Album Art Viewer Plugin v0.91 (09/07/2012)

[DrO]

thanks pawel

-daz

[Koopa]

I guess I found a glitch.

1. Open any classic skin
2. Show the Classic Album Art Window
3. Switch to Winamp Modern
4. Open main right click menu (note that the album art option is unchecked for whatever reason!)
5. Check Album Art in Winamp Modern's main rt click menu

Result: http://meggamusic.co.uk/shup/1265433424/cart.png

Is it really wanted to have 2 album art windows?

[DrO]

well i'm not able to reproduce any issues with the menu item for _this_ plug-in being unchecked when switching to a modern skin.

i'm guessing part of the confusion is that there are two menu entries in the menu but that's how it has worked ever since the album art window was added to modern skins and this plug-in works when it is installed. so there's not too much i can do about it unless i bodge in a way of determinig if it's a modern skin being loaded and it auto-hides this plug-in's menu entry but that is likely to cause more annoyance or i could change the main menu item so it's clearer (under modern skins) that this is an alternative album art window though not sure what to change the menu entry to if i did that...

as this plug-in is only really designed to be working under a classic skin only then it is working as it has been designed from what i can see.

-daz

[DrO]

Album Art Viewer v0.5

• Added detection of being used under a modern skin so the album art window and menu item can be automatically hidden (default: on)
• Added in ability for the tracking action to work via the keyboard actions along with button clicking
• Tweaked the menu item text so the items (at least with en-us translations) is better consistant with the rest of Winamp (if that's possible, heh)
• Added config menu into the Winamp preferences so it's possible to access the options when the album art window isn't shown

We can blame koopa for this update, hehe. Also contains an update language file due to an additional string and the changes with the menu item styling. Also this version will now track up/down keyboard selection changes (when shift/control/alt aren't held down as that causes multiple selections).


Source Files

The updated source files to allow a v0.5 compile are availabe in this archive. These are designed to replace the v0.4 source from the previous release (which itself is designed to replace the v0.2 source in the current sdk) - time is a bugger that i don't have to completely update the archive for a complete v0.5 replacement of the v0.4 source.

To have it generate the language file & update the compiled plug-in at compile time, the following was used in the post-build project settings (working against VS2008) with the linker output path set to the Release folder:
lng_generator.exe "$(OutDir)\$(ProjectName).dll" /build
copy "$(OutDir)\$(ProjectName).dll" "$(ProgramFiles)\Winamp\Plugins\gen_classicart.dll" /y

-daz

[piro1]

Hey, I was wondering if you could give me advice on what skin elements this plugin uses? I read through the thread, and as I understand it, the plugin should be reading something from the skin and make it look "native", but my layout looks like this:



It must be reading SOMETHING from the skin, since the shrink button is copied from the skin I use (and when I shrink it, the expand button is also blue like my skin). But, I figure because the skin I use is some super old 2.x skin I fell in love with a 100 years ago, it was probably made with some legacy elements that aren't working with this plugin.

Since the skin itself is pretty simple, it would be easy to make the missing elements myself, I think, and throw them into the skin, but I don't know what parts of the skin the plugin would be reading. Any help would be appreciated

It's a completely awesome plugin, by the way. Works perfectly. Thanks

[Koopa]

Your skin was probably never updated for Winamp 2.9x and misses the required 'Gen' window and probably has no skinned video window as well.

Here you can find the infos about the missing windows:

http://dev.winamp.com/wiki/For_Winamp_2.9/5.x

[DrO]

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=134725 is the best thing to check through as to which files you'll need to add to the skin. it doesn't mention the winshade part on the frame as that's implemented via gen_jumpex.dll and takes the required parts from the playlist editor image files (hence the odd looking output you're seeing).

-daz

[piro1]

Thanks guys! Yeah, it was missing the gen file (and the video file, too, but I never use that), so I went ahead and made up my own gen.bmp, which would have been easy if it were not for the letters, haha. But I got it all, I think it looks alright (the skin is simple, so it's nothing special):



The only other thing that I couldn't find was... is there a way to change the default llama for when there's no art? I don't want to turn on auto-hide since given my layout that leaves a giant hole between the EQ and the Playlist, but the llama looks pretty pixelated all stretched out to that size and the green clashes with the aesthetic . I couldn't find it in the atlas, I dunno if it's even a part of the skinning (I don't remember seeing it before) or if it's just a custom part of the plugin.

