So, here's the video, right away
It's clearly a preview and there are indeed unfinished features and a few glitches that I will correct in time.
The meaning of the video, for now, is mostly "this is what I have in mind and where I got so far, do you like it ?"
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
There are two things that I like to point out about this video:
- Do not ask for a release date !
- It has been recorded in 1280x720 for YouTube, so everything seems to be too crowdy. On resolutions like 1280x1024 up to 1920x1080, things look much better ! As for tablets, I'd say this UI is suitable for 1024x768 and above.
Since when I record videos I don't have a list of things to show (and my memory apparently is getting faulty...) I always forget some bits.
One is a thing that has been requested by users a few times: percentage values everywhere.
I listened, and I did it. Basically whenever there are DMX values, there will be percentage values as well.
Another thing I forgot is that when you start setting DMX values in a view, either DMX or 2D (for now
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
I will add a couple of buttons at the bottom of the left panel, so touchscreen users will be able to select/deselect all the fixtures (CTRL+A) or reset DMX values (CTRL+R)
I did the mistake of clicking on the "Grid View" button, but that's indeed an unfinished business ! The performances to render 512 squares are terrible, especially on Android, so I will probably start fresh and write it again.
The grid area will be multi-purpose. It will show the Universe DMX map, but also fixture groups displacements (those used by RGB matrices) or the complete fixture information.
At this stage of the developments, I am still learning a lot of this "new" technology that I am using, called QML, so I write code, continue to write, and then rewrite some parts cause I discovered great optimizations meanwhile.
To give you the idea, the QLC+ 4 UI is written 95% in C++ and 5% in XML.
The QLC+ 5 UI will be written 50% in C++, 45% in QML (which is JSON-like code) and 5% in JavaScript. This all because QML and JavaScript can run small pieces of code in a declarative language, instead of a tough language like C++.
However, the UI logic heavy lifting will be performed in C++...I do not trust QML that much for now...
The whole "new UI" process is very slow though...slower than I expected, but...the QLC+ 4 UI took more than 10 years to become what it is now, so I guess patience is a virtue at this stage.
I'll probably use this blog area to share a few updates more frequently, and produce a video when I have a consistent number of things to show.
Next in my list are (hear hear): the Chaser Editor and the Virtual Console
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)