Shows — the library, tonight's show, show files, the crossfade dial, the scene panel
1. Library vs show
- LIBRARY is every scene installed. The grid at the bottom, labelled LIBRARY · 8 CARTRIDGES · ALL FAMILIES. The header tabs ALL / FLUID / CUBES / STACKS filter it. ★ MINE is drawn but does nothing yet
[coming]. - SHOW is tonight's ordered set. The strip above the library, labelled with a small SHOW tag, the show's name and its scene count (for example SHOW Tonight · 4 scenes); drag a card to reorder. The controller hints sit in the bar along the bottom of the window (hover the show's name to see them too). Tap L2 on the controller (LT on Xbox) for the next scene, double-tap it to go back to where you were, or hold it and press ◀ ▶ to step back or on; N / P on the keyboard do the same. When the show is empty they walk the whole library instead.
- On the very first launch two of the quick tips point here: YOUR SCENES (this strip) and YOUR LIBRARY (click a scene to fire it). CONTROLS › SHOW THE QUICK TIPS AGAIN brings them back (
FIRST_RUN.md§3). - To put the show on a TV, monitor, projector or LED wall: ⧉ OUTPUT in the header (
OUTPUT.md§1).
Scene families (what they do, not how):
| Family | Scenes | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| FLUID | Plane Drift, Goop (fluid dynamics), Flashpoint | Liquid, ink, smoke, water and fire that move with the picture |
| CUBES | Cube Bloom, Cube Stack | Glossy cubes breathing in a wave (grouped or fly-through); a climbing stack of old monitors playing your picture |
| STACKS | Frame Stack | The picture stacked in depth: rolling history cards with a liquid afterglow |
| OTHER | Corridor Panels, Blob Tracking v3, Custom Particles, Pixel Smear, Machine Vision, Typewriter Terrain | A tunnel of panels; people tracked live; particles made of symbols riding your motion; your own picture smeared along with you; a tracking HUD locked onto your picture (shown under ALL) |
Some scenes take longer to prepare on the very first launch; they are ready by the next one.
- New scenes after an update. The show made for you on the first launch (My Scenes; on a copy from before Nov 8, My first show) picks up scenes that arrive in the library later: they are added at the end, once, with a note 3 NEW SCENES ADDED TO MY SCENES. Take one out and it stays out. A show you made is never changed; you get a one-time note N NEW SCENES IN THE LIBRARY · + ADD TO SHOW instead.
2. Building tonight's show
- Hover a library card. The button + ADD TO SHOW appears on it. Click it. The card now reads IN SHOW ✓ and a copy appears in the show strip.
- Keyboard: focus the card and press Shift+Enter. Same button again (or Shift+Enter again) removes it.
- In the SCENE panel on the right, the focused scene has the same + ADD TO SHOW button.
- Reorder: drag cards left and right inside the show strip.
- Remove: the × in a show card's corner, or Delete with the card focused.
The show's name sits under Plugin Player at the top left of the header. A • after the name means unsaved changes.
3. Saving and loading show files
Click Plugin Player ▾ at the far left of the header. A menu titled SHOW FILE opens under it:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| NEW SHOW | Empties the strip. Name goes back to UNTITLED |
| SAVE · NAME / SAVE… | Saves under the current name. With no name yet it asks for one. Keyboard: Ctrl+S (Mac: Cmd+S), from any tab |
| SAVE AS… | A text box show name (the current name, selected: typing replaces it) and a SAVE button. Enter saves, Esc cancels. Up to 48 characters. Keyboard: Ctrl+Shift+S. When it saves, the panel closes, the chip reads SAVED in orange for a moment and a note over the monitor says SHOW SAVED · MARIA1 · 8 SCENES; if it cannot save, the reason appears in red under the name and the panel stays open |
| RECENT | The five shows you opened or saved last, newest first, with their scene counts. Click one to load it. Reads NO SAVED SHOWS YET on a fresh install |
| ALL SHOWS | The rest of your shows. SHOW n MORE unfolds a long list |
| OPEN A SHOW FILE… | Pick a show file anywhere on this computer, such as one someone sent you. It joins your shows and never replaces one: a show of the same name becomes Name (2). A scene you don't have is skipped and the message says how many; so does one you don't own yet. A damaged file, a file from a newer version or a file that is not a show gets a plain message and your show stays. Locked in guest mode |
| EXPORT THIS SHOW… | Writes this show to a .ppshow file to send to someone: the scenes in order, the fade, the mapping. Scenes themselves are not inside it. Locked in guest mode |
A show file stores: the scene order, the fade seconds and the fade curve. Loading it restores all three, so the dial moves too.
