LateNight :: Redesign part 2

[ronso0]

last major addon to the LateNight redesign.
A few more changes to make LateNight more consistent

• elegant slider scales
• tweaked knob scales, groove around knobs
• additional pin sharp graphics for smaller knobs (Master mixer, Fx mix & Super knob)
• tweak some local contrasts (xFader buttons, seapartor grooves in decks etc.)
• adjusted margins (Fx units, mic/Aux decks)

..and a general overhaul of the pushbutton templates:

• common border images (per button size) to facilitate design experiments and creating color schemes
• an alternative border image for buttons in elevated top-level regions (rate controls, mixer, Fx unit controls, ...)

ToDo

• _scheme variables for buttons, knobs, sliders for Flip scheme
• update skin preview

[WIP screenshots, updated frequently]
now:

new Flip scheme:

before:

[ywwg]

Looking good! It's nice to see the skin's internal inconsistencies get resolved :)

Is there a need for a mid-point tick mark on the channel faders? It looks a little out of place, and depending on the fade curve it doesn't represent a useful value (like "1/2 volume"). (the old accents at 25%, 50%, and 75% didn't make sense either).

By contrast, for the rate sliders, can we emphasize the midpoint a little more? That's an important notch.

[ronso0]

Is there a need for a mid-point tick mark on the channel faders? It looks a little out of place, and depending on the fade curve it doesn't represent a useful value

No, it's just deco. At first try they looked a bit naked without it.

By contrast, for the rate sliders, can we emphasize the midpoint a little more

Sure.

About the inconsistencies, I'm not entirely happy with the 3D buttons, now they just don't keep up with the rest of the skin. Any idea how to improve them, maybe just a different border? It's tedious to test because the border is set with each icon individually.

[ywwg]

No, it's just deco. At first try they looked a bit naked without it.

let's try without and see how it looks.

I'm not entirely happy with the 3D buttons

which buttons are those?

[ronso0]

Yeah no worries, I'll remove the center notch.

For me, 3D buttons are basically all elevated buttons with drop shadow and round corners. IMO they still look a bit dull, especially when close to a slider like the rate buttons or Headphone buttons in te mixer.
Simply embedding them like Fx unit controls buttons doesn't look super either because of the low contrast but it's step into the right direction I guess. Gimp draft:

[ronso0]

actually these are two separate ideas to improve the 3D buttons:

• embed buttons in a top-level section (mixer pfl, rate section)
• tweak 3D buttons in embedded sections (like deck transport row, sampler hotcues, mic buttons)

[ywwg]

I'm having trouble seeing the difference, can you attach a side-by-side comparison?

[ronso0]

The above picture is just a sketch how the rate buttons could look like.
Anyway, I was annoyed that if I want to change the button borders I'd need to do it for each button (and each state!) individually because the icons are set via Pressed Unpressed in button xml templates.
Anyway, yesterday I found a way to have a common border/bg icon file -at least for all square buttons- and still idividual icons, and now I can show the ideas 'live' very easily.
[yes, there's css border-image but the pressed state can only be styled for QPushButtons, for WPushButton it just doesn't work, an no-one with Qt widget skills took care of that bug yet lp:1836967]

[Be-ing]

By contrast, for the rate sliders, can we emphasize the midpoint a little more? That's an important notch.

It would be nice to have a center indicator for the EQ and gain knobs too. Perhaps a gap in the outer arc would work. That would require some changes to the WKnobComposed C++ and there's no particular need to do it in this PR.

[ronso0]

@Be-ing LateNight knobs don't use arcs from #2275 yet.

[ywwg]

I find it easier to see the buttons with the brighter borders -- cue/play-pause vs the rate buttons. But I support the new templating method and experimentation.

[ronso0]

@ywwg How do you feel about this version?
(EQ kill and tiny buttons at the right aren't styled yet)

[ywwg]

so far so good! I like how they look more physical now without being cheesy

[Holzhaus]

@ronso0 I like it, too.

[ronso0]

so far so good! I like how they look more physical now without being cheesy

yeah, that was the idea!

when I tried to remove the 'cheese' from the elevated transport buttons I came up with this,
and I love it:

EQ kill buttons might be hard to spot with difficult lighting as they don't have icons yet so I tested the H/M/L labels which @nopeppermint mentioned elsewhere. Still need to adjust the font color but I think it could work..

[ronso0]

now I just need to filter that dumpload of changes so the commits are speccific.

