"ModPlug 2.0"

psishock · February 08, 2009, 16:59:33

This is not a bad idea Jojo indeed. The routing process would be a less pain-in-the-ass with this, but the area needs to be zoomable (and/or scrollable) to be able to work comfortable with a great number of plugins.
If we're here, how does an individual FX-column for every channel sounds?

Harbinger · February 08, 2009, 18:33:46

Good idea, Jojo, for the graphic. Comparing it to sVarTracker which also has a graphic plug-in setup, yours is simple and i don't have to figure out a bunch of icons.
See if it's possible for each plug-in box to have its own info that's displayed below (perhaps in a menu or something), which may be able to free up some screen space at the bottom.
And like psishock said, you have to account for many plugin's --- my last piece used 5 VSTi's and 4 VST FX. Perhaps the boxes need to be "cascadable" or "minimizable" in case someone is using more than the screen will show. But boy if you can put this together, you'll be making this a lot more intuitive! :wink:

BTW, what do the blue and red lines mean? "Sends" and "bypasses"?

Saga Musix · February 08, 2009, 18:42:30

There should be scroll bars, sure. And the colours are completely random, I just thought that it would be a bad idea to paint all wires in the same colour.

Diamond · February 08, 2009, 19:10:46

I would like to be involved in the addition of any new screens/dialogs to insure that they're at least vaguely accessible. Wires as a method for connecting plugins is completely inaccessible by the way. If this feature is ever added to MPT, I request that either the current implementation be left in place or that an alternative method for routing plugins be made available. Perhaps a new dialog that presents all currently loaded plugins in two lists with connect/disconnect buttons?
Personally, I think the 2.0 release should be more focused on a few minor enhancements which have been requested by multiple users several times and that would make everyone's life a bit easier.
1. A scan folder option in the plugin manager dialog so that you don't have to manually add 50 VST plugins.
2. Saving/Loading of VST banks from the file menu in the plugin parameter dialog.
Other things like more direct control of VSTis from the pattern view would be nice, but I understand that these things take time. The first two additions however should be fairly straight forward from what I understand.

Saga Musix · February 08, 2009, 19:23:56

Both requests you made have already been suggested, and I have looked into both. As said before, ModPlug 2.0 is not the next version! It is something (far) in the future, a big milestone. Both requests are IMO small and unimportant things, thus they will rather appear in .53 or .54.

And btw, I personally don't think that wires are not straight-forward to use. Especially when it comes to routing.

Diamond · February 08, 2009, 19:41:16

Quote from: "Jojo"Both requests you made have already been suggested, and I have looked into both. As said before, ModPlug 2.0 is not the next version! It is something (far) in the future, a big milestone. Both requests are IMO small and unimportant things, thus they will rather appear in .53 or .54.

And btw, I personally don't think that wires are not straight-forward to use. Especially when it comes to routing.

Cool, I agree that these are minor additions.
And I was referring to the addition of the VST banks and VST scanning features when I said "straight forward". The issue I have with wires as a method for plugin routing has nothing to do with how "straight forward" it may or may not be. It has more to do with it not being an accessible method from the point of view of a totally blind user who relies on screen reading software.

Saga Musix · February 08, 2009, 19:46:06

If you have any ideas how to improve it, simply let us know.

Relabsoluness · February 08, 2009, 19:50:59

Quote from: "Diamond"1. A scan folder option in the plugin manager dialog so that you don't have to manually add 50 VST plugins.

It's also possible to add the plugs by 'opening' the dll-files from the main menu(file->open) or by dragging and dropping them on main window. This way there's no need to add them one-by-one.

Harbinger · February 08, 2009, 19:55:03

Whaaa??! Now this i didn't know. Thanks Relab!

psishock · February 08, 2009, 19:58:24

exactly my reaction also Harbinger :shock:. That is a really good thing to know Relabs!

Diamond · February 08, 2009, 20:00:54

Quote from: "Jojo"If you have any ideas how to improve it, simply let us know.

Quote from: "Diamond"Perhaps a new dialog that presents all currently loaded plugins in two lists with
connect/disconnect buttons?

This is my initial thought and I don't know how well it would work out, but it's the first possibility which occurs to me. It might need some refinement. I offer the suggestion as something which might be added in addition to your proposal, not instead of.

Diamond · February 08, 2009, 20:23:36

Quote from: "Relabsoluness"
Quote from: "Diamond"1. A scan folder option in the plugin manager dialog so that you don't have to manually add 50 VST plugins.
It's also possible to add the plugs by 'opening' the dll-files from the main menu(file->open) or by dragging and dropping them on main window. This way there's no need to add them one-by-one.

For me, this would still be a useful feature to have in a future version since dragging and dropping is also something that can't be conveniently done with screen reading software.

Saga Musix · February 09, 2009, 18:43:39

I just wanted to let you know that wires are as critical for screen reading software as the patterns themselves; patterns are drawn using bitmaps, thus they can't be read by screen reading software anyway. so why would you care about "readable" vst connections anyway?

Nahkranoth · February 09, 2009, 20:21:50

Hell yeah! Just make those wires not so ugly

[EDIT] Cough... typed this reading 1st page only LOL

Diamond · February 09, 2009, 21:14:09

Quote from: "Jojo"I just wanted to let you know that wires are as critical for screen reading software as the patterns themselves; patterns are drawn using bitmaps, thus they can't be read by screen reading software anyway. so why would you care about "readable" vst connections anyway?

You're correct about patterns not being particularly accessible to screen reading software. In fact, by the standards of most blind computer users MPT itself would be considered hopelessly inaccessible. However, at the expense of sounding boastful, I think it's safe to say that I'm far from the average blind computer user. In any case, based on a combination of persistence on my part and some built-in MPT features (some which were coincidentally already there and some which I've requested), I am able to mostly use the pattern view. I.E. Excellent keyboard support, the "Note Properties" dialog (which partially allows me to keep track of where I am), the "Go to row/channel" dialog (which was specifically a request of mine and allows me to jump around the pattern view very quickly) and just keeping track in general of the cursor position by memory. It's certainly not perfect, but compared to any other music sequencing software that I've ever tried... Well, it's about as good as I'm likely to find. This being the case, hopefully you can understand why I have a strong vested interest in keeping MPT vaguely accessible or at least useable. Like I said, I'm offering suggestions as potential supplements to your ideas, not as substitutes.