Hi guys!
As promised earlier, another update to start the month with.
I know, I'm a few days late, but here goes!
There's a lot of progression on CarMa!
I'll highlight a few lines from the changelog without violating my NDA
We've been working hard to optimize the application to start the list with.
To optimize CarMa we use a 800mhz/512mb system for reference.
If we can achieve the experience from modern desktops with these specs, we're happy.
To monitor this we use app-profilers, these tools help us to find slow parts in CarMa.
A lot of core and rendering subsystems have been redesigned already, these bottlenecks
weren't noticed on the desktops. To give you a small early figure, CarMa uses less than
64mb when running with a database of 15.500 songs and about 10 screens.
The skin is based on a set of XML files and images. The images can be gif/jpg/tiff/png,
although png is preferred due to the alpha channel. Since the last update, we optimized
and cleaned the XML structure, the loading performance improved a bit in the end.
NoTec is optimizing his CarMa skin, he really has an eye for detail and great interface
elements. Due to his input, masking is also available for some elements!
While work was being done on the graphics rendering, we also improved the loading times
between screens greatly using a filecache.
CarMa already supports 3 plugin audio-engines! BASS, fmod and Winamp!
These 3 players support common features like volume control and equalizers.
Visualizations are also supported, but work has to be done on this part yet.
Multi-playlists. We implemented in an easy way, but making playlists isn't
the only way to listen to your music collection. We will tell more about this later.
CarMa will store the last -configurable amount- playlists. As soon as you select
another artist/album/genre/etc, it will automatically insert a new playlist and fill it with
your current selection. The newest list will always be the first, this way, if you
don't use multiple playlists, you aren't forced to use it either, just use it as you would
switch CD's!
Comfort. We want the user to have a smooth experience using CarMa.
This means CarMa has some comfort-features ofcourse. I will not go into great detail,
but you could expect quick fade-in/out's on pausing/skipping songs, auto-brightness
adjustments, etc. These features can be configured from the settings application.
All features will give you a very smooth experience without headaches!
And now some screenshots! Ack! We have still to make some.
We'll post them later in the 2nd post-position!
So come back often!
Linear Mode
