CoverFlow

slide · 08-30-2007, 03:56 PM

I really like the whole CoverFlow idea that has been implemented in the iPhone and really want something like that for my car! So I decided to make my own implementation that I can incorporate with whatever I use on my carpc, just seeing how interested other people on here are for this! Here are some screenshots and a video of it so far. It's not talking to any audio players as of yet and since i'm using RoadRunner I will probably create a WinAmp plugin first.

Screencast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygBV6Eh30s0
(The video capture software makes it seem faster than it is, don't know how to fix it, shrug)

DarquePervert · 08-30-2007, 04:50 PM

You mean something like this skin for RoadRunner?

slide · 08-30-2007, 05:05 PM

Technically, yes lol. I didn't see that there was something already available.

Actually though, this is using my OpenGL Interface engine which i'm developing because well, I really don't like any of the current frontends. Especially the limitation of their customization. IE RoadRunner has buttons for phone and other stuff which I have no use for at the moment, and really don't want to be visible, but in order to remove them you'd have to modify the images.

This CoverFlow demo is using the basic renderer so none of the "CoverFlow" specific functionality is actually in the program, all based on simple files to describe the view and functionality.

For now this is being written in Windows, but I've done plenty of cross platform programming so i've written it to easily be ported to Linux and OS X. Also, since I am an Embedded Hardware Engineer I will be designing some hardware to run this in an embedded environment which, hopefully will be pretty cheap and much more suited to a car environment.

JohnWPB · 08-30-2007, 09:46 PM

Excellent!!! I am anxiously watching your progress on this! The one DarquePervert linked to above works well, but it is written in flash and is EXTREMELY CPU intensive! It puts my Desktop P4 3.2 Dual Core CPu to 60% usage or so. On top of that, it is so CPU intensive, the RR will stop responding to button presses, and have to be end tasked when embedded. (Dual core at 60%, one CPU was pegged, with RR and that applet, the other 10% was the other CPU, so I could still run other programs and such no problem) There is no way that this could work on 99% of CarPC's out there.

I am no hardware engineer, by any means

That said, you said you are going to design hardware to run this program/applet?! So am I to understand, when you have it complete, it will not function well on a standard computer than does not have this hardware modification? I am just curious, as it is not often that I see someone write a program, and have to (and have the ability to) manufacture specific hardware to run it

guino · 08-30-2007, 10:30 PM

looks neat.. new options are always welcome

enitalp · 08-30-2007, 10:41 PM

Very nice.

But i think we could make it in 2D. Because opengl is nice, but my carpc could'nt use it without beeing a slideshow instead of an animation ;p

slide · 08-31-2007, 03:18 AM

JohnWPB: Nope, it will still run on a standard computer

JohnWPB · 08-31-2007, 05:31 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by slide

JohnWPB: Nope, it will still run on a standard computer

I am most certainly glad to hear that!

While you are in the development stages, I will mention a few things that came up with the flash version one.

One, was being able to jump to a letter of the artist. With 900+ Albums, sliding through them can be a bit slow and tedious. A bar or something along the top that has the alphabet or something similar to what a Rolodex or address book would have.

The other, is to be able to load a playlist contained in the album folder. Someone wrote a script in the other thread that can make an XML file of all of the album locations, as well as create an album.m3u playlist file for each individual album and saves it in each album folder.

Of course reading in all 900 album covers would be a slow process, so a "read ahead" say 10 albums from your current location, to cache images would certainly speed things up.

I subscribed to this thread, and will definitely be looking out for this when it is done, enters the beta stages

kbreeden · 09-01-2007, 08:00 AM

Slide, I don't want to say anything to dissuade you from developing a usable version of this because a lot of us are anxiously awaiting a good way to browse album covers; however, I do want to point out that menu buttons can easily be reassigned in Liquid Smoke's LSVoid Roadrunner skin.

slide · 09-02-2007, 02:36 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by kbreeden

Slide, I don't want to say anything to dissuade you from developing a usable version of this because a lot of us are anxiously awaiting a good way to browse album covers; however, I do want to point out that menu buttons can easily be reassigned in Liquid Smoke's LSVoid Roadrunner skin.

Reassigned, but can they be removed?