Some suggestions

[~Faradey~]

I would like to suggest some features

First what i want is:
- to add function for hiding configs from context menu. I have some configs (skins) in my suite what shouldn't be visible from context menu. It will be very usefull to load configs, for exemple to control other configs by moving meter or showing some info, or else... If you need exemple, read next.

- i have tiled slideshow, it contains 8 configs one of them is major and need to be loaded first, otherwise it will not work properly....
- or for exemple i have config that informs users about updates in RSS or mail etc. but it is not a skin actually and loading it manually is not recomended...
- or else

Second Suggestion is:
To have some counter that is not relative (
not depends) to update rate of entire skin.(as far as i remember Chewtoy did such suggestion). Let it has own update rate or something...

If you need exemple of it applying let me know...

--------------
it just a suggestions, i will be happy to know that is posible to acomplish

---Tnx

[poiru]

First what i want is:
..

If you're thinking about having something like HiddenConfig=1 under [Rainmeter] of the .ini, then that would be very inefficient as all .ini files would have to be read on launch.

Secnd Suggestion is:
...

This is a nice suggestion, and I hope it gets implemented. I'll take a look at it myself, but won't promise anything.

[poiru]

By the way, have you thought of something like:

Code: Select all

[MyCounter]
Measure=Calc
Formula=MyCounter+1
UpdateDivder=x

[~Faradey~]

By the way, have you thought of something like:

Code: Select all

[MyCounter]
Measure=Calc
Formula=MyCounter+1
UpdateDivder=x

but what if i have some skin with Update=8000 and i need to use animation in it (need update to be setted 100)
..then what :

[poiru]

Well if yo have Update=8000, the IMAGE meter would be redrawn every 8 seconds no matter how fast the counter is.

[jsmorley]

but what if i have some skin with Update=8000 and i need to use animation in it (need update to be setted 100)
..then what :

One Update to rule them all
One Update to bind them

Second, third, fourth counters with their own "rate" is not a horrible idea actually, although I think a lot of code to implement, and really possible already with a calc statement. Having any of them be faster than Update is impossible without a major redesign of Rainmeter, and sorta pointless as you can make the skin have the update of the fastest thing you want, and add UpdateDivider to everything else.

[~Faradey~]

If you're thinking about having something like HiddenConfig=1 under [Rainmeter] of the .ini, then that would be very inefficient as all .ini files would have to be read on launch.

Is it possible to load, read them on launch, but can't be seen from context menu? It's not realy important, just wondering

Ok :insider: Now i understand
Thanx for reply guys!

Just want to explain more clearly...

For exemple, i have slideshow with Update=1000, this value need for dynamic change window size. Then (for exemple) i want use animation, but 1 sec/upd is too slow. Here is a question:
If i set Updete=100 (need for animation, to animate picture change), added UpdateDivider in measure, but what about meters, meter for display images from measure - it will extremly load up CPU (image resolution can be any, and big), i tried this method earlier, on first versions of rainmeter (can't remember which one it was), CPU load increased on ~20-25% o_O...(i left this idea on future, and now i remeber about again) ...maybe i dont understand something
Does UpdateDivider work with meters too?

[jsmorley]

I see your conundrum, but there is just no good solution today that I can think of. You just can't have any kind of Counter or Update2 or something that is faster than Update in [Rainmeter]. That is just how Rainmeter works. You can set Update=100 and put UpdateDivider=x on all measures, and that can help to tune the skin's performance. However, image meters are "drawn" on each Update, even if they don't change, and yes, if you have a large'ish image and a fast Update, it will impact CPU usage.

In general, Rainmeter is just not good at image animations. (and truth be told, it is very inefficient at displaying "large" images in general) There are lots of ways it can be done, but there are tradeoffs that mean you always need to do a "cost benefit analysis" when you want to do animations.

So having an image meter that "zooms" or "fades in/out" when it changes to a different image can be done with calcs and dynamic variables and such, but you either need to have the effect be kinda slow as it has to follow Update at a minimum, or pay a price in the performance of the overall skin.

The only solution I can see going forward is to have Rainmeter NOT redraw images if they have not changed, which would mean that the CPU impact would only happen during the animation, and it would be safer to set a low Update=. I'm not sure how feasible this is with the current code design though. Adding routines to check the current image in memory to see if what is about to be drawn is the same may offset the benefits with more CPU usage itself.

[poiru]

If you're lucky, something similar might be possible in the near future.

[JamesAC]

I believe it is possible to set UpdateDivider on meters as well as measures, all the code seems to be there, its just not in the manual.

I haven't tested though, so I could be wrong.