- What is license code validation?
- When a SoundSpectrum software product is installed, you will be prompted to enter the license code that was issued with the product. After you enter it, the installer will transmit what you entered to SoundSpectrum in order to check that it's a valid license code. SoundSpectrum's validation system does not collect, transmit, or retain any identifying information, and its sole purpose is to prevent software piracy.
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- What is the difference between license code validation and checking for updates?
- License code validation strictly only occurs during the installation process and exists solely to reduce software piracy. Checking for updates is a separate and unrelated process where a SoundSpectrum product anonymously connects (only while it is running) to soundspectrum-updates.com to see if a new version of that product is available for download, informing you accordingly. Although the automatic checking for updates is completely anonymous, you can disable it in the product's settings at any time.
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- Is license code validation mandatory?
- Since the purpose of SoundSpectrum's validation system is to prevent software piracy, license code validation is mandatory. When you install a SoundSpectrum product, you will be required to enter the license code that was issued with the product. You will be unable to install the product without this license code or if your computer cannot access the Internet during the installation process.
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- Where do I find my license code?
- If you purchased the product online, a license code was issued to you (via e-mail) when you purchased the product. If you bought a physical copy of the product, the license code can be found within the interior of the product's packaging.
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- How does product validation affect customers?
- The only requirement associated with SoundSpectrum's validation process is that your computer must be connected to the Internet when you install a SoundSpectrum product. If your computer is not connected to the Internet (or is blocked by security or firewall software), the installer will report an error and you will be unable to proceed with the installation until an Internet connection can be established. Once you install a SoundSpectrum product, it will never make any subsequent attempts to access the SoundSpectrum validation server under any circumstances. As always, SoundSpectrum Customer Support is available in the event that you have any questions or problems.
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- What happens if a SoundSpectrum product is discontinued?
- In the event that a SoundSpectrum product is discontinued, SoundSpectrum will enable automatic approval of all license code validation requests for that product or provide a means to remove validation outright. In either case, the customer will not experience any change in software capabilities.
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- Will I be able to use the software in perpetuity? What happens if SoundSpectrum shuts down?
- SoundSpectrum's product license agreements typically grant the user the right to use it in perpetuity, and SoundSpectrum intends to honor those agreements. In the unlikely event of a company shutdown, SoundSpectrum will enable automatic approval of all validation requests or provide other technical means allowing users to continue using our products.
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- What happens when SoundSpectrum releases new versions of a software product? Will I be able to install an older version?
- Yes. Even after an older version of the product stops shipping, you will always be able to install your copy of the older product. The sole purpose of SoundSpectrum's validation system is to prevent software piracy and the only reason a license code won't be accepted during the validation process is if the license code has been flagged as being illegitimate.
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- May I use a SoundSpectrum product on more than one computer at a time?
- SoundSpectrum acknowledges that you may own multiple computers and may want to use your purchased product on each one, so SoundSpectrum has gone to great lengths to ensure that this is fully supported and hassle-free.
Separately, please note that SoundSpectrum software products are for personal, non-commercial use only. Any commercial use or public display requires obtaining a separate commercial license from SoundSpectrum.
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- Shouldn't SoundSpectrum's efforts be expended to stop piracy instead of burdening loyal customers?
- For the reasons discussed in this FAQ, we believe that our license code validation process does not represent a burden to our users. Software piracy is a daunting problem that affects small software companies like SoundSpectrum, and significantly affects their ability to grow and even stay in business. Ultimately, customers benefit from anti-piracy measures because it means lower software prices can support the same level of product development.
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General
- How can I display G-Force on a TV/projector?
- In order to display G-Force (running on your computer) on an external display such as a television, plasma display, or projector, you’ll need a special cable. Some examples of cables are a SVGA cable, a S-Video cable, or a DVI cable (in order for a particular cable to be acceptable, it must be supported by both your computer and your external display). In order from highest to lowest video quality, you should choose DVI, SVGA, and then S-Video (S-Video is available much more widely on televisions than SVGA or DVI). SoundSpectrum does not provide these cables, but many computer stores such as CompUSA, Best Buy, Circuit City, and Radio Shack sell these computer accessories.
