Game mode

[balala]

When Game mode is enabled, any OnCloseAction is fired. When Game mode is toggled back off, any OnRefreshAction will be fired, and the Counter function for each skin will be reset to zero. All skins are in fact unloaded and reloaded by this functionality.

Absolutely normal, since as said, when it is launched the

Game mode does the following:
* Unloads all skins and closes all dialogs

So, skins being unloaded, the OnCloseAction options must be executed, then when Game mode is terminated, the skins being reloaded, the OnRefreshactions must be executed. And because this feature has been added to

allow you to minimize (really eliminate) all CPU, GPU, Disk and Network usage by Rainmeter while you are for instance playing a full-screen game.

it is normal to unload all loaded skins.
There is nothing wrong with this. My opinion...

[jsmorley]

Yes, it is technically the correct behavior for sure.

I just have a nagging feeling that Game mode is perhaps not quite the same from the standpoint of how a user "thinks about it", or what the "intent is" as unloading a skin or exiting Rainmeter, both of which will quite correctly fire any OnCloseAction options. I wonder if the idea of Game mode isn't more like "pause things" rather than "exit things" in the minds of users.

I guess what I'm questioning is if there are some OnCloseAction options out there that might be completely appropriate when quitting Rainmeter or closing a skin, that might be a bit annoying when toggling back and forth between Game mode and normal mode.

I could easily argue this either way, and to be honest I don't really use OnCloseAction myself, so I don't have a lot of skin in this game, just wondering if there are others with any concerns.

[jsmorley]

I struggle to come up with an example, but for instance:

If you had a network skin, and you had an OnCloseAction that reset the network statistics. The intent might be that you want a clean start to the statistics when you start up your computer in the morning, and then it tracks things all day. "How much network have I used today?". Game mode could in theory throw a wrinkle in that process, by resetting the statistics every time you toggle in and out of Game mode.

[balala]

I wonder if the idea of Game mode isn't more like "pause things" rather than "exit things" in the minds of users.

Might be. In fact probably it is, at least in many (or most) cases. However if anyone reads carefully the documentation, can realize this is the only possible behavior. Question is who (or how many) will realize it?

[jsmorley]

I guess my question is, is there any difference between using Game mode and and just exiting Rainmeter? Both are really easy to do, and I'm not entirely sure I see any great advantage to one over the other. The net effect is very much the same, and the only advantage to Game mode is really just that it makes starting Rainmeter back up just a tiny, tiny bit easier by having the tray icon at hand to do so, and maybe just a hair faster, as it presumably doesn't re-scan the skins folders like restarting or Refresh All does. I'm just questioning if there could or should be any other differences between the two.

I would note that Refresh All, which also reloads all skins and in fact completely re-scans the skins folder, does not fire OnCloseAction.

I don't have a strong opinion on this, just a nagging feeling... My gut reaction is that it is not the "intent" of the end-user to actually unload skins to do this, in spite of the perfectly correct and logical and simple technical approach to doing it this way.

Just feels like it would be easier to explain and justify to an end-user why OnCloseAction "isn't" fired with Game mode, than it is to explain and justify why it "is".

[balala]

I guess my question is, is there any difference between using Game mode and and just exiting Rainmeter? Both are really easy to do, and I'm not entirely sure I see any great advantage to one over the other. The net effect is very much the same, and the only advantage to Game mode is really just that it makes starting Rainmeter back up just a tiny, tiny bit easier by having the tray icon at hand to do so, and maybe just a hair faster, as it presumably doesn't re-scan the skins folders like restarting or Refresh All does. I'm just questioning if there could or should be any other differences between the two.

Didn't realize such a difference. At least not so far.
But my question now is if not even a developer sees a difference and an advantage / disadvantage, why this feature has been added? Hope you don't mind I'm asking this, but just it's not clear.

[jsmorley]

Didn't realize such a difference. At least not so far.
But my question now is if not even a developer sees a difference and an advantage / disadvantage, why this feature has been added? Hope you don't mind I'm asking this, but just it's not clear.

Well, I'm not disputing the usefulness of it in general, as it is in fact simpler and more intuitive than fully exiting Rainmeter to play a game, and then having to go find a shortcut to start it back up again. It's not the most important feature we have every implemented, but it's certainly a nice touch. I just want to make sure it behaves as logically as it possibly can, now, early, before we have considerations of backwards compatibility eliminating any chance of tweaking it.

[balala]

Well, I'm not disputing the usefulness of it in general, as it is in fact simpler and more intuitive than fully exiting Rainmeter to play a game, and then having to go find a shortcut to start it back up again. It's not the most important feature we have every implemented, but it's certainly a nice touch. I just want to make sure it behaves as logically as it possibly can, now, early, before we have considerations of backwards compatibility eliminating any chance of tweaking it.

Ok, understand.
But there is another thing which would be great to be taken into account, in my opinion: there would be a good idea if was added a bang to start the Game mode. This would be important to can automatize the start of Game mode. For instance if a such bang would exist, an IsFullScreen plugin measure could be used to automatically start the Game mode when a full screen application (game, playback or whatever) is launched. Restoring the "normal" mode would not be possible because (as you said) nothing could execute the appropriate bang when exiting the full screen application, but at least the users wouldn't forget to start Game mode.
Yes, I know you said there is no intention to control this through a bang:

This will never be something that can be controlled by bangs,

but maybe developers could take into account to add one bang to launch Game mode. Would be useful, I think.

[jsmorley]

Ok, understand.
But there is another thing which would be great to be taken into account, in my opinion: there would be a good idea if was added a bang to start the Game mode. This would be important to can automatize the start of Game mode. For instance if a such bang would exist, an IsFullScreen plugin measure could be used to automatically start the Game mode when a full screen application (game, playback or whatever) is launched. Restoring the "normal" mode would not be possible because (as you said) nothing could execute the appropriate bang when exiting the full screen application, but at least the users wouldn't forget to start Game mode.
Yes, I know you said there is no intention to control this through a bang:

but maybe developers could take into account to add one bang to launch Game mode. Would be useful, I think.

We discussed this, and decided that it was just not appropriate to give any control over this to skin "authors", but to leave complete and exclusive control to skin "users".

[balala]

We discussed this, and decided that it was just not appropriate to give any control over this to skin "authors", but to leave complete and exclusive control to skin "users".

Alright. As you think.