Supacon
This is old news, but a consistent nagging complaint I've heard as a user of VirtualDJ, and also as a skin designer has been the lack of support for resizable skins. I understand that changing the width is really difficult to do properly because it requires a lot of thought and work to actually resize graphic elements and change the layout of the controls so that they look and work their best.
One thing that is really easy to do with a skin, though is to change the height. In fact, it's been a necessary evil that when I release new versions of VideoVision, I have to make three BMP files for the most commonly used resolutions. (i.e. one for widescreen (shortscreen), one for full height, and one for a bigger monitor that I use). It would be so much simpler if virtualDJ allowed the skins to be vertically resized when not in fullscreen (or even when you ARE in fullscreen... that'd be cool if it could auto-adjust the skin).
How this could be done is as follows:
Allow the skinner could define a resize zone in the XML, perhaps, and then specify a party of the BMP image that can be tiled in that area to fill the background. I envision this being sort of "appended" at a point, perhaps 100 pixels below where the browser area starts, but, obviously, before the browser area ends. After the resizable zone, the browser can be ended and there needs to be another "end" section of the skin to finish it off, end the browser area, etc. which would allow the skinner to put a little strip to finish off the skin elegantly, or even to add more controls and such.
VirtualDJ can then automatically allow that part of the skin to be extended to the full height of the users monitor, and the skin itself doesn't need to have all that extra height with no meaningfull content. This would make virtualDJ work easily and elegantly on a much wider range of monitors, and it will make life much easier for skinners who get requests for all kinds of different resolutions and heights.
Thanks for considering this,
Supacon
One thing that is really easy to do with a skin, though is to change the height. In fact, it's been a necessary evil that when I release new versions of VideoVision, I have to make three BMP files for the most commonly used resolutions. (i.e. one for widescreen (shortscreen), one for full height, and one for a bigger monitor that I use). It would be so much simpler if virtualDJ allowed the skins to be vertically resized when not in fullscreen (or even when you ARE in fullscreen... that'd be cool if it could auto-adjust the skin).
How this could be done is as follows:
Allow the skinner could define a resize zone in the XML, perhaps, and then specify a party of the BMP image that can be tiled in that area to fill the background. I envision this being sort of "appended" at a point, perhaps 100 pixels below where the browser area starts, but, obviously, before the browser area ends. After the resizable zone, the browser can be ended and there needs to be another "end" section of the skin to finish it off, end the browser area, etc. which would allow the skinner to put a little strip to finish off the skin elegantly, or even to add more controls and such.
VirtualDJ can then automatically allow that part of the skin to be extended to the full height of the users monitor, and the skin itself doesn't need to have all that extra height with no meaningfull content. This would make virtualDJ work easily and elegantly on a much wider range of monitors, and it will make life much easier for skinners who get requests for all kinds of different resolutions and heights.
Thanks for considering this,
Supacon
Posted Sun 28 Oct 07 @ 7:20 pm
Paz75
Gratz to supacon for this post, something I dreadfully wish for my 1920x1200 res laptop. The new cover feature in 5 is nice but taking real estate that i would rather keep for the track list. IF the bottom half of the whole skin could resize this would be perfect.
I find no need to scale graphics in any part of the skin, only make the lower portion grow to the desired size. I've never made a skin before, but it seems that portion would not be subjective to bmp stretching since it's generated by lists.
I find no need to scale graphics in any part of the skin, only make the lower portion grow to the desired size. I've never made a skin before, but it seems that portion would not be subjective to bmp stretching since it's generated by lists.
Posted Wed 31 Oct 07 @ 6:21 am
DJShahar.com
there is an easier way yet.
in the xml file
let the designer choose a default background color: example
<default-bgcolor: black>
and the predefined skin size would only set the minimum screen resolution.
when dragging or resizing the application, it would simply use the defult background color to create more, as you call it,"realestate"
from there, components with paramaters [stretch:v] , [stretch:h], or [stretch:vh] will stretch when the applicaiton is resized.
such elements may include the following
- browser,
- song position
- rhythm
rhythm and songpos might get complicated, but the browser shouldn't be that much of a problem with the parameters added.
