Magic.X

18th January 2006 11:19 UTC

Hotlist 2.25 - out soon, help wanted.
Allright, after a period of beeing pretty busy, i did manage to find some time for programming.

After the latest experimental version of Hotlist ended up in uncureable major crashes, I restarted from version 2.2 and finally fixed troubles with winamp 5, as well as various other bugs.

I also integrated some of the features intended for Hotlist 2.3, first to name are Transition Control and extended Beat-Detection support.

What I need you for is:
1. Beta testing
2. Authors for language packs to make it more international

I know about the usual lazyness in here but it would be nice if at least a few peopel would be willing give me a Hand.

And just fyi, things that are planned for the next big release:
-Individual preset transition configuration
-Map one or more presets to songs

Tuggummi

18th January 2006 11:34 UTC

1. Can do
2. Can do!

I've never actually used hotlist before though. :confused:

Magic.X

18th January 2006 12:07 UTC

Thank you. I appreciate you wasting time for me ;-)

I'll publish the test version later this week.

Offtopic: Just remebered this post of yours: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....797#post908797

JaVS_v2.5

18th January 2006 12:42 UTC

Woah, sounds cool.. can't wait to try it out ;)

Tuggummi

18th January 2006 15:05 UTC

Originally posted by Magic.X
[BOfftopic: Just remebered this post of yours: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....797#post908797 [/B]

JFASI

18th January 2006 18:28 UTC

What kind of goodies can we expect?

Magic.X

18th January 2006 18:49 UTC

A overhead AVS controller which is sooo much better than the integrated Interface.

Just to name key features:

The possibillity of compiling lists of Presets which can be played forward, backward or shuffeld, thus either for a certain ammount of time, beats or switched after a certeain ammount of time but on-beat.

Furthermore, screenshots for every preset in two varying resolutions of your choice (for your comfort, those can also be saved to external files).

This programm has been created as a VJ interface, but good for fun at home too.

Still have to run some fixes and decrap my old code, but it will be avilable asap.

fastingaciu

19th January 2006 02:34 UTC

That sounds nice.When is it coming out?

JFASI

19th January 2006 02:49 UTC

It really does. I was thinking that it would involve some of the wishlist, but wow. A new interface? I hope it's brilliant.


*PRESSURE*

eheiney

19th January 2006 03:15 UTC

I followed the link in your signature and downloaded whatever was available there. Well, I couldn't get it to work. Maybe I'm confused about the entire thing, but I looked through the readme file and still couldn't figure it out.

To be honest I didn't spend too much time with it, about a half hour trying to understand it. Sorry I can't help more with this version, but I'll be glad to check this one out when it's done. :)

I'm sure it's a really useful tool, I'm probably just doing something stupid again.

Magic.X

19th January 2006 16:31 UTC

Dont use the outdated 2.2, it won't work with winamp 5 (unless you replace the executable file with the one i'll place here).

University is keeping me busy and i havent been home yet, but it'll be available next monday for sure.

@JFASI:
Don't get it wrong. Its a new interface for Prest controlling, NOT for Editing / Writing Presets.

What it basically does, is remote control AVS via Windows Messaging API. Its similar to Playlister, but more usefull for any general purpose needs (at least this is my aim).

@denkensiefursich:
This reminds me that i'll also have to write a short step by step guide on how to basically use it (for those who feel completely lost;))

JFASI

19th January 2006 22:42 UTC

Aaaaaw. I thought that the layout would change. Too bad. Change is good.

Magic.X

20th January 2006 08:48 UTC

This is generally possible but would require an assload of work compared to little effect, atleast if you want to have an external editor.

51Strong

22nd January 2006 03:38 UTC

Id be glad to help out too, Glad to see you picking it up again :)

jheriko

22nd January 2006 09:42 UTC

I wouldnt mind testing it for you either, I'm sure i could give some valuable feedback...

I am interested how you intend to map AVS to songs without using a pile of unstable hacks too... Everyway I can come up with is basically substandard (e.g. checking title bar) :)


Here are some tips based on the 2.2 version available from your link in sig...

Tip 1: Autodetect the AVS directory from the registry if its there, and only pop up the 'browse' box if you can't

Tip 2: Make the browse for directory window work. It only picked out the root of the path I gave it, and I couldnt change it or override it manually...

Tip 3: Reduce loading time... (what is it doing?)

Tip 4: Make help button do something, at least pop up a box to say "Help missing" or "Need to add this..." or something...


I am using Windows 2k3 (32-bit), if that helps.


If it worked I am sure it would be great tho, the UI seemed quite complete and full of useful stuff. Good work on that, UI programming on any platform is a pain in the ass. :)

Magic.X

23rd January 2006 14:10 UTC

Alright just checked the preview version i inteded to post and found jherikos bugs still there... :igor:

Anyways, for those who wanna play now with crumpy versions do the following:

Follow Link in Sig, download, Install, do first run.

Then download: http://www.psytrancecamp.de/Hotlist/..._2.25_pre2.rar

Replace the executable and check if its even worse... ;)

Tomorrow i'll have Tip 1,2 & 4 fix0red.

Thanks, going to work on this immediatly.

Note about the song->avs stuff:
IF you already have an external controller (which, yeah, is a hack) i figured the rest to be an easy peace of work. I'll write some kind of general plugin that notifies Hotlist of songchanges and opens a hotlist specifically for the file (filename and pathbased). I know it might make a lot of peopel bitching who move around their mp3's or play cds, but at least its a way to deal. Titlebar might work as well as long as you dont rename stuff. But i'll see as i take care of the problem.

jheriko

23rd January 2006 17:34 UTC

I still cant set the AVS directory, :/ .If i try to just use it anyway, it sort of seems to work, it doesnt change the preset, but it gives me an 'error loading from 0' message

EDIT: I dug up the registry key and fixed it myself in regedit, and it works fine. Good work. :) The only real bugs seem to be in the interface which I mentioned earlier.

