AEON [ALPHA] (formerly "Xephyr"): Skin Release Thread [Archive] - Page 2

alucard77

2007-08-24, 05:07

This is not a mockup.

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_wide01.jpg

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_wide02.jpg

All these changes, however, together with the continued problems with the Home scroller animation, mean that I won't be releasing another build until Monday. I've been neglecting the Library windows until now, but over the weekend I'll be sorting those out and patching up all the new holes I've made. If I can't get the Home scroller to animate properly, I'll just disable its animations entirely and put out a call for help. JM offered a suggestion, but sadly to no avail.

I just thought of something cool, based off of the above image. If the background image changed to match the show you selected, it would be awesome.

For instance, in this case you have a great image of the bionic woman. If you selected Lost as your show, the image would change from the Bionic Woman to a Lost Image. The wide Icon would still remain the normal lost icon. If that was possible in some way it would be very sweet.

szsori

2007-08-24, 09:08

I just thought of something cool, based off of the above image. If the background image changed to match the show you selected, it would be awesome.
Also, I know it was suggested a while ago, but you probably have more experience with skinning now... any possibility for dynamic "fan art" as the backgrounds for specific shows/movies?
As for ListItem-specific switching, built-in downloads etc., that's not something I'm really thinking about atm. Sorry.
It would be cool if it could be added at some point, but I definitely agree there are more important things to tweak/fix/add. Media Portal's MyTV plugin has this capability and they're starting to put together a lot of fan art. If they were supported by this skin and XBMC, I'd make a section on my site for them so perhaps spiff's scraper could automatically download them as well.

Nick8888

2007-08-24, 10:53

In my opinion I think this should be implemented through xbmc recognising a 'folderbg.tbn' or something along those lines(A scraper like you mention would be great as well). Skins should then be able choose whether to use it or not.

So I guess this makes it a feature request for xbmc first. Although I must admit I wouldnt be surprised if it is already in there as it is hard to keep track of all the feature additions.

@djh

With all these extra menu options which you are adding (arcade, clips), I know these are optional but do you think it would be possible to add a settings menu option to create a new menu item which then allows the user to choose menu item: name/target folder/background pic? I dont know if this is even possible, I'm just thinking out loud.

Can't wait for this next 'build', it looks promising.

Nick.

skunkm0nkee

2007-08-24, 13:09

I second that. It would be fantastic to have the background change based on the currently selected tv show (or movie?) but I think it works brilliantly as it is and would rather see the existing features completed first.

Hitcher

2007-08-24, 13:42

It sounds to compilated to me. You'd ahve to to have hi res images otherwise it would look rubbish and defect the whole object of the skin.

JustMeD

2007-08-24, 13:48

djh

Looking really good. Can't wait til Monday for your next 'revision'. I like where your going with the menu system should definitely keep everyone happy with the customizing features. Would I be right in saying that your UK based what with Blackadder and Father Ted etc. 2 great shows.

D

skunkm0nkee

2007-08-24, 13:50

As with a lot of the thumbnails and images relating to the skins they are all optional and up to end user if they want to make use of them. If you don't want to setup background images for certain shows then you can leave it with the default background images.

szsori

2007-08-24, 17:14

Like I said, my site can support these. Other software refers to them as "fan art", so that would be how we'd handle them. We could have a couple of types of fan art (MediaPortal style, basic, hi-def), and I can require the resolution be exactly 1280x720 for the hi-def version.

I'm guessing XBMC can handle it now, since it's similar to pulling information about a series when you have that series highlighted in a list (the wide icon view uses this). However, I would bet it requires they put in the image as a separate layer and I doubt it could be done with smooth transitions right now. I'm just guessing, though. :) Lots of work, but it would be cool. Hopefully down the line someone can tackle this... perhaps once the skin is in SVN.

maximus

2007-08-24, 22:55

None of my movies are being displayed like the above pics? Does anyone have the samr problem? I'm using the newest xbmc build, x2 bios, and 4.3 tv?

szsori

2007-08-24, 23:20

None of my movies are being displayed like the above pics? Does anyone have the samr problem? I'm using the newest xbmc build, x2 bios, and 4.3 tv?
How are they being displayed? The past 4-5 pictures he's posted have been of the TV section. A couple before that are of movies playing in the background while displaying the menu. Both features haven't been released yet, AFAIK. I believe he said he'd release another update around Monday.

Hitcher

2007-08-25, 00:02

They're mock-ups of what's to come.

djh_

2007-08-25, 14:58

Now playing slider thing:

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_musicslider.jpg

The all-new (code-wise) Home scroller:

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_newhome.jpg

skunkm0nkee

2007-08-25, 19:02

Looking good (as ever!)

Hitcher

2007-08-25, 20:53

Ohhh nice.

zippy101

2007-08-26, 18:07

I'm upscaling this to 1080p through an iScan VP20 and outputting through hdmi to my lc42xd1ea hdtv, and it looks simply stunning. Even the wife was wowed when she saw how crisp it looks.

Keep up the good work, this skin is awesome. :)

shanedoyle

2007-08-26, 20:45

Folks, Love the look of this skin - but it wont work for me - Ive the very latest T3CH Build from this week. Im getting the incompatible skin error.. telling me i need version 2 - Im sure i have it as i update every week pretty much. Ive done a search and have tried the various suggestions..

any ideas on what i might try. and please be gentle - ive had a good look and found people who fixed it but didnt explain how.

Thanks and well done on this skin - its looks superb!! Looking forward to trying it

djh_

2007-08-26, 21:18

Might want to hold off on any XBMC upgrades until tomorrow. The latest version requires the very, very latest XBMC to work; I'm not even sure if T3CH has compiled this one yet. And when I say "requires", I mean that you won't even be able to access the Video windows if you don't upgrade.

A few more screens. The animations/transitions are pretty much in place now. The Home components are so modular now that it's a piece of piss to chuck them around.

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_musicvis.jpg

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_musicvis2.jpg

Hitcher

2007-08-26, 22:05

Can't wait until tomorrow. Any idea on the time of release?

Livin

2007-08-26, 22:06

djh,
It is really look'n sweet!

Did you figure out how to allow font size changes in the skin options?

Did you get the Weather on the home screen working?

Hitcher

2007-08-27, 13:14

I've just got the latest T3CH release (rev10100) in anticipation.

djh_

2007-08-27, 15:30

EDIT: Fixed (sort of)

JustMeD

2007-08-27, 16:01

Damn that is bad news. Hopefully one of the developers can find the problem and get resolved soon. Really keen to get this new revision.

D

djh_

2007-08-27, 16:54

Well, I take it back. I've managed to reproduce the problem in a previous build of XBMC, though I've no idea what's causing it.

Here's an example:

The skin loads and everything is fine. You can hop between all the menu options on all the different Home scrollers and the backgrounds change correctly.

Then you go into, say, the File Manager, and when you return things start to go wrong. Basically, whichever button the Home page lands on by default won't have a background. Worse still, it won't regain one - it's just black from thereon in.

I'll investigate further.

UPDATE: I've managed to bring this under control by forcing the Home page to default to the central scroller. It means the transition back from the Settings menus is a bit abrupt now, but hopefully I'll have it fixed soon. At least this means I can upload a build I'm happy with this evening.

Hitcher

2007-08-27, 17:52

Nevermind - all good things come to those who wait.

JustMeD

2007-08-27, 17:59

djh your the man. You must have some serious coding knowledge to be pulling this stuff off. Look forward to your update this evening.

D

shanedoyle

2007-08-27, 19:30

Figured it out - for anyone having problems extract the skin first on your pc and xfer that way - if you copy the rar onto the xbox and try to use the filemanager it wont work..

I now have this and the backpack and its gorgeous well done..

Marvellous skin

djh_

2007-08-28, 01:11

So here's the deal with this new version, which you can download on page 1.

It's shaky. I went a bit overboard with the features and didn't have time to nail everything down. The things to watch out for are:

- You NEED the very latest XBMC to use this skin. Without it, not even the main menu will work properly. You also NEED to wipe your guisettings.xml when updating from an older version.

- Even though the Wrap Info view is there, the Library views are as sketchy as ever. I wasn't planning to deal with them just yet and the functionality's all over the shop. The attempt at getting Movies and TV Shows to have separate memories when it came to being in Library or File mode didn't work, and probably won't until the code is there in XBMC.

- There's a real c*** of a bug that I keep chasing around this skin, related to the background changer and the new Home menus. The symptoms are that backgrounds "stick" between options, sometimes not showing at all. A partial, perhaps complete solution was to force Home to default to the main menu every time. It means the transitions from the Settings menus aren't too hot anymore, but it's better than having backgrounds going haywire.

- I've done next to no testing on the new MyPrograms windows - Arcade and Apps. Furthermore, Apps is using the Settings backdrop as I wanted to keep the file size down. If you really must give Apps the incendiary backdrop you think it deserves, set a custom backdrop.

- The bulk of the changes made since last time involve music playback, especially while using the Home menu. The music library, however, is disabled. There's no point leaving it in when I've barely even touched it.

- I've made a start on the remaining dialogs and context menus. Don't expect much, though.

- It's still ALPHA. Its basic feature set is unfinished and buggy, so use what you can and keep sending me ideas for the rest.

I think that's it. My immediate to-do list involves patching up the Library views, speaking to JM about that backgrounds bug and mopping up the remaining dialogs.

OH, and you'll need to know the bookmark shortcuts for the new Windows. Remember, the whole multiple Video/Program windows things is a hack - XBMC doesn't support these natively - so each menu option points to a specific bookmark in your sources.xml.

Arcade bookmark: "Emulation"
Apps bookmark: "Apps"
Movies bookmark: "Movies"
TV Shows bookmark: "TV Shows"
Clips bookmark: "Clips"
Music videos bookmark (for the option in Custom): "Music" (make sure you put this in the <video> section of sources.xml)

JustMeD

2007-08-28, 01:37

djh

Just having a look now and I have to say love all the updates you've included. What an amazing skin. You've definitely raised the bar with regards skin design.

D

Aenima99x

2007-08-28, 02:07

DJH - First want to say THANK YOU for making such an amazing skin, it's exactly what I've been looking for. I've been using your skin for a few weeks now and love it. :cool:
Now on to my question, I just loaded your new alpha right now and I'm having some problems. I deleted the entries from the guisettings.xml, copied over the new skin files, rebooted the box and all I get on the home screen now is the date in the upper right hand corner and the scrolling tips in the upper left - there are no background images, the rest of the screen is black and I can't get into any menus except the right stick info. If i delete my guisettings.xml and go back to the default PMIII skin and then choose Xephyr, then it will switch the xephyr skin settings menu. Once i exit that menu, it give me the "Welcome to Xephyr" message as shows that my build is Aug. 27th - once I click back to exit from there, it takes me back to the same black home screen with only the date/tips. Any ideas? Thanks.

djh_

2007-08-28, 02:14

hicaow

2007-08-28, 02:15

i love this skin .. about to try the new version .. is their anyway that you could add an option to allow for Video on the main menu and not movies / tv .. theirs an option to take clips out , maybe the option could be 'Video section instead of movies / tv' .. if its crazy tell me to shut up :] ..

djh_

2007-08-28, 02:28

Heh, it's not crazy at all. It's one of the default XBMC options, after all.

