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[jleerigby]

I posted this question over on the plug-ins / skins development board but as it's not a question about plug ins or skins (oops) I'll post it here:

I'm trying to set up a visualisation to display some text (like artist name / track name) after n seconds of the ELAPSED_TIME for the track playback.  I've tried all sorts of values in the OnEquation, RenderDelayMilliseconds & RenderDuration fields but without success.  

Anyone know how it's done?

[jleerigby]

[cunningly disguised bump] I want to use this visualisation on my second monitor (TV) but only display track info part way into the track.  I think that RhinoBanga's playing now plug in can do something similar but I'm not sure I can display that on my second monitor over a visualisation.

It's possible to display ELAPSED_TIME as text but I'm not sure that it's possible to use this value within the calculations that the visualisation makes, like OnEquation.  Is there any way for the visualisation to know when the track has been changed and count from that point?

Is there any SDK for Vis Studio?  In the dev zone I can only find info on Skinning, Track Info and plug ins.

If this is just not possible I'd appreciate it if JRiver could put me out of my misery 'cos I won't give up trying otherwise!

[/cunningly disguised bump]

[jleerigby]

Come on you lot!  Just give me a 1, 2 or 3

1 = Can't be done
2 = Can be done but I'm not gonna tell you how  
3 = Can be done like this.....

[Wile E. One]

1 = Can't be done
2 = Can be done but I'm not gonna tell you how
3 = Can be done like this.....

It's definitely one of those  

[LisaRCT]

um . .  yup
sure is  

[jleerigby]

err...Ta Lise.  I got all excited when I logged on and saw a reply

Listening to: 'Is This The Way To Amarillo' by 'Tony Christie' on Media Center 9.1

It doesn't get any better than this.  If you've watched Pheonix Nights and remember the scene in the van with a load of Asian elders in the back you'll know what I mean. ..


Sha la la lala lalala  [Beep Beep!]
Sha la la lala lalala  [Beep Beep!]
Sha la la lala lalala  

[Phydeaux]

I don't know an awful lot about the vis studio and since I'm not at my PC, I can't really help, except offer a tip.

The onEquation field can't do things like "if" (AFAIK), which makes it an interesting question, but you could always set a counter that would scroll the textbox across (or down) the screen and disappear to negative infinity (assuming that the song is that long).

For help with moving stuff in a vis, have a look at the equations used for the split screen visualisations -- most of them have scrolling lyrics. Try and adapt that.

Come to think of it... There might well be an "if" equivalent because I know that they loop to infinity with the text just scrolling and scrolling so there must be some way to conditionally set a value...

Have a look at the other vis's for help.

Sorry that there is no hard advice here, but at least this should get you going in the right direction!

P.

[Phydeaux]

Ok, so lets try something:

adapt what you had to read:

on=if(t<1000,1,0);t=(t+1);

That will show it for 1000 frames. T never gets reset to zero and so once it's past 1000 frames (adjust as necessary!) it will just be off. The only thing to ask is: will t be reset to 0 at the beginning of the next song. And there is some doubt in my mind here... But give it a whirl.

You could do a "slide off" by adjusting the x value (you'll have to find another vis that scrolls lyrics to see what variable to use) as follows (I'm calling the x value X, but I stand open to correction as to what the real variable is called (x1???)):

X=(X-(if(t>1000,1,0)));t=(t+1);

That will save you the headache of fade out!

You can, of course adapt that to fade in:

X=(X-(if(t>1000,1,0)));X=(X+(if(t<500?,1,0)));t=(t+1);

Anyway. If these work, it'll be a miracle. I'm going on the assumption that what you've told me is correct!!

Have fun!

P.

[Phydeaux]

This last one (fade in and out) will need some serious looking at the width of the field as well as the distance that is to be travelled.

It is implied that since I used an X value, my text box would behave like a ticker bar.

Something like this?
you could use a Y value instead... or both? Have it disappear off diagonally. Or introduce some mathematics and have a parabolic effect going (or at least use that to control the speed so that it "brakes" and "accelerates"...

You can have some fun, depending on how much you enjoyed high school maths!

P.

[Chris Shaw]

Have you let a playlist play for a while uninterrupted yet? I was doing something like this a while ago and found that if you set to OnEquation to anything complex, the image didn't change as the track changed.

[NickM]

Not much help on the code, but your idea sounds good and perhaps could become part of the Hairstyle view.  The idea that a page is static and one has to manually toggle between hairstyle and a visulisation is unhelpful.  I like to think of the Hairstyle as the Media Centre view and the visulisation as a screen saver.  Now I know how to combine them - thanks.  By the way, once you have your skin done, you will post it.... ;-))

[Chris Shaw]

I've got a plasma screen, and they suffer badly from burn-in. My main concern was that nothing was static on the screen for long periods. Since I couldn't find a way to animate the position of the cover art, I have it appearing for a few seconds, then fading away for a bit and looping. So my OnEquation os
on=if(t<24,1,0);t=(t+1)%800
but the image doesn't change between tracks

[jleerigby]

Your graphics card might be faster so you don't actually see the fade out.

[Chris Shaw]

I've got a Transform so that everything swirls backwards and fades out. You can see my vis here if you're interested
http://www.cjdshaw.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mj/Chris%20Starfield.mjv