General Engine settings

General Engine settings

Full view of the Engine

You can access the Engine settings in the first tab of the Preferences menu.
You can also find all these settings and more in the Engine panel.
The 'Rendering' section gives you access to the rendering functions that you can access directly from the Smode toolbar, located in the top right corner of the interface.
  • Profile Enable/Disable performance profiling Read More activates the profiling mode in the Element tree. Profiling helps track the GPU time consumption of each element in milliseconds.
    Keep in mind that profiling is a diagnostic tool that consumes some performance and should be disabled when you are ON-AIR Enable/Disable ON-AIR mode Read More .
  • Enable Output Enable/Disable Video Outputs Read More serves as a global toggle of all Video Output Device Video Output Devices are devices that enable the sending of a video stream out of Smode Read More . It must be enabled for Smode to generate any output video. You can access this toggle using the [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[Alt]+[W] keyboard shortcut.
  • ON-AIR Enable/Disable ON-AIR mode Read More deactivates all features that consume resources not required for the rendering process, including the Viewport Preview and edit your content Read More . You can toggle it on and off using [F9].
  • Power Save Mode Enable/Disable energy eco mode Read More slows down SMODE to reduce power usage when you are not currently using SMODE but still prefer not to close it. For example before a show starts or during your lunch break. The shortcut is [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[F9].
The 'Graphics Context Configuration' section gives you access to advanced settings, especially for complex projects.
The 'Requested Frame Rate' is the frame rate Smode will target. Make sure you set it correctly, especially if you're working with other devices that require a particular framerate, like an LED screen for example.
'Enable Automatic Preview' allows a background rendering task to compute your media directories previews and meta data. You can disable it if Smode is running slowly when used on a hard drive over the network (NAS, other computer, etc). By default, this process will only be executed when Smode is not On-Air, aiming to prevent performance issues during show playback. If you want it to be executed when Smode is On-Air, check 'Automatic Previews When On Air' .
'Current Canvas Unit' gives access to the Unit Selector 2D unit (%/px) global selector Read More that allows to switch from percentage, to pixels and meters (also available from the toolbar).
'Current Universe Unit' allows you to select the representation of the displayed universe, from ArtNet (one-based universe/network) to sACN (one-based), or None (zero-based).
'Flush Strategy' The optimal value depends on the GPU and the Project Pipeline. It's recommended to fine-tune this setting at the end of a project encoding to maximize profiling results.
'Rendering Clock Advanced Parameters' are designated for advanced use, and it is not advised to modify it.
'Enable Process Launcher' allows a Project or Compo to use the Process Launcher tool. It is recommended to keep this feature disabled.
'Custom Process Affinity Mask' allows you to choose the CPU core on which Smode will run (requires to restart).

See Also: