Missing Links

nabulas1234 · 19 Dec 2009

OMG you're a f**in genius 😈 A beautiful present for Christmas!

Jay · 19 Dec 2009

Wow real cool! thanks very much for these,they will be very useful additions to the pot 🙂

best regards

stw · 19 Dec 2009

some really useful stuff. Thanks for sharing. Maybe they can go into Exos comunity Development Toolkit?

infuzion · 19 Dec 2009

mwvdlee wrote: Also, I must give credit where credit is due; the preset stuff was mostly copied from other sources, some of the parser stuff as well. Too bad I don't remember the sources but thanks anyway, anonymous sources

mwvdlee wrote: infuzion wrote: I did find a few things to improve

Nice work! I like the skinned delimited string, didn't know how to do that.

Would have been nice to have some credit for the skinning... 😕 Although I did take the idea/template from older SM modules.... 😇 The Preset Name modules are standard SM. I usually straighten out the links, get rid of the String primitive, & move in the a actual preset name String primitive inside the module.

Tip: I try my hardest when I collect others' modules I atleast put the creator's name in the module's title bar. Sometimes I put the URL of the forum post in the Help.

Bug: Your StreamBoolean stuff doesn't seem to be working? I think masking needs to be done to get that stuff to work right. SM's boolstream is always weird to me.

A few suggestions: The Flip Flop can be reduced down to a simple Int Switch with a 1 connected to the "on" trigger. I think I got that trick from MyCo, oddson or one of the SM elders. The same idea behind your Adder modules. I don't even put a FlipFlop in a module anymore really. I think the Boolean XOr can be reduced to a (Bool+Bool)=?1

Thanks for all your hard work! Merry Christmas!

mwvdlee · 19 Dec 2009

infuzion wrote: I try my hardest when I collect others' modules I atleast put the creator's name in the module's title bar. Sometimes I put the URL of the forum post in the Help.

I'll make sure your name is in the next version 🙂 Atleast now I can say this; Guys, credit to infuzion for demonstrating the skinning! 😉

Regarding the preset, I guess I did get it from one of the standard controls.

infuzion wrote: Bug: Your StreamBoolean stuff doesn't seem to be working? I think masking needs to be done to get that stuff to work right. SM's boolstream is always weird to me.

The poly stuff is pretty difficult to test without hooking up MIDI. I'm actually working on some stuff that makes testing poly easier by generating poly's in a reliable way.

I'll take a look at the suggestion for the Flip Flop. Boolean XOr can indeed be bool+bool=1 (that's how the poly variant does it, since for some reason beyond my comprehension, ASM seems to lack native Not and XOr operands), but doing boolean in pure math is typically the fastest way to do it. The "=" part would actually translate to some form of branching in assembler, which is typically a slow thing to do. Is there any way to accurately test performance in SM? A CPU % is unusable for such tiny modules and I haven't found any sub-millisecond timing mechanisms yet in SM.

The reason I put stuff simple stuff in modules is because I use those constructs a lot. Turning it into a module makes the diagram easier to read IMHO. Besides, is there really any overhead to modules? I'd assume SM optimizes (inlines) those away when compiling?

sunsynth · 19 Dec 2009

Welcome to the Regs!

Like your kit and especially the nice looking groups! 😉 btw: will also have a closer look at the parser part...

So a big group hug from me! ***Merry Xmas everybody ***

infuzion · 20 Dec 2009

mwvdlee wrote: ...(that's how the poly variant does it, since for some reason beyond my comprehension, ASM seems to lack native Not and XOr operands), but doing boolean in pure math is typically the fastest way to do it. The "=" part would actually translate to some form of branching in assembler, which is typically a slow thing to do. Is there any way to accurately test performance in SM? A CPU % is unusable for such tiny modules and I haven't found any sub-millisecond timing mechanisms yet in SM.

There are a few ASM SSE logic opcodes in SM: andps, orps, & pand, andnps may work but colors wrong, xorps may not work...? The comparison opcode, cmpps takes just about as long as adding & multiplying, though logic opcodes in Pentium M+ CPUs may run faster than all those since they interleave much easier.

mwvdlee wrote: The reason I put stuff simple stuff in modules is because I use those constructs a lot. Turning it into a module makes the diagram easier to read IMHO. Besides, is there really any overhead to modules? I'd assume SM optimizes (inlines) those away when compiling?