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- Can G-Force visualize "line-in" audio?
- Yes, G-Force Standalone (included with your G-Force Platinum purchase) is specifically designed to visualize any of your computer’s audio input sources. See the G-Force as an Application section for more.
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- How do I select an audio input source in G-Force Standalone?
- There are three methods to switch audio input sources. With G-Force running, press SHIFT+A to step through all the audio input sources available on your system. You can also right-click (or control-click on Mac OS) on the G-Force window. Or, using the G-Force Toolbar, select a source from the "Audio input source" popup menu in advanced settings section.
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- Can I visualize a live audio feed from my microphone?
- Absolutely—it’s really cool! Start the G-Force Standalone application, and follow the instructions above to select your microphone as the audio input source. Clap your hands and see what happens!
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- For Standalone, how do I turn on the "stereo mix" audio source in Windows Vista?
- The "stereo mix" audio source is hidden by default in Windows Vista. Please follow the steps below in order to enable this audio channel within Windows Vista:
- Select "Sound" from the Control Panel.
- Select the "Recording" tab.
- Right click on the background of the tab and choose "show disabled devices".
- Select the "Stereo Mix" or similar recording device and click "Properties".
- Within the "General Properties" tab, select "Use this device (enable)".
After completing the above steps, you should be able to use your "stereo mix" audio source within G-Force Standalone and V-Bar applications (same as within Windows XP). Please note that you may also need to increase the "Sound Preamp Scale" and/or "Sound Response Scale" within G-Force prior to seeing noticeable reactivity.
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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. 1024x768 is the default resolution because most monitors and projectors show it well and it yields good frame rates for typical setups. If you have a faster setup or use a display device that looks best in a particular resolution, you will 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 frame rate decreases as full screen resolution increases (because G-Force must process more pixels). Also, see "How can I increase frame rate?" in the Performance section. Note: some media players, such as Windows Media Player don’t allow plugins to request a particular full screen mode, so any full screen settings that you alter (by pressing M or a pref file edit) will have no effect.
Related Forum Discussions
Full screen?
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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 list of available full 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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- Can the full screen G-Force window span multiple monitors?
- G-Force is built to support, by default, a single monitor and G-Force consequently does not have controls for multiple monitors. The reason for this is that there are thousands of different combinations of video cards, video drivers, and operating system controls (more than we can currently support). However, most multiple monitor configurations have driver/system controls for managing multiple screens, so please review your existing system controls (or your graphics card driver features).
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- Can G-Force run in full screen mode on my second monitor while I work on the first monitor?
- You can run G-Force Standalone (bundled with G-Force Platinum), drag it to your secondary display, and resize G-Force Standalone to fill your screen (click on the lower right screen corner to resize). Some graphics cards will also allow you to go into full screen mode (again, run and drag G-Force Standalone to your secondary display and then enter full screen mode).
Related Forum Discussions
A Utility to Zoom G-Force on a second monitor
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- How do I adjust full screen settings for Windows Media Center?
- Because Windows Media Center operates in a full screen environment, you will not be able to modify your G-Force preference settings using the G-Force Toolbar. Additionally, the current release of Media Center does not provide visualizers with access to keystroke commands, mouse clicks, or remote control commands (please, however, feel free to request these features from Microsoft). As such, you will need change your Media Center preferences by editing your G-Force Media Center prefs file as described below:
- Please configure your G-Force frame width/height limits within either Windows Media Player or G-Force Standalone by first starting G-Force and second making the appropriate modifications within the G-Force Toolbar (note, the frame width and height limit controls are located within the Toolbar’s Visualization Preferences pane). When finished, close both G-Force and the Toolbar in order to save the new preferences.
