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Picturalizer

Media controls, music players, video and animated visualizers
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killall-q
Posts: 305
Joined: August 14th, 2009, 8:04 am

Re: Picturalizer

Post by killall-q »

Some manipulations to images will reload the image from disk every time they are performed. And it's not only if DynamicVariables is enabled on the meter; I think Snow is affected by this.

You can test this by changing something about the image file, color tint or something, while the skin is running. If the image in the skin updates right away then it's reading from disk on every update.

You can try a different way of doing things that doesn't trigger loads, reduce image file size, or reduce image compression (so it loads faster).
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eclectic-tech
Rainmeter Sage
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Joined: April 12th, 2012, 9:40 pm
Location: Cedar Point, Ohio, USA

Re: Picturalizer

Post by eclectic-tech »

killall-q wrote:Some manipulations to images will reload the image from disk every time they are performed. And it's not only if DynamicVariables is enabled on the meter; I think Snow is affected by this.

You can test this by changing something about the image file, color tint or something, while the skin is running. If the image in the skin updates right away then it's reading from disk on every update.

You can try a different way of doing things that doesn't trigger loads, reduce image file size, or reduce image compression (so it loads faster).
Thanks for the feedback! I will look at your method of determining disk access (never thought about it in those terms)... :?

I did not want to use an third-party utility, if possible, to create the needed images 1 time, but I may need to look at alternative ways to achieve the effect???

This has never been released outside of this forum, and until it is less CPU intensive, it never will be more than a proof of concept.

Thanks again for the ideas! Two heads are always better than one! :great:
sesheron
Posts: 11
Joined: May 8th, 2014, 3:04 pm

Re: Picturalizer

Post by sesheron »

This may be naive of me, but the solid color bar graph visualizers seem to draw with little overhead. Even the semi-transparent ones. Can we just put the image behind it, and let (1-value) inverted bar graphs "reveal" the image as we would like?

And just set the image as the actual wallpaper?
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eclectic-tech
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Joined: April 12th, 2012, 9:40 pm
Location: Cedar Point, Ohio, USA

Re: Picturalizer

Post by eclectic-tech »

Link in first post Updated:
  • Expanded configuration skin
  • 20~160 bars | bands
  • Added freq band display
  • Added invert option
  • Variable Gap (Up to 1/2 bar width)
  • Scroll over background to change the transparency
  • Middle-click to toggle config skin
  • Expanded context menu
  • Removed full-screen skin1
You can now set a separate path to 'bar' images in the expanded config skin.
All audio settings are now in the config skin.

Note: In 'DesktopCropMode' variant, if you hide the 'title', 'border', and 'background', you may not be able to control the skin; simply load the 'RandomImageCrop' variant and reset the options, to regain control.

Config Skin:
pic3.jpg
Band Mode:
pic2.jpg
Bar Mode:
pic1.jpg
1. Even when using full-screen predefined images (no cropping), the full-screen skin still caused excessive CPU load. For that reason, I removed it from the package.
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eclectic-tech
Rainmeter Sage
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Joined: April 12th, 2012, 9:40 pm
Location: Cedar Point, Ohio, USA

Re: Picturalizer

Post by eclectic-tech »

sesheron wrote:This may be naive of me, but the solid color bar graph visualizers seem to draw with little overhead. Even the semi-transparent ones. Can we just put the image behind it, and let (1-value) inverted bar graphs "reveal" the image as we would like?

And just set the image as the actual wallpaper?
You are right about most visualizers drawing very little overhead... They usually are drawing smaller images (8x160 pixels) 25 times per second, and do not require much overhead.

The issue with this concept is the images are anywhere from 1/2 to full screen height and drawing those images, even a semi-transparent bar (which I have tried by the way :) ), put a pretty heavy load on the CPU.

I have tried using a single preset bar image (19x1080 pixels) and the CPU load is the same as when I repeatedly crop the overall image into pieces on every update.
I have also used an external program (Imagemagick's convert.exe) to generate the individual bars, so no cropping is being done, but the CPU load is about the same.

The process of drawing larger images, 25 times per second (using Update=40) to keep up with the audio, seems to be what is producing the load. This seems to be confirmed by seeing that using fewer bar images, say 20 bars versus 160 bars, produce a heavier CPU load because the images are larger with 20 bars. :???:

So far, I have not been able to find an alternative that works any better...

Thanks for the suggestion. I appreciate hearing any ideas toward making this less resource intensive (if it is even possible)... :confused:
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eclectic-tech
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Joined: April 12th, 2012, 9:40 pm
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Re: Picturalizer

Post by eclectic-tech »

Updated:
  • Modified Bands display: Full-size bands responds to freq volume level
  • Scroll mouse to change back-to-image contrast
  • Added Scaler: 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16 of screen width
  • Added custom number of band setting
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eclectic-tech
Rainmeter Sage
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Joined: April 12th, 2012, 9:40 pm
Location: Cedar Point, Ohio, USA

Re: Picturalizer

Post by eclectic-tech »

Released into the wild on ~ DeviantArt

Removed rmskin from original post and updated link to DA.