Xion Community

WARNING:
This is a Beta Build. That means it has fixes and features that are NEW. It is also possible it has bugs that are NEW! If you are looking for stability, please don't expect this build to be perfectly stable. It may have issues. If on the other hand you are happy to try this build out and post any bugs back in this thread, then please do!

Download Installer Version:
r2 Studios Server -> http://www.r2.com.au/downloads/files/beta/qa-xion_v1.0b104.exe
OR
Xion Server -> http://xion.r2.com.au/download/beta/qa-xion_v1.0b104.exe

Changelist:

• Converted Xion from VS.NET 2003 to VS 2005
  
• Fixed playlist loading the main skin when you clicked on a button that switched interfaces on the main skin
  
• Disabled Left/Right VU values when muted
  
• Fixed the Track Title Format Help so that it no longer selects the text by default
  
• Fixed the GUISlider not repositioning correctly when using the achors
  
• Added new types edget, edgeb, edgel, edger in order to assist with borders where you'd like to tile but have it resize. Modified the Default skin to now use this so that resize borders are smaller
  
• Fixed the pinned left/right/top/bottom layers so that they correctly center align (i.e. those with 2 anchors)
  
• Fixed the File type Explorer, Native Media Player and AutoPlay menu integration. Toggling now instantly activates/deactives these
  
• Moved the file type Play/Enqueue Explorer command registration for AudioFiles and Playlists into the Explorer Integration Registration so that you can disable in the FileTypes dialog
  
• Renamed Windows Explorer "Play in Xion" to "Play now in Xion"
  
• Renamed Windows Explorer "Enqueue in Xion" to "Add to Xion Playlist"
  
• Fixed bug where the Save states and other things weren't being properly saved when you launched Xion by double clicking an audio file. Now internally forces the Working Directory to be the same as the Xion.exe
  
• Added support for snapping windows to each other as you move them around
  
• Removed the Playlist task bar item

If you find bugs specifically related to this build, please post them here instead of the Bug reporting forum. Any feedback positive or negative should also go in here, no new threads. This way all feedback, etc related to this build will be in the one place.


ABOUT THIS BUILD:

Major change is switching from .Net 2003 runtimes, to 2005 along with fixes for pretty much all reported issues from build 103. One of the only things I haven't done yet is the ability to move the main window and have all the other windows that have been snapped on, move with it. I've also polished up the Playlist skin some more and removed the Task bar button.

Any questions or bugs related to this build should be posted here only!

Enjoy!

Cliff

Aaaah man, great updates!

Thanks so much for this one. I'm sooo happy you've finally fixed the save state bug. That was...well, bugging me quite a bit hehe. Everything is much better than build 103 so far, well done

A couple of niggling issues are apparent however. Nothing major though:

The new snap feature has a few problems. Firstly, it seems to snap to way too many edges, like the edge of the PSD as well as the snap rectangle, as well as the default rectangle it places if you don't have a rectangle. It also seems to extend the x,y snapping lines accross the entire desktop as I can snap to it when they're at opposite ends of the screens. Basically, there is almost always some kinda of snapping going on no matter where they are placed.

Another thing which has been apparent since the first playlist beta is the prompt "Save changes to Xion.m3u?" whenever you open Xion. Don't get me wrong, a promt is great and all, but as I mentioned in a previous beta topic, this should be promted before you close Xion, not when you reopen it. Also, I don't think it should promt so often either, like when you only have 1 item in the PL. To be honest, I don't think it's needed at all unless you've opened an existing playlist file and have made relevant edits such as deleting/removing files and arrangement. THEN, promt to save, on exit. It just appears way too many times and it's quite frustrating, especially since it just resumes playback of the last file instead of playing the one you just opened.

One last thing, just another reminder to set the dotted PL resize rectangle above the PL itself

Great work though dude. I feel I can work with this one somewhat in peace

Peace, Lance

Still no error reporting i see.

The default skin looks nicer now, awesome. I might've missed this from 103 so pay no attention if i'm late.

The crash when loading folders now only happens when choosing the 'Play now' option in the shell.

Oh and i noticed something else. The timer in the playlist starts scrolling when it gets too big. But that ain't right! Fix eeet D: *cracks whip*

Right, more on this, later.

