Blue Cat Audio

Lalaland · Post by **Lalaland** » Tue Mar 03, 2020 3:02 pm

This has renewed my interest in plugnscript. Can I "easily make my own custom knobs , sliders and meters with this ?

ilyaorlov · Post by **ilyaorlov** » Wed Mar 04, 2020 6:58 pm

Yes, there's a built in engine for knobs, sliders and meters.

For example if you write
<LMR_TPL_KNOB param_id="..." color="#272727" size="80" /> you'll get a knob of specified color and size.

There are some pre-defined knobs in the "/LetiMix/controls/LMR_Knobs.inc" that you can use and modify (the same with sliders, meters).

If you open "Skin scanner" you'll see what elements are defined in the skin. Here I filtered them to show only "LMR_" knobs that are rendered inside the skin.

custom_items.gif

Hopefully in the next version of skin there'll be a tool to make custom controls even faster.

brebo · Post by **brebo** » Sat Mar 14, 2020 5:13 pm

What would it take to incorporate this into all of the Blue Cat Audio plugins? I want to customize the look of the plugins but the KUIML is a bit daunting.

ilyaorlov · Post by **ilyaorlov** » Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:15 am

Hey, brebo!
I was doing a bit of experimenting with this, and yes, it's possible. Though for big plugins like Axiom it's very difficult, but I plan to make a demo skin for Flanger maybe.

Blue Cat Audio · Post by **Blue Cat Audio** » Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:28 am

Wow that sounds great!

Since the arrival of dynamic KUIML with the KUIML_WIDGET element, we indeed have plans for a "generic" KUIML meta-editor but that's a lot of work.

@ilyaorlov has done a huge job already for Plug'n Script, that's impressive! On complex plug-ins there is indeed much more complexity, but with proper design we could probably implement the appropriate level of customization. The main issue is to keep acceptable performance (you don't want the GUI to load as slowly as a web page!)

ilyaorlov · Post by **ilyaorlov** » Mon Mar 23, 2020 3:38 pm

A new video covers the customization of meters, toolbar and statusbar.
https://youtu.be/N6yj0RrMzEI

ilyaorlov · Post by **ilyaorlov** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:36 pm

Cool feature for the upcoming Letimix Skin update: auto-reload your script when you change it.

Blue Cat Audio · Post by **Blue Cat Audio** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:55 pm

Nice! Did you do it with a timer to check file date?

ilyaorlov · Post by **ilyaorlov** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:57 pm

I did it with 0.5 sec timer and loading all content into string and comparing with previous. AngelScript cannot read file date

Blue Cat Audio · Post by **Blue Cat Audio** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 3:43 pm

This might become a bit CPU intensive when the skin gets larger!

ilyaorlov · Post by **ilyaorlov** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 4:35 pm

It sure can be, but as long as I test it, it seems ok on my machine, and it's a huge timesaver and workflow improvement. And it's easy to turn off and on when needed. And it also suspends reloading on errors.

ilyaorlov · Post by **ilyaorlov** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 5:05 pm

brebo wrote: ↑Sat Mar 14, 2020 5:13 pm What would it take to incorporate this into all of the Blue Cat Audio plugins? I want to customize the look of the plugins but the KUIML is a bit daunting.

Actually, I've tried to use this skin for Blue Cat's Gain 3 plugin. You can check it out here:
viewtopic.php?f=52&t=536727&p=7738310#p7738310

ilyaorlov · Post by **ilyaorlov** » Tue Apr 28, 2020 10:18 am

Customizing knobs for the plugin is now just a pleasure. The "Custom controls generator" tool for the next Letimix Skin update + "Auto-reload script" feature to view changes immediately.

ilyaorlov · Post by **ilyaorlov** » Thu Jun 04, 2020 12:57 pm

Cool fresh features for Export window:

1) Full-on optimization reduces already small skin size (cause only required files are copied) even further!

no_optim.png

after_optimization.png

in this example skin file flattened and stripped from 422 kb to 229 kb without losing any functionality.

This is done by removing blocks of code not required for export (marked as /* NO_EXPORT */ or ), detecting and removing unused TEMPLATES and DEFINES, detecting and removing unused classes and functions in scripts, and optionally removing all comments and spaces/newlines (which gives a huge size reduction and makes KUIML code almost obfuscated).

static.png

2) Option to "make body static" means including script custom .kuiml body in main .xml file (instead of dynamically loading it via KUIML_WIDGET). This makes skin load faster and removes possible "resize" after loading main skin (and later loading body subskin). Also good for hosts not supporting VST2 resize.

flatten.png

3) Option to "flatten" skin tries to include other files and scripts into single .xml file, which can lead to a skin consisting of a single file! (Which is practically achievable is you don't use external graphics and fonts).

run_app.gif

4) Option to auto run selected application after successful build. So with a single click you build your plugin and open it in VST Plugin Analyzer or PatchWork.

Blue Cat Audio · Post by **Blue Cat Audio** » Thu Jun 04, 2020 4:22 pm

Very nice!

Blue Cat Audio

KVR Audio

NEW! Customizable Skin for Plug-n-Script by Letimix