OK, in a few days I will commence work on my (huge) project - a fullscreen (TV-mode) look intended for use from afar or, alternatively, for use with a touchscreen. I want to make it similar in use and functionality to The 4AM Music Console and ApeJukeBox, etc...

My main question - @danZ:
Is there any chance of implementing (optional) support for FB2K's Database?
The functionality I wish to implement (browsing through albums in the database via the look) would require look functions to enumerate through the database by Artist and Album, but the actual act of grouping metadb entries to lists of entries from the same album or artist could be implemented from within my script.
Any chance that this functionality could be implemented?
I feel this feature would add endless possibilities, not only in implementing an elaborate album-browsing interface such as the one present in the 4AM Music Console, but also for simple, effective buttons ("Next album by same artist", "Next Artist"...).

Thank you all for all the tremendous work. I hope that I could contribute soon.

dockuk done?

Like I said, it's been done for a month about. But I am just really busy - Exams finish in two weeks. I just don't have the incentive or free time to do a release at the moment.

Don't worry - It will be worth it.

Hey I just found foobar and I'm excited to use it. Spending a little bit of time digging through the forums, messing with some settings, etc. I have some questions that haven't been answered in the faq, or in the first few pages of the forum topics.

1) with no skin selected is there an easy gui interface to change the volume (I can't find it, or a prefence to display it if there is)

2) when I have a skn installed (default of I tried carbon as well) I get both gui's (the non skinned gui and the skinned) I haven't found a way to keep one up with the other gone. (in the skins the volume control slider apears)


Anyways I figure these are probably newb questions any help would be great.

thanks,

Anders

Keyboard shortcuts. I can't help you with the rest as I don't use foo_looks, but keyboard shortcuts are generally how people change volume. You can also double click on the volume reading (bottom right of the playlist) to bring up the preferences menu, which has a slider within it.

Steve

in foo_looks there is no problem finding the volume slider. It's without it that I'm lost, just wondering if the base UI has a gui slider. So the problem is, if I want a slider I need foo_looks, but I don't want two windows open just to make foobar look pretty.

thanks
Anders

k, thx

my exams r also gonna be finishesd in two weeks but w/e lol

Started working on my tvlook, few questions\comments:

• look_measureTextAbs(this) is not listed on http://www.btinternet.com/%7esean.m.kelly/.../script_ref.htm and should be added. Same for window_setAlpha(alpha). Also, if the functions portion was fixed so that it would be more readable (perhaps in a nice table - showing syntax, return value, and description for each function) look development can be a LOT easier.
• I haven't seen a look that uses keyboard shortcuts, and couldn't get it to work in my look. Is keyboard support only meant for later version of foo_looks?

EDIT: OK, question - how do I pass a table around my scripts? assuming I have


I've tried sticking the table inside a "section", but that didn't seem to work. Any other way I can declare a table that will be global to *all* lua scripts in my look?
Thanks.

EDIT 2: Another thing - look_loadThumbnailImage's syntax is misquoted in the reference page. In summary, the reference page is outdated and does not contain all of the functions you get when you do

function onattach(this)
LOG( look_help(echo) )
end

from the 2.1b beta.

Also, the function LOG(something) which sends 'something' to Foobar2K's console makes development a heck of a lot easier, but is not mentioned anywhere in the documentation.

tc kelly - I'm willing to help finish the reference page, maybe you could start it (create the table in html) and I'll help fill it out? Private message me if interested.

feature request Can I get a function that checks if a file exists? (couldn't find one in the natrual lua io library).

Also, can I get an explanation of "Bool look_loadExtension(filename, initFuncName)"? Is this what can be used to make foo_looks interact with other Foobar2k plugins?

tk32 is back!

hi everyone, and a special hello to all the new fb2k users who are trying out foo_looks for the first time

i'll try to answer as many questions as i can (and answer all the emails i've received)

but i'll start with a quick demonstration of how to set global tables, variables, and functions (a question as mentioned in the above post):

---------
Q: How do i set global variables, tables & functions that can be accessed by any script i write?

