XMusic

[Cole]

Because no one would check this out in the Hardware\Software section... and this is a place to discuss absolutely anything... So I beg for your mercy mods!

Ok so far everyone who has tried my new homemade music program seems to like it. One person told me they prefer to use it over winamp.

http://www.cole.frih.net/Downloads/XMusic/Stable/XMusic3_0.zip
(Requires .NET framework).
Features
+Saves last Playlist items and Library items
+Plays most songs(mp3's, wmv's, wav's)
+Supports Shuffle + Repeat
+Implementation of what I call Virtual Folders(Neat way of organizing songs)
+Volume change, song progress bar, etc..
+Stays completely out of your way! Just click on the X(Exit Icon) and it will dissapear but the song will still play. Bring it back up with the X icon on the bottom right. The memory usage when it dissapears is very very low.

Next version has some major improvements to.

 

[Vegeta897]

Downloaded it.
Opened it (took a bit long, thought it was a virus at first :X)
Hmm... Looks simple. Why does the play button have an O symbol?
Loaded a song into the "playlist".
Double clicked it.
Pressed play at the bottom.
Nothing...
*closes*
Oh feck! It's still open!
*Right click > Exit*

Sorry.

 

[Cole]

I know it isn't suppose to exit.
Read everything I wrote.

It creates a little X icon on the bottom right. Right click on the icon then click on exit to exit out of it. It is made to stay completely out of your way by dissapearing. If you double click on the X icon it will load back up. My program is made to stay out of your way and play your music.

Some songs don't play, I can't really control that... err.. However most songs should play.

Gotta learn to read a little better there Veg.

 

[Vegeta897]

Heh, I'm aware of the exit thing, I was making a little joke. Of course I read all of your post :| I'm not one of those people. You should know me better than that. Therefore I revoke your rights to call me "Veg" when you don't even know me ;(

You could turn this into a song judging program that gives you a message "That song sucks ass" whenever a song doesn't work.

I hate to be the guy who gives the first reply to someone who has posted something he's worked on and expected some good feedback, and basically well, not give you good feedback, but what can you do. The tone of your last comment hinted that you weren't very pleased.

 

[Cole]

You could turn this into a song judging program that gives you a message "That song sucks ass" whenever a song doesn't work.

lol. Well as long as you were joking(You should put a few laughs in there).

Anyway give it a good try once. Load a bunch of songs and leave it go while your doing something. *Puts on cute child mask*Please.... Pretty Please!! (Don't make me put on Cute Child Cry and Pout Mask).

 

[Vegeta897]

Sorry but Winamp can do that for me. It can minimize to the tray too :O :O :O
And I can bind a global hotkey to skip a song I don't like...

Honestly the only way you could make this program interesting for ME is if you made hundreds of little eastereggs. That would rule. I've always wanted a program with that sort of stuff.

 

[joule]

And how is this any better than iTunes?

 

[Qonfused]

iTunes for the ****ing win.

 

[joule]

Damn straight, son.

 

[Qonfused]

Son? I'm the one that...

Respect your elders.

 

[Cole]

Give me a little credit guys, sheesh. I made that build in basically a day. At least give me some helpful ideas. You know something you've always hated about a specific media player.

My next build will allow relative paths.(Put the files into the same directory\ a sub directory that my exe is in and you can move them anywhere..they will play.)

And I can bind a global hotkey to skip a song I don't like...

I actually had that implemented, however the build that I kinda have there is full of edits and I had it disabled. My next build will have it.

My current build has:
-Finally drag and drop reorganizing
-Can change the color, font, text size, text color, on just about every little thing on the fly.
-Completely resizeable.
-Complete recode, much more Object Oriented than before. Much easier to do whatever I want with.
-Volume Slider
-Overall is faster.
-Custom Filters

While the next build wont read tags(Completely disabled for now. It can read ID3v1 specs, however ID3v2 specs are completely retarded! In fact Itunes, Winamp, and WMP all failed to implement them correctly yet it has become a standard! Even libraries built on these standards such as UltraLIB are having a fun time implementing them perfectly....).

The main thing this has over other media players is well the Virtual Folders idea. Very easy to way to customize your music in any fashion you would like to.

 

[Vegeta897]

Go for the easter eggs. Just one for me
Incase your program goes sky high in fame.

 

[Cole]

Easter Eggs, Custom Versions, Special Thanks, and Minigame are going to be dedicated to helpful people, testers, advertisers, and people who helped with moral. Thank god the other forum I posted this up on was umm... more helpful than this one in all of the above.

I'm also doing custom versions for people who really helped out. Like Carlsagan43, the dude that tested every version and who caught bugs since the program was a GUI where you would load a song and it would play. It consisted of a textbox and a Open Song button.
I'm doing a special version that will upload his songs(the full file) to his server as he plays them(he wanted it..). Plus i'm throwing in a Pong minigame dedicated to all his help so far.

Yay I get to make a pong control in C#!!!

