AEON [ALPHA] (formerly "Xephyr"): Skin Release Thread

[djh_]

http://www.aeonismine.com/screens/aeon_flyr.jpg

Aeon (Alpha10) by djh_
================================================

TO DO: PRE-BETA
- full Party Mode support (DONE-ish)
- File Manager context menus (replace central info area)
- Weather panel for Home (DONE)
- Weather window (DONE - almost)
- default backdrops (plain gradient/texture backdrops)
- dual file browsers (one for Settings panes, one for Media windows)
- fix background changer bugs (DONE-ish)
- Python script template
- dedicated Info view for Apple Trailers
- default icons for items without thumbnails (UNDERWAY)
- enhanced animation for Home scroller
- complete Live Tutorial strings and fix timings (DONE)
- redesign OSDs (DONE)
- implement progress bars / text (DONE)
- compile 1080p backpack (DONE - UPLOADED TO AEONCENTRAL.COM)

- complete implementation of the following view types:

Movies/TV:
-> List (NEEDS EXTRA INFO, POSTER VIEW)
-> Icon (DONE)
-> Episode (TV Shows only) (DONE)
-> Poster (DONE)
-> Wide (wide icons) (BEING REDESIGNED)
-> Wide Info (wide icons w/ scrapers) (Library only) (BEING REDESIGNED)
-> Episode Info (Library only) (DONE)
-> List Info (Library only) (SEE: LIST)
-> Poster Info (Library only) (DONE - NEEDS PLACEMENT FIX)
-> Poster Wall (DONE - NEEDS SCROLL-LEFT FIX)

Music:
-> List (DONE)
-> Album Wall (SEE POSTER WALL)

Pictures:
-> List (DONE)
-> Icon (DONE)
-> Photo Album (ABANDONED)
-> Photo Wall (SEE POSTER WALL)

TO DO: POST-BETA, PRE-FINAL
- restore Strings.xml / localisation support
- add complete character set to skin fonts
- complete code optimisation and documentation (ONGOING)
- all textures redrawn to release standard @ 1080p resolution (DONE)
- finalise colour scheme for all textures and typefaces (DONE)
- gradient-faded edges for wraplists
- fix out-of-memory glitches with background changer (DONE-ish)
- optimise fade / slide animation timings (ONGOING)

POST-FINAL
- investigate possibility of fullscreen 3D viewtypes (Virtual Shelf, Photo Scrapbook, etc)
- optimise for Linux as necessary
- recalibrate metrics for 1080p (DONE-ish)
- implement reference levels for contrast, TV types, etc.
- 480p support (DONE)


================================================

Visit the AEON website for the latest downloads:

http://www.aeoncentral.com

[MerDeNoms]

I must say, I'm very happy to see a new skin dedicated to an HD resolution. Seems that most of the backdrops are all my taste too! Plus tv shows on the homescreen is a beautiful thing as well! Cheers to this and I can't wait to see improvement on an already slick looking alpha.

MDN

[jmarshall]

Hi djh_

Please PM pike or Jezz_X regarding SVN access to the skinning SVN on sourceforge. You'll need to register on SF and supply your username to either of them and they should be able to hook you up, assuming ofcourse you want access to this facility (I strongly encourage it).

Will check out the skin shortly :)

Cheers,
Jonathan

[stanley87]

Looking very good :-D

Will try when i get off work 5more hours :-(

[szsori]

Looks good so far. Unfortunately my TV can't run 720p resolutions, since it's 1080i native. I've been running other skins in 480p. Xephyr seems like it could work very well in 480p with a few minor adjustments:
- The main scroll menu items overlap slightly. Taking the font size down a little bit or increasing the left and right margins on each item should fix this issue.
- On file browsing areas, like the Movie section, the menu items overlap as well. These are the sort order, library, etc items. There's plenty of room going across so perhaps a little more spacing between each item would solve this.

I know it's annoying when you put a great project out only to immediately get a ton of requests, but there are just a few things that stand out in other skins that I think would make yours so much better:
- A wide icon view mode, especially in the TV section. I know some people have wide game and movie icons as well, so perhaps it would be best to just have it in every section.
- An "Arcade" or "Emulators" section. Sure, these can go under apps, but having a separate section (similar to MC360's setup) would be even better, especially with being able to have a background image specifically for that section.
- I like how you can press up or down to get the shutdown/reboot/etc menu, but I think it would be even better if you could push down to get that menu and up to get a favorites menu (once again, see MC360 when you press start). That way people could quickly link to custom sections and scripts really easily.
- Optional weather and time somewhere on the screen. I personally don't display these things, but I know many people like having them show up.

Once again, thank you so much for the work you put into this. It's easily one of the top skins out there, even if it is only alpha.

[Rand Al Thor]

Very slick, great work!!

[jmarshall]

After trying it out, a few comments:

1. Looks really, really, really nice, especially in 720p.

2. Runs nice and smoothly.

3. Sometimes it's a little hard to see the focused item (eg which button has focus among the view/sort buttons in the media views and also which settings page you are on within a settings category). Perhaps a larger difference in the font colouring would do the trick, and/or make use of shadowing on the font perhaps?

4. The predefined bookmarks are a pet peeve of mine, but as you've stated clearly that they're setup the way you like them, and have explained how which bookmarks they're expecting, this is fine. Perhaps in a final version there will be a nice way to set the home page up. This is a problem in many skins though, so perhaps we can do something to help out in this regard. Part of the problem with default bookmarks from home is when you return to them it doesn't remember your last path. Nothing to do with the your skin, it's just a restriction of the "engine". Feel free to post any pet peeves you have about the skinning engine and/or suggestions for what you would want to see improved.

5. See 1 ;)

Great work :)

Cheers
Jonathan

[Jezz_X]

After trying it out, a few comments:

1. Looks really, really, really nice, especially in 720p.

2. Runs nice and smoothly.

3. Sometimes it's a little hard to see the focused item (eg which button has focus among the view/sort buttons in the media views and also which settings page you are on within a settings category). Perhaps a larger difference in the font colouring would do the trick, and/or make use of shadowing on the font perhaps?

4. The predefined bookmarks are a pet peeve of mine, but as you've stated clearly that they're setup the way you like them, and have explained how which bookmarks they're expecting, this is fine. Perhaps in a final version there will be a nice way to set the home page up. This is a problem in many skins though, so perhaps we can do something to help out in this regard. Part of the problem with default bookmarks from home is when you return to them it doesn't remember your last path. Nothing to do with the your skin, it's just a restriction of the "engine". Feel free to post any pet peeves you have about the skinning engine and/or suggestions for what you would want to see improved.

I agree with all them. I really like the look of the skin its a great Idea
things I'm not fond of are
Stretching Thumbs to fit into the box around them because not all screen caps of movies are the same aspect some are 4x3 some are 16x9 and some are letterbox ( though I do understand why you did it )
Little sad it has no wide icon support yet ? :sad:
I would think you would need a huge TV to be able to see the font inside the sub pages
I can barely tell what button is selected in the lower sub pages like jmarshall said

Also if you are makign this skin for 720p only why not actually make the xmls in the 720p dir instead of the pal16x9 one ?

[Livin]

I just got done check'n'er out and I can already tell this will be replacing PM3 very soon for my home!

I agree with JM, SZSORI, & Jezz on everything they stated. I
My comments...

1) I have a 57" 1080i TV running XBMC at 720p and the fonts are VERY difficult to see. The dark color text blends too much into the BGs.
Maybe...
less transparent glass overlay
larger font option for us old people ;)
lighter font color still allowing contrast with the glass
text shadow

2) Nearly impossible to tell what is selected when the selection is text. Maybe have the cursor marker show you what is selected or have a more contrasting font color - icons are fine, of course.

3) Please change the icon frame... GUI is super polished, but the frame is out of place IMO.

4) Allow the backgrounds on the main menu to be a slide show, like PM3 and others.

5) Weather in lower right corner would be nice :P

6) Time & Date in upper left or right corner, or even lower left maybe, would be nice :)

[MikeBeecham]

Been playing with this for a short while now, and it really could become my new default. There are some issues for CRT as discussed on MSN, but it's good to see that you will be making a small amount of effort to get this working for CRT.

The biggest problem I have, as you know, is that there is no background image with library...I have a black screen with very dark text, so it's difficult to see anything.

Once this is resolved I can re-go at it.

Keep up the good work bro, it's looking really tight so far, especially for a weeks work...that should not go unnoticed.

[djh_]

Jyra: if you download the build here, the library problem should be partially fixed.

I'm drawing up an early list of beta features based on this thread. Will have more this evening.

[MikeBeecham]

cool mate...will download this evening and take another look

[edwinmcdunlap]

Nice! This skin looks totally awesome in 720p.

[v1nzent-]

works ánd looks grreat !
weather and some sort of shortcut to the script menu would be even greater though :)
keep up the GOOD work, thanks alot !

[djh_]

New icon frames. Glass panel density increased to improve text legibility. I'll do some work on the font colours next to get it just right.

