Quinto Black CT - New Winamp Modern skin

[Calvaria]

That's the total playlist time displayed in the lower right-hand corner. I would like to have it displayed in the main player.

[ariszlo]

As far as I know it isn't. I tried it with a test skin but it did not work.

[Calvaria]

Too bad. I would even go as far as to create a custom window, move it there and overlay this window on the main player. Is this impossible too?

[ariszlo]

Total playlist time is displayed by PE_Info which only works if it is inside the layout containing the component with the following parameter:
param="guid:{45F3F7C1-A6F3-4ee6-A15E-125E92FC3F8D}"

Unlike Winamp 3, Winamp 5 only allows one such layout. So if you overlay a window with that component on the main window then it will be your only Playlist Editor window.

[Calvaria]

I see. Thank you for the exhaustive explanation. I have some more questions. They may or may not be Quinto-specific (I can't judge as this is my first attempt at modifying a skin, but I am trying to modify specifically Quinto). Should I ask them in this topic or in the general Modern Skins section?

[ariszlo]

It would be better to start a new topic in the Modern Skins section, imho.

[ariszlo]

I was wrong about this:

Originally Posted by ariszlo

Total playlist time is displayed by PE_Info which only works if it is inside the layout containing the component with the following parameter:
param="guid:{45F3F7C1-A6F3-4ee6-A15E-125E92FC3F8D}"

You can display the total playlist time in the main window, too, but only if the playlist editor is loaded. You can try it by adding a MainPLTime tag before the
<script file="SCRIPTS\14-main-player.maki"/> line in player-main.xml:

PHP Code:

<text
  id="MainPLTime"
  display="PE_Info"
  x="220" y="80" w="260" h="32" align="center"
  fontsize="32" color="255,255,255"
/> 


But since it only works if the playlist editor is loaded, it is of not much use.

[Victhor]

In my BBM skin I've managed to get the total PL time with the PL closed, it's not hard but it implies a mix of xml and script mods. Check the Playlist info stuff if you really want it.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by Victhor

...it's not hard...

Well, it is not something you can quickly apply to another skin.

[Calvaria]

You can display the total playlist time in the main window, too, but only if the playlist editor is loaded.

But that's great!
By not working when PE is not loaded you mean when PE is not displayed and you change the skin? A rather exotic scenario for me. Cos when you simply hide the PE, it still shows the total time. Anyway I never hide PE, so it's not a problem for me!

The problem is with getting rid of the first part of total playlist time (total time of the selection). Is this possible? And/or with changing the size of the font.timer.id. It's rather large and besides there is this huge distance between the colon and the following digit. But looks like it's not easy to do if possible at all.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by Calvaria

The problem is with getting rid of the first part of total playlist time (total time of the selection). Is this possible?

Yes, it is. What I am showing you here is dumbed-down from Big Bento Modern's playlist info. This is quite imperfect compared to Victhor's playlist info but implementing it in all its intricacies for Quinto would require more editing than I have time for.

So here comes the dumbed down implementation.

1. Copy the following tags between the lines <script file="SCRIPTS\14-main-player.maki"/> and </groupdef> in main-player.xml:

PHP Code:

<text id="info.input" display="PE_Info" alpha="0" visible="0"/>
<text id="a1"
  x="267" y="80" h="28" w="0" relatw="1" align="left"
  font="Arial" fontsize="28" color="255,255,255" text="-"
  tooltip="Total playlist time (hh:mm:ss / hh:mm)"
/>
<script id="playlistlength" file="SCRIPTS/playlistlength.maki"/> 


2. Copy playlistlength.m and playlistlength.maki into the scripts folder.

Originally Posted by Calvaria

And/or with changing the size of the font.timer.id. It's rather large and besides there is this huge distance between the colon and the following digit. But looks like it's not easy to do if possible at all.

You cannot change the size of a bitmap font without editing it in an image editor. But it is not that simple. If you resize it then it will be blurred and will be broken. So if you want to do that then you will have to hand-edit the image after resizing it. Each digit should be of the same width and height. Actually, that's why there is a huge distance between the colon and the following digit.
Alternatively, you may change the font to a TrueType font and define its size with fontsize like this:

<text
x="40" y="33" w="160" h="20"
id="mp.timer.id"
align="right"
display="TIME"
font="Arial"
fontsize=32"
ghost="0"
timeroffstyle="1"
timecolonwidth="15"
tooltip='Toggle between "Time elapsed" and "Time remaining"'/>

[Calvaria]

It now displays the words "Playlist Length:"
Also I now have two playlist lenghts, the first one being this:

id="MainPLTime"
display="PE_Info"
...

I applied the bitmap font to the first one and it works, but when I applied it to the second, it disappeared.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by Calvaria

It now displays the words "Playlist Length:"

Do you mean you only want the digits, not the words before them?

Originally Posted by Calvaria

Also I now have two playlist lenghts, the first one being this...

Remove these lines:

PHP Code:

<text
  id="MainPLTime"
  display="PE_Info"
  x="220" y="80" w="260" h="32" align="center"
  fontsize="32" color="255,255,255"
/> 


Originally Posted by Calvaria

I applied the bitmap font to the first one and it works, but when I applied it to the second, it disappeared.

