seejayjames

So I’m building a prototype timeline patch where panels can be dragged to specific locations and their “contents” (messages, numbers, lists) will be played back based upon their position.

I noticed an interesting effect when dragging elements over a non-white background color. Their patch cords show a white outline when dragged, IF the patch has gone to edit mode and then back----and then, only when you first drag. Additionally, if a cord is actually shown (like on the rightmost panel), you get some pretty wild effects when you drag an attached object....

Looks like the cords aren’t acting “transparently”, their default “invisible” mode is white, not actually transparent. I can’t tell if this is a bug, an oversight, or something that fell through the cracks (or just me being OCD).

On another note, I was happy to discover how useful the modifiers object is, to allow multiple actions upon an object by using shift-click or right / command-click. Great stuff. I plan to have multiple modes of operation on panels, so that if the user wants to do a lot of dragging, they can just click normally; if they want to mainly edit the attributes of panels, they would need to right-click or shift-click to drag. Also I plan to have a snap-to-grid feature, and will probably accomplish this through holding down “s” or clicking a gate.

buggy-patchcords-when-dragging-objects

Ach. An oversight before posting. Use this patch instead (the draggable on / off wasn't right in the original):

Heres a very dirty solution though I'd like to hope there was a better way, simply i've connected the boxes to a bang which coutns through some backgrounds to reset it and stop the lines. have a looks - hope it gives you an idea for something better maybe?

Heres a very dirty solution though I'd like to hope there was a better way, simply i've connected the boxes to a bang which coutns through some backgrounds to reset it and stop the lines. have a looks - hope it gives you an idea for something better maybe?
T

That works, though there's a bit of that redraw flicker. Eventually this is going to be in a bpatcher (one track per), so the panels will be constrained to their horiz. line. I don't think the flicker will show there, so that's a good workaround.

This timeline experimentation is getting interesting....

Seejay, I posted earlier this AM, but the message is held up for 

admin approval because it's large - I reattached your patcher with 

the addition of a panel in the background (instead of just using 

background color). You'll see that you don't see the patch cords 

when dragging if you use the panel as the background...

At 8:01 AM -0600 1/12/07, Seejay James wrote:

>That works, though there's a bit of that redraw flicker. Eventually 

>this is going to be in a bpatcher (one track per), so the panels 

>will be constrained to their horiz. line. I don't think the flicker 

>will show there, so that's a good workaround.

>This timeline experimentation is getting interesting....

202 Hack / PC-1600 User / VSTi Host / OMS Convert / Jack OS X

Seejay, I posted earlier this AM, but the message is held up for 
admin approval because it's large - I reattached your patcher with 
the addition of a panel in the background (instead of just using 
background color).  You'll see that you don't see the patch cords 
when dragging if you use the panel as the background...

At 8:01 AM -0600 1/12/07, Seejay James wrote:
>That works, though there's a bit of that redraw flicker. Eventually 
>this is going to be in a bpatcher (one track per), so the panels 
>will be constrained to their horiz. line. I don't think the flicker 
>will show there, so that's a good workaround.
>
>This timeline experimentation is getting interesting....
>
>Thanks,  C

-- 
Dan Nigrin
Defective Records
202 Hack / PC-1600 User / VSTi Host / OMS Convert / Jack OS X
http://www.defectiverecords.com
http://www.jackosx.com


Thanks, I had thought to use that and it sounds like it works. The user won't be able to go into edit mode in a standalone anyways, so that's fine. And since I plan to use a bpactcher, the bgcolor command doesn't work in those---so would use a panel in that case anyway.

Just thought it was an interesting (and unexpected) effect....

Will post updates on the timeline, there's a lot of good developments with dragging, shift-clicking, snapping, etc. I plan to have each panel be able to "be" a bpfunction, multislider, number, message, etc. that can be edited in a main editing window. So, an overall "measure" with up to 64 individual panels, and each has its own little "world" of settings within it. These get played back per track (of course, the smaller the beat length, the rougher the "sampling" of the values within it). Should be interesting and it's coming along...

> Thanks, I had thought to use that and it sounds like it works. The

> user won't be able to go into edit mode in a standalone anyways, so

If you want to go into edit mode on a patch with a panel, include the 

panel in the background and then lock the background. (A missing setting 

in most help files with panels by the way...)

Another observation of the patch you posted: the placement of the 

objects has an offset, at least here on a PPC Mac and Max 4.6.2.

It seems its taking the position of the object relative to the screen, 

Seejay James wrote:
> Thanks, I had thought to use that and it sounds like it works. The
> user won't be able to go into edit mode in a standalone anyways, so
> that's fine.

If you want to go into edit mode on a patch with a panel, include the 
panel in the background and then lock the background. (A missing setting 
in most help files with panels by the way...)

Another observation of the patch you posted: the placement of the 
objects has an offset, at least here on a PPC Mac and Max 4.6.2.
It seems its taking the position of the object relative to the screen, 
and places it relative to the window...

-- 
Stefan Tiedje------------x-------
--_____-----------|--------------
--(_|_ ----|-----|-----()-------
-- _|_)----|-----()--------------
----------()--------www.ccmix.com


That does help with the panel solution, the cords don't have that redraw problem. I think eventually if anything's draggable it would be bpatchers with clusters of controls anyway, just to keep things more orderly. Of course, some kind of preset function for placement on the screen of objects would allow customization.

I also noticed the same redraw issue when resizing objects via scripting. Again, not a problem unless the bgcolor is something besides white.

The offset you mentioned didn't happen on mine, but I suspect it's a mousestate mode problem. Thought I'd gotten it OK with the loadbang in the draggable subpatch. Regardless, I've got a lot more in development with the timeline idea (snap-to, etc.) though I'm still thinking about the best ways to make timelines.

I'm having a lot of success with a bpfunction that automatically remembers each edit state (the edit bang stores state into a coll); these states can be scrolled through / automated etc. Also plan to do a version with multislider, and possibly jit.cellblock. Then the idea is that the overall 960-pixel "measure" can be played track-by-track, at independent rates, and at any resolution. Seems to have a lot of possibilities so far, especially with a vertical zoom feature -- can show 2, 4, or 8 tracks at once, each with scrubber and range bars, a bar for on / off of sections, and lots of presets for filling data.

That does help with the panel solution, the cords don't have that redraw problem. I think eventually if anything's draggable it would be bpatchers with clusters of controls anyway, just to keep things more orderly. Of course, some kind of preset function for placement on the screen of objects would allow customization. 

The offset you mentioned didn't happen on mine, but I suspect it's a mousestate mode problem. Thought I'd gotten it OK with the loadbang in the draggable subpatch. Regardless, I've got a lot more in development with the timeline idea (snap-to, etc.) though I'm still thinking about the best ways to make timelines. 

Buggy (?) patchcords when dragging objects