Topic: Preview 2.16: Navigator

This topic has 12 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 6 months ago by Conquistador.

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

May 21, 2009 at 02:42 #1939

Zynewave
Keymaster

After the heavy 2.15 automation update I needed something lighter (and more fun) for the 2.16 update 🙂

The changelog so far:

• Added a new resizable timeline navigator to the top of all editor windows. This replaces the horizontal scrollbar in the default setup. The navigator shows a miniature graphic of the full duration of arrangements, sounds, note and curve sequences. The currently zoomed range is highlighted as a lense on the miniature. The lense can be dragged and resized to quickly adjust the zoom.

• Loading setup files created with earlier Podium versions will automatically be converted to use the navigator region.

• The old dual-purpose “meter” region is split into two separate “velocity” and “curve” regions.

• The embedded editor previously part of the tracks region is now a separate region.

• Clicking the “insert new” button in the profile properties dialog shows a popup menu instead of the previous “insert new region” dialog.

• Fix: The transition from a spline curve point to a line or bar point were not always accurate.

You can download the beta1 in the VIP lounge. Please note that if you try this beta, your Podium.ini setup will be converted to use the new regions. Please make a backup if you plan to go back to previous Podium versions.

I still need to add some mouse functionality to the navigator. Currently it is only basic drag and resize that is implemented. I’m going to add support for mouse-wheel and clicking outside the lense. Please post if you have recommendations on mouse interaction in the navigator.

Also, is there a more descriptive name than “lense”?

May 21, 2009 at 03:09 #15170

druid
Participant

Wow, the new timeline sounds like a great idea, and I wish I’d thought to suggest it! I’ve never liked the typical scrollbar approach but had only ever seen that way to do it and never thought how to change it…

But that means I could retain my zoom level (which I hate changinng in and out, most of the time) but still travel through the track! Unless, I guess, if it’s 20 minutes long or something with lots of small events… But never mind that!

Also, instead of “lense”, maybe “focus”? Not only that, and people may disagree with me, but I thought it odd when you spelled it “lense”. I believe common usage of that word these days, in many English speaking countries (so, not just the U.S. ;)) is “lens”. I’m not sure, but I don’t think Australia does, and I don’t even think England does! Or perhaps, different spellings are used fo… ah, never mind that, anyway, I think most people would spell it as “lens”, was my point! Anyone disagree?

It does seem a strange word to use though, but I can’t think of another (other than “focus”, as I said), but if I think of more, I’ll post.

May 21, 2009 at 06:10 #15171

LiquidProj3ct
Participant

wow, its fun. It would be nice that you can resize the “lense” or “focus” vertically also, and move it around.

Two small bugs:
1. When you use the hotkeys Ctrl+Alt+Mouse wheel and do the zoom as close as you can, Podium gets freezed, you cannot “un-zoom”.
2. If you close Podium with any editor windows opened (not embeded) when you run again Podium you will see that editor without any information opened in the project setup page. This also happens with older Podium versions.

May 21, 2009 at 11:42 #15172

H-man
Participant

Very cool Frits.

I noticed that track colours (for the events) and the play cursor show up on the new navigator. Do you have any plans for enabling display of Segments, Loop and Punch-in/Punch-out as well?

As for the mouse function I’d be happy to have the mousewheel zoom (like on the timeline) available on the ‘lens’ 😛 as well. This would save users from going to fetch the handles all the time as they seem to snap to the full length of any event.

@LiquidProj3ct wrote:

It would be nice that you can resize the “lense” or “focus” vertically also, and move it around.

That’s a wicked suggestion +1

@LiquidProj3ct: Might be time to lose the ‘Noob’ status? I think it’s pretty well safe to say you’ve got your Podium wings now 🙂

May 21, 2009 at 13:05 #15173

LiquidProj3ct
Participant

Frits, I was just recording some tribal drums with a midi controller and I discovered a bad behaviour that I don’t see before (maybe I’m wrong).

Just draw a small drum sequence in sequencer, set a loop on it and record some random drums. If you allow that cursor do the loop (or if there is another phanton sequence) the new midi events that should be played will be recorded.

This is the final result, tons of midi notes superimposed:

Best regards

@H-man, yeah I must search another avatar, just lazy 😛

May 21, 2009 at 13:44 #15174

kingtubby
Participant

@druid wrote:

…anyway, I think most people would spell it as “lens”, was my point! Anyone disagree?

No, ‘lens’ is correct, but yeah ‘focus’ is probably better 🙂

Mart.