What is first and what is second? Could you quote them?

[Calvaria]

I need the digits only. After you found a way to place total playlist time in the player (with id="MainPLTime" display="PE_Info"..) I used that and I applied bitmap font to it. It works fine, except that I need to get rid of the selected tracks' time as it takes too much space. This is the first instance. The second instance is where you are getting rid of the selected tracks' time. When I add it I now have 2 instances of total playlist time, so I remove the first instance. Then I apply the bitmap font to the remaining (second) instance. But it just disappears.
– Oh, I see now why it disappeared, it's because this font doesn't have any letters but they still take space. So if you please remove the words and the colon, it will be fine!

[Calvaria]

I managed to do it myself! It works fine, thanks a lot!

[ariszlo]

Since you keep asking for features that require MAKI, it is time for you to start learning some MAKI. Not much, just a little bit.

The first thing to do is to edit playlistlength.m, which is the text source for playlistlength.maki. Open it with your favorite text editor. Notepad will do. Find this line:

PHP Code:

a1.setText("Playlist Length: "+PLTimev); 


Remove this:

PHP Code:

"Playlist Length: "+ 


so that you will have

PHP Code:

a1.setText(PLTimev); 


Save the file.

Now you should compile playlistlength.maki so that Winamp can use it. Winamp can use compiled maki but not its text source.

To compile maki you need the MAKI Compiler. Unzip MAKI Compiler v1.2.0.zip. Let's assume you have unzipped it to your desktop.

Copy playlistlength.m into the unzipped folder containing mc.exe

Now launch Windows PowerShell. You can launch it by right-clicking on the Windows button at the bottom left corner and left-clicking on Windows Powershell. Alternatively, you can click on the magnifier icon to the right of the Windows button and start typing powershell.

Now you are in PowerShell. Here you type commands. First you should enter the directory containing the MAKI compiler. If you have unzipped it to your desktop then type this and hit Enter at the end of the line:

code:
cd desktop\maki compiler v1.2.0

Now you are in the directory containing mc.exe. Type this and hit Enter:

code:
mc.exe playlistlength.m

Now you have a new playlistlength.maki. Replace the old playlistlength.maki in Quinto's scripts folder with this new one.

[Calvaria]

Now about the bitmap font: I understand that I need to edit the picture of each letter. But there are two things that puzzle me. 1. Where does Winamp takes its instructions as to the x and y coordinates of each letter? Because I will need to enter new coordinates somewhere. 2. In timer, when display="time" or "timeremaining", there is no huge distance between the colon and the following digit. So Winamp somehow takes care of that even though each character must have the same width. How does it do it? But when display="songlength" or in the case of the total playlist time, this huge distance does appear – in this case Winamp doesn't do anything about it. Can you explain this? Maybe Winamp's internal algorithm can be made to work here too?

[Calvaria]

Thank you for detailed instructions!

[Calvaria]

And also timecolonwidth works for some timers but not for others. Why?

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by Calvaria

1. Where does Winamp takes its instructions as to the x and y coordinates of each letter?

I have never created bitmap fonts so I can only guess and you can test my guess.

First you need to decide the height of your tallest character, let's say it is 32 pixels, and the width of your widest character, let's say it is 30 pixels. With those parameters, you create a transparent png with 3 rows and 33 columns. The size of each cell will be 30x32 pixels with 1 pixel wide dividing lines between them. So the size of your transparent png will be 1022x98 pixels.

The 1022 was calculated like this: cell width x 33 + 32.
The 98 was calculated like this: cell height x 3 + 2.

Fill the cells with your letters in this order:

1st row: A-Z " @ and 3 empty cells
2nd row: 1-9 … . : ( ) - ' ! _ + \ / [ ] ^ & % , = $ #
3rd row: Å Ö Ä *

And an important note
While it is OK to modify a skin for your own use, you are not allowed to put your mod online without the original author's permission.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by ariszlo

First you need to decide the height of your tallest character, let's say it is 32 pixels, and the width of your widest character, let's say it is 30 pixels.

It might be the case that you need an extra vertical line after the last column and an extra horizontal line after the last row. If so then this is how you calculate the size of the font png:

(cell width x 33) + 33
(cell height x 3) + 3

Tests will show whichever formula is true. There is no comprehensive documentation of modern skinning. The answers to some questions can only be found by guessing and testing.

After you have filled in the cells, you can remove the dividing lines.

[ariszlo]

The Is it possible to move PE_Info to the main player? topic is continued here because it is not strictly Quinto-specific.

[Calvaria]

From your explanation of bitmap fonts in Winamp skin it looks like: 1) non-Latin letters absolutely cannot be used in Winamp as a bitmap font (Winamp falls back on some regular font) and 2) it's even more complicated than you have described because I as mentioned earlier in some timers Winamp removes extra space for the same combination of digits and colon while in others it doesn't 3) even if I manage to create smaller bitmap font it will not make much sense – even though the digits will be smaller, the distances between them will become proportionately larger.

