New Compact Player Layout

[Steven]

untick "flickr.com" from the preferences. The other sites used should have accurate pictures - flickr.com can have some very interesting ones but sometimes is wrong

[Steven]

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

i've added a contrast band around all text when panel overlay is enabled. It now no longer displays a solid contrast band in the track information area that used to display for lower opacity settings

[KissCool]

Nice job.

Maybe adding a medium album cover size to the existing "small" and "larger" settings would be not that bad.
My skin setting "<element id="UseArtworkBorders">false</element>" is ignored, as you can see on the picture. Is it intended?

[Steven]

one last change specific to the compact player - it now transitions the artist picture as the artist picture changes
I have tested but it might pay to keep a copy of your current musicbee.exe just in case i have overlooked something

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

[Bee-liever]

Wow! just simply wow 

[KissCool]

Awesome.

All the features I asked for are now implemented! What can I say? Thank you very much.

(Gonna call you Santa Claus )

[SimonBRT]

First of all, the new transitions look amazing.  Fantastic addition.

One negative note however.  I really hate to bring negative feedback in at this point, so if everyone else is happy feel free to ignore this.  But I dislike the new area of contrast around overlaid text.  Particularly on lighter backgrounds (which I know are the problem this was trying to solve). I just dont think it looks great.  Additionally, this has allowed the track details overlay strip to be removed.  This however leads an invisible and slightly jarring cutoff in scrolled lists where the edge of the darker bar used to be (see screenshot)

Sorry to moan, and like I said, if everyone else is happy then ignore me, but I preferred how it was before, even if it was a little hard to read at times (it was never that bad).

[SimonBRT]

On another note, I am experiencing a slight problem with the transitions.  If MB (in compact mode) is in the background, it jumps to the foreground as the picture transition takes place.  Only for the length of the transition, it then reverts to being a background application.

[Alexis]

I am in support of SimonBRT regarding the shadow overall.

I have wondered if making it lighter (More subtle) would make a difference or if it is possible to give each letter its individual shadow so that it is then less pronounced.  If it is possible to do to individual letters, then the shadow could be very small as I suspect any indication of a shadow would be good enough to easily see the text over the background.

It is actually fine with the artist title area etc.. the issue really to me seems  pronounced in the contents of the right panel..

Update:
I have to take the opacity all the way to the full .85 to get rid of the shadow, so I would like to think a level of around .50-.55 (if not lower) may be better for the shadow instead of apparently .85.

[Bee-liever]

But I dislike the new area of contrast around overlaid text.  Particularly on lighter backgrounds (which I know are the problem this was trying to solve)

I am in support of SimonBRT regarding the shadow overall.

I have to disagree. We've gone from an 85% overlay over the entire pic, to a band that covered between 33% to 25% (depending on album art size and other settings) to a shadow that effects around 1%-2% of the pic.

I think it's a great improvement and looks good as well
Steven

[Steven]

i will make the shadow effect optional and then not enabled will use the older behavior

[Iasc]

the picture transition is a great addition and i think the shadow works well.

my only issue with the overlay panel onto picture option is the resulting transparency on the spectrum visualiser but other than that im really happy with the compact player as it is now.

[KissCool]

also the aspect ratio should now be fixed with the artist visualiser (it still does a small aspect ratio change to fit the window if the difference with the window is very small)

Forgot to say thanks for this too.

I have to disagree. We've gone from an 85% overlay over the entire pic, to a band that covered between 33% to 25% (depending on album art size and other settings) to a shadow that effects around 1%-2% of the pic.

I think it's a great improvement and looks good as well
Steven

+1

i will make the shadow effect optional and then not enabled will use the older behavior

Great. This way, it should please everyone!

[Bee-liever]

As this is almost finalised, would it still be possible not to display 'No lyrics' when the track is tagged as such

That way, if you have an instrumental track in your mixed playlist, you don't have 'No lyrics' sitting there detracting from the artist pic

[psychoadept]

As this is almost finalised, would it still be possible not to display 'No lyrics' when the track is tagged as such

That way, if you have an instrumental track in your mixed playlist, you don't have 'No lyrics' sitting there detracting from the artist pic

+1

This is one of the major reasons I don't use lyrics overlay.  Too many pieces either without lyrics in fact or that don't have lyrics online.