I'll add it to the next version.

hicaow

2007-08-28, 02:33

great new build :]

awsome! thanx.. well were at it , really need wide icons for games :]

djh_

2007-08-28, 02:56

I'm putting a generic wide icon view into the next one, so that'll go into all the different windows.

Aenima99x

2007-08-28, 03:06

Hmm. If it's only showing the date then it sounds like the Homescroller include isn't loading. Without the scroller triggering them, the backgrounds wouldn't load either. Short of wiping every trace of the skin and reinstalling, I'd suggest adding <loglevel>1</loglevel> to your UserData->advancedsettings.xml file, running the skin and then checking the xbmc.log file. You'll probably find something along the lines of "Invalid include: Homescroller".

Couldn't immediately tell you why, though. You're not running in 4:3 are you? I didn't duplicate the PAL 16:9 files in the standard PAL folder, so you wouldn't get very far if you were.

No not running in 4:3, had been running in 1080i 16:9 widescreen with the previous version, also tried swetting it to 720p and it's still the same.
Here's what's coming up in the log file when I launch -

17:03:44 M: 31940608 WARNING: file doesnt have <fontset> with name 'Default', defaulting to first fontset
17:03:44 M: 31055872 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: scrollerjunk
17:03:44 M: 31035392 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: scrollerjunk
17:03:44 M: 31031296 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: scrollerjunk
17:03:44 M: 31010816 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: scrollerjunk
17:03:44 M: 31129600 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31072256 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31100928 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31100928 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31100928 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31129600 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
17:03:44 M: 31109120 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Black-Panel
17:03:44 M: 31117312 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Lines
17:03:44 M: 31117312 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Zoom-Button
17:03:44 M: 31096832 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Zoom-Button

:confused2:

djh_

2007-08-28, 03:18

That's very odd. The Home page isn't picking up the includes for the scrolling menu, even though everything's find code-wise. All I can advise is a complete reinstall of XBMC and the skin. Unless anyone else has the problem, of course, in which case it's something I'll look into.

JustMeD

2007-08-28, 05:02

Kilronan

2007-08-28, 17:40

Amazing looking skin. Thanks for putting so much effort into developing it -)

The thing that keeps me from using this skin at this stage is the lack of contrast regarding the font. This pic below shows what the skin looks like on my 40" Samsung M86. As you can see the list (except the highlighed file) is very hard to read. I hope this issue soon will be resolved in one way or another.

http://www.pixelit.no/xephyr.jpg

Hitcher

2007-08-28, 18:13

Awesome work djh.

Aenima99x

2007-08-28, 20:19

Aenima99x

I had a similar problem before and I sorted it by switching out of XBMC completely to another dash with FTP access. I keep a second copy of XBMC on my e: drive for updating etc. Then delete all xephyer settings in the guisettings.xml then a cold reboot and that should hopefully sort it.

D

I've actually gone in and completely removed Xephyr, deleted the guisettings.xml and let it recreate itself when launching PMII, "reinstalled" Xephyr and still the same problem. :sniffle:
When I get home today, I'm going to try and reload the newest build of XBMC again and see if that will fix it.....

Hitcher

2007-08-28, 22:41

One little error I've found (and this was on previous builds) is overlapping text when deleting files -

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/2858/screenshot001smallzu8.png

djh_

2007-08-29, 00:37

The thing that keeps me from using this skin at this stage is the lack of contrast regarding the font. This pic below shows what the skin looks like on my 40" Samsung M86. As you can see the list (except the highlighed file) is very hard to read. I hope this issue soon will be resolved in one way or another.

One thing I can tell you right away is that your TV calibration is *way* out. There shouldn't be any of that edge highlighting on the type and the glass should be far less coarse. My guess is that you have a sharpness setting on your TV and it isn't at 0, which for an LCD or Plasma is losing you definition right away. That and your contrast might be a bit high.

djh_

2007-08-29, 00:39

I've actually gone in and completely removed Xephyr, deleted the guisettings.xml and let it recreate itself when launching PMII, "reinstalled" Xephyr and still the same problem. :sniffle:
When I get home today, I'm going to try and reload the newest build of XBMC again and see if that will fix it.....

Let me know how you get on. I'm interested to know how you fix it.

djh_

2007-08-29, 00:54

New stuff:

I wasn't happy with the volume of plain text on the media windows, so the menu bars for those have changed. They're shitloads nicer now, and much easier to play with now they're using Group Lists. The options scroll so I can put as many in there as I want. In the case of the Music window, they fade out as the glass slides across.

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/xephyr_newmenu1.jpg

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/xephyr_newmenu2.jpg

Also, because it's impossible to get the Library views to behave themselves when using multiple video options (i.e. you can't switch Movies to File mode without TV Shows changing as well), I've implemented something new for the Home page. For Library users there's now a single Video shortcut, as is the XBMC default. For those who prefer File views, meanwhile, there're the TV Show and Movies links you're used to. I've had to do this due to the current limitations of the XBMC windows system.

EDIT: For the interest of Affini, the new window menus have opened up the possibility of having two media window sizes. I can put larger glass panes in there which can accommodate, say, three rows of icons rather than two without pushing things right out to the screen edges. This option will appear post-beta.

jmarshall

2007-08-29, 02:18

djh: I don't understand the issues with tv shows vs movies and library mode.

ActivateWindow(MyVideoFiles,TV Shows)

vs

ActivateWindow(MyVideoLibrary,TVShowTitles)

for instance?

djh_

2007-08-29, 02:22

pwned

*smacks self*

EDIT: Thanks to jm making it sound embarrassingly easy, I've reinstated the split Movies / TV Shows menus for both Library and Files views. And they remember and everything.

I'm such a putz.

diogee

2007-08-29, 03:27

just a quick note of thanx to djh for this fantastic skin. I've been lucky enough to enjoy the fruits of everyones labour but my own and take the credit when friends and family come over to see how amazing my home media center is, when I've really done nothing but a little softmod and some networking knowledge. You make me look gooood!:;): Now to download the new version!

and if I may, thanks to all the developers, skinners and coders, you guys rock!

diogee

Wir3d

2007-08-29, 03:55

If you go from Music to Games the background doesn't change.

MyPrograms.xml

<info>Skin.String(CustomMusicFolder)</info>
<animation effect="fade" end="0" time="200">WindowClose</animation>
<visible>!Skin.HasSetting(CustomMusicFolder) + Skin.HasSetting(programgames)</visible>

Should be
<info>Skin.String(CustomGamesFolder)</info>
<animation effect="fade" end="0" time="200">WindowClose</animation>
<visible>!Skin.HasSetting(CustomGamesFolder) + Skin.HasSetting(programgames)</visible>

Wir3d

2007-08-29, 04:02

Looks like editing is disabled so I have to start another post :eek:

djh_ Am I mistaken in that you already are forcing everything back to home?
I am not able to recreate this problem?

There's a real c*** of a bug that I keep chasing around this skin, related to the background changer and the new Home menus. The symptoms are that backgrounds "stick" between options, sometimes not showing at all. A partial, perhaps complete solution was to force Home to default to the main menu every time. It means the transitions from the Settings menus aren't too hot anymore, but it's better than having backgrounds going haywire.

djh_

2007-08-29, 04:14

Cheers for the heads up on the code change.

Yes, I am forcing everything back to Control 300 on Home. Until I did this I was suffering the problem you've quoted - the glitchy background changer. Are you saying you've taken out the always="true" and the problem's not occurring?

Incidentally, I'm optimising a lot of the code now to recycle as much as possible, so things are a lot cleaner thanks to a lot more includes. :grin:

Wir3d

2007-08-30, 04:33

I see it now and I have to agree it is a real c***.
However I don't think it's your fault. To make a long story short I'm finding there's no way to reset the settings background in a wraplist. I think you need a trigger (onclick) etc..

djh_

2007-08-30, 05:43

At about this time tomorrow I'll be posting a new version. Changes will include the swanky new media menus, far more efficient code, fully functioning Library modes, cleaner transitions and more skinned dialogs and windows (Scripts, GameSaves etc).

I toyed with the idea of some 3D views but they really didn't fit in. No point doing these things for the sake of it.

Hitcher

2007-08-31, 00:20

Wide or big icons in list mode?

djh_

2007-08-31, 00:38

Something. Not sure what yet.

Nick8888

2007-08-31, 01:19

Im looking forward to see some xephyr dialogs. Judging by your other graphics I reckon you'll give them a nice touch.

skunkm0nkee

2007-08-31, 11:41

djh, I'm sitting here crossing my fingers and hoping that you're about to release the new version but I'm guessing that we'll probably have to wait until tonight now?

djh_

2007-08-31, 15:21

This is just a bollocks concept image I drew up in five minutes, so excuse the quality. But how would you feel, in principle, to a view mode like this? I'm wondering whether to have two styles for each view - one simple like the usual glass ones, the other fancy like photo frames and jewel cases etc.

What say you?

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/xephyr_testframes.jpg

skunkm0nkee

2007-08-31, 15:40

It looks nice, kinda reminds me of the picture slideshow in PS3 (the conveyer belt one)

You can probably guess my opinion when it comes to views - the more the merrier! (and the better looking they are the more likely I am to use them personally)

When are you planning on doing the next release?

Gamester17

2007-08-31, 15:44

Very nice! ...similar to MediaPortal's Xface skin http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/xface_skin_preview_beta_version_0_1-t26565.html

Hitcher

2007-08-31, 16:17

When are you planning on doing the next release?

Today, hopefully.:grin:

djh_

2007-08-31, 16:32

Yeah, sorry about missing last night. I had to widen the glass texture for the context menus - basically, just as the glass slides left to reveal the music playing bit, it now slides right to reveal the context menus - and I fouled it up.

That and Bioshock, of course.

It's almost there now, though. Hopefully I'll have something for tonight.

JustMeD

2007-08-31, 16:36

Looking forward to your newest revision 'Tonight'. Keen to get to use Library Mode for TV Shows and Movies.

D

Hitcher

2007-08-31, 16:43

Aenima99x

2007-08-31, 17:13

This is just a bollocks concept image I drew up in five minutes, so excuse the quality. But how would you feel, in principle, to a view mode like this? I'm wondering whether to have two styles for each view - one simple like the usual glass ones, the other fancy like photo frames and jewel cases etc.

