Author Topic: module player (Read 9006 times)

zawran · « **on:** January 04, 2009 »

Yesterday when I was bored enough, I loaded up my BMax IDE and did a little bit of coding. It ended up being a smallish module player. Its still missing some kind of fx while the song plays, but I am having problems getting the instrument sync to work due to some memory reference issues. But besides that it seems to work. If any of you want to have a peek at it, and possibly give me feedback on it, then you can get it from here:

http://zac-interactive.dk/temp/zmp.zip

Here is a picture of how it looks at the moment:

There is a readme.txt in the zip that explains keyboard shortcuts and how the folder pages work.

hellfire · « **Reply #1 on:** January 04, 2009 »

Can I scroll the file-list?
Don't tell the user that a file is unplayable. I accidently hit a file in a folder not containing any modules. All I could do was killing the application with the task manager.
Volume control would be nice.

Shockwave · « **Reply #2 on:** January 04, 2009 »

As I keep most of my modules in one place I changed the config file to point there, however there are some devc and freebasic sources in this directory too (mainly converted songs).

I tried to scroll intuitively accross the files to find something to play but like Hellfire I got an endless stream of message requesters and had to kill the application with the task manager.

My thoughts on the project is that it is a lovely idea but the window is too small to read, and it lacks a file requester which properly filters out incompatible files.

I like "chip disk" interfaces, I have a huge collection of modules too and provided the app was not greedy it's definately something I'd consider having running in the background while I worked on php, so I think it's definately worth going on with and making useful.

zawran · « **Reply #3 on:** January 04, 2009 »

Thanks for the feedback so far, all valid points

I will sort the file problems, it should be simple, I just need to remove any non .mod, .it, .xm, .s3m files from the list that is shown. That way it should only be compatible files that the user can click on. The file list is very primitive right now, so the way you use it is to use left and right arrow keys to flip through pages of files. It would probably be an idea with some buttons that flip the file pages besides just keyboard shortcuts.

I haven't spent too much time on this as its something that sprung out of boredom

But if there is an interest for it, then I don't mind working a bit more on it. I sometimes like to listen to the module collection, so a small footprint player seemed like a good project to get me coding again.

Quote

but the window is too small to read

I was aiming to have it take up as little screen space as possible, but as you mention that you would have it running in the background, that is behind other windows, it wouldn't really need to be that small. So perhaps a larger font and a larger window could be better. I will look into it as well.

[edit] I have updated the zip package with a new version. This one fixes the problem with non-module files being shown. And it adds volume control, although a bit simple, you basically click in the left or right half of the volume bar, that grey one to the right of the buttons.

[edit2] Updated once more

This time with adding scrolling to the filelist. You can now use your mouse scroll wheel to scroll the filelist up and down. Using left and right arrow still works, and makes the list jump 10 files at a time. The mouse scroll wheel will scroll the filelist one file at a time.

hellfire · « **Reply #4 on:** January 04, 2009 »

The wheel navigation works very well.
Would be cool if you could support amiga-style filenames, too ("MOD.modulename").
They're stored that way on amp.

zawran · « **Reply #5 on:** January 04, 2009 »

It should now be able to find and play modules named mod.xxxxx as well. You can redownload from the link in the first post.

Shockwave · « **Reply #6 on:** January 04, 2009 »

I am using it at the moment, the improvements make a nice difference, no nasty message requesters and definately nice to have a background jukebox

Cpu usage is ok too, this is using about 10-15%

zawran · « **Reply #7 on:** January 06, 2009 »

I have updated the zip package. Changes are a fix for the highlighting of the module being played so that it only shows the actual module, regardless of changing folders. Also added is right mouse click which will change the filelist to the previous folder. Suggestions are still very welcome.

Also is the general opinion, that the font should be bigger, and thereby also the size of the application window?

Shockwave · « **Reply #8 on:** January 06, 2009 »

It works fantastic Zawran.

I have to admit that I still find it really difficult to read and my resolution is a pretty standard 1240 * 768, it could comfortably be twice the size?

Maybe you could add a minimise gadget to the window too?

hellfire · « **Reply #9 on:** January 06, 2009 »

Quote

I still find it really difficult to read

For us elderly gentlemen Windows comes with this magnifier-tool

zawran · « **Reply #10 on:** January 06, 2009 »

I have added a minimize button and updated the zip package. I have some code that I might try and implement which will allow to minimize to system tray, so all there is left is an icon which when clicked on will open up the window again. But that will be sometime during the weekend I think, I have a few other things to do first.

I will make a copy of the code and do a version with larger font and window to see how that turns out, then we can decide from there which version is best. I am using a 1920x1200 resolution on a 24 inch, and its clearly readable, but still, I want it to be as useable for everyone as possible.

zawran · « **Reply #11 on:** January 09, 2009 »

I have updated the zip package again.

This time its mainly fixes for the folderlist. I have changed it so that it keeps a seperate playing list and folder list. This way the music continues to play the next track from the correct folder and do not switch to the one currently being viewed unless the user actually click on a module file. Also fixed is the issue of where if it reached the end of the list when playing it would show an error box because it would try and load ".." which is the previous folder, now it jumps to the first module instead. Another file issue where fixed where it would crash if there were less than 10 files/folders in a list and the user used the scroll wheel.

I have also changed the volume slider so that you can click anywhere on it and have the volume set relative to it instead of incrementing it a fixed number. I have added mutex to prevent the player to be running more than once.

During the weekend I will work on another version where I will change to a slightly bigger window and a bigger font to make it easier to read the filenames.

Shockwave · « **Reply #12 on:** January 10, 2009 »

This is turning into quite a useful tool Zawran

Not that it can be safely minimised I will be using it

Increasing the font size for the old codgers like me will make it that much better.

zawran · « **Reply #13 on:** January 10, 2009 »

What font size should I be going for do you think? Suggestions on specific font to use is also welcome.

Shockwave · « **Reply #14 on:** January 11, 2009 »

Something bigger that I can read, maybe 50% bigger than it is now?

zawran · « **Reply #15 on:** January 11, 2009 »

50% bigger, sounds like a plan, I will see what I can do

Dr.Death · « **Reply #16 on:** January 13, 2009 »

Hi zawran any chance it could play sid tunes aswell??

hellfire · « **Reply #17 on:** January 13, 2009 »

I don't want to lessen zawran's motivation, but winamp makes a pretty good player with bass- and sidplay-plugins installed.

zawran · « **Reply #18 on:** January 13, 2009 »

Its quite alright, I am mostly doing this project to get me back to coding, and as long as I enjoy tinkering with it, I will continue. Hopefully it will motivate me to pickup another project down the road.

mudlord · « **Reply #19 on:** January 14, 2009 »

A suggestion:

Ian Luck made a small lib for MO3 decompression for use with BASSMOD (modules with lossless or lossy compressed samples) here: http://www.un4seen.com/stuff/unmo3dll.zip

Might be useful for you