# The Control Window

## Capture Speed

The number of frame SimCap will record every second.

## Quality

The amount of compression applied to each frame as it is captured. A setting of 'High' means little compression is used, resulting in larger file sizes but sharper images. A setting of 'Low' means smaller file sizes but with poorer image quality.

## Orientation

The orientation in which movies and screenshots will be captured. The size of the images captured is displayed by each setting. The height will change depending on whether the "Exclude Status Bar" option is selected. If "Both" is chosen, the resulting movie will have a square aspect ratio with the captured image centred either horizontally or vertically within it. Screenshots will not show this feature.

Note: In "Portrait" and "Landscape" modes, video will only be captured from the Simulator if it is currently running in that orientation. See the "Status Display" for an indication of whether frames are currently being captured.

## Scale

The scaling (downwards) to be applied to the movie. A factor of 62.5% will reduce the iPhone to 200 by 300 pixels, while 31.25% will reduce the iPad's 1024 by 768 to 480 by 320, similar to the iPhone.

## Rotation

Rotate the movie 90° left (counterclockwise) or right (clockwise). Use this feature if you would like to capture the iPhone in portrait orientation in such a way as the video will play back full screen on the device.

## Exclude Status Bar

If selected, the top part of the Simulator screen which normally shows the iPhone status bar will be cropped from video and screenshots.

Note: When this option is selected, SimCap does not actually check to see whether the iPhone status bar is actually being show. If you are running a full-screen app in the Simulator with this option selected the top 20 pixels of the screen will be cropped.

## Movie Dimensions

This displays the dimensions of the final movie after all of the options listed above have been applied to it.

## Show Mouse Position

Records the position of the mouse pointer to the video. The mouse position is not shown in screenshots.

## Show Multi-Touch

Records the position of the multi-touch fingers to the video. Multi-touch is not shown in screenshots.

## Show Taps

Records an animation indicating where the user has clicked/tapped to the video. Taps are not shown in screenshots.

## Record Simulator Audio

Select this to enable recording the audio output from the iPhone Simulator. This requires that the Soundflower audio plug-in is installed on your Mac. Soundflower is an open source audio device which allows audio to be routed from one application to another.

The button allows you to enable and disable Soundflower. However, if Soundflower is active when SimCap is launched, this option will not be available (since SimCap will not know which output device to switch back to when disabling Soundflower).

Note that due to changes in the way the Simulator handles audio routing, it must be restarted once Soundflower has been enable in order for its audio to be correctly captured. A warning alert will be displayed to remind you to do this.

To choose which Soundflower device to record from, see the Preferences Window help page.

Please note that you will not be able to hear audio from the Simulator while it is being routed through Soundflower and recorded.

## Record Voice-over

Select this to enable recording audio from an external source, such as your Mac's built-in microphone or line-in.

## Source

The audio source from which to record voice-over audio.

## Quality

The quality setting at which to record voice-over audio. "Lossless" applies no compression to the audio and thus creates the largest files. "Voice" applies the largest amount of compression and thus creates the smallest files.

## Status Display

The status display indicates the current status of SimCap, showing whether it is ready to begin recording video or not.

## Take Screenshot

When clicked, nine screenshots are taken ranging from approximately one second before the button was clicked to approximately one second afterwards. A Screenshot Window is then opened to display the results.

## Start Recording/Stop Recording

Start or stop recording video from the Simulator. Once stopped — and after the video captured has been fully processed, which may take some time depending on your capture settings — a Movie Window will be opened for you to review the video recorded.

While recording, you can use the Deferred Preview Window (available by selecting "Preview Window" from the "Window" menu) to get an idea of how the recorded movie will look. Please note, however, that the preview is generated as finished composited frames are sent to be compressed, not as they are captured. Due to the amount of data video capture creates — especially when capturing iPad screens from the Simulator — this preview may lag quite some way behind.