Topic: 2.7 - the current state of play

[Ian @ un4seen]

It's been almost 3 months since the last XMPlay release, so I figured you're all probably wondering what the current state of play is

XMPlay 2.7 has been in development for the past month or so, and will probably be available fairly soon. This is what the 2.7 "History" section looks like at present...

* 8 point windowed sinc interpolation (3DNow! optimized)
* Non-interpolated mixing option
* Support for 32/24-bit WAV files
* More responsive auto amp reduction
* Amp slider scale is now the same for all formats
* MOD pattern display horizontal scrolling
* MOD channel muting
* Automatic scanning for track lengths
* Checking for "dead" tracks on startup
* Visualisation display resizing (rather than stretching)
* "Stop at end of queue" option (loop list switch sub-menu)
* Looped WAV writing (always "only once")
* Invert selection shortcut
* Selection of multiple blocks of tracks (using ctrl+shift+click)
* "Sort by filename" now includes the path
* WinXP time display problem fixed
* A few more skin-related improvements (see skinning kit)

As always, there are also plenty of internal tweaks, to further improve quality and performance.

Regarding gapless output... the gap between tracks has been greatly reduced, though it's not quite gapless yet (it's about 10ms in my tests)

[tigre]

Regarding gapless output... the gap between tracks has been greatly reduced, though it's not quite gapless yet (it's about 10ms in my tests)

Is this about mp3 playback (this would mean you try to add something like Winamp Crossfade plugin) or about all audio files so the status quo could be considered as "not perfect yet"?

[Ian @ un4seen]

That refers to the short delay between one track ending and the next starting, due to the time taken to load/initialize the new track. So it applies to all file types.

[Brightguy]

Looks good!  Lots of nice new features...

What are the skinning improvements?

[Tsorovan]

* WinXP time display problem fixed

Is this related to the UI freezing bug (on playing non-module tracks) on Win2K/XP? That one has been my biggest gripe of late, understandably.

[Retro]

>* MOD pattern display horizontal scrolling

Other info windows too, naturally?

>* MOD channel muting

Solo channel also?

>* Checking for "dead" tracks on startup

Will this be optional to use? I don't have any need for this, personally.

And what about tenths of seconds? :evil:

Ian, did you see my suggestion about comma-formatting filesize info in the general info-window? You see, it's frustrating to first count the digits and then wonder what the filesize is.

And then another idea of mine: :idea:
Ability to choose what info is shown in the main panel (MP3 - 128 kb/s - 44100 Hz etc.) This configuration could be put in the INI file, as well as all the other options. Cause I'm not really interested in the Hertz's and frames of the files Not that it bothers me so much. But this was just another idea of mine. Which are not always so bright.

[uRRada]

Hello.

I will only add one thing:

- please add Track Info window call to global hotkeys

This could be very usefill.

Thanks.

[Fraggie]

* MOD pattern display horizontal scrolling

Can't imagine this...

[uRRada]

Ah yeah,
I forgot one thing:
- when my START panel is autohided, then notification of what new song starts playing is shown off schreen. (I have START panel on the left side of schreen)

Please fix this little bug and I open a secret why my start panel is on the left! ))

Good luck.

[Ralesk]

* Automatic scanning for track lengths

Forgot to mention, adding a LOT of tracks will make XMPlay crash in the middle, due to this automatic feature.  Because it would start while adding files.

* Gapless Ogg play

I'm quite awaiting that one!

* Global keys

Someone suggested that there be a Track info GK.  I know that if I use XMPlay in tray or in minimode in the corner, I do NOT want to click on it just to then press F5 for the playlist  I need a Playlist GK ^_^

[Irrational86]

I sort of "discovered" () that right clicking the Email Skin Author button in the Misc panel, it will open a TXT file, if the skin includes it, and if no TXT is included it will Beep, is this intended, or is it Beeping because of an error?

[Tsorovan]

I'm with Ralesk. I've requested this feature before. Not that that makes me cool or anything...eh yeah...I'm rambling again.

[Ralesk]

Oh, hey, Ian.

Play Random Track shouldn't try to play (marked) dead tracks

[Olego]

Ian, I have a suggestion:

When an info window is open, please make Ctrl+C copy the current text.  I know you can do it using right-click->Copy to Clipboard, but I would rather use the Ctrl+C shortcut.  Thanks,

~Olego~

[Pike84]

Looking good . By the way, will there also be automatic scanning for ID tags (or a switch to make it do so etc.)? Not really important tho, but anyway

[Sub-Zero]

* 8 point windowed sinc interpolation (3DNow! optimized)

Awesome .  1 quick question.  How will the new mixer run on intel hardware?  Will it fall back to MMX, use x87 instructions, or use SSE/SSE2?

