New Settings entry: Default Audio Volume

[johnty]

I usually play sequences with the Audio set to Very Quiet since I’ve heard the music for the effect dozens of times.  When I want to hear it at full production volume I switch to Loud.  When I open xLights at midnight and forget to change Audio from Loud to Very Quiet I’m blasted with music.  Last year I asked if the last Audio setting could be saved when exiting xLights.  Keith said no, the Very Quiet setting was primarily for the Zoom call.  Gil correctly pointed out that I could open Windows Volume Mixer and set xLights’ volume at a lower level.  True enough but then I have no headroom to make it louder without clickety-clickety back into the Volume Mixer.

So, how about an entry in Settings for Default Audio Volume?  Default would be Loud so the addition wouldn’t affect anybody unless they wanted to take advantage of it.  I think it would look like this in the drop-down Settings menu:

Default Audio Volume               >      •  Loud

                                                            Medium

                                                            Quiet

                                                            Very Quiet

Programming should be simple.  At start-up, read the Default Audio Volume setting, set the switch in the corresponding Audio setting, done.  This method has the added advantage that it is persistent across a crash in xLights.  Should work fine, last a long time.

Please?

[johnty]

The tacit response is overwhelming.

[ozaz]

if it makes you feel better johnty, i'd like that enhancement too

[Gilrock]

The tacit response is overwhelming.

What do you prefer.  I can give a smart remark when I don't like an idea or I can say nothing.

[johnty]

The tacit response is overwhelming.

What do you prefer.  I can give a smart remark when I don't like an idea or I can say nothing.

A smart remark which is your forte with perhaps a few words of why it's a bad idea.

[Gilrock]

You said "Keith said no" and then you said "Programming should be simple".  You pretty much guaranteed it won't get implemented with that second part...lol.

[TypingOffKey]

I took a stab at implementing this feature, and my pull request (the code changes I proposed, for those who aren't familiar with github lingo) was accepted and merged, so you should see this topic addressed in the next release. There won't be a separate menu selection for default audio volume, but whatever you set in the existing "Audio" menu will be saved and restored at the next launch of the program.

[Gilrock]

Yep slowing the xlights program down 1 useless feature at a time.

[johnty]

I took a stab at implementing this feature, and my pull request (the code changes I proposed, for those who aren't familiar with github lingo) was accepted and merged, so you should see this topic addressed in the next release. There won't be a separate menu selection for default audio volume, but whatever you set in the existing "Audio" menu will be saved and restored at the next launch of the program.

Even better.  Thanks TypingOffKey!

[babybear]

So, what you are saying is that anyone, at anytime, can add anything to Xlights, good or bad. Is that not going to break Xlights.  I see a mess coming.

[aknflyer]

That is problematic, one user who cannot work the volume control, slows it for all of us?

[Gilrock]

No not just anyone can add code.  Anyone can create an account and modify code and do a Pull Request and then any developer with main branch access can merge the code in.  Keith did the merge for this.  This change by itself is probably a negligible change in speed but whenever any logic is added it does take more CPU cycles to process the logic.  Just think about when users wanted the effects to snap to the timing marks.  Well that required code that compared the position of the edge of the effect with all the active timing marks every single time the effect changed position.  You add enough of those features and pretty soon people are complaining the GUI is sluggish or with a change like this its startup and shutdown time that gets affected.  You see how long it takes xLights to get running when you launch.  Also recently I noticed a change in lyric track breakdown speed.  When I first wrote that code it took about 15 seconds to import the dictionaries the first time you do a breakdown.  Now I'm not sure what was changed but there is a pretty dialog to show the progress of the import so now you can see how much longer you need to wait.  Problem is now it's like 3 times slower.

[aknflyer]

I would like lean and fast, and forget about the addons that would take a couple extra clicksto make work. My show is small, but for a large show user it could probably add up. Just my 2 cents.