Beat Bar v.2

[Clarence]

@diego

Pretty sure this is related to display scaling, anything above 100% will cause this.

@Clarence try to set fixedHeight to false in skin.xml

I've looked into this a bit more myself over the last couple of days and you're quite right, it appears to be a scaling problem. However, setting fixedHeight="false" only serves to cause the problem to occur on non-high dpi screens. I think, because of the background graphics used and their placement method, I can find no way of having one skin that works universally and therefore that would mean having two versions. That's not going to happen if for no other reason than my testing would be severley limited and dependant on monitor access.

As the problem has only been reported once and the user in question hasn't come back with any feedback or update, I shall continue with the status quo (which, incidentally reminds me that I haven't listened to their stuff in a while).

Thanks for the input though, diego. Much appreciated.

[fred]

If Windows Display scaling is set to 125% I get the same higgledy-piggedly Player bar as Nhiet. If I change the scaling to 100% the player bar is fine. My monitor is a Dell 25" at resolution  2560x1440. Scaling at 100% makes screen text too miniscule for my 73 year old eyes so I'll set scaling back to 125% and just live with the slightly out of place buttons.

I think your skins are great - I especially like the Classique ones.

[Clarence]

@fred

If Windows Display scaling is set to 125% I get the same higgledy-piggedly Player bar as Nhiet. If I change the scaling to 100% the player bar is fine.

Thanks for the info fred and it goes to confirm diego's and my own conclusions above.

... for my 73 year old eyes.

A problem I know well given that we are not of vastly dissimilar age. I was beginning to think that I might be the only member of the 'Senior Club' here.
Despite the oxymoron that this forum board insists on using ...if only, eh?

I think your skins are great - I especially like the Classique ones.

Thank you...hopefully those ones evoke an era that feels so familiar to us.

[Clarence]

Download files updated : Correction to text colouring to aid visibility for 'Find' button in dark themed skins

[Clarence]

As reported above, some users of higher resolution screens (1920x1080 pixels or above) can experience distortion of the high density graphics when viewing this skin with Windows 10 systems and scaling of 125% or higher.

Having re-checked the skin files and ensuring that it wasn't something I'd omitted (I have never professed to be perfect, often...), fred said he was sure he could find a solution and I said 'go on then'.  He has worked on this with sample and example skins passing between us and I now have to give huge thanks to fred who wouldn't let it rest and has posted his quick fix solution here: Fix: Distorted graphics on Windows 10

If you are experiencing similar distortion on this or any of my high density graphic displays, please follows fred's post to overcome the problem.

[Clarence]

Version 2 now released:

Nothing earth shattering, but an opportunity to apply a few cosmetic tweaks:

Primary changes - Button recesses now moved to form part of the button matrix and removed from the background layer. The effect of which is that when a button is not displayed it no longer leaves an empty recess on the main player panel (e.g. 'LastFM Love' button).

Secondary changes - Re-positioning of the progress bar and re-positioning of the player rating stars to allow slightly more space to accommodate larger text fonts.

The splash screen now carries the 'v2' notation to help identify whether update is required.

The initial post on this thread has been updated and all download links now point at Version 2.

EDIT:  Two new skins in the Beat Bar series now added.
Beat Bar Metallic
Beat Bar Colours

[Jorus_E]

A little snag.


https://i.imgur.com/oiqHxNb.png

[Clarence]

A little snag.


https://i.imgur.com/oiqHxNb.png

I can't reproduce the problem here...
Your image:


My Image:


The only visible difference appears to be that the font size is slightly larger, despite the 'fontSize' parameter being limited in the skin file.

I have made a small adjustment and I'd ask you to try this modified version: BeatBar-Black_Red_modified

Please let me know if that's any better and if not, please let me know:-
Font name and size you are using for player text display.
what your monitor resolution is and, if you have scaling set, what percentage.
If possible, a full screenshot.

[Jorus_E]

Top skins by the way.

Here it is.

Nothing is changed with the modified xmlc. https://imgur.com/ox51neA

The resolution: https://imgur.com/tvjLrB7

The scaling: https://imgur.com/7kxQqUs

Font setting: https://imgur.com/DoUioo0

Total view: https://imgur.com/OHR5Ood

[fred]

Have you looked at reply#19 - have you tried what is suggested there?

[Clarence]

Top skins by the way.

...Nothing is changed with the modified xmlc. ...

Jorus_E ...Here's a further mod of the file: BeatBar-Black_Red_mod2

It's something to do with the higher resolution screen size as it's not causing any problems on screens with a resolution of 1920x1080 and below.

A friend has just tested it for me on the same resolution monitor that you have and has confirmed that it does occur regardless of scaling, but I'm bug**rd if I know why at the moment.

For the moment I hope that mod2 will provide a workaround. Let me know how you get on please.

[Jorus_E]

Clarence,

top.

See: https://imgur.com/NPxdNWt


And now, over to an extensive use of the Beat Bar skin.

Thank you.

[Clarence]

Jorus_E

Your corrected Image:

My corrected Image:
(at 2560x1440)

If you have anything longer than this then you need to get out more  

Glad the 'workaround' was successful.

So far, research is indicating that the problem could be caused by the change in proximity of components dependent on the overall size of the screen used in a monitor. Two monitors may both use 2560x1440 resolution as a standard measure, but if one is in a 25 inch monitor and one is in a 23 inch monitor, the PPI value (Pixels Per Inch) is quite different.  

Example: (Using the Pythagorean Theorem) a 1920x1080 resolution in a 15.6inch (typical laptop) display has 141.21 pixels per linear inch or 19,940.83 in a square inch of display.  The same resolution in 14 inch display 157.35 pixels per linear inch or 24,739.18 per square inch.   A noticeable difference.

This may be a red herring but I don't like not knowing why something went wrong, so I'd ask a favour , could you please let me know the size of your monitor.  Just for my own peace of mind.

In the meantime, enjoy the skin.

[Clarence]

Following a report of a potential clash of rating stars and track position (timer) on high resolution screens, an update has been applied to eliminate the risk of this.

This conflict only appears to affect higher resolution screens over 1920x1080 pixels.

The initial post in this thread has been updated and all download links point to amended files.

[Jorus_E]

Clarence,

The monitor in use: Acer K272HUL

27" - 2560x1440 (Quad HD) - 16:9 - 109dpi - dotpitch 0.233mm

Thats all.

Greetings