I was playing around thinking about visualizations and navigation on my unit. I actually thought about it even before I got my unit. Im playng around now technically , but first i had to sketch out my ideas. Keep in mind they are real rough , but I have been pondering it for a while. After looking at the Pioneer DEHP-8000 in the store , it galvanzied me into action.

The screen real estate on the EMPEG is not that big and it is monochrome , but there is a lot that can be done in smaller spaces than that..

first i thought about navigation. How important is it to really see the visualization in the background while you navigate the menus? The menu's block most of the information and visuals , especially when navigating several sub levels into the heirarchy. Even if you are in the passenger seat , the menu elements are not that big. Here are several examples of a menu screen i thought might work:


the entire window is replaced with a scrolling menu... to the right is a small box with an Icon that represents the menu element. Easy to see when you are driving but able enuf to work the remote or press the buttons.



This image shows selecting the source menu item: it shows the current source as an Icon in the window to the right.



Into the submenu , it shows the items on the Source menu. To the right is shows tyou are on Radio still. If you selected EMPEG or AUXILLARY you would see the appropiate icon in the window to the right.

then i thought aboout the radio screen



This isnt extremely well developed (my version) :) What it does do is used unused screen real estate to have a bigger , clearer station ID. To the right is an Icon to let you know your in radio (which also is for eye candy) The semi circles radiating outward indicate signal. The RDS information is scrolling across the bottom portion of the left window.

This is some alternate visualizations im fleshing out:



this is a generic space scene. stars sort of floating around with large metetors and a occasional falling star streek down to the huge planet. This rough graphic could really use some work to get the point across :)



This looked better in my head.. its a space ship (looking a lot like a space shuttle in line art tinted blue) headed to a wireframed planet rotating. Peaceful , aww who looks at these things when your driving anyway.. (WE DO!)




These are two cities in the window.. the would rotate around in 3d.. probably grab a helicopter shop of the city , reduce the frames and convert it.. or you could get a slightly overheadd still and rotate it yourself thru maniuplation to get a sort of spinning effect.. or panning effect. Hey.. could have all the major cities of the world! NY , Chicago , San Francisco ,Dallas , Paris urr.. London!


Icons window option for the visualizations.. probably better without them actually.. I only showed verrsion with the icon. Maybe even have icons for all the mp3 ID3tags.. that yoou could turn on and off.. Sax for Jazz , urr.. yeah.. Sax for Jazz .. cowboy hat for country? or a Spur? hmm.. Baseball cap for Rap? what about Alternative? Dirty Gap Clothes.. hmm..

all images are 256x 64 pixels

I'm really just thinking aboout navigation a lot. I have some ideas for graphic Equalization that'll ill post later and several more visualzation ruff mockups. I want to suss out making new Visualizations first on the EMPEG using one good new one! :)

Thoughts , Comments , Flames?







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I like that radio screen. Very nice. The Empeg's current radio screen definitely needs an update, and that's a pretty good one.

The visualization ideas don't turn me on because they don't relate to the music. I like visualizations that do something based on a waveform or spectrum display of the music. Even the vis modules that only pulse with the beat don't excite me very much. But that's just my personal opinion.

The big icons on the left are very nice, too. If done properly, they could allow the user to navigate via peripheral vision while driving. But, as you've discovered, you can't have those big icons unless the menu scrolls vertically.

In theory, the vertically-oriented menu looks more logical than the current horizontally-oriented one. But in practice I like their horizontal one the best. The empeg has a vertical scroll when you search by title or artist, and I don't like it as much as the horizontal playlist scrolling.



-- Tony Fabris -- Empeg #144 --
Caution: Do not look into laser with remaining good eye.