[/quote]I used to put simple things into modules alot. Even now, sometimes I'll still leave something in a module, like my old Sample & Hold on Change, but for something so simple like a Switch with a 1 connected I just know automatically that is a switch since I've seen that 500 times.

I tend to write fewer & fewer submodules since: 1) The main module I'll reuse often as a module, but not the 2-primitive submodule. I'll just cut & paste if I really am lazy. 2) Editing SM is harder for large projects than text-languages, since you have to click though everywhere. Fewer clicks to enter modules=faster editing & troubleshooting (can see more links at once). A good text IDE will let you jump around routines fast, has folding (text versions of modules, but much better), far better error checking, etc. A flatter module helps speed reviewing in my mind. 3) Though 1.1.5 is supposed to have this fixed, I'm still in the habit of making my OSMs smaller since large OSMs dragged down editing. I don't think SM compresses modules yet when it turns modules into VSTs, so fewer modules (which also means fewer primitives & links) means a smaller VST.

That said, I do have an OSM full of skinned math functions. Sometimes I'll take them out of the module when I use them, sometimes not. Here they all are if you're interested.

BTW, I write & tune alot of little tools like you have here for my first year in SM. Helped me get a feel for SM, & figure out the trigger system. So I must say you're on the path of SM greatness. 😉 😇

mwvdlee · 20 Dec 2009

I noticed "andnps" in the list, it seems to be the only available SSE operand capable of doing a not. It doesn't seem to compile however. Do I need to enable some setting for it to work?

infuzion · 21 Dec 2009

mwvdlee wrote: I noticed "andnps" in the list, it seems to be the only available SSE operand capable of doing a not. It doesn't seem to compile however. Do I need to enable some setting for it to work?

It may work/compile, but the coloring may be off?

mwvdlee · 28 Dec 2009

VERSION 0006!

What's new... * Renamed Constants to Characters + Constants: Pi and 2 Pi + Math: Sign + Math: Float Modulo + Characters: Full set of control characters + Lookup: Font + Trigonometry: XY (cartesian) > Polar (in radians) > XY + Trigonometry: Hypothenuse + Trigonometry: Deg-to-Rad and Rad-to-Deg + GUI: View Center + GUI: View Cache and View/Area Cache + CSV: CSV to List

Oh, and I added proper credits! Let me know if you think your name belongs in there too 🙂 I've seen some polar conversion stuff elsewhere in the forum, but decided to make my own since I think these are more efficient. And they work in radians, which I prefer.

infuzion · 31 Dec 2009

mwvdlee wrote: VERSION 0006! What's new... * Renamed Constants to Characters + Constants: Pi and 2 Pi...

I'm rather certain that 98%+ of SM users will have the Symbols font. Interestingly, the Pi symbol is mapped to the letter "p" there.

BTW, those Constants/Characters were called "Special Characters" back in my C64 & PC/DOS days, though now that term has an extended meaning.

mwvdlee · 31 Dec 2009

infuzion wrote: I'm rather certain that 98%+ of SM users will have the Symbols font. Interestingly, the Pi symbol is mapped to the letter "p" there.

I don't 🙂 Those reskinned Pi and 2Pi's show as " " and "2 " on my system 🙁

The "Symbol" font is indeed installed on all Windows systems (atleast upto XP: http://www.kayskreations.net/fonts/fonttb.html). What's interresting though, is that it doesn't show up in the "System Fonts" module inside Synthmaker. Possibly this is an issue of different fonts and/or different OS's? I use XP Home. On my system the Symbol font's filename is "SY______.PFM", perhaps you have a .TTF file? A quick check seems to imply that only TTF fonts are shows in System Fonts, and even then only certain members of font families. If you can indeed use only TTF's, then that limits the number of fonts you can expect to be installed on all Windows systems.

aliasant · 31 Dec 2009

Is there a newer list some were that shows us the newer systems?

update: Found one that has Vista and 7 as well. Not as easy to read but maybe we could make a list of all these? http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/appendix/fonts.htm

I have made a font selector I can put outside my main project and send fonts into via wireless and store in s&h's so when the project is "rendered" the fonts stick... but I lost the little sucker. Its in a build somewere....

sunsynth · 31 Dec 2009

Thanks again Martijn 🙂

btw: Your 'Missing Links' are the reason why i start my Xmas-Present @ #400 😉

mwvdlee · 31 Dec 2009

aliasant wrote: update: Found one that has Vista and 7 as well. Not as easy to read but maybe we could make a list of all these? http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/appendix/fonts.htm

Thanks! I've tried quickly crossing all lists, but it turns out the situation is a bit more complex than I thought. Either way, the following are supported in every version starting Win95.

