Hi TYA!
I am sorry that you are feeling not that comfortable with new UI layout
May be this is just a first emotion and you will get used to new layout?
What are the main benefits of the new layout to my view:
- Having no spectrum analyzer always visible made it possible to improve CPU utilization and if user does not touch UI and in Playing Now or Database screen Neutron will decrease update speed to once per second (just for timer update) and it saves a lot of CPU. On devices with slow GPU or CPU new layout makes UI actions more dynamic.
- Earlier Playing Now and Controls screens had duplicate buttons: Play/Stop, Prev, Next, Shuffle, Loop. It was eating space. Now space is freed and it was possible to add controls to more DSP functions which were hidden in Settings.
- On platform without MENU button (BalckBerry, Android pads since 3.0) to access Settings button user would need to: go to Media Database screen -> return to the top-level of it to see the gear icon in the bottom, now it became extremely easy to access Settings and additional functionality which did not fit to the Controls screen layout.
- Due to easily accessible Settings it is now possible to add frequently used functions, like Clock.
- Earlier spectrum analyzer on Display are was truncated to fit the timer under self and thus its practical usability was almost useless. Now in Controls screen yu have high-res spectrum analyzer screen which is displaying whole range of frequencies of the track. User can easily guess whether track is too much compressed (and thus has lost high frequencies) or not, it is useful for the streaming audio for example.
- Earlier to access full-screen spectrum analyzer you would need to re-orient device to the landscape view and press on spectrum analyzer under the running timer of the track. That was the only possibility to invoke it. Now in Portrait/Landscape you can press on spectrum analyzer display in Controls screen and invoke full-screen spectrum analyzer.
- It is now easier to implement/display visualization of Neutron's Parametric EQ and utilize spectrum display too.
- Due to always visible Display area the usable screen area was cut with proportion 25% for Display (on top), 75% for other things. Now Controls screen can fit more functional elements, Playing Now screen can show only album art and consume 0% of CPU on UI in such mode (when panels are hidden), Media Database screen can show more entries and thus it is easier to scroll through long lists.
- Earlier if user enabled OS's Status Bar the whole layout was compressed and on screens with 480x800 or similar resolution elements were too small and Status Bar was interacting with UI if user wanted to press CLOCK button, now Status Bar does not really affect layout and its symbiosis with Neutron's UI is much better.
- Earlier landscape mode was obscuring album art without inability to see it in full. Now it is possible. Also the Controls screen was not looking ok, too much free space with too few functional controls. Now Landscape view of Controls screen has the same functionality as Portrait. The same can be said about Playing Now screen.
- Easier navigation to the lists of other categories where track exists from Playing Now screen by pressing the category icon (on the left from the tags).
- New layout offers access to screens with simple press and controls are easily visible. It is now much more usable in dynamic environment and personally I find it more convenient in the car for example.
As to your questions:
> 1. Why RMS bars not to show in main ui screen (player scr)?
Do you mean RMS bar near the Gain slider in Controls screen? You do not see it because of optimized CPU usage. If you have tracks normalized or AGP is switched off then RMS calculation is not needed and thus Neutron can save some CPU time. Calculating RMS in real time is not easy (for CPU) task: core need to listen to output audio data, collect it (copy operations), calculate RMS (additions and multiplications), made it ready for UI. So RMS UI bar is visible if RMS core is working when AGP is switched on and tracks are not normalized. I can propose that in next update setting is added to Settings -> AGP which will force RMS core operation without those conditions and thus its UI part will always be visible (as before). What do you think about it?
> 2. Can you add it back ?
In the way it was I do not think so because of the Pros I mentioned above. From the code development point old UI layout was too much inside the player core and it needs cleanup anyway. New layout brought new approach inside the code of the player and now it is much more modular and allows more freedom in additional functionality. So 1.74 has new UI layout but the code framework improved too. We can think how to advance current layout and may be add functional ideas of the old layout which could be activated as options by user choice from Settings or switched on by specific buttons/controls.
> it seems to be same same with others players (you may feel it too)
Well, yes and no. The Display is only missing in new layout. Instead of it the same panel with playback controls became higher to the size of tags in the Playing Now screen, Controls screen is practically the same but with more controls and Media Database screen got more space for more entries. Everything else is the same actually, in Neutron's style.
As you noticed the development never stops so new layout will be advanced more anyway.
Best regards,
Dmitry.