0.8.2 Preview r1488 - Key Bindings

Archived development update discussion from past versions
Archived development updates.
Nicholas
Posts: 13132

Post by Nicholas »

PREVIEW r1488
Download from the pink box above.
keyBindings.png
keyBindings.png (30.09 KiB) Viewed 19034 times
PLEASE TEST: Key binding non-English keyboard layouts (Windows and Mac). Let me know how it goes. Thanks!

Changes in r1488 since r1442:
  • New (animated!) title display at song start.
  • Pausing the song no longer obscures the screen with a bunch of junk.
  • New, uh... warning graphic when a device change is detected during a song. ;)
  • Key binding screen! (New button on the options screen.)
  • Fire up your pitch-bend wheels. Song position jogging is awesome.
  • Ctrl+click the timeline anytime to toggle bookmarks quickly.
  • Ctrl+, and Ctrl+. now extend loops an additional bookmark left or right, respectively.
  • Mac-only "ctrl+click = right click" behavior now disabled by default. Enable with System.MacCtrlClickForRightClick advanced setting in config tool.
  • 1% speed change is now Ctrl+Up/Down (instead of Tab+Up/Down) by default.
  • Optional single-channel input. Set the Midi.InputChannel advanced setting to the channel number of your choice (or 0 for omni).
  • Measure/division highlights are a deeper blue (and are shown correctly for bass clef only songs).
  • Double-sharps should be a little clearer.
  • Fixed a string formatting bug in the Mac config tool's window resolution boxes.
  • Don't crash if we can't open a MIDI device for some reason (like its being open in another program).
This is the bulk of it. I have a few small things to finish up while you guys are testing this out and that will be the 0.8.2 release. Something that I realized while clearing the clutter from the pause screen (now that the static key-map graphic will be horribly out of date since you can change all those now), is that there is very little help available to a first-time player.

Coming next preview:
  • A "Help" button near the quit button to show the software keyboard mapping, point them at the wiki, and get a new user started.
  • A way to indicate left/right hand for a track on the track settings screen (to enable the simplified view).
  • A handful of updates to the metadata editor (and hopefully fix it so the Mac side isn't just read-only anymore :? ).
  • Any bugs you guys find.
Here's an example of the new title display (and disconnect warning ;) ), if you're interested:



Now that 0.8.2 is drawing to a close, Synthesia is starting to feel more and more like I originally envisioned it. Almost all the bugs and rough-edges are gone. It's nearly time to start adding awesome new features again. :D
maccer
Posts: 222

Post by maccer »

Nicholas wrote: Changes in r1488 since r1442:
  • Mac-only "ctrl+click = right click" behavior now disabled by default. Enable with System.MacCtrlClickForRightClick advanced setting in config tool.
I haven't tried out the new version yet, but just a comment: why disable CTRL-click on Mac? The expected thing to do would be to use the CMD key for all the commands you've listed and leave the CTRL-click as a right-click. A Mac user would not expect to have to use the CTRL key for commands – that's what the CMD key is for.
Songs learned using Synthesia:
CT: Wind Scene, The Trial | FF7: Prelude | SMB: Overworld, Underwater | Tetris: Theme A | Zelda: Lost Woods | Other: Für Elise
vicentefer31
Posts: 899

Post by vicentefer31 »

Hi Nicholas:

After you have made the "User-assignable Input ", I want to show you the script I made for "Keyboard Only Navigation" (Btw thanks to TonE)
KeyboardSynthesiaPitchclassControl.rar
(1.76 KiB) Downloaded 225 times
I hope it can give you new ideas about this feature. For example I write in the Textbox of the Song Library since my Yamaha Keyboard.

Thanks
Picasso: I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Nicholas
Posts: 13132

Post by Nicholas »

maccer wrote:why disable CTRL-click on Mac?
All of their mice have two buttons now and on touchpads you can use two fingers to right-click. At least, that's my understanding.

Enabling it by default means you couldn't bind Ctrl+(left/right) click in fun an interesting ways. One combination was reserved and the other wasn't really valid.

(Also, I've never heard of Cmd-Left = Right. Googling just now, it looks like it's always Ctrl+Left = Right.)
User avatar
DC64
Posts: 830

Post by DC64 »

Looks good, I like the improvement.
Ill see if I am able to test the keyboard stuff sometime soon.
Although (this is me) the title does seem to go away a little quick. And not all the words fit.
Spoiler:
Sgt pepper reprise synthesia gameplay r1488.jpg
Sgt pepper reprise synthesia gameplay r1488.jpg (127.61 KiB) Viewed 18951 times
"And now for something completely different."
Nicholas
Posts: 13132

Post by Nicholas »

vicentefer31 wrote:For example I write in the Textbox of the Song Library since my Yamaha Keyboard.
That's kind of a cool combination of "saved searches" and hotkeys to get to them quickly. Neat.

Outside of that, it looks like the new key binding stuff can tackle most everything else in that script.

