[solved] Open project on start up

Yes you can pass a file path as a command line parameter but I don't recall the exact details from memory. But I think you might have to enclose the path with double quotes.

There is no specific switch or flag to pass, just: RP.exe "c:\path\to\file.rpl".

But we need to add another option for your scenario to really work: "enable power on document load"... as currently you would still have to press Ctrl+4 to enable power once loaded.

It's quite trivial to add, so just tell me if you would need this option or not, and it could be added pretty quickly.

Richard,

We would definitely like to fully support your entire scenario, as it is a pre-requisite for a pro-audio usage in events/installations where RP would run in a rack-mounted computer, with possibly no screen at all, fully automated.

1) would be done by adding a start menu entry
2) would be done with the command line parameter in (1)
3) will need the extra option I mentionned to enable power on document load
4) would be done with the hidden option to disable the save confirmations
5) no warning in RP...

...but of course there are other possible messageboxes or required interactions, for instance if something goes wrong or if a plugin crashes. So that would need to be adressed too.

As for the screen resolution change, we are aware that there is a bug in current implementation. And there is another issue: it automatically switches to patch mode (windowed) and it can be problematic maybe.

But overall those are just small details to sort out, and with your feedback I'm confident we will succeed in making it possible.

Alright, it was a bit delayed but here it comes!

Rack Performer can now be used for fixed installations fully automated with no human interaction, and it is even possible to play music with it with no screen and no mouse nor keyboard attached.

To begin with, we added more options in the "General" config tab to deal with what should be done after a document has been loaded. The "show comments (if any)" and "enter 'Edit mode'" options were already present but there are three new ones that should be pretty self-explanatory: "enable 'Perform mode'", "enable Power" and "start master clock".

Already with these options turned on and by providing a file path to the command line (via the Windows shortcut options), the application will load any document on startup and enable power so you can play right out with no interaction.

The "start master clock" option has been made separate because the system might be in transport-slave mode, in which case the start command would be received later from an external transport master or controller.

This solved one part of the problem but there were still a few message boxes that could be displayed in certain cases (mostly to notify about error conditions etc, for instance when a plugin crashed) and we felt it was not acceptable when you have both hands already on your instrument or on your controllers.

This is why we changed all modal dialogs behaviours when Perform mode is enabled to use the Screen Ticker instead of message boxes, allowing to display slightly less informative messages but with no interaction required.

So, to make sure you will never have to reach for your mouse or keyboard while playing, just enable Peform mode. You might ask why we just don't remove all modal dialogs once for good, but this is of course not that simple. We already minimized their amount as much as we could and those that remain are a necessity, while some are appropriate when preparing / editing.

Now this covers the performance part, and only two spots where message boxes could be displayed were left: document loading and document closing. For the latter, there is the document save confirmation prompt, again a necessary evil. And for the former, a lot of different messages could be shown to explain what errors were encountered.

When loading a working document there should be no message displayed but if you really want to ensure there will never ever be any modal dialog when loading and closing documents, there are two advanced hidden config options for that purpose (one was already mentionned above):

<GUI-DisableSaveConfirmations bool="1" />
<GUI-DisableLoadConfirmations bool="1" />

Make sure the application is not running when you edit its config file. The procedure is explained in this post.

To recap:

1. lauch RP, tick the "enable Power" and "enable 'Perform mode'" in the config window "general" tab (eventually "enter 'Edit mode' too)
2. in "help" menu select "locate log files on disk" to get an explorer window where the config file is located
3. close RP
4. edit the two advanced option in config file
5. create a start menu shortcut or a task manager startup task to launch RP with the appropriate file path as command line argument