djdad
I ve been reading some posts regarding large amount of panels in a skin, and need to post something here to help skinners finish their skins to the right direction.
Currently there is a limit regarding the number of panels (total number of characters), which will change when ver 8 will be released as it will not save panels to the registries anymore.
But until version 8 release, there will be a new action in ver 7.1 which will help skins with large amount of panels.
Cant give more details at the moment till ver 7.1 release, but what i can say is that you will be able to change the skin using an action.
Example.
You have a skin that supports both 2 and 4 decks.
You can build 2 skins, one with the panels for 2 decks, and one with the panels for 4 decks.
With a single action you will be able to switch from the 2 deck skin to the 4 deck skin, without entering the COnfig menu. So a button will be required on both skins to switch between them. This way you divide the panels to half number.
Also having 2 skins instead of one, it will make the skin to load faster, as the graphics file will be smaller.
You may noticed that the skin that comes with the Pioneer DDJ-WeGO, has 9 background colors. You can imagine the amount of panels such a skin would have if someone tries to build such a skin. What we have done was to create 9 different skins and bound them with a menu of selection switch actions). All 9 skins (xml+bmp) are included in the same zip file, but loads only the selected color variation
more details will come with 7.1
Currently there is a limit regarding the number of panels (total number of characters), which will change when ver 8 will be released as it will not save panels to the registries anymore.
But until version 8 release, there will be a new action in ver 7.1 which will help skins with large amount of panels.
Cant give more details at the moment till ver 7.1 release, but what i can say is that you will be able to change the skin using an action.
Example.
You have a skin that supports both 2 and 4 decks.
You can build 2 skins, one with the panels for 2 decks, and one with the panels for 4 decks.
With a single action you will be able to switch from the 2 deck skin to the 4 deck skin, without entering the COnfig menu. So a button will be required on both skins to switch between them. This way you divide the panels to half number.
Also having 2 skins instead of one, it will make the skin to load faster, as the graphics file will be smaller.
You may noticed that the skin that comes with the Pioneer DDJ-WeGO, has 9 background colors. You can imagine the amount of panels such a skin would have if someone tries to build such a skin. What we have done was to create 9 different skins and bound them with a menu of selection switch actions). All 9 skins (xml+bmp) are included in the same zip file, but loads only the selected color variation
more details will come with 7.1
Posted Tue 04 Sep 12 @ 7:08 am
synthet1c
That sounds great Babis! can't wait to abuse the new powers it will give us, and I like that there won't be 2 empty decks if in a 2 deck mode ;-)
...also a concern regarding the switch. Would it be possible to keep the browser position when switching? currently when using pannels to hold the browser when you change the pannel the browser refreshes which is not ideal if switching.
...also a concern regarding the switch. Would it be possible to keep the browser position when switching? currently when using pannels to hold the browser when you change the pannel the browser refreshes which is not ideal if switching.
Posted Tue 04 Sep 12 @ 7:15 am
kradcliffe
Is there not a potential issue with sound glitching when the skins change?
It doesn't happen all the time on every laptop, but if you switch from one skin to another sometimes the music skips. Seems worse when using Asio drivers rather than WDM.
Keith
It doesn't happen all the time on every laptop, but if you switch from one skin to another sometimes the music skips. Seems worse when using Asio drivers rather than WDM.
Keith
Posted Tue 04 Sep 12 @ 8:20 am
djdad
The new action will keep all the currently opened panels. So if you have e.g. a video panel opened, it will keep the same panel opened if the panels have the same name and group on both.
Regarding skip in sound when switching a skin.., yes its a well known issue, that probably will not be noticeable in ver 8, but in the mean time have in mind that this "switch skin" action is not made for skins that need to switch just some panels. Its designed for cases that user selects his view before starting live, and probably will make one or 2 changes during the night, e.g. before the Karaoke part starts to view some extra video parts. Panels that need to be changed often during the night need to remain in a single skin.
Have also in mind that this "skip" in sound when switching to a skin may be less noticeable if the skin is light enough to load fast.
[EDIT] Another example is when someone needs to create 2 versions for a 4deck skin, one with deck order 1,2,3,4 and one with a 3,1,2,4. Both skins can be now in one big one and user decides which mode to use, just before starting, without accessing the Config.
You will probably come up with other cases when the action will be available.
[EDIT2] Forgot to mention that it will automatically load the same resolution. If for example the skin has multiple resolutions, when you switch to a specific mode, it will load automatically the same resolution.
Regarding skip in sound when switching a skin.., yes its a well known issue, that probably will not be noticeable in ver 8, but in the mean time have in mind that this "switch skin" action is not made for skins that need to switch just some panels. Its designed for cases that user selects his view before starting live, and probably will make one or 2 changes during the night, e.g. before the Karaoke part starts to view some extra video parts. Panels that need to be changed often during the night need to remain in a single skin.
