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Hey guys!
I know that there are a handful of threads about what people use for casting overlays here on TeamLiquid and I was actually using IrfanViewer and image superimposing during editing to achieve these effects like everyone else. In addition I've always wanted an overlay similar to the GSL and other tournament overlays with player information (color, race, gamertag) so I've built my own application to handle all of these features for me.
Although I've created this application strictly for my own needs I figured the SC2 community at large might find this useful as well and thought I would offer it up for anyone else to use it that wants. I'm also open to expanding features and functionality on this going forward so let me know if there's a feature you would like to see that's not currently in there.
Here's a quick list of the features that are currently included:
-Tournament style display including player names, colors, races and current set score
-Toggle switch to display player color in player name text or with a colored box next to player names
-Settings panel to allow you to update player information on the fly
-Toggle to hide player details overlay
-Toggle to force player details overlay always on top
-Toggle to lock player details overlay so it no longer moves when clicked on
-Ability to dynamically add as many image overlays as you want and manage them on the fly
-Each image overlay has the ability to be resized, lock, hidden and set to be always on top
(I specifically want to note that if you uncheck the resize option for an image overlay it removes the sizable border which gets rid of the annoying border that you have when using the IrfanViewer application)
The settings panel is pretty intuitive I think but if anyone has questions about how to use it please let me know.
NOTE: This application is built on Microsoft.NET 4 Framework so if you don't have Windows 7 you will most likely need to install the free framework redistributable from Microsoft.
Downloads:
.NET 4 framework
Application Download
Tutorial Video
UPDATE (old)
+ Show Spoiler +
I added a couple more features to the application and am uploading a video to my YouTube channel on how to use this application. I know that there are no responses on this thread but it's been viewed a bit and the application has been downloaded a handful of times so I wanted to announce the changes and such in case anyone is using it.
New Features:
-Added the ability to change the SC2 logo and place your own logo in it's place
-Added resize buttons to allow you to make the overlay larger or smaller if needed
-Made the settings panel show up in the task bar so you can select either window specifically
Thanks to everyone who's checked out the application and I hope you guys get some use out of it. I'm very open to adding more functionality still so if you guys have any ideas please let me know. Of course any feedback is welcome (even critical) so feel free to post with any feedback even if you're not asking for functionality.
UPDATE (old)
+ Show Spoiler +
The tutorial video actually finished much quicker than expected. I have posted a link above to the video. It's still processing on YouTube so it's not currently accessible but usually it finishes processing pretty quickly so you should be able to view it soon.
UPDATE 1/9/2011 (v1.1)
+ Show Spoiler +
I've posted a new version of the application and updated the download link. There are a handful of items that have been fixed/added. Most of it is pretty straight forward so I'm not planning to make another tutorial to outline the changes but if a handful of people request it I can throw one together. Below is a list of changes.
Fixed:
-Transparency key has been removed from the application so the "Capture Layered Windows" option is not required for streaming or video capture.
New Features:
-If you double click on a player name you will get a text box to modify that name on the overlay. Hit "Enter" when finished to apply the change or "Esc" to cancel the change.
-If you double click on a player score you will get a text box to modify that player's score on the overlay. Hit "Enter" when finished to apply the change or "Esc" to cancel the change.
-If you double click on a player's race icon it will cycle through the race icons (Protoss, Random, Terran, Zerg).
-New race icon artwork (this was done because I had multiple complaints that the icons were sometimes difficult to make out).
- When the overlay application is running you will now have an icon for it in your system tray. If you right click on the icon you have options to show/hide the settings panel and the overlay itself.
-The application now also has a config file that automatically maintains the overlay's last screen position so when you open it you don't have to move it again (I am going to be expanding on this functionality but that's all that's currently supported in the auto save).
-Player score can now go up to 99 instead of just 9.
Whew! Lots of new features out there so I hope you guys are happy with the changes because most of them are based on your feedback. Thanks again to everyone who's offered their perspective and ideas for this application. It really has helped me to develop this into a much more robust and useful app across the board. As always, if you have any more comments (good, bad or otherwise) leave them in the thread here or shoot me a PM.
UPDATE 1/31/2011 (v1.2)
+ Show Spoiler +Once again I've posted a new version of the Alpha Caster application! There's a lot of new features including hotkeys! Thanks to everyone who's used the application so far and given feedback. I'm continuing to work on it but please feel free to continue to provide feedback on new features you want. I'll be posting a new tutorial video on how to use some of the new stuff on YouTube soon too. I'll update the post with a link to the new video once that's done. New Tutorial VideoHotkeys: -Hide Overlay: Ctrl + O -Hide Settings: Ctrl + P -Hide Score: Ctrl + I -Reset Overlay: Ctrl + U -Change Player 1 Race (Zerg): Ctrl + A -Change Player 1 Race (Terran): Ctrl + S -Change Player 1 Race (Protoss): Ctrl + D -Change Player 1 Race (Random): Ctrl + F -Change Player 2 Race (Zerg): Ctrl + L -Change Player 2 Race (Terran): Ctrl + K -Change Player 2 Race (Protoss): Ctrl + J -Change Player 2 Race (Random): Ctrl + H -Increase Player 1 Score: Ctrl + Q -Decrease Player 1 Score: Ctrl + W -Increase Player 2 Score: Ctrl + E -Decrease Player 2 Score: Ctrl + R -Intro Player 1: Ctrl + 1 -Intro Player 2: Ctrl + 2 New Features: -Added hotkey functionality for a variety of interface controls (see hotkey list above) -Added intro functionality to animate player introductions -Added new low res version of the interface to make lower quality capture and streaming easier to read the overlay -New layout for settings interface to make it easier to use
UPDATE 2/21/2011 (v1.3) - Hello again! I have posted a new version of the Alpha Caster application. The biggest feature in this version is the customizable hotkey setup. It should be pretty straight forward so I haven't posted a video on how to use it yet. If you guys have a hard time figuring it out though let me know and I can put one together if needed. I also have a fix and a couple more small features in this version so check the list below for all the details.