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xbmc_concept/beta/xephyr_newicons.jpg

[Rand Al Thor]

Looks amazing!!

PS: Fear and Loathing = Best movie ever!!!

[mou]

WOW!!! looks amazing..... keep up the good work! i simply love it!

when you get the textcolor fixed this will be my default skin.

BTW. The it would be nice if you could anable the filter button in my music or maybe replace it with search. Also the scroll bars could come in handy.

best regards

[HarshReality]

With all the affects available to the skinning engine I wonder if there is one for shadow (specifically for text). For example, grey text on a dark background can make for some difficulty BUT drop a 1 or 2 px down and right shadow using white and it could make the text stand out incredibly by example... one of my sigs would illustrate, granted its a smaller scale but the effect would be much better on a larger scale.

http://harrea.100webspace.net/ <--- examples with drop and right shadow (images)

[jmarshall]

Yes, shadow dropping of text has been around in XBMC for ages.

[Nuka1195]

i like the new icon frames.

[HarshReality]

Cool I will have to hunt in the wiki and see about tweaking my PM3 lol

[MikeBeecham]

loving those new frames...they look SO much better than the old ones. I think you should keep them!

[szsori]

What's the good word? Oh no... I've turned into one of the "when's it going to be done" people. :eek:

[smokeyfingaz]

great work so far!!

im really liking your skin although im only hooked up to an old 4:3 pal TV. I hope you will eventually get round to supporting 4:3 as the scrolling home menus dont fit in that view. also it would be great if when playing media (vid&music) you could implement a stop button on the osd (youve got pause but stop would be great also)


cant wait for the next release

ps: you should post on xbox-scene also and build up some more hype for your skin!!!

[djh_]

Update:

Having spent my few moments of free time this week messing with the colours, I realised that little else did the job without ruining the look. The wrapviews had to be the focus of each window, not the menu above them. So aside from making the background denser to help the text stand out, I've used the same little dot to indicate highlight menu options as features in the listviews. Does the job, basically.

Next thing to do is get all the view modes using the new icon frames, and introduce an option for kept/scaled icon ratios.

[djh_]

Here's the icon aspect ratio options at work. Each view type can be set to either stretch or keep the correct dimensions.

Notice, incidentally, that while the bottom row of icons is correctly positioned within the frame, the top row has a 1px gap between them, along the top side. Is this a bug?

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

[jmarshall]

You're probably hitting a half pixel boundary, so one is rounding down and the other up possibly.

XBMC renders all images and text rounded to the nearest pixel boundary to eliminate aliasing on the edges.

Looking bloody good btw ;)

[djh_]

Revised Episodes view:

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

While I'm here, incidentally, I'm about to build a tweaked version of XBMC because I think mplayer is playing my X-Files episodes, all of which are VOBs ripped from the DVDs. With mplayer I get AV sync problems, with dvdplayer I don't, so I'm setting it up to play .vob extension files with dvdplayer. Am I wasting my time?

[mbay]

i like this layout - great work

[MikeBeecham]

are these new amendments available for download yet?

[Livin]

look'n good... any way to DL? Are you putting this on a site or in SVN?

[Livin]

any updates?

[LRa]

Looks great.

[Livin]

it would look better if we got an updated version ;)

[szsori]

*patiently waiting as well* :)

[djh_]

Sorry guys, I've been mega-busy with work the last few weeks. Might just do an interim update over the next few days to keep everyone ticking over.

[Freddo]

would be much appreciated, I love the look of this skin.

[szsori]

Take your time... real life always takes priority. At least that's what my wife tells me. :)

[Livin]

any update?

[Livin]

djh,
Please release this... I'd like to use it. Also, if you are not going to have time to work on it please consider releasing the images in PS format so they that the skin can live on.

thank you for the fantasic work!

[szsori]

*what he said*

[PANIC!]

This skin still rocks!

Looking forward to a finshed release ;-)

[djh_]

Okay, so here's what happens now that I'm barely able to put two consecutive minutes into working on this. I'll put up the current version asap (either tonight or tomorrow) which isn't a world apart from the old one. It does have the new icon frames, some corrected dimensions, the icon aspect ratio options, an RSS feed, visibility fixes and some other guff. Nothing major. The File Manager, for example, still isn't skinned.

I'll also put up an archive which includes all the textures, together with the photoshop document I've been working from. It's a bit messy. As much as I'd love to get this to where I originally wanted it (and design-wise, it's more or less there), I'd just as happily see you guys mess around with it and see what comes out.

[szsori]

Great! Thanks a lot for doing this. I'm just really excited about being able to use this skin and hope the rest of us can (or a single person, if anyone wants to take it on) can figure it all out.

[djh_]

Just ironing out some major kinks. Should have a version for tomorrow.

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xbmc_concept/beta/xephyr_rss.jpg

[djh_]

The new build's available at the start of the thread. Something of particular note with this one is that the customisation settings are a bit screwy; you'll see what I mean.

I'll upload the folder with all the textures shortly. A right mess, they are.

Oh, and I never got round to properly coding the RSS options, so atm you have to select RSS in both the XBMC and Skin settings for it to work. Remember, this isn't so much a "work in progress" as a "work in progress in progress". In other words: erk.

[manturafs]

I think the links on the first post don't work. The link to the new release though is this I believe: hxxp://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/Xephyr_ALPHA2.rar

Like the work so far! Keep it up!

[djh_]

Not sure what happened to the original link. I've put a mirror one up for the time being.

[djh_]

Custom background folders/slideshows are now working for both the Home screen and media windows. The Customisation menu is also fixed. I'll post a small update tomorrow.

[kricker]

Wonderful. Thanks for all the quick last minute updates.

[djh_]

Updated again with the aforementioned improvements. Custom background slideshows, fixed customisation menu, few more bugs stamped on.

Download's on the first page, titled ALPHA2b. Thank God someone gave me edit privileges.

[manturafs]

Also, another issue to add is the scripts section is also unskinned. everything else i think you already mentioned in your known issues. love it! keep it up!

[pike]

...Thank God someone gave me edit privileges.

You're welcome :) that's a perk when you make great skins (comes with the
title Skinner)

[MikeBeecham]

:D Gotta love Pike...he's always there when you need him :)

[djh_]

One File Manager. This animates really nicely: the darker background fades in, together with the system text and the logo, while the two glass panes slide in from either side. The plan is for the area in the middle to double as a context menu.

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

[MajorTom]

this really is a great piece of work.... thanks

[djh_]

So I've started playing with the glass again. I've been thinking that it lost its way a bit after I started trying to make the text more legible, so I've made the text black and the glass crisper, less smokey and more transparent. I appreciate that some people are going to see this as a bit of a step back in legibility terms, so I'm now putting two different "densities" of glass in there with an option to switch between the two.

Here's what the clearer version looks like anyway:

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_newglass1.jpg

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_newglass2.jpg

[djh_]

Incidentally, if anyone using this skin would like me to post thumbnail artwork to fit those poster frames, or episode thumbnails for TV shows, let me know.

[Livin]

I really like the look and feel of this skin. It is a bit difficult to read on my 57", maybe I can increase the font size?

Anyway... a few requests:

a)
Can you make the 'Settings' a hidden button, e.g. not on the main menu scroller? I don't think it make sense to have a button on a main menu that should only be used rarely by the admin of the system, and never by a normal user.
You could also do this with a power button?
I did this on my PM3 mod and it works well. Maybe something that if you press up from the main menu, hidden buttons appear?

b)
Can you add some more views to the videos? I really like List2 and also the icon / grid-like view.

[djh_]

I really like the look and feel of this skin. It is a bit difficult to read on my 57", maybe I can increase the font size?


I can see the font size becoming a bone of contention, tbh - you're having trouble reading it at 57", I have no trouble at 32". I guess an optional font size increase is the only way to do it. I'll look into it.


Can you make the 'Settings' a hidden button, e.g. not on the main menu scroller? I don't think it make sense to have a button on a main menu that should only be used rarely by the admin of the system, and never by a normal user.


Yup, I'm with you on that one. I'll move it to the Home submenu.


You could also do this with a power button?
I did this on my PM3 mod and it works well. Maybe something that if you press up from the main menu, hidden buttons appear?


They already do! Don't press up, though, press down. There's a power button on there, together with Scripts etc. Incidentally, I've just skinned the basic Scripts window.


Can you add some more views to the videos? I really like List2 and also the icon / grid-like view.

I'll certainly add the Icon view as it takes about three seconds. Don't worry too much about the List views at the moment; they'll be given an overhaul before too long.

[m_lopez_h]

Can you also post your backgrounds? You have obviously spent alot of time getting the right look and feel to your skin. I'd like to run the skin as it was originally designed..

[djh_]

The default backgrounds are included in the skin. As for the others, the only rule is that they're 1280x720 and, if you want them to load instantly, saved in bitmap format.

[djh_]

A few more changes, starting with the menu option highlights.

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

[m_lopez_h]

Hmm, for some reason the backgrounds didn't come up when I loaded the skin. I'm running a 2week old XBMC SVN. I'll update to the Aug 5 SVN and see if that fixes the problem.

