it's finally here!

Foo_looks 2.0

- advanced GUI interface for FB2k with LUA script integration

help us test release candidate 1:

download here

installation guide here (important - you will need the LUA dll's)

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features list:

- access to 'every' fb2k button & menu command from your 'look'
- use full TagZ code to format your text fields
- amazing LUA scripting support for advanced features and interactivity
- support for the 24-bit PNG graphics format including support for the alpha channel
- custom z-layering of the graphics in your looks
- drag & drop files/folders to append to the playlist

advanced features now possible (using LUA):
- playlist display
- rotational volume control
- sliding drawers (as featured in wa3 skins)
- multiple sizes/layouts at the touch of a button

scripts in development:
- window scroll bars (mainly for playlist display)
- click-sliders (like those that set FM/MW/LW on a radio)

and more....

for information on how to design your own look, see our resource pages

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Looks:

so far, there are only three or four 2.0 compatible 'looks'.
after all, we're only a very small dev. team.

these are:

foo_looks default - a showcase of features for designers to see what can be done with the current build
author: danZ
download: included with the plugin



features:
- mini playlist (with context menu support)
- 5 different size modes including simple, fullscreen layout (use the sliding layout drawer)

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fooAMP Ultra - a 2.0 update of a 1.0 look (with a few extra features)
author: tk32
download: fooAMP2.rar



features:
- small & expanded versions using the same graphics & code (toggle using the green triangle)
- flow control
- smart tagz (guesses missing tags)
- double-click on artist/title or click 'i' button pops up the id3 editor


details of more skins coming soon...........

we hope that as more users show interest, the skin community for this plugin will thrive. it sure deserves to thrive!

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Documentation:

we are currently in the process of writing extensive tutorials, guides & references.

so far we have some fragmented documention, and an almost complete tutorial on our resource pages

over the next week, we plan to update these pages regularly and build a very comprehensive guide to using & designing your very own 'looks'

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Links:

designer's resource page


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we hope you enjoy it!!

plugin developer: danZ
tech support, tutor & webmaster: tk32

if you have any questions/problems/requests/thanks/etc... then you can contact the team

email me: tkelly32@btinternet.com
or join us on ICQ (486325)

looks great, very nice, thanks !

for danz look: would it be easy to add a close button ? to save the currently used size on foobar close ?

and overall, to add a button/menu to change the look with a click somewhere on the look ? without opening the menu/pref/look and setting another primary/secondary look and swap ?

haven't tested tk32's look now...

A bit resource heavy here. Uses 15-100% cpu with std look. XP1500+.
Looks neat tho

Is that on a fresh start? I've noticed that the resource usage might be creeping up as you switch looks on the fly.

How is the resource usage on the mini layout which doesn't have the spectrum display?

There is no state persistence at the moment and something I'm trying to figure out how to best implement.

For now you could add this to the overrides section in the look prefs.



The choices are

layout.mini
layout.compact
layout.standard
layout.cover
layout.tv

cpu is high for the default skin - you're right

try my fooAMP skin instead


and can you please report cpu usage for my fooAMP skin

tell me the % used for big mode & small mode

i'm trying to optimize the code since my cpu is quite old also



also

look inside the ski near the top for handy presets

just remember to save changes



ehehe, damn tab characters don't show up in the forums.

the layout is nicer in the ski

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new skin in development

thx for the tip danz. your look seems a little more cpu intensive (10% usual, jumping up to 40% at times. )

tk32, very low cpu usage (0-5% with both looks, xp2600 here...); just couldn't find the expand button without looking the code (my screen is a little bit too dark...)

if you want to free up some cpu using the default look, open the ski and edit the following:


section grips
int layer 2
list rect int {0,0,7,7}
// list transcolor color.red
list srcoff int { 392 0 }


you need to add the // to the transcolor line

if you are too lazy, just download the modified version here: foo_looks.ski

it'll make the grips look strange, but cpu will drop to about 5%


we're looking into the problem now

thanks for the report

i'll make the button lighter when i update

Grab the beta again, I update the graphics and config file to remove the transparency on the seek grip. It looks like GDI+ has a pretty big overhead for blitting using a transparent color key.