What say you?

:cool2: I'm with skunkm0nkee - the more views, the better.
I just want to say thanks for this amazing skin djh, you rock!

Any plans for adding the weather back in?

djh_

2007-08-31, 17:16

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_context.jpg

Weather? Yes, that's coming back.

Hitcher

2007-08-31, 19:42

You tease.

djh_

2007-08-31, 19:43

It's a bit scrappy, but you get the idea. The obvious problem is that there's too little space for the radiobuttons at the bottom; they only fit here because I shortened the labels in scripts.xml. That's hardly ideal.

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_context2.jpg

PANIC!

2007-08-31, 22:07

First of all i love your skin!
Looks absoluty awesome espieclay with the backpack ;-)

I really like the idea to have to view types for piczures, music and videos.

One simple (the glass one) and one eye catcher like in your picture concept.

have jewel cases for dvd and cds would be really a killer!

djh_

2007-09-01, 02:24

It's really preliminary, and there's a problem with angling list items that means the focused label is a fudge. You'll see what I mean when it scrolls.

Still, though, it's a start.

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_photo.jpg

jimg

2007-09-01, 03:22

Amazing

djh_

2007-09-01, 04:01

New build up. Usual rules apply.

Aenima99x

2007-09-01, 04:27

New build up. Usual rules apply.

Love it so far.....maybe it's just me, but it does seem a little slower navigating through the menus.

smokeyfingaz

2007-09-01, 11:53

love the progress so far, 2 minor bugs though (dont know if you have already noticed)

- disabling the settings up menu - breaks the custom background folders so that in the main menu the image stays on tvshows instead of changing acording to the menu

- if the region is set to uk, then the bar for the time on the home page is not long enough and the text overlaps the bar

Gamester17

2007-09-01, 12:35

there's a problem with angling list items that means the focused label is a fudge. You'll see what I mean when it scrolls.Have you talked to JMarshall about it? maybe he as the skinning-engine god he is can help :;):

shizzle

2007-09-01, 12:57

any plan for 4:3?

Hitcher

2007-09-01, 13:01

any plan for 4:3?

Highly unlikely as this is built for HD displays.

djh_

2007-09-01, 14:23

if the region is set to uk, then the bar for the time on the home page is not long enough and the text overlaps the bar

IIRC, aren't you running in either SD or 4:3? If this is a 720p problem then I'll sort it, but I'm not seeing any problems at this end. Remember, this isn't designed for low-resolution displays.

I'll look into the Settings thing. Sounds like that same satanic bug I had before, in which case I'll simply have to disable the Settings up function for the time being.

UPDATE: Oh dear. It does break it. I'm not sure this is the same problem as I mentioned before, though, so I'll have a look at it.

smokeyfingaz

2007-09-01, 14:33

i was running the skin on a 16:9 older pal tv - i thought it would be ok on a 16:9 screen.

JustMeD

2007-09-01, 15:48

djh

Love your additions in the latest release but I have just a couple of questions.

1 When using library mode for both Movies and TV Shows when I try to bring up info the options appear on the left as they are supposed to but the animation for the background movement doesn't follow the music version instead it moves upwards like in Alpha5 so it overlaps the background. This doesn't happen in List Mode.

2 Would it be possible to include the new Info view for TV shows when in List Mode as opposed to using the Library the one with the wide Icons on the right and the info on the show on the left.

D

djh_

2007-09-01, 16:11

The context menus are only a first step atm, which means they haven't been introduced throughout all the windows. This'll be sorted for next time.

Not entirely sure what you mean by the other thing. You're saying you want a list view and a wraplist view running side by side?

JustMeD

2007-09-01, 16:28

Sorry if I confused things but what I meant was is it possible to include the new TV Shows view when not using Library Mode.

D

djh_

2007-09-01, 17:16

I'm not sure the scrapers work outside of Library view. Correct me if I'm wrong.

JustMeD

2007-09-01, 17:40

Being honest I have no idea if you can use the scrapers. I guess I was just being hopeful.

D

Nuka1195

2007-09-01, 19:28

no, but with the new plugin feature, scripts can fill taht info. so it could be nice for some plugins. e.g. Apple movie trailers

xboxkid

2007-09-01, 20:31

Hi,

Been enjoying your Alphas since the first one..with Alpha6 I seem to be missing some background panels ie. as in the Music section...

http://rapidshare.com/files/52708026/screenshot001.jpg.html

in Video section..it appears to be 2 background panels overlapping...

http://rapidshare.com/files/52708348/screenshot000.jpg.html

and in the rest of the menus..I am guessing the wrong mediaglass panel is not being used because of misalignment of the text...

http://rapidshare.com/files/52708720/screenshot002.jpg.html

Let me know if I screwed something up..did wipe all settings on GUI..Thanx again for you efforts..

Hitcher

2007-09-01, 20:38

You have to delete all Xephar references in the guisettings.xml

djh_

2007-09-02, 03:58

Let's try this again, shall we?

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/xephyr_flyrback2.jpg

JustMeD

2007-09-02, 04:32

Is this a new a new BackPack

djh_

2007-09-02, 06:15

Only if this is. :;):

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/xephyr_backpack2.jpg

PANIC!

2007-09-02, 11:45

This is so hot!

Can't wait for teh second backpack! ;-)

The first backpack looks absoluty awesome on 720p and the second one will also!

Two small bug reports to ALPHA6.

- when in Listmode for movies the date at the end of the line is under the scrolling dirname when it is very long.
( also showing the cover of the currently sellected folder would be nice in this view in the right side seems to be enough space)

- the font you use does only show a squre when printing german special charecters.

Keep up your absolutly fantasic work!

Hitcher

2007-09-02, 12:08

When? when? when?

MikeBeecham

2007-09-02, 18:34

this is such a good-looking skin. Unfortunately, I wont be using it as I have a 16x9 CRT and there are too many niggly issues with it at my resolution.

Shame though!

Livin

2007-09-02, 21:06

Mike,
What are your issues?

djh,
Love the improvements. I'm still having issues with actually seeing the text, the dark colors are blending too much. Can you document the text settings in the XMLs so I can mod the colors and sizes? Also, I incresed the text size for the time/date on the Home screen but the bg image is now too small. Can you share the PSD so I can modify for users with larger text - I will send back to you to include in the skin if you'd like or we can discuss distrobution to users. I really want to use this skin and get away from PM3 but the lack of viewable text colors/sizes is killing it for me. Please PM me an we can discuss.

szsori

2007-09-02, 21:40

Why would you need the PSD to adjust font sizes? I've been able to adjust all of them using the XML files so far.

I'd also love if the fonts in the XML were documented some way (commented?) so I can put together a 480p version that you can distribute with the release, if you want to. Every time I upgrade I have to rework my font sizes. Not that big of a deal, but I'm sure I'll get annoyed with it soon. :)

Thanks again for such a great skin! Once dialogs are skinned and those additional view types are in there, I think you'll have the single best skin for XBMC.

djh_

2007-09-02, 22:07

I think Affini was talking about the background panel rather than the text. I've been hesitant to post the textures because I'm always changing them - I didn't want loads of different versions floating about. That said, the main texture set is pretty much at beta now, so I'll post the unpacked textures this evening.

As for code documentation, this wasn't something I planned on doing until the basic feature set was done. It's a post-beta thing tbh. Again, though, it can't do any harm to do it sooner, so I'll see about getting the main stuff annotated.

jthunder

2007-09-03, 00:10

DHJ_,

Totally outdone yourself with this skin, it rocks hard! If I was a betting man, I'd lay money on the majority of xbmc users wanting this as the default skin.

I don't know if you've explained this somewhere else, your screen shots show awesome pics for your movie and tv show thumbs. On mine the IMDB sourced thumbs for the movies don't look that great (bad aspect ratio). Are you using you own custom images?

When browsing the video library, its also handy to have the imdb rating included with the title, again personal opinion.

Do you have another backpack set available that includes the images in these latest screenshots?! Amazing...

Thanks again for your contribution.

JT

MikeBeecham

2007-09-03, 01:59

Mike,
What are your issues?

Hi Affini...

Overall, great skin and DJH knows most of my thoughts. I'm not going to list them all, as SJGH has already explained that this is a skin designed for 720p. It does function fairly well on 16x9 CRT SD, but not great (it was never designed to work on SD anyway)

So far, this is what I find the niggliest (yes, it's a word!!!)

1) Small Background graphic for the Date / Time does not fit correctly. This means that the date and time overlap the graphic by a LARGE degree

2) The menu background animation seems clunky at the moment.

3) When visiting other sections of the menu (for example Skin > backgrounds), when returning back to the original section of the menu (t6v shows, movies, etc) does not return you back to the point that you left it at...it always returns you back to a fixed point...Programs or Pictures I think!

4) Within list view of any music, if you have a very long artist name and a very long album name, the two will overlap. The biggest reason for this, I believe, is because of the fact that both album and artist are placed so closely to each other....

5)...which leads me to the fact that there is so much negative space on the right hand side of the screen in list view...unnecessary blank space. If this was utilised by moving the artist column along a lot, it would solve the overlap issue on point 4.

6) When choosing an episode in TV Shows in preview view, choosing an episode causes to thumbnail to become black. When unhighlighted, the episode screencap can be seen...when highlighting an episode, the screencap goes black

7) the reflections bug me a little, as they seem to be too far from the bottom of the original image...but thats a personal design issue for me!

I think that's it for now. But please bear in mind that I accept a lot of these issues, as the skin was not designed for my resolution and SD...but I felt it proper to answer Affini's question.

djh_

2007-09-03, 03:10

2) The menu background animation seems clunky at the moment

Like you say, most of what you mentioned are alpha stage issues or problems with unsupported resolutions. This one, however, has me worried. The one thing this skin shouldn't have is clunky animations, and I haven't encountered anyone yet who's experienced them. When you say "clunky", what you do mean?

Hitcher

2007-09-03, 11:21

Are there any issues using the latest T3CH release?

szsori

2007-09-03, 12:01

jthunder: Try http://impawards.com/ for movie posters and http://thetvdb.com/ (my site) for TV banners. I believe djh is adding wide banner mode, so the wide tv banners are the way to go.

Hitcher: I've found no problems so far with yesterday's t3ch release. From the changelog, it doesn't look like any changes were made from revision 10142 to 10100 that would affect the skins at all. I'm sure you could just wait a day or two and get better feedback, though.

Hitcher

2007-09-03, 12:51

Thanks.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-03, 16:29

I just love this skin and the how fantastic it looks on my new HD telly!

