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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:23 pm 
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winstep wrote:
how the hell do you say 'Power Saving Enabled' in German?


It's 'Energiesparmodus aktiviert.' actually. :)

Almost done... ended up doing all voices, for all the currently available spoken languages in Winstep, using the same digital people.

New Power Saving dialog looks like this:

Image

Power Saving Modes:


Normal:
* Modules update only once every 2 seconds instead of every second.
* Clock module is only updated once per minute. Analog clock stops displaying seconds hand.
* Clock stops synchronizing the time with the Internet Time servers.
* Clock stops announcing the time and/or playing the tick sound.
* Wanda stops the swiming animation.
* Wanda preview in the Wanda Settings dialog stops animating.
* Rotating globe style of the Email Checker module stops rotating even if there is mail.
* Smooth gauge needle animations are disabled.
* Battery module charging animation is disabled.
* Flip calendar day switching animation is disabled.
* Moon module is only refreshed once per hour instead of every 3 minutes.
* Moon preview animations in the Moon Module Settings dialog are disabled.
* Star background in the Moon Calendar dialog stops moving.
* Intermediate frames to smooth out moon animation in Play mode are disabled.
* Moon phases/zodiac Signs rotation animation in the Moon Calendar dialog is disabled.
* Alarm Manager top header only updates the time every minute.
* Alarm Reminders only update the time every minute.
* Battery preview in the Battery Setttings dialog stops animating.
* Glow animation in the Battery module Info dialog is disabled.
* Text animation is the About tab of Preferences is disabled.
* User Interface slide animation is disabled.
* Theme previews fade in/out animation is disabled.
* Module preview animations in Preferences are disabled.
* Network data in the Net Meter Settings dialog updates once every 2 seconds.
* Network Statistics dialog only updates once every 2 seconds instead of every second.
* Network Active Connections dialog updates once every 2 seconds instead of every second.
* Most Active Programs History dialog is only refreshed once every 2 seconds.
* Performance data about running processes is only retrieved once every 2 seconds.
* Running indicators on docks are only refreshed once every 2 seconds.
* Shelf smooth scrolling is disabled.
* Smooth icon shifting when dragging items over a dock or Shelf is disabled.
* Shelf Hide and Expand animations are disabled.
* Sub-dock opening animations are disabled.
* Dock Hide and Show animations are disabled.
* New Item (rise) animations are disabled.
* Item removal animations are disabled.
* Thumbnail/icon change fade in/out animations are disabled.
* Animated icons set to animate permanently now only animated on mouseover.
* Animated icons no longer finish the animation when the mouse pointer moves away.
* Water Ripple effect is disabled.
* Rain Drop effect is disabled.
* Raind Drop effect audio is disabled.
* Menu and sub-menu opening animations are disabled.
* Smooth text scrolling is disabled and scrolling text in desktop modules is only scrolled once per second.
* Fast System Tray Refresh is disabled.


Ultra:

* All the Normal power saving measures above plus:

* Modules update every 4 seconds instead of every second.
* Network data in the Net Meter Settings dialog updates once every 4 seconds.
* Network Statistics dialog updates every 4 seconds instead of every second.
* Network Active Connections dialog updates every 4 seconds instead of every second.
* Most Active Programs History dialog is only refreshed once every 4 seconds.
* Performance data about running processes is only retrieved once every 4 seconds.
* Running indicators on docks are only refreshed once every 4 seconds.
* Animated icons no longer animate, not even on mouseover.
* Launch Effect is disabled.
* Mouseover effects on docks combined with Magnify are disabled.
* Special Mouseover effects on the Shelf are disabled.


###

For the Ultra mode only I will also disable the hide/show Shelf and Dock animations.

I think updating the Weather and getting Email Checker info should also be disabled, but perhaps only in Ultra mode?

