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Syncing skins

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qwerky
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Re: Syncing skins

Post by qwerky »

So, I updated the code in the original post; changed all the colors to absolute numbers, added a couple variables for skin size, and corrected one error. (I did say in that post, that there were variables that came from my include files, which one would need to insert values for, oneself. ;-) )

Anyway, I copied the exact current contents to a new .ini, and it runs fine here, so please try again. :welcome:
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balala
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Re: Syncing skins

Post by balala »

qwerky wrote: March 11th, 2019, 9:43 pm Anyway, I copied the exact current contents to a new .ini, and it runs fine here, so please try again. :welcome:
Ok, now I get working the pendulum. But where is the clock you was talking about in your first request?
qwerky wrote: March 10th, 2019, 8:49 pm Hi. I have made a clock skin. Now I am making a pendulum skin. The pendulum consists of ten LEDs (ellipse shape meters) arranged in an arc; of which only one is 'lit' at any given time, and the pendulum swings back and forth. Swinging the pendulum works fine; the problem is with timing.
The pendulum and the clock should have to be syncronized, at least this is what I've understood. But where is the clock?
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qwerky
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Re: Syncing skins

Post by qwerky »

balala wrote: March 12th, 2019, 9:43 am Ok, now I get working the pendulum. But where is the clock you was talking about in your first request?

The pendulum and the clock should have to be syncronized, at least this is what I've understood. But where is the clock?
Hi balala, the clock is a very large skin, with many, many meters and measures, as it randomly varies the colours, styles, clock-face, etc. for variety; and, it is a work-in-progress, and by no means a finished product. However, you can use any Rainmeter-skin clock you like, to see the issue with the pendulum getting out of sync.

Interestingly, when the pendulum is set to update one step-per-second, it stays in perfect sync with the (any) clock. I tried increasing its rate, and it seemed to stay in sync even down to 250ms (Update=250). But at 100ms, the problem appears without fail. But as jsmorley said, it might depend upon the Rainmeter load (what other skins are loaded?).

One other interesting thing I noticed, is that the clock using ActionTimer, which he posted on page two of this thread, does not (at least for me) suffer from the occasional two-second jump that my own Timer-measure based clock does, even when both clocks are running at the same time, along with the pendulum at full speed, and all my other usual skins loaded as well (though of course, the pendulum still gets out of sync with that clock).
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Yincognito
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Re: Syncing skins

Post by Yincognito »

qwerky wrote: March 13th, 2019, 12:20 amOne other interesting thing I noticed, is that the clock using ActionTimer, which he posted on page two of this thread, does not (at least for me) suffer from the occasional two-second jump that my own Timer-measure based clock does...
If you read again what he said before posting that code, you'll probably understand why. Assuming, of course, that you did not made an identical skin to his and yours is "skipping" while his doesn't, in which case I wouldn't understand that behavior either...
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qwerky
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Re: Syncing skins

Post by qwerky »

Yincognito wrote: March 13th, 2019, 12:37 am If you read again what he said before posting that code, you'll probably understand why. Assuming, of course, that you did not made an identical skin to his and yours is "skipping" while his doesn't, in which case I wouldn't understand that behavior either...
Well, I did read (again) what he posted, and I still don't understand it, but that's likely because I have not yet played at all with that ActionTimer plugin. :D

But did you mean to say that I did, or that I did not, make a skin identical to his? :???:

My skin is completely different, and not based on ActionTimer, which is likely why the difference exists that mine skips and his does not? ;-)

BTW, how did you create that link which points to his specific post?
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Yincognito
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Re: Syncing skins

Post by Yincognito »

qwerky wrote: March 13th, 2019, 12:50 am Well, I did read (again) what he posted, and I still don't understand it, but that's likely because I have not yet played at all with that ActionTimer plugin. :D

But did you mean to say that I did, or that I did not, make a skin identical to his? :???:

My skin is completely different, and not based on ActionTimer, which is likely why the difference exists that mine skips and his does not? ;-)

BTW, how did you create that link which points to his specific post?
Well, as far as I understood from his post, the key is reacting to OnChange events of Time measures, Clamp-ing values to adjust them, and using a little less than a second to allow yourself time to maneuver and adjust stuff if needed. Another thing which I fully agree with was to imply that you'd have to make your skin adaptive in terms of the speed you use to move stuff. If you use a fixed "jump"/movement step in animation, sooner or later it will be out-of-sync, but if you calculate the "jump step" based on whether your skin seems to be behind or ahead of the actual time, you'd have better chances to make the thing as smooth and precise as possible (by slowing down or speeding up movement according to the circumstances). Of course, I could be wrong in what I said, but that's what I understood from his post, and with many of these I was already in agreement, even before his post.