Arial Courier New Tahoma Times New Roman

Since the SM website claims SM requires atleast Win2000 or XP, I guess the list can be a bit longer if we drop all older versions of windows.

aliasant · 31 Dec 2009

I made a "Windows Only Font Selector" tp solve some of the Font problems here:Windows Only Font Selector

infuzion · 31 Dec 2009

mwvdlee wrote: infuzion wrote: I'm rather certain that 98%+ of SM users will have the Symbols font. Interestingly, the Pi symbol is mapped to the letter "p" there.

I don't 🙂 Those reskinned Pi and 2Pi's show as " " and "2 " on my system 🙁 The "Symbol" font is indeed installed on all Windows systems (atleast upto XP: http://www.kayskreations.net/fonts/fonttb.html). What's interresting though, is that it doesn't show up in the "System Fonts" module inside Synthmaker. Possibly this is an issue of different fonts and/or different OS's? I use XP Home. On my system the Symbol font's filename is "SY______.PFM", perhaps you have a .TTF file? A quick check seems to imply that only TTF fonts are shows in System Fonts, and even then only certain members of font families. If you can indeed use only TTF's, then that limits the number of fonts you can expect to be installed on all Windows systems.

What version of Windows are you running? Did you install Office, Adobe stuff?... This sounds like a bug to me.

mwvdlee · 1 Jan 2010

infuzion wrote: What version of Windows are you running? Did you install Office, Adobe stuff?... This sounds like a bug to me.

I'm running XP Home here, with Office, Photoshop, reader and a bunch of other programs. Just checked the font, the location appears to be "P:\Reader 8.0\Resource\Font\PFM", which probably means it indeed isn't the default Symbols font 🙂 Perhaps the old Symbols font was accidentally deleted in some way. I just installed the Symbol font, so I guess I WILL be copying you're Pi symbols into the next MissingLinks 🙂 Thanks!

trogluddite · 1 Jan 2010

mwvdlee wrote: the following are supported in every version starting Win95.

Arial Courier New Tahoma Times New Roman

Very timely post - I'm just ready to release my first ever public beta - then it suddendly occured to me; will everyone have the Tahoma font, or willl I have to reformat my entire GUI to use Arial?!

Thanks for the info,

The Luddite

mwvdlee · 3 Jan 2010

Version 0007:

Here's what's new: * Changed skins of Pi constants (by Infuzion) + Registry modules (USE WITH CAUTION!) + Math: Scale + Time: Unix Time (http://www.unixtimestamp.com/index.php) + Time: Performance Time

Unix Time isn't corrected for GMT sadly enough (since I don't know timezone), but local time only. Fortunately, that's how actual Unix computers usually do it too 🙂

The registry modules are pretty basic. Be careful with the "delete" modules. I mean, seriously, be careful. No warranty, absolutely none whatsoever. This stuff can seriously mess up your registry if used the wrong way. In fact, I suggest you not use the "delete" modules at all.

mwvdlee · 9 Jan 2010

NEW RELEASE

version 0008 * Changed Registry Get temporary filename to allow other types of discovery in threads. + Lookup: Windows version-specific font lists. + CSV: List to CSV module + GUI: Area Add + GUI: RGB-to-HSL and HSL-to-RGB + Analysis: Performance and difference readouts

I've included my own version of the fonts lists, based on my own research. It's fonts are a bit different from Aliasant/Infuzion's and it's just a basic list; no wireless comms or other fancy stuff. If you want flashy lights or other color animation, it's probably easier to do in HSL color space than RGB. Although obviously with more overhead. HSL is also a bit more intuitive to people who aren't used to any particular color space (i.e. your typical user). The rest is just generally useful modules.

aliasant · 9 Jan 2010

Just found the "on every true and false" modules but I think we have them already 🙂 Search for False and True in the toolbox. Unless yours work differently ?

