The NowPlayingScreenSaver 1.0.0.5 released. Bug Fixes, no more Bing...

[drventure]

(EDIT)

I figured the original post here was a tad out of date, so I'm updating the whole thing.

My initial desire and thus the goal of this project was to create a screensaver that could perform a few internet image searches for images related to what's currently playing in whatever media player/jukebox software you might have running, retrieve a few images, and display them in a "Ken Burns" style slow pan and zoom technique that's very popular in documentaries, etc.

This is the result of that.

I call it the NowPlayingScreenSaver


Just released version 1.0.0.5

Version 1.0.0.5
---------------
Disabled use of BING image search because it's no longer supported as an open, free service.
Corrected issue that caused the Album Info to only appear in one screen saver area.


Version 1.0.0.4
---------------
Corrected problem where default images wouldn't show if there was no internet access.


Version 1.0.0.3
---------------
Added support for recognizing a running instance of Mame (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator)
and if detected, displaying images randomly related to the game rom that has being run in
Mame.

Fixed issue where if internet connectivity is lost, no images would display. Now, cached or
built-in images will be displayed.

Also, the application settings have been moved from Roaming to Local. See the documentation
pdf for details.


Version 1.0.0.2
---------------
Added preliminary support for Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center.
In other words, NowPlayScreenSaver will notice if it's WMP that's loaded up (and not
Album Player or JRiver Media Center) and display images related to whatever's
playing in Windows Media Player.


Version 1.0.0.1
---------------
Was using the AlbumArtist Name for lookups, corrected to use the Track Artist Name


Version 1.0.0.0
---------------
First official release

Further, it now supports Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center. Not extensively tested yet, but everything does appear stable.

I've attached a zip with the screensaver here as well.

[Le Chuck]

Partially replying so I can keep tabs on this idea... don't have much in the way of constructive support 

So you want the slideshow program to start on idle and pull images from the live interwebs based on last file played rather than from a saved cache then exit on any key press?

The launch on idle and exit on any key press would be a pretty simple script, getting the last file played as a command line input for a full screen google image browser is, well, a really bad ass idea.  Never seen anything like that before, can't wait to see how you handle it.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah it's possible.... google api is pretty fancy... you should be able to use it to get images programatically, instead of having to parse a search results window.  If if you can't, parsing a search results window wouldn't be terribly hard. Of course at some point you have to get the currently playing file inserted for the search... there are multiple ways to do this, but the easiest is to have your app launch the player first, so it gets the command line options itself.


As for the screensaver portion of the equation, you could probably even use microsofts image screensaver.  What you could do is point it to a temporary folder in it's settings.  Prior to launching it you could run your google app to clear out the folder and fill it with images based on your new search.


I think it's a really good idea.  After I suggested something similar for mame in another thread a few days ago I thought about doing one, but I need to stay on task.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to get flogged if I don't get a new version of mamehooker out soon. 

[drventure]

Yeah, I've done some looking and haven't turned up much other than the screen saver version of gforce, which is very cool, but
1. Doesn't do contextual image lookup
2. Would flat out bring the CPU in my juke to its knees

No worries though, I've already slapped together a proof of concept, with
1. Image pull from google
2. Pan and zoom documentary style slow transitions
3. Standard screen saver functionality
4. Some nice fade effects

I've already written code to monitor now playing from wmp and jriver. I just need to get album players API sorted, but it looks pretty easy

if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to chime in!

[drventure]

Well, I have a screen saver going, with full support for Album Player (for now) and google images.

Basically, you can configure a default search (the built in default is "MUSIC") if nothing is actually playing, but if a track is playing, it'll pull 50 or some images off Google and rotate them.

I'm doing a nice "Ken Burns" pan and zoom effect with fade transitions between images, and it all works except for one small thing.

It's in .net, using GDI+, so it pretty much brings a modern machine to it's knees when it's running 

And on the P4 in my juke, well, lets just say it's not a pretty picture.

