Workshop

This page illustrates how to submit custom video/audio effects to the Steam Workshop.

For further Lua documentation, see Lua Documentation.

Prerequisites

• Nonsensical Video Generator installed on Steam.
• Visual Studio Code

Creating an Effect

Effects can easily be created using a template from within the software.

To do so, open Nonsensical Video Generator and head to the Effects tab.

Then, click on the Workshop Effect Management button to start the process.

Interactables

The following interactable controls are available:

• Effect Name
  • The name of the effect. This will be used as the title of the effect in the Steam Workshop.
  • The title on the Steam Workshop will be suffixed by Effect. This does not affect the name or file name.
  • Default: My Effect
• Effect File Name
  • The internal name of the effect. This will be used as the name of the effect's folder and file under a .lua extension.
  • Default: myeffect
• Minimal Template
  • Toggles whether to use the minimal template or not.
  • Default: Off
• Back
  • Returns to the Effects tab.
• Reload All
  • Removes all effect libraries, updates Steam Workshop subscriptions, and re-queries Lua scripts.
  • This should be pressed after updating the effect script as they are only run once otherwise.
• Create
  • Creates the effect using the specified parameters and returns to the Effects tab.

Editing the Effect

Once created, the effect can be edited by clicking on its name in the effect list.

This will open code on your computer, which is the application name for Visual Studio Code.

See Prerequisites for more information.

Your Visual Studio Code window should look like this:

The built-in documentation of the non-minimal template should be enough to get you started.

The effect created by the template will perform a speed up or slow down with either an increase in contrast or inverted colors.

Effect Settings and Libraries

The effect template uses the following settings:

• Chance Roll
  • Out of 100, chance for which effect to apply.
  • This is what determines whether to slow down or speed up the video.
  • Default: 50

No libraries are used by default, but if you are using any, you should add them to the libraries table in the Query function.

See the built-in documentation for more information.

Testing the Effect

To test the effect, head back to Nonsensical Video Generator, head to the Effects tab, click on the Workshop Effect Management button, and then finally click Reload All to update the effect libraries.

This page will be kept open when you visit a different tab, such as the Generate tab.

To test the effect, make sure it's the only effect enabled and then visit the Generate tab.

You might want to increase the Effect Chance to make it more likely to appear.

Once ready, click on Start Rendering to start the rendering process.

Debugging the Effect

To view debugging and other useful information, press F5 to open the console.

You can also keep the temporary effect working directory after rendering by setting HiddenKeepTemporaryJobFolders to true in Options.json

This will let you see which files were output by your effect.

There is also the HiddenVerbose option which when set to true, will output FFmpeg and other commands to the in-app console.

Selecting Workshop Tags

Once you're happy with the effect, you can publish it to the Steam Workshop.

To do so, head to the Effects tab, click on your effect's Settings button, and then click on Publish .

You will be prompted to select a few tags with toggle switches next to them.

By default, the effect template would use the following tags:

• Video
  • This effect applies contrast and color changes to the video.
  • Therefore, it is a video effect.
• Audio
  • This effect primarily slows down or speeds up the video and audio.
  • Because the audio is affected, this is an audio effect.

No libraries are used by default, but if you are using any, you should select the appropriate tags.

Publishing the Effect

After selecting tags, click on Submit to choose a thumbnail and publish the effect.

By default, the effect template would use the following thumbnail:

You can change this by selecting a different image otherwise.

The recommended thumbnail size is 256x256 or a larger square image.

Viewing the Workshop Page

Once published, you can view the effect's workshop page by clicking on View Workshop in the effect's Settings.

While it's optional, you may edit the description of the effect to better describe it.

See the Remix Effect listing on the Steam Workshop for an example.

Remix Effect

Applies a stutter loop to the beat.
Uses the Remix library.

Updating the Effect

To update the effect at any time, head to the Effects tab, click on your effect's Settings button, and then click on Publish again.

If you see View Workshop , then the effect can be updated without creating a listing.