How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??

[Orvillain]

In my synth project, I have hardcoded effect slots. I have menus to load effects into them. I have a set of 16 generic knobs in the UI. These get bound to the DSP parameters when I load an effect - this is all triggered in my menu callback.

It all works. I open my menu, I load an effect. The UI parameters get assigned to the correct processorId and parameterId. Then I can control the effect on screen.

But, I save the project and reload it.... and my effect recalls correctly, and the UI positions of the knobs recall correctly, but the underlying DSP parameters are at their default values.

This only happens when saving the .xml project, or saving the host project in a DAW. If I save and recall a preset, then it all seems to work fine. Any ideas on what to look into???

The essential problem: I think I need a way to flush the positions of all parameters in the plugin, on first launch.

I would guess that what is happening is, the parameters push through their values before the processorId or parameterId has been assigned.

[David Healey]

@Orvillain said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

I would guess that what is happening is, the parameters push through their values before the processorId or parameterId has been assigned.

Can you change the order that this happens? If it's all triggered by control callback then the order is based on the component list.

[Orvillain]

@David-Healey said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

@Orvillain said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

I would guess that what is happening is, the parameters push through their values before the processorId or parameterId has been assigned.

Can you change the order that this happens? If it's all triggered by control callback then the order is based on the component list.

I'm not sure, but is that actually under my control? I imagine the order of operations that HISE uses is something like:
construct UI components
restore UI component values
restore processor graph / SlotFX state
run script init / callbacks

???

[David Healey]

@Orvillain said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

run script init / callbacks

This is the important part. The last thing to run are the callbacks, in the order that the components appear in the module list.

So if you have a callback that sets the active effect, and then other callbacks that set the effect's parameter values, you might get what you want by changing their order.

[Orvillain]

@David-Healey said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

@Orvillain said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

run script init / callbacks

This is the important part. The last thing to run are the callbacks, in the order that the components appear in the module list.

So if you have a callback that sets the active effect, and then other callbacks that set the effect's parameter values, you might get what you want by changing their order.

oooooooo... I've just realised something .....

My generic UI parameters themselves do not have a callback assigned to them. IE: I never call uiParam.setControlCallback(blahblahblah)

I currently rely entirely on my effect load menu to do the following, and in this order:

1. Get the menus component id.
2. Derive the effect slot id string from the menu id.
3. Read the menu item text - force it to lower case.
4. Get the slotFX processor for the slot we want to address.
5. Look up the hardcoded effect name for the chosen effect; using a map that takes in the lowercase menu item, and returns the name of the hardcoded effect to load.
6. call setEffect(effectToLoad) on the slotFX instance.

At this point, my effect is loaded.

7. If the effect we loaded was the "empty" one, then just hide all of the parameters, and reset all of their attributes to blank slates.

If it wasn't "empty"... then do this:
8. Fetch the UI layout+binding spec for the effect.
9. Bind the generic UI controls to that effects parameters.

9.1 - build the UI prefix for the slot.
9.2 - collect the UI components.
9.3 - clear existing bindings.
9.4 - set processorId to the correct effect slot name.
9.5 - set the parameterId to the correct effect parameter name.

At this point, the knob does control the DSP.

10 - setup the other binding parameters (min, max, stepSize, colours, etc)
11 - Hide any UI widgets that were not used.

... so in effect.... my actual UI parameters within each of my effect slots, do not have callbacks themselves. I rely entirely on the menu... which thinking about it... feels a bit stupid.

Effectively, I'm relying entirely on HISE's attachment of processorId and parameterId - and I don't really know when that happens in relation to the callback.

As I say; my UI parameters always look correct. They sound correct when I load a preset. They do not sound correct when I load a DAW project.

[David Healey]

@Orvillain said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

Effectively, I'm relying entirely on HISE's attachment of processorId and parameterId - and I don't really know when that happens in relation to the callback.

This is perfectly valid, you don't need to use control callbacks unless you need behaviour that you can't get with this setup.

There's basically an internal callback and I believe it is triggered after all of the script callbacks.

@Orvillain said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

9.5 - set the parameterId to the correct effect parameter name.

What happens if after this stage you call .changed for each of those components?

[Orvillain]

@David-Healey said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

What happens if after this stage you call .changed for each of those components?

I get this in the Console:

Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for grf_FXEngine1_FX1_Graph1
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for btn_FXEngine1_FX1_Sw1
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for menu_FXEngine1_FX1_Menu1
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for btn_FXEngine1_FX1_Sw2
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param1
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param2
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param3
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param4
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param5
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param6
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param7
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param8
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param9
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param10
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param11
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param12
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param13
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param14
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param15
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param16
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param1
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param2
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param3
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param4
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param5
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param6
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param7
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param8
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param9
Interface: Skipping changed() callback during onInit for knb_FXEngine1_FX1_Param10

[David Healey]

@Orvillain Are you calling .changed() from the menu's callback?

[Orvillain]

@David-Healey said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

@Orvillain Are you calling .changed() from the menu's callback?

Yeah I am, there's no other callback to use right now.

[David Healey]

@Orvillain Ok, what about using a timer that is started at the end of the callback, and in the timer you call .changed()

[Orvillain]

@David-Healey said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

Ok, what about using a timer that is started at the end of the callback, and in the timer you call .changed()

I'll give it a go!

[Orvillain]

hmmm... no that didn't seem to work either.

Now, I might've been being dumb all along... but on a hunch, I tried a different effect.... and it seems like at least some of those parameters DO flush on init correctly... and some of them don't.

So now I'm thinking, maybe this is a custom C++ code or script node problem.

[David Healey]

@Orvillain said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

So now I'm thinking, maybe this is a custom C++ code or script node problem.

Could be...

[Orvillain]

@David-Healey said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

@Orvillain said in How do I flush the UI parameters on first run??:

So now I'm thinking, maybe this is a custom C++ code or script node problem.

Could be...

ooooo... looks like it might be any of my effects that uses my ExpSmoothedFloat class to smooth the incoming parameter changes!

I've genuinely been slamming my head against this for the past 4 hours.... and it was nothing to do with the UI side after all... at least it seems like.

[Orvillain]

God I hate my stupid brain sometimes.

So yes... that is exactly what it was....

In my c++ I run these smoothers for some parameters. To avoid discontinuities when turning a parameter. You generally don't want to flush 1000's of parameter updates on things like delay times, so you smooth it out over time. Maybe only 10ms, but it helps to make it sound better and brings down CPU too. Cool.

And that was all well and good. Worked fine.

But in my setParameter callbacks, I was only setting the target. I wasn't setting the initial value. Which now I read it, is literally the dumbest stupidest mistake that I could've made.

Time for more Guinness.