ampsig version info..
(aka. "changes")
0.9.5b
added Windows batch update script to the distro. this is a handy way to update non-song information, like your album of the week, or email address, uptime, any custom text, etc. it runs with a special version of uTu (uTuFile, because it creates a file. erm). The funky little thing also has utility in your startup items. make a shortcut.see, while this kind of thing is too easy to script on Linux and OS X, but impossible on windows without a little help (courtesy of uTuFile, cURL, and Lidl's esspresso).
0.9.5
Added 8 bit colour reduction for png's. now you can output an 256 colour png which looks very like a gif (thanks to them sharing the same colour reduction function). this will be a *lot* smaller than a full-colour png, but not so good quality, obviously.$reduce = true;Added greyscale output. This is nice, with the right image, and can save you lots of bandwidth, too. You can also adjust the colour-balance when converting to greyscale, so you can sepia-tone, or lots of other special effects.
greyscale = true;With both the above settings, transparency will be retained (so long as you output either png or gif format), although it will only be a "single colour transparency". In this case, ampsig will assume the top-left pixel of your image is the colour you want to be transparent in the new 8 bit image. Make it so!
You can now enable/disable interlacing the final image. This can have a significant impact, either increasing or decreasing the filesize, depending on the image format. Previously this was always enabled, but png images can be much smaller with it disabled, so it's your call.
0.9.47
fixed transparency in GIF output. Oh, I didn't tell you about gif output, huh. well it's not really something I wanted to advertise. It's a single-colour transparency.0.9.46
fixed up the potential holes in the "nice-and-loose" ini reading. It's still nice and loose, but also secure.0.9.45
ampsig can now utilise the alpha channel of your original png. you can have semi- transparent areas in your images and the background will show through (127 levels of transparency). very nice. this has a particular impact on the edges of non-square objects, now you can have smooth gradients all around. to use the alpha layer, ensure you disable the two built-in image layers.. "$color_layer" and "$do_frame".I should note: I'm fairly sure I broke GD1 support some time back, but almost no one uses it and certainly no one's complained yet, so I may or may not fix this. for sure, there's some mileage in outputing low-colour representations of truecolour images for that Andy Warhol effect, but you can do that in GD2, too.
removed superfluous "user" variable. only a password is required to make changes. your old callbacks (and uTu) will still work fine, you just don't *need* the user variable any more
I got the progress bar auto-cropping worked out properly. nomatter how you place your progress bar, nomatter what tweak you apply, the text should be exactly right! well, probably.
added a couple of extra custom text fileds, now you can specify 'custom', 'custom2' and 'custom3'. yeah yeah, someone out there'll want four.
updated uTu to send only password and URL. Same for signux, the Linux ampsig updater.
0.9.43
changed $do_col_bg variable to $color_layer. old schmes will still work, though you are advised to update this variable as soon as possible. it's no longer just a a "background" (though it *can* be) so the old preference name doesn't make sense any more.split the internal image layer into two, the progress bar is now created in its own image and then merged onto the the main image when complete (all the text is still layed down separately at the end). this offers some advantages, mainly that we can now dispense with the color layer altogether, and still have a translucent progress bar along with fully saturated external images.
you can now set the transparency for the progress bar separately.
fixed a few minor text positioning bugs which occured when using really wild $squeeze and $xnudge values (which is how you get wee progress bars that hover in the middle of an image, or else use invisible $borders)
greatly simplified the way the progress bar text is layed down. I don't know what I was thinking of!
if you have squeezed in the progress bar, the text will no longer spill ouside the boundaries of the progress bar. this was actually quite effective in some themes, but mostly it was annoying.
0.9.41
you can now select a separate color for the progress bar termination.fixed a bug in the copyright check, creating bad voodoo for upgrading users.
0.9.39
added support for transparent png's. the new HAL9000 scheme has rounded edges, and they were looking all square.you can even combine transparency with merging, so that your progress bar can be semi-translucent, but the edges retain their shape, for instance. simply set the background color to white with no variation..
