Any way to put multiple logos or has anybody wrote something that could do it? I sometimes would like to change on the fly in the car if it were possible, sort of to fit the moment type thing.

#695 Mk2 BLUE 12Gig

Ask and I may tell you

There is a limited amount of space in the flash RAM for custom bootup logos.

Let's see. Each logo pair is about 4k. And the difference between address 0xA000 and 0x1000 is about 24k bytes. So that leaves about 20k free for future expansion in that area.

Okay, no one has done it yet, but it's feasible that if you did a kernel hack combined with an ioctl script, you could replace the four bytes at a000 with your own proprietary tag scheme and tell it which of the five logos you want on the next boot via an ioctl script.

It could be done, but:

a) It'd be lots of trouble to write.
b) Would require a custom kernel (each time you upgrade the player software you need to re-compile the kernel and re-upload it).
c) Would become obsolete as soon as Empeg decided they wanted to do something with the extra space between a000 and 10000.



___________
Tony Fabris

How about if it could cycle through a series of images, while booting. Just like an animated GIF. That would be something wouldn't it.

Tom

Reg #2845: Mark 1 #00173, Mark 2 #119

OK I get it it does sound like trouble too bad, maybe put somewhere into the visuals somehow would be great if possible, any way to tap into those or are they off limits. Is there anyway to create a visual? Dam, wish I'd have stuck more w/Linux enough to know more about it. I have no programming skills whatsoever but am a techy, I can dream up all kinds of stuff thats not feasible.

#695 Mk2 BLUE 12Gig

Ask and I may tell you

"I can dream up all kinds of stuff thats not feasible."

Haha! The programmers here at work would argue that should be on my business card... Sadly, my lack of programming skills makes it hard to prove them wrong. Welcome to the club...

Brian H. Johnson
MK2 36GB Blue
"Honey, you're wasting ammo..."

down the road, after more important stuff like 1.1 and VR and the tuner are finished, there was talk of some sort of standardized plugin architecture that would allow users to create their own visuals without the need to hack around with empeg's valuable source code. not really sure what the status of this though. i'm sure it is a ways off though.

jeremy

12 gig, green...

Wasn't a new visualization architecture part of 1.1? Or did I dream this...

(O|||||O)

Wasn't a new visualization architecture part of 1.1? Or did I dream this...

It is possible that the "under-the-hood" architecture may have changed for 1.1 (I don't know, I can't tell just from looking, all I see are some new visuals and some improvements to existing ones). However, that doesn't mean we'll get plug-ins for 1.1. As I understand it, plug-ins are still a ways down the road. So don't hold your breath.

___________
Tony Fabris

It is possible that the "under-the-hood" architecture may have changed for 1.1 (I don't know, I can't tell just from looking, all I see are some new visuals and some improvements to existing ones). However, that doesn't mean we'll get plug-ins for 1.1. As I understand it, plug-ins are still a ways down the road. So don't hold your breath.

Ahh, I thought I remembered reading that the new plugin architecture was one of the things slated for 1.1.

I just hope they have considered putting functionality into the player to support "Rotate Visual Back". Kind of like the effect of an opposite DNPP press. And even if they don't map a key on the keypad to it, it would be nice so people could map their own if they wanted to (using the irhack).

(O|||||O)

Is there anyway to make the boot up logo interact with the visuals instead of the empeg logo?

12gig Mk. II BLUE
Detroit, MI USA
www.PfeifferBeer.com

1.1

Or a way to just reflash the normal area from the player. I don't know too much about that sort of thing, but do know enough that it should be possible with not too much code. After all, empeg_state is written to flash when it's up and running...

Actually tony, you'd run into problems beyond 0xc000 - this is used. The space for logos in the flash is 0xa000 to 0xbfff - ie, 8k.

Hugo

Actually tony, you'd run into problems beyond 0xc000 - this is used.

Oh. Heh. Well, there goes that, then.

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Tony Fabris

Waitsec... Who says the logos have to come from the "logo" area of flash? Couldn't one just blit an image from disk during the init process? Providing the existing custom logo routine ("scheduling custom logo") was commented out of the kernel source, I think if one just dumped an image with blitraw during init, wouldn't it stay there until the player takes control of the display?

-Tony
MkII #554

Who says the logos have to come from the "logo" area of flash? Couldn't one just blit an image from disk during the init process?

Yes, that would work, too. The problem is that, in order to do what you're talking about, it would require the developer version of the software, and it would require mucking about at the bash prompt in order to install the necessary files. The beauty of a flash-only version would be that you could flash the custom kernel and the custom logo files into place fairly simply, and it would work with the consumer build.

___________
Tony Fabris

You also run into the fact that once init is called, the boot process is almost over. A delay would need to be added for the logo to be seen for more then a brief second. I saw my custom logo on my Mark 1 long ago because I popped it on screen right before a 5 or so second startup sound was played.

I still think the easiest way is to flash from a program on the drive during boot if possible. Elliminates the need for a custom kernel, and custom segmentation of the flash. And the disk can hold just a few more logos then the flash

At the end of the day...........
It really should just be an addition to Emplode.
Should be as easy to add visuals and or boot logos as it is easy to copy MP3s to the unit. (custom folders for screan savers and pics .. Etc.)
Well uhhh.. err.. at least thats the way I think it should go in a future release of course.
My Companys catch R&D motto is "we can make the software do Anything you want...... it just depends how much time you have."
:)

12Gb MKII 080000516 Blue