LateNight: crossfader position indicator inconsistent in 2-deck mode

[Owen Williams]

The crossfader position indicator (whether a track is L, M, or R), is inconsistent in 2-deck mode on Latenight in the 2.2 tree. Usually it is not visible, but:

1. switch the 4-deck mode
2. change the middle decks to M
3. switch back to 2-deck mode

Sometimes the indicators stay around. Sometimes they disappear. Sometimes one stays and the other disappears. If the indicator does stay around, clicking on it changes the setting, until the setting returns to the 2-deck default, then the indicator disappears.

Either the indicators should always be visible, or switching to 2-deck mode should reset the values to the default and hide them. Hiding them without resetting the values would be confusing, because the setting could be messed up and the user will have no visible way to fix it.

[ronso0 (ronso0)]

Did I implement that bug/feature for the exact scenario you discovered it? ;)
The indicators are visible only if the setting differs from standart 2-deck settings.

The idea was to keep a reminder when switching from a 'twisted' 4-deck setting to 2 decks. The xFader indicators would hide as soon as xForientation is back to 'normal'.
How to reset the orienation COs when switching to 2 decks? Is that desired or dangerous?
Is it desired to keep the xfader buttons around when using a stripped-down mixer (VUs only)?

[Owen Williams (ywwg)]

But sometimes the indicators aren't visible even when they differ from the standard settings. I'm ok with that setup but it has to work :). And I'm not sure it's a good idea to make them disappear again when the user is changing the orientation, because maybe they need to go through the default setting to get to the setting they want.

If we want to keep the show/hide behavior I think it has to be:

1. on load, or on deck-number-switch, if they are both set to the default values, hide them
2. if they are changed, show them until condition 1 occurs again.

OR, if we want to lock 2-deck config to left and right, we can add c++ code when 2deck/4deck status is changed that could reset to the default when 2-deck mode is activated.

OR, the easiest solution is just to always show the orientation controls

Whatever solution we should come up with here should be the same for all skins.

For VUs only mode, probably don't show the controls.

these are just my opinions and someone with more familiarity with the other skins might have a better idea what the default should be

[ronso0 (ronso0)]

> But sometimes the indicators aren't visible even when they differ from the
> standard settings. I'm ok with that setup but it has to work :)

That's the actual bug: xFader button of deck 2 doesn't have a Size attribute.
This is noticeable after adding scalemode="STRETCH_ASPECT" in https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx/pull/1858

Also, I just noticed we have those COs:
[ChannelX], orientation_right ..,left ...,center
So those combined buttons could actually be 3 separate buttons, then user wouldn't have to cycle through all options but could choose the approriate setting right away.

In Shade we don't need those controls (only 2 decks) but set them to default on skin load.
In Tango, those controls are always visible anyways (expand decks controls or enter skin settings).
In Deere it'll get hard to squeeze them in...

I'm not sure automatic switching is a good idea: I do back-to-back sessions where we sometimes need 3 decks, and I sometimes use a 3rd deck for Aux input via Vinyl Passtrough (workaround).
In both scenarios we/I might have set the orientation other than default just so that either one of us can stay on his side of the controller while the other one is still playing with his/her deck.
So toggling 2/4 decks should really just toggle the visibility, not the xFader stuff to avoid ugly surprises that can't be reverted quickly also by a 'non-professional'...

[ronso0 (ronso0)]

quick fix for current behaviour:
https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx/pull/1881

[Owen Williams (ywwg)]

Your PR does fix the current behavior. I still don't like how if the right deck is set to M, and I'm in two-deck mode, and single click makes the control just vanish (because now it's the default value). I think it'd be better to just have the controls always be visible in 2-deck mode.

[Owen Williams (ywwg)]

"and single click" -> "a single click"

[ronso0 (ronso0)]

Okay, I see your point and I can just remove the condition.
Otoh to avoid incosistency across skins, we'd have to squeeze the xfader buttons next to the xfader in Deere (that's the only reasonable place I can imagine without reworking the Deere mixer).

If that's okay with you, I put those changes (LateNight & Deere) in #1881, as well.?
We don't need to rush that though, IMO it can go to 2.2.1

[Owen Williams (ywwg)]

yeah this is a relatively low priority fix

[Owen Williams (ywwg)]

sounds good, thanks!

[ronso0 (ronso0)]

maybe it would also improve the ux if the button states are toggled
0-1-2-1-0-1... instead of 0-1-2-0-1...

[ronso0 (ronso0)]

that would make the control more predictable as there are no sudden jumps from left to right anymore.

[Daniel Schürmann (daschuer)]

We can add a control type or control parameter for this. Can you file a bug?

[ronso0 (ronso0)]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/mixxx/+bug/1803140

[ronso0 (ronso0)]

https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx/pull/2075

[Swiftb0y (swiftb0y)]

Mixxx now uses GitHub for bug tracking. This bug has been migrated to:
https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx/issues/9503