[Livin]

djh,
I've spent a lot of time mod'n PM3 and I can see I'm going to dump my mod to use your skin... very nice work indeed!

A few thoughts...

To maximize screen real estate while in the videos, music, pictures, etc... what about adding an option for a 'full screen' version where the glass and the display panes take up the entire window? This would make the grid views really shine and get a tone on the screen at once.

And to top it off... if the coverflow view (not sure that is what it is called -the view on the post above) could have multiple rows this would be useful on the 'full screen' versions. Like this...

- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - [] -

[djh_]

EDIT: Redundant now. No point wasting bandwidth.

[smokeyfingaz]

loving the skin,

it would be great if you could support 4x3 soon - as i would really like to switch over to this beauty!

[djh_]

Coming soon. :nerd:

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

[djh_]

The latest madness: online tutorials. They're enabled by default when you first run the skin, popping up to deliver a few lines (fadelabels = :grin:) before sliding off again. Each page has its own unique tips.

Then, once you're sick to death of 'em, you just disable them permanently in the Custom menu. The where, you say? LOOK TO THE TIPS, FRIEND!

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

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_tutorial1.jpg

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_tutorial2.jpg

[SleepyP]

this project is really ready to be moved into the Skinning SVN :)

[alucard77]

It would be greatly appreciated if you can make this skin available in 1080i. Unfortunately the TV I am using my XMBC on is only 1080i. I would love to try this skin out, it looks very nice.

[djh_]

Sadly, I don't have plans for resolutions above 720p until I move over to the linux build. Like most skins, Xephyr croaks when it goes up to 1080i, especially in the animation department.

Of course, that doesn't mean that someone else can't do it. ;)

[Livin]

alucard77,
your TV does not upconvert 480p or 720p to 1080i? I find that strange... I've never seen one that didn't...

btw, the XBOX has problems running XBMC at 1080i, no use (unless you like to waste time) in skinning something for it.

[Far Beyond]

This is easilly the best skin for XBMC now, it's just a pity you're only doing it in widescreen as I've only got a standard 4:3 telly (but I'm still gonna use the skin). It's only really the homepage and a few rows that looks wrong in 4:3 - I might have a go at that.

Questions, Questions!

When you post the backpack, can you please include that lovely image of Gillian Andersson? I've been looking around for it but can't find it.

The other new choices of image for TV and Movies are excellent, where do you get the pics from? I've been resizing my own DVD covers (280x400) and rasing the cache for thumbnails so they look better in xTV but nobody else seems to be doing it. Have you cropped/fixed up those movies posters yourself, they look spanking clean.

The general layout of the whole thing is ace, but I think that in the music wrap, the small covers are too small next to the selected one, the selected frame is too big (compared to movies) and the list view is very dull/plain. Is there any place to squeeze in the album art, maybe on the right hand side?

Hope you don't take offence to any of this criticism, like I've said, I think this is the best skin anyone's ever made for XBMC. Well done, it's well cool :cool:

[djh_]

Thanks for the kind words. :grin:

It's only really the homepage and a few rows that looks wrong in 4:3 - I might have a go at that.

I can guarantee there'll be more wrong than that - much of the skin's been designed specifically to make use of the widescreen frame. Still, though, I'm sure a bit of determination could hack most of it down to size.

When you post the backpack, can you please include that lovely image of Gillian Andersson? I've been looking around for it but can't find it.

I wasn't planning on including it, but I'll send it over to you.

I've been resizing my own DVD covers (280x400) and rasing the cache for thumbnails so they look better in xTV but nobody else seems to be doing it. Have you cropped/fixed up those movies posters yourself, they look spanking clean.

I do them all myself. Tend to download them from the Internet Movie Poster Awards site before sprucing them up in Photoshop. My thumbnail size is set at 300px, though I tend to save them at 500px height in case I want to use them elsewhere.

I think that in the music wrap, the small covers are too small next to the selected one, the selected frame is too big (compared to movies) and the list view is very dull/plain. Is there any place to squeeze in the album art, maybe on the right hand side?

I'm in complete agreement with you - the Music views are probably the area in need of the most attention. I basically just plonked the Pictures views in there and left it for a later date, though I have tweaked the Preview view since the last build. Don't worry - Music will look completely different by the time I'm through.

I'm putting another build up tonight which features a considerable number of changes, most of which you've seen. Here's another:

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_osd1.jpg

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_osd2.jpg

[djh_]

New version's uploading now; the link's at the start of the thread. Alpha3 is the one you want. Things to note beyond the usual "IT'S ALPHA!" remark:

- the File Manager's been skinned on a purely visual level - don't expect a great deal of it to actually work
- the popup tutorials (I'll have to think of some swanky name for those) are very preliminary and the timings are all wrong. You'll see what I mean
- Settings are down in the Home page submenu now
- OSD colours are all temporary, so no comments about poor visibility, please

[casiojikl]

The requested URL /upload/Xephyr_ALPHA3.rar was not found on this server.

:sad:

[djh_]

That's the second time that's happened. ???

I've put a mirror up.

[djtoll]

Verry good Work - Respect man :grin:

:nod::nod::nod:

[shizzle]

this skin got something special:P shame i only got 4:3 tv

[Livin]

Can you add some Weather Info on the Home screen - maybe an option that people can turn off if they don't want it?

[szsori]

alucard77,
your TV does not upconvert 480p or 720p to 1080i? I find that strange... I've never seen one that didn't...
My TV doesn't upconvert 720p either (Mitsubishi 48"). It can actually damage many 1080i TV's if you give them a 720p signal if they're not designed to upconvert it. Mine does handle 480p, but it's not really an upconversion.

In a nutshell, even adjustments to this skin to properly display it at 480p would be incredibly helpful, since that's how I'm using it. The text on the main menu and time/date display is just a little larger than it should be (overlaps into surrounding items), otherwise it looks pretty good.

Another request that I have: wide banner support. This seems like a standard feature in all the other skins and wide TV show banners are even automatically handled by the scrapers. It would add a lot visually if these could be used.

I love this skin and am hoping it gets just a few fixes without getting overly complicated. I like the simplicity of it, which gives it a very clean look. Thanks so much for putting the time into this and releasing it. Even in its alpha state and with my complaints above, it's still far more useful for me than any other skin I've used.

[Livin]

getting some errors in the log...

21:11:44 M: 45711360 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: common-Rotate
21:11:44 M: 45711360 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: common-Rotate
21:11:44 M: 45711360 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: common-Rotate
21:11:44 M: 45711360 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: common-Rotate
21:11:44 M: 45666304 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:11:44 M: 45645824 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:11:44 M: 45645824 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:11:44 M: 45645824 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:11:44 M: 45645824 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:11:44 M: 45645824 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:11:44 M: 45645824 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:11:44 M: 45645824 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:11:44 M: 45645824 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:11:44 M: 45645824 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:11:44 M: 45666304 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:11:44 M: 45666304 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:14 M: 39415808 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Black-Overlay
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Black-Special
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Lines-Special
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Black-Overlay
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Zoom-ShutDownMenu
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Zoom-ShutDownMenu
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34836480 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: DialogInfo
21:58:53 M: 34844672 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: dialogheadingcolor
21:58:53 M: 34844672 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Zoom-ShutDownMenu
21:58:53 M: 34844672 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: dialogheadingcolor
21:58:53 M: 34844672 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: Zoom-ShutDownMenu
21:58:54 M: 19415040 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: MediaOverlay
21:58:54 M: 19238912 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: MediaOverlay
21:58:54 M: 19222528 ERROR: Texture manager unable to load file: Q:\skin\Xephyr\media\Background-Overlay-TopLine.png
21:58:54 M: 19222528 ERROR: Texture manager unable to load file: Q:\skin\Xephyr\media\Background-Overlay-BottomLine.png
21:58:54 M: 19103744 NOTICE: Display resolution USER : 720p 16:9 (1)
21:58:54 M: 26861568 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: textcolorwhite
21:58:54 M: 26861568 WARNING: Skin has invalid include: textcolorwhite

[djh_]

getting some errors in the log...

Easily fixed. Thanks for pointing them out, though.

[djh_]

Coming real soon...

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

[MikeBeecham]

looking great mate...I really think you should put it into the SVN and allow others to take it forward

[Jezz_X]

I must say man you go some real nice talent for picking background images :)

[djh_]

Can you add some Weather Info on the Home screen - maybe an option that people can turn off if they don't want it?

And here it is! Not an option I'll be using as it buggers up several of my wallpapers, but it's there for those who want it. I've put a shortcut to the Weather Settings in the Home submenu, but that'll probably move to the Custom menu eventually. Due to its length, it disables the popup tutorials automatically.

I could have done it with Fadelabels and made it shorter, but too much scrolling on the Home page is a no-no in my book. Accordingly, the text here could well spill over and ruin it depending on what the weather label spits out. So if you live in Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchau bunagungamaug you're probably fucked.

Consider this an earnest feature request for Fadelabels to support upwards scrolling - here, at least, it'd make things a whole lot prettier.