Nice update though! Just wish we had a better toolbox/search/list system. So hard to save all the nice modules you guys are giving us in a fast finding system.

trogluddite · 9 Jan 2010

Nice work! 🙂 Had a couplle of attempts at RGB>HSL myself, but the maths beat me every time! Very useful indeed!

infuzion · 9 Jan 2010

Thanks for your hard work mwvdlee.

aliasant wrote: Just wish we had a better toolbox/search/list system. So hard to save all the nice modules you guys are giving us in a fast finding system.

I collect related modules in their own .OSM to help organize them. For instance, I have an OSM for just filter, anther just for OSC/LFO, one has only knobs/sliders, & another just for maths:

The 2 interconnected modules on the upper-right are RGB-HSV converters that came out like 4.5 years ago.

mwvdlee · 3 Feb 2010

Version 0009:

Changelog (also in the OSM itself): + INI: Parse, Write, Get Value triggerred. + Analysis: Counter (click to reset!) + GUI: Wireless Cache, Color preview, Blenders + Math: Blenders, Crop + Arrays: Repeaters * Fixed bug in Compare: String comparisons; were triggered twice * Fixed bug in File: Split Path; incorrect handling of missing folder or filename * Fixed issue in File: Split Path; too many output triggers * Fixed issue in INI: Load; test comments first or = is recognized. * Fixed issue in INI: Get Keys/Value; trigger on change of INI. * Added skins to many existing components * Fixed bug in Math: Poly XOR and converted to ASM.

Nothing spectacular, mostly just generic-like modules that I needed myself, fixes based on practical use and some fun experimental modules.

For the nerds; the blenders use a method that is little known but roughly 25% faster (depending on the programming language, how it's compiled and on what architecture) than blending the usual way. You can use this trick in code and asm too. Simply put: (A * ratio) + (B * (1 - ratio)) == A - ((A - B) * ratio).

infuzion · 3 Feb 2010

I like the look of some of the new skins, like the Iterate Array. I wonder if the use of the database symbol for an array a good idea? Also, I think one can add Areas together just by linking their Outs both into the same In, just like green link-addition.

I knew I'd regret showing you that you can skin modules someday; now everyone's HD are going to fill up faster. 😉

stw · 3 Feb 2010

mwvdlee wrote: (A * ratio) + (B * (1 - ratio)) == A - ((A - B) * ratio).

In that case this should rather equal to : B+(A-B)*ratio. Sorry for being fussy... 😉 However, thanks for sharing.

mwvdlee · 3 Feb 2010

stw wrote: In that case this should rather equal to : B+(A-B)*ratio.

Well, you get the point; it's one less operator and one of the few "old-skool" optimizing tricks that's still worth the effort. I'm one of those copy+paste developers; make something work well once, then just C+P and never think about it ever again 😉

exonerate · 9 Feb 2010

Thanks for these modules mwvdlee 🙂 some really useful ones.

I noticed in some array modules you assign the array to another array, obviously to get the size. You do this in "List to CV" and "iterate array" for example. This is unnecessary you can get the size directly from the original array by connecting an integer component to the array connector 🙂

Also in the group Trigonometry the module "Hypot" is not connected up.

Cheers 😉

Exo

mwvdlee · 9 Feb 2010

exonerate wrote: I noticed in some array modules you assign the array to another array, obviously to get the size. You do this in "List to CV" and "iterate array" for example. This is unnecessary you can get the size directly from the original array by connecting an integer component to the array connector 🙂 Also in the group Trigonometry the module "Hypot" is not connected up.

Thanks for the notice 🙂 I already found the quick way to get String Array size, but havent yet had the time to fix it in most modules. The Hypot is new to me, but was a quick fix and should be okay in the next version.

philter5 · 15 Feb 2010

...hhmm. th copy/move/delete file does not work here..

mwvdlee · 15 Feb 2010

philter5 wrote: ...hhmm. th copy/move/delete file does not work here..

What Windows version are you using?

philter5 · 15 Feb 2010

Win XP Professional with Service Pack 2

mwvdlee · 16 Feb 2010

There was an issue with the Copy, perhaps that caused the other issues.

