This is distracting when I’m trying to watch the 3D oscilloscope display. Trying to avoid overlaps can cause other unsatisfactory compromises in the patch layout. I created an issue on my repo about this.
My goal is to either hide or diminish the portions of the cables that overlap Tricorder’s display area.
I’m wondering if it’s possible for me to trick VCV Rack into giving me a callback after all the cables have been drawn, so that I can draw my display area on top of the cables. I could draw my display area with, say, 80% opacity, so that you can still see the faint trace of the underlying cables. I could even add a slider in the right-click context menu to adjust the opacity.
You know, you (any user) can just drop your cable opacity to zero/near-zero if you (any user) wants to see the pretty displays on any visual/scope/picture module anywhere in Rack.
Obscuring cables just in your module breaks the “modular simulation” skeumorphic design philosophy of Rack.
I agree with your points, and at the same time, I don’t want to completely hide my cables. I make VCV Rack videos for YouTube. Some people who post videos like these hide their cables and dim the lights. It’s often a great experience to listen to, and I will gladly click the thumbs up button when their music moves me.
Yet I feel a little disappointed that I can’t see how they hooked it up. I would like my videos to be “open source” representations of the patchwork.
Also, I’m already breaking “rules” because my modules don’t have any screws on them! (The magnetic field from a single Elastika is powerful enough to hold all Sapphire modules in place.)
You can set transparency at whatever compromise works best for the circumstances.
For patch videos, it would be great to have a way to start with lights 100%, cables 100%, then begin playing and fade the lights and cables down for the duration of the piece. Or, end with a fade lights and cables up, like when the play’s over in the theatre. Maybe there’s a module that can automate this.
My pachde-1 plugin has screws optional on all modules and when screws are present, they have nice smooth caps on them. Imagine has labels optional.
For now, I think Bright Idea sounds like, well, a bright idea! As @pachde points out, by having the cables visible for only part of the video, people can pause the video to study the cables, and then I can fade out the cables/lights via CV for the rest of the performance. Then people can focus on the Tricorder display and other such blinkenlights.