[ywwg]

the rewind button looks misaligned from the others somehow. But the look is good

[ronso0]

Previews added, ready to merge.

[Be-ing]

Why is the play button orange when active unlike any other button?

Please get rid of this and just make the button red with play_indicator. Whatever other complication you were trying to implement, it isn't working. If you want to implement it in another PR we can focus on it then. Otherwise looks great to me!

[Be-ing]

Now there is a new bug that sometimes the play button is unlit when the track is playing...

[ronso0]

Why is the play button orange when active unlike any other button?

Please get rid of this and just make the button red with play_indicator. Whatever other complication you were trying to implement, it isn't working. If you want to implement it in another PR we can focus on it then. Otherwise looks great to me!

Removed.
Though this is no 'complication' but a valid combination of value and highlight and it would help if you can decsribe the situation where it doesn't work for you.

[ronso0]

Now there is a new bug that sometimes the play button is unlit when the track is playing...

Fixed.

[Be-ing]

Not completely fixed. Sometimes when starting to play from the cue point, the play button stays unlit.

What cue mode do you use? I use Numark mode.

Though this is no 'complication' but a valid combination of value and highlight and it would help if you can decsribe the situation where it doesn't work for you.

I cannot identify how to reproduce it reliably. IME trying to combine multiple states in complex logic in the skin system creates unreliable results.

[ronso0]

Not completely fixed. Sometimes when starting to play from the cue point, the play button stays unlit.

I reset all play buttons to their functionality before this PR.

It's still not disoverable that pressing Play while playing from Cue or hotcue would switch to continues playback. IMO we should implement a indicator to skins. I did this in Tango: there it's a button stack so it works reliably.
We should also add a hint to hotcue tooltips. I'll try to fix that in #2379

[Be-ing]

Still not fixed. Sometimes pressing play does not light the play button. When this happens, I see the cue button briefly light up and immediately go unlit. I cannot reproduce it 100% of the time, but if I repeatedly press the play button it happens sometimes. This is with Numark cue mode. I tested with LateNight in master and cannot reproduce this.

[ronso0]

okay, so appearantly it makes a difference (and also depends on Cue mode?) if value or displayValue is used.
I now use displayValue like in the other skins.

[Be-ing]

Still not fixed :/ Are you able to reproduce the bug with Numark mode?

[ronso0]

Yes, with Numark mode I can reproduce this, but only in developer mode.

Actually the controls used for the button are exactly like they are for ages in Tango and Deere. We should see the exact same behaviour there.
In Numark mode, pressing Play when paused not at Cue point moves Cue point there and starts playing. So Cue button can be lit for a few miliseconds. Seems the skin can't catch up with control changes because in LateNight repainting might need more ressources as it also swaps the pixmap (which is irritating because it uses state1 pressed image for blinking and indicating playing_from_cue).

That said, this can be merged now, and we should take care of this for all skins in another PR.

Btw, using value (group,play_indicator?) also for the icon of PlayToggle in Deere is confusing as the button not just blinks but also cycles play & pause icon when paused not at the Cue point.

[Be-ing]

I am able to reproduce it without developer mode, but you are correct, this bug is not exclusive to LateNight so I'll merge this now. In Tango, instead of the play button not being lit, it has a highlighted border instead of switching to the pause icon with the typical highlighted (orange) background. IMO this is a serious bug that we should take care of ASAP. The state of the play button is very important.

[ronso0]

🎉

[Holzhaus]

@ronso0 I checked current master using qsscheck and it tells me:

./res/skins/LateNight/style.qss:13:1: Unknown widget class "WText"

Is this a false positive?

[ronso0]

IMO this is a serious bug that we should take care of ASAP. The state of the play button is very important.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/mixxx/+bug/1855620

In Tango, instead of the play button not being lit, it has a highlighted border instead of switching to the pause icon with the typical highlighted (orange) background.

That's the indicator I referred to earlier: lit when playing from cue.

[ronso0]

@ronso0 I checked current master using qsscheck and it tells me:

./res/skins/LateNight/style.qss:13:1: Unknown widget class "WText"

Is this a false positive?

Oops,.. There's only WTrackText, idk why I added WText.
So the result is correct.
There'll be a follow-up anyway, beacuse I messed up the embedded play buttons in mini decks and samplers..

[Holzhaus]

No problem, I'll just open a new PR with just this fix, so that we can merge #2375 ASAP. Then the CI will be able to complain about this beforehand ;-)