CG v.4 User Manual
VISUAL PRO CG v.4 Contents
This manual is organized in six sections
Section I : Installation ……………………………………………………………………………. 1
Section II : Overview ………………………………………………………………………………. 3
Section III : CG User Interface ……………………………………………………………………. 4
Section IV : CG Live Manager …………………………………………………………………….. 11
Section V : VISUAL PRO CG How To
V. 1 Working with the 2D Text item ……………………………………………………...... 14
V. 2 Working with the 3D Text item ……………………………………………………...... 18
V. 3 Working with the Image item ……………………………………………………......... 21
V. 4 Working with the Rectangle item …………………………………………………….. 25
V. 5 Working with the timeline ……………………………………………………………… 27
V. 6 Applying effects on the 2D Text item ………………………………………………… 29
V. 7 Making a Ticker project ……………………………………………………………….. 32
V. 8 Making an advanced Ticker project …………………………………………………. 35
V. 9 Working with Smiley …………………………………………………………………… 39
V.10 Working with the Clock items ………………………………………………………… 41
V.11 Masking …………………………………………………………………………………. 44
V.12 Creating and managing a LowerThird project ………………………………………. 45
V.13 Creating and managing a Timer project ……………………………………………… 47
V.14 Making a Script (Game) project ………………………………………………………. 49
Section VI : Additional Softwares
VI.1 RSS manager …………………………………………………………………………… 52
VI.2 xProKeyboard …………………………………………………………………………… 55
VI.3 Scheduler ……………………………………………………………………………….. 58
VI.4 GPI …………………………………………………………………………………......... 61
section i : installation
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Section I : Installation
I.1 System Requirements
The operating system:
VISUAL PRO CG is designed to run under Windows XP (with service pack2 or pack3) or Windows Vista /
Windows 7 .Net 3.5 SP1 must be installed in order to run the Live Manager
Video card / Framebuffer:
The BlackMagic DeckLink card must be installed before installing the CG software.
Available Storage on the hard drive:
A minimum of 100 MBytes of space on the hard drive is necessary to install the program. We recommend
that you use a separate partition or a hard drive for storing graphic elements.
CD-ROM:
If you intend on installing the software from a CD-ROM, the system must have a CD/DVD drive.
Processor (CPU):
VISUAL PRO CG will run on a 2 Ghz Pentium 4 (or newer) processor.
RAM:
VISUAL PRO CG requires 1GB of RAM. We therefore recommend a minimum of 2GB of RAM to run the
application and operating system.
USB Port:
The computer must have at least 1 unused USB port to install the USB Dongle key that is required to run the
application in license mode.
VGA Card:
We recommend a nVidia graphic card with a memory bus of min. 128 bits for SD (for example 9500GT) min.
256 bits for SD (for example 9600GT)
I.2 Installing the Software
.Net 3.5 SP1 must be installed before installing the program the installer's .zip package
contains the web installer for .Net 3.5 SP1 so an internet connection will be required to
complete the installation.
Just launch “dot net 3_5 SP1 web_setup.exe” and follow the indications. After installing .Net 3.5
SP1 you can install VISUAL PRO CG.
The VISUAL PRO CG has a Setup program (with extension .msi) that installs the software to run on your
computer. There are separate installers for Windows XP and Windows Vista (Windows7)
I.3 Installing the Hardware Key
A separate installer is provided for the USB hardware key (dongle). Once the driver for the USB hardware
key is installed the dongle can be inserted into an available USB port on your computer.
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I.4 Checking the Installation
Run the program to test the installation by double clicking on the "MagicSoft CG4" icon. The program’s
window should appear after several seconds.
Using the program’s graphical interface you can choose the frame buffer, video standard and keying mode.
section ii : overview
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Section II: Overview
About VISUAL PRO CG
The VISUAL PRO CG software is designed to be an intuitive and powerful CG solution for professional
television broadcasting stations that use the Blackmagic Design Decklink video card.
A project is a collection of items (texts, images, rectangles). All the items contained by the projects are
synchronized.
VISUAL PRO CG is a scalable solution supporting both Standard Definition and High Definition in all
Video modes:
1. PAL / NTSC ( including 16/9 option )
2. HD 720p ( both 50p and 59.94p)
3. HD 1080i ( both 50i and 59.94i )
Depending on which Decklink card you use, VISUAL PRO CG will support analog or digital input and output
and either internal or external keying.
VISUAL PRO CG is with the following in mind:
1. work done in a 3d environment supports anti-aliasing; this takes advantage of greater GPU speeds,
2. provides a workflow that is based on projects, which are collections of items text, images, rectangles,
etc.,
3. projects can have one or more items that are synchronized.
4. key-frames can be used to interpolate the characteristics of projects,
5. projects requiring edits can be viewed in the Preview while output of on-air projects are displayed,
6. the content and display status of the projects can be controlled using a TCP/IP protocol
VISUAL PRO CG can handle simultaneous previewing, creating, displaying and controlling of projects
incorporating tickers, logos, crawls, image sequences, analog / digital clocks and script based projects.
Beginning with VISUAL PRO CG version 4.1, a separate client application called Live Manager has been
included. This provides a more flexible user interface to control all of the projects using the TCP/IP protocol.
The goal is to have a template-like workflow so that templates are created as CG projects.
A CG project can contain text and images items that can be dynamically changed from Live Manager.
Live Manager Application is linked with the CG so each project’s changes will be automatically loaded into
Live Manager.
section iii : cg user interface
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Section III : CG User Interface
VISUAL PRO CG Studio graphical interface has several elements:
Tool Bar Preview window Project List window Items List Window Item Properties Window
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III.1 Toolbar
Toolbar has several sub-menus and an icon bar
File sub-menu
Contains "Exit" command that will stop the application
Tool sub-menu "Options" command will launch a dialog with multiple tabs to set the program options
Video Mode tab
This tab allow you to choose set TV standard (PAL,NTSC,HD) and the type of keying, internal or external.
Decklink board must support the video standard as well as the keying mode. The program must be restarted
in order to initialize the new settings.
Socket communication tab
Allows you to set the IP and port of the internal server that can listen the TCP/IP commands from other
applications.The default values are 127.0.0.1 and port 2000.
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Serial communication tab
The serial communication is preserved as legacy because for latest implementations TCP/IP protocol can be
used instead. You can choose to have two sources of commands mapped on 2 serial ports and also you can
also choose the protocol type (please contact us on support@magicsoft.tv for details).
"Capture one frame" command will capture the output frame as bitmap with alpha channel and save it on
the partition C:\ The name of the file contains data when the capture has made.
