sandbass Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Okay, so after the upgrade to v3 (that was quite a while ago, wasn't it?) I continued to use v2, because the new UI just wasn't usable. Since I've got a new phone, I decided to give v3 another shot, even purchased YAPS. Please tell me there is a way to disable those horrible album art previews, that take up half the screen when entering the library (structured folder view). I could live with the general player UI (still, v2 seems superior, by a lot), but the library is pretty much unusable. If that's not the case, I hope v2 is compatible to Android 10... v2 library has a brilliant simple and highly usable design, please let there be a way, to achive similar results with v3 🙄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewilley Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 In any Library view you can pinch to zoom or unzoom the view scaling; there are three different sizes of list views and three sizes of grid view, each with their own album art thumbnail size. Each library category has its own setting, so you can use a different style in Albums compared to Artists or Folders for example. Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandbass Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 See the attached screenshots, v3 vs v2. Is there any possibility to get the library of v3 as slim as the v2 library? I really really like the v2 one, great usability, simple yet functional. v3 on the other hand is just cluttered with random bs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewilley Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Unfortunately that's one of the benefits / disappointments (depending on your point of view) of Material Design interfaces, lots of pretty visual stuff. Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandbass Posted March 11, 2020 Author Share Posted March 11, 2020 I know, as a sound engineer I might not be the person to ask when it comes to visual stuff. But come on, in what universe is that collection of unnecessary "visual stuff" pretty? Just compare the screenshots. Everything is about minimalism nowadays, and then this is happening? Who is the target group of this app? 12 year olds? Very disappointing. I was really hoping that almost 2 more years of development since the release of v3 would finally result in a usable app, but I was wrong. So I really have to go back to v2, again. Massive facepalm. 🤦♂️ How hard can it actually be to remove features? It's not like I expect the dev to include 10 more annoying visual tricks, I'd like to get rid of the already included. I still can't believe how one of my most loved apps (I've bought it 8 years ago!) turned into this unusable cluttered mess. It is not a simple "oh, you have to get used to it" like it was with v1 to v2. That transition was actually pretty okay. It took me a few days, but all in all, no complaints. v3 on the other hand feels like a totally different app, but one I would never even think about spending a single cent on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandbass Posted March 11, 2020 Author Share Posted March 11, 2020 Poweramp really is (or better: was) a great app, but v3 GUI still to this day is unusable for my needs. I'd love to have a kind of "simple mode" or "simple skin" that brings back the simple yet functional UI of v2, especially in the library. No visualizations, no waveform seekbar, no big album arts in the library, no unnecessary metadata, but a clear structure (see attached screenshot of v2 library). I'd be really thankful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewilley Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 There's a lot I love about all the new v3 features, but I do tend to agree (and some others have commented too) that the library screens perhaps got a bit overtaken with all the lovely eye-candy and animations, and in the process may have lost the basic simple functionality that v2 offered. For a lot of my usage, I too would be quite happy with a compact text-only list of songs, with no visual artwork headers or album cover thumbnails. I know that Max has said the album thumbnails are needed as that is the area he also uses for multi-select tickboxes, but I would have thought that highlighting the whole of each selected line would do the same job easily enough. The other issue was the transition animations between the different library screens and the player screen, which need the Title/Artist/Album word formatting to be the same in the list as they are on the player screen (so the animation between the two goes smoothly). Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotleyG Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 10 hours ago, sandbass said: Who is the target group of this app? 12 year olds? I still can't believe how one of my most loved apps (I've bought it 8 years ago!) turned into this unusable cluttered mess. @sandbass I'm pretty sure last time I checked I was well beyond 12 years old, and I for one am very happy with V3 and the UI. I can understand going from one version to another has some key differences, but that is to be expected in any application. Otherwise there would be no reason for the version change. As far as the cluttered mess you refer to, I have to ask - do you have a collection of CDs with blank paper sleeve covers? Do you attend concerts and close your eyes from the opening notes to the end of the encore? And are you using this on a phone without a colour display? I think the approach you may have been looking for was to request a flat interface, with no album art headers or previews. I'd start with that and request it as a feature(?) from the dev. @maxmp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandbass Posted March 11, 2020 Author Share Posted March 11, 2020 I don't have any problems with UI changes, if they are done