System Files and Paths

The program stores data in three different places: the project folder holds everything you have built; the program documents folder holds libraries, workspaces, and the work log; and Windows itself holds the program settings and the license. You need to know this in three situations: when a project is moved to another computer, when images and video cannot be found in the project after moving or reinstalling, and when support asks you to send the work log.

The program documents folder is the Light Stream folder inside the current user's system Documents folder; the program creates it itself on first launch. You choose the project folder yourself when you create the project, and the installation folder in the installation wizard. Before copying or deleting anything, open these folders on your computer and check what is actually in them.

In Short: What Is Stored Where

What	Where	Moves with the project
Fixtures, patching, compositions, effects, the 3D scene	Project file *.ls in the project folder	Yes, this is the project itself
Images, video, audio, model textures	Wherever you got them from; only references are stored in the project	Only if you collect the project into a single folder
Frames of imported video sequences	The Import\Video subfolder inside the project folder	Yes, if you move the whole project folder
Exported animations *.cue	The folder specified in the Path field of the Export window (in a new project, the Export subfolder next to the project)	No, export is done again
Custom fixtures, effect library, workspaces, log	Program documents folder	No, copied separately
Program settings, recent project list, license	In Windows, in the current user's profile	No, set up again

Project Folder

How It Appears

1. Choose File → New Project (Ctrl+N), or Create in the Welcome to Light Stream startup window.
2. In the Create Project window, set the Project Name — it will be used to name both the file and the folder.
3. In the Path field, specify where to create this folder: type it manually or use the Open button. The first time, the program suggests the Scenes subfolder inside the program documents folder; after that, it suggests the folder you chose last time. It is more convenient to keep the project where you store the working materials for the venue.
4. If needed, change Frames Per Second for Project — new compositions will be created at this frame rate.
5. Click Create.

The program will create a folder with the project name in the specified location, place the project file with the .ls extension into it, and also create an Export subfolder next to it — this subfolder is immediately entered into the Path field of the Export window.

If you cannot write to the chosen location, the program will warn you with a No write access message. This happens with the root of the system drive and with the Program Files folder — choose a different location, for example inside Documents.

From then on, it is convenient to treat this folder as the venue folder: put all the images, video, audio, and models you use in the project into it. The program can search for missing files specifically inside the project folder, not across the whole disk.

What Is Inside the Project File

The .ls file is a single file that contains everything you have built:

• fixtures on the mapping, their sizes, addresses, and names;
• devices (Player, converters, ports) and patching;
• compositions, layouts, effects, and their keyframes;
• the entire 3D scene, including the geometry of imported models: after import, the original model file *.obj or *.fbx is no longer needed — the project will open without it;
• the fixtures used in the project — so the project will open normally even on a computer that does not have your custom fixture library;
• the export folder and the marks indicating which compositions to export.

What the project file does not contain is the media files themselves. Images, video, video sequences, audio tracks, model textures, and layout background images remain on disk, and only paths to them are recorded in the project. If such a file is renamed, deleted, or left behind on the old computer, the effect in the project will be left without its image.

Video Sequence Frames

Video imported into the project as a video sequence is broken down into individual frames in advance by the program — otherwise it would not be possible to play it back without stuttering. The frames are written to the Import\Video subfolder inside the project folder: a separate folder named after the video file is created for each video, containing numbered files 00000000.png, 00000001.png, and so on.

What follows from this:

• the project folder grows many times over after importing video — unpacked frames take up far more space than the source clip. Plan for disk space;
• these frames are the sequence itself: delete the folder and the effect will stop showing anything — you will have to import it again;
• the project must be moved together with the Import subfolder, otherwise the video will have to be imported again on the new computer;
• if you import the same clip a second time, the program does not overwrite the old frames but creates a new folder next to it with a number added to the name.

Project Backup Copy

Each time you save, the program first sets aside the previous state of the project as a copy: a file with the same name and .backup added at the end appears next to the project file.

If the project stops opening after a failed save:

1. Close the program.
2. Save the damaged .ls file somewhere aside, in case it is still useful.
3. Copy the .backup file and remove .backup from the copy's name, so you get a regular .ls file.
4. Open it in the program.

You will get the project as it was at the previous save. There is only one copy, and it is overwritten at every save, so you cannot rely on it as an archive: save important stages of your work through File → Save As… under separate names.

How the Program Searches for Missing Files

If a file cannot be found at the path recorded in the project, the program does not give up right away but searches for it itself:

• a file with the same name — in the project folder and in all its subfolders;
• a video sequence folder — also in the Import\Video subfolder inside the project folder.

If nothing is found there either, the effect remains empty and its name on the timeline turns red. This immediately shows which effects have lost their files: select such an effect and point to the file again in the Properties window.

Hence a simple rule: keep media files inside the project folder. Then the project will survive both renaming the folder and moving to another drive — the program will find everything itself. But if an image was on the desktop or on a flash drive, you will have to select it manually again after the move.

Moving a Project to Another Computer

To collect the project together with all external files, use File → Collect Project:

1. Open the project and choose File → Collect Project. This item is inactive until a project is open.
2. Specify the folder to collect everything into. It is best if it is empty: the program will place both the project file and all the files it uses there.
3. Wait for it to finish — on large projects with video this takes time, and the cursor shows a wait state the whole time.