- Open your G-Force preference files (for Windows XP, located in C:\Documents and Settings\USER_NAME\ Application Data\SoundSpectrum\G-Force\ and for Windows Vista in C:\Users\USER_NAME\ AppData\Roaming\SoundSpectrum\G-Force\. For purposes of this example, we will assume that you have modified your G-Force Standalone preferences and that you consequently open the Standalone prefs file and your Media Center prefs file.
- To copy over the frame width and height limits, please find and copy the values of MaxX and MaxY from your Standalone preferences to your Media Center preferences file. Save the file and restart Media Center and G-Force to see the changes take effect.
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- How do I adjust full screen settings for iTunes 7?
- The full screen controls have changed as of the iTunes 7 release and if you want to use the G-Force Toolbar, we would recommend that you place iTunes into non-fullscreen mode ("large" screen setting) and then use the CTRL F keystroke (Command F in Mac OS X) to toggle in/out of full screen mode when desired:
- From the main menu in Windows select Edit | Preferences | Advanced Preferences | "Display visualizer full screen", and in Mac OS X select iTunes Preferences | Advanced Preferences | "Display visualizer full screen".
- Restart the G-Force visualizer from the "View" menu (or by pressing Command T).
- Please note that once you have placed the visualizer into non full screen mode, you can use the Command F keystroke to go full screen and/or use the full screen option from the "View" menu.
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- Can I capture or take a screen shot of G-Force?
- To take a screen shot of G-Force, press the backquote key (`), and the current frame will be saved as a BMP file on your desktop. You can also do this by right-clicking on the G-Force window and selecting "Take Screen Shot" (if your media player supports this). Also, you can press the G-Force Toolbar’s screen shot button.
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- How do I save G-Force screen shots to a specific folder?
- You can modify your screen shot location by following the directions below:
- Open the Global Preferences.txt file (for Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\USER_NAME\ Application Data\SoundSpectrum\G-Force\, for Windows Vista: C:\Users\USER_NAME\ AppData\Roaming\SoundSpectrum\G-Force\, and for Mac OS: home/Library/Preferences/G-Force/).
- Change the SnpD preference to specify a different screen shot folder. For example, on Windows XP, you can change:
SnpD="C:\\Documents and Settings\\USER_NAME\\Desktop"
to, for example:
SnpD="C:\\Documents and Settings\\USER_NAME\\My Documents"
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- Can I make the G-Force Screen Saver respond to sound?
- Because most users don’t typically have an active sound source when the screen saver runs, we set the screen saver to visualize to one of our "Sound Generator" modes by default. This provides a sound source for G-Force to visualize when no active sound sources are present on your system. However, you can change which audio input source the screen saver uses for audio input by editing your screen saver’s prefs file:
- Start the G-Force Standalone and select the desired sound source (see "How do I select an audio input source in G-Force Standalone?" above). If available, a source named "stereo mix" (or something similarly named, depending on your drivers and hardware) can be effective for visualizing your system’s audio output.
- Open the G-Force preference files for both Standalone and Screen Saver (for Windows XP, this file is located in C:\Documents and Settings\USER_NAME\ Application Data\SoundSpectrum\G-Force\, for Windows Vista in C:\Users\USER_NAME\ AppData\Roaming\SoundSpectrum\G-Force\, and for Mac OS in home/Library/Preferences/SoundSpectrum/G-Force/).
- Find and copy the value of A_in from your Standalone to your Screen Saver preferences file (this tells the G-Force Screen Saver to use to the same audio input source as you had set in the G-Force Standalone).
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- How do I make the G-Force Toolbar not launch automatically when G-Force starts?
- To change the G-Force Toolbar auto-start and auto-exit settings:
- Start G-Force.
- If not already running, start the G-Force Toolbar (on Windows, Start | All Programs | G-Force).
- Within the G-Force Toolbar, open the Advanced Settings drop-down drawer.
- Open the Toolbar Preferences pane (Miscellaneous Preferences on Mac OS) and set the desired behavior.
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- How do I change the track display settings?
- To change the track display settings (text size, font, duration):
- Start your media player (and G-Force within the media player).
- If not already running, start the G-Force Toolbar (on Windows, Start | All Programs | G-Force).
