Asking for support

How to ask for support so that we can quickly help you

If you come across any issues, we would greatly appreciate hearing from you! However, in order to ensure that your bug report is useful to our development team, there are certain key pieces of information that should be included.

The best method for reporting a bug is to:

1. send an email to [e-mail] or reach us over Discord,

2. and sending a Package for Support (as outlined below).

Before contacting us please make sure:

• you’re running the latest version of LightAct.

• to check Use Documentation to see if you’re looking at something that has a common fix

What to include in a support request?

When you contact us please always include:

• Package for Support

• Bug Report

• If possible, send over the Assets that are giving you problems

Please provide all the information you can. We cannot help you if we don't understand the issue.

Package for Support

In LightAct 4.13 we introduced a feature called Package for Support. When you click on it, LightAct will package entire project folder except the Assets into a zip file that is ready for you to send to us.

Good to know: this package includes the project file, all the log files, BugSplat crash dumps (if any) and other useful information that will help us track down the issue.

Good to know: if a particular Asset is giving you problems, send it over to use separately.

Bug report

A Bug report can be written in an email or a Discord message, but it should include the following items:

• Reproduction steps: this is a written description on how to reproduce the bug. The sooner we can reproduce the issue, the faster it can be resolved.

• The result: here you describe the unexpected behaviour. Sometimes it also helps to describe how you thought the software (or hardware) should work so that we can understand better the expected vs the unexpected behaviour.

• Expected result: if required, describe how you thought the software is going to work.

• Attach as much additional information as you can. Particularly useful are:

  • screenshots,

  • screen recordings,

  • photos or videos of the issue on the outputs (projections, screens or similar).

Good to know: the main goal of a bug report is for our development team to be able to reproduce the issue on our systems.

If we are unable to reproduce the issue in our office, it takes much longer for us to fix it, if we are able to fix it at all.

What are reproduction steps?

Reproduction steps is a clear and as-short-as-possible description of steps we should take in order to reproduce the issue on our end.

We realize that it might take a bit more time to send this over, but believe us when we say this is the fastest way to fix the issue.

Examples of good support requests

Below you will find some examples of good support requests that would allow us to act on them immediately.

Black border around the mapped sub-areas in video outputs

Issue

There is a black border around the mapped sub-areas in video outputs.

Reproduction steps

1. Create a sub area in a canvas in Canvas Maps window,

2. map it to a video screen of the same resolution and

3. output it through a video output.

The result

The sub-areas on the actual outputs have a black border around them.

Additional information

For such a bug report, what would be the most useful is:

• Package for Support

• screenshot or screenrecording showing where you are making the changes in the software,

• photo or video of the displays showing the unexpected result

Good to know: writing a conscise support request similar to the one above is the best way for you to get a helpful reply the most quickly.

Help us help you.