Motion Pictures (Fullscreen TM)

[Mayibongwe]

A theater mode with a number of layouts - currently has three views but there'll most likely be a fourth later on.
The concept is based off of redwing's Rdio Style and Bee-liever's Mod'ernaire.

Download it here

How To Apply:
- Extract the contents (xml file & images folder) of the downloaded file to ...\MusicBee\Plugins\TheaterMode.List
- Inside MusicBee, go to Preferences -> Tags(1) -> under custom tags -> Define New Tags...
  then copy & paste the formulae commented out in the xml file into their respective virtual tag slots.

Default Layout

• There are four panels available (lyrics, comment, artist biography and upcoming tracks)
• Lyrics can be accessed by clicking the arrow on the right of the dotted line.
• The track comment can be viewed upon clicking the arrow on the left.
• Clicking an artist name will bring up the biography.
• Clicking on the bottom half of the album cover will open the upcoming tracks panel.
• On the other hand, clicking the top half will open an enlarged version of the artwork.
• A click on the far-left of the artist picture will play the previous track.
• A click at the center will play/pause the playing track...while a click on the far-right will play the next track.
• Double clicking the (playing track) title will open up the now playing assistant.

Layout 2 (colours are skin adaptive)

• On startup, the artist biography will be displayed.
• Clicking the icon on the top left will alternate between the lyrics and the upcoming tracks.
• To return to the artist bio, you would have to click the artist name in the lyrics view.

Layout 3 (endeavour1934's XBox Music Style)

• The icons on the bottom right open up the lyrics, now playing list and assistant.
• Same as the previous layouts, clicking the artist name brings up the biography.
• Clicking on any of the 5 squares located on the top right will apply an overlay to the artist picture.

[hiccup]

Well done, very nice!

It's good to see new and improved Theater Modes like these being created.

[Mayibongwe]

Thanks hiccup. Appreciate it.
How's the scaling on your pc? (since the 1st layout relies heavily on the bg image, I'm not sure if the elements will be positioned smoothly for everyone)

[hiccup]

I'm not using scaling, so I can't give useful reports on that.
Also, on my main MB installation I have no(t enough) virtual tag positions left, so it's looking a bit empty…

I'll try it out on another (testing) MB install that has plenty free VT slots available.
Perhaps I will then also try to combine the required tags into a single VT.

[Mayibongwe]

My use of 'scaling' there was incorrect.
I'm on a 14" monitor. So I was wondering if other monitor sizes (using the default 100% dpi scaling) would have the same element positioning like in the screenshots.

[hiccup]

I have not yet grasped how you can navigate through the different display options, and I am not able to do much more experimenting today, but some things that I noticed for now are:
The artist image in screenshot 1 does not scale (grow/shrink) depending on the size of the main panel, which makes it getting cropped when resizing the panel to a small size, and makes the picture look a bit small when in full-screen.
I could not get the five small option buttons at the top right of screenshot 2 to do anything, and there is some obvious image corruption showing on my system.
(I think it occurred after having the main panel unfocussed, and then focussed again.)





(my desktop is 2560x1440, but the screenshots were taken from the panel sized a bit smaller)

[Mayibongwe]

Thanks for the feedback you've given so far.
Hm, I'll look into all that more closely.
For now, I can only think that most of this is related to the TM not picking up the images it wants to use from ...\MusicBee\Plugins\TheaterMode.List\Images\Moonlight

[hiccup]

For now, I can only think that most of this is related to the TM not picking up the images it wants to use from ...\MusicBee\Plugins\TheaterMode.List\Images\Moonlight

Ah, yes.
By following the instruction and dragging the download into Theatermode.list folder, the images are not placed where they should be.
I think you will need to create an extra folder level in the download where the pictures should be in:
Moonlight/Images/Moonlight

[Mayibongwe]

1. By following the instruction and dragging the download into Theatermode.list folder, the images are not placed where they should be.
2. The artist image in screenshot 1 does not scale (grow/shrink) depending on the size of the main panel

1. My mistake, thanks. Updated both the folder structure and instructions.
2. Fixed.

And there is some obvious image corruption showing on my system.
(I think it occurred after having the main panel unfocussed, and then focussed again.)

Yes...unfortunately, there is that. I doubt it's something that can be fixed from a user's side though.
It only occurs when the artist picture rotation thing is transitioning from the current track to the next (by a different artist).
That usually goes away about 5 seconds later...although it takes a little bit longer when the TM isn't in full screen. (the next refresh occurs 30 seconds later I think)

[hiccup]

1. By following the instruction and dragging the download into Theatermode.list folder, the images are not placed where they should be.
2. The artist image in screenshot 1 does not scale (grow/shrink) depending on the size of the main panel

1. My mistake, thanks. Updated both the folder structure and instructions.
2. Fixed.

Fixed indeed, thnx!
I've been (am) enjoying some famous film scores using it.

(perhaps a TM name such as 'Hollywood', 'Tinsel Town', or something else referencing 'the movies' would be more appropriate ;-)

[Mayibongwe]

Tbh I did struggle coming up with the name Ended up going with Moonlight solely because of that vibrant blue.
But yes, you're very right. I have to consider a new one that's at least got something to do with movies since this was designed for that purpose.

[Mayibongwe]

(perhaps a TM name such as 'Hollywood', 'Tinsel Town', or something else referencing 'the movies' would be more appropriate ;-)

I've decided to go with "Motion Pictures". That's a lot better compared to the previous, right? Thanks for that hiccup.

Update: 25 January 2022
- For the default layout, there are now a variety of themes to choose from. (click the small droplet icon located just above the 'info' icon to switch between the themes)
- Added a new virtual tag (virtual18)

[Mayibongwe]

Updated:
- fixed a couple of things.
- reduced the number of required virtual tags to just six.