How ?

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

I'd like to mimic my old favorite player Sonique

Have you ever tried Plague's Winique?

[parisienne17]

Yes I'm using milkdrop. I've tried AVS, there're some nice displays but I find them cpu consuming (even for my I7 4th : they use up to 30% of cpu time).

I've also succeded loading some sonique .svp visualsations with SVP loader, alas the best one, the cycling one 'Rappa:' doesn't work and few of them load without freezing winamp.

Azenis runs wisualisation inside the skin, at least AVS & milkdrop, I haven't tried G-Force yet as it crashes winamp every time i stop the plugin..


By the way, do you now if there's different modes for display="time" for the timer ?

I'd like to have a left one displaying time and the right one remaining time but whatever I try the display mode affects both of them.

(The sin i'm using as a base is Beautiful simplicity https://www.deviantart.com/andre-w/a...city-111964056

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

I'd like to have a left one displaying time and the right one remaining time but whatever I try the display mode affects both of them.

You can use display="timeelapsed" for the left timer and display="timeremaining" for the right one. (XML GUI Objects - Winamp Developer Wiki)

Originally Posted by parisienne17

The sin i'm using as a base is Beautiful simplicity

Thanks.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

But I have no idea of how invocating the visualisation part : I've began to look into azenis...

Yes, the answer is there:

PHP Code:

  <windowholder x="24" y="49" w="99" h="99" autoclose="1" autoopen="1"
autoavailable="1" visible="1" hold="guid:AVS" move="1"/> 


[parisienne17]

If you weren't there what could I do ? ;.)) (I tried elapsedtime when it was the opposite)

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

If you weren't there what could I do ?

Well, it is true that the coders of the noughties are no longer active here but some coders still hang around at the WACUP Forum.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

My idea is a versatile player with/without cover, song titles/track/artist/album, visualisation and maybe equalizer opening in the same window

This is not exactly what you are aiming at but it might be worth sharing because it allows you to toggle between albumart and visualization without maki:

PHP Code:

<windowholder id="avsholder" x="24" y="49" w="99" h="99" autoclose="1"
autoopen="0" autoavailable="0" visible="1" hold="guid:AVS" move="1"/>

<AlbumArt id="albumart" x="24" y="49" w="99" h="99" notfoundImage="nocover"/>

<togglebutton id="artavs" action="TOGGLE" param="guid:AVS" x="81" y="12"
image="button.artavs" tooltip="AlbumArt/AVS"/> 


[parisienne17]

Am I supposed to replace (player-normal-group)

PHP Code:

<groupdef id="albumartgroup">    
    <button id="albumartbutton" x="10" y="25" w="9" h="21" image="ShowHideCover" HoverImage="ShowHideCover-Hover" tooltip="albumart on/off"/>
   <AlbumArt id="albumart" x="40" y="60" w="100" h="100" notfoundImage="nocover" ghost="1" transitiontime="6"/>
   <script id="albumartshowhide" file="scripts/albumartshowhide.maki" />
</groupdef> 


by

PHP Code:

<groupdef id="albumartgroup">    
     <windowholder id="avsholder" x="40" y="60" w="100" h="100" autoclose="1" autoopen="0" autoavailable="0" visible="1" hold="guid:AVS" move="1"/>
     <AlbumArt id="albumart" x="40" y="60" w="100" h="100" notfoundImage="nocover"/>
     <togglebutton id="artavs" action="TOGGLE" param="guid:AVS" x="10" y="25" image="ShowHideCover" HoverImage="ShowHideCover-Hover" tooltip="AlbumArt/AVS"/> 
</groupdef> 


because when I click the button the player window disappears.

Same result if I put it in player-normal between <layout> tags after commenting the albumart group in player-normal-group

[ariszlo]

Yes, if you want to toggle albumart with visualization. If you do then you will no longer need albumartshowhide.maki.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

because when I click the button the player window disappears.