// random background colours.. $do_col_bg = true; $target_color = '#ffffff'; $variation = 0;
which will allow you to have transparent areas anywhere in your sig. you'll probably want to set $do_frame to false.
ALTERNATIVELY..
if the area you want to have transparent is *only* at the edges, you can use the keep your weird random color mass inside the sig and use the in-built frame to create the transparency..
// frame.. $border = 3; $frame_color = '#ffffff'; $do_frame = true;
If you don't need semi-translucent gradients in your progress bar, or whatever, you can simply disable the internal image layer ($color_layer, $do_frame) altogether and use *only* your external transparent image.
note: internet explorer 6 and below can't properly handle transparent png files. dumb. get Firefox!
added user-definable status affixes, in other words the '[' and ']' that go at either side of the status text, you can use some other deliminator, brackets, nothing, whatever.
0.9.37
improved documentation (I always do this)added option to have a border around your progress bar, someone asked for this. you can set it to 'true' or 'false', or else use a number to define some thickness. $bar_frame = true; or $bar_frame = 2; or $bar_frame = 0; or whatever.
added "Length Factor" preference, for the progress bar gradient calculations. this is especially for rolk with LO------NG signatures and will ensure the gradient doesn't loop before it gets to 100%. Fractions are okay if you want to get it *just so*, eg.. $lf = 0.25; or $lf = 1.13159; or whatever. this enables you to do some fairly funky things very easily. try the "ouch" scheme with length factor of 0.5, for instance. hmm.
added a 'custom' data type that you can use for any text you like. this to save you the job of creating one, because I think you might fancy that.. send "&custom=my own text"
added "shrink" option (ttf only). this will override 'trim' settings. if $shrink is true, rather than trim the text (adding "..." to the end) as usual, ampsig will shrink the text down until it fits. this works really well, but might not suit highly customised schemes.
"shrink" (as opposed to trim) this is now the default action for extra-long text fields.
added preference for $percent_string. this is some text to put before the xx% at the end of the progress bar, if you so wish (normally it shows only the percentage itself)
fixed a bug where in certain configs, the frame was drawn even when you asked it not to be!
fixed a bug when using very large text $nudge values, the text wasn't being trimmed correctly. while adding $nudge into the trim mix, I uncovered a deeper problem with the trimming calculations, also fixed, well, close enough for rock 'n' roll.
$trim_adjust (if you use that) will need to be tweaked (recalibrated) in any custom schemes, but only very slightly. this was necessary.
added new "hal" scheme, my own humble tribute to the HAL9000 computer, its creator, Arthur C. Clarke, and one of the truly great films of the twentieth century.. 2001: A Space Odyssey, en-joy!
0.9.35
Slight tweak in the randomdingly generator, your "favourite" scheme will appear slightly less than before. it was appearing a little to often for many folks' tastes. Anyway, now you can set *exactly* how random it will be.Fixed a small NowPlaying compatability bug. no one noticed!
If there is no album name, and no dir name, and the length is eith 0, or the same as the position (*phew*) then we assume it is a "stream" and will post this in the "album" field, if that field is displayed.
Removed some depricated code that didn't do anything anyway
I got a Linux data client script together, (w00h00!) I'll include it in the package as well as leave it lying around separately. This works with the "info-pipe" plugin available for xmms..
http://www.xmms.org/
and (with a small patch) for Beep Media Player..
http://beepmp.sourceforge.net/
With the Linux version, you can jump to any part of a song, without pausing or anything, and the prgress bar will follow you (on the next uTu update, of course) pretty cool, and superior to the Winamp behaviour. ampsig now takes advantage of this.
Like macsig (the OS X data client) Linux uTu is a "polled" client, so you set it up inside a timed loop, or make a cron job out of it. I've had it running for the last twelve hours on my cpu-challenged Slackware box and it works superbly!
I still need to parse directory information in Linux uTu.
Fixed a minor bug in the bar-graph text postioning of the IP info.
Fixed the 'blue two' progress theme so it goes all the way to 100%. there's a prize for anyone who can get the sripees to 100%!
Fixed the centering on the GD built-in font, which I broke recently.