Very early empeg's (beta3 and before?) had vertical menus - this is what people saw at the 1999 mp3 summit if you stopped by our booth. Feedback from initial testers and usability issues meant we moved to sideways menus before general release - and I'm pretty happy with them, despite arguing with Mike until I got quite red about how I preferred vertical ones ;)

The other graphics are very pretty - one problem we do face is that we only have 1/4 of the screen space that the images posted use, and with this smaller resolution things get cramped *very* quickly. I do admit big icons for source, etc, would look very cute, but none of us are exactly talented graphic artists... if we could work out what we needed and what size we could use I suppose we could ask some of the (obviously talented!) people here to come up with some suggestions :)

Hugo

I do admit big icons for source, etc, would look very cute, but none of us are exactly talented graphic artists... if we could work out what we needed and what size we could use I suppose we could ask some of the (obviously talented!) people here to come up with some suggestions

Hugo, I've been asking around about how I can edit the graphics.bf, small.bf (etc.) files that I found on the Empeg, and I haven't gotten an answer. I'm very good with low-rez graphics such as icons. I'd love to work on that stuff. Any hints on that file format?

-- Tony Fabris -- Empeg #144 --
Caution: Do not look into laser with remaining good eye.

It would help to know the format to begin plugging stuff in. Or how to deliver it.. a mocked them up larger so you can see them. I think that you could get really clear small icons in that space at that resolution

Empeg Kicks Ass
S/N 00203
http://www.iretro.com

Hey, SportsUtilicus Illegitimus -- ;-)

I just want to chime in here and say that you have done beautiful work. I hope that something really does come of it.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Very early empeg's (beta3 and before?) had vertical menus - this is what people saw at the 1999 mp3 summit if you stopped by our booth. Feedback from initial testers and usability issues meant we moved to sideways menus before general release - and I'm pretty happy with them, despite arguing with Mike until I got quite red about how I preferred vertical ones ;)

Im sure you guys did a complete job researching people's reactions , but I think it might work with the left icon and larger letters for the Menu Items with a smooth scroll. It would be clearer and you could see it from a distance clearly or while distracted by driving. I' not convinced that side scrolling is all that natural to ANY interface.. The menus also stack up after a certain point and I think it is also wasting processor time doing the visualization in the back of cluttered drop scrollling menus


The other graphics are very pretty - one problem we do face is that we only have 1/4 of the screen space that the images posted use, and with this smaller resolution things get cramped *very* quickly. I do admit big icons for source, etc, would look very cute, but none of us are exactly talented graphic artists... if we could work out what we needed and what size we could use I suppose we could ask some of the (obviously talented!) people here to come up with some suggestions :)

I think everyone here is quite passionate about their empeg and eager to help in the process as much as you guys will allow. Let us know whatcha need. These graphics were rough and I blew them up double the size to make it clear. I cant make it at the dimensions of the screen if that will help.

of course hints on some tech stuff to make alternate displays and plug them in.. You guys ave more to worry aboout than making plugin architechure for us.

At some point in the future.. a dual menu system! You choice between vertical or horizontal! Thoughts?



Empeg Kicks Ass
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http://www.iretro.com

Your choice - vertical or horizontal.

Actually, I was thinking this too, in a more general sense. Hugo &c, how 'abstractable' is the display interface? Would it be possible to (eventually) set this up so that the end user can choose between a number of predefined (and possibly customisable) layout/interfaces? In the far future, people could customize these things from Emplode and have a 'skins' bazaar where people can submit their own customised looks? This is not something for now, but something for the future when the Mark II is out and the software is above v1.0.

Always consider extensibility when designing protocols and APIs.

Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.

It's not that abstractable. We had to give up on python as it was giving us huge problems when running it multi-threaded...

Hugo

Can you elaborate more on the setup? If the visuals are modular now? Or hardcoded into the player codebase?


Empeg Kicks Ass
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http://www.iretro.com

The visuals have always been separate from the main program - in /empeg/lib. However, the API isn't yet published and we're looking to make these easier for 3rd parties to develop (eg: making them elf format and dynamically linking them)

Hugo

Here is the progress I have made on one of the visualizations im getting together in anticipation of the API being published for 3rd party visualizations. They are at 128x32 pixels. Still a little rough.. they are at 3 color of blue (Light , medium , Dark) as it corresponds to Value 0 is off; 1 is dim; 2 is medium; 3 is full brightness.







i guess i like the atom thingie.. i gotta let that go already! :)

Empeg Kicks Ass
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http://www.iretro.com