May 22, 2009 at 18:30 #15177

ronin
Participant

Nice work so far frits! “Focus” is imo the better term. Zooming via mousewheel would be nice (if pointer is in the navigator-area of course) but I guess thats the “mouse functionality” you were talking about.

edit: maybe some kind of “track indicator” would be useful. Some small lines or whatsoever to distinguish the tracks in the navigator.

May 22, 2009 at 18:42 #15178

Zynewave
Keymaster

@LiquidProj3ct wrote:

wow, its fun. It would be nice that you can resize the “lense” or “focus” vertically also, and move it around.

I’m planning that for a later update. I’m also planning to add a zoom snapshot feature to store different zoom settings. The blank space to the left of the navigator could be used to show buttons or clickable miniature images for switching between the zoom snapshots. A zoom snapshot would store both the timeline and the tracks region vertical zoom settings.

Btw. I’ve scrapped the “lens” word and now use “zoom range” to describe the zoomed timeline (similar to “loop range”, “punch range”, etc.) and “zoom pane” to describe the sliding/resizable pane in the navigator. Does that make sense?

Two small bugs:
1. When you use the hotkeys Ctrl+Alt+Mouse wheel and do the zoom as close as you can, Podium gets freezed, you cannot “un-zoom”.

Fixed in the new beta2. Thanks.

2. If you close Podium with any editor windows opened (not embeded) when you run again Podium you will see that editor without any information opened in the project setup page. This also happens with older Podium versions.

It’s on purpose, so I don’t consider this a bug. Do others think that editor windows should not open on startup? I think it is useful to see the windows layout even if there are no sequences being edited yet.

Beta2 furthermore adds this:

Clicking in the navigator outside the zoom pane sets the zoom range centered around the clicked position. Double-clicking zooms out to the full range. Double-clicking either of the left/right zoom resize handles sets the zoom to the start/end of the sequence. Shift+click+dragging selects a zoom range. Middle-clicking sets the edit cursor position.

Using mousewheel on the zoom pane in the navigator will zoom in and out similar to how mousewheel zooming works on the timeline ruler. Using mousewheel outside the zoom pane will set the zoom range centered around the mouse position.

Fix: The 64-bit engine produced noise when outputting to 24-bit ASIO drivers.

May 22, 2009 at 19:15 #15179

thcilnnahoj
Participant

Ha! There I was, just about to post suggestions only to find they’re already taken care of. 😛

Clicking in the navigator outside the zoom pane sets the zoom range centered around the clicked position.

Would it be possible to have it also work with clicking inside the zoom pane, or does this interfere with click-dragging?

Double-clicking zooms out to the full range.

Love it! Add to this: when fully zoomed out, double clicking should return to the previous zoom range.

Also (this might be out of your hand with current color options), it’d be nice to have a little more contrast on the zoom pane/handles, as visibility isn’t great with a dark-on-dark color scheme.

May 22, 2009 at 20:55 #15182

Conquistador
Participant

The Navigator is a very nice piece of work. Lovely.

@Zynewave wrote:

2. If you close Podium with any editor windows opened (not embeded) when you run again Podium you will see that editor without any information opened in the project setup page. This also happens with older Podium versions.

It’s on purpose, so I don’t consider this a bug. Do others think that editor windows should not open on startup? I think it is useful to see the windows layout even if there are no sequences being edited yet.

I appreciate there may be a reason or more for Editor Windows to open on start up but personally I would not want them to open if there is no info / data in them. I see no reason for that, but that is just my view. 🙂

May 22, 2009 at 23:16 #15183

druid
Participant

In regards to edit windows, perhaps it varies depending on the user? If the user has the windows all laid out on their monitor or dual monitor setup, then they might want the layout to stay intact? And maybe for users like me who use the one window and open only what they need at the time, it looks weird to have an empty window open up? Just my thinking on it.
@Zynewave wrote:

Btw. I’ve scrapped the “lens” word and now use “zoom range” to describe the zoomed timeline (similar to “loop range”, “punch range”, etc.) and “zoom pane” to describe the sliding/resizable pane in the navigator. Does that make sense?

Sounds good to me! If you’re after one word solutions, then I can’t think of a better one than focus, but if not then zoom range and zoom pane works for me.

May 25, 2009 at 03:20 #15195

Zynewave
Keymaster

Beta3 is up. In addition to bug-fixes, speed-optimizations and refined graphics, the navigator now highlights the track zoom in the tracks region. The zoom pane can be dragged up/down to set the topmost track in the tracks region.

If there are no unexpected problems with this beta, I’ll probably release 2.16 tomorrow night.

May 25, 2009 at 09:47 #15197

Conquistador
Participant

So far so good with Beta 3. Not spent much time on it though. If any thing crops up here I’ll feed back. 🙂

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