View Full Version : XBMC Skining program Update.
here is a preview of the gui interface. by clicking on the preview page(tab in the upper left under button) it will take you to the preview page that will display you current skin for loaded xml file.
the view below is the main editing page that will display all the controls and allow you to see each control and make changes as needed. there will also be a preview for individual controls on this page. example would be if you load a button, it will display the button as it would look on your xbox.
so far i have all the loading done. you can load an xml file see all the data, and images from the media folder.
what needs to be done:
preview of loaded xml file as it would look on the xbox.
ability to save all changes.
create new controls.
ftp access to your xbox for editing realtime.
here is a preview:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/jimk72/preview.jpg
one more thing, if you don't see a control option please let me know. i searched and searched and i think i have them all.
these options will not be availible to all controls and will be disabled if the selected control is incapable of having such argument.
any suggestions or comments welcome!!!
jimk
TeknoJuce
2005-10-27, 01:49
sample download link? :) are you building it in vb.net or c# ?
no download yet. all the control options are in plain view in the pic.
the program is in perl using delphi 7.
anyway depending on how much time my wife lets me on i should have a beta within a week. all depends on if the sox win tonight :) she gets upset if i don't sit next to her during the games. lol
fantastic... we definitely could use a skin builder app.
are you planning a drag and drop interface?
one suggestion i have is to have an option to have a grid showing all the objects and the associated properties. and have it editable. i call it a quick edit grid. here's a very basic mockup i built for another app...
http://www.promixis.com/phpbb2/files/skinbuilder_example.jpg
looks great for now, the only thing i can think is missing are the <alttexturefocus> used for the toggle buttons; <textureleft>, <textureleftfocus> etc used in select button; <textureradiofocus> used in radiobuttons; some other things like spin controls and slider controls are missing too but you can probably skip these controls for now and focus your work on easyer and more important things.
i'll be able to tell you more as soon as you give us a first release of the program.
ok thanks i will add that asap. i am having a hard time with the preview screen. if i make it so you can drag things it gets kind of messy. what i have come up with is the ability to click on a control and it will showup in the preview and you can drag it around and set it up but it will not load a xml file and show all items. i have it like that now and becomes a mess with all the images and buttons.
i also need to know what screen resolution most of you guys use for your desktop?
mine is 1600x 1200 so i can get alot on there. but i don't want a program that is too big for peoples default screen size. on the other hand if i go to small i can't get all the control items on screen.
i was just adding those and remembered there are only 6 textures for any one control. when you select a toggle button it will rename the label for the textures to go with what the control uses!
i run at 1280x1024
here's a suggestion that may help with different screen resolutions...
how about making it simular to how amny web portals (msn, yahoo, etc) and be able to open/close and move sections. you basically have 3 columns, and multiple sections on your layout.
can you make each a separate section and have the ability to divide the window into 3 columns?
then people open/close and move sections to the column they wish. thus, fitting it to thier specific needs for editing, and needs for screen size and resolution.
i got the size of the app down to a decent size(800heightx1080wide). now i have to figure how to deal with the strings.xml file. the idea i came up with is if you want to use it copy it and put it into the apps folder. if it is there than it will load them from there otherwise it will just display the id number. this will only effect the skin when editing. once loaded to your xbox it will use the strings.xml file from there to display the text.
things are comming along nice. if there is anyone that wants to play around with it just let me know. there is no saveing to a file yet so you would be able to just load a xml file and check out how it works.
references loading and updating is done.
drag and drop is working nice.
interconnected both pages so you are editing the same control.
so far drag and drop works for:
images, labels, buttons.
:)
if you post it they will try...
sorry, bad hacked movie reference.
but seriously, if you post it you will get many testers.
i have a couple of things to finish up and if i can get a host i will upload it sunday.
this looks really good from the screen shots. if you're having problems with screen real-estate, you can probably remove the right-most column entirely.
the "all controls" section could easily be replaced with a button to
open this as a popup dialog.
i'm not sure what the little preview in the middle is for when you have a preview page in the tabs at the top.
and the xml view in the bottom could be replaced with a button "view xml" which brings up a popup dialog with the xml.
i changed some things up and it looks like maybe monday or tuesday before a release. i got tons done today.
a grid is out of the question as there are 90+ control settings and it became a mess looking through all the info to see what you are looking for.
i finished up the loading and saveing of the xml files. as far as i can see it will load any xml file and resave all the info.
i have to change the front a little more as i found out there are 90+ variables that can be set. i am going to try to build a dynamic system that will change depending on the type of control selected.
i have done alot of hints and pull down selections so you don't have to read the manual and edit at the same time. most of all the info you need to know will be shown to you.