...

Actually, the beat detection thingy is added as an unknown render object... i had to move the ape in to my avs directory myself to fix that...

DummyDDD

23rd January 2006 21:24 UTC

Just tested hotlist, and I've got a small list of bugs and recommendations:

Bugs:
- It seems that the hotlist.ape supplied with the old hotlist causes my winamp 5 to crash (sometimes), but I guess that you have to update the APE for never versions of AVS.
- If winamp crashed, and I started hotlist afterwards without having winamp open, there popped up a Ungültige Grafikgrösse (invalid graficsize) warning box, and the box would pop up again, whenever I changed settings (in the settings dialog).
- The slider in the transition toolbar doesn't work seem to work (if it's supposed to change how long the transitions take).
- Once where I minimized and restored the main window, the loading splashscreen also restored.
- The Stick AVS in Foreground setting doesn't work (at least in windowed mode.
- The reset timer on preset change doesn't work.
- Some of the text cannot be edited from the language files (mainly the titles of dialogs and error messages).

Recommendations:
- If it's possible, buttons for starting winamp and opening/closing the AVS window would be nice.
- You shouldn't change presets on singleclicking, but on doubleclicking and selecting and pressing Enter.
- It should be possible to see wether or not you have enabled Hotkey markers and Keep AVS on top from the menu.
- It would be nice to be able to set the Ghost modes alpha value, or at least have it less transparent by default.
- It shouldn't be able to autojump to the same preset.
- Some kind of a commenting or rating system for the presets could be nice (showed as a tab in the details view).

I also attached a danish language pack

Your program seems quite usefull (and a ton better than the method used in winamp), and I'm beginning to like the interface of the program, although it's not extremely easy to use for new users, and using some nicer (and not so win3.1 like) icons (or no icons at all) would help. Other than what I've mentioned, I really like the program.

btw. how do you link a song to a preset??

Magic.X

24th January 2006 12:23 UTC

Ok, first of all the result of a night without sleep:
http://www.psytrancecamp.de/Hotlist/..._2.25_pre3.rar

Fixed things:
-empty help (now opens helpfile or says "file not found")
-buggy settings (at least should, based on my tests)
-read avsdir from registry if own registry settings unavailable
-firststart settings removed
-autoadding ape is no more messing up large avs files

Added stuff:
-language support for new features
-language files (you can now start working on translations :D)

Known issues:
-some dialogs may still appear with a german title (working on that)
-hotlist.ape buggy if you're trying to configure stuff (fixed version is still at home :igor: )
-trans-speed slider sometimes buggy if nothing else changed

@DummyDDD:

- If winamp crashed, and I started hotlist afterwards without having winamp open, there popped up a Ungültige Grafikgrösse (invalid graficsize) warning box, and the box would pop up again, whenever I changed settings (in the settings dialog).

- Once where I minimized and restored the main window, the loading splashscreen also restored.

- The Stick AVS in Foreground setting doesn't work (at least in windowed mode.

- The reset timer on preset change doesn't work.

- Some of the text cannot be edited from the language files (mainly the titles of dialogs and error messages).

- If it's possible, buttons for starting winamp and opening/closing the AVS window would be nice.

- You shouldn't change presets on singleclicking, but on doubleclicking and selecting and pressing Enter.

- It should be possible to see wether or not you have enabled Hotkey markers and Keep AVS on top from the menu.

- It would be nice to be able to set the Ghost modes alpha value, or at least have it less transparent by default.

- It shouldn't be able to autojump to the same preset.

- Some kind of a commenting or rating system for the presets could be nice (showed as a tab in the details view).

Magic.X

24th January 2006 15:21 UTC

Just checked the graphic size thing:

Yup, was about wrong settings.
Try changing the size of your images to something else.

Hotlist saves root bitmaps, and specifically sized ones for large and small pictures.

It doesn't really care about root picture sizes, but its picky about both others.

If you changes sizes, hotlist will run a resize batch with all root pictures itself and save the new size values also. This should solve your problem.

I know its a waste of hd space to store multiple picture versions but imho the only way to get fast loading times and variable picture sizes without losses in quality.

@jheriko: Thats whats causing the loading time: initial resize on firststart, and later filling the picture array and assign the bitmaps.

DummyDDD

24th January 2006 15:50 UTC

Updated the lang file

The suggetion for adding a button for opening was just if it wouldn't require much work, as it might be nice for the super lazy people, although it won't be much easier than opening winamp manually.

By "It shouldn't be able to autojump to the same preset" (which I don't understand either :D) I meant that sometimes when swithching presets randomly, it will select the same preset twice in row, which looks kinda wierd (especially when using transition). I think that when it randomly selects the the same preset twice, it should either pick another preset randomly or just not change the preset (not reset and use transition).

I just thought of another (low priority) feature, it could be nice to have the file tab in detailed view show relative path if the preset is inside the AVS folder.

I haven't had any problems with the new version (except the keep AVS on top thing), and it really is quite nice to have the transition speed slider working properly.

Keep up the good work :up:

jheriko

24th January 2006 23:57 UTC

Right... since i have no custom bitmaps i don't quite swallow your excuse for the slow load time. I cant see how loading the one small image I see is realistically slowing it down that much.

If you do want to speed that part up here are some more 'tips', though they may not be applicable if you are using some heavily abstracted API/library/visual basic or whatever...

• Rather than batch resizing the whole lot, just do the ones which are wrong, load the bitmap file header, check the size and compare it... then load and convert the file only if you need to.
  
• Make the large and small images a convenient ratio of each other so that you only need to store the larger size, and use an optimal downsampling routine to generate the other in memory when needed. Using tight code, this normally takes much less than a 60th of a second on images of this size, even on the CPU if done reasonably efficiently. Generating in memory from data in memory is much faster than loading from the disk.

