Open Trouffman opened 2 years ago
Another option that came up as well : For each source add an option for monitoring as "Before / After" filters/properties.
This could help to monitor before any filters are applied (similar to a raw-source monitoring) and as well as "After filters"have been applied
This is a companion ticket for the issue #39 and #35 with more details on the changes required in UI to streamline usage.
Today's UI
Challenges or missing stuff
Name are missing on tracks for devices output. (On source this is coming from the filter name) It is hard or impossible to now which device is which slider.
Cannot monitor the output level on a specifi device (see #39 for fixing this)
No option to configure audio level for OBS monitoring device
No horizontal mode (could be more compact)
Hard to keep track of which slider is for what purpose
Vertical layout take up more screen space than the OBS Audio Mixer vertical mode (couple of reasons for this)
Suggested UI changes
Obviously this would be up to discussion, but I and couple of my teammates went through multiple rounds of prototyping the following suggestions.
Mockup In vertical layout :
Change list
Monitoring device control section
A level to control the output to your monitoring device.
A "cleanup" (recyclable) icon to "disable" all audio going to your audio moniroting device. This could be a double sided feature : click once, clear everything. Click again without any changes, go back to all previously monitored tracks (could be counter-intuitive)
The global settings cogwheel to control all the plugin settings (minus the device allocation per tracks, see below). This cogwheel contains ANY global settings, while any "track/sources" specific settings are in the cogwheel for each track/source.
Top Name could be configurable or set to "Mon" or nothing until implemented
Headset (monitoing icon) is clickable > enable/disable output to you OBS-definet audio monitoring device.
Note : Audio meter are irrelevant for this. See point 1. 2. and A. B. C. in issue #39 for the reasons.
Track control section
Track Name from the OBS Audio output settings is use per tracks. (already implemented, related to #36 )
db meter on each track (this is a useful info on the regular Audio Mixer (ultimately this would be nice on EACH audio output device.) - Could be used in place of the device/bus name (see next)
Output or device or audio bus name. Help quickly identify the output audio device/bus used.
Some more per device/bus configuration, including name and colors. Could be renamed in "Output Device Bus" to avoid confusion maybe. (TBD)
Audio level meter Having the "numbers" on every metersis superfluous IMHO. See the recommendation in "General UI" Paragraph to reduce footprint.
"Volume Lock" option is still there. but shoudl also be in the track/source cogwheel menu. One could argue this could easily be moved to the "Track/source cogwheel option". And free up that space.
Per track/Source Cogwheel settings menu.
Audio level Slider behavior
Speaker icon : enable/disable output or ourput to that extra device. (NOT the monitoring!)
Headset icon : Enable/disable the audio monitoring to the "default audio monitoring device". (See the bahvior section is this is unclear)
Headset (Monitoring) is avaialble for ANY output/ exra output devices
General UI :
Vertical separator between Tracks / Sources and Monitoring control. This is purely to simplify UI and quick access, as it is triccky to know where each "group" or category of controls are. This is a visual aid for it.
Global Menu option : Meters Output
Global Menu option for : Compact design - audio meter Reduce footprint of the "Audio level meter"
Global Menu option for : Compact design - track/sources Allow to display/hide the track / sources sections.
Horizontal layout option (like the default OBS Audio mixer). More mockup work might be required.
Reduce the padding in between sliders/icons. Get it closer to the OBS Audio Mixer look & feel.
NB: There are limitation here that we have to play with : in OBS Audio Mixer, the icons for enable/disable are not align with the slider but within the width of the meter + slider. It does not work if the icons are next to the meter, only if below
NB 2 : If thinking about "touch based" interface, this would require some work like exra padding, etc, to account for "touch-regions". I do not think this is required for now, it would need to be a special UI thinking as well.
To confirm behavior
Example 1 : A slider on track 1 is set at 100%, and slider on "Audio Moniroting device" at 80% > Track 1 volume on monitoring device is 80%, output stays at 100%
Example 2 : A slider for Track 1 is at 100%, Source 1 at 80%, and Mon Device at 50%.
Devil's advocate section
Some ideas and why I don't think they are to be implemented.
Have each group as a separate widget. It would overcomplexify the UI, and make it worst overall (like you would need the audio monitoring in all the widget or in none, and the space taken for each new widget would lose a LOT of space (and then be counter-productive to what is proposed.)
Only keep the cogwheel on the first left side and remove it from all the other tracks/ sources.
Happy to discuss other possible improvments.