Dylan Marcus

I am using a pictslider object to track my mouse horizontally across the screen however I am trying to get it so that if the slider (or your mouse) reaches the max or min slider value that it would reset to mimic the behavior of an endless rotary slider.

The only reason I was using a pictslider was because I would prefer if I could have a transparent background, not sure if there was another way to have a mouse have endless horizontal tracking to a range of values.

I am using a pictslider object to track my mouse horizontally across the screen however I am trying to get it so that if the slider (or your mouse) reaches the max or min slider value that it would reset to mimic the behavior of an endless rotary slider. 

The only reason I was using a pictslider was because I would prefer if I could have a transparent background, not sure if there was another way to have a mouse have endless horizontal tracking to a range of values.


endless-pictslider

the trick is to get the mouse tracking from another object than the one which is displaying the endless knob.

1. put an [lcd] in background and get its "location when clicked".

2. put your picture control object containing the endless knob graphics on top of the lcd, and disable its mousing ("ignore click")

now the lcd does the mousetracking and the picture control the GUI - and you can put all kind of (fixed or dynamic) operations between the two, such as randomizing the picture frames, disable their movement, interpolation, color change, ... or playing the endless knob game. because lcd also tracks the mouseposition outside its object size, just like picture control would do. it 100% feels like you had an endless knob right in pictctrl.

with a few steps more you can also reproduce the jump-to feature of picturecontrol this way, to do so, you must enable the idle mouse tracking in the lcd object before.

now the lcd does the mousetracking and the picture control the GUI - and you can put all kind of (fixed or dynamic) operations between the two, such as randomizing the picture frames, disable their movement, interpolation, color change, ... or playing the endless knob game. because lcd also tracks the mouseposition outside its object size, just like picture control would do. it 100% feels like you had an endless knob right in pictctrl.
with a few steps more you can also reproduce the jump-to feature of picturecontrol this way, to do so, you must enable the idle mouse tracking in the lcd object before.


...but for a smaller circular endless knob i wouldnt like to have jump-to anyway.

You can use a [dial] object with 'degrees' set to 360 and 'clip' set to 0.

(However, its mouse tracking is vertical by default, not horizontal, and the only other mouse tracking option is circular.)

You can use a [dial] object with 'degrees' set to 360 and 'clip' set to 0.
(However, its mouse tracking is vertical by default, not horizontal, and the only other mouse tracking option is circular.)

Actually to explain it a little better here is an example of what I have. I dont want a knob but maybe you guys are suggesting I switch to some sort of image based solution?

Although the endless rotary functions exactly how I would want (except the fact that it is vertical instead of horizontal and it isnt transparent)

you could try to hack the mouse position so that it is reset when you track horizontally, with the pupdate message to max or aka.mouse

it's a lot of hack i think. Maybe there's a jsui base solution.

you could try to hack the mouse position so that it is reset when you track horizontally, with the pupdate message to max or aka.mouse
it's a lot of hack i think. Maybe there's a jsui base solution.


"I dont want a knob but maybe you guys are suggesting I switch to some sort of image based solution?"

in case you _dont want to use any custom images, you can of course also do everything directly in one [lcd].

the graphics you use in your patch suggest that, and you also seem to know how to deal with the goemetry part. a perfect lcd job.

Upon initially checking out [mousestate] and [lcd] they behave more optimally for my application but they both still have an issue where they are limited to the screens bounds and don't either lock the mouse in place for endless movement or reset the mouse upon hitting a bound (behaviors seen in endless rotary).

Ultimately it looks like this may need some sort of mouse hack or use externals. I will post any findings I have for anyone interested.

Upon initially checking out [mousestate] and [lcd] they behave more optimally for my application but they both still have an issue where they are limited to the screens bounds and don't either lock the mouse in place for endless movement or reset the mouse upon hitting a bound (behaviors seen in endless rotary). 

Ultimately it looks like this may need some sort of mouse hack or use externals. I will post any findings I have for anyone interested.


when i am not mistaken, tracking the mouse position is always limited to the screen bounds. P

So far in testing, things that have the option to turn off Clip Values (such as the dial) actually are not limited by screen bounds.

I just wish this functionality/behavior could be acted on other things besides [dial]

So far in testing, things that have the option to turn off Clip Values (such as the dial) actually are not limited by screen bounds.
I just wish this functionality/behavior could be acted on other things besides [dial]


[ubutton] can track the mouseposition and does not depend on the object position like [mousestate].

I am not sure if I understand what exactly you want, but maybe the patch below comes close. It's a kind of endless ribbon controller. Mouse tracking is bound to the screen of course, but you can "wipe" with the mouse to push the value higher or lower. Maybe better than a super-long slider and works over the whole screen (and a second screen if there is one.

Additional value: you could duplicate the processing patch for vertical information. That's the right output of [zl slice 1].

Additional value: you  could duplicate the processing patch for vertical information. That's the right output of [zl slice 1].


Correction: a second screen may deliver garbage.

Correction: a second screen may deliver garbage.
Mine does, sometimes.


this is yet another really badass way to do endless horizontal tracking!!

It still has the one main issue where the mouse controlling it is bound by the size and ends of the screen(s). Can you explain what you mean by 'wipe' the mouse?

this is yet another really badass way to do endless horizontal tracking!! 

It still has the one main issue where the mouse controlling it is bound by the size and ends of the screen(s). Can you explain what you mean by 'wipe' the mouse?


Don't know if "wipe" was the right term ;-)

Drag several times into the same direction.

With relatively short movements you can reach any value even on the smallest screen.

There are pauses between the wipes of course, according on your mouse handling. Another version would be to let the counter run for a short time in the direction of the movement, depending on the initial speed, until you drag again (= new movement) or do nothing (= stop).

Also thinkable: Give the counter an initial "force impact" for the desired speed and let it run until the next click or a specified time or value.

Just out of curiosity – why do you insist in a long horizontal movement? Normally an endless [dial] with circular tracking is just fine.

Don't know if "wipe" was the right term ;-)
Drag several times into the same direction.
With relatively short movements you can reach any value even on the smallest screen.

There are pauses between the wipes of course,  according on your mouse handling. Another version would be to let the counter run for a short time in the direction of the movement, depending on the initial speed, until you drag again (= new movement) or do nothing (= stop).

Also thinkable: Give the counter an initial "force impact" for the desired speed and let it run until the next click or a specified time or value. 

Just out of curiosity – why do you insist in a long horizontal movement? Normally an endless [dial] with circular tracking is just fine.


the pupdate message to max does work, and it's possible to replicate an infinite horizontal movement - expanding from Peter Ostry's patcher above, this makes it, but it's a bit wonky if you swipe fast.

Wrapping my head around it to modify it, didnt realize max pupdate message could so literally change mouse location, this should work out well.

Wow @VICHUG this is spot on!
Wrapping my head around it to modify it, didnt realize max pupdate message could so literally change mouse location, this should work out well.

yes, you can make sofware read the mouse input directly, but are you sure you want this?

in my experience it is totally useless to have a GUI object which allows/requires the user to go beyond the screen limit, because the mousepad or the notebook controller isn´t endless either.

i would rather try to implement some kind of acceleration for bigger jumps in the range.

To explain the user story a little and why I need it this way and cannot use acceleration as a solution is because I am using this transparent fader to allow users to track objects in a video, these objects are able to from one end of the screen and instantly onto the opposite end of the screen and the user is required to track movement for long periods of time (which is why the most ideal method would be that the mouse location is not even considered bound to any screen or window)

Endless pictslider ?