Magic.X

25th January 2006 12:38 UTC

New preview more fun!
http://www.psytrancecamp.de/Hotlist/..._2.25_pre4.rar

Whats fixed:
-Multiple loading presets on random in a row
-Some language assignement problems here and there
-Transition speed is now verified to be set correctly

Whats new:
-Alpha blending values can be set individually
-Some minor language stuff according to changes
-newer hotlist.ape included (the config dialog shows a lot of unused stuff - still got to hide this as its inteded for future use, but for now, a version without crashes);

About the picture and loading stuff:
I know, this is not as convenient as i'd like it to be. Have been messing araund variuos times with this.
For now, i basically use abstract standard components, an array of those might cause a lot of loading time, but i havent found any substitute solution, that is fitting well in the remaining pool of components.
The way i have it now allocates bitmap handles for each preset (even if the same) so if they are added later on, it will even cause less loading and reorganization time and crap while running, so the speed of avs won't be noticeably reduced by hotlist working.

@DummyDDD: Checked the Fixontop function and it works all fine over here in windowed mode.

jheriko

25th January 2006 13:55 UTC

What I meant was load the large image size only at load-time, then work out the small ones from that, also during load time.

This will be faster on load, and the same speed at run-time unless you are doing something really badly somewhere (in on of those "abstract standard components" maybe).

What are you using to make this btw? That would help...

Magic.X

25th January 2006 14:54 UTC

Worked out all with Delphi7.

Its not as fast as C++ and not as crappy as VB.

Tuggummi

26th January 2006 13:12 UTC

Finally got around testing it and i say it's quite a nice piece of work! The screenshot tool is especially handy :D

A couple of problems i had though.

1) It doesn't seem to find the langunage files, i tried copying them into the hotlist root and in hotlist\languange packs, but the only languange file showing is the default one.

2) The "Use screenshot as a picture for [presetname]" gives me an error: Datei "[drive]:\pictures\[presetname].bmp" kann nicht erstellt werden. The system cannot find the path specified.

3) I can't seem to access anything in the AVS editor while hotlist is running, it always just jumps back to the beat detection window. Bug or a "feature"?

4) Not really a problem, but i find it confusing that "Reverse" means from top to bottom and "Forward" means from bottom to top :weird:

Grandchild

26th January 2006 16:18 UTC

At first I have to say, some nice piece of software you made there! Easy and efficient interface, good icons and functionality, great job :up:
I'll find good use for it!

But I experienced tuggummis bugs too...

Plus one WA crash after telling him to readapt bpm ["User.dat" was the file of concern he told me] but unfortunately, I can't reproduce it, readapt botton worked fine several times before and after.

And a minor feature I would find useful: add preset to playlist on double-click in upper browse window [the one where the actual filenames show up]. Also, as an addition to that, it might be cool to have the whole directory added if double clicking on one of the folders in the lower browse window. For the second function I'm not sure with what it might interfere, but as far as I could see, double-click isn't assigned in both windows.

And it would be good if one could assign an image to a preset by other means than the screenshot tool, e.g. an "assign bitmap[s] to preset" option in the right-click preset context menu.

Yep, that's about it,
GC

Magic.X

26th January 2006 21:01 UTC

@Tuggummi

1 & 2: I am pretty sure that the registry entry for hotlists directory is somehow fucked.

Currently, there's no Error Message when it cannot be read on start. I'll integrate one and a dialog to enter it.

Meanwhile open regedit, search: HKEY_Local_Machine->Software->Hotlist
and check if there is a correct "hotdir" entry, correct it manually or create one if not existent.

3: You've finally found my Easteregg :D
No, this is neither Bug nor Feature. Its a side effect of the extended AVS-Status bar. It checks BPM an stuff and therefore keeps this window open.

I already had the idea to lock any user functionality in the AVS Editor and change its Titlebar temporarely to [Hotlist active, Editor disabled] while extended AVS-Status bar is active, so no confusion arises. Would you think its a good idea?

4: Well, thought that you'd start from top and scroll / proceed to bottom, rather than vice verso, so i called this logically "forward". I'd tend to eave it this way, the arrows should at leatst clear up any understanding problems.

@Grandchild:

WA crash on "readapt bpm": Never ever had troubles with this. Must have been a bunch of bad circumstances that rarely happen at the same time. Dunno what to do about this.

add preset/directory on double-click: Gonna check if its possible. Thanks for the idea.

"assign bitmap[s] to preset": How should this work? Assign one of those available or open a open-file dialog?

What i might also consider is an yuto screenshot function, but you know, screenshots taken automatically migtht be not as representative.

Thanks for all your comments, especially for liking it.
Next preview comming soon.

Tuggummi

26th January 2006 21:48 UTC

Okay got the pictures and languange pack to work now (had to manually create the picture folder and the subfolders though :igor: )

Anyway one more point: Why on earth is the picture size locked to a certain ratio? Not everyone uses a 4:3 resolution you know. The screencaps look horrible now. I suggest you let the user manually enter whatever value he/she desires for the screenshots to be. Or you could even detect the screensize of the AVS window and do a percentual resize (which would be set with the current screensize sliders).

Magic.X

27th January 2006 00:15 UTC

Allright. New preview, less, bugs, more fun:
http://www.psytrancecamp.de/Hotlist/..._2.25_pre5.rar

New stuff:
-add presets/folders on doubleclick as grandchild suggested
Fixed
-check directory settings, pop up dialog if empty/missing
-reset counter on load
-other very very minor stuff

@Tuggummi:
Did this because the picture size has to be fixed (according to the image list of equal sizes i use). Thought that 4:3 would be the most common application. I'll consider using freely selectable sizes.