Ctrl+S saves the show, Ctrl+P saves a preset. Ctrl+S is the show (the whole set, like saving a project); Ctrl+P keeps the picture on screen right now as one of your presets (PRESET SAVED · MINE 1 ★). In MAP, Ctrl+S also keeps the mapping you are adjusting and saves it in the show, and you stay in MAP.
On the next launch Plugin Player reopens the last show you had loaded. Start it with --show <name> to open a specific one instead.
Where the files live
%APPDATA%\rexaffects-player\shows\<name>.json [to confirm at beta: the folder name follows the release name]
The file name is the show name lower-cased with punctuation turned into dashes: "Friday Main Room" becomes friday-main-room.json. Paste the path into File Explorer's address bar to find them. Copy the folder to back them up or to move them to another machine.
A show file is plain JSON:
{
"name": "Friday Main Room",
"scenes": ["plane-drift-fluid", "cube-bloom", "frame-stack", "fluid-force"],
"fadeSecs": 1.5,
"fadeCurve": 0,
"updatedAt": "2026-10-27T21:14:03.000Z"
}scenes are scene slugs in play order. fadeCurve is 0 = MIX, 1 = ADD, 2 = DIP TO BLACK. A scene named in the file that is not installed on this machine is skipped when the show loads; the rest of the show still loads. A show that has not been unlocked on this login [coming].
4. The crossfade dial (TRANSITION card)
The TRANSITION card is hidden to start with, to leave the room for the presets and the library. VIEW at the right edge → TRANSITION shows it (or click FADE in the line under the monitor's scene name). Without it: [ ] step the fade time, C or a click on the curve name under the monitor cycles the curve.
- FADE dial: 0 to 10 s. [ and ] step it by 0.25 s. The screen shows
1.50 s FADE. - Curve buttons: MIX (one picture dissolves into the next), ADD (both glow together through the fade), DIP TO BLACK. C cycles them.
- CROSSFADE ON PLAY: every play and every L/R step uses the dial. The line under the monitor animates while a fade runs.
- NEXT / LAST FADE shows which scene is coming and the last fade time used.
- Each scene carries its own default fade time. The dial overrides it once you touch it.
5. The scene panel (right side, labelled SCENE)
Hidden to start with: VIEW at the right edge → SCENE shows it. Without it, hover a library card for its family and preset count, and PARAMS at the right edge holds every slider.
It describes the scene under the focus, or the playing scene when nothing else is focused.
- Title, family chip, and a meta line like 28 PRESETS · 0 PASSES · COMPILED 183 MS. COMPILED — means it has not played on this launch yet.
- The scene's description in plain words.
- ● LIVE in the corner when this scene is the one playing, FOCUSED otherwise, plus IN SHOW ✓.
- Not playing: the first six presets as small posters, and the note A PLAY TO ADJUST PARAMETERS.
- Playing: FEATURED sliders (the two or three dials that matter most for that scene), then ▸ ALL PARAMETERS · N which unfolds the rest. Drag a slider and the output changes at once. Pressing a preset button or Y moves the sliders to match.
- Buttons: A PLAY and + ADD TO SHOW / IN SHOW ✓.
Slider positions are not saved into show files today. Presets are the way to recall a setting.
Set the order your presets cycle in before the show. Drag the favorite tiles in the PRESETS strip into the order you want R2 to walk them (or Alt+← / Alt+→ on the playing one; on the controller hold R2 + L1 + ◀ ▶). It is kept per scene on this computer with your stars, not in the show file; RESET ORDER puts the scene's own order back.