A: You can make global functions, tables & variables by placing them in the Section Globals' script string

i used this a lot in my Micropanel skin, by grouping sprites into tables so i could show/hide sets of related sprites from any script by passing the global table as the argument.

for example:



using the above globals i could say:



for those who are still confused, this would cause sprite1 & sprite2 to be hidden and disabled if x was less than 3.142 (although this is merely a demonstration, and not a useful calculation)

you can probably see that the above code is pretty useless, but it works, and i'm sure it'll help you understand what i'm trying to demonstrate.

hope that helps you on your way.

----------------

more answers soon....

tk32

Thanks a lot tk32 - now I almost have my solution.

One thing I noticed though - is that actual statements (not function and variable definitions) in the "global script space" are executed many times when the look is initialized - if I'm not mistaken, once for each sprite. Is this a bug? Why is this so? I was trying to put some code there to fill up my global tables with data extracted from the playlist (artist and album lists...), and it worked, but this code was executed like 50 times instead of once.

hmm

i suspect it's because it is being initiated once for every script call, rather than once for every sprite (danZ might be able to give better advice about this)

i think this is unlikely a bug, and just a problem inherent of the cascading nature of the LUA script interpreter - so i'm sure we can find a solution (even if it turns out to be a hack )

explain a bit more about what you are trying to achieve and i'll see what better advice i can give

Oh, ic, so basically, foo_looks adds whatever you write in "section globals... string script" to the beginning of each lua...endlua script? So I'd be correct in saying that foo_looks doesn't have a truly 'global' space for defining variables shared by all sprites?

My look is used to navigate through albums and artists on the playlist (for now, hopefully some day it could be used somehow to navigate through the database).


Here's a preview. Note that I'm not a graphics artist, so I haven't put much effort on the graphics design of my look. For now, I'm focusing on coding the functionality I want.

So far:
the albums panel is a sliding tray, and the layouts switch by vertically sliding off and on the screen. Also, as you may have noticed, the artist layout shows a picture of the selected artist (if it finds one in a predetermined folder on the user's computer).


Now, when my look is initialized, it goes through the entire playlist and creates a table of every album on it. The problem is, I want that table to be accessible from every sprite that needs it. The workaround has been to group everything that needs to read from the albums table in one spirite, which is horribly clumsy and makes for messy code.

The problem has to do with the fact that look_callScript's return type is void, so I cannot use it to get the table reference. Then I thought, since lua passes tables around by reference, I'll use an 'out' parameter - meaning, a function parameter used to return values. No such luck - when I tried to pass a table to look_callScript, foobar crashed.

@NoMoDo: I'm really looking forward to try your look when it's ready.

Hi
I'm again making now simply skin so I have questions:

1) If the script reference is complete on foo_looks page ??

- Where can I find some examples or desctription for function in foo_looks. When I wont use (and I gues haw can it work) some function I always searching in other skins examples. Sometimes is hard understand with no example .

2) Can I in my skin show/hide equalizer and check status of equalizer ??

3) I'm using UpNorth scrolling. And work great but my frend can't see scrolling text.
(with difrend fonts).
Do You know why ??
(now I send him changed scroll with onupdateplayerstatus instead of onupdate and I'm waiting for answer)

Hi
Problem with scroling now not exist. sorry for this.
(simply mistake
upNorth realy good work !! thank You.

i'll be writing some functions guides and descriptions soon (this includes finishing the exhaustive functions list on the script reference page)

Edit:
new functions reference is hosted here:

http://www.btinternet.com/~sean.m.kelly/script_ref.htm

(it's still in progress, but i will continue updating it until it's completely finished)

i'll try to make all entries as clear as possible, and include extra notes for the more complicated functions, and even some tips & clever tricks you can do with some.


i'll also try to continue my 'how to..' guides and explain more complex topics such as custom volume controls and sliding drawers etc...


if any of the more experienced skin makers would like to submit a little 'how to..' guide explaining a particularly interesting feature of their skin, i'd be very pleased to host it.

Tahnk You for answer tk32. (I'll be waiting patiently)

For me the beast things are the example with futules. Like in scroll upNorth. Sometimes I spend lot of time to guess what some futules need to work corectly.
I'm looking too for description of this mysterious variables (list rect int, list srcoff int...[not this but others]).
And I have new question:

- Why when I use transparent image in my skin the image is transparent only on the beginig and it pun on image before so transparent it's gone. What I must do ?