One thing I have noticed though is that when looking at the video library there is no way to toggle between watched/unwatched videos. I know you've mentioned that the library views are still work in progress but I thought I'd let you know in case it was an oversight.

Similarly I guess that you already know that pressing the info button on a video file doesn't actually do anything at the moment? (Probably because the info dialogs have not been created?)

I'm still messing about with my own views (I like to see the info when I'm scrolling through the list of episodes!) and can't wait until this skin hits SVN so I can think about adding extra textures to use in these views.

My TV Episode Info now looks something like the following:

http://www.filenanny.com/files/46c9917c575675858/TVInfo.png

BTW I love the way the some of the menu's slide out from the side and the rest of the screen slides out of the way!

MikeBeecham

2007-09-03, 17:37

When you say "clunky", what you do mean?

it's kinda hard to explain, but when you scroll through the menu options, and each option changes background...it seems to 'click' (for want of a better word) before it fades to the new background image.

I also have to wait until it's finished this process until I can choose the option I want.

djh_

2007-09-03, 19:13

There was a problem when I changed to using wraplists for the main scroller, which meant that the scroll animation stuttered as the backgrounds were loaded in. JM's solution - and it's a minor miracle that one existed at all - was to add a 200ms delay to the background transition, enough time for the menu to finish scrolling before the new background was loaded. This could be what you're noticing.

Broads

2007-09-03, 21:36

DJH / JM

Thanks for that top tip, sounds like the problem I was having with my knob twiddling and images in the background. I'll see if it works for me as well :D

Livin

2007-09-04, 01:40

djh,
I made a feature request that I think would be cool for your skin especially. Let me know what you think... http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?p=148112#post148112

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-05, 17:27

It's all went kinda quiet ???

djh,
I guess you've probably got hooked on Bioshock and are taking a break from the skin eh?

JustMeD

2007-09-05, 18:13

skunkm0nkee

Was thinking the same thing. Looking forward to TV Show and Movie Information sections to be added as I have to switch skins to replace Covers etc.

D

djh_

2007-09-05, 18:26

I am taking a break atm, I'm afraid. Work must intrude.

Will get back to XBMC in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'll upload those textures so you can have a play.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-05, 18:53

Shame that the skin is on hold but I'm looking forward to playing about with the textures! :nod:

Aenima99x

2007-09-05, 19:16

I am taking a break atm, I'm afraid. Work must intrude.

Will get back to XBMC in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'll upload those textures so you can have a play.

Weeks! :shocked: :eek:
Well I guess at the very least, my wife will thank you for taking a break so I will take a break from working on xbmc haha.

Got a couple suggestions that maybe you can think about when you get back to working on the skin -

1. In my music, I have the Artist folders all listed in file view/list and then each of the artists albums listed in file/episode and then each song listed in file/list again. Would it be possible to create a view that displays a jewel case for each artist as you highlight them in the file list? There's quite a bit of unused space on the right side.

2. Is it possible to put a scripts link on the home page? I'm trying to make a wife-friendly media center and would like to give her easy access to Apple Movie Trailers, YouTube, etc.

3. In the movies area, I use the posters view and love it. Is it possible to move the movie name into the center of the bottom bar instead of the lower right? Also maybe include some movie facts next to the name....rating, year, etc.

4. I know you said it will be coming back, but weather on the home page would be great.

DJH - I really appreciate all of your hard work on the skin and backpacks, it is very much appreciated. I went through a ton of skins before I became overjoyed with yours.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-06, 15:29

Will get back to XBMC in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'll upload those textures so you can have a play.

How are you planning to release the textures? Are you going to put the skin in SVN or just add a new download link to this thread?

Hope your work doesn't keep you away from the skin for too long as the work you have been doing is amazing :grin:

hicaow

2007-09-06, 17:02

have nice a break :] .. this skin is oh so close to being my default skin , needs bookmark option while watching videos to put it over the top ..

backpack2 is sweet! thanx!

Wir3d

2007-09-08, 18:36

Livin

2007-09-09, 07:52

I thought you meant you put the Weather 'info' on the Home.xml... you put the option in the menu ;)

Also, you do not mention where you link to the Accuweather script (button does not work for me)... I could look but I'm lazy, I know.

Here is a small unofficial update. Hopefully djh doesn't mind :blush:
Jusr replace your files with these.

Added Weather on home and skin options (borrowed image from PMIII).
I think I added Script background option but can't remember if it was already there.
TV/Movie links should be fixed. Atleast they work for me.
Radar button option under Misc settings. This is for the Accuweather script.
Reset skin options under Misc settings

That's about it.

http://rapidshare.com/files/54247748/Unofficial_Xephyr_ALPHA6a.rar.html

Ayala

2007-09-10, 00:03

Wow! really impressive work djh, I felt the same way after smokeheads clearity skin was released, and went to work on my own version, months ago. I just recently bumped into this thread and was blown away by your work and hoe far you've taken this skin; the similarities between our concepts and inspiration are close.

I managed to customize some parts of clearity to my linking when it was released, I created mock-ups of a skin which I code named fluid, but seeing as how I have no coding experience and struggled to achieve my animations, fluid was halted.

Here are some shots (I’ve never made these public, 'cuz of my fear of not completing the project). Everyone feel free to comment.

Anyhow, sheers on your work, you now have one more fan!.. I think the reason why I like your skin is because if has a HL2 Feel (that’s a good thing ;)

http://64.182.9.1/fluid/fluid_01.png
http://64.182.9.1/fluid/fluid_01alt1.png
http://64.182.9.1/fluid/fluid_02.png
http://64.182.9.1/fluid/fluid_03.png
http://64.182.9.1/fluid/fluid_04.png

Ayala

2007-09-10, 00:07

Wow! really impressive work djh, I felt the same way after smokeheads clearity skin was released, and went to work on my own version, months ago. I just recently bumped into this thread and was blown away by your work and hoe far you've taken this skin; the similarities between our concepts and inspiration are close.

I managed to customize some parts of clearity to my linking when it was released, I created mock-ups of a skin which I code named fluid, but seeing as how I have no coding experience and struggled to achieve my animations, fluid was halted.

Here are some shots (I’ve never made these public, 'cuz of my fear of not completing the project). Everyone feel free to comment.

Anyhow, sheers on your work, you now have one more fan!.. I think the reason why I like your skin is because if has a HL2 Feel (that’s a good thing ;)

http://64.182.9.1/fluid/fluid_01.png
http://64.182.9.1/fluid/fluid_01_alt1.png
http://64.182.9.1/fluid/fluid_02.png
http://64.182.9.1/fluid/fluid_03.png
http://64.182.9.1/fluid/fluid_04.png

Livin

2007-09-10, 00:20

theDeviL - looks great. Your use of the full screen is fantastic and the layout is logical and easy navigate. Maybe djh will incorporate some items into his skin

Ayala

2007-09-10, 00:32

theDeviL - looks great. Your use of the full screen is fantastic and the layout is logical and easy navigate. Maybe djh will incorporate some items into his skin

thanks for the comments, I must be stupid or something but I double posted and I can't seem to find how to delete nor edit my post.

can one of you Mods earase my first post?

thanks!

Nuka1195

2007-09-10, 00:44

theDevil, start your own thread and post links to your skin. I want to check it out.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-10, 00:46

Ayala

2007-09-10, 04:52

theDevil, start your own thread and post links to your skin. I want to check it out.

it's not mine yet, its practically smokeheads work, partially customized, I haven't asked for permission, and I don't know how to code everything I want the skin to do.

but i will post it as is and see what happens.

Ayala

2007-09-10, 04:54

Looks lovely! I love the plain colouring style and the use of hi-res images.

Are the first 2 images different proposals for the same view? If so I like the 2nd view better as the simplicity is easier on the eye

thanks for you comment, as for your question; Yes, they are indeed 2 versions of the same thing. glad you like one at least :D

MikeBeecham

2007-09-10, 15:18

oh...my...goodness...what a great looking possibility. How cool would that be to be up and running.

Nice mocks thedeviL

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-10, 16:59

Here is a small unofficial update. Hopefully djh doesn't mind :blush:
Jusr replace your files with these.

Added Weather on home and skin options (borrowed image from PMIII).
I think I added Script background option but can't remember if it was already there.
TV/Movie links should be fixed. Atleast they work for me.
Radar button option under Misc settings. This is for the Accuweather script.
Reset skin options under Misc settings

That's about it.

http://rapidshare.com/files/54247748/Unofficial_Xephyr_ALPHA6a.rar.html

I've also been making a few changes to the skin - I've fixed the scrolling for the context menu's on the music and video views (both files and library versions) and have been playing about creating some more views for the music and video libraries. I've sent a pm to djh just to make sure he's ok with me posting it so once I get the nod I'll put it up.

MikeBeecham

2007-09-10, 20:29

cheers skunkmonkee

djh_

2007-09-10, 20:59

Here are some shots (I’ve never made these public, 'cuz of my fear of not completing the project). Everyone feel free to comment.

That's some sensational stuff you've done there - really slick. Reminds me of Odeon cinemas in the UK. Great advert, also, for the use of a good typeface.

Here are some thoughts which occurred while looking at the concept images.

- There are a few problems you'd have implementing this using XBMC's current skinning engine. I don't think that lovely tiled view for movies can be done yet, as wrap list views only support single rows or columns, navigating in single directions. Still, it's something that JM would no doubt be able to add when he found the time.

-Another big issue which hit me square in the face (with Xephyr) is content, especially when moving from concept to reality. As you've noticed, forcing upper case text makes everything look better in a stroke, but you can't do that in XBMC. And I'm not sure people would necessarily want you to when push came to shove. Likewise, getting the menu items - view type and sort by, for example - to line up perfectly is a pain in the arse.

- I've always found super-large thumbnails like your movie ones to be a no-no in XBMC, simply because it won't cache them at a high enough resolution. While I'm sure a mere tweak would fix that, I'm not sure what the implications would be for skin performance. And then there's the problem of thumbnail quality. You can pretty much guarantee that the average XBMC user - and I'm not talking about the guys who hang around here - would have a right old grab bag of shapes and sizes when it came to icons. Getting a skin to look alright despite that is something I'm still wrestling with.

That all sounds very negative, but really it's not. As you're doubtless aware, the most crucial thing is to have the vision. Or to put it another way, to have a kickass skin running in your head, just waiting to be ported to a real-life platform :nerd:. You've got that bit absolutely nailed. The concepts are gorgeous and no amount of tweaking here and there is going to take that away from them.

In fact, while Xephyr would be too inflexible to ever replace PMIII, I can definitely imagine a skin like yours, with its no-nonsense, versatile format and genuine style, becoming a new default. The only things I can't see working with it are custom backgrounds - they'd murder it, imo.