One more queston: Did you, despite the instruction, JUST use the preview executeable without previously installing hotlist2.2? Sounds pretty much like this was the fault. :p


Thats all for tonight, having some mor vodka now... :D

Tuggummi

27th January 2006 08:45 UTC

Originally posted by Magic.X
One more queston: Did you, despite the instruction, JUST use the preview executeable without previously installing hotlist2.2? Sounds pretty much like this was the fault. :p

jheriko

28th January 2006 09:04 UTC

Originally posted by Magic.X
No, this is neither Bug nor Feature. Its a side effect of the extended AVS-Status bar. It checks BPM an stuff and therefore keeps this window open.

Magic.X

30th January 2006 12:19 UTC

Here we go, preview 6 and one step closer to Final.

http://www.psytrancecamp.de/Hotlist/..._2.25_pre6.rar

Fixed Stuff
-speeded up load-time a little by kicking out some old crap

Added Stuff
-modified the splashscreen
---made the main apllication form hide while loading
---added a progress bar (so you can now see what it does :D)

Btw, in first place it thought that most of the loading time would be a result of the image loadingprocess, but I was wrong. Despite, its the ShellTree view when creating the Branches and accessing the folders, but i can't speed this up, unless i'd write it on my own

-added a lock AVS Editor function if extended AVS Status is enabled
---this wil diable any input for the AVS Editor and alter its title
---you can disable this function it in the Settings

I could write a BPM counter on my own, but this would lack the confidence percentage information, so you'd never really know when you'd have to readapt the BPM. DJ's often change their BPM through the set and if the Advance Beat detector is locked once, you're fucked.

-added an auto-Screenshot option
---this will automatically make screenshots for any preset that has none
---also made a function to overwrite existing Screenshots, if desired

Note: Select respnosiveness in picture settings according to your needs. Auto screenshot will wait transition time(transition enabled) + responsivness (both in ms) until a snapshot is taken. If another preset is loaded before this time is over the process is aborted

-upgraded the main menu to XP-Style
---better viualisation of checked items
---cool btw! :D :cool:


-new language strings according to changes
---see new English example Pack for Details

Things still on my ToDo List
-Fixing Screenshots with non 4:3 aspects

There won't be freely selectable sizes for now, but I'll definately fix the crumpy distorted and stretched look

-Hide unused stuff in holist APE
-Bugfixing
-replace the old RichText documentation with a html one

The latter will also be subject to language changes for each pack, so there's plenty of work for all
language pack authors.

BTW, We got English, German, Danish (DummyDDD), Finish (Tuggummi) Translations by now.

There's also an outdated French version, i'll ask Goebish for help on this. Anyways i'd still like to have more.

I definately like to have a spanish tranlation. Portugese and Japonese would also be nice, of course any additional
language is also valuable.


Thats all for now, hope you're having fun with the preview.

Tuggummi

30th January 2006 12:39 UTC

Well i haven't even started on the languange pack yet, i thought i'd wait for the final version, or is there going to be any changes to the languange file? (im assuming this is the case)

Anyway, i'll get on testing this new version :)


[edit]
Hmm, the autoscreenshot thing is nifty, but it always captures the last frame of the previous preset :weird: Also some presets need a bit time to "warm up" so capturing the screenshot right at the start might not be a good idea, a fixed "wait 1-3 seconds" or a user set value would be nice.

[edit2]
The editor lock disables even the close button! :p (have to close the AVS editor from the AVS window)

[edit3]
Okay, sorry about the screenshot thing, was a bit hasty on that. Also took me a bit to find that setting :o

Grandchild

30th January 2006 14:54 UTC

Good thing with auto screenshot!

things I noticed:

• ALL tooltips are gone [all languages] :cry:
• I didn't see at first that the autoscreenshot-option was disabled cause it showed a tic! Maybe you could make it disappear or a cross when disabled?
• A minor thing: Directly after saving the list the statusbar still says "untitled". Enforce a refresh on save list or slt.

Originally posted by Magic.X
"assign bitmap[s] to preset": How should this work? Assign one of those available or open a open-file dialog?

Originally posted by Magic.X
I could write a BPM counter on my own, but this would lack the confidence percentage information, so you'd never really know when you'd have to readapt the BPM. DJ's often change their BPM through the set and if the Advance Beat detector is locked once, you're fucked.

fsk

1st February 2006 03:43 UTC

heh i come to the forums after i dunno how long and find this thread \o/. nice surprise. was sure youll never work on it again:). anyway, to the test resaults.

the transition time slider only works if the editor is open or was open some time between changing its position and switching presets.

other than that everything seems to work fine here.

but one bug/thing that annoys me the most, persists:/. the number of screenshots is kinda limited. right now i have a bit more than a 1000 of them and i cant add more because they make others disapear. im sure this has something to do with them being loaded to ram because when i bought more ram the number of pictures increased. even now the only way i can have 1000 of them is to have the small previews set to the smallest res and bigger ones to 60*45. if i make them bigger some of them dont show up. i dunno if you can fix this but it would be so nice if you could. or maybe you could add an option to disable loading of one of the previews (small ones or big ones) so i could save some room with that. right now the big ones take less than 10 mg on my hd and with 1 gb of ram i should be able to add more :/.

cant think of any other usefull options right now except maybe a control for recording volume and input of the sound card. now i have to keep the setting dialog for that open otherwise if i need to fix it, it shows up on the primary screen. oh, and a control for avss windowed performance.

horray for the fixed beat detection ape \o/. now i can finnaly use that option:D.
im really happy you decided to keep working on this thing, i still use it regularly :).

Magic.X

1st February 2006 10:44 UTC

Well seems like i'm having a fanclub too now. :D

@Tuggummi:
Yeah you cant close it right off, I noticed. I disabled any control element, this is the fastest way, rather than disbling any on its own. I'll leave it this way but I already added a command to close it automatically, this should be less annoying.

