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diff --git a/doc/NVIDIA_Highlights_FAQ.md b/doc/NVIDIA_Highlights_FAQ.md index 94432e6..78175cb 100644 --- a/doc/NVIDIA_Highlights_FAQ.md +++ b/doc/NVIDIA_Highlights_FAQ.md @@ -1,11 +1,19 @@ # NVIDIA Highlights Frequently Asked Questions +This document covers the reasons for integrating Highlights, an explanation for how it works, and best practices for integration. + ## Why integrate NVIDIA Highlights? -* NVIDIA Highlights enables gamers to automatically capture video and screenshots of the best moments of your game and share them to social media via the GeForce Experience In-game Overlay (aka the Overlay). NVIDIA’s ShadowPlay technology uses dedicated encoding hardware on the GPU so that these captures don’t impact gameplay. GeForce Experience handles all capture functionality, UI, and settings, making developer integration through a simple API (the GeForce Experience SDK, aka GFE-SDK) quick and easy. +* NVIDIA Highlights enables gamers to automatically capture video and screenshots of the best moments of your game and share them to social media via the GeForce Experience In-game Overlay (aka the Overlay). +* NVIDIA’s ShadowPlay technology uses dedicated encoding hardware on the GPU so that these captures don’t impact gameplay. +* GeForce Experience handles all capture functionality, UI, and settings, making developer integration through a simple API (the GeForce Experience SDK, aka GFE-SDK) quick and easy. ## How does NVIDIA Highlights work? * Your game makes a Configure call on GFE-SDK to communicate all possible highlight types for the game. This in turn allows gamers to turn individual highlight types on and off in the Overlay. -* The first time your game tries to use highlights, the Overlay asks the gamer for permission to make recordings of their gameplay. This is analogous to a mobile application asking for permission to use the phone’s camera. +* Your game makes a Create call to start a Highlights session. +* The first time your game tries to create a session, the Overlay asks the gamer for permission to make recordings of their gameplay. This is analogous to a mobile application asking for permission to use the phone’s camera. + + + * Via the Settings menu of the Overlay, the gamer may turn highlights for all games on and off, highlights just for your game on and off, and turn each highlight type for your game on and off individually. * When something worth capturing happens, your game makes a Set-Highlight call on GFE-SDK. This results in GFE-SDK saving a video recording or screenshot in a temporary folder the gamer has configured. * GFE-SDK will announce each captured highlight with a notification to the gamer. Your game can also specify to GFE-SDK that the highlight be unannounced (e.g. if this would reveal too much to the gamer ‘in the moment’). Also, a gamer may turn off this type of notification via the Settings menu of the Overlay. @@ -18,17 +26,37 @@  -Example: Highlights permissions button dialog as implemented in the UWP sample. + Example: Highlights permissions button dialog as implemented in the UWP sample. + +## When should I make Configure and Create calls? +* After all drawing and input subsystems have been initialized for the game. Calling too early could cause integration bugs with the permissions dialog, such as + * Automatically closing on a Device Context or draw change + * Looking hung when the render pipeline is stalled +* When the API call and related Permissions dialog feels natural to the game’s startup flow. Calling too soon after game invocation before the title screen or during title cinematics will feel jarring to the user and might block your opening cinematics. Calling it after the user has started a level/match and during the level loading screen while the user is waiting would be a more natural interaction. ## How should I implement my individual game Highlights? * Only save the best moments of the gameplay, such as kills, deaths, and victories, as highlights. +* Rule of thumb: If the average user can perform the moment often, it is not a Highlight. * Tune the start and end points of a video highlight to showcase the essence of the gameplay, without being overlong. 20 seconds before the instant of interest and 10 seconds after is reasonable in most scenarios. * Use the screenshot capability to capture moments such as victory or score screens. ## What are the best practices for adding a UI element in my game to open the Highlights Summary? * Add an in-game UI element to launch the Highlights Summary in places that are easily accessible but won’t interfere with gameplay, e.g. on the end of match summary screen or in the main game menu. -* When implementing your UI element follow the “NVIDIA HIGHLIGHT BUTTON PROPER USAGE” guidelines document in the GFE-SDK package adhering to the sizes, clear space, and specific colors prescribed there. The package also provides the necessary vector graphics assets files to do so. - + + +* The button should be prominently displayed to allow users to easily find the feature. +* When implementing your UI element follow the “NVIDIA HIGHLIGHTS BUTTON PROPER USAGE” guidelines document in the GFE-SDK package adhering to the sizes, clear space, and specific colors prescribed there. The package also provides the necessary vector graphics assets files to do so. + +## When should I should I allow the user to open the Highlights Summary? +* When the user has plenty of time to casually interact with their highlights. A short countdown timer before next round starts, where the level reloads and the user is back in the action, would not give the user time. +* When the summary can be repeatedly accessible, allowing the user to open it, close it, and decide to re-open to work with any remaining highlights. If the user accidentally closes it, they shouldn’t be locked out of getting back to their remaining highlights. + +## Can I directly access my game’s Highlights files? +* No, all highlights are captured into a user-defined temporary folder, and are subject to deletion based on FIFO rules around user-defined space allocation. +* The user has the option to save these temporary highlights to the GeForce Experience Gallery, however, they can still be deleted by the user at any point. + -Example: Highlights Summary launch button as implemented in Fortnite. +## Why does my game pause when the Summary is displayed when running in Windowed mode? +* The In-Game Overlay runs as a separate window that takes focus in windowed mode. Make sure your game continues to run normally when losing focus, including frame rate render speeds and sound creation. Dropping framerate or disabling sound on focus loss can break the user’s experience with NVIDIA Highlights. In some cases, we’ve seen applications minimize themselves on loss of focus, which will be very confusing to a user. +* Running in a separate window requires Aero support for best rendering performance. Desktop and window render rates will drop for any In-Game Overlay elements, including slider notifications for NVIDIA Highlights captures. This isn’t a major problem when the overlay or Summary dialog is displayed since they have the user’s attention, but can be distracting for framerate drops during game action from a Highlight capture notification. If your game supports non-Aero mode, you can limit the poor experience during gameplay by using the silent Highlight type, or ask the user to disable notifications in In-Game Overlay->Settings->Notifications. |