GlobeCaster SoftVGA

Introduction
Main Panel
Source Workspace
DSK Workspace
Advanced Source Settings
Advanced DSK Settings
8th Input
VNCViewer
Known issues

Introduction

GlobeCaster SoftVGA is a utility application that, when used in conjunction with the VNCViewer application, allows the user to capture the screen display from a remote computer and show it as a GlobeCaster DSK effect or as an 8th input. The user needs to run the UltraVNC server (which can be found here) on the remote computer. The user also needs to run the VNCViewer client application (provided in the install) on the GlobeCaster Host PC and connect to the server to grab the image for SoftVGA. Once the server and client connection is established, SoftVGA can be started to show the screen display on the Switcher or one of the DSK cards. The user can show the entire display or focus on a small portion of the display; use either the Source workspace on the left or the number box controls in the Advanced Source Settings to specify the clipping rectangle. Furthermore, the user can show the grabbed screen as a full resolution DSK or specify a smaller graphic layer via the DSK Workspace or Advanced DSK Settings number box controls (to specify the viewing rectangle).

As shown in Figure 1, the Source Workspace is at the top left. The DSK Workspace is at the top right. The Main Panel is below the workspaces, and a bin is at the bottom right for loading and saving settings (see the Main Panel's Picon control for more details).

Figure 1: The main interface for GlobeCaster SoftVGA. In this example, the source is a computer named "lanai", there is no Fade In or Fade Out, and the viewing rectangles are at full resolution.

Main Panel

General description
Source
Use DSK
Run/Stop & Preview buttons
Fade In/Out
Picon
Update Delay

General description

The Main Panel has controls that allows the user to specify the source and DSK, run (or preview) the DSK, specify a Fade In and Fade Out value, and specify a delay value. There is also a picon that allows the user to load and save the settings. There are also buttons to toggle on or off the Advanced Source Settings and Advanced DSK Settings.

The titlebar on the main panel contains the application name and standard Close, Minimize, and Help buttons on the right. The titlebar also contains the Top button; when this button is enabled, the window is always on top. This can be useful when running the application in conjunction with the Switcher application so Switcher does not obscure SoftVGA.

Source

Clicking on the Use Source button will popup a menu that displays all selectable sources. (There may be more than one source as multiple instances of VNCViewer may be running.) The names listed will match the names or http addresses specified when the VNCViewer client connected to the server (as shown in Figure 7).

Use DSK

Clicking on the Use DSK button will popup the DSK menu that displays all available DSK layers (as shown in Figure 2). The user can select which DSK to use to show the image. Note that only the DSK Cards can be used to activate the Use As 8th Input menu item option; the menu item will be disabled when using the Switcher card.

Figure 2: The DSK Menu with DSK3 selected.
Use As 8th Input is available because a DSK card is in use.

It is strongly recommended that the user select the DSK to be used before running an effect. (See Known issues below.)

Run/Stop & Preview buttons

The Run/Stop button is a toggle button that allows the user to toggle on or off the effect (or input). When the button is down (as shown in Figure 3), the effect will run (or input be active). When the button is up (as shown in Figure 1), the effect will be stopped. If SoftVGA detects that another effect is started on the same graphic layer by another application (e.g., Switcher), the button will automatically toggle off.

Figure 3: The GlobeCaster SoftVGA interface with the Advanced Source Settings and Advanced DSK Settings visible. In this example, the same source is used, the source rectangle is the top 2/3 of the screen, and the DSK graphic is an over-the-shoulder effect.

The Preview button allows the user to perform a DSK Preview; that is, the effect will not be shown on Program Out, but will show on the Preview monitor. Similar to the Run/Stop button, the effect will start when toggled on and stopped when toggled off. If the effect is already running, clicking on the Preview button will have no effect. If Preview is toggled on, clicking on the Run/Stop button will start the effect and the Preview button will be toggled off.

Fade In/Out

The Fade In and Fade Out number box controls allow the user to specify (in frames) a Fade In value and Fade Out value when displaying the screen grab as an effect. In Figure 5, the Fade In has a value of 60 frames (2 seconds) and a short Fade Out of 5 frames (1/6 of a second).

Picon

The Picon Control at the top right allows the user to save the settings to or load the settings from a file. In order to save the current settings, simply drag the picon and drop it into a bin. In order to load a settings file, simply find the file in the bin, drag it from the bin, and drop it on to the picon. The Picon is a snapshot of the recent state of the application; therefore, when saving the settings to a file, the user may find it useful to use the DSK Workspace's Show Preview option (see Figure 5) so there is a visual cue as to what settings were saved.