Soooo. I'm reworking all the draw code to talk straight to the oldschool APIs (bitblt and alphablend).

With any luck, I might have something this weekend...

[drventure]

Grrr. Even using direct API calls to bitblt and alphablend aren't fast enough on this old machine.

Fortunately a test of WPF seems to show that because it's using DirectX, which can leverage the meager graphics card I have in there, it can do the fades and pans fairly decently on old hardware.

Sooo. Yet another refactor to WPF awaits...

[drventure]

OK, I've just about got this thing wrapped up, at least as far as AlbumPlayer integration goes.

Is this something anyone else around here would be interested in?

If so, what media software are you using to power your system?

Obviously, it's not likely I can connect with everything, so I'm just wondering which are the most popular (that have some kind of API)

[Mysterioii]

Sounds awesome.  Does the "safesearch" settings play well with your app?  This is only a half-joke, but I'd be hesitant to just pull stuff down off of Google images and throw it up on the screen on-the-fly if there were gonna be any kids around, because it seems like no matter how innocent the search string is you'll always eventually come back with something involving butts and cucumbers.      Heck certain artist names, album and/or track titles could bring back some interesting stuff. 

[drventure]

Yeah, I "discovered" that issue myself 

Right now, the screensaver +always+ turns of SafeSearch on, for both Bing and Google searches.

I could make it an option at some point, but it seems better to just force it on.

I'm still trying to work out swapping between them. Bing has a defined API that's free to use (so long as you don't totally abuse it).

Google, on the other hand, has one, but it doesn't appear to be free. If I just scrape their image search, eventually, they MIGHT recognize the app as a robot and shut off access. It's happened to me twice while I was debugging. Of course, during those times, I was defintely hitting them harder than the actual screensaver would, but still, I'm not sure I like that the search could just stop working. And it seems like they clear the block after 24hrs, so I suppose that's reasonable.

[drventure]

Ok. I've finally got a 1.0 version of this thing ready.

Download the zip, extract it somewhere, copy the SCR file into your Windows\system32 folder, the open up you screensavers configuration panel and choose the NowPlayingScreenSaver.

Click Settings to alter the default settings.

Right now, it ONLY works with the AlbumPlayer Jukebox, and with JRiver Media Center.

I had a look at the Wiki, but I'm not sure what other Juke software is particularly popular, and I'd rather not waste time supporting juke software that no one uses.

To try it out, load up your juke software, start a song playing, then open up the screensaver control panel, select the NowPlayingScreenSaver and click the "preview" button.

You should get images at least somewhat related to the album, artist and possibly track title that's currently playing.

Let me know what you think!

[drventure]

TimoSoof over on the albumplayer forums has recorded a little video of AlbumPlayer running with the NowPlayingScreenSaver on a rig with, jeez, about 5 or 6 monitors!

It gives a very good idea of what it looks like when it kicks in.



Remember, these are are random assortment of images from the internet, not just cover art embedded in the tracks themselves.

You'll also see the track title captions fade and zoom in at several points.

[Howard_Casto]

That's gotta be one of the coolest things I've seen in a while man!  Good job!

I'd use it, but you've decided to only support media players that aren't free.  The day that I pay money for a media player... well let's just say I'm not paying for a media player. 

[drventure]

Hey Howard

Thanks for the comments.

As for media players. Which one do you use/would like to see support for?

I looked into supporting Winamp, but, from just the hour or so I spent on it, it doesn't look like their API supported much in the way of "external" integrations. Everything about it seems to be geared toward doing a plug in, which isn't how I've got this app setup right now (it's more a screensaver that just wanted to figure out what media player happens to be running and then just monitor what it's playing).

But, but all means let me know. Can't say I can support everything, but I'm open to supporting more than just to 2 I've done so far (they just happen to be 2 that I've found work very well for me, I'm definitely not putting preference on free or commercial).

