MeGUI Context Sensitive Help: x264

[LiFe]

Heya folk,
Been working on context sensitive help (http://www.users.on.net/~lifers/ContextHelp.xml) for x264. Yes I know all you programmers don't give a flying cow, but there are plenty of people out there who have no idea exactly what some of these billions of options actually do.

I'm asking for proof readers and feedback on what I've done so far, which is built from doom9 info as best I can.

Please provide feedback (preferably in the form of helpful explanations for things I may have missunderstood or not explained thoroughly) in this thread, and I'll revisit the file as time allows.

Thanks!

[Doom9]

Alright, I do have one (yes, I care.. and I'm a project admin;)): recommended settings for -threads: how dare you suggest 1 when I have a dual core CPU?

I don't suppose that could be made dynamic so you look up the number of CPUs the system report and adapt the text? If not, at least a reference should be made to the settings.. there's an option in the settings that automatically sets the number of threads in function of the number of CPUs reported.. this effectively overrides whatever you set in the x264 configuration.

Also, two questions related to the context sensitive help:
1) What happens if I remove a GUI element?
2) What happens if I rename a GUI element?

And a note: it seems there's no line wrapping whatsoever.. I have a 1920x resolution, and while that's really nice, tooltip help that goes over the entire screen feels kinda out of place.. wouldn't it be possible to put a linewrap somewhere like I did for the few tooltips that were inside the code?

Last but not least, perhaps the other codes, or specifically XviD, might be able to use some tooltips as well? ;)

[Mutant_Fruit]

And a note: it seems there's no line wrapping whatsoever
I've already taken that into account :D I couldn't find an easy way for me to control the max-width of the tooltip from C# code, so i just added a bit of code so that if you type "\n" in the XML file, it will be converted to a newline. This will give the required wrapping. So anywhere you'd like the text to go to a newline, type '\n' in the code. If you want a new paragraph, type '\n\n'.

1) What happens if I remove a GUI element?
2) What happens if I rename a GUI element?
If you remove one/rename one, i'd be fairly sure that if i'm adding context help to that control, the program would refuse to compile until you fix the reference to that control in the tooltip code.

i.e. If i have control AAA and you rename it to control BBB, the context help will be trying to ToolTip.AddToControl(AAA), which doesn't exist anymore, and therefore will throw a compile-time error.

I hope that makes sense to everyone.

There'd be no problem adding tooltips anywhere else you might want em... as long as someone updates the ContextHelp.xml file :p

[LiFe]

I don't suppose that could be made dynamic so you look up the number of CPUs the system report and adapt the text? If not, at least a reference should be made to the settings.. there's an option in the settings that automatically sets the number of threads in function of the number of CPUs reported.. this effectively overrides whatever you set in the x264 configuration.
I'm not a programmer - Mutant Fruit is implementing this (I hope : ). I'm sure some arrangement can be made.

Also, two questions related to the context sensitive help:
1) What happens if I remove a GUI element?
2) What happens if I rename a GUI element?
NFI - again, I'm just writing the docs so people know what they're doing. It's up to you programmers to program in a way that above won't cause mischief.

And a note: it seems there's no line wrapping whatsoever.. I have a 1920x resolution, and while that's really nice, tooltip help that goes over the entire screen feels kinda out of place.. wouldn't it be possible to put a linewrap somewhere like I did for the few tooltips that were inside the code?
I have reservations about using all the data in that file as tool tips. Some of the explanations got quite lengthy. Anyway, line wrapping and display criteria is all part of the programming - this file's entire point is to store the raw help data in a flexible manner.

Last but not least, perhaps the other codes, or specifically XviD, might be able to use some tooltips as well? ;)
You prick! : ) Firstly the file is easily extensible (there's already another codec demo'd at the bottom) and secondly, I just spent 9+ hours putting that info together, 6+ of them today!

[Doom9]

you prick! : ) Firstly the file is easily extensible (there's already another codec demo'd at the bottom) and secondly, I just spent 9+ hours putting that info together, 6+ of them today!Well, I was up until 4 today fixing a huge mess my CVS commit created.. so I'd say we're in the same boat ;)

[Mutant_Fruit]

I don't suppose that could be made dynamic so you look up the number of CPUs the system report and adapt the text?
I'll add that in later today.

Also, i'll make an alternative method for displaying that information and make a seperate build and see if people like the alternative method as opposed to the tooltips i'm using now. It might make everything a bit neater.

Still, writing "\n" in the xml is by far the best way for sorting linebreaks imo. I'll do that myself though. No need for you worrying about that LiFe.

[Multimon]

With the numer of refs I've seen up to 8 or even 10 recommended for animated source, and it seems to be generally agreed that higher refs might help with animations (at least a lot more than with "normal" footage). Maybe you could add some comment on that topic?

It seems that you mixed up min and max Quant. As far as I know a lower Quant means higher (mathematical) quality and less compression, but you indicate it the other way round.

no-fast-pskip
It says: "Enables early Skip detection on P-frames.", but with no-fast-pskip this is disabled.

The rest seems fine as far as I can tell, but my knowledge of x264 internals is very limited.

[Mutant_Fruit]

I didn't have much time (literally 5 minutes) so i threw up a quick demo of an alternative way of displaying the ContextHelp info as opposed to using tooltips. Just hover the mouse over the big textbox in the x264 config screen to see what it'll look like.

If this was done properly this is what would happen:
As you move your mouse over an option in the x264 config screen, its' help text would appear immediately in the textbox. The help text would stay there until you move the mouse over another control.

Would people prefer this kinda display as opposed to tooltips? Or would people prefer the tooltips (but "fixed width" tooltips, so that the tooltips don't stretch across the entire screen as they currently do).

Demo file here:
http://www.fileshack.us/files/741/Release.rar

[FFWD]

Would people prefer this kinda display as opposed to tooltips? Or would people prefer the tooltips (but "fixed width" tooltips, so that the tooltips don't stretch across the entire screen as they currently do).I prefer the tooltips, your textbox makes the GUI less 'clean'.

[berrinam]

Tooltips are better IMO. Just because people are used to them. Of course, some people may not realize they are there, but I think it's safe to say that's their fault.

[Zep]

strange tooltips no longer work for me (they used to)

I just double checked the settings and tooltips is on. Does anyone have an idea as to why they may not be working anymore for me?

(/me goes to search some more)


thanks

[Space Hopper]

Hmm, have the same problem now

[Sharktooth]

They're working here...