But for heaven's sake build it. It's too good to stay locked up in a photoshop document. :nod:

Ayala

2007-09-10, 23:18

That's some sensational stuff you've done there - really slick. Reminds me of Odeon cinemas in the UK. Great advert, also, for the use of a good typeface.

Here are some thoughts which occurred while looking at the concept images.

- There are a few problems you'd have implementing this using XBMC's current skinning engine. I don't think that lovely tiled view for movies can be done yet, as wrap list views only support single rows or columns, navigating in single directions. Still, it's something that JM would no doubt be able to add when he found the time.

-Another big issue which hit me square in the face (with Xephyr) is content, especially when moving from concept to reality. As you've noticed, forcing upper case text makes everything look better in a stroke, but you can't do that in XBMC. And I'm not sure people would necessarily want you to when push came to shove. Likewise, getting the menu items - view type and sort by, for example - to line up perfectly is a pain in the arse.

- I've always found super-large thumbnails like your movie ones to be a no-no in XBMC, simply because it won't cache them at a high enough resolution. While I'm sure a mere tweak would fix that, I'm not sure what the implications would be for skin performance. And then there's the problem of thumbnail quality. You can pretty much guarantee that the average XBMC user - and I'm not talking about the guys who hang around here - would have a right old grab bag of shapes and sizes when it came to icons. Getting a skin to look alright despite that is something I'm still wrestling with.

That all sounds very negative, but really it's not. As you're doubtless aware, the most crucial thing is to have the vision. Or to put it another way, to have a kickass skin running in your head, just waiting to be ported to a real-life platform :nerd:. You've got that bit absolutely nailed. The concepts are gorgeous and no amount of tweaking here and there is going to take that away from them.

In fact, while Xephyr would be too inflexible to ever replace PMIII, I can definitely imagine a skin like yours, with its no-nonsense, versatile format and genuine style, becoming a new default. The only things I can't see working with it are custom backgrounds - they'd murder it, imo.

But for heaven's sake build it. It's too good to stay locked up in a photoshop document. :nod:

Feedback, to me is rarely negative. I imagined it would be challenging to compose my skin, (I wouldn’t have it any other way, as I am sure you know, judging by your skins unique nature)

Knowing the limitations of XBMC is where I fall short, but I try to think outside the box when faced with such boundaries, believe it or not, I’ve managed to do a few things with this skin that I didn’t think it could do. Let me state though, that I, much like you, try to keep all my images high res. All my movie covers are at least 720 pixels high, and I find that increasing my cache to anything between 400 and 600 will perform well, depending on your box of course.

To force Caps I simply modified a version of the font where both caps and lowercase are the same character, and my skin uses several fonts at once, therefore I am able to achieve the normal state and the all caps look on any given field. As for the tedious task of lining up certain elements, while I agree is a painful one, would not go unrewarded.

I’m actually pretty close to the first movie view in XBMC code. Regarding the thumbnail resolutions and the average XBMC user; yes, this skin I suppose would only cater to a slice of the market share. I did after all intend to customize it for personal reasons. This is one of the many aspects I found to be similar in our development, you where upfront about not supporting 4:3 ration, an idea which I will likely adopt, unless there was a heavy demand.

Custom backgrounds have never appealed to me that is until I saw Xephyr, my favorite skin so far, and that includes my own. I don’t need to repeat what a fellow user posited a few threads back when they expressed how unique a talent you have for picking out imagery, or maybe I do… “Ahem… your work rocks” :D

Nuka1195

2007-09-11, 05:19

- There are a few problems you'd have implementing this using XBMC's current skinning engine. I don't think that lovely tiled view for movies can be done yet, as wrap list views only support single rows or columns, navigating in single directions. Still, it's something that JM would no doubt be able to add when he found the time.

Use a panel, with a large zoom for the focused item, should work i think.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-11, 09:51

Use a panel, with a large zoom for the focused item, should work i think.

Yep, I've been working on an album view for Xephyr which is a tiled panel of album covers with the selected one 'popping' out (kinda similar to the fluid movie view but with much smaller images). It almost works but I'm just trying to sort out what happens around the selections on the bottom row (as the larger selection image currently gets cropped because it's outside of the panel!)

BritneysPAIRS

2007-09-11, 12:03

well Devil that the nicest mockup ive seen (personal opion)... if you want a hand finishing it up PM me I can help you out

ewequeone

2007-09-11, 13:09

awesome skin, love it. Looks great on my tv.

two issues I'm having and can't resolve myself:

1. When trying to add a source manually, it doesn't seem to highlight what the action you're about to do is. Example, if I go to "Browse" or "add" a new source, it doesn't clearly show me what I'm on. Hope this makes sense.

2. I'm having great difficulty in understanding how I need to edit sources.xml for the TV Shows and Movies bookmarks. I understand I need to name the bookmark "TV Shows" or "Movies", but I'm not quite sure of the correct syntax.

Can anyone please point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Jason.

Aenima99x

2007-09-11, 17:23

Maybe it's just me, but I think we have several people with a similar skin vision in mind. I'd love to see some collaborative work between djh, skunkmonkee, affini and devil. :grin: Purely selfish idea though as I'm just looking for the most amazing skin ever made. :laugh:

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-12, 22:23

Well I haven't had any response from djh yet about my proposed update but he has said in the past that it was ok to post updates etc as long as I post them in this thread.

The main changes are as follows:

- created Wide Info view for TV Shows (shows 2 columns of wide icons with info for the selected icon)
- created Episode Info view for TV Shows (shows list of episodes for a TV show with large images and info for the selected item)
- created Movie Info view for Movies (shows list of movies with large poster and info for selected item)
- fixed scrolling of central area when the context menu is displayed when viewing videos or music (central area was not scrolling to the right when the menu scrolled in from the left)
- added filter buttons to the video library views to switch between watched, unwatched and all files
- made sure that if a song is playing and the context menu scrolls in from the left that the central area scrolls far enough to the right
- created new Album view which contains a tiled panel of album covers
- created Artist view which shows large album covers and names
- created List Info view for music which is based on the djh's List view but also displays the album cover
- created another version of the album view which scrolls vertically (instead of he horizontal scrolling of the original)
- added hiding of the Director/Genre etc labels on the Episode Info view if there is nothing to display
- created Info UI for video views
- updated info display when playing videos to be more discrete (using bottom of screen rather than filling most of the centre of the screen)
- fixed the now playing music UI so that wider artist, track and album names scroll (instead of covering other parts of the UI)
- added showing of the fast forward/rewind icons (had to copy images from Vision skin for now as I don't have the full textures for the skin so not sure of their names! Will need to get the proper names or create new images)

To install it just unzip the file to your skins folder (there is a readme with details in the zip file)

http://rapidshare.com/files/55217547/Xephyr.zip

Aenima99x

2007-09-12, 23:31

Excellent Skunkm0nkee - I'll be trying out your changes as soon as I get home from work.

Mntz

2007-09-13, 00:50

Inspiring mockups theDeviL!

Hitcher

2007-09-13, 07:49

Sweet, I can use my wide icons for TV shows again. Thanks.

jazzen

2007-09-13, 10:50

can anyone upload a the newest version of the skin somewhere.. Something is wrong with my svn setup and i neeed the skin

thnx

jazz

JustMeD

2007-09-13, 11:19

jazzen

The skin isn't in SVN yet. You'll get a copy of it for djh's link in the first page of this topic.

D

jazzen

2007-09-13, 14:05

aaaah, okai... thnx mate

Great skin, keep up the good work :)

Aenima99x

2007-09-13, 17:13

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-13, 17:27

Skunkm0nkee - Any way to get your new views to work in file mode? I don't use library mode for anything. Is it a skin/xbmc limitation or something that can be done. I've got no problem going in and modifying the xmls if you tell me what I need to change. Thanks!

I haven't tried it but all you would need to do is edit the PAL/MyVideo.xml file and add the following lines (beside the other includes at the bottom):

<include>SSWideInfo</include>
<include>SSMovieInfo</include>

This should add the Wide Info and Movie Info options to the file views but I've got no idea what they will look like (I guess the images and names will show ok but the info areas will be blank)

If you do try it then please let me know how you get on :cool:

Hitcher

2007-09-13, 19:25

I was going to ask what I needed to edit as well because I don't use the library mode.

Nuka1195

2007-09-13, 20:32

This should add the Wide Info and Movie Info options to the file views but I've got no idea what they will look like (I guess the images and names will show ok but the info areas will be blank)

Try it with a plugin like Apple Movie Trailers and post a screenshot. Most of the info should display.

Hitcher

2007-09-13, 21:36

OK, I've edited the MyVideo.xml file to include the new views in File mode and here's my findings and suggestions/wishes. If I knew what I was doing I'd have a go myself but I'm clueless.

Hitcher

2007-09-13, 21:37

New Movie Info View -

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/2083/movieinfo1lm3.png

Looks great (apart from the size/spacing of the titles text IMO) until it shrinks the cover image like this -

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/2305/movieinfo2zb5.png

My suggestion would be to use the text from the Movie List combined with the image from Movie Info like so -

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/204/moviemockupdb0.png

Hitcher

2007-09-13, 21:37

TV Shows Wide Info -

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9/tvshowswideinfojw2.png

Would look great if could keep the title of the highlighted show but have bigger images like this -

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/297/tvshowswideinfomockuphr0.png

Hitcher

2007-09-13, 21:38

Music Artist -

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/2125/musicartistph7.png

Again just using more of the empty space looks good -

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/1413/musicartistmockupzh2.png

OR

Music List -

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4274/musiclistjx2.png

+ Music List Info image

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/668/musiclistinfocw8.png

=

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3280/musiclistmockupij4.png

Hitcher

2007-09-13, 21:39

If someone could give me some pointers as to what and where I'm looking I might have a go at making these myself.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-14, 00:17

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/2083/movieinfo1lm3.png

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/297/tvshowswideinfomockuphr0.png

Thanks for the feedback and the suggestions are along the lines of what I was planning to do for the files views. The reason you are finding the unused spaces is because these views were designed to be used with the library and those spaces are filled with information from the library.

I'm hoping to get some file versions of the views up and running in the next day or so and will post them once they are done.

Hitcher

2007-09-14, 00:20

Look forward to it.

blackic3

2007-09-14, 00:24

that would be good, ive hacked the Apps and Clips buttons in the homescroller.xml to launch the AMT and JooX plugins directly, would be good to get a nice info mode in files view for AMT

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-14, 00:28

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/2125/musicartistph7.png

The reason for the gap on the right is because that area gets filled when you start playing a song. I'm hoping to fill the whole area when there isn't a song playing but I'm struggling to work out how to change the size of the panel based on a condition. (Actually I think I may have a solution based on a zoom animation that's just come to me as I type!)

