No clouds :(

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brightblack
Posts: 34
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 12:47 am
Location: Tokyo, Japan

No clouds :(

Post by brightblack »

Whilst the SoftSkies screenshots look nice, all I get in iTunes on my Mac (see profile) on the free demo is a nice blue gradient. No clouds. I've tried playing with some options, but nothing as yet. Any ideas? G-Force works fine.

Although I don't have my Mac linked to my LCD TV I would like to use Darkroom to record some SoftSkies, and play them back for our new baby and see what she thinks. I tried it, but it crashed DR1.5.1.
GForce 3.6.2 on a
Core Duo Intel 2GHz MacBook // Core Duo Intel MacMini 1.83GHz

Athlon64 3700+ Windows XP / NV 6800GS

not on:
Athlon XP2500+ Zenwalk Linux 4.2 / NV GF2 MX400

jon
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:12 pm
Location: Boston, MA

Post by jon »

Which of the two Macs have you had the problem on? I think they both have the same graphics card, but I'm curious nonetheless. I believe we've tested it on a MacMini (the earlier model?), but not on the MacBook.

One thing you can try is turning off "shaders" in the Preferences file. That will enable a different rendering mode:

Find the file
Library/Preferences/SoundSpectrum/SoftSkies/Preferences (iTunes).txt

Find the line "Shdr=1" and change it to "Shdr=0".

SoftSkies should detect the appropriate rendering mode automatically, but it's possible that this is not happening for some reason. Please let me know whether or not this works.

- jon

brightblack
Posts: 34
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 12:47 am
Location: Tokyo, Japan

[*Worked Around*] No clouds on Intel MacMni

Post by brightblack »

Thanks for the reply Jon;

It's on the MacMini so far, so that's the epic Intel 950 gfx chipset ;) (Actually that's fine for 99.9% of what I use it for).

I found the file you mentioned, and altered that value and *it worked*.

Out of curiosity, I also took a look at the SoftSkies boot.txt file, and the shader reference in there - is that a different setting? Seperately, I changed it to '0', but got no clouds.

I'm guessing this is the chipset then - the Intel GFA950 doesn't have the correct (if any) shaders.

I took some screenshots (before and after), but I'm not sure if I can upload them to the forum. Although I get the clouds after, they tend to 'pulse' a little bit, so maybe I need to tune some of the prefs for reacting to the music.
GForce 3.6.2 on a
Core Duo Intel 2GHz MacBook // Core Duo Intel MacMini 1.83GHz

Athlon64 3700+ Windows XP / NV 6800GS

not on:
Athlon XP2500+ Zenwalk Linux 4.2 / NV GF2 MX400

jon
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:12 pm
Location: Boston, MA

Post by jon »

Thanks for the response, and I'm glad to hear the non-shader version is working.

The fact that turning shaders off fixed the problem means that the graphics card claims to support all of the requirements for shaders. In all likelihood this means that there's some minor quirk to the card that's preventing the clouds from being displayed, but that in principle, the shader version should be able to work there. Hopefully this can be resolved for a future version.

As for the Shdr value in boot.txt, it is overridden by the value in the preferences file, so you shouldn't need to touch that. Actually, you should be able to change this setting from the Settings menu, but it is disabled for in trial version!

- jon

brightblack
Posts: 34
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 12:47 am
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Clouds n shaders

Post by brightblack »

Just as an addendum, in the full product (or at least in the Platinum version) :
Settings > Use High Quality Rendering

Turn this off, and the clouds appear like the config key Jon pointed out.

To follow up to Jon's response, is it that the Intel GFA950 Macs can't do this for a hardware reason, or is it just a case of patching the app to use them properly?
GForce 3.6.2 on a
Core Duo Intel 2GHz MacBook // Core Duo Intel MacMini 1.83GHz

Athlon64 3700+ Windows XP / NV 6800GS

not on:
Athlon XP2500+ Zenwalk Linux 4.2 / NV GF2 MX400

tbrown31
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 2:18 pm

No Clouds in Windows Media Player 11

Post by tbrown31 »

I'm using the trial version of softskies...

When I launch this application in WMP 11, there are no clouds--only backgrounds. How do I make the clouds appear? Why don't they appear automatically? Please provide info. Let me know if you need additional information from me. Thank you.

DrBazooka
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Nov 26, 2006 4:48 am

Post by DrBazooka »

I have severe problems with the colors in softskies. When starting a tune in WMP (version 10 or 11) I first get blue skies and clouds. after a while or when changing to pictures I get a black background with white clouds. I've tried several settings on my graphic card and neither work. I've also tried to delete and reinstall softskies platinum. It seems like it doesn't even respond to the music. System is P4 3800 Win XP pro SP2, latest drivers for my ATI Radeon X850 card. In Itunes i get a flashing effect surrounding softskies. Any suggestions?

jon
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:12 pm
Location: Boston, MA

Post by jon »

tbrown: I would recommend trying the same thing I recommended to brightblack. If you can find the Preferences file and turn off shaders, it's likely to help.

We can make this easier to do in the next version by enabling an option for it in the settings menu, but for the time being, please try editing the preferences directly.

jon
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:12 pm
Location: Boston, MA

Post by jon »

DrBazooka: it would be helpful if you could submit a screenshot and detailed description of the problem to SoundSpectrum support.

Some black backgrounds are normal (like with the storm settings), but if it's turning black and not coming back again, it sounds like a problem.

- jon

tbrown31
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 2:18 pm

Post by tbrown31 »

jon wrote:
One thing you can try is turning off "shaders" in the Preferences file. That will enable a different rendering mode:

Find the file
Library/Preferences/SoundSpectrum/SoftSkies/Preferences (iTunes).txt

Find the line "Shdr=1" and change it to "Shdr=0".

SoftSkies should detect the appropriate rendering mode automatically, but it's possible that this is not happening for some reason. Please let me know whether or not this works.

- jon
I can't find this file anywhere on my computer. Also, I am using Windows Media Player on a PC. Does it matter? Pls Advise. Thanks.

jon
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:12 pm
Location: Boston, MA

Post by jon »

On Windows, the file should be located in:

C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\SoundSpectrum\SoftSkies

Change the path to reflect your root drive and username. Also, the original poster was using iTunes, but there's a different file for each media player, so be sure to get the file for the one you're using.

Sorry for the inconvenience here -- again, we'll make it so that this can be done from the user menu for the next version.

- jon

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