Anyway, here's version 0010 of Missing Links, which also fixes and adds some other stuff;

Change list: + GUI: Mouse View + Date & Time: Time.milli + GUI: Font/Pen/StringFormat/Colour + INI: Triggered gets + GUI: View Crop + Filesystem: Make/Remove directory / Replaced string array output of String: Mark Lines with string * Some skins for the sections * INI: Load and Parse; replaced the breakline-to-mark component * General optimizing of string array iterators. * Fixed Math: Hypot; became unlinked. Thanks to Exonerate. * Fixed File: Move * Fixed File: Copy (wrong command)

Nothing really spectacular. There's a view GUI tools that I find helpful and a number of important fixes.

philter5 · 17 Feb 2010

...hmmmm i must do something wrong, the file copy/move/delete modules still don´t work for me. any ideas why?

philter5 · 17 Feb 2010

...and, BTW, is there a popup window with okay and cancel when i try to move/copy/delete a file or not?

sunsynth · 17 Feb 2010

@1st: thanks again 4 this nice tools 🙂

I have one more bug: Colour gets 100 for 100% Alpha (Output is before the x 2.55)

philter5 · 17 Feb 2010

ah okay now they work, it was my fault. Very dangerous that there is no message when deleting a file... but fortunately we can build our own message box to ask if you really want to delete a file or something like that...

mwvdlee · 17 Feb 2010

sunsynth wrote: I have one more bug: Colour gets 100 for 100% Alpha (Output is before the x 2.55)

Thanks. It'll be fixed in 0011 (don't know when it'll be released. Perhaps I need a more frequent release schedule for bugs).

mwvdlee · 17 Feb 2010

philter5 wrote: ah okay now they work, it was my fault. Very dangerous that there is no message when deleting a file... but fortunately we can build our own message box to ask if you really want to delete a file or something like that...

That's done on purpose, so you can chain multiple operations together. Besides, message boxes are user interface choices; not something I like to force upon people.

philter5 · 17 Feb 2010

mwvdlee wrote: philter5 wrote: ah okay now they work, it was my fault. Very dangerous that there is no message when deleting a file... but fortunately we can build our own message box to ask if you really want to delete a file or something like that...

That's done on purpose, so you can chain multiple operations together. Besides, message boxes are user interface choices; not something I like to force upon people.

😀 it was more a joke than a seroius sentence when i said "dangerous". thanx again for the nice module pack !

philter5 · 11 Mar 2010

i found a small bug in the split path module...

mwvdlee · 11 Mar 2010

philter5 wrote: i found a small bug in the split path module...

Already noticed and fixed 🙂 I will release version 0011 this weekend, as it contains a few other bug fixes as well.

Acrobat · 12 Mar 2010

this is cool thanx a lot!! Keepon rockin'!

mwvdlee · 13 Mar 2010

Version 0011:

Mostly fixes to the bugs mentioned in previous posts. Most notable new feature is the "Bitmap Get At+" module (for lack of a better name); it's a very simple, but (to me atleast) an essential change.

I'm mostly trying to improve quality and stability of my main project right now, so not a lot of new features. I've got a lot of nice stuff that might make it into MissingLinks some day, but most of it requires me to do some boring work, so don't expect that anytime soon 😉

Changelog (copied from schematic): + GUI: Bitmap Get At+; returns boolean for success of failure. + Arrays: Repeat String Array + Presets: Preset Name Append with preference + Grouping: Color Matrix and Bitmap Array * Changed Lookups; lightweight, different look and no preset * Flow: changed input names of flip-flop's * Fixed GUI: Color and Pen; transparency was 0-100 * Fixed Filesystem: Split Path; end slash in path was missing.

philter5 · 13 Mar 2010

😀 THX

mwvdlee · 14 Jun 2010

It's been a while. Hope it's worth the wait 😉

Here are the release notes, straight from the OSM:

IMPORTANT NOTICE! Most Filesystem and Registry modules are currently broken in SynthMaker v1.1.7 due to backwards incompatible changes in the Shell Exec module.

version 0012 + GUI: Area Flip + Controls group + Controls/String Label + GUI/Area Scale + Parser/Any + GUI/Bitmap Area + GUI/Area Shrink + Math/Green Is NaN? and Green/NaN to Zero + Constants; special floating points + New category; Elements + Elements; Mini's that fit smaller spaces + Math/Stream Abs + Filesystem/Wait for Path + Math/Average * Filesystem/File Exists optimized * Trigonometry: Fixed trigo functions * Filesystem/Make Directory: Quotes around filename * INI/Write: Fixed section order issue * GUI: Color, Pen, Font and FontStyle now largely purgeable

Again, most of these are taken directly from my own projects (and some the end-result of a number of threads on this very forum). I hope they will be usefull to others.