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

[blaize]

really looking good there man :)
not liking the movie page that much though (the background isnt really doing it for me) but the minimalistic brown menu's are really nice.
combined with the talent for picking wallpapers that Jezz_X noted, it's really a cool project.
keep it up :grin:

[djh_]

not liking the movie page that much though (the background isnt really doing it for me)

Background preference really isn't an issue with this skin. :;):

[djh_]

This is what happens now when you click the right-thumbstick on your controller (or whatever you do on your Harmony remote - :nerd:)

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

[shizzle]

This is what happens now when you click the right-thumbstick on your controller (or whatever you do on your Harmony remote - :nerd:)

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

nice:cool:

[Broads]

This skin, looks awsome from the screen shots, but can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong here..

I have downloaded the Alpha3, but I don't get any of those lush wallpapers that you have included, only the textures of the glass etc. Help much appreciated as I would like to move this to my home cinema asap :D

[djh_]

Hmm, you're the second person who's reported that. I can only assume it's an XBMC build issue or something to do with your cache. Are you running a recent version of XBMC?

[blaize]

@djh:
http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_newmenus.jpg
i mean the white grainy background.

[djh_]

@djh:
http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_newmenus.jpg
i mean the white grainy background.

Oooh, I see. I'll be adding a few glass variants at some point, but for the moment there's just the one. You can "thicken" the glass in the Custom menu, but it's the same texture.

[Broads]

Thanks for the prompt reply djh, I have just this minuite downloaded the T3ch from 2007-08-12, still the same, all backgrounds showing black this is via xbmc pc.. so will push to the little black box and see if it sees it any different.

[djh_]

You might want to try checking you cache settings and seeing if it's a memory issue. The background does take up a chunk, so if you have particularly high cache values it's conceivable it mightn't show.

[Broads]

These are my current cache settings? do any of these look out of place?

<cache>
<harddisk>256</harddisk>
<sep1></sep1>
<sep2></sep2>
<sep3></sep3>
<sep4></sep4>
</cache>
<cacheaudio>
<dvdrom>256</dvdrom>
<internet>256</internet>
<lan>256</lan>
</cacheaudio>
<cachedvd>
<dvdrom>2048</dvdrom>
<lan>2048</lan>
</cachedvd>
<cacheunknown>
<internet>2048</internet>
</cacheunknown>
<cachevideo>
<dvdrom>2048</dvdrom>
<internet>4096</internet>
<lan>2048</lan>
</cachevideo>

[szsori]

Love that info page with the right thumbstick. Very cool and handy.

How the heck do I select the different included wallpapers, though? I select custom background and browse to the file with the textures.xpr in there, but can't select individual files inside the xpr, nor can I find the images elsewhere inside the Xephyr directory structure.

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? An example... you select The Dresden Files and the background for the season/episode selection is a Dresden Files wallpaper. Media Portal has the ability (and fan art specific for their skins: http://jossan.visse.nu/~spuck/FanArtVote/index.php?showid=79759), and it adds a lot to the interface. Having "fan art" backgrounds supported by XBMC would make it pretty likely I'd add them to thetvdb.com and bribe spiff into automatically downloading them for each show. :)

[Broads]

Just had a quick look at the home.xml
Seems you are using an imagepath for the images, and when I look into the xpr I see that you have the images saved within the xpr as films\imagename so the files are there.

I have tried on an older build of xbmc and that works... So I dont know whats up here..

I will try a completly fresh build rather than an update and see if this fixes.

[djh_]

szsori: There aren't any custom wallpapers included - just the default ones. The background pack that I'm just finishing off has 100 of them, though, so you'll have plenty to choose from. For the sake of loading speed, each backdrop is a BMP file which weighs in at about 2.5mb, so I couldn't really include extra ones in the skin package itself.

As for ListItem-specific switching, built-in downloads etc., that's not something I'm really thinking about atm. Sorry.

[Broads]

I can confirm a fresh build has fixed this issue. My guess is there is something dirty in the user data folder.

Thanks for your patience.

[szsori]

Thanks djh. Once again, great work so far. :)

[[o]SoundWave[o]]

When i installed this skin i noticed that the some of the backgrounds didn´t show. After messing around with xbmc and copy the skin again , nothing changed. That's when i noticed that i had custom background activated (in the skin custom option). After i set to default all background worked.
Maybe that's what's happenning to the people who say they can't see the backgrounds.

[djh_]

Interesting...

I'll check the options to make sure none of the customs are activating by default. Shouldn't be, though.

[ralob]

this skin looks brilliant. i cannot wait to use it. thanks for making it :D i hope it is one of those skins that will eventually reach beyond the beta stage. great work mate. :grin:

[MerDeNoms]

Looking great! Is it possible to add an option to enable/disable homescreen items? Keep up the great work!

[pike]

That's the second time that's happened. ???

I've put a mirror up.

wanna know why it's happening ? I need to upload it manually each time! and I don't read this thread every time it's updated, hehe

[szsori]

Anyone wanting to run in 480p mode... open the fonts.xml file in both the PAL16x9 and 720p directories and change every font size to be 2 smaller. It worked really well for me. I think you could also create a 480p directory and make a copy of fonts.xml in there with the sizes changed, but I'm not entirely sure if that's how it works.

1080i would probably work the same, but you'd want to take the sizes up by 8 or 10 I think, and like djh has pointed out, it probably won't look quite right anyway.

[Livin]

djh,
About the weather; I think the location is unnecessary... if you don't know where you are the weather is your the least worry you should have! :rofl:

Also, what about putting it in the lower right corner like this...

http://members.cox.net/ltek/images/xbmc/screenshot037.jpg

[djh_]

wanna know why it's happening ? I need to upload it manually each time! and I don't read this thread every time it's updated, hehe

Erk. Sorry, mate. I'm speaking to JezzX about SVN now, so hopefully the suffering's about to end.

[JustMeD]

djh

Have to say this is one hell of a nice skin. I'm really looking forward to SVN inclusion as every time I see your new additions I just can't wait to get your latest build and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Just one thing I noticed tho but I'm sure this is because its a work in progress the bullet point whilst in list view seems offset vertically. Are you planning on keeping that as I don't think it flows with the rest of your skin or are you planning something similar to the selector bar you just introduced.

On a side note I have tested your skin at 1080i and I have to say the images look amazing at that rez the only issue I have is font size but I'll create a new font.xml just for that purpose to suit my TV. I for some reason don't seem to get that memory, lag issue that alot of other users seem to face at this rez and can stream all my movies etc no prob. On the other hand any skin I have used at 720p looks really bad - both fonts and graphics.

Great work and look forward to your updates.

D

[djh_]

Just one thing I noticed tho but I'm sure this is because its a work in progress the bullet point whilst in list view seems offset vertically. Are you planning on keeping that as I don't think it flows with the rest of your skin or are you planning something similar to the selector bar you just introduced.

The ListViews, selectors, highlights etc should be considered prototypes atm. One of them, for example, is still a legacy texture from Clearity. They'll change considerably before too long, though I haven't thought how yet.

[JustMeD]

Any idea when you might move over to SVN as I'd be keen to get your latest build. Also what resources do you use to get those hiRes images. Can't wait to make this my default skin.

D

[djh_]

At the risk of cluttering up the Home page, I've been playing around with a more interesting Now Playing overlay. It's optional, so if you prefer the old way of simply replacing the RSS with some basic info, or just turning it off altogether, you still can.

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

[alucard77]

Sorry bout my last post, no need to make this 1080i. I thought it couldn't be used on a 1080i tv, but I made a mistake. I got the skin up and running now.

This is a very nice skin indeed. Just a couple quick suggestions.

1- Would it be possible that in the cover view mode it highlighted the middle picture instead of the one all the way on the left hand side. So when you hover over the movie you want to see, that icon will be in the center of the screen instead of the right.

2- I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, but when I go to TV shows or movies, I need to go back a level. The TV Show screen is blank, then I go back a screen, go to title and the shows appear.

Anyway, this is a great skin. I am looking forward to future improvements. Any plans for wide icons?

[Livin]

djh,
I like the 'now playing' on the home, looks good.

btw... how do I increase the font size? The menus are too difficult for me to read. I'm getting old!

[szsori]

Affini.. read up for one of my previous posts on making this work in 480p. It's just a matter of editing the font.xml files in Notepad and increasing each one by a little bit. Keep in mind that doing so on certain items will make them overlap incorrectly in the skin. Best to just increase the smaller ones and leave the main menu one alone.

[djh_]

Would it be possible that in the cover view mode it highlighted the middle picture instead of the one all the way on the left hand side. So when you hover over the movie you want to see, that icon will be in the center of the screen instead of the right.

You could do it, but it'd cause a few problems. The menus, for example, are designed to fall to the left of the focused object. If the focused object moved to the centre, they'd overlap.

I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, but when I go to TV shows or movies, I need to go back a level. The TV Show screen is blank, then I go back a screen, go to title and the shows appear.

I think this'll be because the shortcuts are hardcoded into the Home menu. If you look at the readme file, it tells you where each menu option leads. By pulling back a level, you're probably going back to the root directory, which is why you can see something.