...Of course, hopefully I'll be adding in the missing album artwork thanks to this plugin, but in the meantime...

Thanks again, that was some incredibly quick help.

[DrO]

the no album art image is part of the plug-in though it can be overriden if using a language pack but i can look to make it use a noalbumart.* image (i think the skin loader will allow that though i'll have to check it out first before i'd confirm it is ok to do it that way).

though if it's still showing as green then i don't think you've altered some of the colour values in one of the gen_*.bmp files which specifies the background colours, etc with the gen framed windows.

-daz

[piro1]

Yeah, that was it, I didn't bother to even create the genex.bmp file because nothing was using it, but I see that was the problem. Well, at least it's more color-fitting now, but yeah, some sort of option to either change it in the future or even just blank it out would be good, because that's still one pixelated llama

Thanks for the help again. This thing is awesome.

[jph6t]

Originally posted by DrO
Album Art Viewer v0.5

Nice work DrO!
Thank you!Thank you!

[DrO]

Originally posted by piro1
because that's still one pixelated llama

just looked at it with a larger album art window and it isn't too great at larger resolutions - am wondering if there's a higher resolution original of the image which would solve issues like that but yeah, it makes sense to add in a way to override/customise the image from the skin (as i can't remember if modern skins have this facility or not either, heh).

jph6t: ta

-daz

[osmosis]

The llama from Modern and Bento seems fairly scalable, no?

[Pawel]

Dro,
What is the reason, that this plugin is also visible in Modern skins? The name points to classic skin and it works great for such skins... and modern skins have own album art window... so why?
Of course, you have added option to not showing it in modern, but... maybe just remove support for modern skins.
How do you think?
-Pawel

[DrO]

i had a nice long chat with koopa about this and how it is visible under a modern skin so hopefully i'll be able to summarise things enough

the assumption which i'd say Will took when he first created this was that it would only be used by people who didn't have access to an album art window under a classic skin (hence the file's name). however because of how plug-ins are implemented then unless something is explicitly implemented to hide/disable a feature under a modern skin (as v0.5 is now doing) then it's sort of left to the user to not use it under a modern skin.

however, not all modern skins provide an album art window (especially if the source has been lost/not available) so with the option i've added in it gives those people a means to have the album art implemented via this plug-in as not all modern skins are equal.

hope that makes sense as to why i've made it an option rather than just something hard coded though obviously defaulted to on so if required it can be overriden (had thought of doing it as an ini only option but as the menu was being updated it was a few extra seconds to make it a UI option).

-daz

[Koopa]

Hmm, but not all makes really sense. Sure not all modern skins support album art, but:

1. As Pawel said, the name points to classic skins
2. Modern skins can be updated to support an album art window, classic skins cannot. So such plugin makes sense for classic skins, but not for modern skins
3. The behavior, if that option is enabled in Winamp Modern is weird. You have 2 menu entries, both open an album art window, but they have a different behavior/look
4. non-advanced users easily can mistakenly enable the option and wonder about the 2 entries in Winamp Modern.

I'd make this option .ini only without a GUI or I'd would disable the features for modern skins, which already provide an own album art window.

And I'm aware, that my popularity will not increase after this posting.

[DrO]

the easiest compromise is to remove it from the menu in the album art window itself and leave it just on the config menu (is sharing the same resource but that can be worked around as i already do with the config menu).

then when the option is enabled there would be a confirmation prompt which would just need to be acknowledged once (so if toggled multiple times, there will only have been one prompt on the first attempt to change it).

that i think is a fair compromise to the points being raised and to cover off edge cases of modern skins not supporting album art as #2 is not possible (as i'd mentioned before if the source for the skin is not available).

i'll also make a comment about the naming and that the name visible to the user on most aspects is just album art with only the filename having classic in there - look at the incorrect name that the JTFE plug-in now exhibits or most of the other ones i've personally created

fair enough? though this means i've got to roll out a 0.6 to implement it (and fine tune a few things now that i've played with 0.5 a bit more).

-daz

[Koopa]

That sounds like a very good compromise.