i may put a save function in but remember if i do, this is a very early build! so don't use your originals. make a backup folder and then mess around with it.
here are some updated pics:
this is the newer front end:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/jimk72/preview1.jpg
as you can see i had to make room for all the variables for all the control types :) lots of them.
here is on of the actual drag and drop page.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/jimk72/preview2.jpg
all the items you see can be draged to anyware on that screen. if you click on a button it will show its on focus image as button 1 has been clicked. the button on the right that says preview will display the xml code for that control on the bottom right side. all changes will effect the control in real time. if you want to clear a control from the screen just right click and select yes and it will be cleared.
this next pic is how i check my code. it is a loaded xml file and then i use my variables that were loaded from that file to create a new file and as you can see they are the same. thats a good thing.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/jimk72/preview3.jpg
hope you enjoyed the pics. monday may be a busy day so hopefully by tuesday i will have a beta release.
happy halloween!
TeknoJuce
2005-10-31, 13:53
how large will the beta compile be compressed?
so far it is 1.24mb uncompressed. since i use delphi you can just release the exe file. no need for any extra dlls, .net ect... there will be a ref. file with images for those that don't have the pm3 png files. these ref. images will be basic squares with text so you know what you are looking at.
very nice!
i foresee a ton of new skins being built after this releases!
is there a "snap to grid" control for the preview (drag-n-drop) window? helps to align images and such.
not a snap to grid, but it shows the posx,posy as you move it so you could just align one side to a set number and then the other would be spacing, keep the same for other items.
looking forward to this just for the use of making a few changes to the default skin videocovers etc... without having to work out manual co-ords :)
thanks
jim,
when i try running your app the error says i need the qtintf70.dll
i think this is because you're compiling it with the option to use shared libraries.
possible solutions:
a) recompile and tell it to link all into the exe directly. to do this, go to project --> options --> packages tab and uncheck the build with runtime packages checkbox. then rebuild your project (project --> build). the exe will be a bit larger, but it'll contain everything that is needed and there's no need to deploy the dll as well.
this is from delphi 6, so the above instructions may vary slightly for delphi 7.
b) if you do not actually need to use the qt in your program (which would be nice) just remove that entry from the "uses" field at the top of the form's code and re-build/recompile it. it won't need that file anymore.
thanks for working on this app!
i played with it a bit... working pretty well so far. a few questions...
a) are you going to support xboxmediacenter.xml? when i try to load it it says it cannot find references.xml. maybe it needs a setting for that path as well? it should know where to find it (in the pal, pal16x9, etc)
b) are you planning to support textures.xpr?
c) are you going to tie control types to the properties so only the properties that are relevant to that control type are avail on the window when editing? not vital but would be nice.
cannot wait to see where this goes!
quadraspeed
2005-11-06, 11:28
just wanted to say thank you! this app will help alot of people making adjustments to their skins and creating new skins.
can't wait to get this program into my grabby lil' hands :bowdown:
one small cosmetic bug. in the settings window you forgot to change the title from "form2" to settings.
keep it up.. i'll have to take a better look when time permitts. looks like a great tool to ease up skin making.
affini:
the reference was in the pngimage.pas i was using, i tracked it down and it is gone for now.
as for the references file, this needs to be loaded with every skin xml to get all the settings xbmc will see. i could set it up to edit the other xml files once i get this version stable.
yes soon the only options you will see will be the ones for the selected control. as this is just a cosmetic thing and has alot of coding and research to complete it is not a priority. but will be done.
the latest ver has tons of updates and many fixed bugs.
if you use the current version please remember it is not stable and an early beta. i would not put any xml files edited with this ver. on your xbox. i released it just to find some obvious bugs i might have overlooked. just get used to how things work and mess with the preview :)
the next ver is due out wed. night around 8-9pm central.
quadraspeed
2005-11-08, 07:44
affini:
if you use the current version please remember it is not stable and an early beta. i would not put any xml files edited with this ver. on your xbox. i released it just to find some obvious bugs i might have overlooked. just get used to how things work and mess with the preview :)
the next ver is due out wed. night around 8-9pm central.
i am wondering where to download any version of this app? sounds to me like there is a beta already available - but where am i able to grab it ?!
best regards
HaggleLad
2005-11-08, 16:30
you can download the app here:
http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/~xbox....ner.rar (http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/~xbox/xbox-scene/tools/skinconf/xbmcskinner.rar)
(the infos available in xbox-scene.com news)
quadraspeed
2005-11-08, 19:13
you can download the app here:
http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/~xbox....ner.rar (http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/~xbox/xbox-scene/tools/skinconf/xbmcskinner.rar)
(the infos available in xbox-scene.com news)
ahhh thanks alot! gonna try it tonight - kewl :kickass: :bowdown: