Is it possible to load a static panel image?

Development
42

I try to never do if (module) draw() kind of things. When I’m good I try to make all my widgets draw something so they look ok in the browser.

I do notice that a lot of modules show up sort of “blank” in the browser, presumably because they don’t draw when module == nullptr.

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43

That’s correct, but I would need to make drastic changes to my module to not attach the widgets when in the browser.

I’ll probably leave it as it is since it looks fine but is just doing unnecessary steps when in the browser.

Thanks.

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44

Right. I have a significant amount of code to have the module widget look good in the browser.

Thanks.

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45

I would guess the module picture is rendered once when the module is updated in the library and then that images is served by the library, so a little bit of extra work here seems pretty minor.

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46

Edit: what I said is not entirely right. See @carbon14 and @Ahornberg comments following.

The module image in the browser is captured from the current module instance at runtime. But it is cached and it is not clear what controls the cache refresh. I manually toggle the zoom in the browser to force a cache refresh or otherwise the current panel theme color may not match the browser module color theme. I’m not sure if there is a way to tell the cache to refresh from within the module when the panel theme is manually changed.

The module image in the library is likewise captured from an executing module instance as part of the library build tool chain when a new version is built. So, yeah, coding the module to appear nice in the browser also results in it appearing nice in the library. My Meander module looks slightly different in the library than in the browser. That appears to be due to how the image is captured or rather when. Seems like not everything is initialized when the library image is captured, perhaps due to the large code size of Meander which probably takes longer to load and initialize than most.

I think we are saying the same thing, but I thought I would expand upon this with my understanding in case others are interested, or in case I have something wrong and someone will educate me.

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47

I don’t believe that there is any way to force the module browser to reload it’s images when you change your panel theme.

I think you are slightly wrong when you suggest that the image in the browser is ‘captured from the current module instance at runtime’

An instance of your ModuleWidget is specifically instantiated for the benefit of the browser. It is asked to render once into a framebuffer. Quite likely it is then discarded.

A similar thing happens for the library images, the ModuleWidget is instantiated, it’s draw method is called and then it gets thrown away.

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48

The module browser is created only once and the module-widgets are created lazily, but once created, they are cached.

My modules FlyingFader and TapeRecorder display random colored elements in the browser each time you restart the rack completely.

So far I didn’t find a way to display different colored elements each time the broser widget is opened.

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49

Ah, that makes sense. I think I meant what you said, but I was hazy. Thanks for clarifying.

50

Thanks for clarifying.

51

I found a way to change the module widget in the browser dynamically:

By overriding step() on your module widget, you can change everything inside your module widget and its children at GUI frame rate.

By creating a DirtyEvent and calling parent->parent->onDirty() you set the FrameBufferWidget in the Browser that holds your module widget to dirty, so that it redraws iself and all its children (your module widget and its children).

In the video above, I randomly reload the SVG file and run a counter in a widget with a custom draw() method.

Here’s a pseudo-code:

void MyWidget::step() {
	if (!module) {
		// update your child widgets here
		// e.g. load an SVG file or change internal values
		DirtyEvent eDirty;
		parent->parent->onDirty(eDirty);
	}
	ModuleWidget::step();
}
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52

That is great. I already do some of my panel theme logic in ::step() override. I’ll see if I can force the browser module graphics to redraw on dirty. I have Meander torn apart currently as I am changing from a singleton module to a multi-instance module, so it might be a few days before I try this trick.

Thank you very much!

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53

This works like a charm in my Meander browser mode use of a static panel PNG file in the proper panel theme color! No more having to manually refresh the browser panel image cache via zoom.

The only change I made was to explicitly override step().

Thanks for coming up with this!

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54

Unfortunately, this parent->parent->onDirty() technique causes serious performance issues for all users in the browser.

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