well. Also, I tend to get used to new UI rather fast, because that is a necessary skill for my job. Besides the Yamaha TF series I can't remember any UI of professional audio equipment I couldn't use more or less intuitively. (Same story there, too fancy and shiny but not really usable compared to the more advanced QL and CL series.) No, my CDs aren't stored in blank paper sleeve covers, but I wouldn't mind if they were. If I really want to appreciate an album art, I take a vinyl record of the shelf. But just listening to music on electronic devices - no, I never use the album art. My digital music is stored on a NAS, in a well structured folder scheme. We're talking about approximately well over 260GB of music, of which I have roundabout 75GB as a copy on my phone. I never felt the need to stare at digital album art. If I am listening to music on my phone, the screen is off. For music purposes it could easily have a gray scale screen as well, wouldn't mind. I've already opened a request, and I am hoping there will be some alternative interface for people like me, who are rather "form-follows-function" than "function-follows-form". Till then I am stuck with 709 alpha, which seems to be the last stable version with the old library. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewilley Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 1 hour ago, MotleyG said: I think the approach you may have been looking for was to request a flat interface, with no album art headers or previews. Yes, I think that was what the OP was actually asking, albeit in a somewhat confrontational and borderline insulting manner. Personally, I do see the logic behind wanting a 'flatter' interface though - or at least providing an option for less graphic content and animations. That is especially true within Library views, where perhaps a large graphic header might not be needed, and repeating the same cover artwork all the way down a long list of song titles might further reduce the amount of space available for the actual list content (after all, the words are probably the part you want to see). Accordingly, I will move this thread to the Feature Requests topic, and I will also merge it with another almost identical thread started by the same user. Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingdutchman Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 @sandbass, just noticed this thread. I can certainly look what happens when you hide albumart. Hiding is easy but the big prblem will most likely be the fact that the layout also needs to be changed. I can always give it a try of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandbass Posted March 11, 2020 Author Share Posted March 11, 2020 @flyingdutchman That would be great, I'd really appreciate it! Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewilley Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 17 hours ago, flyingdutchman said: I can certainly look what happens when you hide albumart. Hiding is easy but the big prblem will most likely be the fact that the layout also needs to be changed. To be honest, I suspect doing this properly is somewhat beyond the scope of a skin - for example, how would multi-selection then work, and also transition animations might get broken. If implemented, I think it really needs a new 'Text Only' List Options item, available within all categories and song views, which then handles multi-selection using a whole-line highlight method rather than tickboxes. Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingdutchman Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 @sandbass, I have added an option to hide albumart in library list views. Hiding albumart in grid views does not make sense. Also no longer showing the albumart across the top . @andrewilley, everything appears to be behaving as normal. By setting the visibility to "gone" the text simply aligns to the left in list views. I will add it to the next release of &YAPS& Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingdutchman Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 @sandbass, have a look ar V63 of $YAPS$ it has now an option to show or hide albumart in library views Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandbass Posted March 15, 2020 Author Share Posted March 15, 2020 @flyingdutchman Just reinstalled v3 and updated YAPS to V63. Disabling the album art in the library works as it should, thank you very much! Would it be possible to further reduce the space taken up by the library header where the large album art used to be? I personally don't need most of the metadata and control elements shown there. I did a quick photoshop of how such a solution could look like, see attached picture. Edit: another idea to improve usability: I do like the compact list setting, but would prefer a wider spacing between single tracks. If you take a look at my screenshot from v2 you'll see what I mean, readability is a bit better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingdutchman Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 @sandbass, although the suggested changes are possible in principle, it would require too much work in terms of layout changes. Sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewilley Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 6 hours ago, sandbass said: Would it be possible to further reduce the space taken up by the library header where the large album art used to be? I personally don't need most of the metadata and control elements shown there. You can turn some additional metadata line off with Settings > Library > Lists > Headers with Meta. [Edit] Hmm, doesn't seem to have any effect with @flyingdutchman's skin, the extra meta info is displayed anyway, regardless of the setting of that toggle switch. Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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