A: This is an infrequent situation caused by a bug in Microsoft’s MSDE installer program. The unfortunate consequence of this rare occurrence is that a partial installation of MSDE is left on your computer, which will prevent ShowSim from installing properly. All traces of the incomplete MSDE installation must be manually removed so that the installer can run again. This is a rather painstaking process that our tech support can walk you through either over the phone or via email. Luckily this does not occur very often and the second attempt at reinstalling MSDE will be successful. Once MSDE is installed, the ShowSim installer will work properly.

A: License keys are no longer required to run the demo as they were in the past. If you download a new version of the demo, you can run it through the trial period without the need for a license key. Once the trial period expires, then you have the option of entering an extension key to extend your trial period. Extension keys are issued on a request basis depending on your situation. Requests can be sent to admin@showsim.com.

A: The demo version is good for 30 runs. Each time you close ShowSim and then run it again, it adds one to your run count until 30 is reached. Thus if you want to play with the demo over a longer period, try not to close it very often during your trials.

A: Scripts created in ShowSim can be converted into the following file formats:
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FireOne CueMaker .FIR
FireOne Semi-Fire .SEM
FireOne ScriptMaker .SCR
PyroMate SmartShow .CSV
Pyrodigital Serial Transfer (direct to controller, RS-232 port)
Pyrodigital Audio Transfer (direct to controller, audio port)
Pyroleda FBC 300
Pyroleda FRC 200
Pyroleda FSQ 200
Parente Firemaster .FIR
Parente Firemaster Synchronizer .WAV
Opus Fire .WAV
ODA Systems Q-Fire .SYN
Catalyst Pyro .SEQ
ShowDirector .SCX
Explo .SHW


Files of the following formats can be read into ShowSim and converted into ShowSim scripts:
----------------------
FireOne CueMaker .FIR
FireOne ScriptMaker .SCR
PyroMate SmartShow .CSV
ShowDirector .SCX
ODA Systems Q-Fire .TIM


Product inventory databases of the following formats can be read into ShowSim:
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FireOne .MDB
PyroMate SmartShow .CSV
PyroMotion .CSV
ShowDirector .EFX
FireLinx .CSV

A: Direct hardware support allows ShowSim to export the scripted show data into the native file formats of industry standard firing systems like FireOne, PyroDigital, PyroMate, Firelinx etc. In most cases it means generating a manufacturer specific data file that can be read by the firing software specific to each system. ShowSim does not fire the shows directly, so you still need the manufacturer supplied firing software specific to your hardware, but you don’t need a separate scripting application to generate the data read by the firing software. In the case of PyroDigital, an RS-323 link or a .wav file containing FSK encoded show data can be loaded directly into the hardware without any additional firing software. In some cases the scripting and firing software are combined into a single application, such as PyroMate’s SmartShow.

A: If the firing positions seem to be off center or firing from below the bottom of the screen, then the .NET framework installed on your computer is likely to be an old version. Some bugs in the display of window elements are known to exist in the earlier versions of the .NET framework. Upgrading your system to .NET version 1.1 or higher will usually fix this problem. The 1.1 version can be downloaded from the following link:

http://www.showsim.com/showsim/downloads/dotnetfx.exe

A: The viewing distances for each firing position in ShowSim usually will be much farther than the actual viewing distance where the audience will be positioned during the real show. This is because the simulations are viewed through a fixed frame without the ability to tilt your head upward, so the simulation viewing distance must be far enough away that the entire show can be seen from a fixed viewpoint. If a member of your audience tried to view your show through a wooden frame without the ability to move the frame up and down, he would also find that the fireworks rise above the top of the frame and burst out of view just like they would in ShowSim if the viewing distance is used as the firing position distances. Firing position distances are usually set to whatever value produces the best viewpoint for the simulation and have no relation to the viewing distance of the audience during the show.

A: Whenever your screen saver takes over and blanks out your screen, there is an unknown situation that causes the graphics to stop working in ShowSim. Until a remedy for this problem is found, the current solution is to restart the program. It is a good idea to extend the timeout period on your screen saver so that it does not activate for at least an hour.

A: When your computer is unable to keep pace with rendering the graphics, playing the music, scrolling the graph and playing sound effects all at the same time, there can be brief moments where everything freezes. This is a symptom of inadequate resources within your system and usually occurs more frequently on laptops running the XP operating system. Many times it does not necessarily mean that your hardware is not fast enough to run ShowSim, but rather too many other tasks are running behind the scenes. Spyware and adware are notorious for this kind of hidden resource hogging, as are many unnecessary bloat-ware utilities that often come pre-installed on new computers. See the article on ShowSim Performance Tips for some guidelines on making your system run faster.

A: From the Tools menu of Internet Explorer, select Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab and then make sure the ''allow active content to run in files on my computer'' option is checked.

A: The custom names get used on the setup reports, but on the chain list and product reports there’s an inherent problem that prevents them from being used. The issue is that the custom cue name represents the name of the overall cue, but there can be more than one effect assigned to that cue, such as multiple different effects on different buckets etc. The problem is that the cue name, which is a summary for everything on that cue, is an inherently different piece of information than the actual names of each effect on the cue. If the program looked to see if the cue name was custom, then assigned it to all the effects under that cue when generating a product report, a different problem would arise in the case where the original effect names were the desired ones and the operator just renamed the cue for some other reason.

A: The general technique for getting document output into a format you want is to find a virtual printer driver that will do the conversion for you. For example, if you wanted to output to PDF format, you could use this tool:

http://www.win2pdf.com/

This is a $35 app that installs as a printer driver, and you just select it as the printer you want to use when printing the reports from ShowSim. While it is hard to find printer drivers that will convert directly to Word format, there are plenty of converters out there that will convert PDF to Word format.

The nice thing is that once you own these conversion tools, you can make any program output to the formats you want.