Author Topic: Playback changes (Read 3252 times)

Gilrock · « **on:** April 22, 2015, 09:13:59 AM »

I made a couple slight modifications to playback based on my experiences the past week. I've been doing a lot of actual sequencing for a small show for a high school graduation I need to do in May.

One of the changes is I originally had the spacebar able to pause and unpause the playback but it was doing it based on the current mode. We have two playback modes: EFFECT_PLAY and MODEL_PLAY. EFFECT_PLAY starts when you drop an effect on the grid or click on an effect as long as the sequence isn't in MODEL_PLAY. EFFECT_PLAY renders the effect for the duration of the selected effect and it's showing you all the layers on that model for that duration. I had the spacebar pausing EFFECT_PLAY if you were in that mode. I've changed it so that if you are in EFFECT_PLAY and hit the spacebar it switches to MODEL_PLAY and begins sequence playback from the current start marker position in the timeline. I kept trying to click in the timeline and hit the spacebar and it wouldn't start. I kept forgetting I needed to hit the play button instead. It didn't feel natural. So with this change you can't pause EFFECT_PLAY with the spacebar. If you really need to pause EFFECT_PLAY use the pause button in the toolbar.

Another change I felt was needed is that if you paused MODEL_PLAY and clicked on an effect or dropped an effect on the grid it wouldn't play that effect. I kept pausing my sequence and then trying to click on an effect and it wouldn't do anything cause as it was coded you needed to hit the stop button to end MODEL_PLAY mode before clicking the effect would do anything. So that didn't feel natural either and seemed confusing so I've switched it such that if you pause the sequence and are in the MODEL_PLAY_PAUSED state and then click on an effect or drop one on the grid it will immediately switch to EFFECT_PLAY and render that effect.

One other change was that we currently weren't firing the event when you selected an effect if it was already marked as the current selection. The problem I found is that you might have paused the effect playback and then go to click on that effect expecting to see it render and it wouldn't until you clicked a different effect and then clicked back on that effect. So now I've changed it so that anytime you click on an effect in the grid it will fire the event that notifies that effect was selected. The only time there won't be a reaction is if you are in MODEL_PLAY mode. So clicking in the grid during MODEL_PLAY will not shutdown the playback. You need to stop or pause the sequence playback if you want to return to EFFECT_PLAY. If you click on an effect during MODEL_PLAY and then hit stop or pause you will need to re-click that effect to begin EFFECT_PLAY.

I'm hoping these changes remove some of the confusion about why an effect wasn't rendering when you click on it and reduce most of the chances or there being situations where that happens.

jnealand · « **Reply #1 on:** April 22, 2015, 12:14:55 PM »

I was wondering how come things worked sometimes and not others. The only two types of play I thought there were was sequencer window play and preview play. But then we did have the F3 and F5 capability back in v3, but those did not seem to work anymore. Now we need Edmon to capture this and put it in the wiki. Good info to know.

Gilrock · « **Reply #2 on:** April 22, 2015, 01:55:27 PM »

I really don't know what the function keys are tied to now if anything. We were trying to have it designed such that F5 is unnecessary because effect changes should take effect immediately. The one thing I believe needs to change is an option to only playback the current effect you have selected instead of every layer on the model for that effect's duration. The problem is that doesn't fit into the current architecture. The way Dan achieved the current speed was by always immediately rendering effect changes to the sequence object using multiple threads and when you playback it just plays the result of the render which has already combined that effect with other effects on the layer. Version 3.x did real-time interpretation of the current effect settings so it was slower. I'm thinking maybe we could have an effect buffer that is used when we wanted to playback only the effect and not every layer on the model.

Gilrock · « **Reply #3 on:** April 24, 2015, 09:57:03 AM »

So I noticed that the Spacebar in Audacity actually works the way I had it before my recent change. We've been trying to model Audacity for how the timeline playback works so maybe I should put that back. In Audacity the spacebar starts play from the start marker and stops play when you hit it again. Then another press of the spacebar starts play back at the start marker again. The advantage is you can play a section over and over just by continually hitting the spacebar. I had just changed it so it did a pause and continue and I noticed it seemed like a lot of times I was wishing it worked the other way around. I could also make it a user setting to either stop play or pause play when the spacebar is hit during play.

Any opinions?

mararunr · « **Reply #4 on:** April 24, 2015, 03:23:48 PM »

I vote user setting

BobinWV · « **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2015, 01:16:45 PM »

I also vote for a user option as to how the space bar works I find it very convenient to pause..make a timing adjustment and then continue.

BobinWV

Gilrock · « **Reply #6 on:** July 24, 2015, 01:28:31 PM »

You can do that right now with the pause button.

BobinWV · « **Reply #7 on:** July 24, 2015, 02:02:32 PM »

IMHO I don't think it's as convenient. With the pause button I have to make sure the mouse stays on the pause button... the space bar is just there for the pressing

BobinWV

flyinverted · « **Reply #8 on:** July 24, 2015, 02:10:59 PM »

One of the great things about Nutcracker is the source code is open to all and anyone can download it and change it to their own liking.

arw01 · « **Reply #9 on:** July 24, 2015, 02:53:16 PM »

Buy a gaming mouse; they have lots of buttons to program.. then set up your own keybindings and use an extra gaming mouse button to do whatever.

I have mine set up so tilting the roller wheel right starts play, and tilting left ends play.

Gilrock · « **Reply #10 on:** July 24, 2015, 03:39:29 PM »

Yes and I always like to click in the timeline just in front of the area I'm working on and then use the spacebar to keep restarting. If you want to change where you are working just click somewhere else. If you want to auto-start play somewhere else just click in the timeline.

gerry · « **Reply #11 on:** July 25, 2015, 03:36:46 AM »

Hi Gil,

These are excellent changes as usual , particularly the ones described in the last two main paras in you first post above.
I have seen that quite often when I sequence , but was not sure why. (Cause I drop an effect play that bit pause , adjust , etc). So basically would click a few times , hit F5 , try something else then come back etc.

I just put it down to user inexperience..