It is highly recommended to keep these locations as they are installed. In those cases where the teteherd picture / booth picture needs a different folder, e.g. an external hard disk, the location is changed, and thoroughly tested before a show is started. Please be aware that these locations are absolute paths to the data folder, and are stored immediately in the configuration file. When for instance the external had drive is removed the applications now points to a non existing folder and will not run properly.

Here you will find one option: to randomize the source image each time you start the application ('Randomize source image at start'). This feature is turned on by default. You need to deactivate it at your convenience, and will remain inactive after unchecking the tickbox. Also when you restart the app. It will then always start with the first image (alphabetical sequence in the image folder).

To select one of the folders, click the corresponding radiobutton (in the Active folders box). The explorer view will jump to that selected folder. Then select your folder of choice (be careful, this is really important to assure that folder remains intact when you start a new session). To confirm your selection, press the Select current folder. The new folder is now fixed and saved in the application's configuration file. In case you wish to first inspect the currently active folder, click the Open in Windows Explorer button. The Windows Explorer will now be started showing the contents of the Active folder (so: not the folder in the explorer on the left in the image above).

The following locations are used:

• Booth folder. This is the folder that is listened to by the application, and when a picture is found (e.g. from a tethered camera or photo booth source) the new picture is first copied in its original size to a save location (the 'Copy' folder), and then made ready for transport to the mosaic. Each picture will be resized to a size that fits with the mosaic (1200 pixels width). The original picture will therefore always be 1200 pixels in size. The current version will not save the original snapshot in full size. The main reason is to avoid unwanted resizing time when new mosaics are made from existing library pictures (incl. newly added via the snapshots).
• Library folder. This is the initial photo library folder where at least 500 pictures must be stored from which the initial mosaic can be made. When too few pictures are available the mosaic impression will look bad. When new pictures are found from the 'Booth' folder they are added to this folder as well (next to a copy in the 'Copy' folder).
• Source folder. This is the location of the source picture from which the mosaic will be made. The folder content is shown in the 'Sources' tab (top viewer). Each source picture is made active in the Sources tab and can be checked on or off (including/excluding in the event show). Most important: the size of the picture will determine the size of the mosaic! The pre-installed source pictures have two aspect ratios: 4:3 and 16:9 (or in actual sizes:640 x 480 and 960 x 540 pixels). It is highly recommended to also keep these files small, like the installed sizes to avoid large resizing actions for each mosaic and keep the speed of the application.
• Commercials folder. This is the folder in which all the commercial pictures and video files must be stored. Similar to the sources, this folder is shown in the 'Sources' tab. There can only be two kinds of files in this folder: jpg, bmp, jpg or png picture files, and .avi and .mpg video files. The .avi files must have a codec that is available in the windows system to be recognized by the application. VLC codecs are not shared, so when showing correctly in VLC is no guarantee it will be recognized by Dynamic Mosaic. The sound signal is preferably absent, since also sound codecs must be available in the windows system. In case sound is recognized and must be heard, you need to also unmute the sound via the 'Sources' tab. You also need to test first before putting the event into action.
• Copy folder. This is the folder in which a copy is stored from each booth/tethered image. The image in copied in the original size, and when many files are stored make sure there is enough space to store them all.
• Recording folder. This is the folder in which the recorded movie will be saved. In case a raw file format is used, this locations should have GB space to avoid running low of disk space.

The internally used data is located in the same root folder as the image folders: C:\Users\Public\Documents\APP\Dynamic Mosaic. Be very careful not to move or delete any of these folders: Frames, Masks, Projects, Settings and Sources.