Timer counter for a custom animation timeline

[petar]

So I'm trying to playback the layers, to shuffle trough them in specific intervals of time - therefore creating something like a "Play" functionality that we have in the timeline panel. My idea was to use something like this:

for (i=0; i<animationLength; i++) {

        $.sleep (1000/framerate);

        shuffleLayer();

        }

The problem with this is that the phothoshop hangs while the script is not fully executed, so I cannot see the changes on every loop iteration. So I've tried introducing the app.refresh() function:

for (i=0; i<animationLength; i++) {

        $.sleep (1000/framerate);

        shuffleLayer();

        app.refresh();

        }

And aldough, this works, the refresh function is very slow. It takes around a full second to execute one for loop iteration. It's not really usable for thing like this. I also tried using 'while loop' with date measurement, but I still have the same problem. Does anyone know is there a better approach for something like this?

[r-bin]

Try to set manualy in actions panel or via srcipt "PlaybackOptions performance" to stepByStep. And don't use refresh().

[petar]

Unfortunately, this will not work, because the canvas does not get to upade itself if the actions are firing rapidly.

[r-bin · Accepted solution]

Try to use such function instead of app.refresh()

function clear_guides()

    {

    try {

        var d = new ActionDescriptor();

        var r = new ActionReference();

        r.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID( "Gd  " ), charIDToTypeID( "Ordn" ), charIDToTypeID( "Al  " ) );

        d.putReference( charIDToTypeID( "null" ), r );

        executeAction( charIDToTypeID( "Dlt " ), d, DialogModes.NO );

        d = null;

        r = null;

        }

    catch (e) { alert(e); throw(e); }

    }

On CS6 it very fast redraw current doc (when in step-by-step mode))

[petar]

Ok, I see what you did there...

I wish it could go even faster but it does the job. Idealy I need it to shuffle up to 24 layers per second, but I realise now that would be pretty havy for photoshop to deal with this way. Also, 'clear guides action' is messing up my doc history...

Thanks

[r-bin]

You can try my vertion of redraw_doc() function. May be faster )

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

var _redraw_doc_id;

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

function redraw_doc()

    {

    try {

        if (_redraw_doc_id != app.activeDocument.id)

            {

            _redraw_doc_id = app.activeDocument.id;

            showAll();

            }

        step_by_step();

        if (!app.activeDocument.guides.length)

            {

            clear_guides();

            }

        else

            {

            show_guides();

            }

        accelerated();

        }

    catch (e) { accelerated(); refresh(); }

    }

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

function menu(type_str, force_str, dlg, err_ctrl)

    {

    try {

        var id = (type_str.length==4) ? charIDToTypeID(type_str) : stringIDToTypeID(type_str);

        if (force_str == true) id = stringIDToTypeID(type_str);

        var r = new ActionReference();

        var d  = new ActionDescriptor();

        var ret = true;

        try {

            r.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID( "Mn  " ), charIDToTypeID( "MnIt" ), id );

            d.putReference( charIDToTypeID( "null" ), r );

            executeAction( charIDToTypeID( "slct" ), d, dlg==true?DialogModes.ALL:DialogModes.NO );

            }

        catch(e) { if (err_ctrl) alert(e); ret = false; }

        r = null;

        d = null;

        return ret;

        }

    catch (e) { alert(e); throw(e); }

    }

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

function showAll()

    {

    try {

        menu("showAll");

        menu("TgGr");

        menu("toggleLayerEdges");

        menu("toggleSlices");

        }

    catch (e) { alert(e); throw(e); }

    }

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

function clear_guides()

    {

    try {

        var d = new ActionDescriptor();

        var r = new ActionReference();

        r.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID( "Gd  " ), charIDToTypeID( "Ordn" ), charIDToTypeID( "Al  " ) );

        d.putReference( charIDToTypeID( "null" ), r );

        executeAction( charIDToTypeID( "Dlt " ), d, DialogModes.NO );

        d = null;

        r = null;

        }

    catch (e) { alert(e); throw(e); }

    }

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

function show_guides()

    {

    try {

        var d1 = new ActionDescriptor();

        var d2 = new ActionDescriptor();

        d2.putUnitDouble( charIDToTypeID( "Pstn" ), charIDToTypeID( "#Prc" ), 200 );

        d2.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID( "Ornt" ), charIDToTypeID( "Ornt" ), charIDToTypeID( "Hrzn" ) );

        d1.putObject( charIDToTypeID( "Nw  " ), charIDToTypeID( "Gd  " ), d2 );

        executeAction( charIDToTypeID( "Mk  " ), d1, DialogModes.NO );

        app.activeDocument.guides[app.activeDocument.guides.length-1].remove();

        d1 = null;

        d2 = null;

        }

    catch (e) { alert(e); throw(e); }

    }

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

function accelerated()

    {

    try {

        var d1 = new ActionDescriptor();

        var d2 = new ActionDescriptor();

        var r1 = new ActionReference();

        r1.putProperty( charIDToTypeID( "Prpr" ), charIDToTypeID( "PbkO" ) );

        r1.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID( "capp" ), charIDToTypeID( "Ordn" ), charIDToTypeID( "Trgt" ) );

        d1.putReference( charIDToTypeID( "null" ), r1 );

        d2.putEnumerated( stringIDToTypeID( "performance" ), stringIDToTypeID( "performance" ), stringIDToTypeID( "accelerated" ) );

        d1.putObject( charIDToTypeID( "T   " ), charIDToTypeID( "PbkO" ), d2 );

        executeAction( charIDToTypeID( "setd" ), d1, DialogModes.NO );

        r1 = null;

        d2 = null;

        d1 = null;

        }

    catch (e) { throw(e); }

    }

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

function step_by_step()

    {

    try {

        var d1 = new ActionDescriptor();

        var d2 = new ActionDescriptor();

        var r1 = new ActionReference();

        r1.putProperty( charIDToTypeID( "Prpr" ), charIDToTypeID( "PbkO" ) );

        r1.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID( "capp" ), charIDToTypeID( "Ordn" ), charIDToTypeID( "Trgt" ) );

        d1.putReference( charIDToTypeID( "null" ), r1 );

        d2.putEnumerated( stringIDToTypeID( "performance" ), stringIDToTypeID( "performance" ), stringIDToTypeID( "stepByStep" ) );

        d1.putObject( charIDToTypeID( "T   " ), charIDToTypeID( "PbkO" ), d2 );

        executeAction( charIDToTypeID( "setd" ), d1, DialogModes.NO );

        r1 = null;

        d2 = null;

        d1 = null;

        }

    catch (e) { throw(e); }

    }

[r-bin]

to preserve history use app.activeDocument.suspendHistory function.

app.activeDocument.suspendHistory("Redraw", "redraw_doc()");