Perhaps I'll add tooltips and some documentation for the next version... but probably not 😉

mwvdlee · 22 Aug 2010

Large update this time, with many useful components. If you frequent this forum often, you'll probably know most of these modules already. There is also some new stuff, though. And some things have been cleaned up and standardized a bit. If you find any bugs, let me know.

On a more somber note (something like D-minor will do), I'm going back to school starting september. Full time job in the days, school two/three evenings a week for the next four years. As a consequence I'm going to be far less active within the S|M community in general and maintaining this module set in particular. I had hoped to be able to release atleast one commercial product before this date but due to reasons that I think we're all too familiair with, that is becoming increasingly unlikely to happen in the forseeable future.

Anyway, back to more happy note (I've always like Csus4, or pretty much anything sus4), here's the schematic and a list of all the changes.

version 0013 + Shapes/Dropshadow + GUI/Catch Mousebuttons + Controls/Barcode Scope, Light Scope + Controls/Push button with rotated text + Animation/Swing, Stream Swing, Stream Bounce, Stream Slide + Arrays/Append Float Array + Math/Int Or, Int XOr, Int Not + GUI/Point Area + GUI/Redraw Motion + Math/Unit + Stream/StreamBool to Stream, Stream to StreamBool + Stream/PolyBool to MonoBool + Stream/Trigger to StreamBool + Elements/Mini Slider + Shapes/Pie + Shapes/Arrow + Shapes/Filled Regular Polygon, Filled Rotatable Square, Filled Convex Polygon + Shapes/Edge Triangle, Corner Triangle + Constants/Max & Min Stream Float + INI/INI Set by Properties + GUI/A-VA alpha Cache + Constants/Sqrt 2, ¼ Pi, ½ Pi + GUI/Mouse LDown Alpha, Mouse LDown Ellipse + GUI/C2HSL and HSL2C wrappers around HSL modules. + GUI/Area Grow (two types) + GUI/Colorize Matrix alternative version + Analysis/Readout Area + GUI/Fix Area + GUI/Float to Colour and Colour to Float + Math/Square Root, Square, Reverse, Half + Arrays/Min Float Array * Moved all GUI colour modules to new Colours category * Arrays/Average; optimized implementation * Minor improvements all-round on skins * Minor improvements all-round on performance

stw · 22 Aug 2010

mwvdlee wrote: Large update this time, with many useful components.

As usual incredible useful gadgets! Thanks for sharing. 😍

trogluddite · 22 Aug 2010

Is is Xmas already?? Thought I overslept a bit this morning.

Many thanks - this is great stuff, brilliantly organised too.

stw · 22 Aug 2010

mwvdlee wrote: On a more somber note (something like D-minor will do), I'm going back to school starting september. Full time job in the days, school two/three evenings a week for the next four years. As a consequence I'm going to be far less active within the S|M community in general and maintaining this module set in particular. I had hoped to be able to release atleast one commercial product before this date but due to reasons that I think we're all too familiair with, that is becoming increasingly unlikely to happen in the forseeable future.

Anyway, back to more happy note (I've always like Csus4, or pretty much anything sus4), here's the schematic and a list of all the changes.

... + GUI/Redraw Motion

Though it's not the help forum... To bring my personal major chord solution a bit closer and maybe to prove that commercial plug ins are possible with SM could someone please help me with that motion redraw? Is there a way to place that module into a draw loop (Draw loops seem to be my brain killer 😝 ) ? I have a bigger area with some movements on smaller areas which are nested inside a draw loop. I need to keep the redrawing area as small as possible to prevent a huge cpu hog. My last idea was to link multiple of these redraws to fixed indexes to cover exactly the changed areas of the drawn element but i didn't succed... 😊 Any ideas about that?

mwvdlee · 22 Aug 2010

stw wrote: Is there a way to place that module into a draw loop

No, for two different reasons. 1. You should not put redraws inside draw loops. Doing so could trigger an infinite loop. 2. Motion Redraw is for relatively small graphic areas that move around (change position) within a larger area.

