Album Art Viewer Plugin v1.03 (17/12/2013)

[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]

Re: Album Art Viewer v0.5

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