Any plans for wide icons?

Not at the moment. I'm not even sure how I'd do it, given that the skin's designed to make full use of widescreen. It seems a bit counterproductive to have wide icons taking up all that space. I'll give it some thought.

[Livin]

djh,
can you tell me what font (in FONT.XML) controls the list items and the menus when in the sub-screens (ie. Photos, Videos, etc)?

szsori,
thx, I know how the skin works but there are a ton of fonts in there! ;)

[djh_]

Two problems:

Here's the List view as it currently exists, which as you can see displays a PLAYING label using the ListItem.IsPlaying condition. But how do I get it to display on a song that's playing but isn't selected? I tried using the above method on the unfocused items, but the PLAYING label then appeared next to every item in the list.

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

Also, on the media overlay for the Home page I'm displaying both the track number and the total number of tracks in the playlist. But because my ID3 tags feature a leading 0, the formatting of the two numbers isn't matching. Is there a code fudge by which I can either remove the leading 0 from the current track or add one to the total tracks label?

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

[portion]

How do we use the backpack to change the backgrounds?

[djh_]

How do we use the backpack to change the backgrounds?

It's in the readme file.

[jmarshall]

ListItem.IsPlaying *should* ideally work for non-focused items, but perhaps it doesn't - supply some example XMLs and I'll take a look.

And no, there's no way to alter the tracknumber format from the skin side of things. I would think that it's XBMC that's prefixing the 0, as tracknumber (I presume this is actually the playlistnumber?) is stored in an integer. Will take a look.

[szsori]

Not at the moment. I'm not even sure how I'd do it, given that the skin's designed to make full use of widescreen. It seems a bit counterproductive to have wide icons taking up all that space. I'll give it some thought.
I think even something really basic could look nice. A couple of really rough photoshops (REALLY rough due to not having the original PSD or enough time :) )...

The first would probably look the best and is similar to some skins out there already. The previous and next skins are just shown a little bit, to make the animation effect nicer. This could use the nice reflection effect you're using elsewhere.
http://zsori.com/Domains/zsori/UserImages/example0.jpg

The second is a lot more complicated and I'm not even sure if it's possible. It looks like crap in this mockup... the previous/next banners should have even stronger foreshortening. It would scroll around like a bingo tumbler. I've seen other skins that skew cover art, so in theory it seems like it would be possible. The cool thing about this is that I haven't really seen it in other skins. It does reduce the size of the focused banner, though, and doesn't properly use all the space. It would be better with a stronger foreshortening. I don't think it could use the reflection effect either. Dunno... just another idea to play with.
http://zsori.com/Domains/zsori/UserImages/example1.jpg

TV series icons are almost exclusively wide format, which is why I've been begging for this so much. I'll stop begging now and leave you alone. :)

[Livin]

Wide screen icons look nice... but it would only make sense if the TV Shows, Movies, etc screen were full screen. djh has done a great job of using screen width, but he loses just as much (or more) screen real estate on what he does not use above/below the menus... it actually loses as much or more then the PM3 skin.

djh, a few requests...

1) Can you add a variable to set the time for the background changes - I'd like to make mine more frequent?

2) Noting the first paragraph above, I'd like to see a full screen version when in the sub screen... would be more flexible usage.

3) I like the 'highlight' on the menu items better then the dot, definitely. Maybe make it end before the edges of the screen and round it a bit? The look is starting to get overly linear and rectangular.

4) Ability to use multi-paths for the backgrounds. Set it to multiple folders for a single item

5) some animation on the menu changes would be cool... like when you push up and the settings menu appears... how abount having that "drop from the sky" like it does in PM3? Menu "builds" add some flare and interest.

I'm really liking this skin... I can see I'll need to start converting my scripts!

[djh_]

Wide screen icons look nice... but it would only make sense if the TV Shows, Movies, etc screen were full screen. djh has done a great job of using screen width, but he loses just as much (or more) screen real estate on what he does not use above/below the menus... it actually loses as much or more then the PM3 skin.

This is true, though there was only ever one thing I wanted to dedicate space to in this skin, and that was the media itself. Hence big user-defined backdrops and wide wrap-lists. Buttons and interface components, meanwhile, are being kept to a minimum.

Can you add a variable to set the time for the background changes - I'd like to make mine more frequent?

I was thinking about this earlier today - definitely going to do it. The only question is how I go about it. I'm not sure if you can populate SpinControls with your own sets of options.

Noting the first paragraph above, I'd like to see a full screen version when in the sub screen... would be more flexible usage.

I think I'll leave this to the community to add. It's not really "part of the vision", if you see what I mean.

I like the 'highlight' on the menu items better then the dot, definitely. Maybe make it end before the edges of the screen and round it a bit? The look is starting to get overly linear and rectangular.

I see what you're saying. I might try a few different ones and see how it looks.

Ability to use multi-paths for the backgrounds. Set it to multiple folders for a single item

You can do this? Tell me more!

some animation on the menu changes would be cool... like when you push up and the settings menu appears... how abount having that "drop from the sky" like it does in PM3? Menu "builds" add some flare and interest.

I was planning to use a tweening animation on the Home menu text. Haven't implemented it yet, though.

[Livin]

djh,
For changing the background timing, you should move the
<animation effect="fade" time="800">VisibleChange</animation>
into the INCLUDES.XML
like how I did it with PM3...
<include name="home-backgrounds">
<posx>100</posx>
<posy>55</posy>
<width>680</width>
<height>410</height>
<timeperimage>5000</timeperimage>
<fadetime>2000</fadetime>
<aspectratio>scale</aspectratio>
<randomize>true</randomize>
<animation effect="fade" time="1000">VisibleChange</animation>
<animation effect="fade" time="2000">WindowOpen</animation>
<visible>!Player.HasMedia | Skin.HasSetting(HomeViewToggle)</visible>
</include>

then ask JM how to make the time a variable to set inside the skin.

As for the "full screen" sub screens, I'd be happy to make one but I'd need the photoshop file so I can create the glass menu. Below is a mock-up of what I was thinking, it adds 30% more usable menu. I'd love to even add a 4th row by tweaking the spacing more. Realistically the backgrounds are not necessary in the sub screens... you really cannot see them, they just add 'coloring'

http://members.cox.net/livin/fullscreen.jpg

[jmarshall]

It's a personal thing, but that's too much info (items) for me on screen simulataneously.

And only way I can think of to have time variable is to have X different backdrop multiimages, each with separate timings, with conditional visibility. Anything else will require C++ side code.

[Jezz_X]

It's a personal thing, but that's too much info (items) for me on screen simulataneously.


I'm with JM it takes away from the feel of the skin which is its great backgrounds if you cover them it looks worse

[Livin]

JM, too many items on screen at once... this from a coder? :shocked:
There are actually the same # of items in PM3... so you don't like that skin?

Also, I'm not asking djh to change the skin, just make an alternative screen for each sub screen that allows more utilization of real estate... OR provide me the PSDs or completed BMPs and I'll make it myself and provide to whomever wants to use it.

I have thousands of pictures and music albums... to have only a few onscreen at a time is too inefficient (e.g. takes too long) to scroll through them all.

To each his own... but I'd like to use the skin with that minor change.

[djh_]

The first would probably look the best and is similar to some skins out there already. The previous and next skins are just shown a little bit, to make the animation effect nicer. This could use the nice reflection effect you're using elsewhere.
http://zsori.com/Domains/zsori/UserImages/example0.jpg

You're *that* close to convincing me about this, though there's one thing that's stopping me taking it further. These icons look enormous, which isn't a problem in terms of performance, but is the quality going to suffer? Can you actually set the icon cache size large enough to stop them upscaling?

[szsori]

You're *that* close to convincing me about this, though there's one thing that's stopping me taking it further. These icons look enormous, which isn't a problem in terms of performance, but is the quality going to suffer? Can you actually set the icon cache size large enough to stop them upscaling?
Hmm.. not sure if upscaling can be prevented with XBMC, but you could probably do it with your skin. The default (actually, ONLY) size for wide banners is 758x140. We originally got this size from tv.com's banners and now force all wide banners on our site (thetvdb.com) to that size. It's a little smaller than my mockup, but then you'll see about 1/3 of the prev/next banners instead of 1/10. IMO, that's a good thing. This would just use a wraplist on your end, right?

PS: My now-playing screen came up completely black. Is that still waiting to be skinned, or is something messed up on my end?

[djh_]

PS: My now-playing screen came up completely black. Is that still waiting to be skinned, or is something messed up on my end?

Possibly. Something I should stress about these different builds is that they occasionally reverse the boolean settings used in the Custom menu. In other words, be sure to delete the stored settings from your XBMC config file when updating. There'll be a new build tonight anyway, so give that a try.

[JustMeD]

Look forward to getting your newest build later tonight.

D

[szsori]

Sounds good, djh_. Did anyone tell you you're doing a great job yet? ;)

[smokeyfingaz]

its great that you are thinking of adding wideicon support. heres another mockup of how it could look.

