Pipeline Introduction

Overview of the various components of the Smode Pipeline , from content creation to final output.

The Pipeline defines how video content is processed in a project from the Show to the Video Output :

What is a Content Map ?

A Content Map is the canvas in which you will put your content before mapping it into the different surfaces where your content will be displayed.

Every piece of content that you’re creating in the Show has to target at least one Content Map .

Learn more about how to create and work with a Content Map by reading: Content Map .

Add several instances of the same layer

Every 2D Layer has only one 2D Renderer by default, so the content is sent to one specific location of a specific Content Map .
If you need to use the same element in other locations of the same Content Map or another Content Map , instead of creating a complete copy of the layer,
you can change its 2D Renderer type to Group 2D Renderer and add a new Parametric for each location.

You can also use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+A

Check out the Group 2D Renderer and Parametric documentation pages for more information.

Create a Video Output Device

In order to display the content in real life through some devices like Video projectors or LED screens for instance, you need to create a Video Output Device .

Learn how to create and manage a Video Output Device by reading: Video Output Device .

First video routing

You’ve created some content in the Show and you’re sending to a Content Map . You’ve created a Video Output Device , but it’s displaying “not connected”.
Select it in the Pipeline Editor , and choose what you want to display in your Video Output .
In the image below, we’ve selected our Content Map .

We can now press the Enable Output button
to display the Content Map into the Video Output Device .

Overview of the toolbar

Here is a quick overview of the toolbar :

• Unit Selector : placement and scale values can either be expressed as percentages or as pixel values.
  Smode has an application-wide current unit that defines how this type of value will be displayed.
• User Interface Lock : Lock all edition capabilities of the user interface to avoid any risk of errors, for instance when running a show with Smode.
• Power Save Mode : the Eco Mode will make Smode run at a slow rate to reduce power usage when you are not using Smode and you don’t want to close it, for instance before a show starts or when you take a break.
• Profiling : allows to see how much time each element costs, in order to optimize a project.
• ON-AIR : The ON-AIR mode enables all performances of the machine to be focused on the Video Output
  rather than UI features such as interactive preview or automatic updates of file previews.
• Enable Output : This button is an overall toggle of all Video Output Device .
• Freeze Output : This toggle button enables to freeze all Video Output of Smode (if the Enable Output is enabled.

• GPU Memory Meter : This indicates the proportion of the graphics card memory that is currently used.
• FPS Meter : This indicator measures the current frame rate of Smode.

Create Content Area

A Content Area is a part of a Content Map , it allows to simplify the layout process to do more precise and advanced mapping.

Refer to the Content Area documentation to learn more about it.

Duplicate with Shared Element

In Smode, the same element can be used several times in different places, using memory storage space only once, by making it a Shared Element .
Use a Reference to this Shared Element wherever you want to use it.

For more information, see the Shared Element and Reference documentation.