For your draw loop, your best bet seems to be to put an area redraw outside the draw loop and calculate the area it should redraw. GDI is very capable of clipping draw operations. Alternatively, put a selector with bool input inside the draw loop in combination with the area redraw; this is risky though, since redraws may also be triggered outside of your explicit control.

trogluddite · 22 Aug 2010

Yes, bit of a tough problem that.

I also tried by using weird area union stuff and smaller redraws, but the way the Draw Loop is made just makes it unworkable. You can't have a trigger 'within' a draw loop - so that's out. Then, tried to make a way to keep a running total of the areas - but the result is always one frame behind the drawing, because it is the ReDraw that sets the loop running to start with - the area to be redrawn seems to always be decided before the loop runs. Also, in the vast majority of cases, ReDrawing a large area once per frame is easier on the CPU than multiple small draws.

The best I could come up with is to find a way of calculating the minimum area that needs re-drawing - but it only works if your animations have their co-ordinates stored in float arrays. In effect you find the max and min entries in your X and Y arrays (i.e. the furthest left, highest, lowest, furthest right), and then calculate the area from that - allowing for the size of the actual animated elements themselves. - of course, that doesn't help much if the elements are widely spaced, but here's the little module in case it's any use...

trogluddite · 22 Aug 2010

mwvdlee wrote: If you find any bugs, let me know.

Not sure it's really a bugfix or more just a 'depends how you use it' kind of thing - but here's a new 'Trigger on Match' module I've been using for a while. It avoids the problem of the match possibly occuring in between ticks by checking the M2F output to make sure it has been read - it will generate a trigger for a match that is only one sample long. Sorry it's all a bit untidy - my own toolkit isn't half as organised as yours - I left a few of my other little tools in there for you to have a look at and include in V0014 if you like.

mwvdlee · 23 Aug 2010

trogluddite wrote: Not sure it's really a bugfix or more just a 'depends how you use it' kind of thing - but here's a new 'Trigger on Match' module I've been using for a while. It avoids the problem of the match possibly occuring in between ticks by checking the M2F output to make sure it has been read - it will generate a trigger for a match that is only one sample long.

Quite honestly I don't even remember what it was supposed to do 🙂 Turns out none of my big projects seem to use it, so I haven't a clue what context it was developed in. Your version does make more sense.

stw · 23 Aug 2010

Thanks for your suggestions about the redraw issue. I tried different workarounds and it turns out as trogluddite already wrote that too many small redraws are heavier on CPU than one large. So i'll keep it as it is.

stw · 23 Aug 2010

trogluddite wrote:

I implemented that in the SickTheremin osm to activate the bumpers. Works far better now! 🙂

mwvdlee · 31 Dec 2011

Hi everybody,

It's been quite a long time since the last update of Missing Links. This is not a major release (unless ofcourse, it contains the one thing you were waiting for). These are mostly components that have been sitting there pretty much since the last release.

Download here:

Here's a change list: + Colours/Color Select + Shapes/Filled Rounded Vertical Gradient + Math/Double + Analysis/Mono4 Readout + GUI/Filled 90° triangle sides + Elements/Bits - 4 + String/String to Lower case, String to Upper case + Stream/Stream Modulo + GUI/Area Shrink W/H + Flow/Set Toggle + Math/Subtract Float Array from float + GUI/Point/Radius Area + Math/Scale unit - Several modules deprecated; duplicated by current SynthMaker * Math/String Adder fixed

I'm not doing much new stuff with SM anymore but I do use it to play velocity-layered samples for my digital drum. Despite the fact that SM has bugs which stop me from releasing it (or in fact, putting in the effort to polish and fine-tune it), it's performance is much better than any of the commercial offerings. I've managed to hit the poly limit on all the ones I've tried, and I play at less than half the speed of a good drummer. So I've been using my own software instead, trying to ignore the SM bugs whenever they are audible (currently down to less than 1 promille of midi signals is lost; or 1 every two minutes or so).