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/3180/mockupak0.th.jpg (http://img166.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mockupak0.jpg)

[djh_]

Here's a significant change which is well on the way to being fully implemented: the end of the Settings pages. From now on (sort of), all XBMC and Xephyr settings are available without leaving the Home menu. You simply push up to switch the Home scroller to Settings (first screenshot), the options themselves then appearing as an overlay when you select (second screenshot).

Though I haven't added the little pulsing arrows yet, you can push left and right in the options overlays to flick between them, the page title appearing top right.

Two things are holding things up at the moment. The first is that I don't know how to get the standard XBMC settings pages to display as an overlay (what you see here is the Custom page, which is user-defined). The second is that the file browser, which I've already re-skinned to match these overlays, quits to the Home page rather than the options screen that spawned it. I assume that's a problem with one dialog invoking another, though hopefully someone can clarify.

The good news: all of these Custom options work, and the effects are visible the moment you navigate off the Settings scroller. No more exiting of one window and reloading another.

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

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_newsettings2.jpg

[Livin]

looks good... guess we'll need to be using the master lock so guests don't play around :)

[Bigfoot87]

Are there any plans for a 4:3 compatible version?
I'm sure a lot of people (including me) will be really grateful when they also have the possibility to use this amazing skin!

[shizzle]

Are there any plans for a 4:3 compatible version?
I'm sure a lot of people (including me) will be really grateful when they also have the possibility to use this amazing skin!

i agree

[kricker]

Are there any plans for a 4:3 compatible version?
I'm sure a lot of people (including me) will be really grateful when they also have the possibility to use this amazing skin!
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.

[Bigfoot87]

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.

oops, I'm sorry... It's a pity, it should make this skin one of the most popular skins for XBMC.:sad:

[pike]

4:3 is so 1990's. sometime you gotta leave old tech behind to make something new and fresh

[MajorTom]

4:3 is so 1990's. sometime you gotta leave old tech behind to make something new and fresh

Wish I could afford to..... Times is hard :(

[zippy101]

What can I say that thats not been said already WOW just installed this skin and it looks fantastic :)

When can we get the background pack you building ?

[ImpreZa]

What can I say that thats not been said already WOW just installed this skin and it looks fantastic :)

When can we get the background pack you building ?



http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27956

[Bigfoot87]

4:3 is so 1990's. sometime you gotta leave old tech behind to make something new and fresh

Well that sucks, now I have to buy a new TV to keep up with the newest XBMC additions. :p

Off course you're right, but I still love my huge Phillips 4:3 TV and I think a lot of people still run XBMC at 4:3. But nevermind, I just install the skin at my second Xbox that I use in combination with a projector. :;):

[djh_]

New build is UP. Loads of new bits and bobs, including unified Home/Settings interface, cosmetic revisions, diagnostics popup and cd cover overlay.

At the start of the thread, as usual.

Please note, though, that if you've tried Xephyr before, you *have* to delete its previous settings from your guisettings.xml file. I can't answer for what'll happen if you don't.

[JustMeD]

djh

Looking really good. Love the new additions. My new default skin.

D

[djh_]

Just finished the now playing icon for movies. Much nicer as a full-size photoshop, but here's a preview.

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

[Nick8888]

Ive been trying out each new release and its become very close to becoming my default.

Ill share my thoughts however and hopefully others agree.

The main reasons i dont use this skin are (in no order):

and I'm not sure which of these arent included on purpose or because its a WIP..

- I dont use clips
- fonts are way too small. I cant read anything
- very limited view types (Hard to switch from Vision with wide icons)
- Settings and Shutdown menu too easy to open in my opinion.
- I would love to be able to use Movies in Library and TV Shows in file view. (Not sure if this is possible or whether its already possible, Im about to investigate)

Sorry i am not able to list what I DO like about this skin.. there are too many to list.

Thanks
Nick

[Livin]

I agree with Nick... I cannot read the fonts... which font settings do we change to make the list item fonts larger and the menu fonts (top of the screen) larger?

[djh_]

These are the 720p fonts you could play around with, iirc:

MAIN MENU SCROLLER

<font>
<name>menufont</name>
<filename>xephyr.ttf</filename>
<size>60</size>
</font>

DIAGNOSTICS WINDOW (RIGHT THUMBSTICK)

<font>
<name>sysinfo</name>
<filename>ocr.ttf</filename>
<size>20</size>
<shadow>FF000000</shadow>
</font>

SETTINGS WINDOWS

<font>
<name>osdsmall</name>
<filename>ocr.ttf</filename>
<size>20</size>
</font>

MEDIA MENUS, VIEWS AND OTHER STUFF

<font>
<name>font13</name>
<filename>xephyr.ttf</filename>
<size>21</size>
</font>

RSS FEED, # OF ITEMS, SETTINGS MENUS ETC.

<font>
<name>font13s</name>
<filename>xephyr.ttf</filename>
<shadow>FF000000</shadow>
<size>21</size>
</font>

At some point, I'll consolidate a lot of these fonts, establish a proper naming system for them and trim all the unused ones. Meanwhile, if you guys can come up with satisfactory alternative sizes between you, I'll include them as a settings option.

[djh_]

I'm not sure which of these arent included on purpose or because its a WIP..

- I dont use clips

Neither do I, tbh, but I know I will in the future, hence why it's been there from the start. I fully plan on making the Home options customisable, but the way in which the Home visibility works seems to be screwing that up atm. It will happen, though.

- fonts are way too small. I cant read anything

Read my post above, especially the bit at the end.

- very limited view types (Hard to switch from Vision with wide icons)

I'm starting to realise that wide icons are going to be a necessity. The view types are still quite preliminary (especially for music), though fortunately they're the next thing on my list, together with File Browser functions.

- Settings and Shutdown menu too easy to open in my opinion.

That was the idea, though I can see why some people wouldn't like it. If you can come up with a viable alternative within the existing design, I'll give it some thought.

- I would love to be able to use Movies in Library and TV Shows in file view. (Not sure if this is possible or whether its already possible, Im about to investigate)

I'm not quite sure what you mean here, though the Library views are something I've always neglected. I never use them, hence why it never crosses my mind. I'll shuffle them up the priorities list.[/quote]

[Nick8888]

Thanks,

My suggestion would be make it so settings opens on black button(not sure if this would work with remote) just something harder to find than pressing up.

To clear up about the tv shows and movie thing, I use movie in library mode and tv in file view. Im currently trying to edit the home.xml to get this going but havent yet.

As for view modes, I personally dont think you can have too many, all people are different in how they set up their thumbnails so its good to have a few of the main ones.

Great skin though mate! keep it up.

[Hitcher]

Great skin but is there a way to change the default home selection from Music to TV Shows or Movies?

Also what's the best way of making your own background images?

[djh_]

Great skin but is there a way to change the default home selection from Music to TV Shows or Movies?

I'm actually going to change it to Movies as a default - just haven't got round to it yet. If the changes I've requested get made to the Buttonscroller code, I can do a lot more when it comes to user customisation.

As for background images, just stick to the rule of using 1280x720px images, saved in BMP format.

[djh_]

Good news! I've modularised the Home buttonscroller so it now exists as an entirely separate include, along with however many alternative versions I require. That's a lot of code, however, so I don't want to overdo it.

So what you have now is an option for turning the Clips shortcut on or off, and one which changes the Up shortcut for Settings back into a button, without changing the functionality of Settings itself. You still exit Settings by pushing Down. This is for those users who feel it's too easy to accidentally nudge the Home menu into Settings mode while browsing.

[Hitcher]

Good news! I've modularised the Home buttonscroller so it now exists as an entirely separate include, along with however many alternative versions I require. That's a lot of code, however, so I don't want to overdo it.

So what you have now is an option for turning the Clips shortcut on or off, and one which changes the Up shortcut for Settings back into a button, without changing the functionality of Settings itself. You still exit Settings by pushing Down. This is for those users who feel it's too easy to accidentally nudge the Home menu into Settings mode while browsing.

Excellent, glad you're making them optional because I don't need Clips but like accessing Settings using Up on the remote (I never use a controller these days as my Xbox is purely used as a media centre).

[djh_]

I'll post *yet another* build tonight. This seems like a big enough change to warrant one.

[Nick8888]

Very much appreciated djh!

[JustMeD]

Some things I need help with with regards this build if possible.

I can't make Movies point directly to my Videos folder. When I try to make default it keeps opening at root level. I have Clips and TV Shows showing correctly but Movies won't stick.

When I try to open settings it locks up my box and I have to do a hard reset.

Reflections whilst in Poster mode etc show a black mask. Pic included.

http://digitalpage.co.uk/development/images/xephyr.jpg

Loving this skin. Keep up the great work djh

[djh_]

I can't make Movies point directly to my Videos folder. When I try to make default it keeps opening at root level. I have Clips and TV Shows showing correctly but Movies won't stick.

I'll need to look into this. In my sources.xml file, the bookmark with my movies in is set as the default for the whole <videos> section. You might want to try that for now.