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3280/musiclistmockupij4.png

Not sure what you mean with this one as the image you show as being your proposal for the list is similar to the List Info view I've already created? The reason I have left the default list view as is and created a new List Info view is because I've tried to not change too much of djh's original code but add my code in addition to his (that way it should be easier to integrate things when djh starts up work on it again)

Thanks again for the feedback and if you have anymore I'd love to hear it

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-14, 00:44

blackic3

2007-09-14, 01:12

Have you tried adding the info views to MyVideo.xml as I suggested earlier in the thread?

nice one, the MovieInfo tag works perfectly for the AMT plugin

Aenima99x

2007-09-14, 03:24

that would be good, ive hacked the Apps and Clips buttons in the homescroller.xml to launch the AMT and JooX plugins directly, would be good to get a nice info mode in files view for AMT

Can you share what you changed to add AMT to the Homescroller? Or if possible, can someone share how to add the entire scripts button to the homescroller with the movies, tv shows, music, etc. I'm trying to make it as easy for my wife as possible......I feel for her with how many skins I changed around before I found Xephyr, not to mention siwtching Harmony remotes and Tivos on her at the same time. :rofl:

blackic3

2007-09-14, 12:46

<includes>

<include name="scrollernobutton">

<control type="wraplist" id="301">
<posx>-245</posx>
<posy>254</posy>
<height>59</height>
<width>1410</width>
<onup>300</onup>
<ondown>-</ondown>
<onleft>301</onleft>
<onright>301</onright>
<viewtype>list</viewtype>
<orientation>horizontal</orientation>
<focusposition>3</focusposition>
<visible allowhiddenfocus="true">Control.HasFocus(301)</visible>
<include>common-fade-quick</include>
<scrolltime>200</scrolltime>
<itemlayout width="200" height="59">
<control type="label">
<posx>100</posx>
<posy>0</posy>
<width>200</width>
<height>59</height>
<info>ListItem.Label</info>
<align>center</align>
<aligny>center</aligny>
menufont
<textcolor>FF000000</textcolor>
</control>
</itemlayout>
<focusedlayout width="200" height="59">
<control type="label">
<posx>100</posx>
<posy>0</posy>
<width>200</width>
<height>59</height>
<info>ListItem.Label</info>
<align>center</align>
<aligny>center</aligny>
menufont
<textcolor>FF7d7d7d</textcolor>
</control>
</focusedlayout>
<content>
<item id="8">
<description>My Programs</description>
<label>REBOOT</label>
<onclick>XBMC.Reboot</onclick>
</item>
<item id="8">
<description>My Files</description>
<label>POWER</label>
<onclick>XBMC.ShutDown</onclick>
</item>
<item id="8">
<description>Dashboard</description>
<label>DASH</label>
<onclick>XBMC.Dashboard</onclick>
</item>
<item id="8">
<description>My Music</description>
<label>RESTART</label>
<onclick>XBMC.RestartApp</onclick>
</item>
<item id="8">
<description>My Music</description>
<label>REFRESH</label>
<onclick>XBMC.ReloadSkin()</onclick>
</item>
<item id="8">
<label>FILES</label>
<onclick>XBMC.ActivateWindow(MyFiles)</onclick>
</item>
<item id="8">
<description>My Music</description>
<label>SCRIPTS</label>
<onclick>XBMC.ActivateWindow(20)</onclick>
</item>
</content>
</control>

<control type="wraplist" id="300">
<posx>-245</posx>
<posy>254</posy>
<height>59</height>
<width>1410</width>
<onup>302</onup>
<ondown>301</ondown>
<onleft>300</onleft>
<onright>300</onright>
<viewtype>list</viewtype>
<orientation>horizontal</orientation>
<focusposition>3</focusposition>
<visible allowhiddenfocus="true">Control.HasFocus(300)</visible>
<include>common-fade-quick</include>
<scrolltime>200</scrolltime>
<itemlayout width="200" height="59">
<control type="label">
<posx>100</posx>
<posy>0</posy>
<width>200</width>
<height>59</height>
<info>ListItem.Label</info>
<align>center</align>
<aligny>center</aligny>
menufont
<textcolor>FF000000</textcolor>
</control>
</itemlayout>
<focusedlayout width="200" height="59">
<control type="label">
<posx>100</posx>
<posy>0</posy>
<width>200</width>
<height>59</height>
<info>ListItem.Label</info>
<align>center</align>
<aligny>center</aligny>
menufont
<textcolor>FF7d7d7d</textcolor>
</control>
</focusedlayout>
<content>
<item id="1">
<label>MUSIC</label>
<onclick>XBMC.ActivateWindow(MyMusic)</onclick>
<visible>!Skin.HasSetting(nomusic) + !Skin.HasSetting(musicvideos)</visible>
</item>
<item id="1">
<label>MUSIC</label>
<onclick>Skin.SetBool(videomusic)</onclick>
<onclick>Skin.Reset(videotv)</onclick>
<onclick>Skin.Reset(videoclips)</onclick>
<onclick>Skin.Reset(videomovies)</onclick>
<onclick>XBMC.ActivateWindow(MyVideos,Music)</onclick>
<visible>!Skin.HasSetting(nomusic) + Skin.HasSetting(musicvideos)</visible>
</item>
<item id="2">
<label>GAMES</label>
<onclick>Skin.SetBool(programgames)</onclick>
<onclick>Skin.Reset(programapps)</onclick>
<onclick>Skin.Reset(programarcade)</onclick>
<onclick>XBMC.ActivateWindow(MyPrograms)</onclick>

save that as homescrollers.xml and put it in the pal folder of the skin, you need to make sure you have both AMT and JooX bookmarked as TRAILERS an JooX respectivley

blackic3

2007-09-14, 12:48

Disregard the last post- PM me and i'll send you a copy of the xml, cant seem to paste all the code for some reason

Jezz_X

2007-09-14, 13:06

pastebin.ca
pastebin.com

blackic3

2007-09-14, 18:21

Here it is (http://pastebin.ca/697620), sorry jezz, forgot about pastebin

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-14, 18:36

I've been messing about with a few things with the skin today and have created some new views for the files (similar to what Hitcher requested last night) as well as creating the song information UI and some general tidying up and polishing of the existing stuff.

For a while now I've been messing about trying to get the text on the info views to be more easily readable but keep coming up short with the dark coloured text on the 'glass' background. To get around this I'm now experimenting with white text and have put a transparent dark area behind it so it is readable. The following are examples of what the movie info and wide info screens look like:

Movie Info:
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9947/movieinfobo6.png

Wide Info:
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/7816/wideinfoqx4.png

I'd be interested to hear what people think?

I've got a few more things that I'd like to get finished before I do another release but hopefully I should have something available in the next 24 hours or so.

MikeBeecham

2007-09-14, 18:39

looks really, really tight. It's a shame that it wouldn't look as nice on SD at 16:9...but it looks nice there!

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-14, 18:46

looks really, really tight. It's a shame that it wouldn't look as nice on SD at 16:9...but it looks nice there!

It should still work on 16x9, it won't look as good as the font sizing will be different but the layout and everything should still work. You can't beat a good HD display though! :nod:

Aenima99x

2007-09-14, 19:32

Blackic3 - Thanks for the xml, I'll try it out now.

Skunkm0nkee - That looks awesome, can't wait to try it out. Thanks for your work on the skin while djh is taking a break.

szsori

2007-09-14, 19:51

Looks great, once again. Any chance you could test/tweak the 480p settings so the fonts are the correct size for all of this? I've been having to do it manually for each new upgrade.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-14, 20:56

Looks great, once again. Any chance you could test/tweak the 480p settings so the fonts are the correct size for all of this? I've been having to do it manually for each new upgrade.

Sure, let me know what you change each time and I'll have a look into it

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-15, 12:49

Time for another update folks! The main changes this time are as follows:

- updated the Wide Info, Episode Info and Movie Info views so that info text is more readable (white text)
- made sure the selected info is hidden in the info views when the info dialog is displayed
- created new Wide and Movie views for the files areas (based on Wide Info and Movie Info but without the info!)
- added CD case background to Artist view
- created Song Information UI
- fixed widths of labels in List Info view (scrolls for long text)
- added small album cover image to the List Info view when a track is playing (now playing UI covers up larger cover image)
- added Album, Artist and List Info views to the music files area
- created Album Information UI
- added version of the List Info view to the videos area (similar to music but without CD case)

Movie Info:
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3020/movieinfozz0.png

Wide Info:
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/8734/wideinfoyq0.png

TV Info:
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/605/tvinfogv4.png

Album:
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/5789/musicalbumxo0.png

More details in the readme.txt.

Xephyr_Mod_v2.zip (http://rapidshare.com/files/55860699/Xephyr_Mod_v2.zip.html)

Feedback and suggestions welcomed!

PS. If you have any issues with missing views or anything then I'd probably suggest you delete your Xephyr skin folder, re-create it from djh's latest release and then copy my mod on top of it.

Ayala

2007-09-15, 14:50

Dude this skin is looking fantastic, and it's in alpha! ;) keep it up.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-15, 19:21

Dude this skin is looking fantastic, and it's in alpha! ;) keep it up.

I wish I could take credit for the skin but it's djh's work and I'm just filling in some extra functionality whilst he's taking a break. I'm sure when he gets back into it he'll start adding polish and making these things look a lot better since most of the stuff I've added is pretty rough as it's aimed at getting it working first and foremost.

Thanks anyway though! :grin:

Livin

2007-09-15, 22:33

skunkm0nkee,
Nice mods... keep up the great work. When I get more time I'll going in the fun, but I'm slammed with work!

djh_

2007-09-16, 15:35

Work still to do, but it's getting there.

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_musicpreview.jpg

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_musicpreview2.jpg

Hitcher

2007-09-17, 14:58

Looking good.

ixtreme360

2007-09-17, 16:37

This is awesome can't wait for more revisions:grin:

NotShorty

2007-09-18, 03:56

Says I need at least August 27th build, but I just stuck today's T3CH build (september 17) and it still says I have a July 30th build... what's up?

But hey, I like the skin a lot! I'm actually excited about a skin after so many that aren't especially unique or interesting!

Gamester17

2007-09-18, 12:54

@djh_, do you plan to open source your skin(s)?, if so are you a member to the official XBMC Skinning Project (http://sourceforge.net/projects/xboxmediacenter) on SourceForge.net yet? If not then PM me your SourceForge username and I will add you to the project. That way you can host your skins in that SVN, get help directly from other skinners that are part of the project (only if you want, of course), there is also patch, bugs and requests trackers, and you can host your skin downloads there as well.

Lovely work so far by the way, two thumbs up!