New Features:
-Added customizable hotkeys
-Added a context menu to the race icons (you can now right click on the player race icon in the actual overlay to get a menu to select a race)'
-Added a "None" option for the race which will just hide the race icon
-Added a "Custom" option for the race which will allow you to select any image that you want for the race icon
Fixes:
-Fixed the button to set your own custom overlay logo to replace the SC2 icon in the high res version
Well that's going to wrap it up for this version guys, I hope you all enjoy it! I'm glad to see that so many people have been using the application for your tournaments and such. If you do use it please make sure to point others to this thread so anyone in need of such an app can find it easily. Thanks again everyone and feel free to continue posting feedback and feature requests here!
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Bump. I added some new functionality and am uploading a tutorial video to my YouTube channel. Download link for the application has been updated and I'll update the OP with a link to the tutorial tomorrow when the upload is finished.
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I was just looking for an overlay app and just finished watching the Youtube vid. Will check out the app soon!
Looks awesome so far!
PS:
Some ideas: How about going without the settings dialog (or mostly without it).
--> moved to feature requests
All of the other settings could stay in the settings dialog.
 Anywho... good stuff! Will test as soon as I install and give more feedback.
I will edit this post for bugs / feature ideas
--------------------------
Bugs:
-
Feature Requests:
- make userinterface not need the settings tab for seamless experience [VERY HIGH]
--- Player Name is directly editable in overlay
--- click on race icon cycles through races (left/right mousebutton forward/backward)
--- colors cyle through the same way (left/right mousebutton forward/backward)
--- score change by mouseclick (left/right mousebutton up/down)
- score over 9 cannot be displayed atm (although unlikely it will be used often, I actually would have use for it) [LOW]
- currently does not save settings (especially overlay size & positioning!) [LOW]
- Hotkey to hide active/show all overlay [LOW]
--------------------------
Starcraft42
(p.s. Check out my noob silver league HQ channel, I stream almost daily  )
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On January 04 2011 04:36 Starcraft42 wrote:I was just looking for an overlay app and just finished watching the Youtube vid. Will check out the app soon! Looks awesome so far! PS: Some ideas: How about going without the settings dialog (or mostly without it). - click on race icon cycles through races (left/right mousebutton forward/backward) - colors cyle through the same way (left/right mousebutton forward/backward) - Player Name is directly editable in overlay - score is directly editable in overlay All of the other settings could stay in the settings dialog. Anywho... good stuff! Will test as soon as I install and give more feedback. I will edit this post for bugs / feature ideas -------------------------- Bugs: - Feature Requests: - score over 9 cannot be displayed atm (although unlikely it will be used often, I actually would have use for it) [LOW] - currently does not save settings (especially overlay size & positioning!) [LOW] - additional Overlays should be border-free, border looks really bad [HIGH] - Hotkey to hide active/show all overlay -------------------------- Starcraft42 (p.s. Check out my noob silver league HQ channel, I stream almost daily )
Thanks for the feedback mate! In regards to a couple of your feature requests,
1) I deliberately didn't support more than 9 because I couldn't think of any reason someone would need more than that for a set score but I can look into adding it if think it will be useful.
2) Saving the settings is something that I have considered but wasn't really sure how much of it would be used other than maybe size and position of the overlay and the additional overlay images? If I were to add this what all would you want saved as default settings to be applied the next time you opened it?
3) The additional overlays you are referring to here are the images you can add? If so you can remove the border by unchecking the resize check box in the image overlay settings panel (if you are having trouble finding it watch the tutorial again), but if you're referring to something else could you provide a bit more detail for me?
4) I do like this idea, I've considered adding some hotkeys to this project and a general hide/show all hotkey makes a lot of sense.
I hope you and many others can get a lot of use out of this app and I appreciate you taking the time to give me some feedback! Hopefully I'll be able to find some time to make some of these changes pretty quickly.
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Very cool utility. I'll be sure to download it and give it a whirl.
BTW, achaia, do you play zerg? I am pretty sure we played a ZvZ the other day on NA! ^_^
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On January 04 2011 08:22 d_wAy wrote:
Very cool utility. I'll be sure to download it and give it a whirl.
BTW, achaia, do you play zerg? I am pretty sure we played a ZvZ the other day on NA! ^_^
Thanks for checking it out! Yeah I'm a Zerg player on the NA server, although I don't know if I would remember playing you because it feels like 90% of my 1v1 games recently are ZvZ these days lol. What's your tag?
