foo_wave_seekbar, pretty accelerated seekbar Options

[dinfinity]

First off: great component for fb2k. Thanks, Zao!

Having said that: I've tried moving to Direct3D from GDI (for normalization support), but every time I do, I end up hunting for shaders that have already been written, disliking their look and going back to GDI.

I'd propose either adding normalization support for GDI, or instating some kind of repository for example shaders (or even just a preset dir).
In any case, it might be worth it to mandate an explicit split of the shader code into elements responsible for different parts of the rendering process. Complete control over the shader code is nice, but it's not very accessible or convenient.

[Zao]

All you need is a time machine to download the non-existent v2.

If I implement something composable going forward, it'll probably be in the form of simple layers achieving a single thing, which can be stacked and blended together.

Modularisation as it stands is hard, as I'd have to interpret the contents of the blocks and compose them into unified HLSL that wouldn't blow the instruction limits.
The default effect is already very close to the limits of some of the 2.x shader models.

As for a looks repository, I've pondered it but it would involve web-dev, which makes my eyes bleed.

[urutapu]

Hey, I'm pretty new to editing the foobar interface so sorry if this is a dumb question, but is there some way to replace the normal seekbar with the waveform seekbar or at least put it up on/near the toolbar?

[Zao]

urutapu:In the Default UI, I do not currently have the capability to add any custom toolbars, it can only go where UI elements can go.
In Columns UI, the component works both as an UI panel and an UI toolbar.

The closest you can get to having it a toolbar is making a top/bottom split, putting the seekbar in the upper half and the rest of your UI in the lower half.

[Zao]

For you people who for some strange reason listen to .1 content and display it mixed down to stereo or mono, there are changes coming up in 0.2.39.3 where I now include the LFE channel in the mixdown result after consulting relevant documentation and mindmelding with testers.

LFE mixdown factor is now 0.5 per channel.
Removing the LFE channel completely from mixdowns is a bit of a lie, as
the content, even while purely supplemental, has some meaning in the
context of a track.

As every mixdown is a reinterpretation of the data, having an effect
over-represented is better than completely omitting it, particularly as
there is now shader parameters to adjust the displayed range of a
waveform.

ITU recommendation BS.775 specifies a choice of four mixin factors for
LFE content: 0.7071, 0.5, 0.0 and 'reserved', to be specified by the
broadcaster. As any such information is not available, I've selected 0.5
as the coefficient due to it being the lowest non-zero choice, avoiding
over-attenuation while still representing the content somehow.

[dinfinity]

Modularisation as it stands is hard, as I'd have to interpret the contents of the blocks and compose them into unified HLSL that wouldn't blow the instruction limits.
The default effect is already very close to the limits of some of the 2.x shader models.

I wasn't aware that anybody still cared about 2.x shader model limits. 3.0 was introduced 9 years ago

Concerning the modularisation: you could also create more of an implicit social contract between people who write shader code. That is: just have several designated text editors for different parts of the shader code, but simply concatenate their contents. This would not break flexibility nor should it be a lot of work, but it would stimulate more segmented customization.

[Zao]

I wasn't aware that anybody still cared about 2.x shader model limits. 3.0 was introduced 9 years ago

The machines people use to play music tend to more often than not be considered 'vintage'. There's lots of bending over in the Direct3D9 component to support all kinds of odd texture formats and GPU quirks.

Concerning the modularisation: you could also create more of an implicit social contract between people who write shader code. That is: just have several designated text editors for different parts of the shader code, but simply concatenate their contents. This would not break flexibility nor should it be a lot of work, but it would stimulate more segmented customization.

The optimal solution would be one that has a minimum amount of GUI work needed for me in the component itself. The sane solution would probably be a standalone effect designer, either using some weirdo GUI toolkit like Qt, or driven via the browser or something. The current scintilla component as I use it is ... not good, and tends to be slightly unstable.

[EpicForever]

Hey, I'm pretty new to editing the foobar interface so sorry if this is a dumb question, but is there some way to replace the normal seekbar with the waveform seekbar or at least put it up on/near the toolbar?

You can use top/bottom splitter in Default UI (as Zao said), and additionally you can turn off regular seekbar when you rightclick on toolbar. I turned off regular seekbar, but I placed waveform one at the bottom of my layout.

[Zao]

0.2.39.6 is out now. If you've installed any of the 0.2.39 series, please upgrade to this one, it resolves a bug where the foobar2000 installer will not finish due to my component being stupid.
Changelog 0.2.39.6

[EpicForever]

Zao, one question - could coefficients for downmixing display of multichannel tracks to mono/stereo be made as user editable values? For example in that script window or somewhere in foobar's "Advanced Preferences"?

[Zao]

A core problem with making things configurable is that anything is made configurable, it's set in stone forever. You cannot distinguish between a user-selected value and one that was the default in the past, which makes it quite a bother for changing the defaults for a reason.

[EpicForever]

OK, but do you see such possibility in future or is it just impossible from your point of view? I know that I can't force you and I understand that you can simply don't have enough time. If you don't plan it at any time then just say "no"

[dinfinity]

The machines people use to play music tend to more often than not be considered 'vintage'. There's lots of bending over in the Direct3D9 component to support all kinds of odd texture formats and GPU quirks.

I doubt the 'more often than not' part of that, but it is noble that you choose to support such hardware nonetheless (and endure all the pain that comes with it ;-).

The optimal solution would be one that has a minimum amount of GUI work needed for me in the component itself. The sane solution would probably be a standalone effect designer, either using some weirdo GUI toolkit like Qt, or driven via the browser or something. The current scintilla component as I use it is ... not good, and tends to be slightly unstable.

I'd say that 'adding some extra textareas' is about the least amount of GUI work definable within the realm of GUI work ;-)

Anyway, I've switched back to GDI rendering again. Although it sounds awesome, I really can't justify spending several hours on 'programming shaders for a static waveform visualization in my music player' ;-)
Still a thankful user of your component, of course.

[nesvariigi]

Where can I find old versions? L O L.

[Zao]

That depends on why you need them. If there's something that is inferior or unacceptable in a newer version, I'd rather work in public towards resolving that than to have a bunch of people staying on versions with eternal bugs.