Observatory Core Downloads
Latest - v1.0.3 - Bugfix 3
Release versions:
Another small set of bugfixes for Observatory Core 1.0.
- Handle case when Windows default audio device doesn't present through NAudio as device index -1.
- Also rename "Microsoft Sound Mapper" device to "Default Audio Device" to improve clarity
- Improve settings loading failure UX by falling back to a sensible default for several issue-prone settings, should prevent seeing this error repeatedly after restarting application
- Rudimentary handling for display scaling in plugin settings window
- Hoping to improve the appearance of this window further for all users, it's currently pretty awkward
Note: The portable bundle in this release has been refreshed with a minor post-release bugfix:
- Fix handling when loading StringCollection values from the portable config file.
v1.0.2 - Week One Bug Fixes
Release versions:
Small set of bug fixes for last week's release. Most notably fixes the selected theme not correctly being applied on restart, and allowing custom themes to overwrite older versions of themselves.
- Allow added themes to overwrite existing themes
- Correctly load previous selected theme on startup
- Fix startup crash when loading plugins with no UI columns
- Auto-scroll lists to most recently added item when monitoring
- Slightly relax requirement for window to be fully on-screen when reloading previous position
v1.0.1 - Multi-screen Bugfix
Release versions:
- Fixes an issue where screens were handled incorrectly on multi-display systems causing a potential error when displaying notifications
- Stop erroneous display of being a "debug build" when certification checking failed
v1.0.0 - UI Overhaul
Release versions:
It's finally here, but first there's an important point that needs attention.
MULTIPLE PLUGINS ARE BROKEN BY THIS UPDATE, YOU WILL NEED TO UPDATE THEM
Significant changes have been made to plugin presentation and behaviour. In most cases this can be fixed by updating the plugin as well, most plugins should have 1.0.0 compatible updates either already available or coming very soon.
Now that's out of the way, what's actually in this update?
What's New?!
The Observatory UI has been completely overhauled and is hopefully now a little more intuitive. The main points of difference for end users are:
- Switched from vertical side-tabs to traditional top-tabs
- Rather than dumping every setting for every plugin onto the "Core" tab Plugin settings are now presented in their own windows, accessed by selecting a plugin and hitting the "Plugin Settings" button
- Light and Dark themes are now available
- In addition it is possible to add user-created themes, instructions for creating them will come soon
- "Read-All" gives an indication of progress, doesn't appear to just hard lock the application while running, and can be cancelled by the user if it appears to be taking too long
- Plugins are no longer limited to simple grid views and can provide more complex UIs
- Plugins can be individually toggled on/off using checkboxes on the plugin list
- Resizing columns works (re-ordering soon, maybe)
- Sorting by column works (plugins can opt to disable this if their data shouldn't be considered sortable)
- Observatory better remembers its exited state in general, window location, column sizing, last tab viewed, should all persist
- Notification plugins that take over audio or popup notification duties can now disable the settings pane for the associated native functionality (native voice notifications and Herald notifications can no long talk over each other)
- Audio settings have been unified in the Core tab, rather than having individual conflicting settings per-plugin
- Changing your journal folder location is harder to do accidentally (you need to double-click the journal folder path in the core settings pane)
- Due to a UI framework change hopefully the annoying solid white popup bug is gone
- Start Monitor On Launch and Read All On Launch settings have returned
- Exporting has been improved and will now only export the tab your are currently on, as well as having both tab-separated .csv and .xlsx export options available
- A button to quickly access the plugin data folder has been added
- Explorer Custom Criteria has a new criteria annotation syntax that plays nicer with Lua development environments, though the original
::Label::style annotations still work
Another Note
There is a minor issue right now where some systems aren't able to read this signature and incorrectly report that Observatory is a debug build. This should not impact any usage of the application and can be ignored.
Observatory is now self-signed and checks all loaded plugins against its own signature to confirm their origin. If an unsigned or signed but not matching plugin is loaded the user will be presented with a one-time dismissable warning about running code from unknown sources.
This is not a robust security measure, but I always felt a little weird about Observatory being a possible vector for malicious code. By running Observatory you are implicitly trusting me to not do anything untoward, but I can't really do anything about the plugins you load, which have just as much access and ability to run arbitrary code as Observatory does. This warning is only there to serve as a reminder that by loading these plugins you are extending that trust to additional parties.