Feature Request: Spotlight overlay fade in/out

[jahnf]

It would be nice if the spot light overlay could fade in and fade out to have an overall smoother experience.

[jahnf]

@fmuelle4711 @gyps @maehne @frigaut @giswqs @mayanksuman @rkerschn
I tested another way of handling the overlay window, which would allow a fade in and fade out effect (and other effects) when showing the spotlight.

It works for me on GNOME and in a KDE virtualbox with multiple screens. If you have some time, it would be great if you could test it on your (multi-screen) systems
Edit: Now on develop

Thank you in advance

[mayanksuman]

Hi,

The code in Spotlight::scanForDevices assumes one input device per hid device entry, that is not guaranteed. Please checkout my folder listing for hid devices path (attached file:
hid_folder.txt). A device entry can have multiple inputs.

As a result, my mouse input was not being taken by Projecteur out of box.

[jahnf]

Hi Mayank, which device are you talking about in your attached file?

[mayanksuman]

Hi Mayank, which device are you talking about in your attached file?

PLease check /sys/bus/hid/devices/0003:046D:C53E.0003 on line 44 onwards in attached files. It has three input devices input28, input29 and input30 with their associated event files.

[jahnf]

Ah yes alright, thanks for the input - the Linux versions I use seem to put handle that differently - needs to be fixed indeed.

[jahnf]

Thanks mayank, I fixed the issue you noticed. Could you please give it a try with the last change? Thank you very much.

Edit: but also I saw a lot of code that I like to refactor when going through that method again 😄

[mayanksuman]

The problem is fixed now. However, I noticed that all inputs are taken of Event type no Hidraw on my system.

Digging into the problem, I have found one event device event24 not connected to logitech-spotlight by id (see attached file spotlight_input_devices.txt).

In the file hidraw tree structure show event21 to event24 linked to logitech spotlight, but in /dev/input/by-id all but event24 do not exist. Is this the Hidraw device?

[mayanksuman]

https://github.com/jahnf/Projecteur/blob/8cb1bd88c546016c650b97f2bf72b94588460517/src/spotlight.cc#L687
Further I do not think this line will ever going to execute. This line and associated if statement can be removed given that we have already tested the vendorID and productID for the parent hid folder uevent file in L648.

[jahnf]

Thanks for the feedback. 👍 My plan is to add hidraw support in the future (vibration and other device specific stuff), but it is not implement yet - so hidraw is ignored right now.

I am on the move right now and can look at your txt file tomorrow.

[mayanksuman]

I have started working on hidraw related changes. However, most of the issues are coming from the way the function ConnectDevices is defined.
https://github.com/jahnf/Projecteur/blob/8cb1bd88c546016c650b97f2bf72b94588460517/src/spotlight.cc#L300

Do you want the Projecteur to connect to all the plug-ined devices?

[jahnf]

Do you want the Projecteur to connect to all the plug-ined devices?

Yes, and it will work in the current code base. E.g. you can plug in every device that is supported e.g. a Logitech Spotlight and an Avatto H100 at the same time. And even two devices of the same type (although that I havn't tested). This is not much different than the behavior in 0.7 where this was already possible. And I need to connect to all the event sub-devices for a device to make button mapping possible.

With hidraw (sub-devices) it's a little different. Connecting to a hidraw sub-devices (of a supported device) makes only sense if we know the protocoal (like the vibration on the Logitech device..)

So if you currently if I have an Avatto H100 and a Logitech Spotlight connected to your computer, the internal representation will look sth. like this:
Usually each device will have a sub-device that is detected as a kind of mouse input device and one that is a keyboard device for the 'navigation' buttons.

• Avatto H100 (id/vendor/phys)
  • /dev/input/eventX
  • /dev/input/eventY
• Logitech Spotlight ...
  • /dev/input/eventZ
  • /dev/input/eventW

Now if we have additional functionality for one of these devices that could only be achieved via hidraw, it would look like this.

• Logitech Spotlight ...
  • /dev/input/eventZ
  • /dev/input/eventW
  • /dev/hidrawN

All of these sub-devices can share a common button-mapper instance (at least that is my plan for now)

And I know the code is obscure in some places and (not yet) self-explaining - but it is a work in progress. My plan is to ignore hidraw sub-devices for the next release 0.8, this is planned for 0.9 - see also the milstone page: https://github.com/jahnf/Projecteur/milestones
It's already a lot of changes for a release (maybe too many), with too many changes there is a much higher chance to introduce bugs.

In any case: I'm interested if you made progress with the hidraw communication. Maybe I can create a feature/hidraw branch where we work on hidraw changes towards 0.9? What do you think?

Also on another note and what is the actual topic of the issue 😄 : Does the fade in/ fade out work for you? (What Linux and Desktop are you using (e.g. OpenSuse/KDE) and are you using Wayland or X11?

[mayanksuman]

Yeah, I was thinking that in case of hidraw device support, it should be better to connect to only one device. hidraw device will also not need any button mapper. I guess you do not want all the connected device vibrating on timer. Additionally, Connecting to a single device is more logical given the device selection in Device tab of preferences of dialog box.

In any case: I'm interested if you made progress with the hidraw communication. Maybe I can create a feature/hidraw branch where we work on hidraw changes towards 0.9? What do you think?

Yes, please create the branch. The work is almost complete (with lots of refactoring of existing code due to above-stated reason). It is on branch feature/timer (on my fork). I guess I will be able to submit a pull request for the same in coming week.

Also on another note and what is the actual topic of the issue smile : Does the fade in/ fade out work for you? (What Linux and Desktop are you using (e.g. OpenSuse/KDE) and are you using Wayland or X11?

Yes, fade in/ fade out works for me. I am using Debian Testing/Gnome 3.36 with X11.

[jahnf]

Yeah, I was thinking that in case of hidraw device support, it should be better to connect to only one device.

I want to definitely keep the multiple connections. You can have multiple devices connected at the same time. The selection in device selection is for the purpose of showing connected devices - It will disappear when no device is connected.
A vibration will only be set for the device selected for configuration anyway.
You can also use this for testing quiet easily - just add -D Vendor:product to the command line and you normal usb mouse and you have your usb mouse as a spotlight device.

hidraw device will also not need any button mapper.

Why not? On the Logitech spotlight you you would still handle the mouse and keyboard
via event devices - don't you? On my machines at least there the Logitech devices shows up as one mouse, one keyboard and one hidraw device - where the hidraw device handles stuff like vibrating and other special controls). A complete device connection (for the Logitech spotlight) consists of two event devices and one hidraw device I would think - and also for the hidraw connection there might be a button mapping useful - maybe the device indicates that the user long-pressed some button...

Yes, please create the branch. The work is almost complete (with lots of refactoring of existing code due to above-stated reason). It is on branch feature/timer (on my fork). I guess I will be able to submit a pull request for the same in coming week.

I'll create a branch soon. It will be quiet messy when you have refactored code base on code that is still work in progress is not finished yet and will be for v0.8 ... but until v0.9 it is still time :) And I will want to keep multiple device connection. But we will find a way.

Yes, fade in/ fade out works for me. I am using Debian Testing/Gnome 3.36 with X11.

Great to hear :)