[qwerpoi]

New version 1.4.0, download from the AvsP download page or from the mirror. This version has an excellent preview of the automatic user sliders, you should definitely check it out. Here's the changelog:

* fully automatic user sliders (experimental, turned off by default)

* simplified translation update procedure (suggested by Henrikx)

* added option for single instance (suggested by krisq, foxyshadis)

* added source extension filters to "Open..." dialog (suggested by 3ngel)

* changed default filename to work with unknown extensions (suggested by Zarxrax)

* opening an already opened file prompts for reload if changes exist (suggested by Kuukunen)

* toggle scrap window now works when scrap window focused (thanks AlanHK)

* changed error message when Avisynth fails to load video (thanks lolent)

* added macro for setting bookmarks (suggested by AlanHK)

* sliders no longer generated on error clips

* improved filter calltips to work with script line breaks

* added clear all text option for scrap window

* minor improvements to window layout code

+ fixed translation import problem (thanks Henrikx)

+ fixed bug with AvsP installed in directory with unicode characters (thanks Aeolis)

+ fixed display bug when resizing the script window with separate video window (thanks Alain2)

+ fixed several unicode bugs (thanks Zarxrax)

+ fixed crash when avisynth output has no video

There's a lot of good features that made it to this version, but the most important thing in my opinion is the automatic user sliders. The reason why they're disabled by default in this version is because one, the filter database isn't 100% complete, and two, they still need some testing for 100% script compatibility. But don't let that dissuade you from trying them out, in this version the feature is already incredibly robust.

In order to turn on automatic user sliders, you need to do two things. First, go to "Options -> Program settings...", go to the new "User sliders" tab, and check the first checkbox, "Create user sliders automatically". Second, you need to import the database that I put together, which currently resides in a text file. Start AvsP, go to "File -> Import filter customizations", and select the "autoslider_database.txt" file (comes with the zip file) as a calltip-only text file. You'll see a dialog with a list of all the filters in the file, click OK. What this will do is simply update the calltip information with the info in the text file. If you don't want to overwrite a particular filter's calltip, simply uncheck the box next to the filter before hitting OK. So what now? Well, now if you type in a script like this:

BlankClip(color=$000000)
Subtitle("This is awesome!", font="Verdana", size=25, text_color=$FFFF00, halo_color=$000000)

You'll get something that looks like this:




As you can see, gui elements were created automatically for every argument specified, without adding tags to the script in any way shape or form. Some bonus features - you can click on an argument name to select the text in the script corresponding to that argument. You can click on the label to hide all of the filter's arguments (referred to as "folding"), right-click the label for a popup menu with some more options. Anyway, It might be hard to appreciate the power of what's going on here, so I encourage you to try it for yourself.

If you're wondering how it works, basically I've put all the necessary information about each filter in AvsP's calltip information. I've come up with a simple syntax to store the information in a readable fashion (in fact, you can actually see the info in the calltip when you're typing in the script, very handy). Anyway, if you look at "autoslider_database.txt", you'll see I only created the database info for most of the core internal filters (for Avisynth v2.5.7). This database should be expanded with popular 3rd party filters, and must be kept up to date for the feature to work seamlessly. Ideally, the data would be stored on a wiki so people can contribute easily (as steptoe and others have mentioned), and AvsP would have a menu item to update the database from the web. I don't really know a lot about the details to get this done, so any help here would be appreciated.

If you want to help update the database with more filters (or make corrections to the current info), you can use a tool I built to help create the correct syntax. In the "Options -> Avisynth function definition" dialog, if you double-click the text box with the calltip info another dialog appears. Assuming the normal calltip info already exists, this dialog allows you to fill out all the relevant database info for that filter with a graphical interface (example). If the calltip already has database info, the fields will be filled accordingly. Simply enter values for any or all the fields, then click OK. You will see the calltip has been updated with the appropriate database syntax. After you're done updating the filters you want, you can save your results to a text file using the "File -> Export filter customizations..." dialog. Check the filters you want to export and click OK. When promted to save the file, make sure to save it as a "Calltip-only text file (*.txt)", not a "Filter cusomization file (*.dat)". The resulting text file will be identical in format to the autoslider_database.txt file. The filter database syntax itself is almost self-explanatory if you look at the various examples already in the database, but I'll try and have full documentation on the syntax by the next release.

The other features in this release are more or less self-explanatory. You can now run AvsP as a single-instance program, simply click "Options -> Only allow a single instance" in the menu. I fixed some more unicode bugs (again), improved the layout a bit when comparing videos, and fixed the bug which stopped AvsP from importing the translation file properly. A BIG note to translators - this version has a new method of updating the translation file. You'll notice there's no "__translation.py" - in order to update the translation file, simply place the "translation.py" from a prior version in the AvsP directory and run AvsP. It will automatically update the file with all the missing messages, you can then close AvsP and update the new messages (as always, search for "# New in v1.4.0" tags).

One final note - since several people requested it, I added a donation button to the website. Feel free to donate a couple of bucks if you'd like, but there's no pressure, I don't ever intend on making AvsP shareware or anything like that. Anyway, try out the new version and let me know if there are any new problems or suggestions.