Oh no! The player background of Beautiful Simplicity is translucent. Translucent backgrounds are only displayed if desktopalpha is turned on. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, both AVS and Milkdrop2 turn off desktopalpha off and the translucent background disappears. You cannot have both translucency and AVS/Milkdrop2 within the same window.

So you either do not add AVS/Milkdrop2 visualization to your translucent player or you add an additional background with an opaque area to it.

If you choose the latter then create a png with the filename BS-Background-opaque.png and add an opaque background color to it matching the background color of your desktop.

Then add this tag to player-elements.xml:

PHP Code:

<bitmap id="BS-Background-opaque" file="player/BS-Background-opaque.png"/> 


And replace this tag in player-normal.xml:

PHP Code:

<layout id="normal" background="BS-Background" w="384" h="134" desktopalpha="1"> 


with this:

PHP Code:

<layout id="normal" background="BS-Background-opaque" alphabackground="BS-Background" w="384" h="134"> 


[ariszlo]

If your skin still looks like this then your opaque background could be something like the one attached below. The point is that the areas which are almost completely transparent should be completely transparent and the areas which are only slightly translucent should be completely opaque.

Without desktop alpha, there is only complete opacity and complete transparency. Gradual opacity is only possible with desktop alpha turned on.

You only need an opaque background if you want to add Milkdrop2 visualization to the main window.

[parisienne17]

Unfortunately it prevents me to use any subtle drop shadow on background (maybe I could trick it out...)

But I have an issue : when switching to AVS, only Advances Visualisation Studio works, for some frames (I have to click in the window to refresh/update).
Milkdrop2 doesn't show a pixel.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

But I have an issue : when switching to AVS, only Advances Visualisation Studio works, for some frames (I have to click in the window to refresh/update).
Milkdrop2 doesn't show a pixel.

Do you only have these issues when running AVS/Milkdrop2 in a windowholder inside the main window? What happens if you remove the windowholder tag along with the artavs togglebutton and run AVS or Milkdrop2 in its own window?

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Unfortunately it prevents me to use any subtle drop shadow on background (maybe I could trick it out...)

You can keep translucency with the subtle drop shadow if AVS or Milkdrop2 is not inside the main window but in its own window. It is possible to make it look as if it was inside the main window by making the area where you want to display AVS/Milkdrop2 in the main window fully transparent and placing the AVS/Milkdrop2 window exactly behind that area.

But it would only be worth working on this solution if either AVS or Milkdrop2 worked fine for you. Now it is Milkdrop2 that does not work for you and earlier you had an issue with AVS.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Yes I'm using milkdrop. I've tried AVS, there're some nice displays but I find them cpu consuming (even for my I7 4th : they use up to 30% of cpu time).

[parisienne17]

For some unknown reason to me, today visualisations show fine... Computing mysteries I guess or winamp state after multiple errors when dealing with

PHP Code:

<layout id="normal" background="Normal-Background-Opaque" w="361" h="194" alphabackground="Normal-Background8"> 


Does the 'alphabackground="(whatever)" mean that upon closing the windowholder area this parameter for background should be applied (meaning another background with, for exemple, drop shadow) ?

Does your insight with the fully transparent area above the visualisation windows mean that it is possible to :
- display a drop shadowed background with a hole in it
- cover this hole with a layer
- upon clicking the toggle butto : uncover this area
- display the window holder beneath it
- go back to previous state when toggled
?

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Does your insight with the fully transparent area above the visualisation windows mean that it is possible to :
- display a drop shadowed background with a hole in it

Yes.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

- cover this hole with a layer

No, you don't cover it. It is the other way round. Your main window will cover the AlbumArt/Visualization window which you will be able to see through the hole.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

- upon clicking the toggle butto : uncover this area

Since you do not cover the hole, you do not need to uncover it. What happens is this:

1. The AlbumArt/Visualization window shows the album art at the first start up.
2. You click the button to change the album art to visualization.
3. You click the button again to change it back to album art.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Does the 'alphabackground="(whatever)" mean that upon closing the windowholder area this parameter for background should be applied (meaning another background with, for exemple, drop shadow) ?

