I'm using a button with a very simple command "Play QUIET" to play back selected WAV and MP3 files. For some reason the button works only on files where the total path and filename length is below some threshold I currently am unable to pinpoint.
Could this be a codec pack messing with things, or is this a DOpus issue?
Can anyone reproduce?
EDIT: Using newest version on windows 10 enterprise LTSC 2019
EDIT: The path length might actually not be part of the issue. Try renaming a wav/mp3 file to more than 50 characters --> play is not working
There's a 127 usable character limit for the full path for me.
I can play: S:\aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.wav S:\Test \aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.wav
but not: S:\aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.wav S:\Test\aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.wav
Windows 10 Home 64-bit 1909 and Directory Opus 12.9 (stable)
This is a limitation of the Windows MCI API, unfortunately.
We've always worked around it by getting the short path, but Microsoft helpfully disabled short paths by default in Windows 10.
Maybe it's time we switched to a different API for playing wav files, but we'll need to find the time to evaluate the other options and make that change.
Ah, that's too bad but thanks for the information!
As a sidenote with regard to developing audio playback in general:
I work in game audio and dopus has been a real boon in replacing in-app file browsers and speeding up workflow. The ability to instantly preview sound files without loading a media player and keeping your mouse where the files are is absolutely amazing when working with large amounts of files.
The only downside seems to be the reliance on directshow and windows media player which has lead to problems reliably playing back different audio formats, and the lack of customization and control options with the Play command in general.
Me (and few others here) would be absolutely over the moon if dopus had things like seek events (+/- X seconds at the push of a button), waveform seek on the fabulous waveform tooltip, or an integrated playback engine with easy codec installs (or built-in support especially for the industry standard ogg vorbis).
Just throwing this out there - very grateful for the software! Thanks!
We're looking at newer APIs and components to replace the video player, so this fits into that type of thing. I'm not sure how advanced we'll end up making it, though.
If the viewer pane could play sound files with a clickable waveform, would that replace the Play command and dialog for you?
The Play command serves an important role because "Play QUIET" is the best way to quickly preview large amounts of (short) audio files, which is a big chunk audio work. The waveform seek is needed for longer recordings, where you have hours of material in one file and need to visually find locations of interest.
An ideal workflow would be to have the ability to chain both uses together, where the first step is to quickly start playback of a file with no needed windows or other extras, and the second step would be to (when needed) open a window with waveform seeking to get playback to a desired point in the file.
I want to stress that the thing that is great in DOpus right now is the speed with which the Play command starts playing a file, combined with not having to move your mouse to stop playback or close windows that might have popped up and are now in the way of a drag and drop to your editor etc.
I preview/open hundreds if not thousands of audio files a day, and the difference between playback starting in 2 seconds and 200 milliseconds, or you having to spend an extra click or two to get to the next file is a dealbreaker issue.
The 3rd party media player apps all have varying problems of slow startup times, windows that won't stay in the background, lack of visual seek and little to no file operation possibilities. These are the reasons why DOpus has been the best media player for demanding work, despite not being designed to be one!