When I try to open settings it locks up my box and I have to do a hard reset.

Ick. I don't think this is a code problem so much as a conflict with an older version. Try deleting the settings in your userdata.xml (or boot the Xbox while holding both thumbsticks). If that fails, all I can advise is a complete reinstall.

Reflections whilst in Poster mode etc show a black mask. Pic included.

Shit - I knew I'd forgotten something. It's a glitch in the keep aspect settings for that particular view. I'll zap it before posting tonight's update. EDIT: It's fixed now.

[MikeBeecham]

I'm not sure if anyone needs this, but I'm running this on a 28" 16:9 CRT Television, and I have to say it looks great.

If anyone needs it, you can grab my font.xml...it may help:

http://mbeecham.fireflyinternet.co.uk/mike/Font.xml

I would just right-click and save as!

[JustMeD]

djh

Thanks for the reply. Got Movies sorted by modifying my sources.xml.

Also noticed that when viewing TV Shows with Aspect Ratios on that whichever highlighted show is shown the preview pic disappears and only show the black box but it doesn't happen when aspect ratios are off.

I tried deleting my UserData and creating a new one but still have the problem with settings. I'll have to look into that further at my end.

D

[djh_]

Also noticed that when viewing TV Shows with Aspect Ratios on that whichever highlighted show is shown the preview pic disappears and only show the black box but it doesn't happen when aspect ratios are off.

Cheers for that. I'll look into it.

[jmarshall]

djh_: For the home page you may want to try the new static content list stuff - allows you to specify the content of a normal list control, including thumbs etc. if necessary. Plus, the items have individual visibility conditions, so no need to 28 different button scrollers ;) I think Vision uses them now (including vis conditions) on they're homepage, and xTV will be using them soon if it isn't already.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[skyzerr33]

Excellent skin!!! looking forward to further revisions :)

Keep up the good work.

[skunkm0nkee]

Fantastic skin, I love it!

I download the latest version yesterday but now I can't find how to get to the scripts page, can anyone help?

I notice a few people have asked for further views and have been playing about a bit and have created an episode info view (based on xTV's media info) and a wide icon info view (combining wide icons and media info)

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

and

http://www.filenanny.com/files/46c9917c575675858/Untitled2.png

They're pretty rough at the moment but if anyone would like me to post the details please let me know.

[MikeBeecham]

oh that just works....it just does for sure. I WANT those views!

[Nick8888]

Yes, definately would. rough is good enough.

I've done a fair bit of customising of this skin myself but mainly just the home.xml

I would love it if you could do a media info one for movies.

Thanks

Nick

[MikeBeecham]

oh these views just work. I thought a few time how Xephyr would look good with some of the more 'standard' views, as well as media views from PM3.

personally, I'm not a fan of the icon surround, and would hope to see it all pulled together toward a beta stage.

[skunkm0nkee]

MikeBeecham: Thanks, I'm still playing around with the fonts and colouring (the black colour is easier to read when testing in the PC app but the white seems to look better on my HD TV!) and also tidying up the positioning but I'll hopfully I should be able to post a version of them later today/tonight.

Nick888: I have a movie info version as well which is very similar to the episode info but with different positioning of the thumbnail. I'll post that along with the others.

[MikeBeecham]

make sure that thats ok with the creator of the skin though....but yeah it would be good to have them I think...but I do further the point that we need standard views in the skin for sure.

That way it appeals to a more mass-market (for want of a better term)

[Hitcher]

He'll be adding new views eventually -

I'm starting to realise that wide icons are going to be a necessity. The view types are still quite preliminary (especially for music), though fortunately they're the next thing on my list, together with File Browser functions.

[djtoll]

Verry god work, and you work so fast and so much on the skin. Do you sleep at all? :rolleyes:

[skunkm0nkee]

I have checked with djh_ and he is happy for me to post the details of the custom views. I have also tried to tidy up the font colouring to try and make it a bit clearer.

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

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

Code and Instructions to follow in a minute or two...

[skunkm0nkee]

To get the 3 new views you need to download the following file:

http://www.filenanny.com/files/46c9917c575675858/SSCustomContent.xml

Then edit the PAL\MyVideoNav.xml file and add the following lines, before the </controls> line:

<include>WideInfo</include>
<include>TVEpisodeInfo</include>
<include>MovieInfo</include>

Finally add the following line to the PAL\Includes.xml file (after the CommonContent.xml include line):

<include file="SSCustomContent.xml" />

You should now have 3 new views in the Video sections (Movies, TV Shows etc)

Have fun with them and let me know if anyone has any suggestions/feedback etc

[Hitcher]

Thanks very much.

[djh_]

A quick update on the no-show of a new build last night:

Basically, at the recommended of jm and others, I changed the Home menu from a Buttonscroller (old - not clever) to a static content wraplist (new - very clever). Hopefully, this'll look and function exactly the same, but also let me do a lot more stuff a lot more easily. So thanks to the XBMC guys for the advice.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances I'm still trying to pin down, the change has borked both the animation and functionality of the main menu. The animation's a mystery - for some reason, when a new background has to load in the menu animation stutters. Not very nice. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping jm can identify the problem.

The functionality issue, on the other hand, I've put down to the static contents not being able to perform multiple <onclick> commands where the Buttonscroller could. Again, though, I can't be certain.

So I'm putting up the original, pre-borked version in a minute, which at least has the optional Clips etc. But I'm going to keep working on the new version until this menu problem's resolved, at which point I'll continue posting builds. Really, this is only worth knowing if you like hacking about with the Home.xml, in which case bear in mind that your changes probably won't apply to the new one.

[djh_]

New build up...

The Home menu's about to change, incidentally, so that it drops to nearer the bottom of the screen during fullscreen visualisations. The now playing info sits just above it.

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/xephyr_alpha4a.jpg

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/xephyr_alpha4a2.jpg

[Hitcher]

To get the 3 new views you need to download the following file:

http://www.filenanny.com/files/46c9917c575675858/SSCustomContent.xml

Then edit the PAL\MyVideoNav.xml file and add the following lines, before the </controls> line:

<include>WideInfo</include>
<include>TVEpisodeInfo</include>
<include>MovieInfo</include>

Finally add the following line to the PAL\Includes.xml file (after the CommonContent.xml include line):

<include file="SSCustomContent.xml" />

You should now have 3 new views in the Video sections (Movies, TV Shows etc)

Have fun with them and let me know if anyone has any suggestions/feedback etc

Followed everything to the letter but nothing. Is there something I need to delete?

[MacGyver]

Your artwork is really fantastic! Very artistic skin.

[djh_]

I should add that the HD-DVD image uses one of Mike Beecham's disc icons in the background, which he was kind enough to contribute.

[Livin]

skunkm0nkee -- great job... those really take advantage of the 16x9 screen!

djh,
Can you include skunkm0nkee's views into the core code?
I see the option for the Home screen's weather but it will not allow me to choose?

[Nick8888]

Thanks for that Skunkm0nkee. Very much appreciated

[Wir3d]

Hello djh_
First off great skin. This has definitely become and will be my main skin for a long time.

Unfortunately as you know certain people use certain functions so I have made some customization prior to alpha 4a.

I'm wondering if you can fit these into your builds otherwise I'm afraid it will just be a game of catch up for me ??? I'm sure others would be able to take advantage of the changes I have made. Maybe you already had these planned?

Changes I have made:
Removed CLIPS from the main menu.
Added PROGRAMS, EMULATE & WEATHER to main menu with separate page titles. Created a WEATHER page.

Added custom BG settings to skin options for PROGRAMS, EMULATE & WEATHER.

P.S.
You sure did pull a hack to get the TV separated from Movies :nod:
But it works!

It sounds like you may have already added an option to remove Clips from the main menu and created a weather page? I'll have to check out what you updated. I can post my version of the skin if you feel necessary.

Again, thanks for the great skin. Really love it.

[djh_]

Removed CLIPS from the main menu.

Already an option, as of the latest build.

Added PROGRAMS, EMULATE & WEATHER to main menu with separate page titles.

Once the new Home scroller is up and running (it's almost there) these will all be options.

Created a WEATHER page.

As above.

Added custom BG settings to skin options for PROGRAMS, EMULATE & WEATHER.

These'll come too, though I'll have to do something about the increasing size of the Custom menus. I'm assuming I can use scrollbars.

You sure did pull a hack to get the TV separated from Movies :nod:
But it works!

Once most of the skin's finished I'm going to chat to jm about this functionality. I've no idea how feasible it would be to enable multiple MyVideo or MyPrograms windows. Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, somehow.

[Wir3d]

Well sounds like you got it all covered. I look forward to the updates!
Thanks again.

[djh_]

Here's the latest on the Home screen. Again, this'll only appear when there's a movie or fullscreen visualiser playing in the background. If you have that turned off, you'll get the usual layout.

I can't decide whether to shrink that HD-DVD graphic or not. There's definitely something I'm not happy with about this, 'cause I know it'd look better without that graphic there at all.

http://www.nashwanpower.com/download/xephyr/screens/xephyr_vishome01.jpg

[Nick8888]

Im in the same boat as Wir3d. Just edited smokem0nkees wide icons to have a big and small (and no info since ive never been able to get the tv scrapers to work). and added a home menu option to a few plugins.