"System Info" will launch a dialog that shows some information about used video card and frame buffer
Smiley sub-menu
Smileys give you the possibility of replacing the sequence of characters with an image or a sequence of
images in a similar way as chat programs do. You can create .sml files that contain these correspondences
between sequence of characters and images. Only one smiley file can be assigned to a project. "New"
creates a new smiley file "Open" opens an already existent smiley file
Help sub-menu
"About" command: displays information about the current version of the program and the type of license.
"Help" command: displays the help
Icons
Move : by selecting this icon, the mouse can be used to move the selected item
Offset : by selecting this icon, the mouse can be used to adjust the offset of the selected item
Resize : by selecting this icon, the mouse can be used to resize the selected item
Move only on X : by selecting this icon, the item can be moved on X (left-right)
Move only on Y : by selecting this icon, the item can be moved on Y (up-down)
Lock : locks an item so it can't be moved or resized with the mouse
Zoom -: zoom the Preview Window
Zoom + : zoom the Preview Window
Zoom 1:1 : reset the size Preview Window to video size
Only current project : restrict the selection to the items that belongs to current selected project Only current
item : restrict the selection to the item that is currently selected
Live Manager : start the Live manager Application Img Update : Updates all the images loaded in CG if the
corresponding image file was updated
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III.2 Preview window
Preview window displays a preview of the projects. This window is scalable to enable the display on the
monitors with lower resolution than the recommended one.
It has the grids standardized in pixels, the horizontal and vertical edges and the standardization is made
automatically, according to the chosen TV standard (NTSC, PAL, and HD).
The preview window will display according to the aspect ratio of the pixel because the PAL/NTSC/16:9 TV
systems has pixels that are not square. The preview windows have Safe Area and Safe Title that helps for
positioning the items it is possible to zoom the window.
Items can be moved and resized with the mouse in preview. By clicking on wheel you can change between
moving and resizing and the cursor will change accordingly.
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III.3 Projects window
This window has a list that contains projects name and shortcut controls and a panel with buttons to access
dialogs for specific operations regarding projects (creating, loading, saving etc...)
The project list has columns for:
- Enable Preview : a check-box that will display the project in preview when checked ( this is not
interfering with On-Air status)
- Name : displays the name of the project
- Update : this button shows when the project has changed in Preview against On-Air. By clicking this
button the modifications will be sent On Air.
- In : Put a project On Air . For some type of projects (like LowerThirds) a separate program will be
launched to manage the project
- Out : Stop a project from being displayed On Air ( so it be Off Air )
- FFW : Project will go Off Air by executing the designated out effect
- Cond : for a project having conditions to be displayed will show a green check or a red dot depending if
the condition is true or false
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III.4 Items window
This window has a list that contains items name and a panel with buttons to access buttons for creating or
removing items
In the items list each item can be enable or disabled.
Enabling /Disabling will affect both Preview and On Air.
The buttons panel has 8 buttons:
- 2D Text : By clicking on this button a 2D text will be produced
- 3D Text : By clicking on this button will produce a 3D text (works only on Windows XP and is not suited
for scripting languages ex Arabic)
- Image : Opens a browsing dialog to select an image (or a sequence)
- Rectangle : Creates a rectangle
- D Clock : Clicking on this button will produce a digital clock based on your system time
- A Clock : Opens a browsing dialog to select an image that is to be used as analog clock
- L Third : Creates a a 2D text that can be modified using TCP/IP protocol ( mainly as lower third from
Live Manager )
- Remove : By clicking on this button the selected item will be removed
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III.5 Item properties window
The Item properties window appears only when an item is selected and contains: Dynamic properties of the
item (are placed above the timeline control)
Timeline is used to represent the time (as the item duration). Fixed properties of the item (are placed below
the timeline control and remains constants on entire timeline)
Timeline is used to represent the time (as the item duration). The timeline contains at least a key frame
(usually at the beginning of the timeline at frame zero). The Keyframe is the point on the timeline that keeps
the values of the dynamic properties of an item. Between keyframes, the properties of the item are obtained
from the linear interpolation of the values corresponding to the keyframes.
section iv : cg live manager
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Section IV : CG Live Manager
Live manager is a separate application that allows you to load and control CG projects.
In order to run the program it is necessary to have installed on your computer .Net 3.5 SP1 (if). The installer
.zip package contains the web installer for .Net 3.5 SP1 so an internet connection will be required to
complete the installation.
The application works in Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 it has full support for UNICODE.
Live Manager Application being linked with the CG by TCP/IP, the changes from each project will be
automatically loaded for each project.
section iv : cg live manager
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VISUAL PRO CG Studio graphical interface has several elements:
- Tool Bar
- Status bar
- Project controller
IV.1 Toolbar
The Toolbar has several sub-menus
Project the contains :
- "Open Project" command that opens a project and load the project in the CG
- "Stop All" command that stops all the project from the CG
- Hide/Unhide allows you to check from a list of all loaded projects the projects that you want to hide (by
default all projects are visible)
- Reconnect command will reconnect the application to the CG
- Always on top command will make the application to be displayed on top of all applications that runs on
your computer
- Settings opens a settings dialog that contains :
o project default directory
o TCP/IP address
IV.2 Status bar
Status bar appears at the bottom of the Live Manager window and shows the connection status.
IV.3 Project controller
A project controller is a set of the buttons and controls that are listed in the Live Manager interface and are
necessary to manage a project.
Each project that runs in the CG has a corresponding "Project controller" in Live Manager.
Each project controller has a title bar that shows the path, the name and on air status of the project
Each project controller has buttons for:
- Play
- Stop
- FFW
F
or Ticker and Game-script projects there are buttons for "Pause" and "Resume" that are specific for this
kind of projects.
For Ticker and Crawl projects it is possible to set the speed by adjusting the value from the edit box.
Depending of the type of the project, the project controller can show a grid that allows you to edit the text or
image to be dynamically assigned for Text or Image items and a resize button that allows you to adjust the
vertical size in order to increase the size of the grid.
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Each project controller has a menu with some actions that can be executed for the project
- "Refresh on air status" asks the CG about the status of the project (normally this is not needed
because the communication between CG and Live Manager automatically shows the changing of the
status)
- "Reload project template" will load the project again in the Live manager (normally this is not needed)
- "Hide" will hide the project so it will not appear in the Live Manager but the project run in CG. In order to
show again click on "Hide/unhide" button from Toolbar
- "Import text" allows you to import the data into the grid from tab delimited .txt files
- "Export text" allows you to export the data from the grid in a tab delimited .txt file
section v : visual pro cg how to
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Section V : VISUAL PRO CG How To
V.1 Working with the 2D Text item
This type of item is the most efficient way to display text. When working with 2D text, the application behaves
the same when working in Windows XP, Vista and Windows7. It has full support for UNICODE and scripting
languages and can be set to dynamically auto-fit in a designated target size.
To start the example let's create an empty project.
From Projects Window select New . Simple project and choose a name for the project.
Then select the project in Projects window list.
