I do like the app idea, it's a neat improvement over the gallery viewer I've been using already with some neat options I didn't even know I'd like/were possible. Still, it's pretty rough around the edges.
Bugs:
- hangs when exiting (If it runs for too long, or maybe goes through too many different images/movies. Short runs even with the big folders close normally)
- when trying to show a file that can't be displayed, it shows a white screen instead of skipping to the next one
- 50% opacity layer on top of 100% opacity one makes the 100% opaque layer partially transparent
- 50% layer opacity with 100% app opacity is more opaque than 100% layer opacity with 50% app opacity when they should be the same, might be connected with the above bug. I want layer opacity to behave like app opacity btw, since app opacity feels smoother and gives better results/control.
- using the transparent app option, there's an invisible bar along the top of the screen that's not clickthrough aside from the app logo.
- the fader effect seems to reset with each image change
- fader "override opacity" option does nothing, to either the layer opacity or app opacity.
- When I load one of my save files, one of the layers doesn't cycle. I can switch it manually, turn it off and on again to switch the first image, change cycle length, change the folder, but it's just stuck on the first image it loads while the other layer cycles just fine.
- stacking 2 fader effects on one layer works strangely. I'd expect it to make the layer at base opacity when both faders are at 100%, and 0% opaque when both faders are at 0, but it seems like there's a war going on between them, where one works at the start, and then the other fader takes over and disregards the first one. Ideally, I want one fader to gently but quickly pulse the image between 90% and 100%, and the other slowly fade it in and out between 0% and 100%.
- as mentioned before, some files can't be displayed. Since there's no way to know which file it was in big galleries, it's hard to know what to exclude/report as a bug. An error log file which stores the names of files with issues would be nice.
- Alignment in horizontal split option does nothing. 100% position moves the image completely outside the screen instead of sticking it to the other edge.
Feature suggestions:
- ability to move the app logo button in transparent app mode
- since it's made for use with existing galleries, the ability to select/exclude file types would be nice, especially with the "include subfolders" option added recently
- fade between images option, with customizable speed
- for glitch effects, opacity and strength should be separate bars (I want more opaque/visible distortion, but to have its sway less extreme)
- different opacity blend option, like multiply in Photoshop. The current transparency option makes light, sub-30% opacity images on even moderately light backgrounds look extremely bright and washes out a lot of detail on both the image and the background (though this might be a result of the opacity bug mentioned earlier). Main thing I care about is to be able to discern the background/desktop well without making the image that's on top practically invisible. Not sure if it would help for every image, but galleries with mostly bright images would benefit from a different blend option than those with mostly dark ones.
- keyboard shortcuts. To increase/decrease app transparency, to turn clickthrough on/off, to enable/disable all layers, to enable/disable the logo button, to open the menu, to enable/disable shortcuts, all configurable, and make sure you allow alt+ctrl+shift combos.
- fader could use more customization in general. Maybe "time to stay at lowest/highest opacity" or "delay before fade in/out" options would be enough to allow periodically flashing the layer on screen or periodically fading the layer out to show the layer below, though faster fade in/outs would be a bonus.
- make the fader opacity work off of layer opacity, where 100% fader opacity is whatever the current layer opacity is. Currently, it's impossible to use the random layer opacity option along with a fader.
- the ability to select a single file for a layer instead of a whole folder (useful for video and music)
- I get what you tried to do with the colorize lite effect, but I feel like it would be more useful as a tint-type layer. you could then fade it in and out separately to other layers, and be able to fade between colors over time as well. maybe add a spiral effect option to it so it tints the image in different colors in a spiral pattern rather than spiraling the images themselves.
- expand the horizontal split option. You seem to already have everything in place to be able to resize the layer however you like and place it wherever you want on the screen, so implement the UI to do exactly that, so it's possible to have a small video playing in a corner of the screen, or a tower of 4 different layers on the right 20% of the screen. Instead of "horizontal split" make it just "layer size/position" with "vertical size" "horizontal size" "vertical position" "horizontal position" options.
- a "duplicate layer" option (to help quickly setting up similar layers in different positions)
- personally, I'd find it interesting to be able to include multiple folders in one layer, and have them pull files from different folders at different rates (for example, one folder has 10 files and another has 100, but if you set the first folder selection rate at x10, half of the shown images would be from the first folder and half would be from the second).