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Looks way cool. Thanks for making this!
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Hey man this is really cool. If I'm not mistaken you are using fraps to do the SC? If so, is it possible to capture SC2 games with your overlay program while using fraps? Thanks a ton for this program btw.
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Hey, thanks for the fast response.
I made a little mistake with my formatting, as the ideas above the bug/feature request area are actually the most imporant ones. Being able to enter information / cycle through fields (race icons, score, color) would be the biggest improvement for the overlay IMO.
I will move these into the feature request section of my original post.
Will use the overlay tonight when I cast my games!
--> 3) FIXED thank you!
Stay hoopy!
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On January 04 2011 11:05 twigs wrote:
Hey man this is really cool. If I'm not mistaken you are using fraps to do the SC? If so, is it possible to capture SC2 games with your overlay program while using fraps? Thanks a ton for this program btw.
I don't believe there is a way to capture layered windows using Fraps. I actually had to switch to using VH Capture because I was previously using Fraps but ran into this exact problem.
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Holy damn bro, that looks effing amazing :D
Great work :D
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Hey guys! Some people had complained that you required the "capture layered windows" option on in order to capture the overlay on a stream or screen capture. Having to turn this option on is a much larger tax on system resources and affects performance on the stream and capture quality. The issue is being caused by the form transparency key which is there to allow the overlay to appear "cutout" and not just a straight rectangle.
I'm going to be looking into a code work around for this or possibly even reworking the artwork to make it so the overlay image fits into a rectangle but still looks good so the transparency key isn't necessary. I'm hoping to have this change and a few other features added in and posted this weekend. Thanks to everyone who's given feedback so far and I hope a lot of people can get some use out of this!
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Wonderful application. I can definitely use this. Thanks.
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Hey man, just wanted to say great job on the overlay tech. I've already began to use it on GLHF.tv and can't wait for the next version xD
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Hello again everyone! Just wanted to bump this thread and let you all know that version 1.1 of Alpha Caster has been posted. The new features and fixes have been added to the OP. As always feel free to hit me up with any more functionality suggestions and thanks to everyone who has already given feedback! Every feature that went into this update was a suggestion from users on TL.net.
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Only 99? What if they go over 9000?!?
More seriously, thanks for doing this! One of my stream watchers pointed me to this page the other day and I'll definitely use this in future casts!
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The only thing that I can't stand about this overlay is when a player decides to go blue. Currently the blue on blue is very hard to read.
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On January 11 2011 22:04 Ipp wrote:
The only thing that I can't stand about this overlay is when a player decides to go blue. Currently the blue on blue is very hard to read.
I realize this, which is part of the reason I added the "Color Player Names" check box. If you uncheck that option it will make the player name text white and put a colored box next to the player's name. Hopefully this helps! I've been meaning to play with the overlay graphics colors but haven't been able to get around to it with all the other features I've been trying to add in.
EDIT: Also, I just wanted to note that I'll be adding hotkey shortcuts into the application this week, and hopefully have it ready by the weekend along with a few other tweaks. Please feel free to post your feedback here on a list of what hotkeys you want and what you would like them to do. I'll do my best to combine as many of them into the app as possible.
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Thank you so much for your hard work Achaia, we all appreciate it! Definitely going to be using your overlay for casting the ASCWeekly Glad I could help with some of the testing!
Three cheers for Achaia!
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This looks great man. I'd love to have a reason to try it. XD
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Really Really Like this.
Here's my feedback:
1) For team play would be nice if you had "No Race" as a selection in the race drop down. That way, for examle, if Root were playing Liquid, there wouldn't be any races there.
2) Better centering of the center logo if changed from the default
3) Ability to resize the center logo pane without scaling the entire overlay.
4) Ability to add players to config file so that for example you could start typing in the name iNcontroL and it'd populate and change the race to Protoss (you could still manually override it)
5) Hot keys to increase and decrease the score for each player
6) Hot keys to change the race for each player
7) Hot keys to cycle colors for each player (would be even nice if you could customize the hot keys for combinations)
8) Perhaps a hot key to toggle the overlay on and off, as well as additional overlay graphics that you have made addable (NICE FEATURE BTW)
9) Ability to reset scores to zero via hot key
But all-in-all this is an excellent app and very well thought out
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On January 20 2011 15:15 OCsurfeR wrote:
Really Really Like this.
Here's my feedback:
1) For team play would be nice if you had "No Race" as a selection in the race drop down. That way, for examle, if Root were playing Liquid, there wouldn't be any races there.
2) Better centering of the center logo if changed from the default
3) Ability to resize the center logo pane without scaling the entire overlay.
4) Ability to add players to config file so that for example you could start typing in the name iNcontroL and it'd populate and change the race to Protoss (you could still manually override it)
5) Hot keys to increase and decrease the score for each player
6) Hot keys to change the race for each player
7) Hot keys to cycle colors for each player (would be even nice if you could customize the hot keys for combinations)
8) Perhaps a hot key to toggle the overlay on and off, as well as additional overlay graphics that you have made addable (NICE FEATURE BTW)
9) Ability to reset scores to zero via hot key
But all-in-all this is an excellent app and very well thought out
Thanks for all of your feedback mate! I'm actually already working on the hotkey functionality for almost every item you've mentioned. I don't have any hotkeys for colors yet, and a general reset hotkey sounds like a good idea too. Unfortunately I won't have the ability to add custom hotkeys just yet although that is definitely something I would like to have in the future, it's just a lot of work that I don't have time for currently. Could you expand on your first item a bit? I understand the whole "No Race" option but when you were saying if Root was playing Liquid there wouldn't be any races there. Are you talking about for like 3v3s and 4v4s and such?
