Synthesia 0.7.5

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

Post by Nicholas »

Instead of multi-select track settings, I'm opting for a different way of achieving the same result:

Each track row will have a little copy button that when clicked will present a pop-up list of things like Instrument, Color, Mode, Everything, Everything except color. It won't be exhaustive but it should contain anything you'd ever practically use.

Afterward a little paste button will pop up in each track row. There will also be a top-level "all rows" paste button so you can duplicate the settings out to every track. It's not multi-select, but it gives nearly everything that would have in terms of number of clicks.

In addition to copy/paste, each row (and the top-level area) will be getting a reset button to set things back to default.

(For time's sake, I'm also foregoing the split you/cpu, played/hidden, sounded/muted stuff. We'll have to live with the fully-spelled-out modes ("Played Automatically") a little longer. They are getting pretty icons though. Man, the Fugue Icons are awesome.)

EDIT: Boo! I wasn't expecting to roll off onto the next page. There is a cool picture on the previous page, near the bottom. ;)
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Alright, awesome progress (something like 15 hours of work today). The track settings revamp is well on its way and I'm guessing it should only be another day or two (weekdays can't be nearly as productive as weekend days :( ) until the 0.7.5 preview/release.

... In retrospect, I should have released a preview tonight for the paged datagrid stuff but now the code is all torn apart again. I'd have to fight with my little auto-build scripts to get them to build a previous revision and that sounds like a hassle. :D (Actually, that sounds like a bug tracker item I should create. It shouldn't be a hassle. Done.)
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Here is a very rough version... there is something there now. Very little of any of that is actually connected to the various pop-up menu type things you'd expect. Quite a bit of that is still hard to see against the various colors. Still working that type of stuff out. Wouldn't be surprised if this changed quite a bit before the final version...

Mind you, while it seems a little more intimidating than it used to (it does to me, anyway), in the one or two track piano case, users won't even see this screen. They'll see the simplified view.
earlyTrackList.png
earlyTrackList.png (129.97 KiB) Viewed 15516 times
vicentefer31
Posts: 899

Post by vicentefer31 »

About the new Track Selection Screen, you'll like it in a few months-years. Give it a chance.

ok, after the joke, what about to add a button to show a pop-up a window-help like this? The idea is add something like in the Play-Window where you can see a keyboard picture with information about how you can use the keys of your keyboard to change the speed, pause the game,... but this time with information for the tracks.
Tracks.png
Tracks.png (72.88 KiB) Viewed 15508 times
Picasso: I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Typhlosion
Posts: 82

Post by Typhlosion »

What happens on higher screen resolutions? Mine is 1680x1050 and it would be good if the rows were smaller but longer.
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

Pretty cool, but here I have some notes for this:
(1): The other buttons have 'grey' or just a little bit less bright.
(2): Track Names (like John, Pianoguy, Singer... ...) (already requested)
(3): Auto-loop. If the track is sort of 'short' or has a huuuge rest before it starts, automatically starts immediatly. If the song ends, it will start over again.
(4): Just only [ *icon* Sheet ] and it has a 'when-it-gets-activated-it-wil-get-'pressed-in'-and-turn-a-bit-grey'-interface
Attachments
earlyTrackList.png
earlyTrackList.png (149.83 KiB) Viewed 15498 times
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

This is probably a little closer to what I had in mind. A lot less visual noise this way. You can also fit more on the screen too, like Typhlosion was recommending.
trackBox.png
trackBox.png (27.37 KiB) Viewed 15477 times
The icons are a little better now too (though blue is one of the best case scenarios so it's hard to tell). I am still going to replace the sheet/no-sheet icon.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Here's the non-Photoshop version, laid out in actual controls. Yellow is still a little tough to see, but it feels passable and is a rare enough color.

Now I just need to add tooltips, create the sub-menus, and wire everything up. ;)
trackList.png
trackList.png (197.91 KiB) Viewed 15465 times
Raymond
Posts: 528

Post by Raymond »

Could you put 'Auto play' right after 'you play'? Or something so I can change between them faster.
tommai78101
Posts: 766

Post by tommai78101 »

If all of the selections are rotatable...

Like a Circle, where all of the selections shows up. Then just use the mouse scroll wheel to rotate it until it reaches the arrow point, or the mouse can drag the arrow point around until it chooses the option.

Like this, Russian Roulette style:

EDIT: Didn't realized the texts have changed over the months of development. :o

Image
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.
Typhlosion
Posts: 82

Post by Typhlosion »

I think screen resolutions wider than x=1620 should have two columns. It will look weird if I have space to the left and right of the screen and a vertical scrollbar...
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Raymond wrote:Could you put 'Auto play' right after 'you play'? Or something so I can change between them faster.
It'll be a pop-up menu. Every mode should be accessible in two clicks. And once you get used to the ordering of the items in the menu, they'll be a very fast two clicks. The copy/paste buttons should be able to further reduce repeated changes down to one click.
tommai78101 wrote:If all of the selections are rotatable...
I initially wanted to make pie menus but as it turns out, regular menus are pretty easy, and the shortest path there made sense at the time. And now they're just super convenient to keep using. :D
tommai78101 wrote:EDIT: Didn't realized the texts have changed over the months of development. :o
These are the first pictures the changes have been in. You haven't missed anything.

"You Play" has always bothered me because it was so terse. Now that I finally have some room to write some words, I want to. ;)
aria1121
Posts: 1505

Post by aria1121 »

Nicholas wrote:I initially wanted to make pie menus but as it turns out, regular menus are pretty easy, and the shortest path there made sense at the time. And now they're just super convenient to keep using. :D
But keep it so, that we can see what we are able to choose.

I like the new version of the Track Sett's screen.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

aria1121 wrote:But keep it so that we can see what we are able to choose.
Yeah, the pop-up menu will contain all the currently-available options. So, if you have an input device and output device selected, everything will be there.

If you're missing an input device, the various "You" options will be missing, etc.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

aria1121 wrote:So is the mouse an input option or not?
Yes, you've been able to use the mouse for several versions.
Nicholas
Posts: 13135

Post by Nicholas »

Typhlosion wrote:I think screen resolutions wider than x=1620 should have two columns. It will look weird if I have space to the left and right of the screen and a vertical scrollbar...
Oh, sorry about that... I didn't see this the first time. Judging by the post time, it looks like your slipped in just in front of mine.

Two columns would definitely work at that width, but it starts to get a little tricky. Right now I can finally claim the top track in the list has the highest pitched notes overall. The track sorting has been weird all these years and I'm pretty happy to finally get a linear ordering. Also, it's a little strange for my datagrid control to do two columns. Right now each track exists in something called a DataGridRow, which by definition sounds like it would have some trouble with additional columns. ;)

None of those are good answers. I'm also in rush-mode right now because not only is 0.7.5 almost a week late at this point, but all the scoreboard stuff will be following shortly thereafter to make the November-1 release date for 0.8.0... that's also not a good answer.

Checking just now, it looks like only about 16% of this site's traffic uses something 1620 or wider. Still not a good reason. :D

But, it's easier to do single column for now, so I'm sticking with it. The good news after all that, there isn't a good reason preventing me from adding it in the future. It just might take a little while.
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