No, unfortunately, it does not automatically change back to the background with the dropshadow. Buf you do not need to bother about this if you are going to use what I am describing below.

Here comes what allows you to have both your translucent background and visualizaton

1. Don't bother with alphabackground. It is enough to define your layout like this:

PHP Code:

<layout id="normal" background="Normal-Background8" w="361" h="194"
desktopalpha="1"> 


2. Add the following two lines to skin.xml before the </WinampAbstractionLayer> line:

PHP Code:

<include file="xml/artvis.xml"/>
<script id="albumartvis" file="scripts/albumartvis.maki"/> 


The above script can only be called from skin.xml. Do not put the above tag anywhere else.

3. In player-normal.xml, or where ever else you have it, replace your albumartgroup definition with this:

PHP Code:

<groupdef id="albumartgroup">    
   <layer id="seethrough" x="40" y="60" w="100" h="100" visible="0"/>
   <button
      id="visbutton"
      x="10" y="25"
      image="ShowHideCover"
      hoverImage="ShowHideCover-Hover"
      tooltip="AlbumArt/Visualization"
   />
</groupdef> 


The x, y, w, and h values of the seethrough layer should match the position and dimensions of the hole in the main window background.

As you can see, you do not call any maki here. Remove all references to albumartshowhide.maki if you still have them.

4. Copy artvis.xml into the xml folder of your skin. You might want to edit the x, y, w, and h values to match the values of your seethrough layer. Do not touch the x and y values of the windowholder and albumart tags.

5. Copy albumartvis.maki into the scripts folder of your skin.

Do not change the id's of the tags shown above. You will break albumartvis.maki if you do. It is okay to change the coordinates and dimensions but not the id's.

[parisienne17]

woaaa.. I"ll try it tommorrow !

There's another thing that puzzles me :
- I've stripped down spirit black ( https://www.deviantart.com/stefanka/art/Spirit-10310941 ) to the seek bar because I'm unable to implement Maki2 animated seekbar and this one is smoother.
(I'm useless I know)

So I'd copied/pasted everything from one to another, put it in the same place..And it doesn't work. I don't get it.
It's the same for maki2 animated seek, I use one single horizontal frame as size and it doesn't work.

Would you mind looking at it ?
Here are the 2 skins
https://we.tl/t-tRzu4RyHY0

[parisienne17]

To be more thorough, importing maki2 animated seeker works fine but when attempting to switch to my picts and passing one frame (inverse w/H, as mine is horizontal) mesurements doesn't.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Would you mind looking at it ?

Spirit uses custom.maki but it is not really needed. You can get a seeker similar to Spirit's if you do this:

1. Remove this line from skin.xml:

PHP Code:

<include file="xml/scripts.xml"/> 


2. Add these lines to player-elements.xml and copy the attached png's into the player folder.

PHP Code:

<bitmap id="player.progressbar.center" file="player/elapsed.png"/>
<bitmap id="player.seek.slider" file="player/seek-slider.png"/> 


3. Remove these lines from player-normal.xml:

PHP Code:

<!--Crap dont delete-->
<layer id="vislayer" x="600" y="600" image="player.main.vis.layer"/>
<layer id="vol" x="130" y="120" image="player.main.volume" move="0"/>
<layer id="volfull" x="29" y="56" image="player.main.volume.full" move="0" ghost="1" /> 


PHP Code:

<layer id="seek" x="150" y="100" image="player.main.seek" move="0"/>
<layer id="seekfull" x="150" y="100" image="player.main.seek.full" move="0" ghost="1" /> 


4. In player-normal-group.xml, replace these lines:

PHP Code:

<groupdef id="seeker">
<layer id="BS-Seeker" image="BS-SlideBack" x="80" y="120" w="140" h="2" ghost="1"/>
<ProgressGrid x="9" y="0" w="140" h="2" ghost="1"/>
<slider id="seeker" action="SEEK" orientation="H" x="80" y="110" w="140" h="20" thumb="BS-Seek"/>
</groupdef> 


with these:

