1 (edited by icchan 2021-02-01 15:30:47)

Topic: Force TotalMix to always come to foreground when it's called...

I noticed this small UX issue now that I've started to use my new ARC USB:

If I toggle TotalMix window from the remote (or even if I call the executable directly, let's say through a  script or other means) the TotalMix window doesn't always jump on top of all other windows.

I'm on Windows 7, but this happens on Windows 10 as well some times but I don't ahve W10 machine readily at hand to test it rigorously.

To do this, one has to enable "Always on top", but this isn't a real solution since it's a bit clunky to use. Often you just assume that you can bring another window on top of the TotalMix by clicking window underneath it. It's often more intuitive so "Always On Top" is a bit of a special case :)

It would be the best for the user experience if when ever the TotalMix is called/ran or toggled, however it's done (using remote, calling the executable) the window would always force itself to foreground by doing few simple checks through Windows API.

Even better would be that even if the window is open, but is under everything else, it'll force itself to the top (similar to clicking the window itself)

In short pseudocode:

totalMixCalled(){
   //Obviously, if it's not running in the first place, run it! :D
   if(!running){
      openTotalMix()
   }
   //It's open, now check if minimized to taskbar...
   if(minimized){
      maximize()
   }
   //It's open, and maximized now check if it's on top of all other windows...
   if(!topmostWindow){
      bringToTop()
   }
}

Now we should be quite sure that what ever the status of the TotalMix was, it's now visible to the user.
Now if it's running and maximized and visible... then you can minimize it back to the notification area of the task bar :)

This would also make it easy to have a scripted button in my DAW (REAPER) that brings TM to foreground by calling the executable.

Thank you :)

Re: Force TotalMix to always come to foreground when it's called...

I just stumbled on this issue today, while trying to put the [Toggle Totalmix Windows] function to use from the ARC USB.

The changes that @icchan is suggesting sure would make this feature much more usable / useful.