several feature requests

[xanax]

Hi


1.
I noticed that VLC doesn't record the current volume level when you close VLC. It always resets the volume at 50%
(I use the 06th january 2006 nightly build)


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2.
For the moment, animations are played forever (a neverending loop).

Could you add, for animations, a new option in order play them or forever or a number of specified times.
Let's say :

loop="0" for a neverending animation
loop="1" for an animation played only once, that would stop after all the frames are played once
loop="X" for an animation played X times

Thanks.


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3.
What about another state (not absolutely required) for buttons ?
The state OUT would be played when the cursor leaves the button area.

This way, I could create a fade effect between the "over state" and "up state".
In my skin Navaga for example, the out button animation would start from the illuminated button and would end with the up button.

Of course this button would not be required for all skin, only the author of the skin would decide to use the OUT state or not.
But I really see the point of implementing this feature for my skins : enhancing the eyecandy-ness

Please, consider this request.


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4.
At the moment, the function dialogs.changeSkin() lets you choose a new skin (check the skin "Media Player" that has such a button).

But let's say, I am sure "Navaga-green.vlt", "Navaga-red.vlt" and "Navaga-blue.vlt" skins are installed.
Let's say too that I am currently using the skin "Navaga-green.vlt".

Can I do the following :

Code: Select all

<Button x="220" y="182" up="button_normal" over="button_over" down="button_down" action="dialogs.changeSkin(navaga-red.vlt)" tooltiptext="Load the same skin but in red"/>

I would like to be able to load a new skin (skin wich would be the same except the color theme).


"Navaga-green.vlt" is green and would have a button that loads "Navaga-red.vlt".
"Navaga-red.vlt" is red and would have a button that loads "Navaga-blue.vlt".
"Navaga-blue.vlt" is blue and would havebutton that loads "Navaga-green.vlt".


You see my point ?
This would help me creating different versions of a same skin (but with different colors).
And the button (a different action on each skin) would load another skin.


I don't think there is much to code, I just want to know if I can type this : action="dialogs.changeSkin(navaga-red.vlt)"



see you

[ipkiss]

1) The volume can be saved in the preferences.

3) "Out" would not be a state, but a transition between states (the contrary of "enter"). I am a bit reluctant to add such a functionality.

4) Do you really think that the user wants to change the color so often that it deserves a button? I don't think such a thing is worthwhile... In my opinion, the best solution is to ship 3 vlt files (not necessarily together), one for each colour. The user simply changes the skin normally until he finds his favourite colour. So you may want to provide a normal "change skin" button.
And if you really want to have a button setting a predefined colour, just play with layouts...

[ipkiss]

2) Could you explain in what cases you would use loop="1" and loop="X"?

[xanax]

1) The volume can be saved in the preferences.

3) "Out" would not be a state, but a transition between states (the contrary of "enter"). I am a bit reluctant to add such a functionality.

4) Do you really think that the user wants to change the color so often that it deserves a button? I don't think such a thing is worthwhile... In my opinion, the best solution is to ship 3 vlt files (not necessarily together), one for each colour. The user simply changes the skin normally until he finds his favourite colour. So you may want to provide a normal "change skin" button.
And if you really want to have a button setting a predefined colour, just play with layouts...

3.
The OUT buttun would be a state but just for eyecandy-ness. A state used -you told it- as a transition between over and normal. I agree that it wouldn't be necessary but still cool to have.

Check for example some WMP 10 skins : some have such a feature (for example on the Equalizer window) and I must say it's rather beautiful.


4.
Right, I already thought of that. I'll try to make the same thing with 3 different layouts. You know.. it was just an idea

Since "dialogs.chooseskin()" was already there, I just wondered if I could directly add the name of a skin I want to load between the brackets.



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2) Could you explain in what cases you would use loop="1" and loop="X"?

I agree, loop="6" or loop"=13" for example would not be very common but I have plans for a button that would requiere a loop="2".
Or I use loop="2" or I double the number of frames in the animation, that's all.


See you.

[xanax]

One other thing I noticed (I don't know if it's a bug or not, at least an annoyance) :

I think VLC should check if the video window is opened or not before starting playing a video file.
Because at the moment, I can launch VLC with, let's say, the skin Navaga-green, and if I open a video file and click "play" button, the video starts (I can hear the sound) the the Video windows doesn't automatically opens.

I tend to think that the video window should be shown automatically when a video file is played.

I posted this here and not in the other section of the forums because it's related to the skinning engine, isn't it ?

[AsMaX]

Well, the skin engine has no knowledge of a video *window*, it only has video *controls*.
It is a valid request anyway; maybe we can add a new variable and do something like:
<Window .... visible="vlc.hasVout" > ?
(you can already use visible="vlc.isPlaying" though it is not exactly the same)

[xanax]

Well, the skin engine has no knowledge of a video *window*, it only has video *controls*.
It is a valid request anyway; maybe we can add a new variable and do something like:
<Window .... visible="vlc.hasVout" > ?
(you can already use visible="vlc.isPlaying" though it is not exactly the same)

Yes, but VLC should automatically open this Video Window ONLY if the file played is a video.. Imagine someone playing a MP3 file and seeing the video window opening.. it would be very annoying.

