Deactivate default 4-deck support in 1.11

There's a problem -- people have started to write scripts supporting all 4 (e.g. VCI-400) so users will get script errors when they load a 1.11 controller script.

This might be a huge hack and bad idea but what do you think about this? Make a num_visible_decks control that we will leave at 2 and only show that many options in the GUI but num_decks will still be 4.

Any thoughts, jus?

According to your idea, what would a num_visible_decks=2 exactly do? Hide the " Load to Deck 3/4" mouse menu in the library if a skin has only 2 decks or anything else?

Since this would be the most obvious way to bump into a dead end, do we really need to do more?

Right now, if there are two decks playing and the user doubleclicks on another track, it gets loaded into an invisible 3rd deck. This could cause problems if, somehow, the user manages to start that deck playing and has no idea where the sound is coming from.

OK I take it back. Given the huge UI complications here we ought to just go
back to 2 decks and update MIDI scripts to check num_decks and fall back to
2-deck mode if there are only 2.

On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 2:00 PM, Owen Williams <email address hidden> wrote:

> Right now, if there are two decks playing and the user doubleclicks on
> another track, it gets loaded into an invisible 3rd deck. This could
> cause problems if, somehow, the user manages to start that deck playing
> and has no idea where the sound is coming from.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Mixxx
> Development Team, which is subscribed to Mixxx.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1017399
>
> Title:
> Deactivate default 4-deck support in 1.11
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/mixxx/+bug/1017399/+subscriptions
>

Wait, can't we add a skin tag that says how many decks it supports and if that tag is not present, assume 2? Then the loadTrackToNextDeck CO or whatever it's called can just check that before doing anything.

Also, since the waveforms are the problem for full 4-deck skins, can't we make some with no waveforms for decks 3 and 4 for the time being?

Ok, I just disabled decks 3 and 4 and added something that I think will allow custom skins and controller scripts to use a 3rd and 4th deck if they want.

Skins have a new <manifest> section you can put in the XML.

<manifest>
  <title>Deere 1280x1024</title>
  <author>jus</author>

  <attributes>
     <attribute config_key="[Master],num_decks">4</attribute>
  </attributes>
</manifest>

This allows a skin to request that 4 decks be enabled.

I've also fixed a couple of bugs around "hotplugging" decks. If you added a deck any time after bootup then SoundManager wouldn't notice.

If a controller script wants to enable 4-decks all it has to do is:

engine.setValue("[Master]", "num_decks", 4);

same goes for samplers w/ the num_samplers control.

I've added documentation on the new <manifest> tag to the wiki.
http://mixxx.org/wiki/doku.php/creating_skins

On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 2:01 AM, RJ Ryan <email address hidden> wrote:

> Ok, I just disabled decks 3 and 4 and added something that I think will
> allow custom skins and controller scripts to use a 3rd and 4th deck if
> they want.
>
> Skins have a new <manifest> section you can put in the XML.
>
> <manifest>
> <title>Deere 1280x1024</title>
> <author>jus</author>
>
> <attributes>
> <attribute config_key="[Master],num_decks">4</attribute>
> </attributes>
> </manifest>
>
> This allows a skin to request that 4 decks be enabled.
>
> I've also fixed a couple of bugs around "hotplugging" decks. If you
> added a deck any time after bootup then SoundManager wouldn't notice.
>
> If a controller script wants to enable 4-decks all it has to do is:
>
> engine.setValue("[Master]", "num_decks", 4);
>
> same goes for samplers w/ the num_samplers control.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Mixxx
> Development Team, which is subscribed to Mixxx.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1017399
>
> Title:
> Deactivate default 4-deck support in 1.11
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/mixxx/+bug/1017399/+subscriptions
>

IMO a neat solution for the issue.
Some existing 4 decks controller mappings might need an update, regardless of the fact that we currently provide no 4 deck skin. Hope we get the waveform performance issues fixed so we can go full 4-deck in 1.12.

Some questions:
* What are num_decks and num_samplers max.values?
* Will additional decks and samplers deck enabled at runtime in MIDI wizard?
  E.g. If we`d provide a 2-deck 16-Sampler skin, can a user map the sampler`s controls to a device using the midi wizard?

Mixxx now uses GitHub for bug tracking. This bug has been migrated to:
https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx/issues/6543