I didn't mean that you made a skin identical to his - I said that if your skin was identical to his (which was obviously not the case), then I would understand you being confused why one seems to skip seconds and the other not (since in this hypothetical scenario, both skins should have behaved the same, being identical and all).

The link to his post was created simply by clicking on the Blue Title (near the username) above the content of his post and copying the address from the address bar. This is possible on most forums, not just on Rainmeter's one, by the way.
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balala
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Re: Syncing skins

Post by balala »

qwerky wrote: March 13th, 2019, 12:20 am Hi balala, the clock is a very large skin, with many, many meters and measures, as it randomly varies the colours, styles, clock-face, etc. for variety; and, it is a work-in-progress, and by no means a finished product. However, you can use any Rainmeter-skin clock you like, to see the issue with the pendulum getting out of sync.
Ok, long story short, I have your pendulum skin working and I have a clock. Since this discussion became in the meantime a little bit long (and I'm a little bit lazy - sorry), I'd like you to let me (us) know again what would you like to achieve.
Sorry, I know you've explained before. Thanks.

Just to self promote my previous work, I want to tell I also wrote a while ago a pendulum skin. Looking for it and trying it out now, I think if you want to try it, you have to make a small modification. Replace the Balls=0 variable with Balls=2 in the [Variables] section.
Here is the link, if you want to try it out.
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Yincognito
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Re: Syncing skins

Post by Yincognito »

balala wrote: March 13th, 2019, 5:14 pmJust to self promote my previous work, I want to tell I also wrote a while ago a pendulum skin. Here is the link, if you want to try it out.
Wow, that's a really nice skin - you probably worked a bit on the TransformationMatrix formulas there! :thumbup: I know it's a finished work, but if you'll ever want to add something extra to it in the future, putting the H H : M M characters on the balls when animating it (to make them look like pool game balls, maybe even having diiferent colors) would make it even cooler... 8-)

Something like above, but with the actual HH:MM values on them.
Last edited by Yincognito on March 13th, 2019, 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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qwerky
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Re: Syncing skins

Post by qwerky »

Yincognito wrote: March 13th, 2019, 1:16 am Well, as far as I understood from his post, the key is reacting to OnChange events of Time measures, Clamp-ing values to adjust them, and using a little less than a second to allow yourself time to maneuver and adjust stuff if needed. Another thing which I fully agree with was to imply that you'd have to make your skin adaptive in terms of the speed you use to move stuff. If you use a fixed "jump"/movement step in animation, sooner or later it will be out-of-sync, but if you calculate the "jump step" based on whether your skin seems to be behind or ahead of the actual time, you'd have better chances to make the thing as smooth and precise as possible (by slowing down or speeding up movement according to the circumstances). Of course, I could be wrong in what I said, but that's what I understood from his post, and with many of these I was already in agreement, even before his post.
This makes sense. I really like the clock he made, but I'm not sure whether that adaptive technique is applicable to my pendulum, or not. I would need to come to an understanding of that ActionTimer plugin, which seems a bit complicated--not sure it's worth it for my simple just-for-fun skin. :D
I didn't mean that you made a skin identical to his - I said that if your skin was identical to his (which was obviously not the case), then I would understand you being confused why one seems to skip seconds and the other not (since in this hypothetical scenario, both skins should have behaved the same, being identical and all).
Really, it was more of an observation that his clock worked better than mine; although mine is fine as long as there is no pendulum (or at least, not a pendulum running at full speed). ;-)
The link to his post was created simply by clicking on the Blue Title (near the username) above the content of his post and copying the address from the address bar. This is possible on most forums, not just on Rainmeter's one, by the way.
That's a good tip; I like that. Thanks. :thumbup:
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Yincognito
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Re: Syncing skins

Post by Yincognito »

qwerky wrote: March 13th, 2019, 6:28 pmI would need to come to an understanding of that ActionTimer plugin, which seems a bit complicated--not sure it's worth it for my simple just-for-fun skin. :D
Maybe balala can help you with that. ActionTimer is not (yet) my strong point either... :D
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