I'll see what I can do about that if anything.

new build - fixed the cpu drain of the default look


download here


btw designers, don't panic - my skin uses lots of transparency, and still has a low cpu footprint

it's because danZ was using bitmap graphics

it works, but looks pretty bad... I'll keep the good looking wasting version until there is a fix (or work out square buttons... oh it's done; man you're fast !)

Thanks and good night !

please don't hesitate to ask about any.....

questions
problems
bugs
suggestions
requests

in this forum

we need to know what you think

both danZ & myself check the forums daily, so you will usually get a quick reply

Hi,

I use the fooAMP skin and have a suggestion.

I like the progress bar in the foobar2000 seek bar since it updates on the fly where you are jumping to, if this same behaviour could be implemented into looks2 (and indeed the fooAMP skin) this would be great.

thanks.

Dan, Tom, thanks for your work.
I'll update foobarlooks.tk as soon as I've some spare time.

if i understand you correctly, fooAMP already does this

if you click anywhere on the progress bar it jumps to that time


let me know if you meant something different, i may have misunderstood

EDIT:

after thinking about this some more, i realised you meant 'realtime progress drag'

it can be done, easily, but it makes the sound go all choppy

i never liked it - that's why i programmed my grip to jump to the time when you release the mouse button

but as a special request i can code it for you

custom fooAMP (realtime progress update)

overwrite fooAMP2.ski with the one above

Sorry, i meant the tooltip that comes up that tells you the time currently at the point where you are dragging to, with the current fooAMP design you have to guess where you are dragging to.

also, the albumart isn't transparent as in previous versions, this would be appreciated also.

dynamic tooltips aren't possible yet, sorry


however, i am able to display the jump-to time somewhere else in the skin

i'll think about where the best place to show it is.

having a foolooks2 control of "status bar" which puts this info in, whilst having user defined text (i.e. the %artist% - %title% display) at other times could be sensible.

Hey tk32
How about just having it overtake the current time display.


On another note, great update, but there's one feature I'd like to see: a toggle button for the look to pop up instead of the main GUI. It's just to difficult having to search through a menu for fewer options than the main interface gives.

sure

i'll add realtime progress time update now i realise people would like it

i'll post the update (with some other polishes) later

as for your other request, i'm not sure i understand what you mean?

can you explain it some more please

Hey Danz!

I tried use new release foo_looks (2.0 rc1), but on start foobar next text displayed in console

INFO (foo_looks) : Sprite 'background' is visible with empty rectangle
INFO (foo_looks) : Sprite 'albumart' is visible with empty rectangle
INFO (foo_looks) : Sprite 'spectrum' is visible with empty rectangle
INFO (foo_looks) : Sprite 'rolltext' is visible with empty rectangle
ERROR (foo_looks) : malformed number;
last token read: `0.0' at line 18 in string "..."
ERROR (foo_looks) : Sprite 'seekgrip' Error(s) loading script 'slider'
ERROR (foo_looks) : malformed number;
last token read: `100.0' at line 5 in string "..."
ERROR (foo_looks) : Sprite 'seekgrip' Error(s) loading script 'seekSliderImpl'
ERROR (foo_looks) : malformed number;
last token read: `0.0' at line 18 in string "..."
ERROR (foo_looks) : Sprite 'albumartgrip' Error(s) loading script 'slider'
ERROR (foo_looks) : malformed number;
last token read: `0.0' at line 18 in string "..."
ERROR (foo_looks) : Sprite 'volumegrip' Error(s) loading script 'slider'
ERROR (foo_looks) : malformed number;
last token read: `100.0' at line 9 in string "..."
ERROR (foo_looks) : Sprite 'volumegrip' Error(s) loading script 'volumeSliderImpl'
INFO (foo_looks) : AssetManager:Dumping unused image 'H:\Audio\Carpenters\(1971) Carpenters\cover.jpg'
INFO (CORE) : opening file for playback :
INFO (CORE) : location: "file://H:\Audio\Carpenters\(1983) Voice Of The Heart\09 - You're Baby Doesn't Love You A.mp3" (0)

I solve this error in next way:

change 0.0 to 0, 100.0 to 100

in foo_looks_common.ski

Is it correct?