Now in Items window we can add a 2D Text item by clicking on “2D Text” button.
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2D Text has fixed and dynamic properties.
Fixed properties are
- duration ( indicates the item life time in frames )
- content of the text ( is editable from edit control and fully supports UNICODE )
- font type ( any installed TrueType font can be selected )
- font style (if available, any style can be selected)
- font size ( any size up to 100 )
- alignment ( any combination of vertical and horizontal alignment can be selected )
- shrink factor ( you can choose to shrink the text in order to make it appropriately sized )
- auto fit settings ( displays a dialog for enabling and has a target size in pixels. You can indicate how
much the font size can be shrunk and down-sized in order to fit the target size )
Fixed properties are applied in real-time so you will see the item’s modifications in Preview window
Dynamic properties
- position ( represents the place where an item is located. Position can be modified by editing the
corresponding X, Y or Z value ; by clicking on edit control and spinning the mouse wheel you can have
more precise control )
- offset ( represents the distance between the item position and the pivot. Pivot is the point used as the
center for rotation )
- rotation ( represents the angle of rotation on each axes . A complete rotation is 360 degrees )
- draw area ( is the area where the item will be drawn. Initially the draw area is full screen but you can
restrict it on both axes )
- font color and transparency ( a color dialog allows you to select the color and the transparency )
- shadow color and transparency ( also can be selected from the color dialog )
- shadow position ( represents the distance between text and shadow )
- border color and transparency ( also can be selected from color dialog )
- border size ( represents the size of the border)
- text effects like blur, transparency, luminance, saturation can be applied over the text, shadow and/or
border (see the chapter V.6 “ Applying effects on 2D Text item” )
Dynamic properties are applied in real-time so you will see the item change in the Preview window
In some situations it may be useful to lock an item so that it moves only on the X or Y axis. This can be done
by clicking on the corresponding icons in the Toolbar or by right clicking the mouse in the Preview window
and deselecting “Allow X” or “Allow Y.” This will affect only the movement with the mouse in the Preview
window.
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An item can be Locked by selecting it with the mouse and clicking on the corresponding lock icon from
Toolbar; or by right clicking the mouse in Preview window and selecting “Lock.” Locking an Item prevents it
from being accidentally modified.
Unlike all other items that can be created in VISUAL PRO CG, 2D Text can only be moved with the mouse in
Preview window; it cannot be resized.
Because the size is a fixed property, resizing is possible only when the font dialog is opened and another
size for the font is selected.
The project’s review can be enabled or disabled by checking /unchecking the associated check box from the
Project list. This will not influence the On-Air status of the project.
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In order to show that the project in Preview was modified, the On-Air project in the Project list will display a
star after the name of the project.
If you want to have a text item changed dynamically, you can make the item controllable from Live Manager
application by clicking on TCP/IP variable button.
After clicking on “Refresh” you will see a grid in Live Manager that allows you to edit the text
By clicking on Refresh, the modifications will be sent On Air and to Live Manager application.
To put the project On-Air just click the IN button. To stop the project from being displayed On-Air click on
OUT button.
The project can be controlled in the same manner from a project list or from the Live Manager application.
To Save the Project as a file, click on Save or Save As or right click on the project name and choose Save
from the menu.
By clicking on the Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air and the Live
Manager application will discard the project.
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V.2 Working with the 3D Text item
One advantage in working with 3D text is that the size of the text can be dynamically adjusted. However, 3D
text is only supported when using VISUAL PRO CG with Windows XP. 3D Text will also not work with
scripting languages. 3D text is generally of a lower quality than 2D text.
To work with 3D text, start this example by creating an empty project
From Projects Window select New . Simple Project and choose a name for the project.
Then select the project in Projects window list.
In the Items window you can add a 3D Text item by clicking on “3D Text” button.
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3D Text has fixed and dynamic properties
Fixed properties are
- duration ( indicates item life time in frames )
- content of the text ( is editable from the edit control )
- font type ( any installed TrueType font can be selected )
- font style (if available, any style can be selected)
- rendering quality for font (for large text you must choose "High" from the font setting’s dialog )
- alignment ( any combination of vertical and horizontal alignment is possible ) Fixed properties are
applied in real-time so you will see the item’s modifications in the Preview window
Dynamic properties
- position ( represents the place where an item is located. Position can be modified by editing the
corresponding X, Y or Z value; by clicking on edit control and spinning the mouse wheel you can have a
more precise control )
- offset ( represents the distance between an item’s position and the pivot. Pivot is the point used as the
center for rotation) -rotation (represents the angle of rotation on each axes. A complete rotation is 360
degrees )
- draw area ( is the area where the item will be drawn. Initially the draw area is the full screen but you can
restict it on both axes )
- font size (can have different values on X and Y )
- font color and transparency ( a color dialog allows you to select the color and the transparency )
- shadow color and transparency ( can also be selected from the color dialog )
- shadow position ( represents the distance between the text and the shadow )
Dynamic properties are applied in real-time so you will see the item’s modifications in the Preview window
An item can be Locked by selecting it with the mouse and clicking on the corresponding lock icon from
Toolbar; or by right clicking in Preview window and “Lock.” Locking an Item prevents it from being
accidentally modified.
Like all other items except 2D Text, 3D Text can be moved and resized with the mouse in the Preview
window.
The project preview can be enabled or disabled by checking /unchecking the associated check box in the
Project list .This will not influence the On-Air status of the project.
In order to show that the Project in Preview was modified the On-Air project in the Project list will display a
star after the name of the project.
By clicking on Refresh, the modifications will be sent On Air and to Live Manager application.
To put the project On-Air just click the IN button. To stop the project from being output On-Air click on OUT
button.
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The project can be controlled in the same manner from project list or from Live Manager application.
To Save the Project as a file, click on Save or Save As or right click on the project name and choose Save
from the menu.
By clicking on Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air and the Live
Manager application will discard the project.
In the event that you need to have a Text item changed dynamically, you can make the item controllable
from the Live Manager application by clicking on TCP/IP variable button.
After clicking on “Refresh” you will see a grid in Live Manager that allows you to edit the text
By clicking on Refresh, the modifications will be sent On Air and to the Live Manager application.
To put the project On-Air just click the IN button. To stop the project from being displayed On-Air click on
OUT button. The project can be controlled in the same manner from the project list or from Live Manager
application. To Save the Project as a file, click on Save or Save As or right click on the project name and
choose Save from
the menu. By clicking on Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air and the
Live Manager application will also discard the project.
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V.3 Working with the Image item
The Image item allows you to display an image or an image sequence.
We will start this example by making an empty project.
From Projects Window select New . Simple project and choose a name for the project.
Then select the project in Projects window list.
Now in Items window we can add an Image item by clicking on “Image” button.