- Within the G-Force Toolbar, open the Advanced Settings drop-down drawer.
- Open the Visualization Preferences pane (Display Preferences on Mac OS) and set the desired behavior.
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- How do I make album art visible to G-Force within Windows Media Player?
- To make the album cover art accessible to 3rd party software from within Windows Media Player (WMP), you must use WMP’s advanced tag editor (by right-clicking on a track) to add/associate your album art. To tag a full album at once, you can go to the library main page and select "Album" to get a list of all your albums. Then choose an album and press CTRL A to highlight all the tracks. Then, when you right-click the advanced tag editor, it adds the same album image to all the selected tracks.
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- What are themes?
- When you watch G-Force, what you see on the screen at any given time is a combination of several different configs (See "What is a config?" below). G-Force comes with hundreds of configs, allowing for millions of possible effect combinations. Themes specify which configs are currently on and off (ie, which effects G-Force will pick from to create a particular combination). For example, one might want to create a "relaxing" theme, which turns off faster/high-energy configs.
If you select the "Mellow" theme in the G-Force Toolbar, you will not see the faster/high-energy configs because they have been turned off in that theme. On the other hand, the "High Energy" theme only has these configs turned on and the more slow/low-intensity configs turned off. You can create your own custom themes, allowing you to customize the overall look and feel of G-Force. The "Factory Default" theme has every config file turned on, so start by switching to this theme and unchecking WaveShapes, ColorMaps, FlowFields, Particles, and Sprites that you don’t like. When you are satisfied with your selection, save it as a new theme and you will be able to easily switch to it at any time (to save a new theme on Windows, open the Theme pane in the advanced preferences drawer, and on Mac OS, press the button next to the Theme popup menu).
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- How do I adjust the V-Bar audio input settings?
- You can select the V-Bar audio source and sensitivity by right-clicking on the V-Bar and then selecting from the appropriate selections (On Mac OS, use the V-Bar settings window). The audio input sources listed are several "Sound Generator" modes (which simulate a sound source) followed by sources supplied by your hardware. On Windows, there typically is a "stereo mix" audio source that allows the V-Bar to react to the sound produced by other applications on your computer. Please note that you may need to increase the audio source’s output volume level in order to see a visual response in the V-Bar (you can also increase the V-Bar’s "Audio Sensitivity" settings to boost the V-Bar’s audio reactivity).
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- How do I control G-Force remotely from another computer?
- You can control an instance of G-Force from the G-Force Toolbar running on another computer via network.
- Install G-Force Gold or G-Force Platinum on machine A.
- Install G-Force Professional on machine B. If you do not have a professional license code, install the free trial version of G-Force (remote network control of G-Force is a feature only available for professional license codes).
- If either (or both) of the machines are running Windows, you must install Apple Bonjour (Bonjour is already built-in to Mac OS X so Bonjour does not need to be installed on Mac OS X).
- Set G-Force on machine B to accept remote connections (this only needs to be done once):
- Start and then exit G-Force on machine B (this will create the below pref file).
- In the file "Global Preferences.txt", find the edit the Net variable to 2 (for Windows XP, this file is located in C:\Documents and Settings\USER_NAME\ Application Data\SoundSpectrum\G-Force\, for Windows Vista in C:\Users\USER_NAME\ AppData\Roaming\SoundSpectrum\G-Force\, and for Mac OS X in home/Libray/Preferences/SoundSpectrum/G-Force/).
- Start G-Force on machine B.
- Start the G-Force Toolbar on machine A, and the G-Force instance running on machine B will be listed in the available instances of G-Force (if not other instances are available, the G-Force Toolbar will automatically connect to machine A on startup).
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Performance
- How can I increase G-Force’s frame rate?
- Also see "Is G-Force hardware accelerated?" below for more. Besides getting a faster computer, there are other ways to increase your frame rate:
- Disable background tasks (ex, virus scanners, file sharing apps, system monitoring)
- Reduce the full screen resolution — Press M to switch G-Force’s full screen resolution mode. Or, use the G-Force graphical controls to select different full screen resolutions. Note, however, that Windows Media Player uses your current system display device resolution only (and cannot be changed).