I have W2k russian, foobar 7.7a.

pIv

I decided to give it a try. No problems
Just one thing - could you change font used in "Overrides" title and section in Preferences to Tahoma?

For the default look it will work to put this in the overrides preferences

Hum, I'll have to look into this as it came up before with respect to locale settings. I'm not sure if lua can be set to respect different locales.

Next error in new release of foo_looks - 2.0 rc1

If path to the image of album art contained non-english characters - album cover not displayed.
In my case folder name is russian word.
Previous version - 2.10 work fine.

pIv

There is no built in way to display the current position when seeking because seeking is an entirely scripted operation. In v 1.x seeking was built in and thus I had a special case code to handle the seek to position display. Its still possible to display this information but it will have to be scripted into your slider script - which I think you already realized but I'm just clarifying.

With foo_looks 2.0 I've attempted to follow the Zen of Lua. That is, the component does less for you but provides more ways to do more. Currently the only built in behaviors are facilities to make buttons easier and the spectrum display. Everything else is scripted including the sliders, the playlist display, the flashing indicators, etc.

Since you seem comfortable changing the scripts could you try this just for a test.

In the script "slider" add setlocale('"en-us") before the global variable declarations



and revert the script values to 100.0 etc. and let me know if everything works OK.

I fixed this for the next RC which I'll post today or tomorrow depending on any additional bug reports.

i will be updating the foo_looks 2.0 documentation late tonight (GMT)

foo_looks 2.0 resource pages

although for those of you in the states it will be more like early evening

i'll try to complete the tutorial and complete the code references

and put a few 'how to' guides online

the first 'how to' guide will be for my rotational volume dial

The request was more of one for foo_looks, not your skin. It was that the look could be accessed by the system tray or taskbar icon instead of the main foobar 2000 gui.


And a small 'bug' I noticed:
If you do not have you look set to always on top and another window moves ontop of it then the look takes on that of the Windows GUI. Screenshot is below.

I've seen the redraw bug, a mouseover usually clears it up.

I'm planning to add systray support which has been requested by a few other people too

danz, that locale should work. i had similar problem with my own lua script. foosion suggested os.setlocale("C") to me (that's lua 5.0 though, 4.0 doesn't use tables for libraries)

This looks interesting. Reading documentation now.

Thanks.

sorry the docs are not complete, and there are still missing pages

documentation is a 1-man job right now


i'll let you know in here whenever i make significant updates

expect one quite soon (should be in the next 24 hours)

Danz,

1. I change script foo_looks_common.ski, as you write:



and change 0 to 0.0 and 100 to 100.0

then I start foobar and see console log:



When I change "," to "." in regional settings foo_looks 2.0rc1 work fine, but that is not good method.

2. In windows XP when I chang mode of looks (compact, normal, album) - the black screen appears at moment. as i change screen resolution or color numbers in screen propeties.

pIv

Hi, foo_looks v2.0rc is very nice.Thanks!

By the way, I have two things considered using foo_looks v2.0rc.

1. I am a Japanese.
A jacket art will not be displayed if Japanese
is contained in the folder name.

2. Although there is a space in the left of
the jacket art of Standard layout,
balance thinks that it is bad.
I want you to attach a volume controller there like v1.10.
How is it?

Please tell me.

I am not so good at English.
There may be a strange text.
I'm sorry.

Thanks.

There is a volume control on all of the default skin layouts (it isn't obvious though!). If you look just above the album art, you will see a small empty square. If you click and drag this horizontally, you will find it is the volume control..

Hope that helps.

You can also use the mousewheel over the background to change the volume.

The volume is positioned the way it is now so it can be visible on all layouts w/o any additional scripting to reposition it.

Fixed in RC2 which I'll post sometime today.

Great job (as usual ).

But in Micro Layout tooltips are badly needed (perhaps in title section, if possible).