Out of curiosity, what are the 6x Enter followed by 3x ESC used for? Doesn't that just work out to 3x Enter?
DC64 wrote:Ill see if I am able to test the keyboard stuff sometime soon.
You can check it out right away. It doesn't require a MIDI keyboard. You can change/add your own (typing) keyboard bindings around too.
DC64 wrote:... the title does seem to go away a little quick. And not all the words fit.
I was a little aggressive on font-size, huh? You people and your super-long titles. I might be able to get some dynamic size detection stuff in there.

Otherwise, I didn't want to dwell on the title too long. For the most part, you already know which song you selected. And I already increased the amount of time it takes the first note to reach the keyboard by a half second to give it a little more time. Doing any more than that just for a glitzy title bar seemed a little silly. I could probably have the words transition in a little faster though so you get more eyes-on time.
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

@DC64 & Nicholas
Unless if you have widescreen. But the font is huge it eats like 1/4th of the screen's height. And if you fill the time that you see the notes appear from when you leave the Track Selection screen, the huge-fonted-much-space-eating-text has to move quite fast, even if the title is too long.

BTW it's quite useless to set a key binding to go back a screen on your keyboard, as that key still has to be in use for playing. :D
Nicholas
Posts: 13132

Post by Nicholas »

aria1121 wrote:But the font is huge it eats like 1/4th of the screen's height...
I've already fixed it for the next preview. It will use the big font if it can (and it moves in faster and lasts a little longer so you have more time to read), but if the title is too long, it will choose the best font size to fit it to the screen width. All the fields do that now.
aria1121 wrote:BTW it's quite useless to set a key binding to go back a screen on your keyboard, as that key still has to be in use for playing. :D
It might not be so bad. If it's your lowest or highest key it might not see much use. And then you can trick the Keyboard Setup screen into thinking you have an 87 key keyboard so it never asks you to play using that key.
vicentefer31
Posts: 899

Post by vicentefer31 »

Nicholas wrote:That's kind of a cool combination of "saved searches" and hotkeys to get to them quickly. Neat.
Thanks
Nicholas wrote:Outside of that, it looks like the new key binding stuff can tackle most everything else in that script.
Yes, the new key binding stuff looks excellent
Nicholas wrote:Out of curiosity, what are the 6x Enter followed by 3x ESC used for? Doesn't that just work out to 3x Enter?
With that I can go to the "Song Library" since any of the "windows" of the game. I have add 6x Enter because sometimes (and I dont know why) when I was in the First Window of the game with less than this 6x Enter I closed Synthesia.
But like Groucho Marx said "Those are my principles (scripts), and if you don't like them... well, I have others." :D
Picasso: I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
TiagoHenriques
Posts: 16

Post by TiagoHenriques »

It has happened twice: When calculating the score, it freezes and the computer reboots
Nicholas
Posts: 13132

Post by Nicholas »

TiagoHenriques wrote:... it freezes and the computer reboots
It reboots on its own? Or you have to restart it because Synthesia is unresponsive?

Usually a completely automated reboot (blue screen, etc.) is the result of a driver problem. If Synthesia is just hanging, that's also a new place I've never heard about a problem before. Between the play screen and the score screen, nothing different really happens. No disk files are read. The same MIDI reset happens as between every other screen. I can't imagine what would hang there.

Was there a crash report generated and left on your desktop?
TiagoHenriques
Posts: 16

Post by TiagoHenriques »

Normally when it reaches the end of the song it blinks the score numbers a bit and than displays the score board. But, sometimes it will hang when the song ends (no blinking) and than after a few seconds the computer reboots by itself.

(I'm not sure if it was a coincindence or not, but the rebbot only happened when I did about 8000 points and not with 5000 +/- points lol)

I'm on XP, 32 bit SP3

No error logs appeared
kiwi
Synthesia Donor
Posts: 1180

Post by kiwi »

No problem here with a french AZERTY keyboard.
I've noticed synthesia don't recognize double entry with the keybinding.
I haven't seen any difference in the sheet windows

It would be good to be able to switch off the "moving circles" in the library (I learn piano i don't make a dance party :p).
And to have a library save feature for handing my 120000 midi files :roll:


Anyway it'll be interesting to see the new features because for me synthesia is becomed perfect without the previously laking features , thaths why i want to see what you have in mind :)
So Thanks Nicholas for all of you're works in synthesia the forum ,youtube videos etc...
And sorry for my bad english ...
Nicholas
Posts: 13132

Post by Nicholas »

TiagoHenriques wrote:Normally when it reaches the end of the song it blinks the score numbers a bit and than displays the score board. But, sometimes it will hang when the song ends (no blinking) and than after a few seconds the computer reboots by itself.
Hmm, do you know which graphics hardware your computer has?

You can find out by opening a "Run..." window (Windows key + R), typing "dxdiag", letting it finish, and going to the "Display" tab. The Chip Type is the interesting part. Also the Date on the right hand side, under Drivers.