Update Delay

The SoftVGA application is constantly checking to see if the source display has been changed. If so, it will grab the data from VNCViewer and update the graphic. As this may be computationally intensive and cause a lot of traffic on the VideoNet connection, the Update Delay slider allows you to throttle back the rate of the update. The Update Delay value, which can be modified via the number box or slider controls, specifies the delay (in milliseconds) before SoftVGA checks for a change again.

Source Workspace

The Source Workspace is on the left, above the main panel. The user may left-click-drag to move the position of the clipping rectangle, the yellow grid that specifies the clipping area of the source image. The user may right-click-drag to resize the clipping rectangle; if Ratio Lock is enabled, the resize will be done maintaining the current aspect ratio. If the user simply right-clicks without dragging, the Source Workspace popup menu will be invoked, as shown in Figure 4, with the following items:

Show Rectangle: Show the clipping rectangle regardless of the View Method
Show Preview: Show the clipping rectangle based on the View Method
Hard Borders: Do not allow the clipping rectangle to be moved past the borders
Black Background: Show a black background behind the clipping rectangle
Checkerboard Background: Show a checkerboard pattern as the background behind the clipping rectangle
Snapshot Background: Show a snapshot image of the source as the background behind the clipping rectangle

Note in Figure 4 that although the View Method has Show Full Screen selected, the clipping rectangle still only shows the top 2/3 of the screen because the Show Rectangle option is selected in the workspace menu. If the Show Preview option had been selected, the clipping rectangle would encompass the entire workspace.

Figure 4: The Source Workspace popup menu is shown. Note that the workspace has a snapshot of the source as the background (rather than black) and the rectangle is drawn on top so the user may position and size it to a specific window, if so desired.

DSK Workspace

The DSK Workspace is on the right, above the main panel. The user may left-click-drag to move the position of the viewing rectangle, the yellow grid that specifies the visble area of the DSK image. The user may right-click-drag to resize the viewing rectangle; if Ratio Lock is enabled, the resize will be done maintaining the current aspect ratio. If the user simply right-clicks without dragging, the DSK Workspace popup menu will be invoked, as shown in Figure 5, with the following items:

Show Rectangle: Show the viewing rectangle regardless of the View Method
Show Preview: Show the viewing rectangle based on the View Method
Hard Borders: Do not allow the viewing rectangle to be moved past the borders
Black Background: Show a black background behind the viewing rectangle
Checkerboard Background: Show a checkerboard pattern as the background behind the viewing rectangle

Note in Figure 5 that although the rectangle's size is specified to be 307x207, the viewing rectangle is shown much larger because the View Method is Do Overscan and the Show Preview option is selected in the workspace menu. If the Show Rectangle option had been selected, the viewing rectangle would look like the yellow grid shown in Figure 4.

Figure 5: The DSK Workspace popup menu is shown. Note that the workspace has a checkerboard pattern as the background (rather than black) which provides a better cue for the DSK alpha value.

Advanced Source Settings

Toggle on the Advanced Source Settings button to view the Advanced Source Settings controls. The controls are described below.

View Method: Invokes a popup menu with two options:
- Use Rectangle: Use the rectangle specified by the position and size number box controls
- Show Full Screen: Ignore the rectangle position and size and use the entire image
Position: Number box controls that specify the X and Y position
Size: Number box controls that specify the X and Y sizes (width and height, respectively)
Reset: Resets the position and size number box controls to specify the entire image
Ratio Lock: Locks the size values to the aspect ratio specified by the current width and height
Position Follows Cursor: The position follows the cursor in the VNCViewer application
Quality Settings: The two checkboxes are mutually exclusive and described below:
- High Quality: Use the High Quality image settings (slower to process)
- Low Quality: Use the Low Quality image settings (faster to process)
Enable Filter: Toggle on or off the filter; when the filter is on, the edges aren't as sharp but the image is slightly blurrier.

Advanced DSK Settings

Toggle on the Advanced DSK Settings button to view the Advanced DSK Settings controls. The controls are described below.