A browse dialog opens that allow to select the image that can have extensions: .tga, .bmp, .jpg, png or dds (
.dds is a compressed format 4:1 that allows you to work with images with alpha channel)
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If you want to select a image sequence, just select the first image and click on “Scan if sequence” button and
the software will count all images.
You can specify how many files from sequence to use by editing “Count” value. If you want a slower playing
rate, pick a slow factor greater than 1 by editing the “Slow Factor” value.
If you need to change an Image item dynamically, you can make the item controllable from the Live manager
application by checking the TCP/IP variable checkbox. You can choose work with the picture at original size
or to resize to match the desired width by keeping the aspect ratio.
Image item has fixed and dynamic properties
Fixed properties are
- duration ( indicates item life time in frames )
- file name and properties of the sequence ( this is editable using the “Change” button )
- type of filtering used for resizing ( “Linear” is the best for most cases )
- auto update ( by checking this option, the software will scan ti ascertain whether the the image was
updated and will automatically update it in both Preview and On Air. This works only with single images,
not with sequences of images.)
Fixed properties are applied in real-time so you will see the item’s modifications in the Preview window
Dynamic properties
- position ( represents the place where an item is located. The Position can be modified by editing the
corresponding X, Y or Z value ; by clicking on edit control and spinning the mouse wheel you can have a
more precise control )
- offset ( represents the distance between the item’s position and the pivot. Pivot is the point used as the
center for rotation )
- rotation ( represents the angle of rotation on each axes . A complete rotation is 360 degrees )
- draw area ( is the area where the item will be drawn. Initially the draw area is full screen but you can
reduce it on both axes )
- picture size ( any value can be assigned for the width and height; in order to revert to original dimensions
push the button bellow the width and height edit controls )
- picture transparency (is a percentage of transparency. This works for images with and without alpha
channel )
Dynamic properties are applied in real-time so you will see the item change in Preview window
This also works for sequences and will automatically update images in both Preview and On Air.
In some situations it may be useful to lock the item so that it can be moved only on the X or Y axis. This can
be done by clicking on the corresponding icons from the toolbar or right clicking the mouse when in the
Preview window and deselect “Allow X” or “Allow Y.” That will affect only moving/resizing with the mouse in
preview window.
An Item can be locked so as not to accidentally modify it. This is done using the mouse and clicking on
corresponding lock icon from the Toolbar or by right clicking the mouse when in the Preview window and
selecting “Lock”.
Like all other items, Images can be moved and re-sized with the mouse in Preview window.
By clicking on icon “Img Update” from Toolbar the software checks all the images used in all of the loaded
projects to see if the corresponding files were changed since loading.
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If you need to change an Image item dynamically, you can make the item controllable from the Live manager
application by clicking on TCP/IP variable button.
Every assigned picture will be re-sized to match the allocated size
.
The pictures that you want to be dynamically assigned to Image items need to be located in a designated
folder . To choose the image folder go to project Properties and select Image Folder
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By clicking on Refresh, the modifications will be sent On Air and to the Live Manager application. In Live
Manager you will see a grid that allows you to preview and select the images.
To put the project On-Air just click the IN button.
To stop the project from being displayed On-Air click on OUT button.
The project can be controlled in the same manner from the project list or from Live Manager application.
The Project can be saved as a file by clicking on Save or Save As or by right clicking on the project name
and choosing Save from the menu after the name has been selected.
By clicking on the Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air and the Live
Manager application will discard the project.
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V.4 Working with the Rectangle item
The Rectangle item allows you to display a rectangle on screen. You will have the ability to change the
rectangle’s color and transparency as well as the color and transparency of each corner, gradients can be
easily drawn in this way.
We will start the example by creating an empty project
From Projects Window select New . Simple project and choose a name for the project.
Then select the project in Projects window list.
In the Items window we can now add a Rectangle item by clicking on “Rectangle” button.
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A Rectangle item has fixed and dynamic properties
Fixed property
- duration ( indicates item life time in frames ) Fixed properties are applied in real-time so you will see the
item’s modifications in the Preview window
Dynamic properties
- position ( represents the place where an item is located. Position can be modified by editing the
corresponding X, Y or Z value ; by clicking on edit control and spinning the mouse wheel you can have a
more precise control )
- offset ( represents the distance between item position and the pivot. Pivot is the point used as the center
for rotation )
- rotation ( represents the angle of rotation on each axes . A complete rotation is 360 degrees )
- draw area ( is the area where the item will be drawn. Initially the draw area is full screen but you can
restrict it on both axes )
- size ( any value can be assigned for width and height ) -color and transparency (a color dialog allows
you to select the color and transparency when clicking on the central rectangle . To choose color and
transparency for each corner, click on the rectangle’s corresponding corners)
Dynamic properties are applied in real-time so you will see the items change in the Preview window
In some situations it may be useful to lock the item so that it can be moved only on X or Y axis. This can be
done by clicking on the corresponding icons from the Toolbar or right clicking in the Preview window with the
mouse and deselecting “Allow X” or “Allow Y”
This will affect only moving/resizing with the mouse in the Preview window.
A Lock can be locked so that it is not accidentally modified. This is done by clicking on corresponding lock
icon from Toolbar or right clicking the mouse in the Preview window and selecting “Lock”.
Like all other items except 2D Text items, Rectangles can be moved and resized with the mouse in the
Preview window.
The project preview can be enabled or disabled by checking /unchecking the associated check box in the
Project list .This will not influence the On-Air status of the project.
In order to show that the Project in Preview was modified while On-Air a star will be displayed after the
name of the project in the Project list.
By clicking on the Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air.
By clicking on Refresh, the modifications will be sent On Air and to the Live Manager application.
To put the project On-Air just click the IN button. To stop the project from being displayed On-Air click on
OUT button.
The project can be controlled in the same way from the project list or from the Live Manager application.
To save a Project as file click on Save or Save As or or right click on the project’s name choose Save from
the menu.
By clicking on Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air. The Live Manager
application will also discard the project.
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V.5 Working with the Timeline
The Timeline control is a convenient representation of an Item’s lifetime and allows the animation of an item
by selecting different properties during the item’s lifetime. Timeline units are in frames as is appropriate for
video.
The keyframe is the frame that specifies the dynamic values of an item’s properties.
Between keyframes, the properties of the item are obtained by the linear interpolation of the values
corresponding to the keyframes.
The timeline contains at least one keyframe (usually created at the beginning of the timeline as frame zero.)
Several additional controls can be noted near the Timeline control :
- timeline duration ( indicates the item’s lifetime in frames )
- go to previous keyframe
- go to next keyframe
- create new keyframe ( set currently selected frame as a keyframe )
- delete keyframe ( deletes the selected keyframe )
- Infinite loop (the item will will loop between this keyframe and the next one. An item can have only one
keyframe with this attribute )
- play ( plays in Preview window showing the entire item lifetime )
- go to frame ( allows you to place the cursor at specified frame )
- animate (allows you to animate an item by changing the properties’ values at a selected frame.