0.9.34
Moved the documentation out of amp.php, put it online. rewrote the ampsig pages.Added a Windows shortcut for uTu to the distro, especially for "NowPlaying" users, but others will find it useful too, no doubt. edit the target field in its properties with your own values.
Added an "aqua" theme, especially for Mac users (courtesy of PCheese, macsig author)
Fixed a bug with right-aligning the built-in GD font. (who doesn't use truetypes?)
0.9.33
Improved the NowPlaying support. also all those extra *****1 variables are cleaned up, so your ini won't fill up with useless data.Improved documentation for other media player data clients, namely NowPlaying and macsig.. http://www.pcheese.net/software/macsig/ (for Mac OS X users)
0.9.31
Added "NowPlaying" support. Unlike AMIP, NowPlaying is super-simple to setup.see here..
http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~ltnevala/nowplaying/index.php
NowPlaying can't send nearly as many variables as AMIP or macsig, but you can still have a nice ampsig with a cool progress bar. note: NowPlaying doesn't send events for pause, so don't expect to have your progress bar do anything except follow a song playing all the way through. if you pause the track, the progress bar will keep on going! It resets when you play again, of course.
Also, with NowPlaying, you can only update one URL at a time, and you will need to run uTu from your startup items, or whatever, if you want to display uptime information. A simple shortcut will do the job.
So if for whatever reason you can't get AMIP/cURL to work, NowPlaying is there as an alternative. Future versions may have more options, too.
Moved amp.ini into the "data" folder. I figure more stuff might go in there, in time.
Another 0.9.31 with improved documentation was uploaded later.
0.9.29
Fixed a bug when playing streams, ampsig would freak out when length = 0.Fixed a bug where if you nudged the progress bar up the Y-axis, the text wasn't nudging with it.
Added a counter, now in your insane vanity, you can display how many times your super-cool ampsig has been viewed. jk. (oh! and uptime isn't vanity?? -ed) (hey! I said I was JUST KIDDING! ;o) (yeah, well, in all humour there's- (okay! stop this nonsense right now! -ed's mum)
Changed scheme preference $center to $align, you can now chose from 'left', 'center', or 'right'. basically, I added right-aligned text. Old schemes will still work fine, though please update them to the new form ASAP, because the old variable will only work for so long!
Fixed a bug where "polled" clients (like macsig) would keep resetting the progress bar (actually it wasn't a bug as such, macsig's approach is a bit non-standard in that it sends variables when there's no "event", but it's cool, and cleared the way for even greater looseness in ampsig's acceptance policy)
Fixed a wee bug in the progress bar text overlay where the full range of options wasn't possible. you can now properly set transparent text again and have the background colour show through the progress bar.
You can now specify 'jpeg' as well as 'jpg' and 'png' format. cosmetics.
Fixed a bug where disabling random schemes could prevent image generation
Improved error checking (that's 'user-errors') you could probably get off with all sorts of daft preferences now!
0.9.27
The width and height settings are now completely authorative, rather than the previous system of coming into effect only if the random image was in the mix, which was obscure, to say the least. now if you set the sizes there, that's how big the image will be, regardless of any other factor.You can simply switch either image on or off, choose a level of transparency, blend as required, and now, size as required. if you comment out the width and height settings, those of the image will take effect. so you can still cut "parts" out of bigger images as before, but now you can have a set size of image with or without the random background, so olines.scheme, etc, still work just fine.
You can now decide to draw or not draw the frame. you can still set its width if you like ($border) so that custom backgrounds can have the progress bar hug inside them, but then simply not draw it, so the external image shows through. with the right image, this is a very pleasant effect.
0.9.25
Reworked the way the basic image is formed, enabling us to have all possible combinations of transparency and texture. experimentation is definitely encouraged and recommended as there are a tremendous number of possibilities. the random background, as before, can be fixed at one colour, and this makes a highly useful color overlay, taming down contrasty images so you can lay smooth, legible text over them, and much more.Images are now interlaced for output, which makes slightly smaller files and improves the perception of quick image loading. I use this for most of my regular images, so why not ampsig!