NotShorty

2007-09-19, 05:50

Says I need at least August 27th build, but I just stuck today's T3CH build (september 17)

Nevermind. For some reason, it now recognizes my 9/17 build date.

Love it. Has a very high probability of becoming my default skin :nod:

Solo0815

2007-09-19, 09:15

I know this skin is for 16:9 displays.
Is anyone working on 4:3?
Many PAL users (like me) would love that! The skin works on 4:3, but the font is too big. The words cover each other.
thx in advance

jazzen

2007-09-19, 11:12

i love this skin, but i think it has to few viewtypes.. will u implement coverflow and other views?

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-19, 11:48

i love this skin, but i think it has to few viewtypes.. will u implement coverflow and other views?

Have you added the mod I created which added another 6 or 7 views? Cover Flow isn't included in it but I am working on something similar (which I will hopefully be able to release at some point later this week).

MikeBeecham

2007-09-19, 14:21

I know this skin is for 16:9 displays.
Is anyone working on 4:3?
Many PAL users (like me) would love that! The skin works on 4:3, but the font is too big. The words cover each other.
thx in advance

Solo...it's not for 16:9 Displays, it's for 720p. I have a 16:9 and it dont look nearly as good as it should.

I think 4:3 is going to be WAYYYYY down at the bottom of the list for djh_ unless something drastic happens!

jazzen

2007-09-19, 15:09

Have you added the mod I created which added another 6 or 7 views? Cover Flow isn't included in it but I am working on something similar (which I will hopefully be able to release at some point later this week).

No, i have not.. probably should then :)

Looking forward to your coverflow add on, since its that one i use..

I also wanna request some more info labels on the different viewtypes... At least it should show artistname and albumname.... now it only shows the albumname, and thats not always enough i think.

And the music view should not have that rounded frame around the coverart, but instead have some sort of cd-case

still a great skin, just suggestions ;)

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-19, 16:28

Looking forward to your coverflow add on, since its that one i use..

I am trying to create a revolving style cover flow (almost like you were rotating a large wheel with the album covers as spokes) as opposed to one where the covers slide horizontally but I'm beginning to think I'm being a bit ambitous. I have the basic view working but animating it in a way that looks good is proving to be quite difficult! Basically don't hold your breath waiting for it as I need to get it looking good before I release it.

I also wanna request some more info labels on the different viewtypes... At least it should show artistname and albumname.... now it only shows the albumname, and thats not always enough i think.

And the music view should not have that rounded frame around the coverart, but instead have some sort of cd-case

My Artist, Album and List Info views should cover both of those requests. :nod:

Gamester17

2007-09-19, 16:56

@skunkm0nkee, that sounds cool though I'm not sure if the skinning engine in XBMc can do that as is, but checkout these:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26877
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27239

JustMeD

2007-09-19, 19:24

Hi guys,

With the launch of Halo 3 coming up I thought it might be a good time to create a theme for Xephyr. So below are some pics or my work in progress. I only hope I do djh's work justice.

http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/pic0.jpg
http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/pic1.jpg
http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/pic2.jpg
http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/pic3.jpg
http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/pic4.jpg
http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/pic5.jpg

Let me know what you think.

D

szsori

2007-09-19, 22:37

skunkm0nkee or djh:
A request for one of you. Could you do some quick and dirty skinning of the add source window? It's impossible to add a source in Xephyr right now... I keep having to switch to another completed skin just for this. Thanks in advance! :)

Aenima99x

2007-09-19, 22:49

Ayala

2007-09-19, 23:08

dinkelheimer

2007-09-20, 00:03

I think if you changed the blue to a dark metallic orange (see special Halo edition Xbox 360) that theme would look friggin badass

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-20, 00:31

My 'Wheel' Cover Flow style view is taking a bit longer than expected (I'm trying various options with the animation at the moment) but since quite a few people are looking for a cover flow style view I've quickly adapted a version of the PM III 3D List view which looks like the following:

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1530/3dlistin3.jpg

The aim is to tidy up a couple of other things and then release it sometime tomorrow.

szsori:
I'll have a quick look at the add source UI before I do the release tomorrow and try and do something so that it's more usable.

JustMeD

2007-09-20, 02:47

I took your guys advice with regards the blue background. The mistake I made was trying to incorporate the Cortana hologram effect somewhere and it just didn't suit. Below are a couple of recent screen shots with my original visor gold concept. I have also included some transparency to show through the Halo Images included. Thanks for the feedback.

http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/home.jpg
http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/tv.jpg

D

kricker

2007-09-20, 05:53

Much better than the blue. The black text is going to be hard to read though. Either make it white or a solid version of the gold visor color, tweaked enough to be readable.

jazzen

2007-09-20, 09:54

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-20, 10:14

Looks very promising, but i still miss the artist info :( . I really see advantage of showing that as well as the album info.

Keep up the good work

The artist is actually in the view (underneath the list in teh same position as it is in my other views) but seems to be missing from the screenshot (probably because I was messing around with the focus control!)

Thanks

jazzen

2007-09-20, 14:23

The artist is actually in the view (underneath the list in teh same position as it is in my other views) but seems to be missing from the screenshot (probably because I was messing around with the focus control!)

Thanks

GREAT :):)

Really nice to see the cd-cases instead of the deafault frame.

primal100

2007-09-20, 20:28

Might be a simple fix...

I installed the latest XBMC build and when I try and turn on the Xephyr skin I get the "Only skins of version 2.0 or higher are supported" error.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

szsori

2007-09-20, 20:34

Make sure you remove all references to Xephyr from your guisettings.xml. My method worked great: install new XMBC + Xephyr, transfer sources.xml and rebuild libraries and redo settings. :)

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-20, 22:24

Release time again, main changes are as follows:

- gave up (for now) trying to change size of music view panels based on player state so filled area on right hand side with angled album cover image and info
- started work on cover flow style view with album covers sitting on a 'wheel'
- taken a break from the 'wheel' view and created an adapted version of the PMIII 3D List view
- created (rough) version of Add Source UI (requested by szsori)
- created new fast forward/rewind images (had been using images copied from Vision skin!)

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/2153/3dlistol2.png

http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/5418/albumlb5.png

http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/3738/listinfotk5.png

More details in the readme.

Xephyr Mod v3 (http://rapidshare.com/files/57067421/Xephyr.zip.html)

szsori

2007-09-20, 23:02

created (rough) version of Add Source UI (requested by szsori)
You rock.

primal100

2007-09-21, 04:52

Make sure you remove all references to Xephyr from your guisettings.xml. My method worked great: install new XMBC + Xephyr, transfer sources.xml and rebuild libraries and redo settings. :)
It's my first time trying the Xephyr so I don't have any references in my guisettings.xml...what should I try with the sources.xml file?

Hitcher

2007-09-21, 15:54

I used a fresh Xephyr and copied over Mod v3 and delted all references in the guisettings.xml but the background image for Movies is blank.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-21, 16:34

I used a fresh Xephyr and copied over Mod v3 and delted all references in the guisettings.xml but the background image for Movies is blank.

You shouldn't need to remove any references from guisettings.xml unless you were changing the version of Xephyr that you have installed? Have you checked your log for any error messages?

The mod itself shouldn't change anything to do with the background images. The majority of the changes in the mod are to add extra views and to get some of the missing dialogs working.

Speaking of mods I've been messing around a bit more today and have created new Tiled Movie views:

Library version:
http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/4985/tiledmovieinfokx4.png

Files version:
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/5696/tiledmoviegq4.png

It's not quite ready for release yet but I plan to make a few more changes and then make a release towards the end of the weekend.

If anyone has any requests/suggestions then please let me know and I'll see what I can do :blush:

kricker

2007-09-21, 17:58

I really like that tiled movie view!

MikeBeecham

2007-09-21, 18:28

does that nice shiny tiled view not require you to have all your movie posters exactly the same size to work?

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-21, 18:31

does that nice shiny tiled view not require you to have all your movie posters exactly the same size to work?

It works better if they are of the same aspect ratio but I'm stretching/squeezing them to fill the area so they don't have to be.

Livin

2007-09-22, 02:26

I love the Tiled views!

Wir3d

2007-09-22, 02:29

That file version would also be nice in Library mode.
Looking good man. Can't wait for the next release.

Gotta get the now playing screen done :rolleyes:

stanley87

2007-09-22, 06:13

K Guys,

For all the guys making mods, you really need to get in touch with the developer and start to combine your skills into one skin.
Its annoying have to download different versions of the same skin.

But, great work by all! :-D

Cheers,
Stanley87

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-22, 10:55

Gotta get the now playing screen done :rolleyes:

I've already done the UI that shows when a video is playing and you press the content menu (title menu on the remote), how/when do you trigger the now playing screen?

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-22, 11:02

For all the guys making mods, you really need to get in touch with the developer and start to combine your skills into one skin.
Its annoying have to download different versions of the same skin.

I've tried contacting djh but he's been away the last few weeks and I haven't had any response. The skin itself isn't available on SVN so it's not too easy to combine any work at the moment but hopefully when he gets back, the skin will get to SVN and we can discuss how to incorporate any changes (if any, as he might have been developing the skin whilst he's away and made his own versions of the mods I've made!)

Basically it's djh's baby and until he's back and confrimed what he wants to do with the skin I don't want to do anything other than release my changes as separate mods.

Wir3d

2007-09-22, 16:52

The Now Playing displays movies you add to queue.
So if you click on title then Queue Item.
Then you will see Now Playing... near the bottom of the menu.

I'm at work atm so I'm not sure which file it is.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-22, 17:01

JustMeD

2007-09-22, 18:40

Some more changes. I have had to modify some of the xml files to get the font colours correct but I'll include these when released for both djh's and skunkm0nkee's modded version.

http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/new3.jpg
http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/new4.jpg
http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/new2.jpg
http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/new1.jpg

D

Broads

2007-09-22, 21:13

Man that Halo theme is looking sweeeeeet. :D

djh, I don't think I have commented on your skin yet.. So I will now. This is looking great, and with the extra views that skunkm0nkey has added, will become the default for almost everyone. Well done on a very well made skin and thanks to all the others that have been contributing to this skin.

Regards

Broads

Rand Al Thor

2007-09-22, 22:51

anyone got a build that might work on XBMCLinux :grin:

chrislee149

2007-09-22, 22:59

If anyone has any requests/suggestions then please let me know and I'll see what I can do :blush:
I think that all the music album art would look better if you removed the CD case image. It just doesn't fit in.

JustMeD

2007-09-22, 23:23

Well guys my first version release of my Halo 3 Theme for Xephyr. Please check it out and any problems or ideas to be incorporated please let me know. I have a few other additions I want to make but I think this is a good starting point. Hope you enjoy. Installation instructions included.