PHP Code:

<groupdef id="seeker">
  <layer id="seekbg" x="80" y="115" image="player.main.seek" ghost="1"/>
  <ProgressGrid
    x="81" y="115" w="128" h="9" orientation="right"
    middle="player.progressbar.center"
  />
  <slider id="seeker"
    action="SEEK"
    orientation="right" x="81" y="115" w="128" h="9"
    thumb="player.seek.slider"
  />
</groupdef> 


[ariszlo]

• Added canclose="no" to artvis container
• Removed unused code from albumartvis.m

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Would you mind looking at it ?
Here are the 2 skins

Check this out: Beautiful_Spirit.zip with drop shadow and AVS/Milkdrop2 in the main window.

In addition to implementing all the additions/changes detailed in #53 and #56, I fixed nocover.png and the reference to it in player-elements.xml.

The container holding the AVS/Milkdrop2 visualization is invisible if its background image is transparent, so I replaced your nocover.png with an opaque background image.

The reference to nocover.png in player-elements.xml did not include the name of the folder containing the file, which I added.

[parisienne17]

That's just awsome !

I got away from computer for a week then I began cleaning things and tweaking then...

I can't expand the albumart/vis : whatever the sizes I set in artvis.xml/

[IMG][/IMG]

Moving the area in player-normal-group works fine tho.

Edit: I've also added a move="0" at

PHP Code:

      <windowholder
         id="visholder"
         hold="guid:AVS"
         x="0" y="0" w="100" h="100"
         autoavailable="1" autoopen="1" autoclose="1" visible="1" move="0" /> 


when the album art got detached when trying to move the player

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

That's just awsome !

Thanks.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

I can't expand the albumart/vis : whatever the sizes I set in artvis.xml/

This is how you can do it:

1. Set the x and y of the seethrough layer in player-normal-group.xml to the top left corner of the hole in the main window.
2. Set the w's and h's (3 times) of albumart/vis in artvis.xml
3. Scale up nocover.png or whatever other background image you use for albumart/vis to the size of the hole in the main window.

The seethrough layer is where you hook the albumart/vis window to the main window.

[parisienne17]

Yep sorry, I've just thought to the nocover thing.. So I've resized it et voilà !
;.)
(unfortunately the mod won't allow post 180mns editing and you've already replied, so...)


I'm gonna tweak Prev/play/pause/forward then I'll be heading to playlist/medialibrary and colors as the white on light grey of menus is...Beurk.

[parisienne17]

Even if I"m way behind it, I'm wondering about how free form skins are done.
Is the transparency the clipping or is there another coordinates system like image map in html ?

And this one : how one implements menu commands in winamp (I'm thinking about switching between modes : main player, the actual one, a compact one and a tiny minimal one)

[ariszlo]

I'm quite busy this week. I will answer your questions later. Meanwhile, here's a skin for you to learn skinning the other windows.

[parisienne17]

That's strange : AVS won't run anymore inside the container.
If I right click in the player "visualisation/select plug-in" then choose "AVS/start", it starts in a separate windows.

I thought of a transparency hicup so I passed coordinates and sizes allowing a 5 pixels gap around the container inside the player, it didn't matter.

[ariszlo]

It may happen sometimes. Switch to Winamp Modern and see if it runs attached to the main window or in a separate window. If it runs in a separate window then click on Reattach Visualizer and then you can switch back to your own skin.

It may also fix it if you turn off AVS with the albumart/vis button and then click on the button again.

[parisienne17]

No issue there !

About my previous comment there isn't a 'real' issue : selecting the visualisation plug-in THEN clicking the button starts the proprer visualisation.

It's starting it from the options panel that starts it oursde the container.

[parisienne17]

Sometimes I'd pull of my hairs from my head !

