@Sam Deans
Maybe I was not clear enough so let's try another way
- First, there is no space lost at all in the UI.
My suggestion is to add a global setting in the "settings" to set the default behaviour for Mix inputs. Point is to tell vMix which is your preference, like
> do you want your Mix Inputs dropdowns to be populated "by default" with all your projects inputs or only those that you select ?"
> I'd go for option "only those I select"
Then, in the "general tab" of each input, I'd like to see a tick box to set this particular input to be listed in the Mix inputs dropdowns.
This has absolutely no impact on the UI.
But, otoh, this would drastically impact the efficiency and the confort when using Mix inputs by not overloading the dropdowns with tons of inputs which will never be used through the Mix input. We would have immediate reading of the choice without scrolling to input 62 and back to input 5. Better ergonomics for better use! Live switching requires to be fast and precise, not risky and ambiguous !
- Second, I already extensively use shortcuts and control panels and softwares like UTC and Panel Builder to build my projects. I have around 100 shortcuts globally defined for common use + specific ones by projects. This is already too much ! We need to simplify and to make more flexible !
As a matter of fact, the reason why Mix inputs were implemented in vMix is to reduce the required number of inputs and shortcuts for sub switching within multiviews, PiPs and external outs.
See this post (which I believe started or contributed to the Mix input concept) :
https://forums.vmix.com/....aspx?g=posts&t=8622As is, the Mix input is close to being perfect: I think the only flaw is that the dropdowns are filled with too many entries which for the most part are totally irrelevant when you have set your use case for the Mix input.
- Don't get me wrong, shortcuts are great - as well as direct http/tcp requests to the API - but in some situations, they lack flexibility. I have use cases where I would need way more shortcuts than a control panel can handle and it takes a lot of time to set everything up and to memorize your setup. I know some guys produce produce the same show over and over. I don't. All my projects are different and it takes me days to set everything up sometimes for a 1 hour show... Sometimes I have to set shortcuts "just in case" I need them... or for a single operation on a several days production. It makes no sense to have a button on a control panel reserved for something that won't be used at all or for a one time keypress... That's stupid and that's when the Mix Input comes at the rescue !
- Still in this logic to try to reduce the number of shortcuts and to make vMix more flexible, I did this other Feature Request 2 or 3 years ago about Dynamic Inputs/Functions/Values. It's the same concern : less shortcuts for more operations.
My explanation (
https://forums.vmix.com/...-Functions-for-Shortcuts ) showed that shortcuts are not the solution to everything, especially not when for basic operations one needs to create 60 shortcuts to operate 6 inputs with 10 variations. Dynamic Inputs could reduce from 60 to 16 and that's a big deal, especially for control panels setups. Although it's been implemented in v24, I'm not sure it's ready for primetime yet >
https://forums.vmix.com/...es-implementation-in-v24This Feature Request here goes with the same concern. I love the Mix inputs but I feel it could be better, easier to use and more efficient if we could restrict the inputs to use with. It's just a slight enhancement to make it perfect !