[Pawel]

Originally posted by DrO
i had a nice long chat with koopa about this and how it is visible under a modern skin so hopefully i'll be able to summarise things enough

I imagine that

Originally posted by DrO
however, not all modern skins provide an album art window (especially if the source has been lost/not available) so with the option i've added in it gives those people a means to have the album art implemented via this plug-in as not all modern skins are equal.

I think you are right. This arguments convinced me.
But, may I suggest something?
Is it possible to check if user modern skin supports album art and has own menu entry? If it doeas, the plugin hides automatically own album art entry - if not (some old modern skin) then plugin should by default show own menu, that user can use.

I agree with Koopa, that 2 menu entries, for the same functionalicty can be to much for some users
Regards,
-Pawel

Ps: I hope I wrote it clearly... I am really asleep

Edit: I knew it... Before I post, you guys did it before...you are fast

[DrO]

heh, sorry pawel about being too fast for you.

without over complicating the plug-in i don't think there is a simple way to determine if a skin implements album art (would probably have to parse the skin files which is a bit extreme to do.

either way i think we've got a plan for the best compromise over the issue (and really i should have removed that menu item in the AA window but 0.5 was a rush release as i was trying to pack my car as part of the home moving i'm doing *fun times* ).

-daz

[Pawel]

Hehe, OK.
I am sure, you will do it the best.
-Pawel

[DrO]

how about this for the message prompt?

You have selected to allow this plug-in to appear in Winamp's interface when a Modern skin is loaded. It is only recommended to do this when the Modern skin being used does not provide an Album Art window of its own.

If the Modern skin already provides an Album Art window then you are likely to see two Album Art windows and duplicated entries in the main Winamp right-click menu for the Album Art window which may appear confusing.

Are you sure you want to enable this setting?
(You will not be prompted with this message again once you select a response).

[Yes] [No]

just throwing this out before i implement it knowing some people are going to translate the message so need to ensure it makes sense from the start

-daz

[Pawel]

It is OK for me.
-Pawel

[Koopa]

Sounds good, DrO.

[DrO]

piro1: i've had a play with things now and the plug-in will be set to look for a notfound.bmp in the skin and will use that instead of the built-in image if it can be loaded.

however, and this is the sneaky thing, if you create a png and save it as notfound.bmp then it'll still be loaded and you get to have alpha-blending enabled (as bitmaps obviously don't support it). this is due to how classic skins are loaded as it only extracts bmp image files (from a security issue we had a few years back with skins where they were locked down to what is meant for the skin only) but the image loader in the plug-in 'tests' the image and then uses the correct loader.

should have a new release out at some point today/tomorrow (depends how badly i put off packing up my flat, heh)

-daz

[piro1]

Nice Looking forward to it, and that is pretty awesome about png implementation. Now time to design a sweet notfound.png (err... .bmp, haha)

[DrO]

Album Art Viewer v0.6

• Removing menu item for enabling modern skin support in the Album Art window
• Added in a prompt (shown only once) explaining the issues with enabling the feature and if they are sure they want to do so
• Added loading support of notfound.bmp from the currently loaded skin which can be just a renamed .png file (to work around skin extraction quirks)

Also contains an updated language file due to an additional string for the messagebox prompt.


Source Files

Once i've completed the next update(s) to implement handling of what is shown in the following image (taken from working source code), then the updated source will be released (things are in a bit of a mess at the moment whilst i'm testing and releasing things still).




About the alternative view mode

At the moment (as seen from the screenshot) it's not very far down the line of development as it doesn't load any data and the rating aspect doesn't work. What i'm hoping to do is have the rating part actually working (currently dependant upon gen_ml.dll being present that i'd like to remove if possible) and for it to pull the information as required (need it to cache things where possible).

From reading previous posts about the request, i'm still not sure how best to handle the window being resized as in the smallest state there is just enough height (unless a different font size is being used) and width then becomes the issue. So my current thought is to allow it to be resized (maybe with small/medium/large defaults like the ML has) and it all aligned to the top left so the window can be set to a size required against the information being displayed.

At the moment, the layout is equivalent of the medium detail view.

-daz

[piro1]

Got it running, and already have a temporary new notfound.bmp in place. Working perfectly, easy to do and no problems thus far. Good job!