I took a look at the sudy skinning skin you provided me. In some-colors.xml I've changed these lines

PHP Code:

<!-- These are self-explanatory: -->
<color id="wasabi.list.text.current" value="255,255,255"/> <!-- Playing song text color -->
<color id="wasabi.list.text.selected.background" value="255,0,0"/> <!-- selection bar color  -->
<color id="wasabi.list.text" value="140,140,140" gammagroup="Text"/> <!-- normal text color --> 


refresh the player --> I got the right colors

So in my skin in skin.xml I add

PHP Code:

<include file="xml/some-colors.xml/> 


refresh the player --> wrong colors

I put 2 files included in your skin.xml (standardframe.xml & pledit.xml) and include them in skin.xml, refresh the player --> wrong colors.

Maybe I'd go plant some carrots !

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

refresh the player --> I got the right colors

So in my skin in skin.xml I add

code:
<include file="xml/some-colors.xml/>

refresh the player --> wrong colors

Add the missing endquote:

PHP Code:

<include file="xml/some-colors.xml"/> 


You are basing your skin on very old skins which lack several elements required by recent versions of Winamp. You might want to have a look at this thread: Fixing old freeform skins.

But first of all you should fix the background and foreground colors for the right-click menu and the window areas outside listview. Since you prefer light text on a dark background, I would darken the backgrounds and lighten the text colors by defining the colors for them like this:

PHP Code:

<color id="wasabi.window.background" value="102,102,118"/>
<color id="wasabi.window.text" value="255,255,255"/ 


Originally Posted by parisienne17

Maybe I'd go plant some carrots !

Well, Poirot intended to grow vegetable marrows after his retirement.

[parisienne17]

Add the missing endquote

Arggg... Unfortunately 10% left of my eyesight tends to me loosing things... But back to check it was a misspell, quote is in place..

And adding

PHP Code:

<color id="wasabi.window.background" value="102,102,118"/>
<color id="wasabi.window.text" value="255,255,255"/ 


doesn't do a thing.

I thought that hiden dependencies might matter, so I've copied the png folder : I get the skinned playlist/medialibrary but wrong colors.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

doesn't do a thing.

My bad. Add the missing > at the end:

PHP Code:

<color id="wasabi.window.text" value="255,255,255"/> 


Originally Posted by parisienne17

I get the skinned playlist/medialibrary but wrong colors.

You can recolor the png's as you like. All you need is an image editor.

[parisienne17]

My bad, this one was effectively missing, oddly I didn't got an error running the skin.

I took a look at the system-colors.xml you mentionned. With no more luck. I'm loosing my latin as we say in french.

I have these ones in my skin system-colors.xml called at the 1st line of skin.xml

PHP Code:

  <color id="wasabi.list.text.current" value="255,255,255"/>                                                                                     <!-- Playing song text color -->
  <color id="wasabi.list.text.selected.background" value="255,0,0"/>                                                                     <!-- selection bar color  -->
  <color id="wasabi.list.text" value="140,140,140" gammagroup="Text"/>                                                                 <!-- normal text color -->
  <color id="wasabi.list.column.text" value="140,140,140" gammagroup="Text"/>                                                 <!-- Columns text color -->
  <color id="wasabi.list.item.selected.fg" value="255,0,0" gammagroup="Text"/>                                                 <!-- Selected item text foreground color -->
  <color id="wasabi.list.column.separator" value="0,0,0"  gammagroup="Backgrounds"/>                                     <!-- Color of line between columns -->
  <color id="wasabi.itemlist.outline.current" value="255,0,0"/>                                                                             <!-- Currently playing outline color -->
  <color id="wasabi.textBar.text" value="255,0,0" gammagroup="Text"/>                                                                 <!-- Text object & message box text color -->
  <color id="wasabi.textBar.background" value="255,0,0" gammagroup="Text Backgrounds"/>                             <!-- Text object & message box text background color -->
    <color id="wasabi.list.text.selected" value="0,0,255" gammagroup="Text"/>                                                   <!-- from wasabi.list.item.selected.fg -->

