In this tutorial you will learn how to start and perform basic operations in FaçadeSignage.
As soon as you start the software it will show the Control Panel:
The Local Player panel contains all the options for starting and managing a player running locally on the PC.
The Live Preview window on the left shows the graphical output of the player in realtime, useful when the output is on a second monitor.
The Output Device section allows you to choose which monitor will be used for output, in this example I will choose the current screen and disable the Fullscreen option (formerly “Test Window”), so that the output will be in a window and not fullscreen.
In order to choose different monitors the Windows Desktop must be set to Extended Mode using the display options, use the Extend the Screen action on the dashboard for a shortcut.
The Player is started pressing the Play button.
In the picture below you can see the player running (in a window), there are already some surfaces with assigned video resources.
You can use the Live Preview also for manipulating the output.
Clicking on the preview will bring the mouse pointer directly on the player window and it will switch to Edit Mode: where you can see the crosshair indicating the pointer and the selected Surface with a blinking outline.
With the left mouse button you can select and drag surfaces to move them in the player space.
Pressing the A key on the keyboard allows you to add new surfaces, anywhere and any number you like.
Pressing the ENTER key, you can cycle through all available media resources and assign them to the current surface.
In order to warp surfaces you click on them with the right mouse button, the surface switches to vertex edit mode and you can drag and move vertices to fit the surface to a real object.
Using the T key you can cycle through the different warp modes: Flat, Bezier and Mesh.
More complex options and surface types, like curved ones, will be covered in another tutorial.
Clicking another time on the right mouse button switches back to “move” mode.
If you no longer need a surface, you can press the DEL key on the keyboard.
When the editing is over, pressing the ESCAPE key will re-start video resources from the beginning and clear the player output from the mouse pointer and crosshair.
The Local Player panel contains all the options for starting and managing a player running locally on the PC.
The Live Preview window on the left shows the graphical output of the player in realtime, useful when the output is on a second monitor.
The Output Device section allows you to choose which monitor will be used for output, in this example I will choose the current screen and disable the Fullscreen option (formerly “Test Window”), so that the output will be in a window and not fullscreen.
In order to choose different monitors the Windows Desktop must be set to Extended Mode using the display options, use the Extend the Screen action on the dashboard for a shortcut.
The Player is started pressing the Play button.
In the picture below you can see the player running (in a window), there are already some surfaces with assigned video resources.
You can use the Live Preview also for manipulating the output.
Clicking on the preview will bring the mouse pointer directly on the player window and it will switch to Edit Mode: where you can see the crosshair indicating the pointer and the selected Surface with a blinking outline.
With the left mouse button you can select and drag surfaces to move them in the player space.
Pressing the A key on the keyboard allows you to add new surfaces, anywhere and any number you like.
Pressing the ENTER key, you can cycle through all available media resources and assign them to the current surface.
In order to warp surfaces you click on them with the right mouse button, the surface switches to vertex edit mode and you can drag and move vertices to fit the surface to a real object.
Using the T key you can cycle through the different warp modes: Flat, Bezier and Mesh.
More complex options and surface types, like curved ones, will be covered in another tutorial.
Clicking another time on the right mouse button switches back to “move” mode.
If you no longer need a surface, you can press the DEL key on the keyboard.
When the editing is over, pressing the ESCAPE key will re-start video resources from the beginning and clear the player output from the mouse pointer and crosshair.