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Many thanks to: T.P Wang, Br3tt, fbuser and super-gau for their helping hands with scripting in WSH Panel mod aleco and grimes for their helping hands in creating the self-extracting file and to all of my beta testers!
For questions and problems that can't be solved by reading this user guide you can contact me on the following sites: DarkOne in the german foobar-users-Forum and of course on deviantart
Many thanks for using DarkOne v2.1 2010 tedGo aka Gerhard
1. First steps
Besides the preparations, well known from the README-file that popped up after extracting the DarkOne package, there are some other steps to do to complete the appearance of DarkOne.
Item Details Panel 1.) Right-click on the Trackinfo-Panel (centre on the left) Options Panel edge style 2.) Right-click on the buttons on the lower right side Splitter Settings PanelList tab select DET hit Configure button Panel edge style
Item Properties Right-click on the buttons on the lower right side Splitter Settings PanelList tab select INF hit Configure button Panel edge style
NG Playlist Preferences Columns UI Playlist view General tab Playlist edge style
Select Splitter Settings Script PerTrack and change the blue framed Script part illustrated below to your desired Path and Naming format:
Title Formatting skills may be necessary. Wildcards for file extensions or file names, e. g. artist*.* instead of artist_01.jpg, are possible.
2. Usage
2.1 Control buttons
These buttons should be self-explanatory. It may be mentioned that the buttons position will be rearranged depending on your display resolution (upper illustration shows the view on displays smaller than 1280*x, in the middle smaller than 1600*x and at the bottom higher than 1600*x) and that there will appear an additional button on resolutions higher than 1600*x. The LAST.FM button as seen on the screenshot only appears if the optional Plugin foo_lastfm_radio.dll is present in your foobar2000\components folder. Otherwise there's a CLEAR LIST button on resolutions smaller than 1600*x and an ADD LOC. button (to add an URL to the Playlist) on higher resolutions.
2.2 Rating-Panel
According to the chosen mode the stars in the rating panel will display Ratings (white), Playcounts (green) or an automatic rating (blue) generated by informations from the now playing track. The needed function is selectable through a context menu by right-clicking the stars: The illustration on the left shows the context menu that is exclusively available during playback of a file that is present in the Media Library, because the options only take effect on these files. In STOP-state the normal context menu of the panel (Properties and Configure only) is displayed instead. For tracks outside the Media Library there is only a basic menu available during playback, that allows the user to delete existing manual ratings (Delete rating) and allows access to the panels Properties and its script (Configure).
2.4 Display
The progress bar is also a seekbar in which you can drag with the left mouse button or the mouse wheel to every point in the playing file. The seek time will be displayed in the display below. Since there is no seeking possible in Streams the seekbar function is deactivated by listening to them. There are further informations displayed in the display as long as they are available. LOSSY/LOSSLESS shows if the playing file is encoded lossy or lossless. AUDIO MD5 lights up when the playing file has a MD5 checksum. REPLAYGAIN light up when the playing file has Replaygain info. The Elapsed-/Remain-Time and Bitrate will be replaced by the volume value on volume changes for about three seconds. There's a Peakmeter below the information unit, which appearance can be fit to your needs. To do so right-click on it and choose Preferences. To change its appearance may be necessary when you change the global colour scheme of DarkOne (see chapter 3) since the Peakmeters background colour doesn't adopts the settings made in Columns UI automatically. The according settings are db Range (in the upper left corner of the Preferences window) and the Colors button (downright of the window). If you have changed its settings and you're not satisfied with the result you can go back to configurations default setting by choosing the PEAKdefault.pmf from the DarkOne21\Others\Settings folder with the Import Settings option in its context menu.
Properties opens the Panel Properties with following entries (selectable with a double mouse click): - Aspect Ratio: can be used to change the Aspect Ration. Possible Values are 0 for Keep Aspect Ratio (default), 1 for Noexpansion und 2 for Stretch (see above). - Auto Cycle Image: - True enables auto-cycling of existing images, False (default) disables it. - Auto Cycle Interval in s: the duration an image will be displayed when Auto Cycle Image is enabled. Default is 15 seconds. - Auto Cycle Transition Fader on: enables Faded Transition with True. Deafult is False. - Back Overlay: Acivate: activates the Background Overlay that is shown during playback with True (Default) , disables it with False. - Back Overlay: Colour: the colour of the Background Overlay in R-G-B-A. - Description: Back Colour: the colour of the description background that is displayed during manual image change in R-G-B-A. - Description: Text Colour: the colour of the description text that is displayed during manual image change in R-G-B-A. - Enable Custom Pictures: enables Custom Pictures with True, disables them with False (Default). - File extension order und Picture 1-5: see chapter 2.5.2. Configure opens the panels script. WARNING: Don't change Script parts without Jscript Skills!
