[Plugin] Image Overlay vs Default Image Inheritence

[ginjaninja 659]

Hi @Luke& Emby team,

when it comes to plugins doing overlays, is there a fixable shortcoming in the way image overlays work on inherited images? Or is there an intended way to work with default images to work around the following issue.

Consider a plugin which overlays useful data onto a show thumbnail.

Consider a show which doesnt have a show thumbnail (so inherits the first backdrop image as show's thumbnail).

The plugin doesnt overlay onto a thumbnail image that doesnt exist (even though inheritence is working).

Eg. No Thumbnail, backdrop is inherited as thumbnail, no overlay present

 

Eg Thumbnail present, overlay works.

 

Is this behaviour a limitation

• of the plugin
  • (is it the job of the plugin to know its in a inheritence situation and overlay on the backdrop, probably not even possible and messy?)
• of the Emby Ecosystem.
  • If the plugin asks to overlay onto the shows thumbnail and emby determines the shows thimbnail is inherited from the backdrop, should Emby hide this internal monologue and allow the plugin just to work; by which i mean an overlay is presented on the inherited image.
• or just a neccessary outcome for inherited images working, without turning everything into a "rats nest".

 

TLDR,

is it possible for the very useful default image inheritence to do its job whilst abstracting away any need of plugin overlay developers to need to be aware of inheritence. Could the plugin developer just define the overlay and the target (Show - Thubmnail in this example) and the result just work; without breaking other functionality?

thanks

Edited yesterday at 07:33 PM by ginjaninja

[Luke 43107]

HI, yes we talked about this in the past but never ended up doing anything. The image api would have to be expanded to let client apps pass in some kind of context parameter to describe how the image is being used, and then that information could funnel through to image enhancers.

[ginjaninja 659]

The status quo might be a little more nuanced. Inherited Episode Images (When an episode image inherits the show poster), do already work for overlays (the episode overlay on the inheirited image is present), so maybe this is just about about specific images such as thumbnail. (Im not the plugin developer so cant be sure on wether a workaround is in place, but it seems the overlay on inherited episode images is just 'working')

[ebr 16713]

But do you really want that overlay (or any overlay) on the backdrop?  I don't think so because it is going to be there wherever the backdrop is shown.

[ginjaninja 659]

3 hours ago, ebr said:

But do you really want that overlay (or any overlay) on the backdrop?  I don't think so because it is going to be there wherever the backdrop is shown.

To avoid conflation i believe "the backdrop" in your statement is both a source (eg jpg) image and  'a backdrop',

i assume Emby's cache for "show thumbnail", is an abstraction over the top -  I assume the source backdrop image is taken and 'made into/cached as;' the show thumbnail (by way of the rules of inheritence);

i assert when looking at 'a backdrop', no overlay would  be requested, and when looking at a show thumbnail, a 'show thumbnail overlay' would be requested.  I dont think it would be a [good] solution if an image presented as  'a backdrop' in the ui received the "show thumbnail overlay".

I am at a disadvtage in explaining as i dont know whats possible (or the inner workings of overlays) but hopefully that explain the intention of the feature request.... if the following  quote doesnt do it better.

 

23 hours ago, ginjaninja said:

is it possible for the very useful default image inheritence to do its job whilst abstracting away any need of plugin overlay developers to need to be aware of inheritence. Could the plugin developer just define the overlay and the target (Show - Thubmnail in this example) and the result just work; without breaking other functionality?

This seems to be already working on inherited epiosde images.  when looking at the inherited epiosde image (whoose source is the show poster by the rules of inheritence), the "episode overlay" is displayed  and when looking at the show poster (whoose souce is the show poster) the "show overlay" is displayed. Sane source image, different overlay in different circumstances, successful granular presentation in the ui...so Emby already seems to be working for [inherited] episode images; But not working for [inherited] show thumbnails.

[ebr 16713]

What you are seeing is really just by accident not by design.  There is only one of each image.  The fact you are seeing different results is probably just due to caching at particular sizes but could not be relied upon for what you are wanting.