Also, just a quick question about the centered logo item. That SC2 logo is a perfectly cropped exact square so is your replacement image an exact square that has been evenly cropped on all sides? Your resize idea makes sense to fix instances when the image may not look exactly right but I don't know how long it will take me to get to that particular item to add in.
Just to touch on your auto-populate item, I do plan to implement that I just haven't had the time for that yet. The hotkey functionality seemed to be a more requested feature so I did that first. Hopefully I can put that on my list for the next update though.
Thanks again!
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Hey Achaia!
Great changes to the interface, makes using the prog so much more comfortable!
Will prolly test in more depth in the next couple of days and give feedback (if I dont forget ;P)
Stay hoopy!
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Thanks again to everyone who's given feedback! I'm working on finishing up a massive update that is going to be adding one very cool new feature that no one has asked for and I wasn't even sure if I would be able to pull off until recently but it looks like I will. It won't be super useful for every day casts I don't think but for tournaments I think some of the bigger events will get some serious use out of it. Also, don't forget the hotkey functionality will be included with this patch as well as a few minor bug fixes.
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I can't seem to get the custom image overlay that I want to put over my replay bar to stay ontop, even with stay ontop checked. I am on Windowed Mode (Fullscreen) and I can get the score and player bar to stay ontop even if I uncheck stay ontop. Am I doing something wrong with the custom overlay? Its just disappearing every-time I click on Starcraft 2.
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There's a separate stay on top check box for each image overlay. Do you have that one checked too?
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Hmm, I'm not sure then. There should be a separate Always On Top check box for each image overlay you add in addition to the main one specifically for this purpose. Check out the tutorial video in the main post, if that doesn't help then try the new version when it's released. I'm hoping to have it posted this weekend! :D
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Hey guys, just wanted to let you all know that I've posted a new version of the application along with a new video to explain the new functionality. Thanks!
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Its pretty cool
You should add some screenshots to your op, so people don't have to watch your tutorial videos to see what you have done.
Also you should invert your changelist so that latest changes are on the top, and the oldest are on the bottom. Thats the standard and at first sight of your op i was confused.
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I'm going to check this out...huge props to you man
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Very good, I'd really like more casters to use it! :D
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some feature suggestions :
- add autocenter(on the top)
- auto detection if ingame or not, if not (menu) auto hide the overlay
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On January 31 2011 16:05 TehForce wrote:Its pretty cool You should add some screenshots to your op, so people don't have to watch your tutorial videos to see what you have done. Also you should invert your changelist so that latest changes are on the top, and the oldest are on the bottom. Thats the standard and at first sight of your op i was confused.
Thanks for the tip, I'll try to update the OP soon!
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i ripped the player intro sound from the gsl, maybe you want to put it in : (already a wave) [url blocked]
also add the feature to use windows text to speech for the player name intro, i dont know if this is possible through the api?
or maybe create some own robot like text to speech? but i guess this would be a sick amount of work.
e: also for the count updating, leftklick on the number = increase, rightclick on the number = decrease
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On January 31 2011 21:56 Farakes wrote:
i ripped the player intro sound from the gsl, maybe you want to put it in : (already a wave) [url blocked]
also add the feature to use windows text to speech for the player name intro, i dont know if this is possible through the api?
or maybe create some own robot like text to speech? but i guess this would be a sick amount of work.
e: also for the count updating, leftklick on the number = increase, rightclick on the number = decrease
Thanks for the link to the intro sound mate. I've actually been toying around with the idea of making a library of intros for the well known pro gamers but I'm not sure if I'll do that yet or not. At the very least it's nice to have a bit more polished into sound!
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Awesome stuff, man. I'll be using this immediately for all of my casts. What do you use to record your vods with? I use Fraps right now, and the only problem is that I can't include overlays, I would have to insert them afterward (which would be almost impossible with this program).
Anyway, I'll keep giving feedback as I get more use with the program.
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Hey Sir Achaia!
Really great job with the overlay!
I'm planning on using this for future tourneys like others that have posted here.
Here are some of my feedback/suggestions:
-i cant seen to change the overlay logo.
when i press the "change overlay logo" in the "general settings" window, it does nothing.
-maybe a "minimize" option for the settings window for easier navigation.
That's all for now.
Will try to give more info in the future.
Thanks Again!
-Wawa
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On February 04 2011 05:47 Wawa wrote:
Hey Sir Achaia!
Really great job with the overlay!
I'm planning on using this for future tourneys like others that have posted here.
Here are some of my feedback/suggestions:
-i cant seen to change the overlay logo.
when i press the "change overlay logo" in the "general settings" window, it does nothing.
-maybe a "minimize" option for the settings window for easier navigation.
That's all for now.
Will try to give more info in the future.
Thanks Again!