When the “Animate” button is not active the properties are changed for all the keyframes.
If the “Animate” button is active the properties are changed only for selected keyframe.
If the Animate button is active (highlighted) the properties of the item will be modified only if the cursor is set
on a keyframe
To copy a keyframe hold CTRL and drag the keyframe with mouse to the desired location.
To move a keyframe hold SHIFT and drag the keyframe with mouse to the desired location.
By moving the first key we can delay the Item so it will appear later than other items of the project.
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Example:
Creating an empty project and adding a 2D Text item to show how to animate an item.
From the Projects Window select New . Simple project and choose a name for the project.
Then select the project in Projects window list.
Now in the Items window we can add a 2D Text item by clicking on “2D Text” button.
The item’s lifetime is pre-set on 250 frames by default.
That duration can be adjusted by editing the value from the timeline duration control.
Because the item has only one keyframe, all the values are constant during item ‘s lifetime.
In order to create an animation that has a duration of 100 keyframes , go to frame 100 and create a keyframe
by clicking on “New keyframe” button
Then click on “Animate” and change the desired value for example for color or for position.
Now by dragging the cursor on the timeline control, the item will be displayed in the Preview window with the
item’s changes in position and color between the keyframes.
We can play in the project in the Preview by pressing “Play” button. To stop the animation preview click on
the same button that toggles between stop and play.
While playing in the Preview, items cannot be edited. Properties listed below the timeline also cannot be
changed ( can't be animated ).
Depending of type of item we can also animate :
- Rotation
- draw area
- size
- transparency
To put the project On-Air just click the IN button. To stop the project from being displayed On-Air click on
OUT button.
To save Project as file click on Save or Save As or right click on the project’s name and after choose Save
from the menu.
By clicking on the Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air.
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V.6 Applying effects on the 2D Text
VISUAL PRO CG allows you to apply some dynamic effects like blur, luminance, and saturation on the 2D
Text items.
Multiple effects can be applied on the same time.
We will start the example by making an empty project
From Projects Window select New . Simple project and choose a name for the project.
Then select the project in Projects window list.
Now in Items window we can add a 2D Text item by clicking on “2D Text” button.
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Text effects area has several controls that allow you to manage the effects:
- "Add" button will open a dialog to add an effect
- "Up" button moves the effect up. The effects from the list are applied starting with the first form the list
- "Down" button moves the effect down in the effect list so will be processed after the effects that are
above
- "Delete" button deletes the selected effect
- "Save" button saves all the effects from the list
- "Load" button loads the effects from a list
The effect list has several columns:
- first column exposes a check box allowing to enable/disable the effect
- second column shows the name of the effect
- third columns contains the offset (regarding the frame 0) of the effect's starting time (in frames)
- fourth column contains the effect duration (in frames)
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The properties of effects are listed near the effect list :
- intensity depending on type of effect that may represent a pixel value (ex : blur) or a perchance factor (
transparency, luminance, saturation)
- the way how the effect is applied :
- per item (the effect is applied on the entire item once)
- per glyph (the effect is applied per glyph )
- wave ((the effect is applied on the entire item progressively )
The direction to apply the effect (default is from left to right ) can be reversed by checking the corresponding
checkbox.
Transition (in frames) allows you to apply the effect progressive in "Per Item" case Range contains the width
of the area to apply "Per Glyph" effect.
Speed represents the speed to apply the effect.
An effect can be applied separately on glyph border and shadow by checking the corresponding
checkboxes.
The project preview can be enabled or disabled by checking /unchecking the associated check box from
Project list .That will not influence the On-Air status of the project.
In order to show that the Project in Preview was modified regarding the On-Air project in the Project list a star
will be displayed after the name of the project.
By clicking on Refresh, the modifications will be sent On Air.
To put the project On-Air just click the IN button. To stop the project from being displayed On-Air click on
OUT button.
Saving the Project as file can be made by clicking on Save or Save As or right click on the project name and
after that, choosing Save from the menu.
By clicking on Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air.
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V.7 Creating and managing a Ticker project
Ticker projects work by reading the information from .txt files (including Unicode encoding) and displaying the
contents by crawling across the screen.
The software uses .txt files in order to facilitate the interoperability with other programs that may generate
dynamic content.
The files are processed following the named order.
If the files are generated automatically it is advisable to use a name that contains the date and time
(example: file_name_27_09_2009__15_48_33.txt)
To create a Ticker start by creating a new a Ticker project
From Projects Window select New . Ticker project and choose a name for the project.
Then select a folder that contains the text files that with the information to be displayed by that Ticker.
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In the Item’s window there is a “Ticker” item, basically a 2D Text item that has the property “Crawl” enabled
and set to a default speed. By assigning a negative value, the Ticker will change the direction. You can
change the starting location of the Crawl by changing the Y position. You can use the Draw Area to restrict
the display of the Crawl to a part of the screen.
A Ticker can be edited in the same way a 2D Text item can be edited. In order to improve the visibility of the
Ticker a Rectangle is usually added behind the Ticker. The rectangle keyframe must be set to “Infinite Loop”
in order to be keep it on screen indefinitely.
If there are no text files in the assigned Ticker directory all of the items associated with the Ticker will not be
displayed, even if the Ticker is started. When the directory is replenished with .txt files, the scrolling will start
automatically.
You can preview the Ticker by clicking the play button. Some other properties of the Ticker project are listed
on Properties page. To display Properties page, select the project from Projects list and click on properties
button (or right-click and select “properties”)
You can select whether the text files will be deleted after being displayed or will be recycled. The separator
between messages can be modified.
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By clicking on Refresh, the modifications will be sent On Air and to the Live Manager application.
To put the project On-Air just click the IN button. To stop the project from being displayed On-Air click on the
OUT button. The project can be controlled in the same manner from project list or from the Live Manager
application.
You can save the project as a file by clicking on Save or Save As or by right clicking on the project name and
choosing Save from the menu.
By clicking on Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air. The Live Manager
application will also discard the project.
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V.8 Creating and managing an advanced Ticker project
You can have IN and OUT effects for Ticker projects and you can display additional information that can be
read from within the same file as the text that comprises the Ticker’s contents.
Start by creating a Ticker project
From Projects Window select New . Ticker project and choose a name for the project.
Then select a folder that contains the text files that constitute the information to be displayed by that Ticker.
Now in the Item’s window you will see that there is a “Ticker” item, basically a 2D Text that has the property
“Crawl” enabled along with a default speed. By assigning a negative value, the Ticker can change the
scrolling direction.
Add a Rectangle behind the Ticker. The width of the rectangle will match the width of the screen and the X
position will be zero.