If you use the Synthesia configuration tool and change from "DirectX" to "OpenGL" under the video settings section, does that flickering (and hopefully crash!) go away?
kiwi wrote:I've noticed synthesia don't recognize double entry with the keybinding.
What do you mean? It should let you use either (or all three!) keys. Notably: one on your computer keyboard, one on your MIDI keyboard, and even one on your mouse. All simultaneously to do the same thing. That's not happening?
kiwi wrote:I haven't seen any difference in the sheet windows
The big list for those changes is here, though it's a little sad it's not immediately evident. ;)
kiwi wrote:It would be good to be able to switch off the "moving circles" in the library (I learn piano i don't make a dance party :p).
Aww, but I like them! :lol:
kiwi wrote:And to have a library save feature for handling my 120000 midi files :roll:
While the library population time is still there, it should handle (a lot) better overall than it used to. And when you return from a song, the whole list should still be built. Though 120k is probably one of the most extreme cases I've heard about. Did you notice I've made it much easier to switch between recursive/non-recursive folders on the watched folder screen? That may be a different kind of solution to your problem. I can't imagine you're actively working on learning to play all of those songs at once. ;)
kiwi
Synthesia Donor
Posts: 1180

Post by kiwi »

for the sheet windows :
i really see the different but the phrase:
•Measure/division highlights are a deeper blue (and are shown correctly for bass clef only songs).
i was hope for a deeper blue (or eventually green colour in the sheet )so a mistake by me sorry.

For the moving circles ok it's not so important :) but i don't like them :p

For the 120k of midi files i play with them for a backing band (and i like to use synthesia for this) so i use them :)

Finally for the key bindings i mean:
If i choose to bind x for play ,rewind and tempo
synthesia could say X is already assigned to rewind do u want to remapping?
Many software use this question for to avoid "double entries".
Nicholas
Posts: 13132

Post by Nicholas »

kiwi wrote:If i choose to bind x for play ,rewind and tempo
Oh, I decided to just let pass through because a lot of the bindings are only useful in one context. Something like menu page up/down is perfectly safe being bound along with ff/rw. I guess I was alright with letting the user get into trouble because now it's so easy to get out of it. ;)
TiagoHenriques
Posts: 16

Post by TiagoHenriques »

Code: Select all

This tool reports detailed information about the DirectX components and drivers installed on your system.  It lets you test functionality, diagnose problems, and change your system configuration to work best.
If you know what area is causing the problem, click the appropriate tab above.  Otherwise, you can use the "Next Page" button below to visit each page in sequence.
The "More Help" page lists some other tools that may help with the problem you are experiencing.
System Information
Current Date/Time:
quarta-feira, 12 de Outubro de 2011, 18:46:21
Computer Name:
TIAGO-9BA5504BE
Operating System:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600)
Language:
English (Regional Setting: português)
System Manufacturer:
ECS                             
System Model:
K7S5A                           
BIOS:
Version 1.00                    
Processor:
AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+,  MMX,  3DNow, ~1.7GHz
Memory:
768MB RAM
Page file:
662MB used, 1213MB available
DirectX Version:
DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Check for WHQL digital signatures
DxDiag 5.03.2600.5512 Unicode  Copyright © 1998-2003 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
Tab1
&Help
&Next Page
&Save All Information...
E&xit
Display TAB

Code: Select all

Device
Name:
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 (Microsoft Corporation)
Manufacturer:
NVIDIA
Chip Type:
GeForce4 MX 440
DAC Type:
Integrated RAMDAC
Approx. Total Memory:
64.0 MB
Current Display Mode:
1024 x 768 (32 bit) (85Hz)
Monitor:
Monitor Plug and Play
Drivers
Main Driver:
nv4_disp.dll
Version: 6.14.0010.5673 (English)
Date: 14-04-2008 04:42:04
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
VDD: n/a
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
DirectX Features
DirectDraw Acceleration: Enabled
&Disable
&Test DirectDraw
Direct3D Acceleration: Enabled
D&isable
T&est Direct3D
AGP Texture Acceleration: Enabled
Hey, I just used window spy to copy all the info :P

Uing OPENGL puts the frame rate at 4.8 (yep FOUR! lol)
Nicholas
Posts: 13132

Post by Nicholas »

Hmm, an GeForce 4 MX 440 should be plenty. Though it does look like you're using the Microsoft driver instead of the Nvidia one. The official driver might help.

Though, to be certain, your computer is on the lower-end of the compatibility spectrum, but it should still never crash. (The official line is "anything made in the last 5 years or so". Where your CPU and graphics are from 2002. So it might just be a case of really old hardware.)

Hopefully the driver update solves the problem. Otherwise I might not have any other advice. :?
TiagoHenriques
Posts: 16

Post by TiagoHenriques »

Please tell me something: with this computer hardware, would a midi controller lag?
TiagoHenriques
Posts: 16

Post by TiagoHenriques »

I installed than drive, rebboted and now my computer looks like this no matter what settings I select in appearance xD

http://oi53.tinypic.com/f1m6xk.jpg

EDIT: Okay, I'm back after system restore :D (sorry for the double post)
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