Alpha Plug-In doesn't affect vis. [Archive]

View Full Version : Alpha Plug-In doesn't affect vis.

MrZebra

11-07-2003, 01:37 AM

I just upgraded to the latest version of the Alpha Plug-In (2.11 - Was with 2.02 before)

I think I reported this before, it has no effect on the external vis window. I use the Cover Art plug-in and like to have the album cover in big next to the player and would like it to be see-through for when I'm surfing on websites.

Is there a good reason why the Alpha Plug-in has no effect on the External Vis window?

shaohao

11-07-2003, 06:13 AM

It's me who help paul to develop his Alpha Plugin!
It is possible to transparent the External Vis Windows, but users will open it and close it often, so a lot of source code should be rewrited. Maybe this plug-in will updated later...

shaohao

11-10-2003, 04:08 PM

New version finished!
Now external vis window can be transparent:)
It'll be released soon.

MrZebra

11-11-2003, 02:56 AM

Thanks, I'll download it and report any probs.

krazyd

11-11-2003, 09:15 AM

I've got a weird problem with v2.20 that makes the taskbar transparent after selecting the alpha plugin and changing transparency settings. The taskbar remains transparent even after de-selecting Alpha plugin in preferences. :(
Taskbar is set on auto-hide.

hedge

11-11-2003, 12:14 PM

yep i get the same problem, but without the startbar set to autohide.

Heres a pic to show ya the worst it got...
in case ya wondering, yes that is a qcd playlist with a huge rectangle missing, and yes underneath it is the taskbar, all nice and transparent, along with the rest of the desktop... lol :)

MrZebra

11-12-2003, 04:54 AM

I had some bizzare problems of my own with my E-Mail program. Restarting it seems to fix it.

Now that was after initial install, rebooting windows since seems to have fixed it. Now if you say that changing transparency settings triggers it, let me try...

There you go, don't even have to start QCD, change the Trasnparency Settings, my start menu won't even show correctly! Another reboot will be in order...

Toe

11-16-2003, 12:13 AM

Oh dear, I just got bit by the same bug as krazyd. Moving the slider around in the alpha config panel, and my taskbar and desktop went crazy, and it stayed the same after closing QCD. I had to go into task manager and kill/restart explorer to get it back to normal. (better than having to restart, tho) Win2K and a Radeon, if it helps anything.

krazyd

11-16-2003, 09:05 AM

Seems to have fixed the problems! Great job again shaohao. :)

shaohao

11-16-2003, 12:31 PM

Wish paul can compile his source code and release it soom.

Zayoos

11-16-2003, 07:46 PM

in version 2.22 after changing transparency settings i still have a transparent taskbar :(

Toe

11-17-2003, 12:53 AM

EDIT: OK, scratch this post, the more I play around, the more problems I'm finding. I'll post more in a bit.

So far so good for me. Zayoos, did your taskbar go transparent while you were trying to change the settings in the new ver, or was it already transparent from last time?

Toe

11-17-2003, 02:49 AM

Oh boy, where to start. First of all, my problems seem to be at least partly skin-dependant. Some skins appear to work fine, some give me one problem, others give me a different problem.

I normally have my taskbar set to autohide and docked to the top of my screen. If I dock QCD to the top of my screen with the alpha plugin enabled and certain skins loaded, my CPU usage soars up to around 45% without even playing a song! If I hover my mouse over QCD to make it fade back in, or if I move my mouse to the top of the screen to make my taskbar appear, QCD's CPU usage drops back down to its normal idle level. It doesn't happen if QCD isn't docked to the same side of the screen as my taskbar, or if my taskbar isn't set to auto-hide, and only seems to happen with certain skins. It's by far most noticable with the skin Scarab; others where it's noticable include ReconEx, Manalishi, Contra, and Chillax. Chillax only goes up in CPU usage when it is in main mode, mini mode is fine. Same with eXoduz, without the playlist/eq extended, CPU usage is normal.

As a pure guess, perhaps it has something to do with scrolling text? Scarab has the largest scrolling text of any skin I have, and it fades over a large area too. It doesn't seem to be related to pure size of the skin, as the massive Phazyme doesn't have any problems. Nor does it seem to be scrolling text alone, as many smaller skins (like chillax in mini mode) have scrolling text but no CPU usage issues.

