Frequently Asked Questions
- What is G-Force?
- G-Force graphically visualizes music, producing video in real-time that's
responsive to an audio signal. G-Force exists as an add-on to audio players
(ie "plugin") and as a standalone application that uses "line-in" input. G-Force
is designed to entertain you alone but allows many ways for you to customize
and and add you own text, images, and movies.
- What are the system requirements?
- G-Force only requires a fast computer and doesn't require 3D or other special
video hardware. It's recommended you have at least a PII or G3 processor.
If you plan to use G-Force as a plugin to your audio player, you need to have
the player already installed, and if you plan to use the standalone version
of G-Force (to visualize line-in audio) then you don't need anything more.
- Can G-Force visualize "line-in" audio?
- Yes. The first method is to simply use the standalone version of G-Force
that's included. See the G-Force Standalone
section for more. The second method to visualize line-in audio is some audio
players allow you monitor line-in audio. For example, in Winamp go to "Open
Location" and enter "linein://", and in SoundJam select "Play From Sound Input".
- How do I display my own text, images, and movies in the G-Force window?
- Simply drop what you files want displayed into the "Sprites" folder (located
inside the "G-Force Files" folder). A sprite is a graphic of some sort that
moves around on the screen and originated in computer games that rapidly erase
then paste an image to give the appearance that it's moving. Move text files,
images, and movie files into the sprites folder, restart G-Force, and they'll
automatically be part of the particle slideshow. Note that just dropping items
into the sprites folder causes them to have preset/default behavior (ex, how
long they display, where they appear on the screen). To learn how to give
custom behavior to your sprites, read the text file named "Default Sprite"
in the "Particles (Non-Auto)" folder. If you freeze or crash after
you drop in sprites (ie, images and movies), consult the Troubleshooting
section.
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- The image or movie I dropped in the "Sprites" folder appears
inverted in G-Force. How do I invert it?
- There's two methods to invert a sprite. The easiest method is to append
a '~' on the end of your sprite's file name. For example, "Andy.BMP"
would get inverted if it was renamed to "Andy~.BMP". The other method
is discussed inside the config file "Default Sprite" (located in
the "Particles (Non-Auto)" folder).
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- How do I make my images or movies non-automatic (and script activated)?
- First, drop your image, text, or movie into the "Sprites" folder.
Next, you need to tell G-Force that you don't want your sprite to be in the
normal particle slideshow (ie, you want it to be "non-automatic"):
duplicate the file "Default Sprite" (located in the "Particles
(Non-Auto)" folder) and rename it to your sprite's name (ex, if your
sprite is "andy falls.mov" then rename the duplicate to either "andy
falls.txt" or "andy falls"). Finally, in order to call your
sprite, you must first place its name in a script. For example, you could
make a new text file called "A Key" in the "Scripts" folder
and have it contain "0:00 andy falls" so that pressing
CTRL+A will cause G-Force to start the named config.
- How do I make an image or movie show up as a background/"wallpaper"?
- You can tell G-Force to display a sprite as a background/"wallpaper"
two ways. The basic way is to name your sprite so that it starts with "background".
For example, if look inside the "Sprites" folder, you'll be able
to identify the files that will be drawn into the background by looking at
their names (ex, "Background-Galaxy.jpg"). Experiment with sprites
you add by seeing if they look better drawn in the background or if they look
better in the foreground (ie, name your sprite "Blah.jpg" then as
"Background-Blah.jpg" the next time you run G-Force). For more,
open the config "Background-Default Sprite" in the "Particles
(Non-Auto)" folder.
- How do I change the fullscreen resolution settings?