In the middle of the configuration is a visualisation called Channel Spectrum Panel. This panel is preconfigured to its maximum capacity and may increase CPU consumption! To fit the channel spectrum to your needs, right-click on it and choose Configure. If you have changed its settings and you're not satisfied with the result you can go back to configurations default setting by choosing the CSPdefault.csp from the DarkOne21\Others\Settings folder with the Import button.
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There's a thin bar with additional buttons above the Playlist views, that allows fast and easy access to their functions. The MENU button opens the foobar2000 Menu. The Music note jumps to the file that is now playing, useful for instance if you were busy in another Playlist and want to return to the now playing file immediately. Right besides it there is the Stop-after-current button that stops playback after the now playing file. Right besides the Stop-After-Current button is the button to change the Playback Order. When clicking on it a menu opens, that allows you to choose the desired playback order as followed: Default plays files in the order they are in the Playlist Repeat (playlist) repeats the active Playlist Repeat (track) repeats the now playing file Random chooses tracks randomly from the active Playlist, where tracks may be played more than once Shuffle (tracks) chooses tracks randomly from the active Playlist, where tracks are only played once Shuffle (albums) chooses albums randomly from the active Playlist Shuffle (folders) chooses folder content randomly from the active Playlist To indicate the chosen playback order the button image changes itself according to your choice. The three buttons on the right are switching between the different Playlist views. The button on the left activates the default Playlist view (ELPlaylist, see chapter 2.8). The middle button activates the NG Playlist (see chapter 2.9). The button the right activates the MiniPlaylist view (see chapter 2.10) on the left down side of the configuration. The Cover panel moves to the usual place of the Playlist instead and turns to the Big Cover View.
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In the red framed text box in the illustration above please type-in your desired grouping scheme. In the blue framed text box in the illustration above please type-in your desired sorting scheme. There is the possibility to set up additional sorting schemes in the ELPlaylist. You'll find this possibility under Settings Misc tab Additional sort format for context menu. Please give your new sorting scheme an expressive name under Display name and type-in your desired sorting string in Sort format. Click add after doing it and your new sorting scheme is added to the list. To access this sorting scheme from your Playlist view you have to enhance your context menu with the entry Sort. To do it, please go to the Behaviour tab. At the bottom of this tab you'll find the entry Context menu. Choose Sort from the drop-down menu and enable Show. After hit OK your changes are stored and you can use them.
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Click on the colour... button and choose the transparent colour (as seen in the illustration on the left). Confirm your action with OK to return to the Misc tab. You can change the degree of transparency of the popup-window with Popup opacity. The default value is 224. The lower the value the higher the transparency effect. After hit OK your changes are applied to your Playlist view. Note: You must do these changes for the Mini-Playlist (the right button above the playlist) separately, because it has a popup-window too.
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To change an entry double-click on it and overwrite the content of the Definition text box with your desired string/value.
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IMG.PATH The path to the folder where the images for drawing the Playlist view are stored. POPUP.ART You can change the kind of artwork the foobar2000 artreader provides to be displayed in the popup window (see chapter 2.5.1). Possible entries are front, back, disc, icon and artist (default).
2.8.3.2 Columns-Management
COLUMN.X.ON (for the columns two and three only!) You can enable additional columns here, where the following entries can be done in the Definition text box: 0 = deactivated (default) 1 = activated COLUMN.X.TEXT Please type-in the text or Title Formatting string that should be displayed in the column. COLUMN.X.FONT Please enter the font style for the column here. That has to be done in means for instance: $font(Arial Unicode MS,10,) the following scheme: $font(<FONT>,<FONTSIZE>,<OPTIONS>)
(the columns will be displayed with the font style Arial Unicode MS with 10 points size, without any options) The following options are selectable and can be combined: bold italic underline strikeout For normal text just leave the space behind the comma empty. COLUMN.X.SHADOW With entering the value 1 you can enable a shadow for the column's text. Disabling it is possible with entering the value 0. COLUMN.X.ALIGN To set the horizontal align of the column as left, right or hcenter. COLUMN.X.WIDTH To set the width of the column (column one adjusts its width automatically depending on the values you entered here for column two and/or three).
