Relax, guys, everything is still movin' along. I actually have been adding stuff like crazy, including a 'Inspector' style track which is a nice revamp of the inspector track from my 'ION' theme. I included a hack on this track that displays how many channels the track is. (Example: 2 Ch, 4 Ch, 48 Ch.) I also wanna make sure I touch on all the new theming capabilities in V 5.974.
I have been toying around with other hacks as well. Here is one that should be useful to everyone:
Knob_Stack_Frame_Shift:
There are a couple threads where users complain about the way REAPER picks knob_stack images (by their canvas size). They basically lay out the usage and everyone says well, "I guess we have to stay within those constraints!"
But imagine applying WT's frame shift hack to knob_stack images!! Now you can have a 1 knob_stack image with 5 knob_stacks and select which knob appears conditionally with scalars, etc., instead of having a set paradigm.
Also: you could set up a virtual switch-panel in your rtconfig at the beginning of every layout, so that the user can pick which knob_stacks will be used in which scenario. Of course, this wouldn't work for extended mixer knob_stacks.
Let's say, for the sake of argument that we wanted to do a layout that the displays and controls were less visible (through alpha-channel) when the track was unselected,
giving us a kind of easy-on-the-eyes setup. Only the tracks that were selected would show all controls at 255 alpha.
Of course, this isn't quite possible, because there is no scalar value for 'track selected'. But there darn well should be, and one day, I am sure there will.
After that becomes a reality, we could set the knob_stacks up like this:
Here we see a 3-stack frame shiftable knob_stack image. Assuming it is for volume, Maybe the first (Left), would be normal/default or selected state,
and maybe the second (Middle) would be for record-armed, and maybe the third (Right) would be a kind of desaturated, subdued, version for the 'easy-on-the-eyes' unselected state. (It doesn't look like it should here, because of the white BG.)
There is only one thing wrong with the image below; unless the track strip is only as wide as the knob_stack itself, there is nowhere to hide the other
panels, so you would have to make sure to make the knob_stack image the correct width, if mcp.width=100 , knob_stack.width=100x3 (the canvas would be 300px),
the knob_stack image itself may only be 50px, placed at 0px, 100px, 200px.
It seems like overkill, but you could have a different knob_stack for every pan mode and condition.