Need some help with "Preview"

[Country_Bubba]

I am running multiple copies of yawcam on my system and when they come up, I want the preview window to come up at the same time.
The "original" copy operates as desired and the preview window comes up automatically. However the additional copies do not show the preview window automatically even though "Show preview" is checked in the startup settings. I have to manually go to the "Window" menu and check "Preview" and then it shows properly.

Have I missed something or is there something I can do to make it work?

Thanks in advance.

[z3r0c00l12]

Have you tried unchecking the box in the settings, saving the settings, then checking it again?

[Country_Bubba]

I think I have tried that before, but just to be sure, did it again and still no preview!

[z3r0c00l12]

The next thing you can do is use NotePad++ and compare the settings from the files "Yawcam_settings.xml", my guess is that they will be the same, except for maybe the overlay text, selected camera, etc.

I think this is more likely to be an issue with Yawcam detecting that there is already a preview window open.

[Country_Bubba]

Thanks for your thoughts. I called myself trying that before, but have tried that again. I could find nothing like you said. But this time through did raise a couple of questions:
1. I could find not "setting" or reference to the Preview window in the xml file except possibly a reference to its location. Where is the toggle command to either show or not show the preview window?
2. Could this have something to do with the fact that the instances where the preview does not show up automatically maybe have to do with the "service" command that is put into the cfg file?

Again thanks for your help, and if we can't figure it out, it is not earth shattering.

[z3r0c00l12]

That could be it, does the first instance have the "service" command?

[Country_Bubba]

No, I followed the instructions for making multiple installations as noted in the help section. The first instance is just a plain install while the multiple instances has "service" added to the config file.

[z3r0c00l12]

If you add Service to the first instance, does the preview window still show up?

[Country_Bubba]

Now why didn't I think of trying that :{( Tried it and sure enough, NO preview

[z3r0c00l12]

I don't remember why we set the "service" command for multiple instances. Does it work if you remove the service command from all instances?

[Country_Bubba]

No, tried that earlier and the instance will not load

[z3r0c00l12]

Then we will have to wait for Malun to comment as it seems it's a limitation of Yawcam.

[Country_Bubba]

OK, not a problem. I appreciate all your efforts.
Have a good day.

[malun]

Hello guys!

All your observations are correct
When you add the service command the preview window will not open at startup.

The service command is used when Yawcam runs as a service. Among other things, it instructs Yawcam lookup the settings in a different location than usual. Since it's not the ordinary user account that runs the service, Yawcam wouldn't find the settings otherwise.
However, this feature is also used to "trick" Yawcam to be able to run with several instances at the same time. If this wasn't done, all instances would read the same settings...

Since none of Yawcam's windows are visible when you run in service mode (the ordinary way), Yawcam will not open the preview window at startup. This is because the preview window makes no sense when you run as a service. The service command was not originally intended to be used the way it is done when we trick Yawcam to run with multiple instances.

Okay, that was a far to long explanation of why it works as it does...

So what can we do?
I guess the preview window could be opened at startup even though the service command is used. But I'll have to check so that these code changes don't cause any other problems.
Right now I'm working on some changes for the motion detection. When they are ready for a beta release, I can also include the changes for the preview window. (Given that it looks like it's going to work...)

/malun

[Country_Bubba]

Thanks for the explanation. Kind of figured it was something like that, but had to ask.
It is NOT a real problem for me because it is simple to pull up the GUI and make a couple of clicks. but then again I am lazy
If you can, great; if not, OK.

Thanks for everything.