Trying to use stacked windows with swappable VideoFX regions

[Fippy]

My profile is too large for pastebin, so I'm following the example of someone else and using google drive.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxQSoe ... sp=sharing

Hi, I'm trying to mimic the behavior of one of the stock window layouts. I'm using VideoFX, and pretty happy with it. But it got to the point where I wanted to fix the pixelation.
I've created a new layout, I've added dxNothing and a character to a copy of my char set (T2 with DXN). I use two monitors, so there are 8 regions. One almost full screen for the active char, 6 smaller windows (I should probably look into aspect ratio), and one dxNothing which covers all six.

DxNothing should be on top.
All the VideoFX stuff is setup on character set load (via mapped key).
The VideoFX focus was changed to mouse 1 (so I can just click on one of the viewers).

Under 000 General Hotkeys is a "DxNothing" which is ran on char set launch.
Six sources are created, then six viewers. Each viewer has "enable videofx focus hotkey", none have mouse passthru.

The window layout I'm using is "Stacked". (I changed one thing after creating the google doc, and that was to prevent dxnothing from swapping)

At one point I saw my windows, but not anymore.

One thing I'm puzzled by, and this may be the root of my problem: I think the videofx setup should be sent to dxNothing rather than "current window". ISBoxer gets cross with me when I try this, and suggests that I use current window.

Can anyone point out where I've gone wrong?

Thanks.

[Kaische]

... (I should probably look into aspect ratio) ...

Uhh...yep: FAQ VideoFX: Why pixelated? Look here!

The VideoFX focus was changed to mouse 1 (so I can just click on one of the viewers).

I am so sorry, but: FAQ: I am using a mouse button as a hotkey for something, and sometimes it doesn't work, what am I doing wrong?

Otherwise your config looks good

For more advanced VideoFX Tips you can watch MiRai's video: ISBoxer -- Video FX -- #5 -- VFX Layouts

[Fippy]

Thanks for looking into my config.

I changed the hotkey back to the default Alt-Mouse1 but it made no difference. I didn't think I was using the mouse as a hotkey in-game, but one for ISBoxer. In any event, I would expect the dxNothing window to look good even if I couldn't click on it. Looking at it via the taskbar, I see it all black. I can activate one or more of the windows and see no changes in dxNothing.

I've been over Mrai's video many times, and even pulled down his config to look at it. For the life of me I don't see the difference. A couple of things I was questioning I see he has done too, so I'm not going to worry about those. I notice that his config has the windows stacked, but the dxNothing rendering shown at the same time. I'm trying to put dxNothing over the top of my game windows.

dxNothing has its viewers (I can see them via the console), and I switched to using the session as the source. Hmm. No dice just yet.

[Kaische]

. o O ( ... may i remind you that Slot 6 is at size 2560x1345 (instead of all the other regions, which are @ 2560x1346 )
If your question is: ''why do my 6 windows do NOT overlay my 7.th window ''on the other monitor'' ...... the answer could be: because your window layout has 8 regions! If you decimate them to 7 with the same ratio you should be good.
(see MiRai's Playlist)

[Fippy]

I removed the 8th region, and no improvement. I thought I needed that for swapping. I think Region 8 was a roaming region, and I got the idea from somewhere that the stacked windows would swap into that. I've been fiddling with so many things that I've lost track of what I've tried.

As I said before, I've been over Mrai's videos many times and have his config. Now I'm probably missing something, but I've gone line by line through things. This is damn frustrating, because I'm doing something wrong and don't see it.

It acts like there is a disconnect between the source and viewers, or possibly that some of these didn't get setup. I had no trouble at all creating my first couple of VideoFX overlays. The process seems pretty solid. But the mapped key to setup the sources/viewers is pretty straightforward. I've been over it hundreds of times.

I'll try again tomorrow and see if I spot something.

[bob]

Note: I was looking at your profile linked at the top, which may have since been changed.

I'm trying to put dxNothing over the top of my game windows.

This is kind of weird with a swapping type. Unless you are trying for a dashboard setup like EVE, where ALL your gameplay is via the dxnothing window, then you probably want:
1. your stack of game windows on other monitor
2. your dxnothing on region 7 (this is what I have assumed below)
If you truly wanted your DXNothing on top of the stack, and your active main in Region 7, then you need to configure as per point 1, and have your stack of game windows to be on the display that region 7 is on instead of under the dxnothing. When you activate via the dxnothing viewers, then it just brings the game window you've activated to the top of the stack. You usually do not use the Active/Roaming features when using a dxNothing + Stacked with Swapping.