0.9.23
You can now specify the scheme and output format in the calling URL..if you use this..
[img]http://mydomain/path/to/amp.php/spidey.jpg[/img]
Internal settings will be overridden, and the 'spidey' scheme will be used, output in 'jpg' format. if you wanted to see the olines ampsig in a png (which is cool, because its subtle colours are best displayed true), use..
[img]http://mydomain/path/to/amp.php/olines.png[/img]
if you want to *keep* your random schemes but still specify an output format, simply use a bogus theme name. for png-only..
[img]http://mydomain/path/to/amp.php/foo.png[/img]
you can allow or disallow these capability from within the global preferences.
Fixed a bug I recently introduced in the *bold* text, where it would draw two lines of text above one another, instead of on top of each other.
A couple of other minor text positioning tweaks while I was at it.
Ampsig now sends the correct headers for the new jpg output option (it doesn't matter much, but there will be a browser out there somewhere that would complain, no doubt)
0.9.21
You can now merge an external image with your built in image, or have any combination of both sets of features, frames, etc. you can set the transparency levels, nudge, and much more. experimentation is the key here.There is now an "img" folder which contains a few images to get you started, notably the off and on version of the spidey image, his eyes glow green when you have a song playing. yes, you can have different images for playing and stopped. yes, highly cool. you can also use small parts of large images (which part, of course, is configurable).
Because there are so many ways to have your ampsig configured, I decided to separate the preferences from the main program. essentially what we have now is preference "schemes", and I've included a few schemes to get you started. en-joy!
you can even have ampsig pick a random scheme from your schemes folder. big fun!
There are still a couple of "global" prefs inside amp.php, username and password, etc.
Choice of output: you can output to jpeg as well as png, which will create smaller files if you use the truecolor facilities.
Fixed a bug where if you paused a track somewhere. waited a long time, and then closed Winamp, the progress leapt to 100%. now it will stay exactly where it was.
0.9.13
Improved the logic structure of the line sizing. changed the way ttf font heights are calculated, enabling us to have wildly different sizes of lines. lines are laid down row-by-row, not absolutely, so the fields flow more naturally.Moved the emphasis settings up into the prefs, now users can emphasise or de-emphasise each field as they see fit. this makes sense.
Added ability to push the individual fields up or down. you can overlap them, create interesting effects, whatever you like. you'll need this if you are skewing!
Removed the $pshift setting, it wasn't working properly, and isn't needed now (see previous line)
Standardised many of the setting, so using either ttf or built-in font will give similar text positional results.
We can have "missing" lines, simply enter an empty value into the id. now we can have text top and bottom with a gap in the middle!
Removed $trim preference, this is now worked out automatically. added $trim_adjust, so you squeeze the trimming in and out as required.
Fixed up some of the inaccuracies in the text positioning calculations (it's a dynamic sig fer gawd sake!) because of the nature of truetype fonts, settings that are perfect for one font are a mess for another, but as you can adjust *everything*, you'll definitely be able to get your text to sit exactly where you want it!
There's still something not quite right about the rotation calculations, every time I look at it, it wobbles, so it'll have to do for now. the troubles is the bounding box values returned by imagettfbbox() don't match what's going in, smaller font sizes returning bigger boxes, it's not right! I understand the bounding box well enough, but the values just don't match. I may do a devblog about this and see if anyone knows what's happening. but then, who is actually going to use this? probably not worth the effort.
0.9.12
Added uptime variable. now, with the help of the uptime add-on, you can have your current uptime displayed in your ampsig. the add-on automatically sends a "heart beat" every time you boot your computer, and updates ampsig. you don't even need a media player for this.Cleaned up a few internal formatting foibles.
Truetype widths are now calculated on a line-by-line basis, so they are always dead-center, no matter how much emphasis each line has.
v9.9.9 first major release
Came all the way from 0.1 to 9.9! everything happened in this version, so no version "changes" required!Some nice code, structurally. I wanted it to be fairly modular in design, removing limits, and making it drop-dead simple to add more features later.
