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Effects Tab: The effects tab is used when looking for generic effects in one or more effect libraries.Unlike Inventory effects, these effects are not assigned to a specific size or prefire time, thus they can be scaled to any size you want.It will actually save time in the long run to build your shows using only inventory items, but if you only do a few shows per year and don’t feel the need to setup an inventory database, then you will spend most of your time pulling effects from the Effects tab instead.You will also need to access this tab when adding or deleting custom effects from your effect libraries. While the Type selector can be used to pick from all available effect categories when searching for a desired effect, the icon-based speed menu located on the left-hand side of the effect list provides a much faster way to switch between different types. Likewise, the shell size selector bar across the top of the list provides a faster way for switching between the most common shell sizes rather than using the Size selector. In both cases the drop-down selection lists provide a more complete set of options than those on the speed menus, but the most common choices have been represented on the button bars. Finding Effects The first step in using the Effect Browser is to locate the effect you are looking for.If you are working from the Effects tab, the first parameter located above the list allows you to choose a specific effect library to look in.Effects in ShowSim are organized into individual effect libraries in order to keep related effects grouped by type or manufacturer.Selecting “All” for the effect library setting will search all libraries. Type- the type parameter is used to specify what kind of effects are displayed in the list. There are too many effects to display them all at once, so they are organized into common categories such as cakes, comets, gerbs and various styles of shells. Size- this parameter is used to set the size of the effect when it is tested. It also represents the size that will be used when the effect is added to your show.
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Find- the find button on both the Effects and Inventory tabs is a keyword search utility that can find effects based on words used in their description.The search will produce results from any Type category in which the keyword is found, so this is a good way to find effects when you are not quite sure what category they may be stored under.It is also a good way to find what items are at your disposal when you have a particular effect in mind. For example, if you know that you want to use crackle in a certain segment, you can do a search on “Crackle” and view all the items that employ that effect.
Testing Effects
Not only does the Effect Browser help you find effect you need for your shows, it allows you to test them visually as well.Right-clicking the mouse on any effect in the list will fire the effect on screen so that you can see it.When clicking on the list, only the burst is shown for shells rather than the entire sequence from lift to burst.This is done in order to speed up the shell browsing process, but a Test button under the list will actually fire the entire lift and break sequence if you need to see that as well.
When testing multi-break shells, the test will begin with the launch of the shell rather than with the burst of the first break.When testing cakes, gerbs, strobe pots or any other effects with a long duration, the effect will run the full course of firing all shots or burning for the duration specified for that effect. These effects will continue to fire even if a new effect is tested. If you want to stop a long-running effect before it finishes, clicking the stop button on the show player controls at the bottom of the screen will clear all running effects from the screen.
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