- Your display device may show G-Force best in a resolution other than the
default fullscreen resolution (640 x480). 640 x 480 was chosen as the default
because most monitors and projectors show it well, it's the most compatible,
and it's a fair burden for a typical PC setup. If you have a faster setup
or use a display device that only supports a certain resolution, you'll want
to change your fullscreen resolution settings. Quit G-Force, search your system
for the "G-Force Prefs" file, open it in a text editor, carefully
edit the values in FS_X and FS_Y to the dimensions you desire, and save the
changes. Note: FS_X and FS_Y specify a device resolution, so you can't set
them to any values you feel like (common display resolutions are 800 x 600,
1024 x 768, and 1280 x 1024). Be warned that G-Force frame rate quickly goes
down as you increase its frame dimensions (observed when you increase the
size of the G-Force window). The Customizing
G-Force section contains related information and discusses the prefs file
in full.
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- How do I select what display device G-Force uses for fullscreen mode?
- Whatever display device the centerpoint of the G-Force window sits on is
the device G-Force will use for fullscreen mode. For example, if you have
a LCD projector and want G-Force to use it as the fullscreen device (ie, not
the monitor), first drag the G-Force window so it's in the projector screen
rectangle, then start fullscreen mode.
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- How do I customize G-Force?
- After you run G-Force for the first time, search for a text file named "G-Force
Prefs". This file is a list of parameters that determine G-Force's behavior
in a text format that allows you to edit it. Use any text editor to view the
prefs file, and you'll easily see the kinds of parameters found in it. Examples
are: the most recent window position, the default font, and how often track
text information appears. All the parameters are listed and described in the
Customizing G-Force section.
- How do I undo changes I've made to the G-Force prefs file?
- You may accidentally edit some settings in the prefs file that causes problems.
If you delete the prefs file, G-Force will create a fresh prefs file with
"factory" settings the next time it starts. Because G-Force writes its prefs
file when it exits, you must delete the prefs file when G-Force isn't running.
- How do I store a good looking config combination and recall it?
- Sometimes, slideshow mode will have a ColorMap, WaveShape, and DeltaField
you really like together. G-Force allows you to "save" the current
combination for later recall by writing out a script that switches to the
given ColorMap, WaveShape, and DeltaField when the script run.
- To save the currently running configs as a key on your keyboard, press
CTRL+SHIFT and the key you want associated with the script.
- To run the script, press CTRL and the key you used to store the script.
For example, suppose you chose '8' to be associated with a combination (ie,
you pressed CTRL+SHIFT+8). The above steps makes G-Force generate a text file
named "8 Key" inside your "Scripts" folder. When you now press CTRL+8, G-Force
will search for a script named "8 Key" to run. Scripts are capable of much
more, but this method is meant to be an easy way to store and recall appealing
combinations of configs. See the Scripting G-Force
section for more.
- Where can I get more G-Force config files?
- The folder "More G-Force Configs" inside the "G-Force Files" folder
contains more configs users have sent in. Now that there's so many configs
for G-Force, only the sharpest and most original submitted configs make it
to the installed config folders, but the ones in "More G-Force Configs" still
definitely stand out. You can try these configs by simply moving them into
the appropriate folder.
- Can I make G-Force into a screensaver?
- First become familiar with the Customizing
G-Force section. The 'SSvr' parameter tells G-Force to go fullscreen after
a given number of idle minutes, so edit your "G-Force Prefs" file
accordingly.
- Can I make my own G-Force config files?
- If you want to learn the language G-Force and WhiteCap use in their config
files, you should already have some familiarity with programming or script
writing of some sort. The more programming or script experience you have,
the easier you'll learn the config language. See the Config
Programming section.
- What color depth is best?
- In window mode, you get the best color quality from 32 (or 24--same thing)
bit mode). In fullscreen mode, G-Force will attempt to set your display to
8 bit mode to increase efficiency while getting 32 bit quality (G-Force only
uses 8 bit color). Assuming your device properly supports 8 bit color, you
won't observe any color quality difference between 8 bit fullscreen and 32/24
bit fullscreen mode. You set what depth G-Force attempts to set your display
to when it goes fulscreen via the 'FS_D' parameter in your prefs file. So,
if you experience serious color problems in fullscreen mode, try setting FS_D
to 32 or 16 (16 may yeild a slightly higher frame rate at the cost of some
color quality). Remember to avoid having changes to your prefs file overwritten
by editing it only when G-Force is closed.