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2018 1:39 pm 
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winstep wrote:

I think updating the Weather and getting Email Checker info should also be disabled, but perhaps only in Ultra mode?


weather yes, but disabling email checker seems to much to me, not sure how many users use email checker as their primary email notif as i did, but for those that do you could have some angry users even if you put it just in ultra


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 8:00 pm 
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seeker wrote:
weather yes, but disabling email checker seems to much to me, not sure how many users use email checker as their primary email notif as i did, but for those that do you could have some angry users even if you put it just in ultra


Ok, agreed. As for Weather, I would disable it even in normal mode *if* it has already fetched weather info at least once (i.e.; so it doesn't show N/A). I mean, you don't really NEED to have the weather updated once every hour.

As I stated, my goal is to make the normal power saving mode effective, but, at the same time, not something the user would dread going into - that's reserved for the Ultra mode. :)

In fact, it should be something user's might even voluntary opt into just to maximize their laptop's battery runtime.

As for the Ultra mode: obviously, all dock/shelf/menus hide and pop up animations should be disabled.

However, I am not sure about icon mouseover animations. Should those be replaced by a simpler selection?

Something else that will be affected is animated icons. Under normal mode all animated icons will have always-on animations disabled. Question is: should mouse over animations be disabled too in this mode or only in Ultra?

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 8:23 pm 
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Grrr... Actually I am having a tough time deciding what should be reserved for Ultra Power Saving mode.

I mean, the Shelf collapse/expand animations, smooth tab content scrolling, new item animations, sub-dock opening and dock hiding/showing animations, etc... in the end those are all cosmetic animations - so they should probably be disabled in the normal power saving mode too? Or not?

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 9:30 pm 
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winstep wrote:
Grrr... Actually I am having a tough time deciding what should be reserved for Ultra Power Saving mode.

I mean, the Shelf collapse/expand animations, smooth tab content scrolling, new item animations, sub-dock opening and dock hiding/showing animations, etc... in the end those are all cosmetic animations - so they should probably be disabled in the normal power saving mode too? Or not?



so far ultra seems somewhat slim

on one side they are cosmetic animations. on the other, the purpose of the dock is to be somewhat cosmetic, isn't it?

normal mode should't affect the experience of using the dock too much

or you could go the way ms power setting work since windows (which one): 3 modes with presets, but allowing users to adjust the settings for each mode


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 9:38 pm 
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seeker wrote:
on one side they are cosmetic animations. on the other, the purpose of the dock is to be somewhat cosmetic, isn't it?


Yes, but isn't function the really important thing if you are trying to save power?

Besides, the juicy mouseover effects, etc, would not be affected in normal mode - not to mention that many of the animations I am talking about were actually added to WorkShelf later in the game (i.e.; only recently did things get a LOT smoother).

seeker wrote:
normal mode should't affect the experience of using the dock too much


Ok, do me a favor: open Preferences, go to the General tab and select 'Disable all animations'.

Now do stuff like opening sub-docks, hiding/showing docks, expanding the Shelf, scrolling the Shelf, etc...

Is that too much?

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:10 pm 
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winstep wrote:

Ok, do me a favor: open Preferences, go to the General tab and select 'Disable all animations'.

Now do stuff like opening sub-docks, hiding/showing docks, expanding the Shelf, scrolling the Shelf, etc...

Is that too much?


for me not really, but its noticeable and someone else might dislike it (but then, whatever you do, someone will dislike it)

btw it doesn't disable preference tabs slide animation, is that on purpose?

and there is still one bug that i reported a while ago, if a dock or module is set to be always on bottom or always on top it flickers when i interact with other docks/modules


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 12:00 am 
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seeker wrote:
for me not really, but its noticeable and someone else might dislike it (but then, whatever you do, someone will dislike it)


We need more votes on this.

Guys? Please don't stay silent now, give a man a hand. :)

seeker wrote:
btw it doesn't disable preference tabs slide animation, is that on purpose?


There is a setting just for that 'Disable UI animations'.

seeker wrote:
and there is still one bug that i reported a while ago, if a dock or module is set to be always on bottom or always on top it flickers when i interact with other docks/modules


Hmmmm... I kind of remember discussing that with you? Or not?

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 12:56 am 
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winstep wrote:

seeker wrote:
and there is still one bug that i reported a while ago, if a dock or module is set to be always on bottom or always on top it flickers when i interact with other docks/modules


Hmmmm... I kind of remember discussing that with you? Or not?


i mentioned in some topic before, just reporting that its still there


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 8:01 am 
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winstep wrote:
We need more votes on this.