Have also in mind that this "skip" in sound when switching to a skin may be less noticeable if the skin is light enough to load fast.
[EDIT] Another example is when someone needs to create 2 versions for a 4deck skin, one with deck order 1,2,3,4 and one with a 3,1,2,4. Both skins can be now in one big one and user decides which mode to use, just before starting, without accessing the Config.
You will probably come up with other cases when the action will be available.
[EDIT2] Forgot to mention that it will automatically load the same resolution. If for example the skin has multiple resolutions, when you switch to a specific mode, it will load automatically the same resolution.
Posted Tue 04 Sep 12 @ 9:06 am
djdad
synthet1c wrote :
...also a concern regarding the switch. Would it be possible to keep the browser position when switching? currently when using pannels to hold the browser when you change the pannel the browser refreshes which is not ideal if switching.
What do you mean by that ? The browser will refresh if the panel of the browser changes (e.g the size or the font size changes) And what if it refreshes ? Where is the bug there ?
Posted Tue 04 Sep 12 @ 9:17 am
music234
Thank you for sharing this info ;o)
Greets
Music234
Greets
Music234
Posted Tue 04 Sep 12 @ 10:46 am
PhantomDeejay
kradcliffe wrote :
Is there not a potential issue with sound glitching when the skins change?
It doesn't happen all the time on every laptop, but if you switch from one skin to another sometimes the music skips. Seems worse when using Asio drivers rather than WDM.
Keith
It doesn't happen all the time on every laptop, but if you switch from one skin to another sometimes the music skips. Seems worse when using Asio drivers rather than WDM.
Keith
The sound skips/chops when you change skins ONLY when the new skin you're loading has a different amount of available decks from the current one. I wouldn't call this a bug nor an issue since the sound engine has to initialize the new decks OR close the unused decks.
Remember people that the number of available decks depends on each skin, thus changing skins has an immediate impact on the sound engine...
Posted Tue 04 Sep 12 @ 11:25 am
kradcliffe
You know something, I never noticed that before.
I just tried swapping between loads of 2/4/6 deck skins and it only glitches when the amount of decks change!
You learn something new every day!
Is it possible you could change the nbdecks= value to 4 so a 2 deck skin will think it has 4 decks and you won't get any glitch?
Keith
I just tried swapping between loads of 2/4/6 deck skins and it only glitches when the amount of decks change!
You learn something new every day!
Is it possible you could change the nbdecks= value to 4 so a 2 deck skin will think it has 4 decks and you won't get any glitch?
Keith
Posted Tue 04 Sep 12 @ 11:35 am
PhantomDeejay
kradcliffe wrote :
Is it possible you could change the nbdecks= value to 4 so a 2 deck skin will think it has 4 decks and you won't get any glitch?
Is it possible you could change the nbdecks= value to 4 so a 2 deck skin will think it has 4 decks and you won't get any glitch?
Yes it is! ;)
Posted Tue 04 Sep 12 @ 11:40 am
synthet1c
when you switch pannels that contain the browser if your filepath is
C:\\my_music\drum_n_bass\jump-up\a track name.mp3
when you switch pannels the browser will go back to the default folder losing your place i the folder tree.
C:\\my_music\a track name.mp3
C:\\my_music\drum_n_bass\jump-up\a track name.mp3
when you switch pannels the browser will go back to the default folder losing your place i the folder tree.
C:\\my_music\a track name.mp3
Posted Tue 04 Sep 12 @ 12:20 pm
djdad
The new action is available in the latest updates (7.01 & 7.02) and is called
switch_skin_variation
How it works...
Say you need to create a skin that has 4 and 2 decks mode. Instead of creating 1 large skin with lot of panels and large bmp/png files, you can now create 2 separate skins and include both in the same zip file.
So inside the zip file you will now have..
2Decks1440x900.xml
2Decks1440x900.bmp
4Decks1440x900.xml
4Decks1440x900.bmp
2Decks1280x800.xml
2Decks1280x800.bmp
4Decks1280x800.xml
4Decks1280x800.bmp
You can now use these actions...
switch_skin_variation '2Decks' or switch_skin_variation '4Decks' to switch between those 2 skins without accessing the Config panel.
Useful also if you need to have different background colors like the WeGO Skin and need to switch between Orange, Red, Blue etc different colors.
Note also that if you keep the same names for your panels in both skins (2Deck & 4Deck), the same panels will be visible if you switch between skins. For example, you need now to name as Mixer both your mixer center panels in both skins instead of mixer2 and mixer4.
switch_skin_variation
How it works...
Say you need to create a skin that has 4 and 2 decks mode. Instead of creating 1 large skin with lot of panels and large bmp/png files, you can now create 2 separate skins and include both in the same zip file.