Los Angeles DJ Shahar
www.djshahar.com
in the xml file
let the designer choose a default background color: example
<default-bgcolor: black>
and the predefined skin size would only set the minimum screen resolution.
when dragging or resizing the application, it would simply use the defult background color to create more, as you call it,"realestate"
from there, components with paramaters [stretch:v] , [stretch:h], or [stretch:vh] will stretch when the applicaiton is resized.
such elements may include the following
- browser,
- song position
- rhythm
rhythm and songpos might get complicated, but the browser shouldn't be that much of a problem with the parameters added.
Los Angeles DJ Shahar
www.djshahar.com
Posted Tue 06 Nov 07 @ 12:52 am
Supacon
Good idea, but that's starting to get a little complicated. Resizing the browser only would be dead simple...
Maybe sometime down the road, virtualDJ will allow for purely vector skin designs that are totally resizable... Torq seems to work this way, but it's also not nearly as customizable. It would be cool to have the skin engine completely redesigned so that it would allow more flexibility for different sizes and aspect ratios...
When VirtualDJ was a new product, it was common for everyone to have 1024x768 (or maybe older computers with 800x600) resolutions. Now 1024x768 is considered oldschool, and there are a variety of aspect ratios that monitors come in. It's pretty important for the skin to be able to resize to different screen sizes now, I think!
Another crazy idea is to create modules, or grouped areas within the skin.
Have grouped areas with certain buttons defined in them, (i.e. a group containing a play, cue and stutter button) and these areas can move relative to other areas. That would also allow a skin to have each of these groups defined once and then used in multiple instances (i.e. one for the first deck, another for the second deck). This would also allow the skin to be resized more easily, because these groups could move relative to other groups in ways such as to make them fit on the screen better.
Maybe sometime down the road, virtualDJ will allow for purely vector skin designs that are totally resizable... Torq seems to work this way, but it's also not nearly as customizable. It would be cool to have the skin engine completely redesigned so that it would allow more flexibility for different sizes and aspect ratios...
When VirtualDJ was a new product, it was common for everyone to have 1024x768 (or maybe older computers with 800x600) resolutions. Now 1024x768 is considered oldschool, and there are a variety of aspect ratios that monitors come in. It's pretty important for the skin to be able to resize to different screen sizes now, I think!
Another crazy idea is to create modules, or grouped areas within the skin.
Have grouped areas with certain buttons defined in them, (i.e. a group containing a play, cue and stutter button) and these areas can move relative to other areas. That would also allow a skin to have each of these groups defined once and then used in multiple instances (i.e. one for the first deck, another for the second deck). This would also allow the skin to be resized more easily, because these groups could move relative to other groups in ways such as to make them fit on the screen better.
Posted Tue 06 Nov 07 @ 5:23 pm
DJShahar.com
this grouping thing is already somewhat implimented.
they call it panel.
they call it panel.
Posted Wed 07 Nov 07 @ 3:27 am
jaakko
Also seeing browser AND sampler in the same view could be great! Now it is frustrating to surf around these two tabs.
Posted Thu 08 Nov 07 @ 2:56 pm
DJShahar.com
eh, i don't know.
it depends on the skin you use and if you actually use the samplers. for those who do, that would be a huge plus.
some skins even give you the power to record a sampler from a loop... like "mixstation"
and my own modified version of mixsation: "OverFlow Ex"
DJ Shahar
www.djshahar.com
it depends on the skin you use and if you actually use the samplers. for those who do, that would be a huge plus.
some skins even give you the power to record a sampler from a loop... like "mixstation"
and my own modified version of mixsation: "OverFlow Ex"
DJ Shahar
www.djshahar.com
Posted Sat 10 Nov 07 @ 7:14 pm