Furthermore I already did some work on the aspect stuff. In the next preview you'll be able to select between:
-downsizing pictures so they fit in correct aspect
-maximizing pictures in correct aspect, edges will be cut off
-the good ol' stretching method

So I thought, if this is done already, for gods fuckin sake, Tug shall have his freely sizeable images, as this is only little work by now.
Still thinking about how to modify the settings interface, as I dont want users to enter values into textboxes, but I already got some ideas.

@Grandchild:
Can you again (or anyone else) confirm that the tooltips are gone? They work well over here on various test systems.

The multiselct option is possible but gave me quite a headache, cause I'll have to rewrite the whole set of preset operations. Anyways, it should be worth it.

The untitled stuff is fixed already, a function call was missing. The tic is also fixed, it will be showed as a grayed mask if disabled.

Loading external pics might be worth some work, though i never had a need for this. I'll give it a a shot.

A custom Beat Button? Nah forget it, this will end more crumpy than the current solution. I doubt its bringing any effort at all. And feeding back into avs? As far is i know there's no accurate way. No, no double no.

@fsk
Nice to hear from you after all the time passed.
I thought the slide would be fixed, its still buggy in the recent preview? Gotta check this again.

Yes i know, the images, my old big bad problem. This is the case because the ImagesLists (2, one for small, one for large pics) which are used to feed the Listview are using one big image to keep all the small ones. And there apply some restrictions for the maximum size of one image, defined by windows, which is causing the limitation.

There are ways around, but they require assloads of work (leaving those comfortable predifined structures and doing it all by hand). Right now I don't like, nor do I have the time to do this, because exam preriod is starting next week. Afterward maybe.

Hmm recording volume would be an option if there's a smart way to do this, which would also need to show the current input amplitude to make sense.

AVS-performance may also find its way in there.

Thats it for now, greetings to the Hotlist fan club.

[Edit]
Well not exactly. Here's another goody for you, a preview with the mentioned aspect correct drawing options:
http://www.psytrancecamp.de/Hotlist/..._2.25_pre7.rar

You don't have to retake previously made screenshots. The original images were saved as taken, so if you change the drawing option the small and large images will be created as desired, based on your screenshots.

Grandchild

1st February 2006 15:59 UTC

The tooltips are back! [insert scared-female-screech here]
Honestly, they weren't there the first time. Must've been the reboot. Sorry for making you nervous. :)

The custom beat button was just a thought.
I only thought you needn't crush your head over the beat problem for a VJ program, if VJs are confronted with the line-in delay anyway.
You might drop the external pic load thing too, if it's too heavy. Might have been my subconsciousness asking for a work-around the not working screenshot option [due to not installing the program right] in the first place.

fšk, don't you have the delay problem while VJing? I think it kills the best beat detection...

GC

fsk

1st February 2006 17:52 UTC

too bad about the limitation thing:/. What if you somehow checked if there is enough room in the ImageList and then make more of them if there isnt? i gues its not as simple as it sounds:D.

the amplitude thing isnt sooo important because you can alyways check it in winamp, which is on top and doesnt really take any room.

fšk, don't you have the delay problem while VJing? I think it kills the best beat detection...

Magic.X

2nd February 2006 12:14 UTC

What you can do is:
-Buy a good Soundcard with a fast A/D converter
-Use a low latency input plugin

Magic.X

6th February 2006 07:09 UTC

Some updates on what's been done:

->Freely sizeable images implemented completely

->External image loading done
Only works for bitmaps, but then again, you should rarely need this feature with tools like auto-screenshot. If someone has a really bad need for jpegs, speak up and I'll add support.

->Checked the transition time slider again
Reviewed the avs sourcecode and found that all is theoretically set correctly, but somehow some windows restrictions apply, so the avs-editor does not check the sliders if its hidden. Added a workaround for this by show and hide the Editor in a split second, you probably won't even notice.

I know it would be so much better to have direct access to those internal variables. Maybe I should mail the avs developement team, provide them with a standard set of message procedures for interoperabillity with external applications and beg them to add those to the next release.

I could also provide my own altered version of AVS, but I guess this wouldnt be appreciated very much.

-Added support for relative paths
This is good if you use multiple systems / os installations and want your preset compilations to work in both

-Added an option to recurse subdirectorys

-The multiselection thing
This is not quite done, as there are lots of dependand functions which i'll have to check again, so no release this time.

@fsk:
The troubel with the image list is that its directly connected to the Listview. So you can only have one active.
I could insert some bad code here to partly use 2 depending on your point of view, but I'd like to have a clean solution, so there's probably no way around writing custom procedures for image holding, drawing etc.

@All:
As soon as the stuff i'm currently still busy with is set and tested, there'd be only the documentation and translation part left before Hotlist is ready for release.

If there's any request for functionality, user interface changes or whatever that I might have overseen or which has not been asked by now please do so now / remind me.

jheriko

7th February 2006 19:28 UTC

Originally posted by Magic.X
Yes i know, the images, my old big bad problem. This is the case because the ImagesLists (2, one for small, one for large pics) which are used to feed the Listview are using one big image to keep all the small ones. And there apply some restrictions for the maximum size of one image, defined by windows, which is causing the limitation.