[Howard_Casto]

I don't really think anyone uses winamp anymore... it's feeling a bit dated imho.  That being said:

 There's a plugin for "now playing" on this site http://brandon.fuller.name/archives/hacks/nowplaying/wmp/

I don't know how well it works, but it simply prints out an xml file with all the id tag info, so it should be easy to support.  There's a plugin for wmp, winamp and itunes, so that should cover the big three.  The output for each is the same as well.

Another way you could do it would be to read the title of running applications.  Most media players and jukeboxes have the "now playing" info in the title bar. 


I use windows media player myself.  I just like the look of it believe it or not. 

Media Player Classic would be a good one... it's ugly, but it has command line support, so jukebox front-ends could call it. 

Let me get back to you on that.... I'm sure that there are some other freeware juke programs out there that could benefit from it. 

Btw, I wasn't critizing the two programs you chose, just for clarifications sake.  It's just jukebox apps are so darn easy to write.  It was one of the first things I wrote actually.  When they don't have the features I want for a particular project, I just write my own.

[Howard_Casto]

Bah! 

That plugin was free back in the day!  Everybody wants to cash in anymore.   

[drventure]

Interesting. Yeah, WMP is another that has an extensive api, but it's almost exclusively geared toward "plugins".

Still, Looks like i might have found a way to integrate with it without having to rely on other plugins and such. I'll be digging into that a little more tomorrow.

[RetroBorg]

Just watched the video, the screensaver is cool!

As for media players. Which one do you use/would like to see support for?

Any chance you can add support for SK Jukebox?

Plenty of users of it on this forum.

Cheers.

[drventure]

Hmm, I'd be happy to add support for SKJukebox, but after installing it and digging around a little, I'm not finding any info at all on any kind of API that would let me retrieve the artist/album/track that's currently playing.

The website's dead, and it looks like the project died back in 2007.

This one might just not be possible to support.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

I did turn up SKGJukebox, which appears to be more a less a clone, but with more features. I've emailed the author of it, because it, too, looks like it doesn't have any sort of API to work with.

We'll see.

[drventure]

Good news though. Looks like, (with a ridiculous amount of jumping through hoops) support for Windows Media Player, and hopefully Windows Media Center as well, will be quite possible.

Stay tuned for that...

[drventure]

Looks like Windows Media Center sits on top of Windows Media Player, so support for Media Player should also extend to Media center, for anyone using that on their system.

[RetroBorg]

Hmm, I'd be happy to add support for SKJukebox, but after installing it and digging around a little, I'm not finding any info at all on any kind of API that would let me retrieve the artist/album/track that's currently playing.

The website's dead, and it looks like the project died back in 2007.

This one might just not be possible to support.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

I did turn up SKGJukebox, which appears to be more a less a clone, but with more features. I've emailed the author of it, because it, too, looks like it doesn't have any sort of API to work with.

We'll see.

Well thanks for having a look anyway.

[drventure]

Just added support for Windows Media Player and Media Center. And no third party plugin required! Microsoft definitely did not make that task easy, but it was doable none-the-less. Funny, the more I play with WMP, the more I like it. I still don't think it's really applicable for a touchscreen juke, but still, it's pretty nice.

And Windows Media Center has a very nice presentation. Could easily see using that as the hub of an HTPC.

Also fixed problem were I was incorrectly using the Album Artist tag instead of the Artist tag.

[Howard_Casto]

Just added support for Windows Media Player and Media Center. And no third party plugin required! Microsoft definitely did not make that task easy, but it was doable none-the-less. Funny, the more I play with WMP, the more I like it. I still don't think it's really applicable for a touchscreen juke, but still, it's pretty nice.

And Windows Media Center has a very nice presentation. Could easily see using that as the hub of an HTPC.

