Toggle layer conditions from within watchout

[nickelalloy]

I've been using string outputs to set layer conditions within watchout via IP, but as it stands, you can only set all of the conditions at once.

It would be really nice to only affect one condition. Say I want to set condition 9 to off, but I don't want to change any of the others. This is not possible without knowing the state of all the other conditions beforehand. 

I'm assuming there aren't any commands available to achieve this. I took a gamble and tried "setLayerCond 9 0" and a few other variants,  but to no avail. 

Thanks.

[matkeane]

I'm pretty sure I added a feature request a while ago for the ability to change a single layer condition from within Watchout. Like you, I'd like to be able to change one condition without affecting others - effectively impossible without storing and recalling all the other layer condition values. This would make it easier to use conditions to manage the visibility of content. I also use conditional layers to manage the 'visibility' of layers containing control cues, which allows some simple switching logic within Watchout.

I agree that 'setLayerCond x 0/1', 'enableLayerCond x' or 'toggleLayerCond x' would be useful additions. With this in mind, I've been working on a little external control app for managing layer conditions. Still a bit rough around the edges, but it allows for: toggling or setting a single layer condition, creation and recall of presets, groups of conditions with different behaviours (radio buttons, synched, etc). Layers can be switched through the UI, by UDP commands (from Watchout or elsewhere), or by OSC commands (not from Watchout!).

[nickelalloy]

8 hours ago, matkeane said:

With this in mind, I've been working on a little external control app for managing layer conditions. Still a bit rough around the edges, but it allows for: toggling or setting a single layer condition, creation and recall of presets, groups of conditions with different behaviours (radio buttons, synched, etc). Layers can be switched through the UI, by UDP commands (from Watchout or elsewhere), or by OSC commands (not from Watchout!).

 

Would you be interested in sharing your progress? What are you developing in?

[matkeane]

I'm quite happy to share once it's ready - I already have a couple of other utilities for Watchout on my website for download. I'm working on loading/saving settings for the app, since setting things up manually each time gets a bit boring and after that it should be usable, even if it's not going to win any awards for UI design!

The apps are all developed in Java, since I generally work on Mac but want something which will work on Windows too. I have thought about switching to another language, but I've yet to find something really suited to cross-platform desktop development with a decent UI library (If anybody has any suggestions, I'm all ears).

I have a project coming up in a couple of weeks where the app might be useful, so I should have something to share quite soon...

[nickelalloy]

My personal choice would be Javascript (just because it's what I know and I don't have time to learn a new language). More specifically NodeJS,  then use Electron as a cross platform wrapper. https://electronjs.org/ Many apps are written using it (Slack, whatsapp desktop, atom IDE etc...

I have a bit of a hatred of Java, which mostly stems from how resource hungry the runtime is/was. It might be an outdated view now, but I still stand by it! ?