LMMS redesign concept

[budislav]

(Click to enlarge)

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Hi all,
My previous work for Zynaddsubfx has same purpose to dock all windows in one (link is dead)
http://budislavtvp.deviantart.com/art/ZynAddSubFX-UI-Concept-2014-455890191

It is in development phase > https://github.com/fundamental/zyn-ui-two

Link to full concept:
http://budislavtvp.deviantart.com/art/LMMS-UI-UX-Design-Concept-Single-Window-523696539
https://www.behance.net/gallery/38503021/LMMS-UIUX-Design-Concept-Single-Window-Interface
https://www.behance.net/gallery/194917259/LMMS-Redesign-Concept

Full version (mirror):
full version

[oeai]

Looks very good, you can add pics right here, maybe just not all for ui and zyn

[musikBear]

stunning!
..but i am feeling a chill, cause i have spent ...absurd time learning zyn's current UI sigh 🐹

[BaraMGB]

For your (awesome!) LMMS-UI-Concept I fear this requires a complete rewrite of LMMS's GUI. How do you handle the windows? (switching in fullscreen per button? dragging the corners for sizing?)

Greetz Bara

[tresf]

For your (awesome!) LMMS-UI-Concept I fear this requires a complete rewrite of LMMS's GUI. How do you handle the windows? (switching in fullscreen per button? dragging the corners for sizing?)

I can't speak on behalf of the author, but most DAWs use a collapse/show method and the designated panes are just reused depending on which widget is shown.

you can add pics right here, maybe just not all for ui and zyn

Done. :)

@budislav,

Very interested to know the possibility of this. When you worked with the Zyn team, how involved with the code were you? Did you have to fork the repository? Did they merge the change into base? Last I checked, Zyn wasn't fully Qt compatible but your library seems to make heavy use of Qt and QML (right?)

Tagging @RebeccaDeField @pgiblock

Much overlap with:
#880 #1839

[tresf]

I am just UI/UX designer so I can't help with coding.

👍

everything you seen is work by Mark McCurry (fundamental)

Thanks for clarification. Yeah, Mark shows up here occasionally. I'm sure his efforts could probably be extended for LMMS as well.

As far as a singleton window, we likely have thousands of lines to clean-up to make this a possibility, but your mockup is delightful and we're likely to use it as a reference point when discussing major UI changes in the future, thank you! 👍

[tresf]

@fundamental what type of overhaul are we looking at here if we were to adopt this new UI? I assume we'd have to port over pretty much every single widget, but how extensible is this opengl/QML for other projects?

I'll quote the readme for others interested...

• Custom nanovg (opengl 2.0) based rendering
• Custom constraint based layout
• QML based structure/event handling

Progress

As of so far a whole bunch of widget rendering code has been written.
A basic horizontal weighted/constrained pack layout has been created (in C)
and two simpler pack algorithms have been made in qml.
QML/nanovg integration has been establed and it appears to be relatively bug
free (though perhaps somewhat inefficient).
Some mouse handling has been done.
A variety of other widgets have received their design on paper.
To test some UI performance/integration a simple equalizer or envelop app might
be created.

[budislav]

"your mockup is delightful and we're likely to use it as a reference point when discussing major UI changes in the future, thank you!"

I am glad to hear that, I hope this would be very helpful. I'm tired of floating windows :)

[tresf]

I'm tired of floating windows :)

Yes, many of us all are. Per #519, #765, #1406

And then there's #387, #1185, #1357, #520, #735, #1755, #1849, #1843

Just worked on a track last night and had to make use of the somewhat hidden Qt feature "Always on top" in the left corner of every sub-window. 👍

[budislav]

"Just worked on a track last night and had to make use of the somewhat hidden Qt feature "Always on top" in the left corner of every sub-window."

That's what I'm talking about 👍
I will upload one mockup that shows how it looks on full HD res.

[tresf]

That's what I'm talking about 👍

@budislav P.S., you can use the > to quote a messsage. :)

[softrabbit]

Let's say I have a dual screen setup. Now I can stretch my LMMS window to cover both screens and place the subwindows where I like. In which way would the proposed concept be an improvement in that case?

[budislav]

@tresf

P.S., you can use the > to quote a messsage. :)

Thanks, didn't know that :)

[tresf]

Thanks, didn't know that :)

Sorry, it has to be the first character in order to work properly. 👍

dual screen setup

Yeah, I was wondering this as well.... If the other usability improvements happen that is certainly an obstacle I'd like to have. My recommendation (even in our current design) would be to have unlimited container windows. This could get ugly for singleton objects though (which we have some other open items on already).

[tresf]

@softrabbit looks like we're not the only DAW with this dilemma... Ableton, FLStudio, etc.