- Can I resize the G-Force window?
- Drag near the bottom right of the window.
- Why should I send in feedback, bug reports, or configs?
- G-Force can't improve unless you send me ideas, feedback, and bug reports.
Most of the features added to WhiteCap and G-Force in the last year 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, 160 configs
now come with WhiteCap. G-Force is the same way: if you submit new configs,
you'll make G-Force that much better for everyone else.
- Can I control how much of my CPU goes to G-Force?
- The 'FPS' parameter in your preferences allows you to specify a desired
frame rate. Note that it takes several seconds for G-Force to approach the
frame rate you have set in the FPS parameter, so be patient when you resize
its window (or do anything that significantly changes its load on your system).
See the Customizing G-Force section.
- 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 G-Force section.
- How do I coordinate the start of an audio track or G-Force capture with
a script?
- Whenever a new audio file is played in your audio player, G-Force will look
for a script or config file with a matching name. If the audio track is an
mp3 file and internally defines the track name (ex, ID tag data), then G-Force
will use that instead of its filename. For example, suppose you have a script
that's made to go with a file named "Andy Sings Opera.wav", and it's written
so that 0:00 corresponds to the start of the audio file. Rename your script
to "Andy Sings Opera" (remember: extensions are ignored in G-Force), restart
G-Force, play the audio file, and G-Force will automatically start the script.
The Scripting G-Force section describes scripts
in detail, allowing you to coordinate G-Force with an audio track in exciting
ways.
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- Are there plans for a professional version of G-Force?
- A professional G-Force is planned, designed to have production-caliber features.
The primary features will be QuickTime export ability and MIDI timecode support.
For example, you'd be able to script a complete performance of G-Force since
G-Force will be "seen" as a MIDI instrument (ex, a C flat would
always cause a morph to config X). Basically, you'd drop a PC backstage, give
it a MIDI feed, give it an audio feed, and pipe its VGA output to your video
system. This method has the large advantage that there's no capturing/saving
of video of any kind (avoiding a can of worms entirely).
- How do I edit a sprite (text, image, or movie) "on the fly"?
- Using a LAN, you can edit text and image sprites on the fly. If you were
using G-Force at a party, and you were closing the bar, you could edit a text
sprite to "Last Call". However, before you do this, you must tell G-Force
to load a fresh copy of the file each time it goes to use it. You do this
(before G-Force is running) by naming your file a certain way, described in
the following question.
- Can I edit configs while G-Force is running?
- G-Force caches its files when it starts, so changes won't have any affect
until you restart G-Force. However, if you'd like to edit a config "on the
fly" (ex, edit a text particle via the LAN then have a preset script call
it) you must signal G-Force to load the file from disk each time it goes to
use it. If a sprite, script, or particle's filename starts with a '$', then
G-Force will not cache it. The other method is to load a fresh copy of a config
from disk is to use the key that "reloads current configs." Pressing this
key will cause G-Force to reload the currently running configs from disk and
delete any running particles. This second method is really only useful as
tool for config development and testing. For example, you'd making some changes
to a config, save the changes, and press 'U' to tell G-Force to reload it
from disk.
- Could G-Force benefit from MMX (for Pentiums) or Altivec (for G4s)?
- After analysis and aid of others, the critical section of G-Force doesn't
take a form MMX or Altivec is designed to compute. I'd like to become experienced
with these technologies to rewrite parts of G-Force that would allow such
speedups, but that's a time commitment I cannot presently support.
- Can G-Force be 3D accelerated?
- No, zero percent of G-Force lends itself to 3D hardware acceleration.
- What was used to make G-Force and WhiteCap?
- Both are written in C++ and compiled using Metrowerks
Codewarrior, a C/C++ development environment that beats the pants of Microsoft
Visual Studio. Both G-Force and WhiteCap have evolved over the course of two
years and contain many intricate parts. The logical source/text size of G-Force
is 760k (this doesn't include outside APIs or source--ie, 760k is ala Andy).