SoftSkies menu display...

[izblah]

SoftSkies is finally released! and it looks great...

So now I have TWO quality visuals to pick from directly inside of MS MediaCenter. Only problem is, every time SoftSkies loads, the menu pops up by default. Since I can't navigate the menu (since MS MediaPlayer doesn't support keystrokes in the Viz window) and turn off it's display... what field can I edit in the SoftSkies config file to disable it...?

And I just had a funny thing happen... One of the Living Image castles came up sideways while shuffling... It looked pretty strange...

edit: I found the 'customize' section in the SoftSkies documentaion, which isn't linked in the menu on the left (found it linked in the FAQ). Anywayz, it wasn't updated for SoftSkies. It still only reflects G-Force and WhiteCap pref settings...

[andy55]

SoftSkies is finally released! and it looks great...

So now I have TWO quality visuals to pick from directly inside of MS MediaCenter. Only problem is, every time SoftSkies loads, the menu pops up by default. Since I can't navigate the menu (since MS MediaPlayer doesn't support keystrokes in the Viz window) and turn off it's display... what field can I edit in the SoftSkies config file to disable it...?

And I just had a funny thing happen... One of the Living Image castles came up sideways while shuffling... It looked pretty strange...

edit: I found the 'customize' section in the SoftSkies documentaion, which isn't linked in the menu on the left (found it linked in the FAQ). Anywayz, it wasn't updated for SoftSkies. It still only reflects G-Force and WhiteCap pref settings...

In Settings, there's a "Show Menu at Launch" option you can set -- does that address what you're trying to do?

andy

[izblah]

Hey Andy... Thanks for the response...

The problem is, inside of Win MediaCenter I cannot navigate the SoftSkies menu. I understand this is because Microsoft's player won't allow keystrokes to be passed to the viz window...

So anywayz, by default SoftSkies will display it's menu and the 'Welcome to SoftSkies' splash when first booted for a few seconds. It goes away and is only a minor annoyance, but non-the-less I'd like to disable it from popping up.

Since I can't navigate SoftSkie's menu, I thought there may be an option to change in the Preferences (Windows Media Center).txt file. I've changed various options and also compared the settings to the Standalone config file (in which I turned off the menu display by means of SoftSkies' menu) but haven't solved the issue...

[andy55]

Hey Andy... Thanks for the response...

The problem is, inside of Win MediaCenter I cannot navigate the SoftSkies menu. I understand this is because Microsoft's player won't allow keystrokes to be passed to the viz window...

So anywayz, by default SoftSkies will display it's menu and the 'Welcome to SoftSkies' splash when first booted for a few seconds. It goes away and is only a minor annoyance, but non-the-less I'd like to disable it from popping up.

Since I can't navigate SoftSkie's menu, I thought there may be an option to change in the Preferences (Windows Media Center).txt file. I've changed various options and also compared the settings to the Standalone config file (in which I turned off the menu display by means of SoftSkies' menu) but haven't solved the issue...

You should be able to use the mouse to click in MediaCenter.

Andy

[izblah]

So I just read your post, and decided to go back and quadruple check myself that the mouse doesn't work, before I posted... And as I expected, it doesn't.

SoftSkies boots, menu pops up, and I try to click a menu, but...
Whenever I click anywhere in the Viz window, the Viz window exits and I'm back to my big blue playlist inside of MS MediaCenter.

But, on a whim I went back and selected 'Vizualize' to start SoftSkies again, but this time I noticed something funny... It kind-of does work - mouse clicks that is... When I re-entered SoftSkies (already bootstrapped) the menu was still visible, but in the sub-menu of what I previously clicked.

So, if I click (and then I get booted out), re-enter the viz and then click again... etc. etc. I can 'sort of' navigate the menu...

Unfortunately, when the cursor is moved inside of MS MediaCenter, top and bottom control bars pop out, and this blocks the bottom most portion of the screen so I can't do this little click-enter-click-enter workaround to select the 'Settings' option within SoftSkies menu... 'Cause it's near the bottom. Go figure...

(I sure hope you followed all that)

So, is there no little one-liner that I can change or write into the Preference file? Change an xXXX=1 to xXXX=0 or something?

Anywayz, thanks again for the quick responses here, Andy...

[izblah]

nevermind...

don't know how I missed it the first time (comparing Pref files), but changing the following preference will do the trick:

DMln=0

Now, no more menu poppin' up!

[andy55]

nevermind...

don't know how I missed it the first time (comparing Pref files), but changing the following preference will do the trick:

DMln=0

Now, no more menu poppin' up!

but you should be able to click in MediaCenter, correct?

[izblah]

No, unfortunately that's not the case...

I cannot click in MediaCenter... apart from the strange behavior I detailed (or tried to) here:

SoftSkies boots, menu pops up, and I try to click a menu, but...
Whenever I click anywhere in the Viz window, the Viz window exits and I'm back to my big blue playlist inside of MS MediaCenter.

But, on a whim I went back and selected 'Vizualize' to start SoftSkies again, but this time I noticed something funny... It kind-of does work - mouse clicks that is... When I re-entered SoftSkies (already bootstrapped) the menu was still visible, but in the sub-menu of what I previously clicked. Shocked

So, if I click (and then I get booted out), re-enter the viz and then click again... etc. etc. I can 'sort of' navigate the menu...

Unfortunately, when the cursor is moved inside of MS MediaCenter, top and bottom control bars pop out, and this blocks the bottom most portion of the screen so I can't do this little click-enter-click-enter workaround to select the 'Settings' option within SoftSkies menu... 'Cause it's near the bottom. Go figure...

I can, however, click inside of Win MediaPLAYER itself... All is normal there. My issue relates to Win MediaCenter Edition, just wanted to further clarify...

[Methoxy]

I can confirm that izbah is correct that Media Centre does not pass on mouse clicks, a fact which is noted in the G-Force FAQs.

There are major interaction problems between MC and SoftSkies, that go beyond what has been noted above. For instance, using the MC remote to skip to the next track brings up the SoftSkies menu, which can't be manually removed because of the mouse click issue. Also, and I can't determine the sequence of events which causes it, but SoftSkies stops reacting to music - it runs like the screen saver.

In short, SoftSkies in not really usuable with MC, which is a pity considering how brilliantly G-Force works with it.

The Softskies menu is also major annoyance with Media Player. Double-clicking the Playing Now screen in MP brings up the menu which on a wide-screen LCD (mine at least) requires scrolling down to the close button. Its a lot of grief to just go to and from full-screen mode.

As pretty as it is, there should be an option to not have the menu appear on the SoftSkies screen at all and have a seperate configuration application available. Like G-Force.

That said, SoftSkies works as advertised in J. River Media Centre.

Michael

[jon]

Thanks for the notes on Media Center. We'll make sure that the SoftSkies menu does not get in the way for the next version.

As for SoftSkies not responding to music, this is something that we haven't come across. The SoftSkies music reactivity is somewhat subtle, and furthermore will change along with the settings in each cloud scene. Is it possible that you're just seeing a scene (or scenes) with very little reactivity? You can adjust the sound reactivity in the settings menu (though only one option is enabled for the trial).

- jon