QuizXpress Studio Changelog

What's new in QuizXpress Studio 6.5.0.47

Aug 27, 2020

Mobile keypad support:
In QuizXpress 6 we introduce mobile keypad support!Use your phone, tablet or computer to play along in a quiz! As a player you can join a quiz by going through our buzzerpad.com website. Type in the onscreen PIN and a name and you are ready to go.
Mobile keypads can be used in combination with the existing hardware keypads or buzzers that QuizXpress supports. As a quiz host you can use the QuizXpress Remote control appwhich is available in the Google Play store. With the QuizXpress Remote control app you can control your quiz over Wi-Fi or 4G without and range limitations. Next to control the quiz you can also see all questions with notes, show and modify scores as well as start mini games.
QuizXpress Studioenhancements:
New game format: Trivia board(Jeopardy®)QuizXpress now supports Trivia Boards enabling you to play one or more Jeopardy®style rounds during a quiz. Questions can be categorized after which the trivia board is created based on the categories and points of the questions (please note that using categories only is also possible)
Just like regular quiz slides, the trivia boards can be fully styled. The questions on the board can be chosen or randomly picked in which case a random selector jumps over the screen and chooses one of the tiles
New game format: Trivia ladder (Who wants to be a Millionaire®):
Another game formatwhich is now supported is the Trivia Ladder, which enables you to create ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire®’stylerounds. (A) Player(s) need to progress through a ladder by answering questions correctly. All player positions are displayed on the ladder during the Trivia Ladder round. At the end of the round players win the points (or prizes) corresponding to the stepthey are on. The trivia ladder style design can be fully styled.There are various options of what to do when a player answers incorrectly. Some options are: stay on the same step, go one step down or restartall over. Similar to ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire®’ it is also possible to create so called safety net questions that a player falls back to when answering incorrectly
Bilingual quizzes:
QuizXpress 6 supports bilingual quizzes so you can play quizzes with a bilingual audience.QuizXpress Studio supports entering questions and answers in a Primary as well as a Secondary language. Translations can be done manually or automatically by using the Google Translate API.You can also use this functionality to automatically translate a quiz in place into another language (in which case the quiz will not be bilingual but will just be the same quiz in another language). In QuizXpress Live! the slides of both languages will be presented on screen.
Real-time response chart:
You can now insert a real-time response chart into a slide in QuizXpress Studio.While the clock is counting down the chart will show a live representation of all the answers given by the audience.Features include:
Various styling options(colors, fonts, legends)
Various chart types
Show distribution of answers given or right wrong
Visibility options : show always show after everybody has answered show random responses while the clock is counting down and the real results after countdown
Other enhancements:
Import from PowerPoint:
Now you can import slides directly from Microsoft PowerPoint. PPT slides are imported as static pictures in QuizXpress (billboard slides).
Import from QuizXpress:
Now you can import other quizzes which are then appended to the current quiz.
Import & export settings in Quiz Setup to exchange settings files between computers:
QuizXpress setup configurations can now be easily exchanged between computers(previously QuizXpress Setup settings had to be manually configured when moving to another computer).
Fullscreen slides enhancement:
In previous QuizXpress versions, when setting a quiz to full screen, the positions of the question and answer boxes had to be moved to account for the space of the clock bar. In QuizXpress we have a new intelligent full screen setting which makes this no longer necessary
New Styles:
Next to the new ‘Millionaire’ design shown in the Trivia Ladder section, we introduced lots ofother new styles
QuizXpress Live enhancements:
Real-time group responseWhen working with groups, you can enable real-time group responses in QuizXpress Live. During countdown you will see per group the total number of participants as well as the number of responses received so far.
QuizXpress Galaxy enhancements:
There are several new options to control your Galaxy devices (wristbands, spheres, cubes, lanyards, coming soon: galaxy neck chords). Options include:
Setting the color of the devices during a show
Select one or more Lucky winners
Reverse select lucky winners(drop one or more random players)
Create a lightshow. Galaxies flash along with music played
New minigame module: Penalty Shootout:
Enter a filled stadium with a chanting audience to watch a penalty shootout!In the new penalty shootout minigame the players have to guess where the ball ends up: in one of 4 goal sections, next to the goal (miss) or in the hands of the keeper
New pluginmodule: Auction:
With the new auction module you can extend your (fundraiser) game show with an auction.The auction plugin has various configuration options. The amount increases over time. Participants click their keypad when they are no longer interested in the item currently auctioned in which case they disappear from screen.
New pluginmodule: Messagebroker:
The Message brokerplugin can be used to control external equipment from QuizXpress.A variety of events happening in QuizXpress can be used to trigger for example DMX lights
Performance (Karaoke) plugin module enhancements:
The performance ranking module has been enhanced. It is nowpossible to use it for karaoketalents contests.Performers are first announced, then a (karaoke) video can optionally be chosen, and then the audience give their votes
Other changes in QuizXpress Live:
New DirectX versionUp to version 5 QuizXpress was based on a technology that has been deprecated by Microsoft. This has been resolved in version 6.
Other changesand enhancements:
The Unity (game engine) based mini games like the Virtual Horserace and the Cups & Balls game are upgraded to a newer version of Unity that no longer requires the computer to be (regularly) connected to the Internet

