Backend developer here learning a new UI framework.
I’ve been pretty sick of dragging folders into MPV/MultiFun Player for awhile now and have made a side project of it the last couple of weeks. I’m kind of a data junkie, so everything is tucked neatly in it’s folders where it belongs, but Windows Explorer doesn’t really show previews where you need them to avoid having to click into folders and pretty much any file manager you get is only going to be a little better feature wise.
So, I made a thing. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile and I think I’ve gotten the idea to a place where I actually like it and will keep using it myself, but what is the community interest like for a better way to view your library?
Is anyone excited or got a better solution?
Basic technical stuff…
This just enumerates a directory and finds all the video files. If there’s a matching .funscript or .*.funscript, you get an icon. I think everyone stores the funscript beside the video with the same name right?
This isn’t playing anything. It will launch the video in a default player, and I haven’t looked at which player apps might support launching directly to them, but, if the other app accepts it gracefully… it’s on the list.
I’m mostly interested in the presentation of the files. So I’m not keeping a database of any sort. The largest library (folder full of folders with videos and scripts) that I have is 300 files, and it works plenty fast from the file system I think.
It is generating a 150x150 thumbnail.png file and it extracts the meta tags from the funscript into it’s own meta.json. I’m considering moving them to a secret folder so they’re hidden, but, I don’t hate the idea of these being supporting files that I keep around.
These meta tags, can be given glorious purpose! I’ve got a big list of performers that I’m matching from filenames to build the performer filter lists in the screenshot, but tags in metadata would be even better.
The idea is that this app uses meta.json for it’s data. This is the data you’ll see and be able to edit in Funsplorer. You can export back to the funscript if you want (with auto-backup). But this should keep from wrecking anyone’s collection or interfering with other apps.
Some, like me, store them in the My Documents\Interactive folder. Easier to make a backup of all your scripts when they are in one place instead of having to traverse directories on different hard drives and NAS folders to find them all.
I don’t know if you are in 2D or VR. But if you are in VR and accept not to change the original file names you have XBVR as an option.
However, that is not a good choice if you rename your files like me since XBVR can’t handle that.
Someone mentioned Stash as an alternative to handle 2D. Stash is also open source on github just like XBVR.
Ah, thanks for that. I hadn’t thought about the Interactive folder. That’s definitely something I can support.
Those apps both look great. I haven’t tried these, but I have used XBMC and Plex in the past. The problem I’m trying to solve with Funsplorer is a little more narrow.
What I’m doing different:
I’m not super interested in the “immersive media experience”. That’s been done crazy good already. I’m more interested in improving the quality of data that exists on my drive and the quality of data that we share (I’ll die on the “clean data” soapbox, I don’t care…)
When you download a script from ES, you get multiple downloads from multiple places (Chrome, mega, torrent, etc.). We do our best to keep these named correctly and everything organized, but sometimes they slip through, and browsing mid-session just to find out that the video you picked was one that didn’t get named just right kinda sucks… I wanted an easy way to see that these were paired up correctly with good naming.
The thumbnail is pretty, but more or less good for spotting duplicates. With all the compilation videos, even video previews are cool, but not always super useful for anything.
Those apps are super nice for organizing too. The complaint I have with some of them I’ve tried is that if I spend time tagging and naming all my files in something like Plex, they’re still named a wreck on the drive, and if I ever go to use something other than Plex, I have to redo it again, or deal with some compatibility or migration stuff, or who knows… Even if I stick with Plex, you’re not coming over to watch porn, so it’s really just me and the guy that has to clean up my office when I die that will ever get to appreciate it. I don’t think we need another library to build up. We have metadata spots right there in the .funscript file that’s only being passively used anywhere. Maybe a plugin to read these into a Plex like app would be cool, but that’s not a very good home base for promoting their use.
I think the biggest thing that most people complain about those apps, is the setup or configuration. Nothing huge maybe, but “where do scripts go” or “how do I use X-software with Y-device”… I don’t think we need another bad way to tie those together, so, you get drag and drop from Funsplorer to whatever you use to play your videos and scripts. It may not be the fanciest, but I think it might be the easiest way to go from Thumbnail to Whatever you’ve found that works for your setup.
I may have them beat in system requirements also. Just quickly looking, Funsplorer+MFP+MPV uses about 300mb memory. Most of those apps are pretty light, but, I’m pretty sure Chrome starts at 30% hah
Overall, I don’t aim to replace those apps. There’s a slice of “Windows Explorer could be better at showing me what’s in these folders” and “wow, only 13 clicks to tag this file, I just won’t do it” that I want to fill before the amount of new content we get every day overwhelms me.
That may be a little ranty, but thanks a lot for the comment. I’m still trying to justify this existing to myself too. I like it more as a tool than a product so far. I don’t so much care about being the only piece of software anyone uses for funscripts as much as I don’t think we should be hand editing json files for metadata that no one uses because it’s not really implemented in any usable way.
Funny, last night while editing Metadata for a few scripts ive been working on I asked myself if anything like this existed, it’s great idea its exactly what I was thinking of but better lol. Good luck with further development.
Hey Khrull! I’m familiar with XTPlayer. It’s probably been 6 months since I’ve gotten a new build, but from the screenshots it looks like the library window has come a long way. Way to go, it’s looking good.
hi, i’m new user of handy. i’m looking for better way to realtime sync the video and the script as i found latency on other video weblinks, it works but not so smooth for me. So i searched if there is any other options for this and i found your XTP. I downloaded it from web and now i’m trying to figure out how to sync video with scripts. Can you help me if u don’t mind. Thanks
And yeah Huge Thankyou for all that you guys are doing, making effort creating all stuffs like this to take it to the next level. We all are enjoying. Thanks once again