-Wawa
Glad you like the app mate! Sorry about the change overlay logo issue, I'll look into that and see if I screwed something up with the last update. Also, the settings window can be hidden both with a hotkey (reference OP for the hotkey to show/hide it) or you can right click the icon in the task tray and click on the Show/Hide Settings option.
Hope this helps!
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Thanks man, for next updates... can score gets bigger?
Great job!
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On February 04 2011 08:11 Ivanero wrote:
Thanks man, for next updates... can score gets bigger?
Great job!
Thanks for the feedback mate! I haven't really had many requests for that. If there's a lot more people interested in this specific feature I'm happy to accommodate it.
Also, just to keep everyone updated here I'm still working on the customizable hotkeys feature. This has proven to be a pretty big undertaking since I want to make it as simple as possible. The update to include this functionality is on the horizon so don't lose hope.
Here's a quick list of the features that are slated for work after I release the update for customizable hotkeys:
-Another new overlay style based on the GSL finals overlay (watch the finals if you're not sure what this is, it uses the blank space at the bottom of the control panel in the middle rather than the top of the screen where it could block potential unit movements)
-Customizable imaging for the standard overlay. I will be publishing a default size template so people who would like to add their own custom background can do so.
-Customizable race icons. This will allow the overlay app to be used for a lot of games other than SC2 but you could also put a team logo there instead of you're casting team battles or something along those lines.
Hope you guys are enjoying the app still and getting a lot of use out of it. As always feel free to leave some more feedback here and request any new features that you would like to see!
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Totally Awesome. Works perfectly except for one really tiny bug, if i run it with "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" checked, score is shifted a little bit to the left.
+ Show Spoiler +
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On February 11 2011 01:31 Preacherr wrote:Totally Awesome. Works perfectly except for one really tiny bug, if i run it with "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" checked, score is shifted a little bit to the left. + Show Spoiler +
Thanks for reporting this. I'll make sure it's fixed for the next release.
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This is by far has the most extra features of any casting app I've tried; you da bomb!
I just wish the "Change overlay logo" button worked =\
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On February 12 2011 11:02 Ackteon wrote:
This is by far has the most extra features of any casting app I've tried; you da bomb!
I just wish the "Change overlay logo" button worked =\
Sorry about that, I'll make sure it's fixed for the next release. Thanks for reporting this!
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Hey. Awsome program! Is it possible to extend the length of player names allowed? Some players have long names:p aTn.DarKFoRcE is one letter to long for example.
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This is quite slick.
I'm curious if you've tested it at all with Dyyno. I'm having the hardest time figuring out how to display an overlay with Dyyno because Dyyno broadcasts a window and not my actual deakstop...
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@NightySC - The length of the player name allowed is 12 characters which is what Battle.net allows. Even if you take out the '.' though it still cuts off the last letter unless you bump the font down. Note, you can change the font for one of or both of the player names in the settings panel. I will try to tweak this a bit more though so it's easier to update player names.
@MrBitter - I have not used it with Dyyno at all actually. If I get a chance in the near future I'll try to get a copy of that installed so I can play with it. Just for reference, I'm using VHCapture to record videos.
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You, sir, are a god among men. I can't wait to try this out!
Edit: Wow, this really is as easy (and awesome) as the vid made it seem. After playing with it for a while, I can only think of a couple things I'd want different.. One is I'm wondering if it would be possible to separate the 2 names into different overlays... reason being so that I could put one on top of the other to tuck them into a corner or put them on opposite sides of the screen or something.
The only other thing was is there any chance of it running when the game is in fullscreen mode? I know this is probably way too tall of an order given that almost nothing works when the game is in fullscreen, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
Last, and perhaps most reasonable... can the text scale with the size of the player intro boxes?
Please don't take this as criticism in any way... this program must have taken a lot of effort to make and it's really cool of you to make it available to the community. Much thanks!!
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On February 15 2011 16:40 f10esqftw wrote:
You, sir, are a god among men. I can't wait to try this out!
Edit: Wow, this really is as easy (and awesome) as the vid made it seem. After playing with it for a while, I can only think of a couple things I'd want different.. One is I'm wondering if it would be possible to separate the 2 names into different overlays... reason being so that I could put one on top of the other to tuck them into a corner or put them on opposite sides of the screen or something.
The only other thing was is there any chance of it running when the game is in fullscreen mode? I know this is probably way too tall of an order given that almost nothing works when the game is in fullscreen, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
Last, and perhaps most reasonable... can the text scale with the size of the player intro boxes?
Please don't take this as criticism in any way... this program must have taken a lot of effort to make and it's really cool of you to make it available to the community. Much thanks!!
Hey mate, I'm glad that you like the app! I have actually been planning on implementing a GSL Finals style overlay. That's where they have each player in their own separate block overlay and they place it in the dead space on the control panel at the bottom. I will make that movable though so you can place it elsewhere on the screen if you want.
Unfortunately the fullscreen mode operation is probably not something I'll be able to add. You can however use fullscreen windowed mode and that should work.
As for the autoscaling for the font size on the intro boxes I hadn't really thought of it. I'll look into it but I like the idea. Feel free to post here with any other feedback or if you want to request any additional features. I can't promise I'll put everything in the application that you ask for but I'm trying to accommodate as many requests as possible.
