Shuffle playlist error and a play count question

[poddex]

Hello, dear friends!
When "Preserve shuffle table between sessions" enabled, shuffle algorithm skips the last just added track to a playlist. For example, firstly I add 4 songs to a playlist ("Repeat" is OFF, "Shuffle" ON). When I hit "Next" 3 times, cursor plays 3 songs. Then I added +3 song (7 total). And when I hit "Next" even 10 times, WACUP skips the last 7th song in playlist. I found this behavior when there is over 3 song in playlist (including just added).
Alternatively a question: is there an option in WACUP that allows me to control play count of a songs? I want to play every song only 1 (ONE) time until playlist completed (including added songs on a fly), something like Unplayed Playlist plugin in Winamp.

"Unplayed Playlist - Makes Winamp skip already played files so unplayed files can be played first. The application can also monitor when and how many times predefined files are played, it frees user from enabling/disabling the plug-in every time and it makes Winamp skip files with higher play count so the files with lower play count can be played first."

I hoped that WACUP does that, but with this shuffle error it's impossible (strange behavior, I don't know, which of songs will be skipped when playlist is over 900+ items).
Thanks.

[dro]

The shuffle issue is already being looked into & I'm hoping to have it resolved for the next build though I'm still struggling to replicate the issue myself despite a few other users having noted the issue even prior to the 7170 build & back into the 68x0 builds & given me numerous steps to follow.

There isn't an alternative existing feature in WACUP like the plug-in you've mentioned to control over what's been played as that was the intention of preserving the shuffle table between sessions so it won't lose that played history to avoid duplication. However I don't recognise the plug-in you've mentioned but I would assume it should still be able to work with WACUP as long as it's using the documented Winamp apis.

-dro

[poddex]

Unfortunately, this plugin doesn't work with WACUP. WACUP can't start when this plugin put into WACUP Plugins folder. There are few huge problems with this plugin.
1) For now plugin author stopped developing it and stopped answer on user questions. There are no official contacts and web-sites of an author, so I can't contact him.
2) Plugin have a bug - when it's internal playlist db rich over 500+ items, it suddenly begins loop one song randomly. So plays 1, 2, 3, 4 and suddenly begins loop 5th song (or 7th, or 8th, randomly). After Winamp stop, the plugin internal db crashed (after some looping issues), and I must recreate a new Unplayed Playlist, so all play counts became lost. But with point (1), described above, there is no way to resolve this bug.
3) Another bug  - Plugin db crashed after I added a new songs to a playlists and remove some songs. Can't resolve it because of (1).
Only hope for your solve. Waiting for a new build!
Soon or not? =)

[poddex]

I can help with replicate this - can make a little onscreen - video, that explains the problem.

[dro]

Unfortunately, this plugin doesn't work with WACUP. WACUP can't start when this plugin put into WACUP Plugins folder.

I've just tried installing the attached version into one of my WACUP test installs & it loaded the plug-in ok. If you're running a portable WACUP install then that intentionally blocks 3rd party plug-ins (I've no easy way of knowing if a 3rd party plug-in is portable friendly). If that's what you're using then Preferences -> Advanced -> Portable Mode -> change the option to allow 3rd party plug-ins to be loaded.

1) For now plugin author stopped developing it and stopped answer on user questions. There are no official contacts and web-sites of an author, so I can't contact him.

Contacting anyone who was making old plug-ins is nigh on impossible nowadays & tbh it was always a bit unfair on most of them to be expected to keep at things when their use cases change. I'm one of the odd ones in effectively still going after 18 years.

With the other issues, I've had a quick look back on the plug-in & I'd noted issues with it when I reviewed it for the old winamp site (been so long I'd forgotten I'd seen the plug-in before) especially once the playlist grows beyond a certain point. So likely you're experiencing one of those issues.

-dro

[poddex]

Hope, you will solve a problem with Shuffle, so it will be possible to stop using this plugin.
Maybe you can add it functionality to WACUP?
If you solve Shuffle issue, all will be ok, idea is the same.
If you want to obtain a video described Shuffle issue  - let me know, I will make it.

[dro]

If you want to obtain a video described Shuffle issue  - let me know, I will make it.

Can you do that please as I've tried following what you've described but it doesn't appear to skip any files from what I can tell.

You can also use Preferences -> Advanced -> Diagnostics -> Shuffle table to see what it's meant to be doing.

-dro

[poddex]

I made little GIF for you to describe the problem.
IMPORTANT! This issue is inpersistent, happens from time to time. I tried 4 times and it appears in 2 times.
Core: by some reason Shuffle algorithm moves one of just added song to start of the Shuffle table. In this GIF "Mike Leanings - Guiding Light" composition added to a 2nd position in a list (all attention on diagnosis window). AND IT WILL BE NEVER PLAYED! That's a problem. "Mike Leanings - Guiding Light" composition must be added to a last position, but this did not happen!
Hope you will find, what is it and solve it in a next build!

[dro]

Ah, now that's not at all what I was thinking was being described. So it is correctly adding all of the new items into the shuffle table but it's placing one of the new ones within the existing 'played' block instead of keeping all of the new ones at that end. Will be looking into fixing that later tonight.

-dro

[poddex]

Sounds great!

[dro]

I've made changes to how adding new items into the shuffle table is done when the current shuffle table has either been partially or fully played through based on the current playback position.

That should mean if there's still items remaining to play then that'll get mixed up with the new items otherwise if it's already at the end then only the new items will get shuffled up.

If you've intentionally gone backwards in the shuffle table then it's going to change things when going forward which I think is acceptable otherwise it gets messier to track what to do in what action.

I hope that will do enough for what's been reported without making things worse else where.

-dro

[poddex]

Based on your description - it's a best solution. I will test it as soon as you put out new beta or release.

[poddex]

I see that shuffle diagnosis table shows that just added songs can be put in a middle or in a start of a table (like before), but for now they all are played. Thanks for your work.

[dro]

Depending on what the current playback position is in relation to the shuffle table & the position within, that will determine if it'll only shuffle the new items being added at the end or if it'll shuffle them plus anything already there that's after the current position.

That way if you've started playing some then it won't break the previous history when adding more. It gets a bit weird if you've played some & go back but that is tricky to manage without complicating things for now.

So as long as it's seeing everything & working ok for you with the above behaviour then that's good to know 🙂

-dro