EDIT: Oh that's cool. Loading a new skin while Xion plays destroys the playlist and replaces it with the normal psd of the newly installed skin. Changing skins does not fix this, nor does closing the player and restarting it.

Oh yeah, using any buttons on the deformed playlist causes a crash that, somehow, has brought up the crash report sending feature for the first time. However, when i hit the link to see the crash report files, it opened up the crash report file listing dialogue, which had 4 files in them that totaled over 60 megabytes of data. I don't know about you, but i don't want to wait two hours to send a crash report. My upload speeds are ridiculously weak, unable to go even over 10kb/s. At any rate, the crash report files dialogue refused to close for some reason, and i was unable to return to the crash report sending screen, thus making me unable to try and send it even though it's one huge motherf***er.

Lance Wrote:The new snap feature has a few problems. Firstly, it seems to snap to way too many edges, like the edge of the PSD as well as the snap rectangle, as well as the default rectangle it places if you don't have a rectangle. It also seems to extend the x,y snapping lines accross the entire desktop as I can snap to it when they're at opposite ends of the screens. Basically, there is almost always some kinda of snapping going on no matter where they are placed.

Ah ok I'll have to look into these issues. I'll have to do some custom fixes for the skin snap rectangles, thanks.

Lance Wrote:Another thing which has been apparent since the first playlist beta is the prompt "Save changes to Xion.m3u?" whenever you open Xion. Don't get me wrong, a promt is great and all, but as I mentioned in a previous beta topic, this should be promted before you close Xion, not when you reopen it. Also, I don't think it should promt so often either, like when you only have 1 item in the PL. To be honest, I don't think it's needed at all unless you've opened an existing playlist file and have made relevant edits such as deleting/removing files and arrangement. THEN, promt to save, on exit. It just appears way too many times and it's quite frustrating, especially since it just resumes playback of the last file instead of playing the one you just opened.

Yes, I've seen this a couple of times myself. Something has changed recently. It shouldn't ask you to save the playlist unless you've previously actually saved it. If you've never saved the playlist it shouldn't ask you to save. I'll fix it for the next Beta

Lance Wrote:One last thing, just another reminder to set the dotted PL resize rectangle above the PL itself

Ahh yes I need to find a solution for that

Lance Wrote:Great work though dude. I feel I can work with this one somewhat in peace

Hehe thanks! Good to hear!

Cliff

logokas Wrote:Still no error reporting i see.

No its definitely enabled...So its crashing for you when you're in Vista, and you choose to play a whole directory?

logokas Wrote:The default skin looks nicer now, awesome. I might've missed this from 103 so pay no attention if i'm late.

Thanks, you didn't miss it, but you missed the text I wrote in the post for the build where I said "I've also polished up the Playlist skin"

logokas Wrote:Oh and i noticed something else. The timer in the playlist starts scrolling when it gets too big. But that ain't right! Fix eeet D: *cracks whip*

Yup, I'll just need to increase the size of it some more

logokas Wrote:EDIT: Oh that's cool. Loading a new skin while Xion plays destroys the playlist and replaces it with the normal psd of the newly installed skin. Changing skins does not fix this, nor does closing the player and restarting it.

Damn I just spotted this one too. Will be fixed for next Beta. In order to fix the 'broken' playlist you'll just have to open the skins browser and browse to the default playlist skin and load it again.

logokas Wrote:Oh yeah, using any buttons on the deformed playlist causes a crash that, somehow, has brought up the crash report sending feature for the first time. However, when i hit the link to see the crash report files, it opened up the crash report file listing dialogue, which had 4 files in them that totaled over 60 megabytes of data. ...

Hmm it shouldn't be 60mb. Do you know which 4 files it included? Not sure why they would total 60mb though? Can you check them on disk to make sure they do total 60mb and which one is causing the bloat?

Cliff

Thanks mate, I look forward to 105! In the mean time, this is great work thus far

Peace, Lance

Fixed playlist loading the main skin when you clicked on a button that switched interfaces on the main skin

I'm still having problems with this. Clean install, but sometimes I see magic pink instead of the Playlist window.