[DrO]

thanks for the quick confirmation that things are ok piro1

-daz

[Svperstar]

I am not sure if I am asking in the right place, but since this semi works I may as well ask...

I have a 5th Gen 16 gig Nano. I have been using this plugin to download cover art, so far it works like a charm. In winamp and on my ipod in the preview mode. However Cover Flow doesnt show art and fullscreen doesnt show the art. When I go into cover flow or actually pic a track I just get the musical note.

Any ideas?

[c1ph3r]

The download link for the v0.6 (http://stashbox.org/793723/Album_Art_Viewer_v0_6.exe) is dead. Could you update it or post another one valid?
Thanks a lot!

[Koopa]

0.6 is obsolete. 0.7 is the current release, it's available in the Essentials Pack. Take a look at my signature or in the Winamp 5.58 thread.

[c1ph3r]

Downloaded and installed.
Great work as usual.
Thanks!!!

[DrO]

a separate 0.7 download will be provided later tonight (just been too busy to sort it all out with other things).

-daz

[DrO]

Album Art Viewer v0.7

• Fixed the hidemodern ini setting being read at the wrong stage of loading
• Improved handling when plugin load order is different on some quirky installs

Source Files

Once i've completed the next update(s) to implement handling of what is shown in the following image (taken from working source code), then the updated source will be released (things are in a bit of a mess at the moment whilst i'm testing and releasing things still).


-daz

[MarkRH]

Using v0.7, when I went to change the option so that it would not autohide as I actually have some modern skins with no Album Art support. (Pimeer Modern v2.2 is one), it actually added a second "Color Themes" menu item to the context-menu while I was using Bento when I made the change. Amazingly, this second Color Themes menu item actually would change the color.

After Restarting Winamp, the Menu works properly with an Album Art choice instead of a second "Color Themes" item.

I'm thinking for this plug-in to function properly after changing its autohide option, a Winamp restart is needed.

Personally I like having the Album Art window with Bento as it allows me to view visualizations in the File Information area if I want and still see the Album Art.

Update: after further testing, I am getting duplicate "Color Themes" or duplicate "Winamp Modern" menu items when clicking on Options sometimes with the Winamp Modern skin even with this plug-in uninstalled so something else funky is going on. Usually when this occurs the Skins menu becomes empty as well. I think it's time I back it all up, uninstall the whole thing, clean as much of it out and re-install. Yeah...

[jmbattle]

Great to see this great little plugin receive some update lovin' - many thanks DrO!

I would like to make two requests:

- improved scaling algorithm (bilinear filtering?)
- ability to integrate into the ML, above the Library button (in classic skin mode)

Cheers!
James
x

[DrO]

only just seen these posts (was on holiday at the time and missed then when i scanned the forums on my return) so....

MarkRH: are you still experiencing the issue or was it something else like a plug-in conflict?

jmbattle: i'm not to sure about the scaling stuff as i've never had to tinker with it, what would be the advantage / disadvantages of changing the mode (sounds like it'd involve more cpu usage).

Originally Posted by jmbattle

ability to integrate into the ML, above the Library button (in classic skin mode)

not 100% sure on what you mean unless you're referring to something like this:

which i'd tried to do many years ago with another plug-in (really should try to find time to update that old thing as it was useful, heh -> was this).

-daz

[jmbattle]

DrO, thank you for replying to my suggestions.

what would be the advantage / disadvantages of changing the mode (sounds like it'd involve more cpu usage).

Using bilinear filtering (or a resampling method other than standard pixel resize) would improve the appearance of the scaled album art. It may increase CPU usage, however I doubt the extra cycles required would noticeably impact performance.

not 100% sure on what you mean

Sorry, I ought to have perhaps attached a mocked-up screenshot to explain more clearly:



Please let me know your thoughts.

Cheers,
James
x

[DrO]

rightio, well the mockup is pretty much as i'd hope you meant. i'd have to find out the old code i had for doing that but i can't see why it cannot be implemented (especially as i'm a few years of Winamp coding down the line so might be able to do it more efficiently, heh).

i guess i'll have to have look into the bilinear stuff though as not an area i've really dabbled with i'm not 100% sure about working on something like that. now to try to find the time along with time to finish off the details view mode, heh

-daz