FAQ

[Julian Miller]

Q: ChatFX is not working with the latest system 10.4.10 whats up?
A: We are working on an update and hope to have it soon. 10/11/2007

Q: I would like to use ChatFX but I have never used iChat because I don't have a mac.com account?
A: Mac.com is great and we highly recommend it but one of the unfortunate things we have discovered is that many people have never used iChat because they did not know that they can get a free account with AIM. Through an agreement with Apple, AIM works fine to connect you with others using iChat. To get a free account click here:
Free AIM account
You can then put this account info into iChat then communicate with people on mac.com, jabber and aol(aim).
or get a 60 day trial .Mac account by clicking here.

Q: I have a camera but my chat friend doesn't can we do a one way video chat to use ChatFX?
A: Yes, just control click on the telephone icon next to their name in iChat and choose 'One way video chat'.

Q: I installed now how do I use it?
A: Go to the video preview window of iChat and click the disclosure triangle at the bottom. Choose and effect from the drop down menu. If you don't see this triangle you may have an older version of iChat.

Q: Some of the effects are very slow and cause the cursor to be the spinning beachball what is the problem?
A: Quoted from Wikipedia...
"Because Quartz Composer makes extensive usage of hardware acceleration and pixel shaders, it is recommended to have a recent graphics card with at least 32MB of VRAM." On Apples site it says "When a programmable GPU is present, Core Image utilizes the graphics card for image processing operations, freeing the CPU for other tasks. And if you have a high-performance card with increased video memory (VRAM), you'll find real-time responsiveness across a wide variety of operations.

Core Image-capable graphics cards include (but there are others):
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700
ATI Radeon 9550, 9650, 9600, 9600 XT, 9800 XT, X800 XT
nVidia GeForce FX Go 5200
nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL, 6800 GT DDL"

ChatFX is video intensive which may be demanding on older Macs. A fast video card and lots of video ram helps. We are working at optimizing it right now for older Macs. ChatFX seems to work particularly well on Intel Macs but it will depend on the video ram and video card. Another thing to be aware of is that some effects are more demanding then others. 'Cube' is less processor intensive then 'Greenscreen' or 'See through my tears'. Try using the less video demanding effects. Also quiting any other applications that are demanding on video will help. ChatFX definitely pushes the limits of technology at this time but is still very useable/fun to use all the time on many varieties of Macs.

Q: I am having a problem with ChatFX?
A: No matter what the problem is the solution consists in following these steps. One at a time till your problem is solved.
1. Make sure you have the latest version. We will be updating rapidly so check in often. Download from http://www.scriptsoftware.com/chatfx.
2. Quit and restart iChat.
4. Conflicts with other software is unusual in OS X but can happen. Exit or quit other applications (especially haxies) to isolate any problem.

Q: The bluescreen which shows movies behind me in iChat is amazing. How do i find out more about bluescreen technology?
A: Good question. The bluesceen composition in ChatFX is thanks to the pioneering work of Sam Kass with Quartz Composer (see for more info below). You can learn more about bluescreen or greenscreen here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluescreen
To use one of the bluescreen or greenscreen effects in ChatFX.
1. Put up a green or blue sheet behind you. Blue or green are best but any one color wall, sheet or clothing can work.
2. Hit the edit composition button and set the chromakey to the same color as your sheet or the wall behind you.
3. Try out theat effect and you should see the movie or photo. Changing the chromakey or sensitivity setting can further improve the way it looks
* If your clothing is the same as the chromakey color then the movie or photo will show on that clothing which can cause you to disappear. That is how Harry Potter"s invisibiltiy cloak works but don't tell any muggles

The green and blue screen composition that is included with ChatFX can be modified in two ways. One is by clicking the settings and setting the movie, the sensitivity and the chromakey color (the color of the blue or greenscreen background). The second way is if you have the Apple developer tool called Quartz Composer installed. This will allow you to change many other options in the composition itself.

Q: I've don't have Quartz Composer can I change the greenscreen or bluescreen settings.
A: Yes, that can now be set by clicking the edit composition button. If you hit ok your settings are saved. If you hit cancel then the default settings are used.

Q: Why do the compositions have a Quicktime movie icon?
A: Unless you have the developer tools installed, the operating system interprets Quartz Composer files as quicktime movies. Quartz Composer files are also used as screensavers.