I still have some interresting stuff on my harddisk, most of it half-finished experiments, which I plan to post on this forum in the following week in various topics, but don't expect any more public activity from me unless Malc finally grows up and gets his act together. A rare few people need an Xbox360 controller module, everybody needs bug-free primitives and core funtionality.

philter5 · 1 Jan 2012

happy new year (to ya all!) and thx for sharing mwvdleee 😀

sunsynth · 1 Jan 2012

I still have some interresting stuff on my harddisk, most of it half-finished experiments, which I plan to post on this forum in the following week in various topics, but don't expect any more public activity from me unless Malc finally grows up and gets his act together. A rare few people need an Xbox360 controller module, everybody needs bug-free primitives and core funtionality.

...plainly spoken...

Thanks 4 this Update and that we even can expect some more 😉

Happy New YEAR folks! 😍

stw · 1 Jan 2012

Martijn, I always appreciate your well done gadgets. Too bad SM doesn't fit your needs. Many thanks for that update!

mwvdlee · 5 Jan 2012

And here is the "final" Missing Links: 0015

I name it "final" because this is pretty much every interresting module I had lined up for release in Missing Links. Since my SynthMaker efforts will be focussing exclusively on the drum software I'm using for my own, it's not likely (though not completely unlikely) that I'll develop many more generic stuff. Unless Outsim gets their act together, it's unlikely I'll be wasting any more time trying to do anything publishable with SynthMaker.

Notable is the Strided/Serialized stuff, which is a fast way to handle 2D arrays (though not completely obvious at first). I use this in the Skratz thing elsewhere on the forum. There's also some tooltip modules and a bunch of controls you've probably already seen elsewhere.

Here's what's included: + GUI/Alpha + Math/NaN to 0 + Math/isNaN? + GUI/Draw Loop+ + GUI/Big Draw Loop + GUI/OnDraw + GUI/Multiclick + Animation/Real-time reflection 1:1 and Stretch + Math/Chop + System/Tick1 + System/Tick5 + Math/Snap + Stream/Count + Stream/Tally + Stream/Bool to stream bool + Controls/Real-time clock + Controls/Remap + Controls/Gradient background + Controls/Radial background + Arrays/Sequence Float Array + Parser/Sequences + Stream/Clock + Stream/Average + Stream/Bool to True 1-Trigger + Stream/Bool to False 1-Trigger + Stream/Blend + Controls/VU bar (various types) + Controls/Progress bar + Time/Unixtime split + Time/Weekday names + Time/Month names + Time/Format seconds + Time/Is Leapyear + Time/Yeardays + Controls/Nixie Tube (various types) + Controls/Guitar knobs (various sizes) + Arrays/String Array Reverse + Arrays/Sort asc/desc + Strided/Stride Sort + Strided/Stride Get Column + Strided/Stride Get Item + Strided/Stride Reverse + Serialized/Sort SerializedArray + Serialized/SerializedArray Filter + Serialized/SerializedArray Split + Serialized/Serialized Get + Conversion/Strided to Ser.Array + Conversion/Ser.Array to Stride + Conversion/Serialized to Strided + Conversion/Strided to Serialized + Tooltips/Set Tooltip + Tooltips/(Un)set Tooltip + Tooltips/Tooltip Timeout + Tooltips/Get Tooltip + Tooltips/Pass TT Up

Enjoy and keep creating!

Xtinct · 5 Jan 2012

Wow its Xmas again that year went fast 😀

sunsynth · 6 Jan 2012

Awesome - Unbelievable Gift(s)!

After 1st Look my new favorite: 'Real-time reflection stretched'

Thank U ...again

infuzion · 9 Jan 2012

Xtinct wrote: Wow its Xmas again that year went fast 😀

+1 😇 Reminds me of Exo's mega-pack also.

I can't blame you mwvdlee; I'm love/hate thing with SM; get me 70% of the way there, & can work around or ignore half of the missing part, the but the other half are show-stoppers or massive market-reducers.

attic · 9 Jan 2012

Thanks for your huge efforts. 🙂

Unless Outsim gets their act together, it's unlikely I'll be wasting any more time trying to do anything publishable with SynthMaker.

Its the year of the dragon end of the Aztec calendar end of the world so we wont need Synthmaker anyhow. 😈 Just joking.