So, going with my assumption, a few things stick out at me:

1. You are creating some videofx sources that ISBoxer already provides. Each slot is given a source name of is1, is2, is3, etc, which is a full size slot source. The sources you are creating are replicating this. You don't need to and could get away with just creating the viewers for is1, is2, is3 etc. Not that it matters too much in the scheme of things.
2. Every character in the character set has the "Video FX Viewers stay when in background (Blocks Video FX sources!)" option ticked. You should ONLY tick this on the dxNothing character.
3. Region 8, which is part of the Stack of 1 to 6 + 8 is set to always on top if a game window is foreground. All the regions 1 to 6, which are used for the game slots, are set to Always on Top = Off, so when you select a game window to be active, then Region 8 pops on top, as per your settings, although you have just asked a game window to foreground and ISboxer may force this on top anyway, but there is going to be some infighting here at some point.
4. Your DXnothing, Slot 7 is set to a home region of Region 8, when it looks like it's home region should be region 7. I'd recommend setting Slot 7 to home Region 7, and deleting Region 8 altogether.
5. Your Region 7 should be in a separate Swap Group. At the moment because Region 1 is your reset region for Swap Group 1, then all windows in Swap Group 1 are sized from that (2560, 1346), and then stretched or shrunk to fit their home regions (r7 is 2560,1536) so the videofx viewers would all look a little stretched if they were on region7 (at the moment they will be directed to region8 in the stack as that is the home region for your dxnothing). You get around this by putting the DXNothing region into it's own swap group (no need to set Active or Reset regions although you can if you want, just set them to r7), so then it's native size is not influenced by the other swap group.
6. You should set the Swap Hot Character to main region option in the Window layout to either Never, or one of the Only When I.... options (my preference is usually for the "only when I press a Slot activate hotkey" so the Slot hotkeys on the character set function). Stacked Layouts don't normally have a "main region" (active region) as all the Slots just live in their home regions.
7. If you want exactly the same behaviour as the ISBoxer layouts, then you may need to set Focus Follows Mouse option so when you mouse over the DXnothing window (region 7) then the focus is moved to that window and you only have then Mouse1 once, rather than twice (1 to focus, 1 to activate).

So in some brief instructions.

1. Select each Character in the Characters node in he top left pane, and then in the lower right pane, untick the "Video FX Viewers stay when in background (Blocks Video FX sources!)", except for the dxNothing character (otherwise your Sources WILL NOT WORK - I highlighted a bit to emphasise why)
2. Select the Stacked Window Layout in the top left, in the lower left make sure the Stacked node is selected,
3. Set the Swap Hot Character to "only when I press a Slot activate hotkey"
4. Tick the "Focus game windows via mouse without clicking"
5. Select the Regions node in the lower left pane
6. On the Regions tab (right hand side) Use the drop down to set region 8 as the current. Right click region 8, select "Remove Region"
7. Use the drop down to make Region 7 current.
8. Change the Swap group for Region 7 to "Swap Group 2"
9. Set the Home Region for Slot to Slot 7
10. Select the Swap Groups Tab. Use the drop down to select "Swap Group 1"
11. Change the Active Region to <NO REGION> (basically everyone will all stay in their home regions).

One thing I'm puzzled by, and this may be the root of my problem: I think the videofx setup should be sent to dxNothing rather than "current window". ISBoxer gets cross with me when I try this, and suggests that I use current window.

I assume you mean when you set the "Do this mapped key when the character set is loaded/reloaded". ISboxer may get cross here, as you do have specific targets set in the mapped key, so it makes no difference as to which window that this mapped key is run from (and this is probably what ISBoxer is trying to tell you - you have a specific target, and you don't need to be doubly specific further up the chain, because most of the time being doubly specific is wrong). Usually Window:Current is the best choice here as it will be whatever window is active when the character set has finished loading/reloading.

On the other hand, sometimes you may want to double target specifically (and put up with the whinging), but be sure that you aren't getting repeating commands to your slots. Usually the most common one I see is when you send a mapped key to ALL, and it has an action with a target of ALL OTHER so you end up with ALL windows telling ALL OTHER windows to do something. If it happened to be "Follow ME", then it would be ALL slots telling ALL OTHER slots to Follow ME, and then they end up confused as to who should be following whom (its a case of "I'm the leader", "No!, I'm the leader", "No, I'm the leader".... and so on.)

[Fippy]

Thanks Bob, that was a big help! I had already made most of those changes, but there were a couple I had missed.

I have things working (but not perfected). The biggest problem was that my viewers were not being setup. I could bring up an ISBoxer console and manually create one, and it worked. And the mapped key that created them looked OK. But it was sending to slot 7 (which should be OK). When I changed the key to target the character dxNothing, then windows appeared. And they look pretty good. I can't believe I fought with that for 12 hours. Anyhow I can switch sessions with a click, and see live feeds to the side. The extended target VideoFX viewer looks great. I need to find a mob that stays alive a bit longer before I can really test it out.

I notice that my menus are appearing on my dxNothing window, and I'm debating whether this is a good thing. My G15 and G13 templates appear below the viewers, and it might actually be good to have a copy there. But in general I'm going to probably need to add some advanced targetting to eliminate dxNothing from a few things (like my ENC's extended target window).

I'm thinking about adding some menu buttons to dxNothing to label the windows. Maybe I'm not used to them yet, but I'm having a hard time telling them apart. Moving the regions 1-6 50 pixels lower means that I can see the window title bars.