[Menus]Tips and tricks, please post them...

[Ron]

Compiling a DLL is very possible, its a common thing for windows compilers. Are you still working on this ? ( sorry for the late response )

[mattwire]

send me the group please. I've been meaning to get round to trying to make some kind of menu system but it's always down to time!
matt.wire@ic24.net

[mattwire]

Links broken?

[Necro]

That is a great idea...what would be insanely helpful in this is a 'bar' display that you can set to go up and down between a select set of values.

Here's what I mean...

Bar Item
Values: 1-100
Step: 1
BarButtonUp: HueUp (pass to program)
BarButtonDown: HueDown (Pass to program)

So, when you do the BarButtonUp, the value would go up (raising the hue) and pass it to the program - but the bar and label would be displayed on the screen.

This can't be that hard...but being that I can't program - pretty much at all...I can't do it... :/

[Necro]

Basically, the way you get volume bars (the way you made the toggle menu) make it so you can do the same thing with a DVD player - adjust contrast, etc, with a 'volume bar' on the screen so you know what the value currently is.

[Necro]

Not to start a 'email me' topic, but why not post this to some webpage or something so we can just get it ourselves?

(BTW..email me it if you dont :smile: )

I'm working on a big menu system...but honestly I woudl like a big OSD with menus, etc.

Toggles for different actions, that kind of thing. (Rather complex)

[Necro]

I must say, this is a nice menu - confusing as hell (I dunno how you figured this out), but VERY cool.

Now i just gotta understand it and make my own :smile:.

[Necro]

I was thinking about this again...and a plugin for a menu couldnt be too hard. If it just displayed a menu, and was coded based upon a structure of every item having 4 possible items it can go to (Left, Right, Up,Down), then each item would have an associated action. An additional parameter would have to be added so that the display method could detect one that was at the top/bottom of the menu and loop around.

Damn, I really wish I had time to learn programming because this isn't that hard - at least not to implement in a very basic fashion. It might actually be easier to make a menu system as a standalone OSD program that can pass codes and receive codes from Girder.

[MpegErnie]

I just created my first menu-like-thing using Girders help ("How to switch groups on and off").

I now got this multiswitch with 3 states. Each displays:
a volume bar and
an OSD with title (Master, Wave and CD-volume at the moment)
Also each state activates a group with two commands, volume + and - (the first for Master, second Wave and last CD) and again an OSD.

This what I got so far, but I only have girder for less than a week :wink:

Anyone with tips/trick regarding menus? I think I could use the registers to create some more efficient menu's with more levels but I haven't quite figured that out yet....

[MpegErnie]

erm... I can't quite follow you... what doe you mean with a bar item? some kind of menu with a few menu items? I've been thinking about that but I don't know how to do that...

about the menu, I think i've finished that, ther now five states: Master, Wave, Front, Surround and CD.

I adjusted the wave-group al little, cause when winamp is running it kinda "takes control" of the wave-volume. I can adjust it while playing but on a new track winamp resets it to its own value, so I have to adjust the wave-volume value through winamp (if its running).
That takes four extra (multi)commands. (in stead of two, vol+ and vol-). Two (one for vol- and one for vol+) to determine if winamp is running and two for adjusting the WinAmp volume.

that's it for now. I just figured out how to use the registers and created some toggles (repeat, shuffle), and also figured out how to adress winamp if its in the windows-tray.

so now let look, what can I do know..... :wink:

ow, and Necro... what's that about programming? Girder can't be that difficult..? hehe. :wink:
I've been planning to start with C++ but I'm stuck. I can't even compile a win32 DLL for winamp :sad:. I've ony Java experience.

to the MODS
BTW, shouldnt this thread be in Tips and Tricks?... I mis-posted it, maybe RonB (is he the only mod?) can move it.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MpegErnie on 2002-02-05 21:16 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MpegErnie on 2002-02-05 21:17 ]</font>

[MpegErnie]

ah, I get the idea...

shouldn't be to difficult I think.. if I can get the application to sent it current brightness/contrast/whatever-value
I'll have a look at it.

At this moment I've used another way of creating menus. Though it's a very comlicated command structure it works well! Now I can change my volumes and start programs with jsut a few buttons:

up - for 1 menu item up
down - for 1 menu item down
OK - to select the highlighted item
+ - to increase volume
- - to decrease volume

1 Program-menu button to popup the program menu and 1 Volume-menu button to popup the volume menu.

If anyone is interested I could export the group en create a readme or something..?

[MpegErnie]

ah, sorry, didn't mean to start a "please mail me" topic, i'll clean up the girder-group and post it on my site and send it to Ron. As soon as that is done, you'll be the first to know :wink: So sometime this weekend...

And I hope it's big enough. I'haven't created multiple levels yet but that shouldn't be too difficult anymore.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MpegErnie on 2002-02-08 13:02 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: mpegernie on 2002-02-08 16:44 ]</font>

[MpegErnie]

sooooo.... there it is :grin:
I've posted it on my site. I don't know if Ron will accept is on the export page (it isn't really one group, more like 8 groups :smile: )

mpegernie.tripod.com

Two menu's "volume" and "main", from wich the latter contains one freshly addded sub-menu named Settings...