D

Halo Theme (http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/9/22/1450839/Xephyr%20Halo%20Theme.zip)

Livin

2007-09-23, 01:25

skunkm0nkee,
Can you add a mod to enable multiple Font sizes - and increase the size of the date/time section on the Home screen?
On my TV most of the fonts are too small, and very difficult to read.

JustMeD,
fantastic work... I'm going to use it today. I'll give feedback if there are any issues.

Great work guys... keep it going! this will be the best skin with everyone collaborating!

letraitplat

2007-09-23, 01:45

VERY impressive skin.

I thought I would stick to PMIII forever but one normal day in a normal life made me check "randomly" the skins forum and then it was love at first sight :)

Congrats to the main developer and all the modders that made it this way... Such a good time creating backgrounds...

By the way I think I'll post some of mine quite soon.

I just have some little questions:

1/ Is it possible to change the default selected button? My menu always highlights "apps" when I switch on my xbox, on the main Xephyr menu... Little detail, but thought I would ask :)

2/ where are the default backgrounds located? Let's say I want to add a custom background folders for the "arcade" menu, but still keep the default image (which is a Street fighter "cast" picture, probably made by Udon comics?), where do I find it?

3/ Question to the wallpapers creators out there: where do you guys find your pictures in such hi resolution sizes? Especially for the "games" and "tv shows" ? I have a hard time finding usable pictures, especially for older shows (such as arrested development, "the office", "extras"...) and for some games... Any magic URL you guys would like to share?

4/ Even after applying the V3 mod I found on this thread, still no way to gain access to the 3D View in "music"... Any help?

5/ Last but not least, what are the default sizes for icons, so that they don't get stretched, resized, etc? .tbn format, same name, same folder, right?

Thanks in advance and great job on the skin :)

letraitplat

2007-09-23, 02:27

Thought I would be able to edit my previous post, but seems the feature was disabled :)

Anyway as I wrote earlier, here are some backgrounds made for Xephyr.

Some were made "from scratch" by me, others were found a bit everywhere and cut / edited to fit on 720p.

Feel free to use and give your comments :)

Would be glad to find more ressources to make more music, movies, games, and tv shows background... any useful URLs?

thanks and sorry for my bad english ;)

http://corrosif.free.fr/Xephyr/

KingJames

2007-09-23, 03:15

4:3 version goin to be release anytime

jaredharley

2007-09-23, 09:19

4:3 version goin to be release anytime

From the very first post on this thread:

SUPPORTED RESOLUTIONS:
Xephyr was designed specifically for 720p displays. It has
been tested with PAL 16x9 and reportedly works. However, I
can't confirm this and have no plans for dedicated SD
support, and certainly not for 4:3. 1080i, meanwhile, has
never got on with XBMC, so is also unsupported.

mrbenn

2007-09-23, 10:52

Thanks to letraitplat for the background images, the more the merrier :)

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-23, 11:22

1/ Is it possible to change the default selected button? My menu always highlights "apps" when I switch on my xbox, on the main Xephyr menu... Little detail, but thought I would ask :)

I don't actualy have the code with me at the moment but if you look at Home.xml and then look for the focusposition value, I think that's what controls the selection.

2/ where are the default backgrounds located? Let's say I want to add a custom background folders for the "arcade" menu, but still keep the default image (which is a Street fighter "cast" picture, probably made by Udon comics?), where do I find it?

The default backgrounds are contained in the textures.xpr file. I think they are also contained in djh's Backpack so if you want to have the images picked up from a folder you will have to download that and use it (you can place them wherever you want and then update the custom settings of the skin to point to them)

3/ Question to the wallpapers creators out there: where do you guys find your pictures in such hi resolution sizes? Especially for the "games" and "tv shows" ? I have a hard time finding usable pictures, especially for older shows (such as arrested development, "the office", "extras"...) and for some games... Any magic URL you guys would like to share?

Sorry, no magic URL, not that I know of anyway

4/ Even after applying the V3 mod I found on this thread, still no way to gain access to the 3D View in "music"... Any help?

You are probably using the files section and it was originally only added to the library section. The next release will add it to the files section as well.

5/ Last but not least, what are the default sizes for icons, so that they don't get stretched, resized, etc? .tbn format, same name, same folder, right?

Not sure off the top of my head but check out thetvdb.com as they have different images that can be used as thumbs and you can base your image sizes on those.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-23, 11:30

skunkm0nkee,
Can you add a mod to enable multiple Font sizes - and increase the size of the date/time section on the Home screen?
On my TV most of the fonts are too small, and very difficult to read.

What screen size/resolution do you run XBMC in? I'm guessing you don't run it in 720p?

djh originally created the skin around 720p and the changes I've been making have been based on this assumption as well. I have thought about making it work better with 16x9 and 4x3 but this would mean making changes to djh's original files (and their locations) and I wouldn't want to go ahead with this without agreement from him. It would have to done in such a way that he could continue making the changes he wants without needing rewrites of the 4x3 and 16x9 versions each time.

Hopefully he'll be back soon and we can take it up with him then (I have an xbox in the bedroom that connects to a 4x3 TV so it would be good to have it using the Xephyr skin too!)

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-23, 11:32

I think that all the music album art would look better if you removed the CD case image. It just doesn't fit in.

Sorry, most of the other feedback I've had relating to them has been in favour of them and I quite like them too.

letraitplat

2007-09-23, 13:57

The default backgrounds are contained in the textures.xpr file. I think they are also contained in djh's Backpack so if you want to have the images picked up from a folder you will have to download that and use it (you can place them wherever you want and then update the custom settings of the skin to point to them)

Thanks for the answer, but... nah-ha, the backpack made by djh doesn"t include the "arcade" pack... Only games, music, tv shows, movies. Must be in the .xpr file then, I'll try to find a tool to export stuff from the xpr file.

Thanks :)

Livin

2007-09-23, 21:49

What screen size/resolution do you run XBMC in? I'm guessing you don't run it in 720p?

djh originally created the skin around 720p and the changes I've been making have been based on this assumption as well. I have thought about making it work better with 16x9 and 4x3 but this would mean making changes to djh's original files (and their locations) and I wouldn't want to go ahead with this without agreement from him. It would have to done in such a way that he could continue making the changes he wants without needing rewrites of the 4x3 and 16x9 versions each time.

Hopefully he'll be back soon and we can take it up with him then (I have an xbox in the bedroom that connects to a 4x3 TV so it would be good to have it using the Xephyr skin too!)

I actually do run 720p (16x9) on a 57" screen. Sitting 8 feet from it everyone mentions how difficult the text is to read, either due to size or the color being too light and blending into the background.

I'd love to get the raw PSD files to make some needed changes to make visability better!

Wir3d

2007-09-24, 00:49

I actually do run 720p (16x9) on a 57" screen. Sitting 8 feet from it everyone mentions how difficult the text is to read, either due to size or the color being too light and blending into the background.

I'd love to get the raw PSD files to make some needed changes to make visability better!

Text size is changed in font.xls. Text colors are probaby in the includes.xls.
Has nothing to do with the PSD's.

Livin

2007-09-24, 01:11

Text size is changed in font.xls. Text colors are probaby in the includes.xls.
Has nothing to do with the PSD's.

I know how skins are made. I'd like to see font sizes in the GUI, this is what I'm asking for.

I want the PSDs so I can mod the backgrounds.

NotShorty

2007-09-24, 04:54

Wow, what's it take to get "beta" status? Because this is a pretty damn good alpha! :nod:

I love too many things to list here, the only constructive criticism I could offer is:

1 The v3 mod with "3d list" for music has a display issue when music is playing and you try to view albums of different artists (I'm sure that's known, but I thought I'd mention it).

2 I have no issues with the font size, and really like the style. Backgrounds with light colors could make some fonts hard to read, so being able to change font color through the gui would be nice.

3 My home screen's background image is the one I have set for my "music" now. Is there a way to edit just the home screen's image? I have my home's shortcuts very minimalist with only movies, tv shows, and music. Ideally I'd only like 4 backgrounds; one for each of the above mentioned, and one for the home screen. Oh, I do like the one for the "settings" screen, so I guess 5 total :)

But just like everyone else so far, I'm extremely happy with this skin. Thanks for your efforts everybody!!! :cool2::D

NS

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-24, 13:32

1 The v3 mod with "3d list" for music has a display issue when music is playing and you try to view albums of different artists (I'm sure that's known, but I thought I'd mention it).

I'm not sure I'm aware of any issues, what exactly is it?

2 I have no issues with the font size, and really like the style. Backgrounds with light colors could make some fonts hard to read, so being able to change font color through the gui would be nice.

I'll add the the ability to change font colouring (and possible sizing too) to my list although there are quite a few other things I'd like to get done first. It's another issue that would really need the skin to be in svn before I'd be happy to tackle it fully. I would be comfortable enough to try and do it so that it takes effect across any of the views I've created but wouldn't want to do it across the whole skin without input form djh.

3 My home screen's background image is the one I have set for my "music" now. Is there a way to edit just the home screen's image? I have my home's shortcuts very minimalist with only movies, tv shows, and music. Ideally I'd only like 4 backgrounds; one for each of the above mentioned, and one for the home screen. Oh, I do like the one for the "settings" screen, so I guess 5 total :)

You can't currently change the 'home' page background as the background is dependent on the currently active button (MOVIES, MUSIC etc). If you wanted to use one picture for your home page then you could change all the background options (for movie, music, tv shows etc) to use that image but this would mean that it would also use the same image when in the other areas outside of the home page.

I don't know how djh feels about this but personally I like the way the background changes when scrolling through the options on the home page.

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-24, 13:34

Just a quick apology as I know I said I would release a new version of the mod over the weekend but I got a bit caught up with a few things.

I'll hopefully be able to release it either tonight or tomorrow night. :nod:

JustMeD

2007-09-24, 14:07

skunkm0nkee

Keep up the good work. Look forward to your next update.

D

jazzen

2007-09-24, 14:35

mug2k

2007-09-24, 21:10

skunkm0nkee

2007-09-24, 22:41

Release time again, changes are as follows:

- added Movie view to the files area for videos (it used to be there but seems to have been removed at some point!)
- added 3D List view to the files area for music files
- created new Tiled Movie views (for files and library areas)
- added Now Playing UI for videos (requested by Wir3d)
- fixed issue where list selection bar was showing in 3D List when a song was playing (list is hidden)

New Tiled Movie view (library version):
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/8006/tiledmoviegw3.png

Xephyr Mod v4 (http://rapidshare.com/files/57993697/Xephyr_Mod_v4.zip.html)

I haven't managed to download the new T3CH release (23/09) so haven't tested with it yet but hopefully there are no issues (it works fine with the previous release)

As usual, if you have any feedback or suggestions please let me know