What happens: a copy of the project file is written to the chosen folder, and all external files are copied into the CollectProjectFiles subfolder, where they are arranged into nested folders that mirror their original location on disk. The paths inside the collected project are rebuilt relative to the new folder, so you must move the entire folder, not just the single .ls file.

Images and video from effects, video sequences, audio tracks, layout background images, and imported model textures are all collected.

Useful to know:

• if you cannot write to the chosen folder, the program will warn you with a No write access message and will not collect anything — choose a different location;
• after collecting, you continue working in the original project — the collected copy simply sits on disk separately;
• program settings, workspaces, and the license are not moved together with the project — they are set up again on the new computer.

Exported Files

Exporting compositions places files into the folder specified in the Path field of the Export window. In a new project, the Export subfolder next to the project is set there right away; you can change it with the Open button. The chosen folder is remembered in the project.

File	Name
Animation for Light Stream Player	The name from the File Name column of the Export window; by default this is the composition name with the .cue extension
Video for presentation (Video Render mode)	Composition name with an extension that depends on the chosen codec: .mp4, .mov, or .avi
Frames in PNG Sequence mode	A folder named after the composition with a VideoSequence suffix, containing files 000000.png, 000001.png, and so on
Fixture mask	A *.png file with the name you gave it when saving

Default file names are taken from composition names, so the program itself strips reserved characters from the composition name — \ / : * ? " < > | and others that Windows does not allow in file names. Composition name length is limited to 40 characters.

If the project has several Light Stream Player devices, the program creates a separate subfolder for each device in the export folder and distributes the *.cue files among them — this immediately shows which animations to load onto which player. For more on export, see the article Exporting Compositions.

Program Documents Folder

On first launch, the program creates its own Light Stream folder in the system Documents folder and keeps in it everything related to the workstation rather than to an individual project.

What it is	Where to find it
The folder offered by default for new projects. On the very first launch, the program uses it to populate the project list in the welcome window: this includes all *.ls files found in this folder and its subfolders	Scenes subfolder
Fixture library: the factory fixtures.lslib, your custom UserFixtures.lslib, and fixture and manufacturer images in the Images subfolder	Fixtures subfolder
Effect library — the contents of the Effects window together with your saved effects (LightStream.effects file)	Effects subfolder
Workspaces — saved window layouts (ls.workspace file)	Root of the program documents folder
The program's work log (ls.log file)	logs subfolder

What is worth copying when moving to a new computer:

• UserFixtures.lslib and the Images subfolder — if you have made your own fixtures and want to use them in new projects;
• LightStream.effects — if you have customized the effect library. When saving the library, the program leaves a copy of the previous version next to it with .backup added at the end;
• ls.workspace — if your window layout matters to you.

Files in this folder should be copied while the program is closed, otherwise some changes will be overwritten on exit: workspaces, for example, are saved by the program at the moment it closes.

Program Installation Folder

The installation path is set in the installation wizard; by default it is a folder inside Program Files. This is where the program itself resides — the executable file that, for example, is selected in the NVIDIA control panel when configuring performance (see Light Stream - Quick start).

You do not need to put your own files there: a regular user has no write access to Program Files, and the folder's contents are overwritten when the program is updated. Keep projects, media, and exports in the project folder.

Settings, Recent Projects, and the License

The settings from the Settings window, the File → Recent Files list, and the license data are not stored in the project or in a separate file that can be copied: they are recorded in Windows and tied to the user account on this computer. It follows that:

• settings cannot be moved to another computer by copying folders — the language, network card, audio devices, and so on are set up again;
• each Windows user on the same computer has their own settings and their own recent project list;
• the recent projects list holds no more than ten entries — both in the File → Recent Files menu and in the welcome window. An unwanted entry is removed with right-click → Remove from this list, and right-click → Show in Explorer helps locate the project folder on disk;
• the license is tied to the computer. Before moving the program to another machine, you must deactivate it in the Activation window (Help → Activation) — otherwise the key will remain in use;
• after updating from an old version of the program, the window layout may revert to the default. This is normal — your own workspaces are saved again.

Program Work Log

The program keeps a log: the logs subfolder in the program documents folder, file ls.log. When the file grows to about a megabyte, it is moved into the archives subfolder and logging continues into a new file; no more than ten archives are kept, and old ones are deleted automatically.

The log is needed when contacting support: if the program closed by itself, froze, or gave an unclear error, attach the contents of the logs folder to your request and describe what you were doing beforehand. There is no need to turn logging on separately — it is always running.

What Is Worth Backing Up

The minimum set for a backup copy:

1. The whole project folder — the .ls file together with the media files and the Import subfolder. If the media is scattered around, first do File → Collect Project and back up the collected folder.
2. Exported *.cue files — if you do not want to repeat the export on site.
3. From the program documents folder: UserFixtures.lslib with the Images subfolder, LightStream.effects, ls.workspace.

Program settings and the license cannot be copied — they are restored manually, and the license is transferred through deactivation.

See Also

• Light Stream - Quick start
• Settings
• Workspace
• Exporting Compositions
• Fixture Library
• Importing OBJ Models
• Terminology