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2.8.3.3 Rating-Display
RATE.DISPLAY Here you can decide what to display in the rating area of the playlist, where following entries can be done in the Definition text box: 0 = display ratings (white) 1 = display an automatic rating (blue) (see chapter 2.2.1 for details). 2 = displays play counts (green) By default the rating area will display the rating (0). RATE.BAR.MODE Here you can choose if the rating area should be displayed as stars or a bar, where following entries can be done in the Definition text box: 0 = Stars 1 = Bar By default the rating area will be displayed as stars (0). PLAYCOUNT.LIMIT Independent from the rating panel you can set up the amount of play counts a song has to be left before displaying all stars/the whole bar. Please enter a positive value for Definition! By default all stars/the whole bar will be displayed when 50 play counts are reached. Note: If you enter a wrong value in one of the three options above the default behaviour will be executed!
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2.9 NG Playlist
The NG Playlist is the second Playlist view in the DarkOne configuration (the middle of the three buttons rightmost above the Playlist views).
2.9.2 Grouping
To synchronize the grouping in NG Playlist and the ELPlaylists (Main Playlist view and MiniPlaylist) you'll find a NG Playlist Grouping.txt in the folder ...\foobar2000\DarkOne21\Others\Settings that contains a suitable Title-Formatting string. Please copy this script preset to MENU File Preferences Columns UI Playlist view Grouping tab by double-clicking on the existing preset and overwriting it with the copied content.
2.9.3 Rating
Same as ELPlaylist and the rating Panel you can change the behaviour of the rating display in the NG Playlist. Please navigate to MENU File Preferences Columns UI Playlist view Columns tab and choose the columns Rating. Now choose the Scripts Display tab. Rating Mode To switch the mode go to $puts(rating.mode,0) and change the 0 (Rating) to 1 (displaying the calculated Auto-Rating as described in chapter 2.2) or 2 (displaying the Playcounts). Playcounter-Limit To set up the amount of play counts a song has to be left before displaying all stars in rating mode 2 go to $puts(count.limit,50) and change the 50 to the desired amount of play counts. Please read the Columns UI Documentation for more details on how to the options of the NG Playlist.
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With the volume wheel you can adjust the volume with the mouse wheel or the left mouse button. Volume changes are displayed with a lightened position indicator for about three seconds and as value in the display on the left side of the configuration. You can select Volume Mute with right-click on the volume wheel. The position indicator will turn to red as long as the volume is muted. For the functions of the Quick Search Toolbar please read their documentation.
2.12 Multipanel-Switcher
You can switch between preconfigured panels with the buttons on the right down side of the configuration.
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It is possible to load lyrics from the internet with additional, optional components. Since these components are in alpha-state or also instable as the Lyrics Show Panel they're not included in DarkOne v2.1. But the lyrics panel is preconfigured for working together with foo_lyricsgrabber and/or foo_lyricsdb that are both will store the found lyrics to the file tags. Should one of these two components already exists in your foobar2000 components directory there will be automatically an additional entry called Lyrics Search Command in the panels Properties window with a suggestion for a suitable download command. Should both exist in your components folder the Lyricsgrabber will have priority over foo_lyricsdb. You'll also have the additional command Online Search in the context menu. If you download one of these two components after installing DarkOne v2.1 it may be necessary to go to the Properties window and hit Clear to make the panel recognizing the new component. But this will force you to enter your path and naming scheme to external lyrics files again. Padding There are two further options available in the Properties window to add padding between the panel boarder and the lyrics. Change the values if needed with a double mouse click on the according entry. Font Style By default the Lyrics Panel uses Common (list items) Font Style that is chosen by Columns UI Colours and Fonts Settings. You can change it to fit your needs if wanted. Go to the Panel Properties and double-click on the entry UI Font: Override. Now double-click on the entry UI Font: Style and change the Font Style as followed: Font, Size, Style, for instance: Segoe UI, 11, 1 Please note that the Font size has to be set in Pixels not Points! 4 Pixels corresponds to 3 Points. So Segoe UI 8pt are approx. 11 Pixel. There are following options available for the Style: 0 regular 1 bold 2 italic 3 bolditalic 4 underline 8 strikeout
2.12.2 Panel-Management
It is of course possible to add, remove or move panels, whereby the panel-manager is limited to manage up to eight panels. To manage the panels please navigate to MENU File Preferences Columns UI Layout tab. Scroll down to the following view: To remove a panel right-click on it and select Remove panel. To move a panel right-click on it and select Move up or Move down. To add a panel right-click on the Panel Stack Splitter and select Add Panel. After this action please select the Panel Stack Splitter and hit the button Configure... on the right down side of the window. Select the new added panel in the PanelList, set the cursor in the Caption box and give it an up to three letters token. Now tick Forced Layout for the new added panel and press OK to finish your action. Click on Apply for applying your changes to the configuration.