Guys? Please don't stay silent now, give a man a hand. :)

Sorry, Jorge, I do no gaming on this machine and I really never run into a situation where I wish I could get things to run faster, so I don't really know what it would be acceptable to kill to make that happen.

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 8:30 am 
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vectornut wrote:
Sorry, Jorge, I do no gaming on this machine and I really never run into a situation where I wish I could get things to run faster, so I don't really know what it would be acceptable to kill to make that happen.


It's not a performance question in this case, although things are related - it's a power saving question, for users running Nexus/Winstep on their laptop and who would like to minimize its impact on battery run time (i.e.; how long their laptops will run on battery).

Nexus is a lot about bells and whistles, but those bells and whistles have a price in terms of CPU utilization which, in turn, has a price in terms of how long you can use your laptop until the battery runs out. The more things an application does, the more it uses the CPU, the more the CPU is used, the more energy it requires - and if that energy is coming from a finite resource such as a battery, eventually it runs out.

So, the idea is to give laptop users a choice on how aggressively Nexus should tackle this problem: one should be a 'softer' way that minimizes Nexus CPU utilization but in such a way that users don't really mind when it's on. The other mode (Ultra) is much more aggressive and will disable every little thing that is redundant in terms of functionality. That's the mode you would only want to use when you only have 10% battery left.

The difficulty here is deciding which features can safely be turned off in the 'normal' power saving mode without upsetting the user (much). For instance, is doing the equivalent of 'Disable all animations' (try it!) too much for the normal power saving mode? That is, should Shelf expand/collapse and sub-dock opening animations only be disabled in Ultra power saving mode, or would the user find it acceptable to disable this in normal power saving mode too?

Every opinion counts.

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Sat Feb 03, 2018 6:32 pm 
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Ok, couldn't wait any longer for further opinions so I made my decision: all animations affected by the 'Disable all animations' setting are also disabled in the normal Power Saving mode. Animated icons are affected too.

One thing I did change related to the latter: I kind of disliked how animated icons set to animate on mouse over abruptly stopped the animation as soon as the mouse pointer moved away from them. Now the animation plays until the end even if the mouse pointer has already left the icon.

This new behavior does not happen if normal power saving is on. If set to ultra, animated icons do not animate at all, period.

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 12:48 pm 
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Jorge, I've a related problem since I started using animated icons but never reported it.

On two folders I have on the dock, there is a momentary pause AFTER THE ICONS START TO MOVE for animated icons. The folders are on my C drive. They are My Documents and My Pictures. To be clear, the pause is not before any movement, but about a half-second or so after the icon starts to move.

The folders are 696GB and 16.4GB. I read this thread and came up with the idea to test the same animated icons on an external drive on my dock. That drive is 4TB and has over 1TB of space left.

I use a non-animated icon because I couldn't find any animated drive icons for the external drives I have. I changed that external drive icon to the same animated ones I use for My D and My P, and there is no delay.

However, no matter what animated icon I use for My D and My P folders on my dock, there is a delay. :?


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 1:49 pm 
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Windy wrote:
The folders are on my C drive. They are My Documents and My Pictures. To be clear, the pause is not before any movement, but about a half-second or so after the icon starts to move.


Isn't that when the balloon tooltip with information about those folders also pops up?

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 5:11 pm 
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I think I'm going to make docks automatically scale up on high DPI displays too, starting next release. This means icon magnify size (normally 128 pixels) scales up automatically too, so there won't be a need to change that setting manually.

The drawback with this is that the minimum dock icon size (16x16) on a 200% DPI display will actually translate to 32x32 and you won't be able to go below that size, which kind of limits the number of items you can put in your dock while still having it fit the width of the screen.

Not really a problem though, since, as usual, there will also be a new setting to disable DPI scaling for docks (just like there are already individual settings for menus, desktop modules, the Shelf and the NextSTART taskbar).

What I have to be careful about is not shocking *existing* users on high DPI displays by suddenly turning their docks into double sized versions of themselves after installing the new version. To accomplish this the DPI setting for docks will only be enabled by default on new installations.

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