- Disable audio extensions and add-ons — Most media players (and some third parties) offer audio post-processing which can alter the sound of your music. Unfortunately, this can have a negative performance impact on your system, causing G-Force to run slowly or stutter. Try disabling sound equalizers, audio filters, DSPs, etc.
- Limit the frame size — 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 a limit on how many pixels G-Force must render, allowing you to avoid low frame rates when host frame dimensions are large. See the "letterboxing" entry below for how to impose (or remove) horizontal or vertical frame size limits.
- Disable CPU power-saving features — For example, on Mac OS X, setting "Processor Performance" to "Reduced" in the Energy Saver system preference panel slows down the CPU (in an attempt to reduce power consumption).
- Try using G-Force Standalone — G-Force Standalone (bundled with G-Force Platinum) doesn’t have the overhead associated with running through a media player so it runs significantly smoother than running G-Force in a media player.
- Experiment with advanced CPU settings — Some users have reported that performance or smoothness of frame rate improves when hyperthreading (HT) is disabled (on Intel-based machines) or when process affinity is set to a specific CPU (on multiprocessor machines).
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- Why are there horizontal bands at the top and bottom (also known as "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 can I increase frame rate?"). When G-Force restricts its size, it paints the remaining region (the outer border) black. Although you can remove these bands using the G-Force Toolbar frame size limiting settings in the advanced settings (change the "Frame height limit" setting to "No limit"), this can cause your frame rate to significantly decrease on a high resolution screen.
Related Forum Discussions
Full screen?
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- Why does G-Force pause or "freeze" when I manually switch FlowFields?
- Calculating/preparing a FlowField is an intensive process. Normally, these calculations are spread out over 10 to 15 seconds, making the additional CPU load difficult to observe. However, when G-Force FlowFields are switched manually, G-Force must perform all the calculations immediately, causing a momentary pause/freeze. You can minimize this by checking the "Smooth manual FlowField switching" option in the G-Force Toolbar’s advanced settings. Note: enabling smooth FlowField switching will cause a several second delay to follow your FlowField previous/next button presses (this is because G-Force needs time to calculate the next FlowField while not interrupting the current visual output).
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- Can I control how much of my CPU goes to G-Force?
- The G-Force Toolbar allows you to easily change the G-Force target/goal frame rate. The G-Force engine monitors the current frame rate and repeatedly adjusts its system priority until the target frame rate is achieved. Because G-Force uses feedback to change its system priority, it can take take a couple seconds for G-Force to arrive at the target frame rate, especially after a significant system load change. Once G-Force raises its system priority to the highest possible value, the actual frame rate will begin to fall below the target frame rate (this occurs when the G-Force per frame render time exceeds 1 over the target FPS). In other words, your system is only so fast and there is a point where your system load is "pegged". See the customizing section for more.
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- Is G-Force hardware accelerated?
- Starting with version 3.5, G-Force uses OpenGL hardware acceleration to transfer CPU-generated frames to the screen. On Mac OS X, the 3D Graphics Architecture team headed by Geoff Stahl at Apple has provided GL_UNPACK_CLIENT_STORAGE_APPLE, allowing Mac OS X developers to very easily use CPU-side frame buffers on the GPU with astonishing speeds. Unfortunately, no such similar widely-available extension exists on Windows/wgl (and must be done on a per-vendor basis, which has not been implemented in G-Force due to complexity and PITA factors).
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- How do I turn off graphics acceleration functionality in G-Force?