Tuggummi

7th February 2006 20:49 UTC

Okay, maybe sounding like a total n00b here, but even with shitty bmp's, who would ever need more than 4 GigaBytes of image data? :igor:

Unless of course if you're such a idiot you want to include every avs preset ever made in your list. Not that you should make different lists for different occasions or even mood swinsgs, noooo, that would be totally out of the question.

fsk

8th February 2006 04:02 UTC

the thing is tugg, that now you cant us much more than 10 mb of data which you can imagine is a real pain in the ass. im used to the presets i have, (that is, i know at leat one preset that imo could follow the last one) so im kinda discuraged to get rid of the old ones.

as to magicks question for features i came up with another one. could you extend the 'pass keyboard shotrcuts' so they would only pass some of them. what i mean is: right now you pass all of them or none but it would be nice if you could pass f1-f12 and 1-0 and shift + 1-0 and 1-0 + ctrl but not others. that way at least for VJing you could get rid of the winamp deafult shortcut thing (not being able to use key configurations that are used by winamp for custom preset things). my 2 cents:)

jheriko

8th February 2006 07:41 UTC

Originally posted by Tuggummi
but even with shitty bmp's, who would ever need more than 4 GigaBytes of image data?

Magic.X

8th February 2006 17:04 UTC

Originally posted by jheriko
Anyway, the point is that the limits are all from using some pre-made class to save time. If you want to do it properly and you have any problems with the theory behind it, you could ask us here... most of us know a ton about graphics stuff.

I am pretty suprised you are finding the image problem hard, considering the level of total hackery involved in many of the other features. :)

fsk

9th February 2006 14:22 UTC

what if you just tried to find the bit of the premade class that causes the limitation and change it?

jheriko

9th February 2006 16:31 UTC

if it was in vb or c++ already i would gladly pitch in and help. but i dont think its worth doing a port over :P that and i am working on a ton of stuff already.

tbh i was only interested in the image thing because it seems like it shouldnt be a big deal on the face of it, and because you started blaming windows ;) . but i can understand how inbuilt components can be all intertwined and junk, i just have no experience with delphi.

Magic.X

13th February 2006 07:44 UTC

Ok first of all the next pre-release:
http://www.psytrancecamp.de/Hotlist/...t_2.3_pre8.rar

I've set the version number to 2.3, because of the load of new stuff that has been integrated on the given feedback, this version deserves a full step. ;)

Here a list of what has changed:
->Up to 10000 imagers now possible
->Freely sizeable images implemented
->Transition time slider fixed (finally :))
->Limited the hotkeys to [ctrl, 0-1, F1-F12]
->Added external image loading
->Added support for relative paths
->Added an option to recurse subdirectorys
->Added the semi done new html documentation
->Added suport to load and save playlister files
->Enabled multiselection

I implemented a workaround for the image thing by unsing an array of Bitmap classes (no direct memory work) to get hold of the images. As mentioned, I had to write the drawing routines cutomized and there might be some bugs hidden in there. Using a prebuild component and add custom drawing though the backdoor is pretty much a pain in the ass and probably not perfectly done, so please check this carefully.
The good thing about this is that hotlist should now be able to hold 10000 images of any size.

Btw, I guess I should make the hotkey limitation optional.

However, there are still some open bugs to be fixed so please watch out for the following:

The multiselected drag & drop algorithm is still not working porpperly, i am using some kind of bubble sort algorithm but to work propperly I need to retrieve the index of the selected images. I dont really know why, but the selction index is somehow not subject to the sorting so its never correct and I will have to do some bad backward counting to solve this. Therefore dont try sorting multiple selected presets at once, it will end up with some presets disappearing and other beeing duplicated. Dunno why delphi (or the windows component)= behaves this way, but no matter what it sucks.

The ape-adding tool is still broken.

Hotkey Bitmaps will not work right now (due to the changed image handling).

As always, have fun with the preview and report your test results and ideas.

Now to the replies:

Originally posted by jheriko
if it was in vb or c++ already...

Originally posted by jheriko
tbh i was only interested in the image thing because it seems like it shouldnt be a big deal on the face of it, and because you started blaming windows ;)

Magic.X

14th February 2006 08:34 UTC

Just an inbetween question: Discovered that it is possible to run avs directly from hotlist and without winamp. This is probably a prue VJ feature and optional, but would it be desired?

Boktor

14th February 2006 10:57 UTC

That could be nice, but then the response to the music would be quite minimal. I guess the osciliscope and the spectrum couldn't be used other than as flat lines if you don't have any music input.
Winamp has a linein:// function which is in fact very usefull for vj'ing.

Magic.X

14th February 2006 11:09 UTC

Noooooooooo. I probably missed the point.

I implied a standalone avs embedded into hotlist and of course supplied by a seperate soundchannel from line-in or whatever is set to be recorded. :D

What you understood would be pretty sensless of course. ;)

I think it would be pretty neat to have avs optionally running independ of any player.

But nevetheless, I'll save this for next version, this feature will make it easy to push the limit with the next release... :D

Honestly, I just have to stop playing araund with new stuff now and stick to the ToDo List or I will never come to an end.
Hopefully the current developement will be done and released soon.

fsk

15th February 2006 08:05 UTC

\o/ 10000 images. so glad you could somehow do that.

test resaults:

-when adding new images they arent the same size as the rest of them (i have them set to the 4:3 aspect ratio)
-the imageles listview is seriously borked! it makes hotlist put out endles error messages

this is all i could find wrong so far

the playerles avs sounds great:). it would be even better than the limited hotkey passing, because if you klick the avs window that option kinda fails now. i gues youd have to add some replacement for winamps little vis thing because there would be no way to check if the signal is too strong (other than a simple preset, which youd have to put on every now and then).

btw: can you make the titles in the 'small' listwiew aligned left and somehow make the whitespace at the end of the title smaller. right now the white and the text take most of the space on the list.

Magic.X

15th February 2006 11:32 UTC

Originally posted by fsk -when adding new images they arent the same size as the rest of them (i have them set to the 4:3 aspect ratio)

Originally posted by fsk -the imageles listview is seriously borked! it makes hotlist put out endles error messages

Originally posted by fsk
btw: can you make the titles in the 'small' listwiew aligned left and somehow make the whitespace at the end of the title smaller. right now the white and the text take most of the space on the list.