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On February 15 2011 22:43 Achaia wrote:
Hey mate, I'm glad that you like the app! I have actually been planning on implementing a GSL Finals style overlay. That's where they have each player in their own separate block overlay and they place it in the dead space on the control panel at the bottom. I will make that movable though so you can place it elsewhere on the screen if you want.
Sounds awesome Mad props.
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Awesome app! I've been looking for something as feature rich as your app. Until yours, I hadn't found anything worth getting. Two feature requests though:
1. Right click drop down/fly out menu for player race.
2. Right click drop down/fly out menu for player color.
This might make it easier to update things on the fly without the need to hit the hot keys, and open the window.
Just a thought. Thank you for the awesome app!
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I was playing with the app a little bit and tried to toy with the player introductions, but every time I do so I get an error message that says:
Unhandled exception has occurred in your application...
'0' is not a valid value for 'Interval'. 'Interval' must be greater than 0.
Is there a work around for this? Similarly there seems to be no way to get rid of the intro once it comes up.
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On February 18 2011 21:54 Vromrig wrote:
I was playing with the app a little bit and tried to toy with the player introductions, but every time I do so I get an error message that says:
Unhandled exception has occurred in your application...
'0' is not a valid value for 'Interval'. 'Interval' must be greater than 0.
Is there a work around for this? Similarly there seems to be no way to get rid of the intro once it comes up.
It sounds like your animation and duration values need to be setup. Make sure that on the intro tab for the settings panel you have those values set. If you're not sure how to use them check out the last tutorial vid I posted in the OP on how to use this new feature. For the future I might just use some defaults values if none have been selected by the user.
Thanks!
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It sounds like your animation and duration values need to be setup. Make sure that on the intro tab for the settings panel you have those values set. If you're not sure how to use them check out the last tutorial vid I posted in the OP on how to use this new feature. For the future I might just use some defaults values if none have been selected by the user.
Thanks!
The fact that I didn't intuitively spot this makes me feel like the biggest program Bronze newb ever.
So...yeah, thank you much for the prompt response.
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This would be perfect if it had a 2v2 mode! Other than that, it's awesome. Also something to display teams?
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dude amazing work ... perfect thx ^^
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Hey guys, just wanted to bump this to let you all know the new version is posted which includes customizable hotkeys! There's a few other changes to so hit up the OP for the latest DL link and notes about the new version.
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I messed around with it and I looks great, but It won't work since I do my recording using Fraps.
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On February 21 2011 13:40 EonShiKeno wrote:
I messed around with it and I looks great, but It won't work since I do my recording using Fraps.
Yeah fraps only records the actual game window so to use this you would have to use VHCapture or another app that captures a window you can specify rather than just the game itself. There's lots of tutorials here on TL.net on how to get that working if you want help on it. Day9's is the most useful IMO.
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Is there a way to move the score count? Maybe it's just me, the score is to the left of center, below Player 1's name. I have to use low res to get the score centered. I'm using Win7 64bit btw.
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So I just saw that as part of the new patch that is currently on the test server there are a bunch of casting tools (i.e. player name, race and color display). I haven't had a chance to test it so I'll look at it tonight before making a final decision but it appears that the new update coming for SC2 will pretty much make my Alpha Caster application obsolete lol.
I am up for continuing to update this if people think that there is additional functionality that they would like that Blizzard does not add or if they like the artwork that I'm providing better than whatever Blizzard does (doubtful since their artists are baller!) so if you guys want to keep this application around and current please post here and let me know. Otherwise chances are that I will stop providing updates for this when that update to SC2 is released.
Thanks to everyone who has followed this application so far and provided feedback and gotten use out of this. It's been a blast to make and has been fun to interact with the community on this.
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On February 28 2011 23:58 Achaia wrote:
So I just saw that as part of the new patch that is currently on the test server there are a bunch of casting tools (i.e. player name, race and color display). I haven't had a chance to test it so I'll look at it tonight before making a final decision but it appears that the new update coming for SC2 will pretty much make my Alpha Caster application obsolete lol.
I am up for continuing to update this if people think that there is additional functionality that they would like that Blizzard does not add or if they like the artwork that I'm providing better than whatever Blizzard does (doubtful since their artists are baller!) so if you guys want to keep this application around and current please post here and let me know. Otherwise chances are that I will stop providing updates for this when that update to SC2 is released.
Thanks to everyone who has followed this application so far and provided feedback and gotten use out of this. It's been a blast to make and has been fun to interact with the community on this.
Achaia.... no sir it will not. Unless they are gonna allow for image overlays and that would be news to me. Furthermore, some of the way things show up is not clean and obviously from what I can tell is uncustomizable. For the basic caster yes it will be enough for the advanced caster like myself I need your product. Please don't go away!
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On March 23 2011 02:05 rakura wrote:Show nested quote +On February 28 2011 23:58 Achaia wrote:
So I just saw that as part of the new patch that is currently on the test server there are a bunch of casting tools (i.e. player name, race and color display). I haven't had a chance to test it so I'll look at it tonight before making a final decision but it appears that the new update coming for SC2 will pretty much make my Alpha Caster application obsolete lol.
