QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

jersmi's picture

Is there any way to do this? I'm using the HUD right now because the scrollbar worked for it and not the panel when i sent it off for someone to peruse.

gtoledo3's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

I asked about this within the last couple of months, and smokris's response was that it's hardset at 320px width as a byproduct of the implementation, and that over-riding that hadn't been investigated.

jersmi's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

Okay, thanks. Feature request!

usefuldesign.au's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

I frequently overrun the height on HUD or panel so a panel that could be extended in Y-axis would be a-ok! The only reason I haven't asked is b/c I was on old version of QB.

jrs's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

I hit the width limits all the time

https://skitch.com/sheridan/8h8i6/parameters

smokris's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

Unfortunately there's not much we can do about this, since Quartz Composer's Inspector widgets are hardcoded to be 320 pixels wide.

The only option I'm aware of is to stop using Quartz Composer's Inspector widgets and build our own clones, which would be a large project.

usefuldesign.au's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

:-( How large? I'd chip in a few dollars towards it.

jrs's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

Should we raise a bug report with apple for this and hope it gets changed there?

usefuldesign.au's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

Smokris, in QC editor we can extend the Inspector to any length we need... be it Input Parameters or Published Inputs and Outputs. Could that stretch vertical behaviour be replicated in Quartz Builder, that would be a great start.

I'm exploring using Mirek's web sockets plugin to create a GUI instead of relying on the mono-direction QC controls. I'd use the Kineme Networking Tool'sQuery/Server patches but they don't work inside ProPresentor5.app which my client needs unfortunately. Either way offers nice GUI possibilities to get around what I've always seen as one of QC great limitations for a non- Obj-C coder, getting a decent (basic even) GUI happening that can bind both ways to the model.

In QC both "Input Parameters" and "Published Inputs and Output" unfortunately spring back if you go to another Inspector choice and unlike the iWork Apps you can't have more than one main inspectors (we can have multiple settings windows on a per patch basis though).

gtoledo3's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

smokris wrote:
Unfortunately there's not much we can do about this, since Quartz Composer's Inspector widgets are hardcoded to be 320 pixels wide.

The only option I'm aware of is to stop using Quartz Composer's Inspector widgets and build our own clones, which would be a large project.

Would you really have to make a clone, or just setup a parameter view via code?

In the standard API, you can iterate through all of the published inputs and setup whatever the input fields are supposed to look like, style masks, etc. We had a little off-list banter about skankySDK and doing some stuff on app-level when I was trying to do similar with the private API port types a couple of months back. The bonus of that would be that there could be some options for the various types of panels, scrolling horizontally and vertically, background texture for inspectors, etc.

Granted, it would definitely take some time... and probably more than I'm thinking offhand to get it to work sweetly in the QB project, which pushes so many private api's hard.

blackburst's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

Can somebody plesae fill me in on the status of this please, the feature request link above seems to lock me out of seeing its progress. I'm at least interested in having a vertically resiable HUD window to not have to scroll through params.

smokris's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

To answer a few open questions on this thread:

  • I estimate recreating all of QC's inspector widgets, which would be necessary to create a horizontally-resizeable inspector, would be a project costing around $5,000 to $10,000 USD of development time. At this point in QC's lifecycle, I don't think it makes sense to invest that level of effort in QC.
  • I don't think a bug report is likely to get any attention from Apple.
  • The b33p.net link is for our internal use and is not publicly available.

However: allowing the inspector window to be vertically resized in built QuartzBuilder apps seems to be pretty straightforward. We're looking into that now, and hope to publish a new QuartzBuilder release with that soon.

blackburst's picture
Re: QuartzBuilder: resize parameters window?

Fantastic thankyou