[Calvaria]

How do I assign VID and VIS buttons to toggle Equalizer, Frequency response graph or VU meter analog?
Also the player has the word "Equalizer" on the display and in the main-player.xlm it looks like clicking on this word should toggle Equalizer on and off but it doesn't work (ghost doesn't help).

[Phat_J]

Hey all, is there a way to save the configuration of this skin?
I've set the color scheme, window positions, and sizing, but sometimes when I start winamp it's reverted back to the default settings. Is there a way to save the settings to a file somewhere, so I can just easily load it again? Thanks!

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by Phat_J

Hey all, is there a way to save the configuration of this skin?
I've set the color scheme, window positions, and sizing, but sometimes when I start winamp it's reverted back to the default settings. Is there a way to save the settings to a file somewhere, so I can just easily load it again? Thanks!

In Windows 10, Winamp stores the settings of all skins in AppData\Roaming\Winamp\studio.xnf. AppData is a hidden folder. To make it visible, check the show hidden items option in the View tab of File Explorer.

What you are reporting may indicate a corrupted studio.xnf.

The following steps may fix studio.xnf at the price of your losing all your settings.

1. Quit Winamp.
2. Delete studio.xnf
3. Launch Winamp.
4. Configure Quinto to your liking.
5. Quit Winamp again.
6. Make a copy of studio.xnf and store it somewhere outside AppData\Roaming\Winamp

[Phat_J]

Thanks ariszlo! I will try that

[DJboutit]

This skin is not showing Album Art when playing shoutcast streams please fix this.

[NJK]

Originally Posted by DJboutit

This skin is not showing Album Art when playing shoutcast streams please fix this.

PeterK. PeterK. is offline
Quinto Black CT Developer

Last Activity: 28th January 2019 09:37

you could try the wacup forum, it looks like he's still around in that forum, he hasn't been here for more than 2 years.... so don't think he would read your post.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by DJboutit

This skin is not showing Album Art when playing shoutcast streams please fix this.

Is there any skin that does?

[thinktink]

Originally Posted by ariszlo

Is there any skin that does?

Yes, I know of two from experience:

Winamp Classic using gen_classicart plugin, usually when I'm at home.

Bento, usually at work.

I stream my music from my private server SHOUTcast v2 at home. Never had problems with art.

[Mikey7]

Man, it's good to be back on Quinto, having for months, fallen down a rabbit hole where among other beliefs pushed, was that Quinto was highly suspect because it uses an installer and didn't work and play well with a certain alternate version of Winamp. What a beautifully conceived modern skin and one of the most configurable.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by Mikey7

...with a certain alternate version of Winamp.

It installs and works well if you install it like this.

[Mikey7]

Originally Posted by ariszlo

It installs and works well if you install it like this.

Getting it to run (and yes, with these instructions) is no problem. Wanting to enjoy the experience around a group of other users of the same alternative version of Winamp who tell you Quinto is "suspect" and "poorly designed" (especially for running in a 1080p display) when in fact it's an amazing piece of skinning - that's the drag. I'm glad to be done with all that and back to running Quinto among friends who truly appreciate it.

[thinktink]

Every time I tried to run the installer for v3.6 it kept complaining that I didn't have Winamp installed even though I did. I checked the registry entries and everything. Windows XP 32bit running in virtual machine that I use for plugin development.

I read the instructions for installing for WACUP and noticed that it was saying to pull the files from "Program Files (x86)". On a hunch that the installer was hardcoded for a 64bit version of Windows I went ahead and made a dummy "Program Files (x86)\Winamp" folder and copied Winamp.exe from "Program Files\Winamp" into it. The installer finally let me install, but it auto selected the proper directory ("Program Files\Winamp").

Frustrating installer.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by thinktink

On a hunch that the installer was hardcoded for a 64bit version of Windows I went ahead and made a dummy "Program Files (x86)\Winamp" folder and copied Winamp.exe from "Program Files\Winamp" into it.

That is not all you need to do. You should also copy the SCRIPTS directory into C:\Program Files (x86)\Winamp\Skins\Quinto Black CT v3.6, otherwise some features will be broken. Look for the PATH definition in 06-configuration-window.m to see why.

The issue has already been addressed in Installing Quinto v3.6 for 32-bit Windows.

[thinktink]

Originally Posted by ariszlo

That is not all you need to do. You should also copy the SCRIPTS directory ...

Seriously?

[Aminifu]

I forgot the reason the Quinto Black CT skinner gave for changing to an installer for this skin. I also think he should have stayed with the standard method other skins use.

The other frustrating thing about installing updates for this skin is that the Winamp "studio.xnf" file must be rebuilt each time. This is because the configuration entries for previous versions could conflict with the current version. This is somewhat understandable, but allowing Winamp to rebuild the studio.xnf file also requires that the non-default configuration entries for other modern skins must also be redone. It is not easy to determine all the entries that only pertain to Quinto Black CT; and just delete those.

This has caused me to learn more than I ever wanted to know about the configuration of the studio.xnf file. .

[drugo]

hi
I love this skin
where can i download it?
the last Quinto Black CT (non modded)
thanks

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by drugo

where can i download it?

Here.