@Hadda - I'm working on a list of all the mysterious variables for the sprites and the different sections, and I hope to get a complete list soon. Then with the help of the more experienced look-designers I'll fill out a description for each one of them, so look out for that.


your question was kind of hard to understand, maybe you could show a little code which demonstrates the problem you're having so that we could try and help?

hadda, if you email me the skin + graphics i will read your code and see what is wrong. (and fix it)

don't worry about mistakes or messy code - mine are the same

tkelly32@btinternet.com

I'm happy to say that for some unknown reason, foo_looks now works perfectly. I don't have any conflicts with foo_ui_columns and other plugins I use, that has caused problems in the past. This is too good to be true...

So, I've been adding some more or less useful features (bloat?), to my "navigator" look, the past two days

Btw: Good thing you're back to keep this thread alive tk32

@tk32 thank You and I send You my skin.

@NoMoDo -I'll be looking.
-I do not realy know what part of code I can show with my last problem. I hope that tk32 will solve this. I thing it's really simply mistake . I just do not know why my buttons losing transparecy on mouse move on.

@DanZ
I've had more time to go through FB2K's sdk and think about my request about database support.

I think I can break it down to a few function requests:


Table fb2k_getDatabaseEntries()
The returned table will look like this:

{
{ path='c:/tagless_file.mp3' }
{ path='c:/nobiz.mp3' artist='Negativland' album='No Bussiness' title=... }
...
}


EDIT: Come to think of it, to save memory, perhaps it would be wise to limit the metadb fields that will be transffered, as in:
Table fb2k_getDatabaseEntries({metadbField, ..})
fb2k_getDatabaseEntries({ 'ARTIST', 'ALBUM', 'TRACKNUMBER', 'DATE'})


void fb2k_clearPlaylist(plindex)
void fb2k_addToPlaylist(path [ {path, ... } ], plindex)

That's it. Leave all the processing, etc to the look designer to use in any way he pleases. A query function could also be cool, but I personally wouldn't need it for my look.

EDIT: Maybe it should be in fact
Table fb2k_getDatabaseEntries({ metadbField, ...}, [sortOrder]) Where sortOrder is a the spec format to be used for sorting. if sortOrder is defined, a call to metadb_handle_list::sort_by_format will be made before the table is generated.

I assume another approach would be to add a hidden userdata field in each item of the database entries table, which would reference to the appropriate metadb_handle. In this case, there can be a:

void fb2k_addDBEntryToPlaylist(dbEntry [ {DbEntry, ... } ], plindex)

The use of which would be like:


I'm not sure if there's a performance advantage to the latter method, and if it's in any way substantial.

I wrote today:

This problem I solve with tk32 help.
I'm using
in every first sprite (or on the all area ones)

@Hadda: Thanks for sharing the solution to that problem. Appreciate it!

there may be a more cpu-friendly solution to hadda's problem, but this was the first thing i suggested and it seemed to work well for him

usually skin coders should only add the render.erase flag for sprites whose graphics contain invisible pixels.

i suspect this is a perversion of the render.erase mode's original use, but Hadda is happy with me - so i'll shut up and bask in the glory for a minute

btw Hadda, if cpu usage shoots up as a result, we may need to do some more troubleshooting - i'm happy to help anytime.

My foo_looks looks like this:



What am I doing wrong?
I extracted the archive (foo_looks2.1b2.zip) into the components folder and got this up there

OS is Windows XP and I use Foobar 8.2.

Now that's good news!

Mind sharing with us your new version?

Alessandro

slayer, try clicking once inside the skin and pressing F9

then tell me what happens

Looks good now. But how can I hide the normal Foobar window?

And how can I change the on top behaviour. Didn't find anything about that :/

right-click the smiley face button on the left of the 'p' button to minimize the foobar window, and left click the same button for a popup menu with always on top options

sorry this wasn't explained, it's danZ fault (he designed the default skin)

some of the other skins are more intuitive and don't require specialist knowledge in order to find all the features

have fun

and try some of our other skins:

http://www.btinternet.com/~sean.m.kelly/fo...oks/gallery.htm


maybe you'll want to make your own skin even.