There's also an odd blinking problem. When the taskbar is in auto-hide mode, there's still a pixel or two of it that remains visible. When QCD is overlapping the same edge of the screen as the taskbar (not necessarily docked to the edge, it also happens if QCD goes off the edge) the area where they overlap will periodicly (about once per second) "blink" from displaying the taskbar in the overlapping area, to displaying QCD. At the same time, the scrolling text in QCD briefly pauses.

Anyway, as I was doing my testing for this post, I managed to make QCD crash twice. A few times I ran into skins not displaying properly, along the lines of what Hedge posted earlier, as well as a few times where the main QCD window was transparent, but the playlist was opaque (particularly with the Warning skin) I also managed to make QCD corupt my desktop while I was moving it around. Check the attatched pic of what it did to my icons. The background on that pic (ie my wallpaper) is also much darker than it should be, in fact, it looks exactly like it normally does when I pull up the Shudown Windows screen. Other windows I had visible had to be minimized/resized or moved offscreen and back on to clear their corupt display windows.

Curiously, I my taskbar never went clear while I was doing all this....

MrZebra

11-17-2003, 05:20 AM

Just installed v2.22 and it still has problems.

Either the whole desktop will go clear, the taskbar or the start menu. Each time it's a different items that becomes a "Ghost".

Zayoos

11-17-2003, 09:32 AM

Zayoos, did your taskbar go transparent while you were trying to change the settings in the new ver, or was it already transparent from last time?
I had normal look of desktop. When i turned off this plugin i delete it. I restarted QCD and install new version, then in trasparency setings when i moved the slider whole desktop go transparent (desktop icons and taskbar).

shaohao

11-17-2003, 09:46 AM

unbelieveable!!! Why it works fine on my sytem?

Tokelil

11-17-2003, 10:02 AM

Works fine on my system it seems. (I haven't read the whole tread so maybe this has been covered)
Maybe it has some thing to do with the different systems? Display driver? OS version? Taskbar settings?

krazyd

11-17-2003, 10:22 AM

Zayoos

11-17-2003, 10:30 AM

unbelieveable!!! Why it works fine on my sytem?
I am very very very very very very sorry. I was using version 2.22 from the Plug-ins section, i somehow missoverlooked the unicode version on the forum (just instaled). And of course 2.22u works very well on my system too :). Sorry again ;)
.......blind me........

shaohao

11-17-2003, 10:34 AM

Okay, here's a problem for me:
1. In default skin, alpha plugin selected, turn playlist off then on again, and only the current song is visible in the playlist. (pic 1)
2. With playlist on, allow the player to fade, and most of the playlist turns black which can be seen on mouseover. (pic 2)

XP home, Nvidia GeForce2 MX400 if it helps...

Hi, Krazyd:
So far as I know, you should restart QCD when your first install this plug-in and enable it in plug-in browser.

The dadly bug is: Why it will transparent your desktop/startbar but it is OK on my system.

Tokelil

11-17-2003, 10:41 AM

For a second I thought I had spoken too soon but restarting QCD after enabling the Alpha plugin solved my problems. :)

Toe

11-17-2003, 01:53 PM

Here's another bug for ya: on the PODxt skin, with the playlist extended, if I move my mouse cursor over the search box, QCD fades out as if I'd move it off of QCD.

shaohao

11-18-2003, 10:03 AM

Here's another bug for ya: on the PODxt skin, with the playlist extended, if I move my mouse cursor over the search box, QCD fades out as if I'd move it off of QCD.

Yes, I also catch the bug in default skin.
It'll be fixed in next release version.

blackspawn

11-18-2003, 07:00 PM

Just for the record I also had the problem where my taskbar would become transparent and/or my mouse would become a transparent black square. However it seems that the version shaohao put up on this thread as solved the problem :) Thanks!

Toe

11-21-2003, 08:04 AM

Search bug fixed. Still no love on my CPU usage problem. Haven't tried to make anything else go transparent.

First pic: CPU usage with Scarab skin docked to same edge as auto-hide taskbar. Second pic: CPU usage with window moved a few pixels down so that it's not docked to the edge.

Paul

11-21-2003, 08:10 AM

CPU usage when using the Alpha plugin has only to do with Windows (including your video card and drivers). There is no code in QCD or the Alpha plugin that can change how much CPU is used. Transparency is Windows thing, the Alpha plugin just sets the flag to turn it on.

Toe

11-21-2003, 02:14 PM

Ya, I can understand what you're saying. I'm just bewildered as to why it's so sensitive to that particular skin. Several other skins made QCD go up in CPU usage under the same circumstances, but none quite as dramaticly as Scarab.

shaohao

11-21-2003, 02:20 PM