To associate additional text information with the Ticker. The Ticker shows text from the .txt files by displaying
only the first row. However, it is also possible to have some extra information on the next rows.
In order to display the data on row 2 of the .txt file with a 2DText item, it is necessary to edit the text item by
adding: {LINE2}
That 2DText item must have the first keyframe set in infinite loop to stay on the screen indefinitely.
Making a IN effect for Rectangle
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Make a copy of the first frame by holding CTRL when drag with mouse (or create a new keyframe in order to
have a distance between keyframes that equals the effect‘s desired duration).
The time interval between those keyframes will correspond to the IN Effect. On the timeline, go to second
frame and check the "infinite loop" option for the second frame so the Rectangle will stay on the screen
indefinitely.
In order to create a “push” effect we need to click on the “Animate” button to enable the animate mode that
allows you to change the rectangle characteristics on each keyframe.
After clicking “Animate” go to first frame and modify X position to match the width of the screen (the rectangle
changes its position and will be transformed at the right of the screen).
As you can see in preview when dragging the timeline cursor between keyframes, the rectangle will be
“pushed” from right to left.
In the same manner, by modifying the transparency you can make a “fade effect”, by modifying the draw
area you can make a “reveal” effect and by modifying the size you can make a “resize” effect...
You can use an image (or sequence of images) instead of a rectangle.
The IN effect will be displayed when we click on the ON button in the Project list or when the Ticker directory
is empty and some .txt files are added.
Making a OUT effect for Rectangle
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Go to the end of rectangle's timeline and create two keyframes : one on last keyframe and another placed
before the last keyframe in order to have a distance between keyframes that equals the effect’s desired
duration.
In order to create a “wipe” effect we need to click on the “Animate” button to enable the animate mode that
allows you to change the rectangle’s characteristics on each keyframe.
In “Animate” mode go to the last keyframe and modify the width for the draw area to zero.
As you can see in preview when dragging the timeline cursor between keyframes, the rectangle will be
“wiped” from right to left.
In the same manner, by modifying the transparency you can make a “fade effect”, by modifying the Y
position you can make a “push-out” effect and by modifying the size you can make a “resize” effect ...
You can use an image or a sequence of images in lieu of a rectangle.
The OUT effect will display if the Ticker runs On Air and we click on FFW button or when Ticker directory is
Emptied.
By clicking on Refresh, the modifications will be sent On Air and to the Live Manager application.
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To put the project On-Air just click the IN button and you can observe on your video output the Ticker
showing with IN effect.
To stop the project from being displayed On-Air click on FFW button in order to observe on your video output
the Ticker disappearing with OUT effect.
To stop the project from being displayed On-Air without effect, just click OUT.
The project can be controlled in the same manner from project list or from Live Manager application.
The Live Manager offers you the possibility to change the speed on the fly and to put the project in a “Pause”
state. In “Pause” the ticker will stop displaying but when the “Resume” will occur it will display starting with
the last message that has not displayed completely.
You can save the project as a file by clicking on Save or Save As or by right clicking on the project’s name
and choosing Save from the menu.
By clicking on Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air and the Live
Manager application will discard the project.
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V.9 Working with Smiley
Smileys provide you the possibility of replacing the sequence of characters with an image or a sequence of
images in a way similar to the way chat programs do. That affiliation between a sequence of characters and
images is saved in file with an .sml extension. Only one Smiley file can be assigned to a project.
Creating a Smiley file
To create a .sml file go to Smiley . New to display a Smiley dialog with a list.
Right click list and choose "Add"
In the next dialog that appears you can type at "alias" the group of characters that you want to be replaced in
the text, and select the files that contain the image (or sequence) that will be displayed as replacement for
the “alias”.
If you want to select a image sequence, just select the first image and click on “Scan if sequence” button and
the software will count all images.
You can specify how many files from sequence to be used by editing “Count” value.
If you want a slower playback speed, select a slow factor greater than 1 by editing “Slow Factor” value.
You can add, delete or modify the associations from a .sml file by clicking on the Smiley list.
Finally the .sml file must be saved before being used in a project.
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In the following example a .sml file will be selected for a Ticker project (but it can be used on any type of
project) From Projects Window select New . Ticker project and choose a name for the project. Then select
a folder that contains the text files that with the information to be displayed by that Ticker.
By opening a .txt file you can see that contains groups of characters like #up# and #down#
For this example you will make
“#up# ” group of characters to be replaced by an image sequence showing a green arrow “#down# ” group of
characters to be replaced by an image sequence showing a red arrow
The .sml file will be edited and saved. The .sml file can be assigned to a project by opening Properties dialog
of of the project and selecting the desired Smiley file.
After selecting the .sml file we can see the Smileys displaying on the Ticker
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V.10 Working with the Clock Items
The Clock item is used to display the time and it is based on the time established by the computer that the
VISUAL PRO CG application is running on. VISUAL PRO CG allows you to display a digital and an analog
clock.
Digital clock
Start by creating a New Simple project
From Projects Window select New . Simple project and choose a name for the project.
In the Items window click on the “Digital Clock” button.
A Clock dialog will appear allowing you to choose to display second, minute, hour.... by checking the
corresponding check box.
The order can be changed by selecting an element and clicking “Up” and ”Down” buttons.
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The default separator is “:” but this can be also edited.
There is the possibility to edit an offset (for example if you want to show 2 clocks corresponding for 2
different locations)
After selecting the desired parameters for digital clock and closing the clock dialog a 2DText item will be
created having the text like [TIME]%H:%M:%S.
You can modify the parameters later by selecting the item and clicking on “Clock” button and the Clock
dialog will appear.
Basically a Digital Clock item is a 2D Text that is set to display time.
Having the same characteristics as a 2D Text item, the Clock can be edited as a 2D Text item. It can be
moved or rotated and you can change its color and transparency; it can have a shadow and border.
Analog Clock
In order to make an analog clock you need to make an special image.
The image used for the Analog clock has 4 quarters.
Each quarter contains one of the clock’s elements.
To make the Analog Clock click on “Analog Clock” button and select the corresponding image.
The Analog Clock is made from an image that contains the clock elements and it is set to display time. An
Analog Clocks will act like an Image item. It can be moved and scaled.
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By clicking on Refresh, the modifications will be sent On Air and to the Live Manager application.
To put the project On-Air just click the IN button. To stop the project from being displayed On-Air click on
OUT button.
The project can be controlled in the same manner from the project list or from the Live Manager application.
You can save the project as a file by clicking on Save or Save As or by right clicking on the project’s name
and choosing Save from the menu.
By clicking on Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air. The Live Manager
application will discard the project.
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V.11 Masking
Masking is a powerful technique that allows you to obtain a visual effect by combining two items.