-----
btw:
everyone check the new ablum 'Junior Boys - Last Exit'
mark my words!

Navigator beta2 (download).

Changes:

• Added a graphics file and updated appearance
• Color selection (with presets and HSB sliders)
• Double click resize area (time display) to "resize to fit".
• Removed 'search' button to make room for color selection button
• Improved old code.

I'm still not finished, and colors, features and details will be changed as I see fit.

compact mode (color: 'default'):


extended mode with color selector enabled (color: 'default'):


extended mode with large albumart (color: 'preset 1'):


Short description of some of the features:
(LMB and RMB refers to clicking the left or right mouse button)

Actions:
Resize: LMB and hold on time (upper right corner) then drag
Resize to fit: Double click LMB on time (upper right corner)
Toggle mode (compact/full): RMB on time (upper right corner)
Progress bar: LMB and hold to 'skip' , RMB and hold to 'scan'.
Albumart: LMB on it to toggle size
Codec/Replaygain info: RMB on it to toggle between the two.
Album-/Genre info: RMB on it to toggle between the two.
Trackrating: The five blue squares turns white according to rating (using the %trackrating% tag). LMB on one of the squares will find the next track in playlist with that specific rating, and show the result in the box to the right of the rating. Double click the result to play it, or press the - button to the right, to empty the box.

Buttons:
upper left: LMB: show/hide foobar main window
Play button: LMB: 'play/pause', RMB: 'stop'
<(top): LMB 'previous track', RMB 'Start this track over' (I think I will change this)
>(top): LMB: 'next track', RMB: 'random track'
t: LMB: toggle remaining/elapsed time
a: LMB: toggle look transparency
x: LMB: 'exit foobar2000'
< and >(to the right of the tab name): LMB: one tab forwards/backwards. RMB jump to first/last tab.
grayish button Shows current order/flow (abbreviate). LMB: set order/flow to 'default'. RMB: Bring up the 'playback menu' to set order/flow and such.
c: LMB: open 'Color selector'
k: LMB: Show/hide a small keyboard. (Keyboard: LMB: Play first track in playlist where %artist% starts with this character. RMB: Same as LMB, but will only scroll to and highlight the track)
n: LMB: Show/hide a small "remote" used to skip to the next/previous artist/album with LMB (RMB to show the result in the box to the right og the trackrating).
/\ and \/: LMB: scroll playlist (slow), RMB: scroll playlist (fast).
<(playlist): LMB: scroll to current track (in look playlist). LMB(doubleclick): Same as LMB, but will also scroll and hightlight in main playlist.
RMB: Scroll playlist in look, to the track that is highlighted in the main playlist.

Color area:
Self explaining I guess, but some notes:
Number buttons are the presets. Change them in the 'color_upNorth.ski' file.
* button: Prints the current RGB value to console.
default: Is the 'background' color set in the 'color' section in the main ski-file.
Brightness is limited to avoid too bright colors. Default range is RGB(0,0,0) to RGB(160,160,160). Change the 'limit' variable in 'color_upNorth.ski' if you want it brighter.
undo: Undo last slider movement (after pressing button the last time) or last preset button pressed.
The info about the current track will scroll if it doesn't fit.

Try left, right and double clicking everything and you might find something I forgot to mention. If you look for a 'volume control', you won't find it, but maybe I'll add one later.

NOTE: foo_ui_columns and foo_playlistgen_ex no longer causes problems. At least not here, but I don't know why it suddenly works...

Hope you enjoy it

Btw: I was planning to develop it a little further before releasing this version. Hope I didn't forget to fix obvious problems. Less than 5 tracks in a playlist still triggers funny behavior, but nothing critical...

Note: This is a copy and paste of the beta1 post. I might have forgotten to change all relevant parts.

I appreciate your work. Yours is the only skin I use from time to time.
One thing I just found: When clicking next in the look, the highlightening of the playing track in the playlist of the look doesn't change here.
What I always had a problem with is closing foobar through the look: It makes foobar crash. But that's probably a problem with foo_looks or the interaction with other plugins.

Regards,
The Link

edit: clarification

Haha, nooo. Those were my features. I did the same thing

Thank you upNorth!