New in QuizXpress Studio 5.1.0.0 (Sep 7, 2017)

New in QuizXpress Studio 4.1.0.0 (Oct 9, 2015)

QuizXpress Studio enhancements:
Improved User Interface QuizXpress Studio now has a modern, more productive user interface, based on the Microsoft ribbon concept.
New video formats:
Now, when inserting a video, you can use all common file formats such as WMV, MOV, FLV, MP4, AVI etc. (Note that the ability to actually decode the video still depends on the presence of the correct CODEC’s hence we still advise to install the Windows 7 CODEC pack). In the properties grid, the details of the inserted video are shown:
Also you can now use real time video effects like ‘Mosaic’ to slowly reveal the contents of a video over time.
Also you can now set the start- and end time of the video.
Improved picture effects:
While in QuizXpress 3 effects were present, they were not processed gradually (each second a new image appeared). Effects are now ‘smooth’, they run gradually over time now.
You can now apply various static effects to a picture.
Speech item:
Now you can insert a speech item onto a slide. This works similar to a sound item. You can set the text to speak and configure some properties like the voice to use, the speed etc. One application of speech is to read aloud a song text and have the audience guess the song. Note that this functionality is using the Windows speech infrastructure. The availability of voices in your local language depends on your Windows configuration.
New text shape:
Text can be added to a slide and their behavior is much like normal shapes (e.g. you can make the text appear after the question is finished)
The visibility of the text-shape can be controlled just like for the other shapes so that you can for example make it appear after the question finished.
Sound item speed and pitch control:
For sound items you can now control pitch and speed independently (and let them change during the countdown). Also, you can now control the volume.
Ribbon controls for sound:
Or by using the property grid
Various new graphical styles for your slides
And many more themed styles are available.
New type of Wager question:
Wager questions now also support betting points instead of percentages of your points. This enables you to create Jeopardy style questions.
Find:
‘In which question did I use that text fragment again ?’ You can now find text easily in your quiz.
New licensing system:
QX4 includes a new more flexible and more secure licensing system. Activation is done online and keys are stored in the cloud. Users can self-manage their keys (must be online) and can move licenses between computers without intervention of Game Show Crew.
QuizXpress Live enhancements:
QuizXpress Director (Pro and Ultimate licenses only):
One of the biggest extensions in this version is the new QuizXpress Director. Director gives you great control over the quiz show. You can dynamically add players, swap keypads, launch a video or sound, launch a mini game plugin, see what everyone is answering, see and control all the quiz questions and so on. Director is enabled in Quiz Setup:
When checked, Director will automatically open on the opposite screen of the main quiz window. You can also open Director at any time by typing ‘D’ on the keyboard.
Plugins:
An exciting extension to QuizXpress is the capability to dynamically incorporate new functionality by means of ‘plugins’. Plugins are small software modules that can be installed on an existing installation. Examples of plugins are: mini-games (for example horserace, a multiplayer card game etc.), audience response modules (for example a ‘karaoke’ ranking module), special hardware controllers (like a MIDI light controller) etc. Plugins are controlled from Director.
Six modules are currently available, of which four can be bought in our online shop.
Performance rating module (free plugin) A module that allows the audience to give points to one of the other participants who is doing a performance.
Clock module (free plugin):
A module that shows the current time on the screen or counts down for a specified amount of time. To be used during breaks of the quiz.
Card game:
A card game where the audience needs to survive several cards by correctly predicting the next card (red/black or higher/lower) to gain points.
Cups and balls:
A cups and ball game (also known as the shell game) where the audience needs to guess under which cup a ball is located after shuffling the cups. Points or prizes can be won with this game.
Wheel of fortune:
Spin the wheel and win a prize or points! Lots of configuration options.
Horserace:
A full 3D virtual horserace that allows the audience to bet on a horse and gain points based on the outcome of the race. Includes customizable billboards along the track.
QuizXpress Buzzers, Buzzer Poles & Virtual Keypad:
In this version a lot of new cool input devices have been added:
QuizXpress Buzzers that are a great addition for fastest finger rounds (they also support multiple choice ABCD input) QuizXpress Sparkle and Luminous Buzzer poles. Take your quiz events ‘to the max’ by using our LED buzzer pillars and cocktail tables. QuizXpress Score boards. Show players scores on digital score boards.
Also introduced in QuizXpress 4 are QuizXpress Virtual Keypads, a software keypad that can be used for easy testing or, when on a LAN, to provide input from different PC’s
You can configure these devices in Quiz Setup, a new virtual keypad can be spawned from Studio, in the Tools menu.
Quiz Setup enhancements:
Multiple configuration files:
One of the things that were hard to manage in QX3 was having different settings and switching between them. In QX4 you can now have multiple settings and easily switch between them. Local setting files (in the quiz directory) are no longer supported as this was often a cause for confusion.
End of Question actions:
You can now control what exactly happens when a question is finished. Each time the quizmaster clicks ‘OK’ on his remote control, one step is executed. So for example now you can control when to show the correct answer building more suspension in the game
Improved group behavior:
You can now configure how grouped keypads behave. For example for a voting question, you can make QuizXpress accept only the first response from a group of keypads or you could accept all the responses and sum the points etc.
Other enhancements/developments:
In Studio it is now possible to change the Z-order of elements on the slide so you can control what appears in front of what:
In Studio there are now controls to make elements smaller/bigger in fixed steps. This also works for multiple selected items.
There is a new layout with six pictures so you can fully benefit the six keys on our keypads:
QuizXpress 4 has a new installer that supports in/place upgrading, eliminating the need to manually uninstall the old version first.
QuizXpress 4 has internally been upgraded to Microsoft .NET version 4, opening new capabilities for future developments.

