Secret animations in v6.2

[Opus4]

There is a secret animation system under development which can be used already in v6.2 by setting this property:

ui/animation/experimental_core_enabled=true

The default STV already has several types of animations, but they just weren't visible because the system was disabled by default in v6.2. Simply set the above property (or call the API call mentioned below via Studio's expression evaluator) & use the default STV. Besides the obvious things as you scroll around, check out the transition when you toggle the basic & advanced modes for the pop-up you get after selecting a recording. And, go to the music browser & start/stop music playback.

The animations should work on all types of clients except the MVP extender.

Check it out.

EDIT: Hint...Hint...that means it WILL work on the soon-to-be-released HD media extender. http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=27530



For STV developers:

I'm still looking for time to write up a better description for the current animation system abilities (the details are subject to change anyway, as development continues), but here is a little API & animation layer info:

In Studio, there is a new API call you could use to enable/disable it:
SetCoreAnimationsEnabled(true)
SetCoreAnimationsEnabled(false)

Get its status:
AreCoreAnimationsEnabled()

There is also:
Animate()
AnimateDelayed()

More info on those API calls is in the online Studio APi docs. Also, there are Animate() examples in the default STV.

While the core does the actual animations, the STV controls it all via the above-mentioned API calls and layer settings for widget Animation properties.

An animation system layer is defined via the Animation property by setting the property to LayerName, or CacheName. This puts that UI widget and all of its children on the Name layer. The "Layer" and "Cache" prefixes are interchangeable for the widget Animation property, so you'll see some called "CacheFocus", while others might be "LayerBG" or "LayerForeground". No equal sign is used for this setting.

The default STV is set up to use a max of 3 layers to limit the amount of memory used for layers: BG, Focus, and Foreground. And, the layers are displayed in that order (alphabetical). You can create additional layers for custom STVs, to change where the focus highlight is drawn for example, but that will use more memory.

For tables, the Foreground layer is the one that is automatically scrolled. If you search the STV for "REM Set the animation surface names.", you'll see a couple properties used to define default background & scrolling surface layers.

- Andy

[evilpenguin]

How about some youtube videos showing off these fancy new animations?

[tmiranda]

The animations should work on all types of clients except the MVP extender.

Drats!

[MeInMaui]

Very slick. These should be fun to play with.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

How about some youtube videos showing off these fancy new animations?

Um... I know how to do screen shots, but not how to capture a video of the screen changing...

Besides, if someone really wants to see them, they ought to turn on that property. It is just more fun having first-hand experience moving the mouse around real fast on a screen with lots of buttons or holding down the up or down arrows in a place where focus wraps from top to bottom.

- Andy

[sticky]

Camtasia works well.

[kricker]

I'm totally missing it. I enabled the property, but everything looks the same to me.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by kricker

I'm totally missing it. I enabled the property, but everything looks the same to me.

Are you using the default STV?

Did you enable it in the properties for the UI you are using? (i.e.: Don't add it to the service's property file.)

Are you using an MVP? Animations aren't active on that extender.

The menus will _look_ the same, but focus changes, table scrolling, pop-up creation, and some other things are affected.

- Andy

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by kricker

I'm totally missing it. I enabled the property, but everything looks the same to me.

Did you quit Sage before modifying the property?

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

How about some youtube videos showing off these fancy new animations?

Here ya go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrW5m1BbLfM
The highlight bar just slides to the next selection instead of skipping like before.

[kricker]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Did you quit Sage before modifying the property?

Yup, I checked twice.

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

The highlight bar just slides to the next selection instead of skipping like before.

I better go look again, but Idon't think I saw that...of course it was getting late.

Just checked again, and nope, I don't see it.
Sage 6.2.10
using VMR9 and FSE
Secret features enabled
Secret Animations enabled as show above

Could I have turned them off somewhere in the setup/detailed? I had turned off all animations before, but I thinked turned them back on. At least I enabled the only setting I saw for animations in the settings.

EDIT
Never mind, I'm a moron. I am using the server and I edited the sage.properties and not the sageclient.properties.

[mickp]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Here ya go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrW5m1BbLfM
The highlight bar just slides to the next selection instead of skipping like before.

Thanks for that. Is that what the new interface looks like? Not bad at all.

The screenshots on the sage site haven't been updated yet & where's the headline story on the front page saying "Now 80% less ugly"

Mick.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by kricker

Yup, I checked twice.
I better go look again, but Idon't think I saw that...of course it was getting late.

Just checked again, and nope, I don't see it.
Sage 6.2.10
using VMR9 and FSE
Secret features enabled
Secret Animations enabled as show above

Could I have turned them off somewhere in the setup/detailed? I had turned off all animations before, but I thinked turned them back on. At least I enabled the only setting I saw for animations in the settings.

You didn't add that line, did you? The line exists so just change it from false to true.


Gerry

[malore]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Here ya go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrW5m1BbLfM
The highlight bar just slides to the next selection instead of skipping like before.

Thanks for the video, now I know I can skip this for now. It reminds me of all the little animations in Windows that I disable. This isn't meant to be critical of the feature, just not my thing.

[kricker]

Never mind, I'm a moron. I am using the server and I edited the sage.properties and not the sageclient.properties.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

The highlight bar just slides to the next selection instead of skipping like before.

That's part of it, but you didn't show the pop-up dialogs growing/shrinking, switching between advanced/basic mode in the video options dialog, or the music info area shrinking for the playback bar when you start playing music. There will be others as developement continues; so far, only some things have been implemented as time allowed during v6.2 work.

Originally Posted by mickp

Thanks for that. Is that what the new interface looks like? Not bad at all.

There were some screen shots posted during the beta here: What's new in the v6.2 UI. (A few things have been tweaked since those were posted, though.)

- Andy

[Narflex]

And here's another STV to check out with that enabled. This is the one I use for demos. (use the 'Watched' command on the main menu to repeat the intro sequence)

http://download.sage.tv/CacheTest-2.xml

It shows more examples of what the animation system can do.

[tmiranda]

Very nice. It certainly adds the "golly gee-wiz" factor that the UI had been missing. I really like the menu transitions and can see a time where the transition style can be chosen by the user a la PowerPoint.

I would guess that most of the people on these forums will not use the animations but the animations will go a long way with people considering various other PVR software.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I would guess that most of the people on these forums will not use the animations but the animations will go a long way with people considering various other PVR software.

I'll sure be using them

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

I'll sure be using them

I am using them too


Dirk