Grandchild

15th February 2006 20:22 UTC

apart from the reported bugs I found the image resolution fields in the settings a little annoying because of the "max(20,x)" limitation. and since the sliders sometimes skip a number I wanted to change 122 to 120 manually by marking the 2 and pressing 0. this resulted in: 020. maybe clip the number to 20/400 once the field is unmarked or sth.

the close button in the settings should not induce image resizing but rather aborting, or shouldn't it?

the german tooltip says "Liste vorwärtswärts durchlaufen" and in the english version the settings dialogue is entitled "Einstellungen".

a little bar showing the intended placing of the preset while moving the preset in the list would be helpful.

yes, other than that, go for standalone AVS! that would give the touch of revolution to this cool app! [just make sure this WA-blasphemic thread doesn't get deleted ;)]

GC

fsk

16th February 2006 11:18 UTC

title bar: fehler
buttons: ja, nein
the rest is in english:)

Magic.X

20th February 2006 09:58 UTC

Last preview:
http://www.psytrancecamp.de/Hotlist/...t_2.3_pre9.rar

Fixed:
-APE-Adding Tool
-Hotkey Markers
-Borked detail view
-wrong language settings
-left alignement of titles on small images
-cancelling Settings dialog does cancel now

Still to do:
-Substitute standard dialogs with custom ones
(for correct language displaying)
-Multiple Sorting Algorithm
(unbelievable how a plain simple thing can turn out to be a pain in the ass)
-Try to integrate a position bar on moving presets
(not that easy, but would be good to have so I'll experiment some more with this)
-Try to downsize the whitespace on the small image view
(I don't really think this can be done appropriately. As the listview is a windows standard component and has no usefull options for this, I can only try some brute force commands, but this ended up with rather nasty size clippings I could not influence. I'll try to find a soultion but don't get your hopes up)

@fsk:
Thanks for reporting! I probably didnt really get your aspect ratio problem. Tell me again whats wrong or even better send me a screenshot per mail. Stretching should stretch it to no matter which size is set (altered the 4:3 description already) and it does fine over here.

@all:
This will be the last preview so far. I'm finally done with my exams (and hopefully I passed), so now I'll have some time to wipe out the last remaining bugs and complete the docs and rewrite the installer. The next thing out will be the Release Candidate.

As there should not be any major additions to the language packs, you can already start translating them now (the pre9 includes the latest standard).
The only thing which will be added are some strings for the dialogs (like "ok" "cancel" "Error" "information") but those could easily be added afterwards as there's not much context to care about.

Thats it, have fun with the preview.

jheriko

24th February 2006 14:44 UTC

Originally posted by Magic.X

Don't slap me but isn't VB even crappier than Delphi?
...
I had the fuckin right to blame windows. :p

bool compareRecords(Record a, Record b)
{
  if (a.a1 > b.a1) return true;
  if (a.a1 < b.a1) return false;
  if (a.a2 > b.a2) return true;
  if (a.a2 < b.a2) return false;
  if (a.a3 > b.a3) return true;
  if (a.a3 < b.a3) return false;
  ...
  return true;
}

Magic.X

24th February 2006 17:30 UTC

The Algorithm itself is not the deal.

The thing is that I'm (again) forced to work around some insufficient comßponents. While sorting, the Listview is set into Update state, so the interface wont so any shit while sorting. Unfortunately, this is also disabling direct control ov the items to sort. The compoinent will not return the actual postion of selected items but the inital instead. So any attempt to implenment a standard sorting algorithm fails miserably because you can never check selected items for their correct position. I have to implement a backward counting variable to compensate the offset.

I'm currently busy with planning a big party here, so i've been lazy concerning the sorting problem. But I'll care about this soon.

DummyDDD

27th February 2006 23:05 UTC

The new preview is hot, the interface seems nicer, it work and I haven't encountered any bugs, but then again I haven't gone hunting for them.

I just have 3 ideas for Hotlist:

1. Having the ability to set the "Windowed performance" of AVS (the CPU cap for AVS). When not VJ'ing, and just working with hotlist and other apps, it can be helpfull to reduce the CPU-usage.

2. It would be nice to be able to set the Hotlist window size. If not by the windows default resizeing, then by setting the size in the settings menu.

3. Currently it seems that when changeing the size of the screenshots, with the "Fix sliders to current Aspect" checked, the aspect ratio is determined everytime you move the sliders. It would be better to store that ratio in a floating point value, when the checkbox becomes checked, that way the aspect ratio won't be altered when moving the slider very low, and then high again (I know it's not that important).

Anyway I updated and attached the danish translation. Oh and I'd love to see that standalone AVS thing you mentioned, it would open new possibilities for AVS.

Magic.X

13th March 2006 17:31 UTC

status
Most of the problems have been solved, yet theres my beloved sorting algorithm left to do.
I also tryed to integrate the position bar, but it seems kinda unstable.

Anyways, just wanted to let you know i'm still working on that. ;)

Grandchild

14th March 2006 16:52 UTC

good! I am so waiting for the final version :)

Tuggummi

19th March 2006 14:24 UTC

As promised, Finnish languange pack for hotlist.

I gotta say though, Finnish is not a good languange for computer programs, never has and never will be.

But i guess it's sort of "fun" to have a finnish translation (even if most of finnish folk probably prefer a english version)

If there's any future updates that require changes in the languange file, please contact me via email: tuggummi@jippii.fi

Magic.X

20th March 2006 18:25 UTC

Thanks! There'll be few additions as soon as the rc is out.
I hope I'll be done end of this week, currently trying to get the position bar working.

Last week, it came to my mind that i'd also be cool to have a midi mapper integrated, but just a future idea...