<!-- Buttons -->
  <color id="wasabi.button.text" value="255,0,0" gammagroup="Text"/>                                                                     <!-- Buttons text color -->
  <color id="wasabi.button.hiliteText" value="0,240,0" gammagroup="Text"/>                                                         <!-- Buttons hilite text color, used by tab windows-->
  <color id="wasabi.button.dimmedText" value="64,64,64" gammagroup="Text"/>                                                     <!-- Buttons dimmed text color, when disabled -->
  <color id="wasabi.text.color" value="255,0,0" gammagroup="Text"/>
  <color id="wasabi.text.color.inverse" value="0,0,0" gammagroup="Text Inverse"/>

      <color id="wasabi.tree.text" value="255,0,0" gammagroup="Text"/>                                                                     <!-- Item text color ??? -->
      <color id="wasabi.tree.hiliteddrop" value="0,0,0"/>                                                                                         <!-- Drop marker color ??? -->

<color id="wasabi.window.background" value="102,102,118"/>
<color id="wasabi.window.text" value="255,255,255"/> 


and none of the colors changed. I even picked up winamp modern's system.colors.xml without anymore luck.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

I have these ones in my skin system-colors.xml called at the 1st line of skin.xml

Do you mean the first line right after </skininfo>? The closing tag </skininfo>, not the opening tag <skininfo>.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

and none of the colors changed.

I copied all your color definitions into this file and Winamp displays all your colors as they are defined. Is your system-colors.xml any different from this?

[parisienne17]

Originally Posted by ariszlo

Do you mean the first line right after </skininfo>? The closing tag </skininfo>, not the opening tag <skininfo>.

Yes of course, the 1st line after the closing tag </skininfo>.

I did try with my 1st attempt of striping down existing skins and copy relevant parts in a new one --> wrong colors.

So I tried with beautiful simplicity skin and the rignt colors are showing. So I've checked all opening/closing tags/labels without finding any errors.


There's defintely something wrong in my skin... Is it possible that I have an issue with hidden characters, like CTRL-(I don"t know what) in xml files ?

[parisienne17]

Even if I wasn't sure of the result, I did :

1. Create a new skin folder
2. Copied/pasted from xml's of the previous skin to new files, then save them
3. copied the associated folders/ressources (player, scripts, etc...)

And ran it... still wrong colors.

Here are the files, maybe you'll see what I can't.
https://we.tl/t-Z6f7tbwXAR

[ariszlo]

The attached xml and maki files fix it.

In addition to fixing the bugs, within each group, I set the x of the leftmost element to "0" and the y of the topmost element to "0" and calculated the other x's and y's relative to them. Then in player-normal.xml, I set the x of each group to the position where its leftmost element should appear and the y to the position of its topmost element. This way, it will be much easier to move a group. Say, you change your mind to move the button column from the left to the right. All you will need to do is change the x and y of the group. You will not need to bother about the positions of the elements within the group.

[parisienne17]

yes of course you're right about the absolute coordinates. I was thinking about taking care of that when reaching the tiding process. (thanks for the fix).

Do you have any idea about colors not showing ?

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Do you have any idea why colors aren't showing ?

The colors of what? Every element is displayed for me in the color defined for it in system-colors.xml.

Could you show me a screenshot with the wrong colors and a mock-up image with the right colors, please?

[parisienne17]

I was thinking of a second skin using mainly the actual material and I came close to that sketch
.
The 'words' in the middle of the player are the initials of :
Aot, Shuffle, Repeat, Equalize, Crossfade
Media library, Playlist, Eject, Browse, Mute, becoming active icons triggering calls to the compenents.

Fully transparent windows are appealing but unproductive in daily use, the main issue being the transparency of the window, I thought of windows 7 blurring the area underneath so I queried the internet and found that blurring is quite basic to do.

The question is that is it possible for a script to 'query' windows in order to be aware of what's under the player and blur that 'image' ? What do you think about it ?

[parisienne17]

That was odd..
I've published a question about an idea I had yesterday and got "your post will be published after an administrator approval"... or something like this.

Strange...

About the colors, using the same system-colors.xml in 2 skins, the different results.
The right one


and the wrong one (being my skin)