Looking for a multi-source picture frame

[Yincognito]

As it turns out, in the process of pasting in the code I spotted the problem. I forgot to add a sixth entry for the Measures section. So, false alarm, my bad

No worries, it happens.

[Traxan]

I got a problem with this bugger. Despite having a folder with hundreds of pictures to choose from, it regularly and repeatedly picks the the same photos over and over. I see the same pictures over and over while others are never or rarely show. There's nothing in the code to explain such favoritism, so what else could it be?

[Yincognito]

I got a problem with this bugger. Despite having a folder with hundreds of pictures to choose from, it regularly and repeatedly picks the the same photos over and over. I see the same pictures over and over while others are never or rarely show. There's nothing in the code to explain such favoritism, so what else could it be?

Is it still a folder with many subfolders, or all files are in the same folder? In other words, are you still using this type of code, or this one? If the code is still not a thousand lines long, can you post it? The example I posted should work randomly enough, if your subfolders have enough images in them. On the other hand, if one of your subfolders only has 3 images, one of those 3 will always be part of the list from which [PictureOutput] will randomly choose the final image to be displayed.

That being said, I dont know how the Quote plugin or the Random Calc work internally, though they should choose random numbers properly.

[balala]

I got a problem with this bugger. Despite having a folder with hundreds of pictures to choose from, it regularly and repeatedly picks the the same photos over and over. I see the same pictures over and over while others are never or rarely show. There's nothing in the code to explain such favoritism, so what else could it be?

Could you please post the current code of the Quote plugin measure? Doesn't really make sense this way.

[Traxan]

Could you please post the current code of the Quote plugin measure? Doesn't really make sense this way.

I have no idea what you mean about code of the Quote plugin. Do you want the INI for the frame?

[Traxan]

Is it still a folder with many subfolders, or all files are in the same folder? In other words, are you still using this type of code, or this one? If the code is still not a thousand lines long, can you post it? The example I posted should work randomly enough, if your subfolders have enough images in them. On the other hand, if one of your subfolders only has 3 images, one of those 3 will always be part of the list from which [PictureOutput] will randomly choose the final image to be displayed.

That being said, I dont know how the Quote plugin or the Random Calc work internally, though they should choose random numbers properly.

Here is the top of the code. All I changed was the folder names

Code: Select all

[Variables]
PictureCount=3
ImagePath1=d:\pix\folder1
SubFolders1=0
FileFilter1=*.jpg;*.jpeg;*.png;*.bmp;*.gif
ImagePath2=d:\pix\folder 2
SubFolders2=0
FileFilter2=*.jpg;*.jpeg;*.png;*.bmp;*.gif
ImagePath3=d:\pix\folder3
SubFolders3=0
FileFilter3=*.jpg;*.jpeg;*.png;*.bmp;*.gif

[MeterShapeRectangle]
Meter=Shape
X=1
Y=1
Shape=Rectangle 0,0,752,932 | Fill Color 0,0,0 | StrokeWidth 2 | StrokeColor 255,255,255,75

[Yincognito]

Here is the top of the code. All I changed was the folder names

I see, thanks. Are all your images currently from either your main / parent folder or from one of its subfolders? Because if we're now talking about files from a single main / parent folder and its subfolders, you could just use the example in the manual and let QuotePlugin choose randomly from the entire set. The only reason for the implementation I proposed earlier was because you wanted to look into multiple folders that were not from the same main / parent folder. If in the meantime you moved your images in either a single "root" folder or one of its subfolders, then the solution becomes much simpler.

[balala]

I have no idea what you mean about code of the Quote plugin. Do you want the INI for the frame?

Quote plugin measure is the measure which randomly chooses images from the folder specified into the PathName option of the measure. I assume your code uses such a measure (or more, based on the posted variables) which returns an image, especially that in one of your previous posts you had such a measure ([Picture]). This returned image is repeating itself, if I understand your problem.
If you don't know what should you post, post please the whole code of your skin (use the </> button in the menu of this forum, to include your code into <code>...</code> tags).

[Active Colors]

I was getting the same experience with Quote measure when I was showing a picture slideshow.
jsmorley gives an explanation to this:

Using the Quote plugin is relatively simple, but has one downside. It's "random" in the sense of throwing a dice, not in the sense of picking and discarding a card from a deck. So the fewer files you have in the folder, the more likely it is that you will get a "repeat".

Here is a skin made by jsmorley which specifically targets this described "oddity":
https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=15163 (for images)
https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=15162 (for texts)

You can also perhaps read through these threads to see and apply the techniques suggested there:
https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=26961
https://forum.rainmeter.net/viewtopic.php?t=38583

[Yincognito]

Active Colors already found the explanation for the behavior (which I got too, after testing the skin for a longer time yesterday), it's about how the Quote plugin internally functions, after all (which I wasn't sure of earlier), and about the number of files in those folders.

I do have a FolderInfo/ FileView / Random Calc version written and functioning, but didn't post it yet since sometimes it returns no image (i.e. a black output), which might indicate some slight timing issue between reading from drive and showing the result. Once that is solved, I'll share it here, maybe it helps. In the meantime, the Lua variants can of course be tested, though personally I don't see Lua an absolute necessity in this case.