Masking is used to draw an item by combining the item with the alpha channel of other item (called the
mask). The item to be drawn will be visible only where alpha channel is not null.
Start by creating an empty project
From Projects Window select New . Simple project and choose a name for the project.
Then select the project in Projects window list.
Now in Items window add a 2D Text item by clicking on “2D Text” button.
In the Items window add an Image item by clicking on the “Image” button (a rectangle can also used)
In this example we will use a single image but a sequence of images may be used also.
Now will set the 2D Text to be masked by selecting the 2DText item from items window and clicking on the
Masking button, then selecting “Masked Item”
Now will set the Image to be used as a mask by selecting the image item from the items window and clicking
on Masking button and selecting “Use as mask”.
You can choose to draw the mask item or not by checking/unchecking the corresponding checkbox.
As a result, the text will be drawn only inside the image that was chosen as a mask if the alpha channel is
not null.
You can link two items by assigning one of the masked items as a parent for mask item. This will help in
case that you want to animate the position of the item because it will automatically animate the mask in the
same way.
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V.12 Working with Lower thirds
The Lower Third project allows to dynamically changing the content of text and image items
from by feeding them with data from Live Manager program.
We will start this example by making a Lower Third project
From Projects Window select New . LowerThird and choose a name for the project.
Now in the Items window there are two Text items. Having the same characteristics as a 2D Text those items
can be modified as such. You can change positions of the items on X an Y by selecting and dragging.
To improve the visibility, usually a Rectangle or Image is added behind the text.
You can insert other items in the project from Items list.
In order to be able to dynamically change the content of the inserted item it is necessary to make that item to
be a TCP/IP variable by clicking on the corresponding button.
In case of the Image item it is also necessary to set the corresponding folder that contains the pictures that
you can assign to be displayed. Go to the properties of the project and select the folder that contains the
images.
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You can manage the LowerThird content by clicking on the Live Manager button. After saving the project (or
executing "Refresh") the Live Manager shows the corresponding columns in the grid, allowing editing text or
to preview and select images.
From the Live Manager application you can control the information that is displayed by each LowerThirds
items.
The grid contains a column for each Lowerthird controllable item. By clicking on a row and select the play
button you will send the data to VISUAL PRO CG to be displayed.
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V.13 Working with the Timer
The Timer project allows displaying and controlling a counter. The Timer project can be controlled from Live
Manager program
We will start the example by making a Timer project
From Projects Window select New . Timer and choose a name for the project.
Now in the Items window there is a 2DText item that can be controlled from Live Manager program.
You can insert other items in the project from Items list.
You can change positions of the 2D Text items on X an Y by selecting and dragging.
Having the same characteristics as a 2D Text those items can be modified as such.
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When you click on Live Button the Live Manager application will appear.
From the Live Manager application you can control characteristics of the Timer:
- the starting and stopping time
- the format of the displayed counter
There is a command to hide the counter (it is not displayed but will increment/decrement during this time)
By clicking on play/stop buttons you will send the corresponding commands to VISUAL PRO CG.
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V.14 Making a Script (Game) project
This kind of project works by taking the information from .txt files (Unicode encoding is supported) and
displaying that information as text or image items.
The software uses .txt files in order in order to facilitate the interoperability with other programs that may
generate dynamic content.
The files are processed according to the order of the names in the folder. If their generation is done
automatically it is advisable to use a name that contains time (ex: file_name_27_09_2009__15_48_33.txt)
The content of a .txt file that will be used in the following example looks like this:
first row of the file this is another row image1.tga image2.jpg
In order to display the information that is written on certain row of the .txt file to a text item of the project it is
necessary to edit the item text by adding: {LINE row_number}
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In order to display an image by its filename written on a certain row of the .txt file it is necessary to edit the
image file path like: {LINE row_number}
To edit the Image path, create an Image item by clicking on Image button, skip the “Open” dialog by pressing
“Cancel” and edit the image path that appears in the “Image properties”.
????
Regarding the Image item:
- all the assigned images will be automatically resized to match the sizes of the image item
- in the project properties dialog you must specify the folder that will contain the images and only the
images from this folder can be displayed
Before creating the Game project, make the folder that will contain the images and the folder that will contain
the .txt files.
Create and edit at least one .txt file according to Game project.
After that you can create a new Game script project
From the Projects Window select New. Game (script) project and choose a name for the project.
Go to the properties of the Game project and select the folder that contains the .txt files and the folder that
contains the images.
You can choose to cycle the messages or to delete them after displaying.
There are special cases (as chat-like games) when "KeepGameOnLastFrame" must be checked so that if
folder goes empty the program can display the last state of the game until the other .txt messages arrive.
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To display the data that is written on row 1 of the .txt file on a 2DText item it is necessary to edit the text item
like:
{LINE1}
To display the data that is written on row 2 of the .txt file on a 2DText item it is necessary to edit the text item
like:
{LINE2}
To display the image file that has the filename written on row 3 of the .txt file on a Image item it is necessary
to edit the Image path like:
{LINE3}
To display the image file that has the filename written on row 4 of the .txt file on a Image item it is necessary
to edit the Image path like:
{LINE4}
The preview window will show the Game project using the data from the first .txt file
By clicking on Refresh, the modifications will be sent On Air and to Live Manager application.
To put the project On-Air just click the IN button.
To stop the project from being displayed On-Air click on OUT button.
The project can be controlled in the same manner from project list or from Live Manager application.
Saving the Project as file can be made by clicking on Save or Save As or right click on the project name and
after that, choosing Save from the menu.
By clicking on Remove button the project will be removed from both Preview and On-Air and the Live
Manager application will also discard the project.
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Section VI : Additional Softwares
VI.1 RSS manager
The Rss2Txt application allows you to manage news from an RSS feed in order to be displayed by VISUAL
PRO CG.
RssToTxt program will download each news item in a .txt Unicode file so a project like a Ticker can display
the content of the files.
The user interface has
an edit box that contains the address of the RSS
a read only descriptor of the chosen RSS
a location to save the .txt files
z browse button to choose the location where .txt files are saved
a list with the news from the RSS feed. Each news item has a check box that must be checked in order
to display the corresponding news. If not checked the news item will be ignored
two buttons to Check All / Uncheck All news from the list
a “Find” feature works by inserting the string to be found in the edit box. By clicking on “Find Next”” or
“Find Previous” it will select the list's row that contains the string. Find can be restricted to Case sensitive
strings by checking the Case Sensitive checkbox
If you want to view or edit a news item just double-click it and a dialog will appear showing the title and
content.
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In the settings dialog you can find several useful settings:
- “News are already checked” if checked will automatically allow you to download news in the .txt file so
will be displayed by a project like Ticker. If not you must click on every news that you want to be
displayed
-
Save as Unicode will make the .txt file Unicode. This if the default setting. If unchecked it will produce
ANSI txt that may be difficult to work with.