[AsMaX]

Yes, that's why I said it is not exactly the same...

[xanax]

I tried to add an animation to the state OVER for the seekbar slider but that doesn't work (yet). See the beta1 of my new skin : PLIP PLOP.

Could we have too, the animated buttons for sliders ?

[xanax]

other feature requests :


- How comes each time I launch VLC, the skin NAVAGA loads correctly but not with the default layout (normal-mode default layout) ?

- add a bgcolor="" for the video window.
Check my skin NAVAGA Green (the latest beta version available) : my images contains a dark grey color where the video is supposed to be.
But when no video is played, it's "location" remains completely black. For some skins, being able to set the bgcolor could be interesting.

- I think there's a problem to anchor windows :
When you resize the VIDEO or PLAYLIST window, its borders are "anchorable" only if the window is resized to the minimized size.
As soon as you resize these windows, the anchor doesn't change, and the anchors don't match the borders.

- add "tooltiptext" for resize image

[ipkiss]

- How comes each time I launch VLC, the skin NAVAGA loads correctly but not with the default layout (normal-mode default layout) ?

The layouts are not remembered from one session to another, so only the default one is used (the first one defined in the XML, probably).
Remembering layouts is a feature that will be implemented one day... i just don't know when

- add a bgcolor="" for the video window.
Check my skin NAVAGA Green (the latest beta version available) : my images contains a dark grey color where the video is supposed to be.
But when no video is played, it's "location" remains completely black. For some skins, being able to set the bgcolor could be interesting.

The skins engine doesn't have much control on this, because it is not in charge of updating it (this is the job of the video output module). I will try to see if there is a way to set the colour only when no video is playing.

- I think there's a problem to anchor windows :
When you resize the VIDEO or PLAYLIST window, its borders are "anchorable" only if the window is resized to the minimized size.
As soon as you resize these windows, the anchor doesn't change, and the anchors don't match the borders.

Just like any other control, the anchors must be "attached" relatively to the sides of the window. Use the 'lefttop' and 'rightbottom' attributes.

- add "tooltiptext" for resize image

Windows doesn't provide any tooltip for that, just a changing icon (which is already implemented in the skins on Windows). What's more, i find it strange to give a tooltip to a simple Image tag...

[xanax]

- How comes each time I launch VLC, the skin NAVAGA loads correctly but not with the default layout (normal-mode default layout) ?

The layouts are not remembered from one session to another, so only the default one is used (the first one defined in the XML, probably).
Remembering layouts is a feature that will be implemented one day... i just don't know when

No need. I found the reason. I noticed something quite interesting with the code. I have 2 layouts for the "normal-mode", one with default control buttons, the other with DVD control buttons.

Before, when I launched my skin, the second layout was always loaded first, which was annoying.

In fact, the position of the different layouts matters in the code. I just put the "normal-mode-default-layout" after the "normal-mode-dvd-layout" in the code and now everything is fixed.

Check my latest little update to the skin. I fixed this problem.

- I think there's a problem to anchor windows :
When you resize the VIDEO or PLAYLIST window, its borders are "anchorable" only if the window is resized to the minimized size.
As soon as you resize these windows, the anchor doesn't change, and the anchors don't match the borders.

Just like any other control, the anchors must be "attached" relatively to the sides of the window. Use the 'lefttop' and 'rightbottom' attributes.

Hmmm.. I thought my anchors were the same as my widths and heights.. I'll check that.

- add "tooltiptext" for resize image

Windows doesn't provide any tooltip for that, just a changing icon (which is already implemented in the skins on Windows). What's more, i find it strange to give a tooltip to a simple Image tag...

That was just an idea.. I thought interesting to tell users that this part of the skin is made to resize.

[xanax]

What's new about my past feature requests ?
Are some of them still planned to be implemented ?

Those I especially requiere :

2.
For the moment, animations are played forever (a neverending loop).

Could you add, for animations, a new option in order play them or forever or a number of specified times.
Let's say :

loop="0" for a neverending animation
loop="1" for an animation played only once, that would stop after all the frames are played once
loop="X" for an animation played X times

I think that was a nice idea...

3.
What about another state (not absolutely required) for buttons ?
The state OUT would be played when the cursor leaves the button area.

For this feature request, it seems ipkiss doesn't agree with me about this need. But nevermind... I still think I could make nice fade effects on buttons with that.

One other thing I noticed (I don't know if it's a bug or not, at least an annoyance) :

I think VLC should check if the video window is opened or not before starting playing a video file.
Because at the moment, I can launch VLC with, let's say, the skin Navaga-green, and if I open a video file and click "play" button, the video starts (I can hear the sound) the the Video windows doesn't automatically opens.

I tend to think that the video window should be shown automatically when a video file is played.

Hmm ?

I tried to add an animation to the state OVER for the seekbar slider but that doesn't work (yet). See the beta1 of my new skin : PLIP PLOP.

Could we have too, the animated buttons for sliders ?

I DO need this feature request for sliders.. Plus, I don't think it'll be complicated to implement. For other feature requests, I could understand that you disagree with me but I need this one. Please.