A Few Small Projects

Korados · Post by **Korados** » 07-05-15 11:44 am

This is great news! I'm really looking forward to it!

One more thing: Maybe you are aware of this already but there's an issue with the sorting of numbered files. I made a screenshot for you. I don't know if this actually can be fixed.

Post by **Nicholas** » 07-05-15 4:53 pm

Korados wrote:... there's an issue with the sorting of numbered files.

Ah ha, this is a super common error in the way computers usually do things. The only place I've seen this done correctly is Windows Explorer (on Vista and later).

To fix it requires finding a way to sort things naturally and then customize the library we use to keep track of the song list to use that sorting method. It's definitely possible and even looks pretty easy. I'll give it a shot for the upcoming 10.2 preview. If it ends up harder than it looks, I'll push it off for later so 10.2 isn't delayed any longer.

EDIT: Implemented! That was a fun bit of work.

Post by **Nicholas** » 07-07-15 5:18 pm

Korados wrote:I'm glad you still have the Midis! Unfortunately, I still can't get Synthesia to play them correctly.

I finally had a chance to investigate these. I don't have great news:

The "or-pine1" song is simply over-using the available channels and there isn't a good workaround. The events in the file look like this:

Flute track:
- time=0: Change channel 2 to Flute
- time=240: Play a note on channel 2

Glockenspiel track:
- time=0: Change channel 2 to Glockenspiel
- time=240: Play a note on channel 2

Because the song has 40 tracks, there aren't any free MIDI channels. So at time=0, one of those instruments is going to win and the other will be overwritten. If MIDI had more than 16 channels available, this could be solved, but this is a case of simply running out of available hardware. I would nearly call that an invalid song.

What I can fix: when one of those tracks is muted in Synthesia, there shouldn't still be a competition between which instrument wins. That's a bug. (This is tricky though because some MIDI editors put all the instrument changes and other settings in a single track, together. That is to say fixing this kind of broken song will break a different kind of working song.

)

jimhenry · Post by **jimhenry** » 07-07-15 7:56 pm

Nicholas wrote:I would nearly call that an invalid song.

I would absolutely call that an invalid song.

The song is asking a single MIDI channel to do conflicting things at the same time. It is the business of the MIDI creator to use MIDI in a standards complying way. Synthesia, as a MIDI player, has no obligation to render an ill formed MIDI file in any particular way, much less a sensible way.

Post by **Nicholas** » 07-08-15 5:32 pm

Nicholas wrote:... when one of those tracks is muted in Synthesia, there shouldn't still be a competition between which instrument wins. That's a bug.

Alright, this is about as fixed as it's going to get. Hopefully you'll have better luck in the upcoming dev preview.

In those crazy 30+ track songs it will generally help things if you change the Settings > Advanced > "MIDI Track Channels" to "Use Original". When everything is piled up like that, Synthesia's channel splitting does more harm than good.

Korados · Post by **Korados** » 07-10-15 10:35 am

Yes, these Midis are huge, I know. They are intended to be playbacked on 32 channel Midi sythesizers. I tried to listen to or-pine1 again on multiple versions of Synthesia but I can't get it to play correctly anymore.
This is very strange because when I first downloaded this Midi several years ago, Synthesia 9 had no problems and the piano wasn't switched to glockenspiel. I don't know what happened since then.
Setting the Track Channels to Original doesn't fix it.

Post by **Nicholas** » 07-10-15 12:38 pm

Korados wrote:Setting the Track Channels to Original doesn't fix it.

It should in 10.2. That was the fix I made a few days ago.

Post by **Nicholas** » 07-16-15 8:01 pm

We've reached that "within a day or two" window where I am finally comfortable giving a time estimate. So, expect the first 10.2 dev preview within a day or two.

Tentatively, the readme is showing 20 New, 8 Changed, and 19 Fixed things! That's a lot of things! Kind of a grab bag though: some large things; many small things.

jimhenry · Post by **jimhenry** » 09-02-15 3:43 am

Nicholas wrote:Ah ha! Yes, loop enabled/disable. That's going into 10.2, too.

Did this make it into 10.2? If so, how does it work?

Post by **Nicholas** » 09-02-15 3:52 am

It did. Press '/'.

Or change the binding to something else under Settings → Shortcuts → Loops → Toggle Loop.

EDIT: Fifth line down, here.

Chompy · Post by **Chompy** » 09-07-15 7:53 pm

I love your video demonstrating the beautiful order of the rainbow in the notations!!

I would SO LOVE this to be implemented in Synthesia 10.3!!!

That SHOULD be in the Video Creator too, it's lovely, and even has the proper order of colours!!

Enabling/disabling the rainbow notes for the tracks (just add a button on the Hands, Colours and Instruments called "Reset Colors" will turn off the rainbow effect, but select the rainbow-coloured button in the tracks colour selection to enable it again. You could also implement grayscale as well, but I'm more keen on vibrant rainbow colours, but you can also add grayscale for colour epileptics, or if you just don't feel like having colours in your tracks. A reset button for grayscale colours to turn them back to your saved colours is also needed.

You should implement this into Synthesia 10.3 and above!!

Show me the progressing development of the rainbow-notes in the game anytime!

I'll probably run your Synthesia 10.3 with the handy program WINE.

Cheers!!