 

[Naudian]

Pretty cool program. I would use this instead of Winamp just because it starts up a lot faster, unless I wanna play a radio station or something...

Couple things:
The volume goes from 1-1000? A smaller scale like 1-20 would be good and I guess you say that the next version will have a slider to change it.
I don't like the play/pause/etc buttons :| meh.

I can't think of anything else. Good stuff.

 

[Cole]

Thanks Naudian.
Yeah I didn't realize I could add in a slider until I noticed one until I seen it in some code one time. VS2005 didn't show it in the toolbox so I added it in manually.

Tomorrow i'll code in "relative files", Saving Virtual Folders(Have it disabled in current build). I'll probably make the icons changeable(I quickly made them..I needed something!), add in the little icon function again, and if I get time i'll add in global hotkeys.

 

[Stigmata]

In the Settings menu, the mouseover effect of switching to "whatever a click will toggle to" is disorienting and confusing. A simple checkbox would suffice. And toggling an option shouldn't boot you out of the menu.

Volume slider should be an actual slider

The Virtual Folder interface seems like another "middleman" between the player and the files. I'll have to play around with it a bit more to get used to it.

Good stuff though

 

[Krynn72]

I use musicmatch Jukebox. IMO its the best damn player ever.

 

[Cole]

In the Settings menu, the mouseover effect of switching to "whatever a click will toggle to" is disorienting and confusing. A simple checkbox would suffice. And toggling an option shouldn't boot you out of the menu.

Nice idea will implement.

Volume slider should be an actual slider

Already implemented in latest build.

 

[Dalamari]

iTunes > This thing

nuff said

 

[Cole]

Hmm a project designed by a big company have a project better than what some dude made in a few days??
Oh my science, no way!

Thats great Dalamari, thank you so much for your helpful comments in improving my project.

 

[hungryduck]

Give me a little credit guys, sheesh. I made that build in basically a day. At least give me some helpful ideas. You know something you've always hated about a specific media player.

My next build will allow relative paths.(Put the files into the same directory\ a sub directory that my exe is in and you can move them anywhere..they will play.)


I actually had that implemented, however the build that I kinda have there is full of edits and I had it disabled. My next build will have it.

My current build has:
-Finally drag and drop reorganizing
-Can change the color, font, text size, text color, on just about every little thing on the fly.
-Completely resizeable.
-Complete recode, much more Object Oriented than before. Much easier to do whatever I want with.
-Volume Slider
-Overall is faster.
-Custom Filters

While the next build wont read tags(Completely disabled for now. It can read ID3v1 specs, however ID3v2 specs are completely retarded! In fact Itunes, Winamp, and WMP all failed to implement them correctly yet it has become a standard! Even libraries built on these standards such as UltraLIB are having a fun time implementing them perfectly....).

The main thing this has over other media players is well the Virtual Folders idea. Very easy to way to customize your music in any fashion you would like to.

I would do some reading up on interface design.....try and make your app as appealing and easy to use as possible.
Thats why so many people like iTunes and winamp....they look slick and are (generally) easy to use.....
I think the goal is that nobody should have to read any instructions to be able to use your simple music app well, know what I mean?

 

[Cole]

I think the goal is that nobody should have to read any instructions to be able to use your simple music app well, know what I mean?

Hmmm.....your right although I think it would be neat to find the hardcore audience within this massive standard audience.

Although, how exaclty is my program hard to use?

 

[Vegeta897]

Man that just gave me an idea. Programs should have an adaptive UI... Like it organises itself based on the user's actions. One idea could be like a very organic looking UI, like all the buttons/controls are in "bubbles", and the buttons/controls that are pushed/used grow larger, pushing all the other things out of its way in a very organic and fluid motion and look. It would totally work well with the user, and it would be awesome.

Not that it's nowhere near what you're capable, I just thought it was a neat idea.

 

[Naudian]

^ :| :| :| No.



:|

 

[Cole]

Man that just gave me an idea. Programs should have an adaptive UI... Like it organises itself based on the user's actions. One idea could be like a very organic looking UI, like all the buttons/controls are in "bubbles", and the buttons/controls that are pushed/used grow larger, pushing all the other things out of its way in a very organic and fluid motion and look. It would totally work well with the user, and it would be awesome.

Not that it's nowhere near what you're capable, I just thought it was a neat idea.

Getting the GUI down would be the hardest part(I'm colorblind and it's limited me in areas of Art), but the programming side wouldn't be that hard at all.

 

[Fliko]

Couple things:
The volume goes from 1-1000? A smaller scale like 1-20 would be good and I guess you say that the next version will have a slider to change it.
I don't like the play/pause/etc buttons :| meh.

Make it go from 1-11...

Just so you can say that your Music Player, persay, Kicks it up a notch!
...
...
...
BAM!

 

[Stigmata]

Make it go from 1-11...

Just so you can say that your Music Player, persay, Kicks it up a notch!
...
...
...
BAM!

Why not just make "10" louder?