Personally, I'd make this layout a bit wider: I find it a bit cluttered up with all those otions in such a small space, but it's the look I use every day cause it doesn't interfere with the other windows.

Another thing I'd like to see is scrolling titles (possibly only when there's not enough space).

And, for the record, with this layout CPU usage is around 0%!

Thanks for your attention.

Alessandro

That's why its the "Micro" layout

I'll make it a bit wider and make spot to show the rollover help text.

In the future though I'd like to get away from supporting the default look - it exists to show others the features of the component - I'm surprised people like to use it on a daily basis as I have almost no graphics skills at all. I'm hoping that people will get inspired to make their own looks.

I'd prefer to concentrate on development vs. look creation.

Look for an RC2 today with a few bug fixes and the modified micro look.

Ok I know people could get angry. But isn't there a way to make use of WinAmp 3 skin engine somehow? And we'd have access to many skins. WinAmp 3 skins are really beautiful. I am very jealous when I run WinAmp 5, lookwise it kicks fb2k's a**. BTW I appreciate all your work and have no intention of disparaging the current foo_looks development.

Even if it's not possible, could the next version of foo_looks allow FreeForm skinning like WinAmp modern skins? or to achieve such a skinning engine is very hard?

Someone is working on a reuseable look file that should work with any winamp 2.x skin file (once you extract the graphics from the .zip archive) since winamp 2.x skins follow a fixed layout. I believe, but may be wrong, the WA3 and WA5 have freeform skinning which might make it hard to have a generic look that could handle all cases but certainly, if you want to grab your favorite WA3 or 5 skin there is no reason you couldn't make a look that cloned it.

foo_looks is freeform - make any graphics you like and tk32 or myself could turn it into a functional look.

EDIT - of course it won't be like WA5 because I've taken a different approach to how things are configured and controlled

I always liked your micro-mode: what I need is an interface that has all the (main) features "at hand", stays on top but still let me work freely with my other programs.

As you can see, graphics are not on top of my priority list but this doesn't mean I don't like your work from an aesthetic point of view.

Just make it a bit more clean and functional and your MicroLayout will stay on top of all my windows!

And thanks again for your time.

Alessandro

foo_looks 2.0 RC2

Ready for testing.

Changes

1. Fixed bug with cover art search when matches contain utf8 encoded chars.
2. Fixed bug in import file parser which caused import to fail in certain cases.
3. Changed microlayout to be a little wider and include rollover help text.
4. Fixed script logic bug when closing trays during relayout
5. Moved song time to rollover text area

i think you're making a mistake if you try to compare foo_looks against wa3 skins

our aim was not just to make eye candy, but to provide unrivalled functionality

we also wanted a GUI that wasn't resource heavy, or had a large RAM footprint


it's a gross misunderstanding of foo_looks to say it's not as good as wa3 skins, because in fact, we can do so many things that were never possible in wa3 skins

a few special features off the top of my head

- text display has never been so powerful & dynamic
you can combine TagZ & LUA scripts to write unbelievably complex & dynamic text, whereas winamp just gives you the same old 'artist - title <00:00>'

- you can add unlimited layers of graphics, with alpha blending & z-layering
you can use this to create some awesome effects

- you can make any part of the look appear/move/disappear based on a condition, or a button
for example, you could write a script that swaps the position of the track info & buttons depending on whether the look is docked on the top, or the bottom of the desktop

and there is so much more....

the beauty of our plugin is that it will evolve as more people contribute

all the tools exist here for wonderful & powerful looks

.....although yes, we can't display round style looks very well yet


but is that such a big deal??

i thought fb2k users preferred function over form?!?!

The download link should be correct now.

i'd just like to remind people that both danZ & myself are happy to do most of the coding for your looks (at least until we have more tutorials available)

the best thing to work on is the graphics (since we are both awful at that)

if you send us your graphics, or half-written ski files - we'll do anything else that needs to be done


we'll even do all the code for complete beginners

so fire up Photoshop, and help us in the eye-candy department


thanks


tkelly32@btinternet.com

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new look in development: