Synthesia 0.7.3

Archived development update discussion from past versions
Archived development updates.
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Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

0.7.2 is going out later tonight. So, it's time to talk about 0.7.3... though, depending on the scope of what I'm able to accomplish in July, I'm thinking it might be time for a name bump up to 0.8.0.

This one is mostly infrastructure. I've got a ton of stuff I want to accomplish before the end of the year and there are a number of road blocks in the way. Notably:
  • Internet connectivity. Minimally, a version check on the title screen, but these are baby steps.
  • Proper support for z-ordering in my UI layer. Drop-down menus and other "they get bigger when you interact with them" type of controls are impossible right now. I need them.
  • The dreaded textbox control. The proof of concept use of it will be (live) filtering on the Song Library screen.
So it's not a completely boring release for everyone, I will try to fit at least one or two actual items from the voting list in there. We'll see how much time is left.

The whole idea though is that those changes above position Synthesia for all the awesome stuff coming up next -- which sounds like an especially good reason to call it 0.8.0.
vicentefer31
Posts: 899

Post by vicentefer31 »

Nicholas wrote: The dreaded textbox control. The proof of concept use of it will be (live) filtering on the Song Library screen.
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Picasso: I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
TonE
Synthesia Donor
Posts: 1180

Post by TonE »

I never use the Song Library. My song library is my harddisk + FreeCommander + AutoHotkey to start the song directly via the command line of Synthesia. FreeCommander has live filtering, flat view of subfolders, for the big picture view I am using WinDirStat.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

TonE wrote:I never use the Song Library.
I would also describe you as the ultimate power user. ;)
tommai78101
Posts: 766

Post by tommai78101 »

How come the textbox is dreaded?
Hardware Information: Dell Alienware 15 R4, Intel Core i7-8750H @ 2.20GHz / 2.21 GHz, 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070 / Nvidia GTX 1060 dual-GPU, Roland FP-10, MIDI-OX + LoopMIDI combo.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

It's not really that bad. I've just been talking about it for over a year. I've actually made one before in a (much) older project.
maccer
Posts: 222

Post by maccer »

Nicholas wrote:The whole idea though is that those changes above position Synthesia for all the awesome stuff coming up next -- which sounds like an especially good reason to call it 0.8.0.
The question is, though, shouldn't the version numbers be used to give the *user* a rough guide of what's happening with the app? In that case, invisible back-end stuff shouldn't have that much effect on the version number. I would call it 0.7.3 or whatever, and then make a totally revamped interface using all that new backend stuff and call it 0.8.0 - plus add in even more stuff from the feature voting list.
Songs learned using Synthesia:
CT: Wind Scene, The Trial | FF7: Prelude | SMB: Overworld, Underwater | Tetris: Theme A | Zelda: Lost Woods | Other: Für Elise
TonE
Synthesia Donor
Posts: 1180

Post by TonE »

I can only agree with maccer's argumentation. Non-power users :) are not really interested much in the backend stuff. Even ultimate power users not, as long as they can not access those backend features somehow via any kind of back- and sidedoors. For the user anything which is invisible is non-existent, even if it is there in the code. Let me watch the press conference of the German soccer team now. :P
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Ok, fine. 0.7.3. :D
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

For Internet Connection, (Q1) Do you mean the program itself searchs for updates, or the user asks for it, and (Q2) does it also apply development versions?
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

I'm still deciding on those answers...

Right now I'm thinking that when you start Synthesia, a little background task will go check to see if there is a new version if you happen to have an active Internet connection. If one is found, a little note will appear on the title screen. That's it. I might limit the check to once-per-week or something like that just to cut down on excess version check requests hitting the website.

As for dev versions, probably not. If someone is using a dev version, they're probably already savvy enough to be on the forums or using RSS or something like that. A weekly check wouldn't do them any good because they'd already have the latest.
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

Or there could be an option for it. "How Many Times Search? Once a day? Once a week? Twice a month?"
I am kinda new to RSS, how do I configure it for Synthesia?
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

There is nothing to configure. You just copy-paste the RSS links on the home page into your favorite news reader (like Google Reader).
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Removal of MIDI files on the Forum

Alright, all the MIDI files on the board should be gone or disabled.

You can still post them under Bug reports, Help-Game, Help-Hardware, and Dev updates, but as mentioned in the pink box on the (now-totally-removed) Song Requests forum, I'll be removing them as I solve problems.

That means the old "Forum MIDI" page is more of an internal reference now for me so I can see where I need to go to squash file attachments.

It was time to make things more legitimate. The game music included with Synthesia has also been removed in my local development version. Come 0.7.3, it will no longer be included.

The upcoming (online) song library will make all of this much better and more verifiably legal on top of bringing a LOT more functionality than the Forum MIDI list did.

New Learning Pack Demo Songs

With the removal of the Game Music Themes tracks, I'm taking suggestions for 2 tracks from the G Major stuff that will replace Dragon Warrior and Sonic on the Learning Pack demo song list.

I usually look for stuff of varying difficulty (so, what isn't already represented in the other 4 songs), songs that are particularly fun, and that happen to generate decent looking sheet music.

Any suggestions?

I'm kind of partial to "Big Bad Goblin Blues". The sheet isn't excellent, but it's a fun song to listen to and play.
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