- Set Title case to upper/lower. After setting this you must click on “delete now all the files from directory”
in order to refresh all the news
- Set text case to upper/lower. After setting this you must click on “delete now all the files from directory” in
order to refresh all the news
- “At start delete files older than...” will delete all the files that contain news items older than the specified
number of days in order to avoid displaying old news
- “Uncheck news older than...” will uncheck all news older than the specified number of days in order to
avoid displaying old news
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Beside that there is a replace feature that allows you to replace a certain string with another string. Click on
“Add Pair” to insert a pair in the lists. To edit that, click on the corresponding row of the list and select it. Click
on it again to edit.
There is also an option for case sensitive replace.
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VI.2 Extended keyboard
This application allows you to map multiple commands on each button in order to manage projects and
content of the text and images items. It has a powerful wizard that will help you to make this only by mouse
clicking.
The user interface has
- a read-only box that displays the name of the last button that was used to send commands
- a read-only box that indicates the status of the link with the VISUAL PRO CG
- a setup button that starts a dialog that will set the communication parameters (IP and port) and a
checkbox to enable working with UBS X-Key external keyboard
- a layout of 58 buttons each button will send the assigned commands on click . At right click on a button,
a wizard dialog will appear in order to assist you.
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The first dialog that shows when you right-click on a button is the Editor command dialog.
Editor command dialog has several elements that will be listed here and explained here:
- an edit box that allows you to edit the button name
- a list that contains the assigned commands
- add command wizard button that will start the wizard command
- load commands from file button will start a browsing dialog to select the file that contains commands. It
may be useful when you want to concatenate or duplicate some commands. After selecting the file and
clicking OK the commands will be inserted in the list
- delete selected rows will delete from the list the selected rows
- “add time gap” allows you to insert a time gap between a series of commands that needs some time to
be executed. For example if you want to stop a project in the middle of execution and after that to play
again the project you need to insert a time gap between those 2 commands
- “add command” will add a blank command after the selected row. You can click on the new created
blank row to manually edit the content of the command. This feature may be useful for debugging.
- “save commands as file” allows you to save the list of the commands in a file
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When clicking on add command wizard a wizard dialog will appear in order to assist you to choose the
desired command.
The dialog contains all the commands that can be sent to a project (Load, UnLoad, Start, Stop, Pause, FFW
out with effect) and requires to select a command and to click on “choose the project” to open a browser
dialog to select the project.
After selecting the project and click “OK” the command will appear in the command list and the wizard can be
started again to select another command. By closing the Editor command you will return on the main
program and you can click on the button.
All the commands that was inserted in Editor command list be sent to VISUAL PRO CG when you click on
the corresponding button.
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VI.3 Scheduler
This application allows you to schedule multiple commands to be sent to the CG at a specified time.
It has a powerful wizard that will help you to make operate only by mouse clicking.
The user interface has
- a read-only box that displays the name of the last button that was used to send commands
- a read-only box that indicates the status of the link with the VISUAL PRO CG
- a setup button that starts a dialog that will set the communication parameters (IP and port)
- a read-only box that displays the computer time and data
- a list that contains all the scheduled events -a button to add new events -a button to delete new events
- a button to send commands assigned to an event immediately
When click on "Add" or right click on a list row, an Editor Command dialog will appear in order to assist you.
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Editor command dialog has several elements that will be listed here and explained here:
- an edit box that allows you to edit the row name
- control to set the data (year, month, day, hour, minute)
- control to set the day of the week
- calendar that allows you to set the starting date
- calendar that allows you to set the ending date -checkbox that allows you to execute the commands
when program starts
- a list that contains the assigned commands
- add command wizard button that will start the wizard command
- load commands from file button will start a browsing dialog to select the file that contains commands. It
may be useful when you want to concatenate or duplicate some commands. After selecting the file and
clicking OK the commands will be inserted in the list
- delete selected rows will delete from the list the selected rows
- “add time gap” allows you to insert a time gap between a series of commands that needs some time to
be executed. For example if you want to stop a project in the middle of execution and after that to play
again the project you need to insert a time gap between those 2 commands
- “add command” will add a blank command after the selected row. You can click on the new created
blank row to manually edit the content of the command. This feature may be useful for debugging.
- “save commands as file” allows you to save the list of the commands in a file
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When clicking on add command wizard a wizard dialog will appear in order to assist you to choose the
desired command.
The dialog contains all the commands that can be sent to a project (Load, UnLoad, Start, Stop, Pause, FFW
out with effect) and requires to select a command and to click on “choose the project” to open a browser
dialog to select the project.
After selecting the project and click “OK” the command will appear in the command list and the wizard can be
started again to select another command. By closing the Editor command you will return on the main
program and you can click on the button.
All the commands that was inserted in Editor command list be sent to VISUAL PRO CG when you click on
the corresponding button.
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VI.4 GPI
The GPI Client uses a serial port to as GPI IN device. Commands can be map for contact on and contact off
separately. Each command can be triggered by the GPI event or by pushing the corresponding button from
the interface.
The program has a powerful wizard that will help you to make operate only by mouse clicking.
The user interface has
- a read-only box that displays the name of the last commands that was send
- a read-only box that indicates the status of the link with the VISUAL PRO CG
- a setup button that starts a dialog that will set the communication parameters (IP and port) and Serial
port
- tree buttons corresponding to contact on
- tree buttons corresponding to contact off
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When right click on a button, a Editor command dialog will appear in order to assist you.
Editor command dialog has several elements that will be listed here and explained here:
- an edit box that allows you to edit the button name
- a list that contains the assigned commands
- add command wizard button that will start the wizard command
- load commands from file button will start a browsing dialog to select the file that contains commands. It
may be useful when you want to concatenate or duplicate some commands. After selecting the file and
clicking OK the commands will be inserted in the list
- delete selected rows will delete from the list the selected rows
- “add time gap” allows you to insert a time gap between a series of commands that needs some time to
be executed. For example if you want to stop a project in the middle of execution and after that to play
again the project you need to insert a time gap between those 2 commands
- “add command” will add a blank command after the selected row. You can click on the new created
blank row to manually edit the content of the command. This feature may be useful for debugging.
- “save commands as file” allows you to save the list of the commands in a file
When clicking on add command wizard a wizard dialog will appear in order to assist you to choose the
desired command.
The dialog contains all the commands that can be sent to a project (Load, UnLoad, Start, Stop, Pause, FFW
out with effect) and requires to select a command and to click on “choose the project” to open a browser
dialog to select the project.
After selecting the project and click “OK” the command will appear in the command list and the wizard
can be started again to select another command. By closing the Editor command you will return on the main
program and you can click on the button. All the commands that were inserted in Editor Command list are
sent to VISUAL PRO CG when you click on the corresponding button.