I am up for continuing to update this if people think that there is additional functionality that they would like that Blizzard does not add or if they like the artwork that I'm providing better than whatever Blizzard does (doubtful since their artists are baller!) so if you guys want to keep this application around and current please post here and let me know. Otherwise chances are that I will stop providing updates for this when that update to SC2 is released.
Thanks to everyone who has followed this application so far and provided feedback and gotten use out of this. It's been a blast to make and has been fun to interact with the community on this. Achaia.... no sir it will not. Unless they are gonna allow for image overlays and that would be news to me. Furthermore, some of the way things show up is not clean and obviously from what I can tell is uncustomizable. For the basic caster yes it will be enough for the advanced caster like myself I need your product. Please don't go away!
Thanks for your support! I do not plan on taking down the existing application by any means so feel free to download and share as much as you like! If there's other functionality that neither my app nor SC2 has then please feel free to request it. I'm not going to be proactively providing updates any more though unless specific features are requested.
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Good work on the app, it is much better than the basic stuff Blizzard has supplied.
A few suggestions to improve this app:
- If you make the player names directly editable in the score board, that would help
- Would it be possible to make the score be able to increase/decrease on mouse clicks?
- Could make the options menu able to minimize?
Thanks for the Score board!
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Actually it already does all of the items you mentioned I believe.
1. You can double click on a player name and it will give you a text box to edit the player name. When you're finished editing just hit Enter on your keyboard to apply the changes.
2. For the player score you can't Left/Right Click to increase/decrease the score but you do have keyboard shortcuts that you can use to add or subtract from the player scores. Check the OP for a list of available hotkeys.
3. You can hide the settings panel a couple of ways. One way is to right click on the icon in your system tray and click "Show/Hide Settings" option to toggle the settings panel visibility. You can also hit Ctrl + P to toggle the settings panel visibility.
Glad you like the app and of course if you have any more feedback feel free to let me know.
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Sweden33719 Posts
Hey, is it just me or is the download link in the OP broken now? It takes me to a very..... not-mediafire looking website -_-;;
EDIT: Well someone who it was working for, sent it to me 
Can this overlay be visible only to the stream? Like, if I m playing and streaming can I have this running without actually seeing it myself, but the stream sees it?
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On April 04 2011 11:56 Liquid`Jinro wrote:Hey, is it just me or is the download link in the OP broken now? It takes me to a very..... not-mediafire looking website -_-;; EDIT: Well someone who it was working for, sent it to me Can this overlay be visible only to the stream? Like, if I m playing and streaming can I have this running without actually seeing it myself, but the stream sees it?
The application itself does not have any way for supporting this directly. My initial thought is that you would need to stream a composite of the overlay on top of your regular screen stream (kind of like a picture in picture) but I'm not entirely sure what it would take to set that up. I'll try to take a look at it when I get home tonight and see if it's easily done. What streaming service/applications do you use Jinro? I could test it better if I used the same stuff you do.
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On February 24 2011 05:23 Cel.erity wrote:
Is there a way to move the score count? Maybe it's just me, the score is to the left of center, below Player 1's name. I have to use low res to get the score centered. I'm using Win7 64bit btw.
Still wondering about an answer to this question. I've been unable to use the app for this reason.
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I love this application, I have been streaming with it for quite some time now, just stopped in to DL the new version and say thank you. I will use this over the blizzard one because of player score and image overlay. Keep up the good work.
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Sweden33719 Posts
On April 04 2011 22:50 Achaia wrote:Show nested quote +On April 04 2011 11:56 Liquid`Jinro wrote:Hey, is it just me or is the download link in the OP broken now? It takes me to a very..... not-mediafire looking website -_-;; EDIT: Well someone who it was working for, sent it to me Can this overlay be visible only to the stream? Like, if I m playing and streaming can I have this running without actually seeing it myself, but the stream sees it? The application itself does not have any way for supporting this directly. My initial thought is that you would need to stream a composite of the overlay on top of your regular screen stream (kind of like a picture in picture) but I'm not entirely sure what it would take to set that up. I'll try to take a look at it when I get home tonight and see if it's easily done. What streaming service/applications do you use Jinro? I could test it better if I used the same stuff you do.
Xsplit, thanks!
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On April 06 2011 09:53 Cel.erity wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2011 05:23 Cel.erity wrote:
Is there a way to move the score count? Maybe it's just me, the score is to the left of center, below Player 1's name. I have to use low res to get the score centered. I'm using Win7 64bit btw. Still wondering about an answer to this question. I've been unable to use the app for this reason.
I'm so so so so sorry! Somehow I missed your post. I try to get responses to bug fixes as soon as possible so I'm really embarrassed that I missed your item. I'll look at it first thing when I get home tonight mate and repost.
@Jinro - Cool thanks mate! I feel like there's some kind of Picture-in-Picture setup that will work but I'll have to play with it a bit to figure it out. Once I have had a chance to research it I'll post here to let you know what I've found.
Thanks again to everyone who's still expressing interest in this application! I figured this would immediately die when Blizzard added their support for some of this functionality but it's cool to see how many people are still interested in it. I'm still open to adding more features if you guys want any additional enhancements so if there's something missing that you want fire away!