New in QuizXpress Studio 3.3.4 (Jun 21, 2012)

Added capability to define a background music in QuizXpress Live that will gracefully fill silent moments
Slide Preview in Studio now properly keeps slide aspect ratio
Added 'JustText' slide style to overlay on your own background
Added a checker that validates and reports various conditions before launching the quiz
Improved robustness when the sound card on a system is not working properly or is disabled
Added the QuizXpress Keypad Programmer tool (Tools menu in Studio) to program keypad id's.
Support for multiple slides per page (1, 2, 4, 8) in PDF export function
Fix: non existing screen resolution 1365*768 is now corrected to 1366*768
Import/Export in Excel format now supports the following new columns: NOTES, SOUND, VIDEO, BACKGROUND
Import/Export in Excel format now supports Unicode character sets.
Added the ability to deactivate QuizXpress (Help->Deactivate...)
Added the ability to replace a sound item with a new file (select a sound item, choose 'Replace...' from the taskpane)
Now you can skip the 3-2-1 countdown video with spacebar
Reduced memory footprint when using lots of images, also saving has become a lot faster
Fix: correct handling of scores when 0 points are assigned to the question (previous versions always added 1 point)
Mouse scrollwheel now works in thumbnail panel and background image picker
Added a 'Cut' command to Cut & Paste in the thumbnail overview.
Improved keyboard navigation & selection in the thummbnail panel (now you can also select with 'Shift+Arrow Left/Right')
Answer time in QuizXpress Analyzer is now shown in time format iso milliseconds.
Added 'Send logfiles...' command under Tools->Advanced for support requests
Added menu option in the quizmaster menu to jump to end of the quiz
Added menu option in the quizmaster menu to disconnect/reconnect the base station (receiver)
Added the possibility to specify the question type when importing from Excel (prefix the question text with {Q} for Question, {T} for Test Question, {W} for Wager, {B} for Billboard, {W} for Wager, {L} for Last Man Standing, {A} for Audience Response) also randomizing of the answers is now disabled if not applicable for the selected question type.
Added new multiple choice layout with 6 answers aligned with layout of QuizXpress keypads (2 rows of 3 answers)
Fix; adding custom backgrounds to the list now works (failed on Vista/W7)

New in QuizXpress Studio 3.3.3 (Jun 21, 2012)