Don't know how "obvious" can be considered, but may I remind you the glitch related to streaming audio data (title/artist)?

Also, if possible, it would be nice if play/pause button image could switch reflecting the actual state.

Regards.

Alessandro

@upNorth - Excellent, just excellent work on Navigator. The keyboard is very cool - I'm planning to have something similar in my TVLook. My only complaint, though, is the lack for mouse scroller support in the playlist.

Works fine here....

awsome simply awsome!!! upNorth thank you.

still would prefer the playlist to scroll with alt click of album/artist i'm sure i'll get over it.

ooo actualy is it possible to get a always ontop button near the transparency button? edit:could just be a right click function on the transparency button.

thanks

Should I start preparing to have your babies now?

Seriously though, great work

Coders Reference update

there 2 coder reference pages currently in development.

They are written by NoMoDo & myself, and are both still in development.

Section/Sprite code Reference:
http://www.btinternet.com/~sean.m.kelly/section_ref.htm

Script Functions Reference:
http://www.btinternet.com/~sean.m.kelly/script_ref.htm


If anyone would like to contribute to them, don't hesitate to email me

tomkelly@gmail.com

(btw - i have some spare invitations if anyone wants a gmail account)

Any chance to fix the download link too foo looks on your homepage tk32? I just tried and it still seems to be down.

Of course I will leave the alternate downloads in the upload forum untill that is fixed.

yes

sorry everyone - it seems danZ host is down, so anyone trying to download foo_looks will be getting 404 errors.

i've hosted the latest build on my own private webspace for now though, and i'll update all the links as soon as possible.

foo_looks_2.1.zip

tk.

Just updated to foo_looks v2.1 from v2.0 and am using latest navigator beta skin (as linked to a few posts up) and now cover art won't advance automatically and once also the track details didnt update either

if i do a manual advance however it updates fine, tempted to go back to v2.0 at the moment. the only difference i've noticed otherwise is that when starting up foobar now i get an error in the console saying there's multiple dll files - could that be causing the problem?

which dll file are there multiples of?

Thanks alot for all the positive feedback, I really appreciate it.

I have noted some requests, but I don't want to clutter my look with too many buttons I rarely use. E.g. "always on top" might be a candidate for a shortcut key instead, but you'll never know what I might add, and as foo_looks currently has a problem with staying "always on top" after a restart, I might add an aot button.

I'm pretty sure that the problems related to titles and albumart not updating on new track, is the well know problem I have complained about several times before. Some other plugins triggers it, but I don't think anyone really knows why this happens. For some strange, unknown reason I don't experience it myself anymore.

@mobyduck: There is some strange things happening with streaming audio. My first attempt to fix it wasn't very successful, but I'll try again later. I'm also reluctant to do much related to the playlist, as danZ has mentioned it might change alot in the next version.


Sure, that's what they all say... I'll sue, if you try to copy my ground-breaking feature!
Just kidding of course

@DanZ

Another feature request - could you fix it so that the table returned by look_getAlbumArtList() will not have any double occurences? If, for examples, I use

string search1 "*"

I can get, for example { "folder.jpg", "folder.jpg"} (one for the search string I've specified and one for the default search string.

P.S. the simple solution for now:

sorry i forgot to post the error message there...

INFO (foo_looks) : Initializing GDI+
INFO (CORE) : startup time: 625 ms
ERROR (CORE) : Failed to load DLL: foo_looks.dll, reason: Multiple copies of DLL with the same file name found.

is what i get when i start up foo bar... i didnt deleted the old ver - just installed over the top, replacing any existing files with the same name.

Seriously though, new Carbon has HSB sliders, though I had them as HSL (L for luminance), and doubleclicking resizer resized to default width...

@rOAdeh-
Are you sure you checked the obvious thing? Did you try to search your foobar2000 directory for foo_looks.dll and make sure it doesn't appear twice?Maybe hidden somewhere where you didn't notice?

Otherwise, maybe you should hit that horrible "Reset All" button (erases all settings and database!) and try again (worked for me when foo_looks had troubles).

:D:D
This links are very helpfull. I'm waiting for more examples. Thanks a lot.

/me drools over the new carbon

crosses fingers and hopes for the rls