- By default, starting with version 3.5, G-Force uses OpenGL hardware acceleration. If your computer is having display problems with G-Force (flickering screen, blank display, etc.), you may want to turn off the graphics acceleration (OpenGL) functionality within G-Force. If you are using G-Force Platinum, please start the Standalone version of G-Force (from the Start menu in Windows) and press "Shift O" once the G-Force screen appears (a text message should appear informing you that OpenGL has been turned off). If this does not work, or if you are using the Gold or Trial versions of G-Force, please try the following:
- Open the G-Force folder (for Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\USER_NAME\ Application Data\SoundSpectrum\G-Force, for Windows Vista: C:\Users\USER_NAME\ AppData\Roaming\SoundSpectrum\G-Force\, and for Mac OS: home/Library/Preferences/G-Force).
- Open the file "Global Preferences.txt".
- Add the following text as the last line within the file:
nOGL=1
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- Why doesn’t my audio player respond to my frame rate settings?
- Some audio players such as Musicmatch do not allow visual plugins to regulate their frame rate. As a result, any attempt to set a target frame rate has no effect.
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- Why will my computer not enter "standby" mode?
- SoundSpectrum graphics engines use graphics hardware acceleration and some computers will not enter "standby" mode while this graphics hardware is in use.
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Customizing
- How do I customize G-Force?
- See the customizing section.
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- What is a G-Force "config"?
- See the config programming section.
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- What is a "sprite"?
- A sprite is a generic term for a graphic that is drawn to the screen repeatedly in order to animate something. The term originated from early computer games that animated small objects or units by rapidly erasing then pasting (or "blitting") a sequence of images to the appropriate places on the screen. Since the size of what was blitted to the screen was typically small, it took very little computing power to achieve impressive frame rates and animation sequences. As a result, game objects could be animated very quickly and smoothly (hence the name "sprite"). Many older popular games such as Command and Conquer and Starcraft gave the appearance of animated combat units, but for each unit there was 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 (e.g., JPG, BMP) and movie files (e.g., QuickTime/MOV, MPEG) that your want displayed into the "Sprites" folder. Next, restart G-Force (or press SHIFT+U)—this will cause G-Force to rescan all its folders. The files that you added will now automatically be part of the sprite slideshow (and will eventually appear automatically). Images and movie files placed in the "Sprites" folders will take-on the behavior defined in the file "(Default).txt". To learn how to give customize the behavior of your sprites, see "(Default).txt" and the example sprites that come with G-Force. If you’re running Windows, G-Force requires QuickTime to load files other than BMPs and JPGs (so if you have file types other than BMP or JPG, then you must install QuickTime in order to see them). You can also do this easily using the Toolbar’s Particles, Images, and Video control pane to specify an external "Sprites" folder.
Related Forum Discussions
Using JPGs
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- How do I delete configs and sprites that I don’t like?
- You may not like all the configs and sprites that come with G-Force, so you may want to disable the ones you don’t prefer. Using the G-Force Toolbar, simply uncheck the WaveShape, ColorMap, or FlowField, or Sprite in the appropriate settings pane. Also see "What is a Theme?" in this FAQ.
If you’d like to permanently remove some configs or sprites, 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 folder "Sprites" for items with a matching name and delete them.
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- How do I fix an image or movie I put in the "Sprites" folder if it appears inverted in G-Force?
- 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 file "/Sprites/(Default).txt".
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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, name your image or movie file so that it’s in parenthesis (e.g., "(G-Force Logo).bmp", "(whatever).jpg"). 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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- Can I make my own G-Force config files?
- If you want to learn the language G-Force uses in its config files, you should already have some familiarity with programming or script writing. Many users submit their configs so that they can be redistributed. See the config programming section for more.
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- How do I customize the text appearance in G-Force?
- You can set the text appearance in G-Force using the G-Force Toolbar’s Visualization Preferences pane.
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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 configs or sprites while G-Force is running?
- If you edit a file while G-Force is running, your changes will not be applied until the next time G-Force loads the file. However, if you press the U key, G-Force will immediately reload the currently running configs from disk. This method is useful for config development and testing. For example, you’d make some changes to a config in a text editor, save the changes, and press U in G-Force to see your changes (assuming that the config you were editing was currently running).
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- What if I’m having a problem with G-Force that’s not listed here?
- Please check the troubleshooting section.
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