Support for QuizXpress buzzer system (including support for the quizmaster remote).
Support for Trainers Warehouse "Who's First" wireless buzzers.
Support for DigiGames TM190/TM140 wireless buzzers.
Keyboard support (keys 1,2,.....9,0).
Possibility to judge multiple choice questions manually so you can use single-button systems for multiple choice.
Introduction of quizmaster 'learning hints' (optional, can be turned on\off in Quiz Setup).
When hints are 'on', a quizmaster help menu is shown during a quiz whenever a quizmaster action is required (next question, judge question,...). The commands in the menu also show the keyboard shortcut keys for the commands. The quizmaster help menu can also be shown with 'F1'.
New 'Randomize Questions' setting: a percentage of questions is taken from a quiz file (or quiz rounds if present). The questions from this set are shown in random order during the quiz.
Extended demographic group functionality. Groups can be defined in Quiz Setup before starting the quiz.
QuizXpress Analyzer: demographic group data can now be visualized and charted.
Appended demographic group names to score overview.
Indication in the infobar for responses received during voting questions (for 'Everyone Answers' type of questions).
Buzzer signon screen is not shown anymore when using a buzzer system with a 'fixed' amount of buzzers (for "Who's First", DigiGames and Keyboard).
New layouts for 6 and 7 answer questions.
Added the option to set an expiration date for a quiz so authors can time-limit its use (in Studio, File->Properties, Protection).
Quiz Setup: import team names from Excel or a text file.
Quiz Setup: export team names overview to PDF.
Quiz Setup: Generate teamnames quickly based on a prefix.
Faster load time for quizzes in QuizXpress Live! ('-nopreload' is now default, commandline option is removed).
F12 can now be used to reset the buzzer hardware (receiver) in QuizXpress Live!
Fix: answer A4 appears twice and A5 is being ignored when importing questions from CSV.
Fix: 'Save As' in Studio may cause sounds/video to appear lost.
Fix: points missing from E, R, T screens when using voting with feedback.
Fix: show group totals on fastest finger when using demographic slides.
Fix: demographic group players are all disabled when a teammember answers fastest finger incorrectly.

New in QuizXpress Studio 3.3.2 (Jun 21, 2012)

New in QuizXpress Studio 3.3.1 (Jun 21, 2012)

Introduction of QuizXpress Analyzer, a graphical quiz data analyzer for the Pro version of QuizXpress
Save as Website in QuizXpress Studio to export the quiz to a JavaScript based website (File->Save As Website)
Ability to switch between different languages for the user interface (Tools->Options->Language)
User defined fields in QuizXpress Solo
Ability to pause the countdown in QuizXpress Live! with the 'P' key
Ability to adjust team scores in QuizXpress Live! Open the screens with 'E', 'R' or 'T' (different layouts). Use '+' and '-' to adjust the score and arrow up/arrow down/page up/page down/mousewheel to scroll the list.
Ability to adjust countdown timer in Live! while quiz is paused (with '+' and '-' key)
'Simulate audience' option in Studio (Tools->Options) to test your quiz with a simulated audience
French and Italian language support for the user interface
Support for arbitrary shapes and pictures that can be added to a slide. The shapes can be initially hidden and made visible after the question has been answered.
Improved smoothness of animations in the game engine and fixed some lighting issues
Copy and Paste of slides in Studio with context menu in thumbnailpane (copy/paste/delete)
New question type : Audience Response
New question type : Wager question, with this type of question players can bet a % of their score on the next question
Support for Named Teams with Fleetwood Reply buzzers
Support for more screen resolutions (e.g. widescreen)
Different screen ratios for slides (4:3, 16:9, 16:10) use File->Properties in Studio to select
Full screen slide support in Quiz Show, see Quiz Setup->Advanced
Extended Skinning support, see the skin.config file. Also, skin.config is now first loaded from the application data folder (\QuizXpress)
Support for up to 5 digit point scales
Millisecond accurate calculation of points with time based points (old version worked with 1 secs scale). This will result in better distribution of points and therefore less chance for duplicate scores
Fixed problems with systems that have large font settings for the Windows desktop
Ability to move pictures with keyboard arrow keys (hold Ctrl to move more granular)
Multimonitor support (start Quiz Show in 'Windowed' mode, drag to alternate monitor/device and press M to enter full screen windowed mode
Support for questions without countdown; simply set the answer time to 0, use space in Quiz Show to conclude the question
Ability to set 'notes' for a question. The notes will be included with the PDF export and can be used to store hints for the quiz master
Ability to set options for PDF export
Various other stability- and bug fixes