Also fixed problem were I was incorrectly using the Album Artist tag instead of the Artist tag.

wmp has a very powerful api.  It has since the beginning.  A lot of the jukes I made back in the day actually ran wmp, they just had a different user interface. 

I'm going to try this immediately!  Thanks!

[Howard_Casto]

I like it. 

Seems to work in wmp pretty well.

I noticed that the artist's name is always all lowercase, you might want to look at that. 

Does the default search accept "site" queries?  That might be useful if it doesn't. 

Also where are you saving the settings?  This could quite easily work as a mame screensaver as well.  I tried just a few games by using the rom name in the default search box and they gave pretty good results.  Some external program (like mamehooker or the frontend) could alter the default search value when mame is running to the currently running rom. 

Anyway, I really like it, thanks.

[drventure]

I noticed that the artist's name is always all lowercase, you might want to look at that. 

Hmm, Probably me, I'll take a look in a bit.

Does the default search accept "site" queries?  That might be useful if it doesn't. 

Probably not, as I actually hit several different search engines (Yahoo, Bing, and Flickr at the moment) and they likely have different syntaxes for their searches.

Also where are you saving the settings?  This could quite easily work as a mame screensaver as well.  I tried just a few games by using the rom name in the default search box and they gave pretty good results.  Some external program (like mamehooker or the frontend) could alter the default search value when mame is running to the currently running rom. 

Hmm, Interesting idea. Flipping it back around, I could have NPSS detect if Mame was running and (if there's a way) pick up the rom name from it and use +that+ as the "What's now playing" search.

But to answer the question,

Check C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\The Now Playing ScreenSaver

the settings.xml file contains all the settings.

Although, I just realized that I forgot to turn on formatting. yuck. The whole file is on one line....

I'll get that fixed next too.

Anyway, I really like it, thanks.

[Howard_Casto]

It's amazingly easy to detect MAME actually, I was just thinking for other emulators and the front-end itself you might want to do it generically.

There are multiple ways to detect MAME, but the easiest is to use the "findwindow" api.  Mame and all of it's variants (including pinmame, ect) have a class value of "MAME" so it's quite easy to detect it.  Once you have the window's hwnd, you can use a combo of "getwindowtext" and "getwindowtextlength" to get the title of the window. 

Obviously it's now simple to get the currently running game as mame's title syntax is as follows:

MAME:  Game Title [romname]


I found that the romname suprisingly gets better results, maybe because it assures that the results pertain to emulation.

It should also work for MESS btw, but I'm guessing the classname is "mess" in that case.

[drventure]

I think I may just go ahead and add something along the lines you mentioned howard.

Maybe something like a "NowPlaying.XML" file somewhere, or a few registry entries somewhere.

Any program can update them and NPSS will just poll occasionally to pick up the changes.

But I like the idea of detecting Mame directly still...

Thanks for the info!

[Howard_Casto]

Cool beans man! 

Just one thing to remember that I should have mentioned.  Although nobody really uses it, MAME has a built-in menu now.  So you'll have to do error handling to make sure a rom name is actually contained in the title for those rare instances.  Also mameUI's windows probably have the same class name, so again you'll want to include a sanity check. 

[drventure]

Just uploaded the latest version with Mame support, and some issues with handling lack of internet connectivity.

What's that, you say? Mame Support? Whuaaaahhhhh? 

Yes, if you're running PacMan in Mame, and you've got NPSS configured as your screensaver, and you leave your cabinet to grab a brew, when you get back, you should be looking at a nice documentary style slideshow of various Pacman related images from around the net.

Wooooohoooo!

Useful? I have no idea. But it can be fun when you've launched certain games to try and figure out which game it is from the images that are displayed

See the first page in this thread for the download.

[drventure]

Yuck. Looks like Bing will be moving their search API to azure end of month, and over there, I'd have to pay for it. 

This was an (eventually) open source little screen saver utility. I know I won't be forking over anything to keep it going.

Well, Yahoo and Flickr will have to be good enough, I guess