New Feature suggestions and requests in here please!

[kkira13]

I'm sorry if this had been discussed before. I love the lyrics option, but I find it not very functional. There are 2 problems with it.
1. Scrolling. I suggest you
- make an auto-scrolling option with highlighting the current line like in MinyLyrics for example.
- make an option which will make the lyrics panel selectable not just by text, but also by any free space inside the lyrics borders, regardless if there is a background or not. It will make a lot easier to select the lyrics and scroll them down/up. I don't say everybody needs that, that's why I request it as an option.

2. Fetching the lyrics. I suggest
- to add different more lyrics servers, with better lyrics database and allow the user to chose between them. Some database with russian lyrics will be much appreciated.
- Or add an option to add lyrics servers on our own.

If you're interested in the second one, please let me know, and I'll look up which lyrics databases are the best, especially on russian ones. Once I had a tremendous lyrics plugin for foobar which could fetch lyrics for every single song I had.

Thank you for reading

[barberio]

Hi kkira13.
I'm a fan of lyrics too. Used the foobar plugin before - but now it doesn't work anymore. MiniLyrics is an option too. But I'd love to see that CAD could handle lyrics a little bit better than now.

1. Scrolling. I suggest you
- make an auto-scrolling option with highlighting the current line like in MinyLyrics for example.

That's not possible from what I understand regarding the CAD engine. CAD is not able to use .lrc files like MiniLyrics or F2k. Sadly...

- make an option which will make the lyrics panel selectable not just by text, but also by any free space inside the lyrics borders, regardless if there is a background or not. It will make a lot easier to select the lyrics and scroll them down/up. I don't say everybody needs that, that's why I request it as an option.

I don't know if that is possible. Do you know CAD is able to make use of a scrollbar/button? Most skinners don't use this feature for their skins - for whatever reasons. Some of mine (Revtin, In Agony, The Scream and others) and Carlos' "VU" skin use this feature. Maybe a few others too.

2. Fetching the lyrics. I suggest
- to add different more lyrics servers, with better lyrics database and allow the user to chose between them. Some database with russian lyrics will be much appreciated.
- Or add an option to add lyrics servers on our own.

Yes, I would appreciate an option like this too.
That would be a question Carlos (the programmer of CAD) could answer.

[kkira13]

Thanks for a great reply, I have never seen such an amazing and supportive community on a free software.

That's not possible from what I understand regarding the CAD engine. CAD is not able to use .lrc files like MiniLyrics or F2k. Sadly...

I realize that's not easy but maybe there is a way make a plugin or something :/ That feature would be amazing. I don't know what CAD engine allows, but I really believe in Carlos

Do you know CAD is able to make use of a scrollbar/button?

Yes, but sadly most of the skins I like, don't use that, and I really don't want to customize every single skin I use, to add that. Also that doesn't look good most of the times, depending how I customized my desktop.

I was wondering, is there a way to add a fully transparent background to lyrics, so it won't be visible, but will be selectable.

Let's wait and see what Carlos says about the other questions.

[barberio]

Thanks for a great reply, I have never seen such an amazing and supportive community on a free software.

Thanks. But don't be too disappointed, if the answer takes some time. We're not always here.

I was wondering, is there a way to add a fully transparent background to lyrics, so it won't be visible, but will be selectable.

Not an easy way, from what I can remember. You'd have to create images with an opacity of "0" from the ones the skin uses. But I'm getting a little bit rusty with CAD skinning and don't have the time to test other ways right now.

[drventure]

I've seen this in some of the HTPC apps out there (XBMC and JRiver among them).

The idea is to use the artist and album name to retrieve images from either google images, or bing, or whatever, and then render them subtly in the background.

Yes, sometimes you get unrelated images (my favorite so far was images of Sonic the Hedgehog when a SonicYouth album was playing), but generally, the effect is quite nice and really helps to break up a the monotony of a static screen.

It didn't look like CAD could do this.

If I can't, I'd like to throw that on the suggestion pile.

Heck, since CAD is in VB6, I could even code up the core code of that feature if that would be of help?

Or maybe that's already there?

[barberio]

Originally Posted by drventure

I've seen this in some of the HTPC apps out there (XBMC and JRiver among them).

The idea is to use the artist and album name to retrieve images from either google images, or bing, or whatever, and then render them subtly in the background.

Heck, since CAD is in VB6, I could even code up the core code of that feature if that would be of help?

Or maybe that's already there?

Good suggestion! No, CAD doesn't offer that function. If this won't be included ever (which I don't know by now), I have a workaround which I use myself on some artists/albums: I have added patterns for the coverimages in CAD's options. Normally CAD searches for cover.png(.jpg) or folder.png(.jpg). I added artist.jpg, artist_a.jpg, artist_b.jpg ...

In some of my album folders I have those images, and CAD shows them one after the other while playing songs of that album.
Wejj - a little bit time-consuming, but with most control what will be displayed.

[drventure]

Hi Barberio

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I read briefly up on that feature, but, you're right, that sounds like A LOT of work!

I realize just hitting google images with an album name won't necessarily get you a perfect set of matching images, but I think that's ok, considering I'd just like to use them as a subtle background that changes slowly as a track plays.

Maybe we'll hear from the CAD dev.

It sounds like CAD is written in VB6, which I have a good deal of exp with. I might cobble together some code to pull images off Google Images just to see how it's done.

[barberio]

Sounds good. Some of CAD's functions is outsourced into separate .exe files (like the CADsearch.exe or CADlyrics.exe). If a function like this can be coded, it could be added as a standalone .exe file too.
But to be honest: my experience with programming languages is a little bit more than 0%. HTML & CSS is my passion. But totally useless for CAD.

[Carlos]

Originally Posted by drventure

Hi Barberio

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I read briefly up on that feature, but, you're right, that sounds like A LOT of work!

I realize just hitting google images with an album name won't necessarily get you a perfect set of matching images, but I think that's ok, considering I'd just like to use them as a subtle background that changes slowly as a track plays.

Maybe we'll hear from the CAD dev.

It sounds like CAD is written in VB6, which I have a good deal of exp with. I might cobble together some code to pull images off Google Images just to see how it's done.

That sounds a good idea. However, a new feature like this is not planned right now. The goal is to finish the translation and release a new version. It'll take time though.

But maybe you could code a module to retrieve e.g. 10 images and save them in a temp folder. This module could communicate with CAD and CAD could load those files and show them in its slideshow feature.

[aya]

I think your program is quite cool. Especially the big variations of skins make this look great.
And I think this is probably the best way to present your music on a stream, while playing a game, or doing smth else.

You can easily draw CDA on the screen via screen region, but skins, with transparent parts, will look weird, beacause the desktop is drawn, too.

If u are interested in supporting the people streaming a bit, then u might want to look into these links.

https://github.com/ascendedguard/XSplit.Wpf
http://www.xsplit.com/forum/viewforu...1562fee873b37c

Via a plugin u can send the CAD being rednered directly to the streaming software, which will still look awesome even if trasparent.