Build 104 won't load interface or other plugins on first launch, if you don't have MS VC++ 2005 installed on your system. You either need to copy Xion 2005 libraries to Plugins folder as well, or better yet, install MS VC++ 2005 Redistributable Package.
Anyways, since there's a clear transition to VC, why include 2005 files with the installer? Just post a message about latest builds needing VC++ 2005 Package installed.

Alai Wrote:

Fixed playlist loading the main skin when you clicked on a button that switched interfaces on the main skin

I'm still having problems with this. Clean install, but sometimes I see magic pink instead of the Playlist window.

Build 104 won't load interface or other plugins on first launch, if you don't have MS VC++ 2005 installed on your system. You either need to copy Xion 2005 libraries to Plugins folder as well, or better yet, install MS VC++ 2005 Redistributable Package.
Anyways, since there's a clear transition to VC, why include 2005 files with the installer? Just post a message about latest builds needing VC++ 2005 Package installed.

True, you are correct. I included them for older systems that work by having them in the working directory. Out of interest which OS are you using? I've only had the plugin loading problems under Vista. XP and 2000 have been fine with just including the .dlls in the same directory as the Xion.exe.

Cliff

Cliff Cawley Wrote:No its definitely enabled...So its crashing for you when you're in Vista, and you choose to play a whole directory?

Using XP SP3, choosing to play a whole directory, and happens regardless if there are subdirectories in the folder, or not.

Cliff Cawley Wrote:Hmm it shouldn't be 60mb. Do you know which 4 files it included? Not sure why they would total 60mb though? Can you check them on disk to make sure they do total 60mb and which one is causing the bloat?

I can't really be arsed to recreate the error, and i'm pretty sure the files are gone by now, but my memory is still fresh enough to know that the files were:

1. A 50MB dump file
2. An XML error dump, around 10MB
3. Another XML file i think, this one was around 5MB
4. The Xion settings file, very small.

I'll post a picture later, or something,

Cliff Cawley Wrote:Out of interest which OS are you using?

Running XP SP3.

Cliff Cawley Wrote:XP and 2000 have been fine with just including the .dlls in the same directory as the Xion.exe.

Yes, up to 103, but not anymore. As I mentioned, root directory is not enough, the dlls must also be in the Plugins folder for the plugins to load.

wOOt, the skinnable playlist works quite cool.

Some remarks from me since i use xion in most of the cases just w/ the playlist open:
*I'm missing the Playlist Tab in the Taskbar (maybe add it as option)
*(from previous build where the taskbutton was visible) It didn't hide/show the playlist
*Will the library use a skinned frame at some point too? Ideally would be one shared outter frame w/ option button + close button

keep up the good work!

-Martin

The playlist tab was removed on purpose, because it's functionality is minimal, and it looks rather ugly imo.

There's a very easy hotkey for displaying the playlist. Just hit Ctrl-Alt-Enter.

the hotkey is only useful if i have displayed the main window. i use xion must of the cases just w/ the playlist visible. so an option defaulted to be off would be great imo

Excuse me for what i'm about to say.

...Ahem.

*keeping it civil*

What's the difference if your main Xion window is open or not? The hotkeys work at any given moment, regardless of conditions. Which means, you can Ctrl-Alt-Enter yourself the Playlist when you need it, and keep it hidden when you're not using it. The main window will not be shown, AT ALL.

Seriously, what's the point of a tab for this stuff?

*keeping it civil*

EDIT: Right, so i got off my arse and made the VU tester skin.

After using it to play through a whole bunch of songs, each focusing on different ranges of instrument frequencies, i've come to conclude the following:

1. Bass seems to be okay, but a 1.5x increase wouldn't hurt it.
2. The Mid range needs a 3-4x boost.
3. High range requires at least 5x more kick to look accurate enough.

The VU Testing skin is released, so if you want to give it a run, be my guest.

EDIT 2: Cliff makes me a saaad panda :<

martin.deimos Wrote:the hotkey is only useful if i have displayed the main window. i use xion must of the cases just w/ the playlist visible. so an option defaulted to be off would be great imo

Hi martin,

I can look at providing this as an option, however just so you know, you can still use the hotkeys even if the main window is hidden.

The global hotkeys will even work when Xion is not in focus, so you can be working on a completely different window such as Word, and then press the hotkey (ctrl+alt+enter in this case) and it will still work.

Cliff