Hot on the heels of my last post about "Framed" I've dedicated a good portion of my free time this week getting it ready for both my home, and yours. So lets jump right in and talk about the changes.
Better Visuals
In this version I dropped the window scaling options in Godot to allow it to resize to the computers native resolution in full screen while still maintaining the picture quality of most images.
Note: This might decrease the size of the font found in the menu to a point where you can't read it. If that's the case please let me know on this post or catch me on discord and we'll try to find a happy medium.
Intelligent Scaling
In the previous version images had a fixed set of sizes that they would fall into. This worked well for common resolutions but when the image was a little too long or tall you would get large borders surrounding the image. As seen below:
Moon wolf by @pollyfoxxy
In the newest version the scaling code has been reworked and takes into account the window size of the application.
Moon wolf by @pollyfoxxy
This makes the need for borders less important and can even become a configurable option in future versions.
Lighting
The entire interface is rendered in 3D so shadows, lights, particle effects, etc. are all possible. In this version I'm playing around with using spot lights to give a more art museum feel to the display, and if you watch carefully enough you'll notice that the sun changes the ambient light through out the day.
That's why the pictures look a little dark. I'm writing this at 11:51pm cst
In future versions I could see artists adding options to their tokenized art that instructs the display to have just the right lighting to fit the mood of the image. Of course the end user can turn off all that junk, and just have a flat image on their screen, but whats the fun in that?
Better handling of unsupported file formats.
So one of the draw backs of using Godot as the basis for the program is the lack of gif and mp4 support out of the box. This is understandable given the size that quality gifs and mp4s tend to be. There is a way to support these files in Godot, but at the moment we just avoid them to save time.
Note: I know a lot of artists really enjoy the freedom of using moving images, and hopefully it wont be too long before they are supported. For those curious Godot supports opensource non-patent encumbered file types such as webm and ogg/theora but there are 3rd party plugins for ffmpeg which can facilitate the playback of every conceivable file type.
Local Image Support
This one was added for my family, I personally only own 3 pieces of art so displaying my photography and other art on our screen was high on the wish list.
The great thing about these local files is that they can be mixed in with the art I've purchased.
Bugs Fixed
- Typo caused nsfw images to display even with the option was turned off.
- Randomize now works
- Gallery now works
- Frames no longer cut off larger images (in my tests at least)
- Adding a path for local display and then removing it no longer causes the program to crash.
Extra not fully fleshed out features
In between images supplied by the nftshowroom api we now show the description of the piece. This works as both an informational display as well as something to read while the image is loading. Unfortunately, images that load quickly don't give the user enough time to read the description.
Possible Road Map
Unlike a lot of my other projects this one serves its purpose already and the roadmap is really more of a possible future for the project IF there is demand for it.
- Ability to detect and use higher resolution versions of the art unlocked by the purchase
- Ability to show animated art.
Add a 3 second pause to show the artists message included with the piece before display.- Some sort of authentication to verify you are the owner of the collection/Gallery.
- Ability to show random curated works which sends a tip to the artist every time the art is displayed.
- Background ambient music.
- New frames and mats.
- Artist controlled options?
Special Thanks to
@juliakponsford and @crimsonclad for helping me test and find bugs!
Anyway, what do you guys think? Might be worth getting a raspberry pi or NUC to plug into your TV, no? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Download Framed
Obligatory Links
GameJolt page: https://gamejolt.com/@VagueEntertainment
Hive Community: created/hive-123112
Discord: https://discord.gg/vFcC4xQ
Also follow @v-entertainment, @bflanagin, and @msanford to say up to date all this and other project!