This page describes what the person at the desk actually sees, and why there is no trace of the engine in it.
What is replaced
| Where | What appears |
|---|---|
| The window | The playout interface, full size — no scene list, no mixer, no menu bar |
| The title bar | Ultimate Playout |
| The taskbar | Your icon, with your name |
| Task Manager | Your name, not the engine’s |
| The splash screen at startup | Yours |
The operator never meets the engine’s interface, and cannot accidentally end up in a part of it that has nothing to do with the show.
Why it goes that far
Because half a takeover is worse than none. A program that is mostly yours but shows the engine’s name in Task Manager, or drops the operator into an engine dialog at the wrong moment, teaches people that there is another program underneath — and then somebody goes looking for it.
The interface is taken over as one step, and the loading screen covers the moment while that happens, so no half-built window is ever visible.
Where the engine still shows through
Two places, and both are deliberate:
Some dialogs are the engine’s. Source properties and a few configuration windows are the engine’s own. Rebuilding all of those means rebuilding them completely, which is a larger project than it looks.
The log. Written by the engine, in its format, in engineconfig. That is where a problem gets diagnosed and it is meant to be read by whoever supports the installation — see sending logs.
For the person setting up a machine
Start from the launcher shortcut. Starting the engine executable directly skips the launcher and gives an interface that is only half taken over.
Do not rename things in the program folder. The takeover recognises its own installation by marker files there; renaming or moving them leaves you looking at a plain engine.