next »

[Redgemz]

I decided that there should be a thread specifically for suggestions as to what XMplay should have in it's newer versions, just to make things a bit easier for Ian.
Anywayz, I just wanna get this outta the way before everybody says it:
1. SKINS!
The rest are my personal suggestions...
2. Colour editor like in XM1
3. Resizeable (or maybe a big mode)
4. dockable/undockable windows (ie playlist becomes dettatchable, visuals become attatchable, etc.)
5. the ability to run as an icon in the taskbar in Windows
6. volume equalizer (so when songs change from quiet to loud so you don't die/blow out speakers)
Anywayz, these are just suggestions that are supposed to be helpful... or... something. Yeah.
-_-~

[Brightguy]

Yeah, I'm already thinking about 2.4 as well...

If it does become skinable, it certaintly will add a new dimension into XMPlay, but is it really a necessity?  I guess it's just a matter of personal opinion, but I like the current skin...

When I first started using XMPlay, it really caught my attention because it was so well-organised and easy to use, (and just 5 files in the .zip archive totaling under 1MB...)  it really didn't matter if the skin looked good.  Of course, it will let creative users customize the skin to their liking, which could be a major plus to some.  It's a big step to take, and once you take it you can't turn back...  Just remember to keep it simple.

A resizable option is interesting, could cause problems with home-made skins...
And dockable/undockable windows?
Not a bad idea, just make sure not become too much like Winamp.
About the taskbar icon idea - are you talking about an icon in the Start Menu or in the system tray?  It already has system-tray support, and a shortcut in the Start Menu is really almost the same as an icon on your desktop.  (I have one in both places.)

I really don't have any suggestions myself, besides some plugin/extenion details that I've previously mentioned.  The only other thing is that I can't find plugins for certain file types.  (.med, .dbm and some rarer others...)
And true MIDI support is never a bad thing...

[Keltic Danor]

Well, I kinda think skins would solve 1, 2, and 3.

And as brightguy said, you can minimize XMPlay to the system tray by rightclicking on the minimize button.

And does'nt auto amp reduction already equalise the playing volume? (If that's the way you mean, ofcourse).

About the dockable idea, to you mean as in the ability to have the ability to pull the visual window out of the info-window and into a window of its own etc. Might be interesting.

[Olego]

1. SKINS!
The rest are my personal suggestions...
2. Colour editor like in XM1
3. Resizeable (or maybe a big mode)
4. dockable/undockable windows (ie playlist becomes dettatchable, visuals become attatchable, etc.)
5. the ability to run as an icon in the taskbar in Windows
6. volume equalizer (so when songs change from quiet to loud so you don't die/blow out speakers)
Anywayz, these are just suggestions that are supposed to be helpful... or... something. Yeah.

1.  Rah'Dick is already working on lots and lots of skins, and they sure look awesome.  If Ian would allow him to send every one of us a customized file, so that every person would have a unique version of XMPlay, it'd be awesome.  

2.  That is a good idea, but with Skins there aren't many colours to customize.  There's text; but since skins are bitmaps, so how would you change the colour of a bitmap?

3.  A big mode was requested a while ago, but because XMPlay is made out of bitmaps, when resized, it looks really bad.  :\  (Or so says Ian.)

4.  Don't really understand.  Attachable to what, the screen or XMPlay?  And I don't know if it's really all that necessary.  Me = shortcut user, so because XMPlay stays in the Systray most of the time, I just press F5 for the play list, move it around...  And then close it.

5.  Already exists: right-click on XMPlay's minimize "_" button.

6.  Dynamic Amplification should be sorta like that; and what about the songs that go from loud to quiet?  Do you want their volume to be constant, or as intended?  

Well, that's been my 2 cents.  Ciao.

~Olego~

[Killi]

I'm still missing a tag editor for mp3 and ogg files. Tempo and Speed could also be added to the General window (xm, it, mod..). And you'll be probably adding skins anyway, so I won't bother to say anything.

[Redgemz]

Just another thing I wanna throw out: full-screen mode for visualizations, for that 'rave-party' feeling. And maybe the ability to open more than on visual at a time. That would be cool for people who wanna link more than one moniter and maybe a tv screen together to have several visuals playing at once for ultimate 'rave' action. Maybe something like a visual playlist-- scrolls thru your installed visuals between songs or on a timer.
And as for the big-mode bitmap problem-- couldn't you just open your bitmap in paint or photoshop or something and enlarge it? This could be done for all skins... just make it a required file (i.e. littleskin.bmp and bigskin.bmp).
-_-~

[Retro (Guest)]

What about adding the ability to directly delete songs from disk ? la Modplug player? A shortcut for that would also be cool

[Retro (Guest)]

What about adding the ability to directly delete songs from disk ? la Modplug player? A shortcut for that would also be cool

[Retro again]

Hmm...why did it post it twice...my apologies for that

[Philidor11 (Guest)]

If you mean adjusting all songs' volume to a consistent level, that's normalising.  You can do that using Mp3DirectCut for all songs or Mp3Trim for shorter ones.
As far as skins, I already have to use a program called EndItAll2 from pcmag.com to kill all non-essential programs so my pc doesn't jam.  Reading the whole song before playing it does make the sound better, but it also uses a lot of memory/resources for a playlist.  I wouldn't use the skins; I'd rather an extra couple of songs.  I do use visualizations, but for only a song or 2.
What would cut down the learning curve for using XMPlay would be an index page.  Click on playlist you go to the playlist page, click on format default, you go to the format default page, etc.  Right now, XMPlay teaches how to hunt.
The only flaw I'd like to point out is the way that XMPlay apparently doesn't delete a song from memory if you '-' it.  (A 'Clear' button would help, too.)  I've normalised a song and tried to play it and gotten the old version.  Unless there's a better way?
Anyway, this is already the best mp3 player going; glad I ran into it.