Grandchild

21st March 2006 13:13 UTC

I just noticed that in the last preview [No 9]one couldn't resize the window anymore, the drag-corner is gone.

and there's no tooltip for the new horizontal-small-pictures-button.

and one minor thing I'd like:
it would be nicer if [in pictures mode] one could unselect a preset, read: click right next to the marked preset into the white void and the blue layer would be gone.
if it's a thing of 5 minutes it would be cool, if it should evolve into a real problem leave it be!

GC

Magic.X

22nd March 2006 12:16 UTC

Already noticed the drag corner missing, fixed.
Tooltip is going to be there with the next release.

The selction is automatically done by the component. I'll see what i can do.

The positioning really gives me a headache because some of concurrent drawing operations. Its never perfectly drawn / removed.

Heck, i'd like to know wheter this could be done easily (windows explorer has it and uses the same visual object).

Magic.X

30th March 2006 07:32 UTC

Release Candidate 1
Took me a while, now its done.

Here is the first Release Candidate:
http://www.psytrancecamp.de/Hotlist/...st_2.3_RC1.rar

I hope i got all bugs out, if so, i'll pack this into an installer.

Unfortunately there've been too much trouble with both the position bar and the second small-images view. Those would just not behave the way I wanted.

I'll keep it in mind for upcoming verions, but right now I just want to get it done.

There've been some tiny additions to the language packs.

Please report me any anomalies you might encounter.

Have fun!

Grandchild

30th March 2006 09:30 UTC

So far I've noticed one bug:
When changing lock mode in the big pics view, the pics are huddled up at the top of the window and on top of each other.

I'll be looking further into it, gotta go back to school now.

GC

Magic.X

31st March 2006 07:28 UTC

You're right.
Just checked here on a pretty slow and utdated machine.
Have not recognized this as an annoying thing because its only temporarily and happens in a split second on my PC (3200+). I'll check ways to avoid this.

fsk

3rd April 2006 17:10 UTC

good rc1:). besides the problem mentioned by grandchild i didnt notice anything wrong with it.

I gues that by position bar you mean the windowed performance slider?

btw i have thought of another feature. i think its the first one that actualy cant be pulled off:). its a save button that would save the preset to its original path. right now its kinda hard to do a quick edit of the preset since you cant always remember where it is:/. But as i said i dont think this is posible.

I gues the thing to focus on for the next version is winamples avs. that would pwn:)

Thank you again for working on this some more 2.3 is great:).

Magic.X

5th April 2006 12:38 UTC

Well, yeah editing and saving back is tricky now.

Maybe I'll find a way around, I've some Ideas but nothing that can be done quickly.

Anyways:
http://www.psytrancecamp.de/Hotlist/...st_2.3_RC2.rar

Fixed that uggly bug when lockmode is set or disabled.

I'm waiting for the final language packs now and will take care about the installer in meantime.

fsk

11th April 2006 09:34 UTC

Another option idea:)

Add a random wipe and random push transition option. youd have to code these yourself but i gues it wouldnt be too hard.

some presets work realy well with these two even if you blend them with themselfs. it would be extra nice if they wiped/pushed from diferent sides each time you switch:).

Magic.X

13th April 2006 12:00 UTC

Yeah, and adding an automized loop-reload function therefore?! ;)

Should be in next release.

Btw, any language-packs finally done yet?

fsk

13th April 2006 19:16 UTC

well im not doing a language pack:) i think im the only slovenian useing it and im too lazy to do it for miself:D.
(actualy done it for some old version once)

and besides, i hate slovenian windows.

Magic.X

19th April 2006 12:19 UTC

Could you do it anyways, please?

fsk

3rd May 2006 12:12 UTC

i tried doing a quick one but failed. I havent used or seen slovenian windows for a looong time so i dont know all the funny tech terms anymo. fell bad about it cause you put all this work in hotlist and i uased it a lot and now i cant even make a language pack in return:/. the crapy part is i got loads of school work right now so i cant really look in to this.

Magic.X

3rd May 2006 17:11 UTC

Take your time, I'm currently loaded with tons of stuff to do for university and others, so the installer ready version will have to wait. Also, I want the release to be as complete as possible, not done and out as fast as poss.

Hint in case you fail finding the right symbols: Windows has a tool showing you all charackters of a font, you could use this to copy & paste the missing charackters.

GDLT

23rd July 2006 22:01 UTC

Hello
I've never used your program, and can't get it to work.
Everything seems to work except fot the pressets i click on,
i've loaded al the standard presets of winamp into your program. The problem is it doesn't mather on wich preset i click it always load the same preset (and refreshes it if i click another preset). Do I something wrong?
installed Hotlist 2.2 2.3RC1 2.3RC2 and AVS 2.81b
(2.2 never had anny communication with AVS including hotkey "forwarding")

Then another thing:
In your newer version you have "Extended AVS Status" this is verry nice because this way i can see the FPS, but this makes it impossible to use AVS editor, because it is continuesly switching to beat detector. Can you sepperate the bpm and fps display status functions?

Thanks in advance

Btw. i'm from the netherlands and will make you a dutch language pack, if "i" get the program to work.

Nanakiwurkz

24th July 2006 23:10 UTC

I'll help
I'm just like you magic x. i have all the time in the world and i waste working one presets. after all i'm a major waste of my own time. send me the plugin at charpoketron@yahoo.com . p.s. i have good experience in beta testing.

Grandchild

25th July 2006 00:04 UTC

nanakiwurkz:
this is no plugin, it's an external program to create AVS-preset-playlists.
to beta-test it, click th pic in magic.x' sig and dl the program, install it, then dl http://www.psytrancecamp.de/Hotlist...ist_2.3_RC2.rar , install it, run AVS, run hotlist, test and write found bugs here...

GC

Nanakiwurkz

27th July 2006 01:01 UTC

Beta Test Results
ok heres my end of the beta testing.
and to let you know i really liked it.