Project settings

Description of Project settings window

General tab

General section

• Project snapshots: toggles Project snapshots feature.

• Preview downsampling: determines how much downsampling will occur on content that is not, at the end of the content pipeline it is part of, mapped to a physical output.

Framerates and syncing

Vertical sync

If this checkbox is checked then:

• if there are no outputs, GUI will be vsynced to the refresh rate of the display

• if there is at least one output or more, then only the last output will be synced to the refresh rate of the display it is mapped to. All other windows will have its vsync settings set to off.

If this checkbox is unchecked then:

• the GUI will not by vsynced to its display even when there are no output windows.

• when you create a new output window (enable the output) it will not be vsynced to the display it is mapped to.

Project framerate

Determines the project framerate. This only governs the frame visual delimiters and the movement of the playhead during play modes and during manual dragging.

Good to know: For explanation when LightAct runs at Project framerate see next chapter.

Force Project framerate

This checkbox determines whether LightAct will run at the Project framerate that is currently set.

This checkbox is ignored if:

1. Vertical sync frequency of the display LightAct's GUI is on is less than the Project framerate and Vertical sync checkbox is checked. In this case, LightAct will run at the VSync frequency of the display.

2. This functionality is automatically disabled if:

   1. there is one or more outputs enabled or

   2. if LightSync is enabled and the machine is a Secondary.

Good to know: if this checkbox is set to true, you might see some stuttering and jagged performance graphs. This will rectify itself the moment this functionality is disabled (either manually by unchecking the checkbox or automatically through 2.a or 2.b above).

Good to know: if you disable both Vertical sync and Force Project framerate, LightAct will run as fast as it can. This should only be used for measuring the performance of your hardware as described in Testing your computer page.

Playback

• Default layer cross-fade time: this setting determines the default cross fade time. Any changes will be applied only to layers created after the change was implemented unless you press the button Apply to all existing layers.

Rendering & output

• Bit depth: determines the bit depth of all the textures in LightAct. Requires a similar setting to be set in NVidia Control Panel.