Volume contains five items: Master, Wave, Front, Surround, CD (and as sixth an "Exit"). You'll have to learn events to the following multi-commands:
Volume->Menu down
Volume->Menu up
Volume->Select
Volume->Volume +
Volume->Volume -

Up and down are used to select one of the volumes, + and - to change the value, which is indicated by a Slider (you'll need slider.dll)
Volume select (the OK-button here) is only used to exit this menu.
You might have to change some OSD titles to suite you audio hardware.

The Main menu features Winamp, DScaler and BSPlayer to start the programs (at least here :wink:). Settings and Exit are also present. I just added settings as an example on how to create another Menu level, it doesn't quite do much yet.
Learn:
Main->Menu down
Main->Menu up
Main->Select

and

Settings->Menu down
Settings->Menu up
Settings->Select

Finally don't forget to learn the buttons to open the volume and main menu:
Menu enable/disable->Open Main Menu
Menu enable/disable->Volume Main Menu

That's it!

I just added a timeout to Main and Settings.
It's set to 7500ms. if you want to change this goto:
Main Menu-> Display-> start [timer1]
Settings Menu-> Display-> start [timer1]

you'll notice there's a timer in Volume to:
Volume MenuDisplaystart [timer1]
(and a reset in Volume Menuexitreset [timer1])
These are disabled. If enabled it causes Girder to crash as soon as you open the Volume menu. WinXP gives this report:


AppName: girder.exe
AppVer: 3.0.25.0
ModName: slider.dll
ModVer: 1.0.0.1
Offset: 0000296b

I haven't looked for a solution/explanation yet, but hey, I just added this function! :smile:

hmmmmmm. I think that was all. Maybe you'll see something that could be more efficient or maybe you'll get ideas for a totally new and better menu system, please comment!!
Until then, I hope you'll have fun customising this menu for your own needs, and lets wait for the plug-in that will take care of this... :grin:

Have fun!! Grtz .MPE
_________________
I justs love Girder and my remote... and now I wan't lots of OSD menus!!! :smile:

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MpegErnie on 2002-02-09 00:27 ]</font>

[MpegErnie]

... ahem, it was working... not anymore :?

Ok, fixed again.. :smile:

just mail me if it's broken again Ok? Don't know if I messed it up or the server did...
_________________
I justs love Girder and my remote... and now I wan't lots of OSD menus!!! :smile:

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MpegErnie on 2002-02-09 14:21 ]</font>

[MpegErnie]

I forgot one thing to mention (maybe more...)

I use a monospace font for my OSD. This is because I formatted the text with spaces. If you'd use arial for example the menus would look very bad. So set your OSD font for something like Courier New. (or create bitmaps!!!)

[MpegErnie]

Anyone, is this a bug or did I do something weird with my Menu's? (look in one of my previous topics)



AppName: girder.exe
AppVer: 3.0.25.0
ModName: slider.dll
ModVer: 1.0.0.1
Offset: 0000296b

maybe slider.dll doesn't handle something well?

_________________
I justs love Girder and my remote... and now I wan't lots of OSD menus!!! :smile:

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MpegErnie on 2002-02-10 01:49 ]</font>

[MpegErnie]

On 2002-02-10 18:58, Necro wrote:
I must say, this is a nice menu - confusing as hell (I dunno how you figured this out), but VERY cool.

Now i just gotta understand it and make my own :smile:.

Thanx, and well, I gues a little programming experience (Java) helps a lot. :wink:

but you're right, its a pretty complex structure. Maybe I should create some small skeleton to better understand it. Or a walktrough or someting on how to add/remove items..?

_________________
I justs love Girder and my remote... and now I wan't lots of OSD menus!!! :smile:

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MpegErnie on 2002-02-10 19:48 ]</font>

[MpegErnie]

I've been to thinking about an plugin. The problem is I can't program C++. Well maybe I could, but I wouldn't really know how to start cause I don't know how to compile a win32 DLL. :sad:

But I do have some ideas about it... maybe...
I also would like to try to edit the OSD popup plug :smile:

about the menu, is it getting more clear to you?

BTW: what do I need to compile a win32 DLL. just some compiler or MS visual C++

_________________
I justs love Girder and my remote... and now I wan't lots of OSD menus!!! :smile:

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MpegErnie on 2002-02-14 21:51 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MpegErnie on 2002-02-14 22:12 ]</font>

[MpegErnie]

well I recently messed around with Dev-C++ and compiling executables wasn't a poblem but I don't know how to compile DLL's.
I that's even possible with a normal compiler...

[MpegErnie]

not at the moment but I could get back on it :wink:
I'll have a second look around to figure out what can in C++

[Connected]

Send me the group please.
Girder is the best !!!

[vynce]

As far as I know any compiler would work. The difference between compilers is usually speed - some compilers will make executables that run faster than others. http://www.willus.com/ccomp.shtml has some really good info on Win32 compilers as well as a comparision between several of them. I'm sure many of the "real" programmers around here will be able to help you more that I can.

Sounds like a really good idea for a plugin. Good luck

[husky__42]

I went to check on your website but the link seem broken again.
Can you let me know when it fixed?
Thanks,

Husky