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Use custom active item frame is activated and its default colour is: 63-100-127. Too bad that some components will ignore these colour settings... These panels are Panel Stack Splitter, ELPlaylist and some parts of the Display. To change their colours please do the following: Panel Stack Splitter Right-click on one of the three buttons rightmost above the Playlist view.
Choose Splitter Settings Script PerTrack and change the blue framed Script part in the illustration below to the desired colour (R-G-B-A):
Apply your action by pressing OK. ELPlaylist Please read chapter 2.8.3.1 to see how to change the colours for ELPlaylist (default Playlist view and MiniPlaylist). Display Please read chapter 2.4 to see how to change the colours of the Peakmeter. You can also change the colours of the Track number, Playing Time, Bitrate and Infoboxes. To do so please right-click on the display, choose Properties, double-click on the entries below and change the colour values (R-G-B-A):
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4. Troubleshooting
ERROR REASON POSSIBLE SOLUTION
There are some parts of the In very rare cases the Panel Stack Please restart foobar2000 configuration (images/panels) Splitter seems to forget some missing after foobar2000 start- details up! foobar2000 crashes randomly You are using outdated or buggy Please search for updates or use Plugins Plugins provided with the DarkOne installer Remove unused and probably outdated Plugins from your ...\foobar2000\components folder Please inform me about crashes when they are caused by Components provided with the DarkOne download so I can remove them immediately! The Rating Panel and the rating The play count limit is set much Choose a higher limit for the play display in the Playlist are too low. counts as described in chapters displaying always all stars/the 2.2.1 and 2.8.3.3 whole bar in Playcounter mode! There are no covers displayed in The ELPlaylist is using the the ELPlaylist! foobar2000 artreader but your albums don't have embedded album art nor album art that the artreader can recognise. Change the name of your covers to folder.*, cover.* or front.* Add a new suitable naming scheme to Preferences Display
The ELPlaylists Popup window You have chosen a wrong option Change the POPUP.ART in the doesn't shows the correct image! (front, back, disc, icon, artist) for ELPlaylists field definitions as the foobar2000 artreader. described in chapter 2.8.3.1 The auto-cycling doesn't work You are using Windows XP/Vista Disable Faded Transition. when Faded Transition is and/or a Graphics card that isn't chosen! fully compatible with the panels Faded Transition functionality.
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ERROR
REASON
POSSIBLE SOLUTION
I changed a script part of a WSH Seems you made a mistake ;) Panel and it doesn't work anymore!
Go to the affected WSH Panel, right-click on it and choose Configure. Import the associated script with the Import button from the folder DarkOne21\Others\WSH Scripts
I made some changes in the Oops... ELPlaylist but want to return to the default settings!
Right-click in the ELPlaylist, choose Settings Import and import the file ELPlaylist.elp from the folder DarkOne21\Others\Settings Reimport the file DarkOne v2.1.fcl
I made some changes in the Shit happens :) configuration but want to return to the default settings!
CPU-consumption is much The visualisation is set to its Change its Settings as described in higher with DarkOne v2.1! highest capacity chapter 2.6 foobar2000 freezes on track Unknown reason change when listening to last.fm (optional) for a few seconds Unknown :(
foobar2000 often freezes during You use outdated or buggy Plugins Please search for updates or use playback! Plugins provided with the DarkOne v2.1 package The Biography view panel is set Right-click on the Biography view up too power consumptive for panel and deactivate Options your system Auto Cycle Image Right-click on the Biography view panel, choose Panel Preference... and select Front Renderer GDI+ RAM usage raises higher and The Biography view panel seems Deactivate Auto Cycle Image higher during playback! to save all informations and images loaded during playback in Right-click on the Biography view your RAM without disposing them panel, choose Panel Preference... and deactivate Show Text and Show Image
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