[Redgemz]

Remember how XM1 had the ability to 'seek' thru a song by skipping thru the patterns? That was nice for tracking... You didn't have to drag to a certain area in the song and hope you got it right.
And I think a help file for XMplay would be nice, but it's also fun to make fun of your friends who can't figure it out, too > *evil grin* hehehehe...
(oh yeah, there should be an 'evil grin smiley' in the forum)

-_-~

[Redgemz]

grr... I wish I'd think of all of these things before I click 'post'.  
oh well.... (that's the closest I can come to a disgruntled smiley. There should be a disgruntled smiley in the forum, too)
ANYWAY...
I know XM doesn't operate off the system commands... but would it be possible to connect special keyboard keys to it? I have CD/DVD player controls (play, pause, next track, etc.) on my pc, and it would be nice if I could use them in XM... just a thought.
-_-~

[Ian @ un4seen]

And I think a help file for XMplay would be nice, but it's also fun to make fun of your friends who can't figure it out, too > *evil grin* hehehehe...

Don't forget KD's excellent help site. (link on XMPlay page)

Skins seems to be the main request here... Hopefully, there'll be a few alternative skins available for use with the next release. They'll be seperate downloads, so they won't bloat XMPlay for those that don't like skins. But I'm not sure yet if XMPlay will be publicly skinable, for the first release atleast. We'll see how it goes.

As for the rest, keep'em coming... I try to add most of the good stuff

[Ralesk]

3.  A big mode was requested a while ago, but because XMPlay is made out of bitmaps, when resized, it looks really bad.  :\  (Or so says Ian.)

6.  Dynamic Amplification should be sorta like that; and what about the songs that go from loud to quiet?  Do you want their volume to be constant, or as intended?  

~Olego~

So... to point number 3: A double size mode (a la WinAmp) would be nice and wouldn't distort anything.

6: I've been asking for song end fadeout for ages, btw... (not totally relevant to the topic ^^;;; )

Remember how XM1 had the ability to 'seek' thru a song by skipping thru the patterns? That was nice for tracking... You didn't have to drag to a certain area in the song and hope you got it right.

I don't remember that O_o;;;  Actually, XMPlay 1.x had a serious seeking bug in multisong modules.

[Olego]

So... to point number 3: A double size mode (a la WinAmp) would be nice and wouldn't distort anything.

But you know what, I have gotten used to current XMPlay so much, that if it appears 4 times bigger (area-wise), it'll just freak me out, and I'll never use it unless on 1600-1200 resolution.  But that's my opinion.  I think more important are skins.  Skins will be a major breakthrough for XMPlay, and from all of your devoted commenters' opinions, the future of XMPlay will be decided!  

~Olego~

[Ian @ un4seen]

But you know what, I have gotten used to current XMPlay so much, that if it appears 4 times bigger (area-wise), it'll just freak me out, and I'll never use it unless on 1600-1200 resolution.

Yep, that's correct. I tested a double-size, and it was just too big. The 1.5x size was about right (size-wise), but the edges (of buttons/etc...) were blurred.

[riven-mage]

I have one and only one suggestion:

Support for Winamp2 plugins with their own output!

Because:
1. Next version of AdPlug should introduce Disk Writer device.
2. Emulated replay not so good as hardware.

Ian... please...

[It-Alien]

well I don't need skin, visualizations and other unuseful stuff like that.

I would find useful to see a sort of checkboxed listview where to choose which instruments have to be rendered to WAV when sending output to WAV writer.

The perfect thing would be to let us save automatically different samples output to different WAVs:
it-mymodule_1.xi.wav output for sample 1
it-mymodule_2.xi.wav output for sample 2...
- and / or -
it-mymodule_track1.wav output for sample 1,3,6
it-mymodule_track2.wav output for sample 2,7
samples 4 5 silent.

A good idea, ain't it? >8)

[Olego]

Ian,

I uploaded Solar Wind (solar.xm) by Andreas Viklund.  Pattern Viewer really doesn't work with it.  It just...  You'll see.  

~Olego~

[Ian @ un4seen]

Oleg, can you upload it again please? It seems to be corrupt (FT2 says "corrupt file").

Support for Winamp2 plugins with their own output!

Because:
1. Next version of AdPlug should introduce Disk Writer device.
2. Emulated replay not so good as hardware.

There's no need for a disk writer built in the plugin, XMPlay can already write to disk (inc. encoding to MP3/OGG/etc...) from plugins

Is Adlib hardware common? Maybe it is, I don't really know anything about it