🚀 Release Announcement: GridPlayer Alabaster v0.2beta_rc1

[XDevMatt]

🚀 Release Announcement: GridPlayer Alabaster v0.2beta_rc1

I’m excited to share GridPlayer Alabaster 0.2beta_rc1, a portable Windows fork built on top of GridPlayer 0.5.5.

Alabaster is designed to overhaul layout control, demote multi-layer context submenus in favor of direct key/mouse mappings, streamline single-cell media workflows, and provide true portable configuration management without writing to the Windows Registry.

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📦 Download & Release Page

You can grab the compiled, standalone Windows 64-bit portable package (GridPlayer-Alabaster-57f21b1-win64-portable.zip) directly from the release page:

👉 Download GridPlayer Alabaster v0.2beta_rc1

(Main Releases List: https://github.com/XDevMatt/alabaster-gridplayer/releases)

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🔥 Key Features & Enhancements

1. Universal Action & Hotkey System

• 150+ Exposed QAction Handlers: Bypasses deep right-click context submenus by making spatial transforms, aspect overrides, track shifts, and zoom functions first-class actions.
• Native GUI Shortcut Remapper: Easily rebind keyboard keys or mouse buttons to any action directly inside Settings → Hotkeys / Shortcuts with built-in conflict detection. No third-party software (like PowerToys) required.
• Enhanced Navigation: Support for mouse side-buttons (Forward/Back) for direct cell navigation even when generic mouse click events are disabled.

2. Canvas, Zoom & Layout Workflows

• Direct Zoom Controls: Instantly scale viewports using ,, ., /, +, and - keys.
• Alabaster Auto-Rotation: Automatically detects and rotates video streams (90° clockwise or custom increments) to match cell geometry.
• Single-Cell Repaint: Executing Next on an active cell repaints only that cell rather than causing an expensive grid-wide window redraw.
• Instant File Management (e Key): Single-key "Keep" action that copies/filters active cell media to a local ../<folder>_keep/ directory and automatically steps to the next track.

3. Stream Sync & Per-Cell Controls

• Audio Routing: Assign different grid cells to separate physical system audio output devices.
• Fine Delay Adjustments: Direct audio delay shift shortcuts mapped to j and k, plus per-cell subtitle delay tools.
• Per-Cell Rendering: Independent per-cell upscaling/downscaling filters, debanding, aspect filters, and A-B looping (loop_start/loop_end).
• Sync Modes: Flexible grid-wide sync toggles for seeking, play/pause, zooming, and playback rate.

4. Portability & Playlists

• True Portable Storage: All configurations, thumbnail caches, and session data save locally to settings.ini and adjacent data directories—keeping your host registry completely untouched.
• Enhanced Playlist State (.gpls): JSON-based playlist structure that retains exact grid states, relative paths, bookmarks, and cell profiles across sessions.

📋 Additional Features & Workflow Enhancements

1. Clipboard Ingestion & Legacy Player Handoff (Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V)

• Instant Media Handoff: Copy local file paths or web streams from legacy players (MPC-HC, mpv) or file indexers (Everything.exe) and hit Ctrl+V to drop them directly into Alabaster.
• Silent & Paused Cell Spawning: Pasted file paths automatically spawn grid cells in a Paused & Muted state. This prevents unexpected audio blasting or automatic playback across existing streams.
• Cell Duplication: Select any active cell and hit Ctrl+C → Ctrl+V to duplicate its active media stream into an open grid slot.
• Overflow Protection: Built-in threshold caps prevent rapid Ctrl+V keypresses from spamming VLC instances, spiking RAM, or locking up the UI thread.

2. Advanced Dynamic Playlist & Loop Controls

• Lowercase l (Playlist Manager):
  • If no playlist exists, opens the creation dialog to toggle between "Just this video" or generating a sequence from "Everything in its folder" (with recursive subfolder support).
  • If a playlist exists, opens the full List Manager to search/filter items, sort, randomize, export, or dynamically inject new files, folders, and links on the fly.
• Uppercase Shift+L (Single-File Loop Override): Instantly forces the active cell into Loop Current File mode, overriding default folder/playlist shuffle sequences to loop a single file indefinitely.

3. Multi-Format & Mixed Media Handling

• Universal Media Grid: Native support for playing video, audio, or static images within the same grid and playlist files.
• Automated Image Slideshows: Static images operate as an automated multi-cell slideshow, defaulting to a 10-second display timer per image before stepping to the next track.

4. Fine-Grained Sync Logic & Individual Cell Wake

• Independent Cell Wake: Paused or newly pasted cells can be started independently via the cell-specific play icon (>), or globally unpaused using Space (when Play/Pause sync is linked across cells).
• Granular Grid Sync Options: Independent toggles for Timecode/Percentage sync, Position/Zoom sync, Playback Speed sync, and Play/Pause sync.

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💬 Feedback & Issues

Since this is a Release Candidate (rc1), please test out your custom layouts and report any bugs, edge cases, or feature suggestions on the GridPlayer Alabaster Issues Page.

Full source code & documentation available at XDevMatt/alabaster-gridplayer.