[Jace]

I've noticed that XMPlay prefers to show ID3v1 before ID3v2, so if both are in, it shows v1..
The thing is, that I only use v2 when the song name is too long for v1, and it's kinda not cute when it shows the shortened version instead =)

[Ralesk]

sub-z> it works flawlessly in a celeron 300

jacer> most mp3 files, though, have a VERY borked up id3v2 :]  so if we change, we'll get a million people whine about that they see Untitled or some b0rk in the playlist and not the titles

Ian> I had xmplay on auto-loop for once, and it decided to loop an ogg file... O.o;

[Jace]

Fair enough

[Ian @ un4seen]

*crawls out of sickbed*

What are the skinning improvements?

* Active heading bitmaps, and "Heading" area in main/mini-mode masks (may be possible to do the in/active frame colour change in the Vintage skin )
* Info window loop and random "ticks"
* Mini-mode loop button
* "Change panel (previous)" button in the left panels

>* MOD pattern display horizontal scrolling

Other info windows too, naturally?

Nope

>* MOD channel muting

Solo channel also?

Sort of... there's an invert all channels option (ie. mute a channel, then invert all). I may add a "Solo" option too though.

>* Checking for "dead" tracks on startup

Will this be optional to use?

Yep, it'll be possible to disable it. It runs at very low priority though, so it won't hog the CPU if something else needs it.

- please add Track Info window call to global hotkeys

I'll look into it.

I sort of "discovered" () that right clicking the Email Skin Author button in the Misc panel, it will open a TXT file, if the skin includes it, and if no TXT is included it will Beep, is this intended, or is it Beeping because of an error?

Intended

When an info window is open, please make Ctrl+C copy the current text.  I know you can do it using right-click->Copy to Clipboard, but I would rather use the Ctrl+C shortcut.

Ok.

By the way, will there also be automatic scanning for ID tags (or a switch to make it do so etc.)? Not really important tho, but anyway

I'm not sure what you mean. I think enabling the "verify new files" option (right-click "add to list" button) may be what you're looking for?

1 quick question.  How will the new mixer run on intel hardware?  Will it fall back to MMX, use x87 instructions, or use SSE/SSE2?

It falls back to x87 instructions. I may write SSE versions (MMX is not possible because it's floating-point calculations), but I imagine a P3/4 will probably be fast enough to run the the x87 version

I've noticed that XMPlay prefers to show ID3v1 before ID3v2, so if both are in, it shows v1..
The thing is, that I only use v2 when the song name is too long for v1, and it's kinda not cute when it shows the shortened version instead =)

hmm... do you mean in the title? It should use whichever is the longest. I'll look into it.

Ian> I had xmplay on auto-loop for once, and it decided to loop an ogg file... O.o;

Yep, "Auto-loop" applies to all formats. Basically, if there's noise at the end, it'll loop


*crawls back into sickbed *

[Pike84]

I'm not sure what you mean. I think enabling the "verify new files" option (right-click "add to list" button) may be what you're looking for?

Well, if you have a list saved, and then you change some tags (and not save again after that), they aren't changed until played when you load the list again. That's where it could be useful to scan the tags, when a list is loaded. Also if the tags were changed by any other means, the list would remain the same anyway, until the tracks were played. Could make this an option, yes?

Oh, and ticking 'verify new files' doesn't affect this.

[Zarggg]

You know that you can rescan all titles in the formatting options, right?

[Brightguy]

* Active heading bitmaps, and "Heading" area in main/mini-mode masks (may be possible to do the in/active frame colour change in the Vintage skin )

Cool feature - changing the inactive frame colour in Vintage was exactly what I was thinking...  Maybe I should've gotten that 2.7 beta when they were being given out.  Oh well, it'll be out soon enough and I'll see then.

[Olego]

Ian, some games like Max Payne and Morrowind disable global keys--so you won't accidentally press WinKey or Ctrl+Esc while in the middle of a battle.  When they do that, the hotkeys in XMPlay stop responding as well.  Is there any way around it?

~Olego~

[Torkell]

*crawls out of sickbed*

...

*crawls back into sickbed *

Poor Ian... we've made you ill by making you do all this work for us. Hope you get better soon

Kynes: another way to make it rescan everything is to click the Rescan Titles button in the Title Format dialog.

Olego: probably not, unless you find a way to disable exclusive keyboard access in those programs.