View Method: Invokes a popup menu with three options:
- Use Rectangle: Use the rectangle specified by the position and size number box controls
- Show Full Screen: Ignore the rectangle position and size and use the entire image
- Do Overscan: Perform overscan (similar to Use Rectangle with the Frame Border enabled, but the % Overscan number box control is used to determine the size and centered position of the rectangle; see Figure 5)
Position: Number box controls that specify the X and Y position
Size: Number box controls that specify the X and Y sizes (width and height, respectively)
Reset: Resets the position and size number box controls to specify the entire image
Ratio Lock: Locks the size values to the aspect ratio specified by the current width and height
Alpha Value: Number box control and slider to specify the effect's alpha/translucency. (Note that when showing the shadow rectangle, its alpha value is half of the specified alpha value.)
Clear: Sets the alpha to minimum, or completely transparent
Opaque: Sets the alpha to maximum, or completely opaque
Overscan Settings: The following controls are used when the Do Overscan viewing method is selected:
- % Overscan: Percent overscan to use
- Overscan Border: Whether a color border is enabled or not
- Border Color Picon: Used to specify the color of the overscan border. The user can edit the color in two ways:
  - Click on the picon to invoke the Color panel
  - Drag/drop a color file onto the picon
Rectangle Settings: The following controls are used when the Use Rectangle viewing method is selected:
- Drop Shadow: Checkbox that enables or disables the rectangle's shadow (mutually exclusive with Frame Border)
- Shadow Orientation: Specifies the orientation of the shadow (i.e., which corner)
- Frame Border: Checkbox that enables or disables the Frame Border (mutually exclusive with Drop Shadow)
- Width: Distance of the shadow from the rectangle or width of the frame border
- Shadow/Frame Color Picon: Used to specify the color of the drop shadow or frame border. The user can edit the color in two ways:
  - Click on the picon to invoke the Color panel (Figure 5 shows the Border Color, Figure 6 the Shadow/Frame color)
  - Drag/drop a color file onto the picon

Figure 6: Only the Advanced DSK Settings are shown. In this example, the entire source image is used and the DSK is shown with a blue shadow at the top right. Also, the update delay has been increased to half a second.

8th Input

Rather than showing the source image as a DSK effect, the user may choose to have the source image available as the 8th input. This allows the user to treat the source image like a live input, such as performing transitions, warps, and chroma keying. There are some caveats regarding this functionality:

The DSK is still being used to make the source available as an 8th input and, therefore, no other DSK can run there at the same time. In fact, the user can use the source as both a live input and as a graphic layer.
If the user only wants the source as a live input only, the alpha value should be set to 0.
Only the DSK Cards can run as the 8th input; the Switcher card does not support this functionality.
A Clean Feed Encoder card will not work properly when the DSK behind it is used as the 8th input. If the user selects Use As 8th Input for a DSK that has a Clean Feed Encoder in a parallel slot, a warning dialog box will popup and query the user to continue.
There are some input cards (old versions of the 34-058 & 34-059 cards) that conflict with the DSK running as the 8th input. An error box will popup to warn the user when this problem occurs.

To use the source image as an 8th input, perform the following steps:

Choose the DSK layer on which you will run the effect via the Use DSK button
Open up the Advanced DSK Settings and set the alpha to 0 (if it is not desired as a graphic layer, too)
Click on the Run/Stop button to start the effect
Click on the Use DSK button to popup the menu and select Use As 8th Input (see Figure 2)

VNCViewer

When starting the VNCViewer client application, type in the name or address of the remote computer into the VNC Server edit box. Make sure that the ULTRA radiobox is selected (assuming you are using the UltraVNC server). Then click on the Connect button.

Figure 7: VNCViewer client screen. As shown here, the computer running the UltraVNC server is named "lanai".

When the Connect button is pressed, a connection will be established and the user will be prompted to type in a password. Once the password is entered, click on the Log On button to start grabbing the source image.

If the source's image is not updating properly, the user can try altering the options for a better image. Click on the Show Connection Options... toolbar button at the top to show the Connection Options dialog box, as shown below.

Figure 8: VNCViewer Connection Options dialog box

Known issues

There are a few known issues that the user should be aware of, which are listed below.

If the user runs the SoftVGA DSK from the Switcher application, the SoftVGA app will not be able to turn the effect off (because Switcher makes a copy of the effect and runs the copied effect, of which SoftVGA has no knowledge).
As specified above, only the DSK Cards can run as the 8th input.
As specified above, a Clean Feed Encoder will not work properly when the DSK behind it is used as the 8th input. The user will be warned when Use As 8th Input is selected for such a case.
As specified above, some input cards (old versions of the 34-058 & 34-059 cards) conflict with the DSK running as the 8th input. An error box will popup to warn the user when this problem occurs.
Use As 8th Input option is not honored when loading from a file.
There is an unresolved bug involving DSK selection while running the effect. If the user runs the SoftVGA effect, then chooses a different DSK, then runs the effect again, and then closes the SoftVGA application, the Coordinator will crash. This is not a problem when the Switcher application is running concurrently with SoftVGA. Therefore, it is strongly recommend that the user choose the DSK layer before running the effect.