Knob Stack Problems (value-specific frame issues)

[mikeroephonics]

Hi.

Over the last few weeks I've learned how to use Knobman to build "...knob_stack.png" files for my color theme. Everything is going well except for one aspect. I've made special layers in Knobman which are meant to be displayed only when the parameter has a very specific value. I'll use "tcp_pan_knob_stack.png" as an example. In this stack, I have special layers which are intended to be displayed for only specific parameter values (100% left, center, 100% right.) I'm having trouble getting these layers to display at only their respective values. The "100% left" layer displays when the parameter value in the tooltip shows 100% left, but also at 99% left and 98% left. The same type of problem arises for center and right pan values.

I've tried using higher frame counts when rendering the stacks in Knobman (up to 501 frames, and always an odd number), in conjunction with its "bit-mask" feature, which ensures a layer is only displayed on a frame-by-frame basis. Still, I can't get the frames to display properly.

So, to break it all down, the variables at play are:
- the number of frames in a knob_stack.png required to get REAPER to display the correct frame intended for specific parameter values (100% left, center, 100% right)
- parameter specific frame counts (pan stack vs. volume stack, etc.)
- parameter specific bit-masks in Knobman.exe

I really want to get this to work, because it lets you check a parameter value at a glance without the need to look at its readout text. Plus it looks nice. But there's no use in implementing value-specific frames unless I can guarantee that the special "parameter value frames" are displayed only at *exactly* their intended values, and no others.

Has anyone else had experience with this? Any luck getting it to work correctly?

Thanks,
Mike

[hopi]

the issue is going to be about matching the frames in knobman to the divisions that reaper uses for a given knob...

so think... say reaper uses 100 divisions from full pan left to full pan right, ..ok?

so if you have 100 frames in the stack that would match up

but if you have more or less in the stack then you'll get some off set...

I don't know how many divisions reaper uses for each knob... someone might know...

[hwhalen]

Another approach is to manually edit the *_knob.png. Put the special stuff with the first and last of the images. Be certain that everything is 100% ready with your knob before you do this of course.

[mikeroephonics]

I'll get back to the knobstack issues soon enough. i'm working on some other theme elements now. I think the main problem is working out how many values a given parameter has and then using rendering the corresponding knobstack with the same number of frames. There are more than 201 pan values, even though you may expect exactly 201 (100%L, 99%L, 98%L..., 0, 98%R, 99%R, 100%R).
There are smaller values like 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8L/R.

It might come down to manually editing the knobstack .png like you said, hwhalen. I'll try to work it all out.

[Pet]

Originally Posted by mikeroephonics

I'll get back to the knobstack issues soon enough.

If you come to it again, have you tried "FrameMaskEnable" in knobman already? That makes it possible to show a layer only at one particular frame. I used that for the tcp-knobs in my default-mod to show a dot when volume is at inf and pan/width is centered.
The dots are each on single layers.

Also, in "preferences" in knobman you can choose "Oversampling to x4". I don't know what it does exactly, but you get a better resolution, but IIRC, this also has an impact on the size of the stack.

HTH,
Peter