Album Art

[kcollison]

Hi all,

First off, G-force is incredible. Thank you for such visual candy.

I see in one of the screenshots that album art appears in its "true" color (i.e. not affected by the colormap). Having Winamp, I don't have the automatic Album Art integration. I have, though, created a utility which makes album art available as a G-force sprite.

My question is how may I have the sprite not affected by the colormap, as in the screenshot? Is it possible? Also, what's the difference between an "overlay" and a sprite?

By the way, I'll be eagerly awaiting G-force documentation.

Thanks for your attention!

Keithc

[ata]

I would also like to know how to see the album artwork and info, in its true colour, like iTunes.

[andy55]

I would also like to know how to see the album artwork and info, in its true colour, like iTunes.

If fullscreen mode is 8 bit, GF won't do color album art (because it's not possible). You can, however, switch to 32 bit fullscreen mode (SHIFT+M) and that will do the trick. ntoe that 32 bit mode will be a higher load, so frame rate will take a dive unless you (a) have a killer system or (b) low the fullscreen res to something like 640x480 or 800x600.

andy

[mysticeti]

I haven't downloaded the Gold version yet (shame on me) and one of my questions is how often the cover art is shown?

Is just at the start of the track like the song title info?

Thanks.

[JayPro]

...Ror now it can only be called up at the beginning of a musical selection. I'm not sure whether anything is is the works to force it to be called up at the user's discretion in mid-track. Matter of fact, I'm not sure if it's possible.

[andy55]

...Ror now it can only be called up at the beginning of a musical selection. I'm not sure whether anything is is the works to force it to be called up at the user's discretion in mid-track. Matter of fact, I'm not sure if it's possible.

Currently, there is no means to have track info appear automatically every so often. This ability will return in a few months due to architectural changes that will make it trivial to add, but I wasn't oging to add it unless users felt strongly about it. Of course, you can always press 'T' to display the teack info of the currently playing song.

[mysticeti]

Thanks for the info.

I should probably point out a couple things... Unless I'm running G-Force full screen I don't really need the track info displayed. JRiver's Media Center displays the current track info just fine.

That said, 99% of the time that I'm running G-Force full screen is via my "HTPC" (which is quotes because said PC is really just a bunch of spare parts thrown together with really long Audio/Video cables and an RF keyboard/mouse & USBUIRT).

When running in this mode I'm typically reading, entertaining, conversing, or whatever and I'd like to be able to glance at the screen from time to time and know what track is playing.

Why is this important to me? I can't really explain it really other than to say I'm an "info junky" and I want to be able to "name that tune" gosh darn it.

Hence this request:
http://soundspectrum.com/v-web/bulletin ... c.php?t=84

Thanks!

[JayPro]

...Ror now it can only be called up at the beginning of a musical selection. I'm not sure whether anything is is the works to force it to be called up at the user's discretion in mid-track. Matter of fact, I'm not sure if it's possible.

Currently, there is no means to have track info appear automatically every so often. This ability will return in a few months due to architectural changes that will make it trivial to add, but I wasn't oging to add it unless users felt strongly about it. Of course, you can always press 'T' to display the teack info of the currently playing song.

IIRC, I was making reference to the album art (i.e. called up either automatically or user-prompted). I don't think it's absolutely necessary to have the Track Info pop up every now and then...to me it would just be an obtrusive particle. After all, one *must* know what one is listening to, right?

JwP

EDIT:

Mysticeti: Upon further review of your last commentary, I can appreciate where you're coming from. I was just stating the above argument from the POV of one whose need for info might not be as pressing.

[mysticeti]

Mysticeti: Upon further review of your last commentary, I can appreciate where you're coming from. I was just stating the above argument from the POV of one whose need for info might not be as pressing.

Right you are.

Whenever something like this comes up I tend to suggest making the feature configurable. You know you can't please everyone so you let people pick their preference.

[andy55]

Hi all,

First off, G-force is incredible. Thank you for such visual candy.

I see in one of the screenshots that album art appears in its "true" color (i.e. not affected by the colormap). Having Winamp, I don't have the automatic Album Art integration. I have, though, created a utility which makes album art available as a G-force sprite.

My question is how may I have the sprite not affected by the colormap, as in the screenshot? Is it possible? Also, what's the difference between an "overlay" and a sprite?

Putting images in the sprites folder will always cause them to appear w/ whatever the current palette is in G-Force (b/c they are drawn "inside" G-Force, in contrast to album cover art, which is drawn as an overlay, allowing 32 bit color).

The solution is two fold:
- write nullsoft and ask them for album artwork support. Make a reference to G-Force (and any positve words you wish to add) so that they're encouraged to add album cover art (ie, that a popular plugin out there already supports it for other music players).
- in you email, request that they feature/spotlight the latest version of G-Force--this will bring attention to G-Force, that it has album cover art support, and that winamp needs to catch up. There's so many "eh" plugins over there, the good ones get lost in the numbers. And, of course, your efforts and faithfulness for G-Force would be well appreicated by myself.

[phillipsr]

I am new to G Force, and I am really disappointed that I cannot display album art continously during playback on ITunes. When I upgraded I really thought I would get that option. Is there anything I can do to make the album art icon stay in place during playback?

Also how do I install and how do I use whitecap? I assume the upgade included whitecap and if so were are the isntallation files etc? Will this play on my Ipod ?

Thanks from a newby who obviously cannot spell.

[andy55]

I am new to G Force, and I am really disappointed that I cannot display album art continously during playback on ITunes. When I upgraded I really thought I would get that option. Is there anything I can do to make the album art icon stay in place during playback?

Also how do I install and how do I use whitecap? I assume the upgade included whitecap and if so were are the isntallation files etc? Will this play on my Ipod ?

Thanks from a newby who obviously cannot spell.

You can change the album art duration w/ the following edit:

1) Find the "G-Force" folder (you may need to search in invisible folders)
2) Open boot.txt
3) search for "13, 4"
4) Change the 13 to whatever number of seconds you want the album art to appear for (in your case, change it to 1000 or something)
5) Save you changes and restart G-Force.

andy

[andy55]

I am new to G Force, and I am really disappointed that I cannot display album art continously during playback on ITunes. When I upgraded I really thought I would get that option. Is there anything I can do to make the album art icon stay in place during playback?

Also how do I install and how do I use whitecap? I assume the upgade included whitecap and if so were are the isntallation files etc? Will this play on my Ipod ?

Thanks from a newby who obviously cannot spell.

Based on this post and others like it in this thread, I'm changing the pref PREF_TRACK_TEXT_ENABLED such that you can specify the duration of the track text/art in G-Force 2.6.7 and on.

Andy