So inside the zip file you will now have..
2Decks1440x900.xml
2Decks1440x900.bmp
4Decks1440x900.xml
4Decks1440x900.bmp
2Decks1280x800.xml
2Decks1280x800.bmp
4Decks1280x800.xml
4Decks1280x800.bmp
You can now use these actions...
switch_skin_variation '2Decks' or switch_skin_variation '4Decks' to switch between those 2 skins without accessing the Config panel.
Useful also if you need to have different background colors like the WeGO Skin and need to switch between Orange, Red, Blue etc different colors.
Note also that if you keep the same names for your panels in both skins (2Deck & 4Deck), the same panels will be visible if you switch between skins. For example, you need now to name as Mixer both your mixer center panels in both skins instead of mixer2 and mixer4.
Posted Fri 12 Oct 12 @ 1:36 pm
Dan (djtouchdan)
Nice!! :)
Posted Fri 12 Oct 12 @ 2:05 pm
dfyffe
How would I use the switch_skin_variation to switch between 4 variation with 1 key (So the first time i press the key it would select skin1, next skin2, etc. I tried the switch_skin_variation 'skin1' ? switch_skin_variation 'skin2' ? etc, but that did not work.
Posted Sun 14 Oct 12 @ 7:41 pm
djdad
This is not possible at the moment.
What you can do is to create a small menu (panel) in all of your 4 skins, and each of those buttons should have actions like..
switch_skin_variation 'skinx'
or have 4 different keyboard/controller shortcuts to activate each skin.
What you can do is to create a small menu (panel) in all of your 4 skins, and each of those buttons should have actions like..
switch_skin_variation 'skinx'
or have 4 different keyboard/controller shortcuts to activate each skin.
Posted Sun 14 Oct 12 @ 9:02 pm
synthet1c
Couldn't you do a toggle command?
toggle 'switch' & var 'switch' 1 ? switch_skin_variation 'skin2' : switch_skin_variation 'skin1'
then in the init command map
set 'switch' 0
toggle 'switch' & var 'switch' 1 ? switch_skin_variation 'skin2' : switch_skin_variation 'skin1'
then in the init command map
set 'switch' 0
Posted Sun 14 Oct 12 @ 9:16 pm
Stretchincanada
im so excited about the new things they are adding to 8.. I cant wait to fill side screens with effects and other tools and lay out. I so want to be able to make a side skin in the shape of the apc and lable all the effects I can jam into it.. I once did it with a paino but now the controlers have more buttons. New multi skins are going to change a few things. I hope it gets here before new years as I will rock it out and will sell out before dec1.. thanks to the exellent work of the team and all the postings in here inspire creativity..
Posted Mon 15 Oct 12 @ 1:09 am
dfyffe
djdad wrote
"This is not possible at the moment.
What you can do is to create a small menu (panel) in all of your 4 skins, and each of those buttons should have actions like..
switch_skin_variation 'skinx'
or have 4 different keyboard/controller shortcuts to activate each skin."
syntheti1c wrote
"Couldn't you do a toggle command?
toggle 'switch' & var 'switch' 1 ? switch_skin_variation 'skin2' : switch_skin_variation 'skin1'
then in the init command map
set 'switch' 0"
Follow up. getting creative.
Could you query genre of song loaded, and base on genre query switch skin. That would be awesome !!!.
"This is not possible at the moment.
What you can do is to create a small menu (panel) in all of your 4 skins, and each of those buttons should have actions like..
switch_skin_variation 'skinx'
or have 4 different keyboard/controller shortcuts to activate each skin."
syntheti1c wrote
"Couldn't you do a toggle command?
toggle 'switch' & var 'switch' 1 ? switch_skin_variation 'skin2' : switch_skin_variation 'skin1'
then in the init command map
set 'switch' 0"
Follow up. getting creative.
Could you query genre of song loaded, and base on genre query switch skin. That would be awesome !!!.
Posted Mon 15 Oct 12 @ 9:10 am
djdad
Changing skins during live is not the best option. The above action is suggested to be used to override issues mainly related to very large skins (large image or xml files, or skins with lot of panels)
Posted Mon 15 Oct 12 @ 9:24 am
dfyffe
synthet1c wrote :
Couldn't you do a toggle command?
toggle 'switch' & var 'switch' 1 ? switch_skin_variation 'skin2' : switch_skin_variation 'skin1'
then in the init command map
set 'switch' 0
toggle 'switch' & var 'switch' 1 ? switch_skin_variation 'skin2' : switch_skin_variation 'skin1'
then in the init command map
set 'switch' 0
I try this but it does not toggle, it only change once. What is missing ?.
Posted Tue 16 Oct 12 @ 4:57 am