New Conventions and Functions in Scope XTC /DP
There are some conventions and new functions that you should know so that your device will work flawlessly together with others.
Surfaces
There are a number of changes concerning the surface. First of all a surface now consists of a SurfaceInterface and at least one panel. The panel can be seen as the visible part of the surface while the SurfaceInterface is the a controlling node. The class from which the panel is derived was changed from 'ChildView' to
'Surfaces@BasicSurface' (you might want to have a look at the 'Module Attributes' window).
If you have multiple panels for your device then the main panel must have a SurfaceInterface, the others can have one. Both
- the SurfaceInterface and its panels - have a graphical representation in the
circuit.

The SurfaceInterface controls whether the device is visible in the 'Device Bar' (Pulsar/Scope)
as well as what is visible in the host software (XTC mode). (Right mouse button and choose 'Show in devicebar'/'Don't show in devicebar'.) Before the surface always had to be situated in the first layer of the device. Now the surface can be situated somewhere inside the device as long as it is connected to the SurfaceInterface (which has to be on the first layer). In
XTC mode the host software is always displaying the surface which is connected to the first found SurfaceInterface of this device - e.g. the SurfaceInterface that has the highest position in the device's hierarchy in the
Project Explorer. (In the picture the highest SurfaceInterface in the hierarchy is marked with red arrows. You can see another SurfaceInterface directly under the marked one which is the one for the preset list.)

Also the 'Minimized View' functionality will no longer be supported. Instead there is the
'close group' which consists of the
'keep on top' and the 'close' button. In
XTC mode the close group is replaced by the xtc
button. This button gives the user access to the
XTC settings and the performance meter for his setup.


We would like to encourage you to optimize your
devices. Be aware that the new 'Protect and optimize' operation (Project Explorer -> RMB on node -> Protect and optimize) will delete all old surfaces (of the type ChildView). This is due to the fact that old surfaces have their ViewID set to 'Circuit' and all circuit elements will be deleted. So you should convert your device first (like it is explained in the following chapters) and apply this operation afterwards. For building new devices it is important to note that this function will delete the surfaces of all the simple library modules except those from 'Empty Synth', 'Empty Effect' and the 'DefaultPanel'. |
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You should also set the
'Draw ClipChildren' and the 'Select
ClipChildren' flags should as often as possible. Also 'ViewTree Group' should not be checked.
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Pad names for insert effects
With the InsertRack and the MultiFX (in XTC) we provide some interesting tools.
Especially in XTC mode it is interesting because the streaming of signals between the effects inside one MultiFX is handled by the card. This means the host is only communicating with the MultiFX. This reduces PCI overload and latency.
We would like to emphasize that for working with these devices you should name the Pads of your effects exactly
as follows:
Stereo effects: 'InL', 'InR', 'OutL' and 'OutR'
Mono effects: 'In' and 'Out'

May we draw the difference between naming Pads of modules and those of devices at this point. When dealing with modules, bipolar Pads are named in minuscules (lower case letters), unipolar Pads begin with a majuscule (capital letter). For devices all
Pad names begin with capital letters.
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Pads and Variables
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