Q: What kind of movies can be used as a background? We want to create a variety of virtual sets for our video conferencing.
A: The sky is the limit here. You can use:
1. home movies.
2. go to archive.org (lots of public domain movies)
3. go to apples movie trailers. open, copy and save those in your movie folder. You may need Quicktime Pro to save online movies to disk.
4. google video, youtube, etc.....
I just want to add here that this gets really exciting, really fun when you start using movies for backdrops. Kids love this and its educational Harry Potters cape is a good example of using bluescreen technology. Now you can show this magic to your kids or your school.

Q: Do USB cams work?
A: We heard that many do. It depends on the camera and driver. ChatFX is mainly for newer Macs with built in or firewire cameras.

Q: How do I get rid of the text scrolling registration message across the window?
A: Purchase ChatFX at:
http://www.scriptsoftware.com/store
and you will get a registration immediately by email.

Q: I forgot my password for ChatFX
A: Go to the registration resender by clicking the support tab on scriptsoftware.com. Or log into the store to see your past orders and the registration info.

Q: Where are the ChatFX files located?
A: 2 places.
1. Library:Application Support:ChatFX
is where all the Quartz Composer files are located
2. Library:Input Managers:ChatFX
is the where the actual program is located.

Q: What are the files that do the video effects?
A: They are called Quartz Composer files. This is an amazing Apple technology that anyone can use. You can learn how to create them at these links or just experiment with changing the files:
http://developer.apple.com/graphicsimaging/quartz/quartzcomposer.html
http://www.quartzcompositions.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_Composer
http://www.quartzcomps.com/

Tutorials:
http://www.dcg-web.com/quartz_composer/quartz.htm
In German
http://www.videotrainingsworkshop.de/po ... fx/001.mov
http://www.videotrainingsworkshop.de/po ... fx/002.mov
http://www.videotrainingsworkshop.de/po ... fx/003.mov
http://www.videotrainingsworkshop.de/po ... fx/004.mov

also this excellent and amusing one "Spafl mit der iSight (2. Teil)"
http://www.scriptsoftware.com/chatfx/Mo ... 19_500.mov

Also you can google for quartz composer or for .qtz to find more info.
We also highly recommend these programs that run Quartz compositions:
Quartz Desktop
Quartonian
and especially this visualizer for iTunes
iVisualize

Q: How do I change the settings for the greenscreen?
A: To change or alter any of the settings hit the edit composition button or use Quartz Composer. Quartz Composer requires that you go to Apples site and sign up to be a developer and download their xcode tools. Quartz Composer is included in those tools.

We highly recommend if you have any interest in this area trying out Quartz Composer. The included video effects are only the tip of the iceberg. Your creativity could bring some fresh thinking and ideas to video effects and ichat.

Q: How do I create a Quartz Composition that will work with ChatFX?
A: In the:
Library:Application Support:ChatFX
folder look at Fun House.qtz as an example. Copy and play around with the settings in the default .qtz files that come with ChatFX. This is the way to learn.

The input needs to be called SourceA and output is a sprite (like billboard). Control click on the patch to rename the published input to those names. SourceB is your desktop. You can copy the patches called video input or desktop input from ours to yours.

When you create an interesting or amazing one or change an existing one in some novel way then feel free to share it by sending it to us or put ting a link in the discussion area of this forum. They can also go up on your website or:
http://www.quartzcompositions.com
http://www.quartzcomps.com/
but let us know.

Q: How do you have iChat automatically answer incoming video chats like the demo on the ChatFX site?
A: This script will do that for you. Auto Answer iChat or in the terminal. To enable automatic video- or audio-chat connections, quit iChat, open Terminal (in Applications/Utilities), and enter either or both of these commands:
defaults write com.apple.ichat
AutoAcceptVCInvitations 1
Defaults write com.apple.ichat
AutoAcceptACInvitations 1

The first command enables automatic video chats. The second one is for audio chats. When you relaunch iChat, it will automatically connect anyone initiating an audio or video chat with you. To turn this feature off, quit iChat and again repeat the above commands, but change the numeral 1 to 0 (zero).

Q: After 45 mins without activity iChat shows as away. How do you have iChat always active?
A: The answer (from the developer of chax) is in this thread.[/code]