# General questions ## Is Ultimate VJ free? Yes — it costs nothing and requires no account or licence key. A binary preview installs through a public Homebrew tap; that does not establish public availability of the development source. ## Is there a licence file? **Not in this checkout.** `git ls-files` shows only vendored third-party licences (Ableton Link, ASIO and the FFmpeg build) and no project licence of its own. Because of that, these docs deliberately **do not** describe the project as "open source" — the repository does not currently state what recipients may do with it. This documentation update does not choose or add a project licence. Vendored dependencies have their own notices, including Ableton Link, ASIO, FFmpeg and dav1d; those notices do not substitute for an explicit project licence. Licence compatibility and distribution permissions were not assessed by this documentation QA. ## Where do I report a bug? Use whatever issue tracker belongs to the copy of the source you obtained — **this checkout has no configured git remote**, so the source repository's own URL could not be verified from the repository itself. Two GitHub locations *are* verifiable from the source, and both are useful: - the Homebrew tap — - the binary release repository — When you report something, attach the two things the app offers for exactly this: the **Settings → Performance** readouts, and a `--runtime-report` capture. Both are described under "genuinely broken" below. ## Where do I get it? ```sh brew tap weswalz/ultimatevj brew install --cask weswalz/ultimatevj/ultimatevj ``` Full details in [Installation](../getting-started/installation.md). ## Do I need a Mac? Yes. There is no Windows or Linux build, and both the Swift package and the published cask restrict the platform: macOS **26.0** or later, and **Apple Silicon (arm64)** only. An Intel Mac cannot run it, and neither can an older macOS version. ## Is it compatible with Resolume? **No.** Ultimate VJ follows a Resolume-*like* workflow — bank/layer/clip matrix, tape-deck transport, per-scope effect stacks — but it is an independent implementation. Concretely, that means: - It can import a **limited subset of legacy `.avc` XML compositions**. This is not full Resolume compatibility or an export path; unsupported third-party effects remain opaque. - Native effect presets do not reconstruct proprietary Resolume effect chains. - It does not host third-party plug-ins (no FFGL, no ISF). - Third-party effect records it encounters during import are kept as opaque data, named "unavailable", and never silently reinterpreted. If you need drop-in compatibility, this is not it. If you want the workflow, it is free. See [Limitations](../reference/limitations.md). ## Where are my files? Everything lives under `~/Library/Application Support/ULTIMATEVJ/`: ``` Preferences.json application preferences Autosave.uvj the 30-second autosave OutputMapping.json your output geometry Recovery/ unsaved-set copies and failed-autosave preservation; never pruned Updates/ one folder per in-app update attempt ``` Your sets are wherever you saved them. **Recovery/ is never cleaned up automatically** — it grows until you empty it. ## How often does it autosave, and can I get my work back? Every **30 seconds**, whenever there are unsaved changes, plus once at quit. Both require the **Autosave every 30 seconds** preference, which is on by default. Replacing an unsaved set writes a recovery copy **first**, and — usefully — that happens even if autosave is switched off. See [Sets, presets and storage](../files/sets-presets-and-storage.md). If autosave restore fails, the app reports why and preserves the original bytes to `Recovery/Unrestored-Autosave-.uvj` when possible. If safe preservation fails, autosave replacement is blocked and the message asks you to save another file. See [Failed autosave restore](../files/sets-presets-and-storage.md#failed-autosave-restore). ## Can an older version open a newer set? It depends on the format version. Sets are written as version **3**, or **4** when any MIDI mapping carries an explicit CC-feedback choice, **5** for MetalFX Upscaled 4K, or **6** for group semantics/layer group membership; readable range is **1…6**. An unsupported version is **refused** with a message rather than half-loaded. This is deliberate: the app would rather tell you than silently drop an explicit choice you made. ## How far does Undo go? **32 steps** of undo history, with identical consecutive edits coalesced within 0.4 seconds so slider drags do not eat the whole history. Each step is a full snapshot of the session. The trim is enforced on the undo stack; whether redo is separately bounded is not established — see [Sets, presets and storage](../files/sets-presets-and-storage.md#not-verified). Undo is refused while recording. ## Does it phone home? Two network behaviours exist, both narrow: - Checking for updates fetches the published cask manifest from GitHub — at most every six hours, with a one-hour minimum gap. Manual checks never install anything. - Ableton Link, when **you** enable it, discovers peers on your local network. The local control API binds to loopback only and cannot be reached from another machine. ## Does it listen to my microphone without asking? No. Nothing captures audio until you press **Enable input**, and microphone permission is requested **only in response to that**. Selecting a device in Settings does nothing; merely opening Settings does nothing either. The bundle ships a specific usage description so the prompt explains itself. ## Can I run it alongside Resolume or another VJ app? Yes, with one caveat: there is no frame sharing in either direction. **Syphon and NDI are unavailable**, so the two apps cannot pass video between each other. They can coexist on one Mac and drive separate displays. ## How do I build it myself? The pinned native decoder must be built before packaging; `make_app.sh` hard-fails otherwise. The dependency builder only accepts `[maintainer-local path]` (`scripts/build_ffmpeg_dependency.sh:9-11`). The local packaging helper accepts Debug only; Release is rejected by its preflight (`scripts/package_renderwave.py:41-45`). ```sh ./scripts/build_ffmpeg_dependency.sh ./scripts/make_app.sh debug ``` Note that locally built apps are **ad-hoc signed and carry no entitlements**, so they cannot grant themselves microphone access. The release pipeline is the only path that applies entitlements, Developer ID signing and notarization. Full instructions in [Installation](../getting-started/installation.md). ## Why does in-app updating refuse to work? Update and Restart requires a **managed installation**: a `brew` binary in a standard location, a bundle named `ULTIMATEVJ.app`, and Homebrew's own `Caskroom/ultimatevj` directory. Self-built and manually copied apps can still *check* for updates; they cannot install them. See [Updating](../getting-started/updating.md). ## What do I do if something is genuinely broken? See [Troubleshooting](../reference/troubleshooting.md). Two tools give ground truth rather than impressions: - **Settings → Performance** shows the render backend, whether the Metal kernels compiled, and measured frame production and preparation figures. - Launching with `--runtime-report ` writes a JSON readback you can attach to a bug report. ## Not verified - Whether a published release exists for every version string present in this repository's own history. The manifest the updater reads is whatever currently exists in the tap. - Behaviour of the shipping app on real hardware for anything in this page that concerns devices — none of it was exercised for these docs.