The only big item I had on my development list for feature enhancements still was the auto-populate for the player name fields (i.e. you start typing a name and it gives you the closest matching name based on characters you've entered). Is this something that people still using the app have a need/desire for? Let me know!
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XSplit Picture-In-Picture Setup
Per Jinro's request I have looked into a Picture-In-Picture (PIP) setup for streaming which would allow you to use the overlay application without actually interfering with your gaming. I have currently only researched this for the XSplit broadcaster application so that is what this tutorial will focus on but I'm sure it's possible in different applications as well.
What You Need: XSplit Brodcaster, XSplit Beta Account, Dual Monitor Setup, Alpha Caster and a computer strong enough to run SC2 while streaming.
Setup Steps:
1. Open XSplit Broadcaster and login
2. Click on one of the Scene's that is not being used in your Scene panel in the lower right
3. Go to File->Add screen region...
4. Click and drag the area that you would like to stream SC2 from
5. Open Alpha Caster and put the overlay and settings panel on your second monitor but space them out so they don't overlap
6. Go to File->Add screen region... again
7. Click on the Alpha Caster overlay window (it should highlight the whole overlay when you move your mouse over it)
8. In the Scene preview window for the XSplit broadcaster resize and position the overlay so that it displays where you want it to
9. Begin streaming!
I hope this helps out those of you who would like to stream your game play using my alpha caster app but don't want it interrupting your game play. You can also use the steps above for any image overlays you may have open with Alpha Caster as well and basically run your whole overlay setup to increase production value for your stream viewers without actually interfering with your games.
Thanks guys!
Achaia
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Great software! But I have one issue. When I add an image that got transparent background, the background is getting white.
Is there a way to fix this?
- KimG
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On April 10 2011 05:38 KimG wrote:
Great software! But I have one issue. When I add an image that got transparent background, the background is getting white.
Is there a way to fix this?
- KimG
Sorry the transparent images are no longer allowed in the app right now. The reason being that it would force you to use a "Capture Layered Windows" option because of the way Windows handles application windows with transparency. This was not available in every streaming/capturing program so I took out the transparency. I've been thinking of adding it back in as an option that is turned off by default but could be turned on if desired. Perhaps I'll look at adding that in soon, but currently transparent images will appear with the white background that you currently see.
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On April 10 2011 05:59 Achaia wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2011 05:38 KimG wrote:
Great software! But I have one issue. When I add an image that got transparent background, the background is getting white.
Is there a way to fix this?
- KimG Sorry the transparent images are no longer allowed in the app right now. The reason being that it would force you to use a "Capture Layered Windows" option because of the way Windows handles application windows with transparency. This was not available in every streaming/capturing program so I took out the transparency. I've been thinking of adding it back in as an option that is turned off by default but could be turned on if desired. Perhaps I'll look at adding that in soon, but currently transparent images will appear with the white background that you currently see.
Ok, thanks!
I would also love to have an option that turns off all the hotkeys, since I will mostly be using this software when I'm playing myself (I dont do casting). I might be blind, but I did not see that option for that.
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On April 10 2011 06:10 KimG wrote:Show nested quote +On April 10 2011 05:59 Achaia wrote:On April 10 2011 05:38 KimG wrote:
Great software! But I have one issue. When I add an image that got transparent background, the background is getting white.
Is there a way to fix this?
- KimG Sorry the transparent images are no longer allowed in the app right now. The reason being that it would force you to use a "Capture Layered Windows" option because of the way Windows handles application windows with transparency. This was not available in every streaming/capturing program so I took out the transparency. I've been thinking of adding it back in as an option that is turned off by default but could be turned on if desired. Perhaps I'll look at adding that in soon, but currently transparent images will appear with the white background that you currently see. Ok, thanks! I would also love to have an option that turns off all the hotkeys, since I will mostly be using this software when I'm playing myself (I dont do casting). I might be blind, but I did not see that option for that.
That's a great idea! I think it would actually be pretty simple to implement so maybe I can get it in there sometime this week. I'll post an update when I get it added. Thanks for the feedback!
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I saw the post regarding xSplit and having image overlay without seeing the images on your screen. Do you think that's possible in FME 3.1 as well? Would be great if it works in that streaming software too.
ninja edit: VhScrCap + FME 3.1 that is.
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Any response to my problem yet?
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On April 06 2011 09:53 Cel.erity wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2011 05:23 Cel.erity wrote:
Is there a way to move the score count? Maybe it's just me, the score is to the left of center, below Player 1's name. I have to use low res to get the score centered. I'm using Win7 64bit btw. Still wondering about an answer to this question. I've been unable to use the app for this reason.
I'm actually having this same issue with the latest version. I have two machines I use it on both with Win7 64 bit OS. It works fine on the Desktop machine but on the laptop the score counter is positioned to the left of center. My Desktop is running a resolution of 1680x1050 and the laptop is 1920x1080. Both machines are running Nvidia cards with the same version drivers. It is really weird.
Thanks for the help!!
-Eclypze
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Is there any support for use of this program with an Xsplit/Gamesource or Xsplit/Dxtory setup???
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I have a question: is it possible to support transparency (alpha channel) in the addable images?
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EPT![[image loading]](http://www.dodaj.rs/f/35/uc/4UXbyC4c/alphacasterscore.jpg)