However, im sure you will implement all the windows and menus better than i have.

One thing I would like to see is a shutdown in 30 mins, 60mins, custom etc. (have a look at vision if you dont know what i mean) I copied it but i did not add graphics to it so it looks pretty crappy, but works. However, your skin has made me switch to using a remote and i cant get it to work with that.

[Nick8888]

Btw, i like that the menu slides down like that now but im not a big fan of that dvd case.

[djh_]

I halved its size on that screen and it looks a lot better. You're right, though - I'm still not sure about it.

[Wir3d]

I have to say I don't like the DVD case either.
Maybe a different color or some transparency?

djh_
I think I noticed a couple minor errors on a few pages.
I only checked a couple and not sure if you are aware of these...

MyPrograms.xml
<info>Skin.String(CustomMusicFolder)</info>
<visible>!Skin.HasSetting(CustomMusicFolder)</visible>

MyPics.xml
<visible>!Skin.HasSetting(CustomMusic) + !Skin.HasSetting(CustomPicturesFoldOn)</visible>

[Nick8888]

I think it might look classier with just the poster as you suggested. Though again, I guess others will have different tastes.

On a side note, I think that if/when this skin is complete it would make a great replacement to the default PMIII skin. In my opinion, PMIII isn't as original. While it looks great I think it too xboxy. I think Xephyr is more suited to all media types and is also allot easier to edit to your own tastes.

Although I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on this.

[szsori]

Why not shift the poster down to where the menu is and have the menu start just to the right of it? Just a small border around the poster would look best, then. Just an idea.

[szsori]

Why not shift the poster down to where the menu is and have the menu start just to the right of it? Just a small border around the poster would look best, then. Just an idea.
Like this (perhaps a little larger left margin on the poster?):
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/521/mockupud5.jpg

[Nick8888]

How about what szsori said except lift the menu up and heighten the panel beneath it so that it is the height of the poster and then next to it include a list of info:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
GAMES.......................FILES................. ...MOVIES...................TV SHOWS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______
I..........I Title: 300
I..........I Year: 2006
I..........I Director: ......
I______I etc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope this makes sense

Nick

ps feel free to steal my graphics

[Hitcher]

I think using an HD-DVD case might be why it doesn't feel right because we all know the Xbox isn't capable of playing HD material. No?

[dinkelheimer]

I'm not a big fan of the HD DVD case either, just like Hitcher said, we all know the Xbox isn't capable of HD DVD playback so it just feels a little out of place. I do think that it needs some sort of template or "box" around it though.

[sherezado]

Thnak you Mike..I was frustrated for not using this great skin¡¡¡¡¡

[skunkm0nkee]

I may be in a minority but I actually like the use of the HD DVD case (it ties in with the CD case that's used for the music), in fact in an ideal world I'd love an option to use either the HD DVD case or a Blu-Ray one (the blue colouring of the Blue Ray case may fit better with the colouring of most of the backgrounds).

[djh_]

It is better when it's smaller. I'll probably leave it in and see what the feedback's like.

Oh, and about the HD playback thing: on a personal note, I'm building this skin in preparation for when XBMC is on Linux and I can finally stop using that wretched 360, with its Fisher Price dashboard, for watching hi-def movies. Obviously there are few media center users who exclusively watch HD material, so the HD-DVD thing is, by and large, out of place. I might just take the HD-DVD log off. Then again, maybe I won't. :laugh:

[JustMeD]

Not sure if this is a problem with my set up but as mentioned before when I go into settings and go for example to a sub section to change appearance etc if I try to navigate left or right through sections my xbox locks up and I have to to a hard reset. The strange this is that it only happens with this skin. I have tried everything I can think of but no luck. Deleted UserData folder, clean install, new T3CH version of XBMC (9999) even built my own at (10015) but still no luck. Anyone seeing this same issue.

djh

Just a quick question. Are you planning on allowing for themes for Xephyr as I was messing about last night and created a custom XPR with some minor changes but when I applied it nothing changed. Have you hardcoded the location of the images etc as I created a full XPR with all your graphics in their correct location with some altered images of my own and it worked perfectly.

skinkmOnkee

Quick question on your MOD. I tested it out and it looks good however when I back out of TV shows etc the description text seems to stay on screen for a brief second during the transition process. Is their something that I can modify to rectify this.

This skin just keeps getting better. As mentioned before my new Default.

Also djh do you ever sleep as the development of this skin seems so accelerated as well as the fact you seem to post at all hours of the day and night. You must be living on Red Bull or something. Really appreciate all your hard work.

D

[Wir3d]

JustMeD,
I had a similar problem. Deleting all the Xephyr settings in GUISettings.xml helped me out. They are at the bottom of the file.

[JustMeD]

Wir3d

Thanks for the reply. I tried that already but had no luck. I'll try again tonight after work.

D

[skunkm0nkee]

I've been playing about with my views and have adapted them slightly so they better fit in with the rest of the skin (black bar behind current selection, underlined title etc)

Here is the updated version:

http://www.filenanny.com/files/46c9917c575675858/SSCustomContent.xml

Instructions for use are exactly as before except use this file instead of the old one.


I tested it out and it looks good however when I back out of TV shows etc the description text seems to stay on screen for a brief second during the transition process. Is their something that I can modify to rectify this.


I've changed the way the info is displayed and the problem no longer shows up on the PC but I don't have access to my xbox at the moment so can't test it fully.

[JustMeD]

skunkmOnkee

Thanks for the update. I'll give it a try tonight.

D

[diogee]

This is such a sweet skin! Even though I am running 1080i, it is still my default skin. I have 2 questions.

1. When I go into movies, it always goes to the root, i read earlier in the thread to make your movies folder the default. I have done that, but do I have to delete all other bookmarks from that section of the xml to get it to work?

2. What are the chances of expanding the view list to include old standbys like icon and big icon. I have 750 movies and those views seem to work best.

Finally, a quick note to everyone who works their asses off so that dudes like me can enjoy the fruits of their labor...Thanx!!!!!


Diogee

[MikeBeecham]

diogee...I am also rooting for the standard views on top of what .djh is pulling out for us. I also want the media views to make this complete for me :D

[JustMeD]

diogee

I had that Movies problem myself with my default view being the root folder. I fixed it by going into my sources.xml and changing the default <Videos> title to the word <Movies>. I think djh has coded the skin to look for that filename specifically. Hope that might help.

D

[djh_]

I'm not quite at the point of sorting it out yet, but can you lot drum up a simple list of all the view types you want? I just want rough layout, contents and, ideally, a link to an example.

Ta.

[MikeBeecham]

djh....a good plan would probably to look at pm3 as an example as to the views (with the exception of coverflow, I guess). On that basis, the standard views would be:

List view (which you have implemented)
Big List
Icon view
Album Icon
Albums
Big icon view
Wrap List

You may also want to think about media views for your TV shows and Movies. PM3 uses Media View 1 and Media View 2, both of which incorporate wide icons.

Again, take a look at PM3, and it will give you all you need!

[Nuka1195]

media views for plugins too. It would show for all sources when your in files view, but can be nice for scripters.

[Hitcher]

Not sure if this is a problem with my set up but as mentioned before when I go into settings and go for example to a sub section to change appearance etc if I try to navigate left or right through sections my xbox locks up and I have to to a hard reset. The strange this is that it only happens with this skin. I have tried everything I can think of but no luck. Deleted UserData folder, clean install, new T3CH version of XBMC (9999) even built my own at (10015) but still no luck. Anyone seeing this same issue.

Same problem here - fixed it by going back to build rev9920.

[Hitcher]

Little bug in 4a -

Even though I have the RSS feed unticked on the Home Page setting the bar is still visible.

[szsori]

In addition to the views listed above, most skins have wide view and/or big wide view. I think that covers everything out there, right?

[djh_]

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

It's a mockup.:;):

[Hitcher]

It's fantastic!

[skunkm0nkee]

Loving it! :grin:

[szsori]

I almost wet myself. You need to include a pack of Depends with every new Xephyr screenshot. :)

[djh_]

I've just tracked down and killed the bug that was crashing the Settings menu under newer XBMC builds. Good news.

[jmarshall]

What was it btw - We want the guilib as resilient as possible.

[Hitcher]

Can someone point me in the right direction for more background images please?

I did ask in the Backpack thread but got no replies -

Can anyone help me find some music images to use that are more electronic in style (I like The Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, Underworld, Sasha, etc) please?
I've tried googling but can't find anything decent without band/album names plastered over them.
Thanks.

[szsori]

I put together a bunch of wallpapers that I'm using with Xephyr. Most don't fit any particular menu item, but could be used if someone wanted a common look for all their backgrounds. Personally I'm using these for my pictures backgrounds only. There's a few that would work really well for the music section, though. Admittedly a few look like crap, too. :)

If anyone wants these I'll throw them on my server as a rar file. All but a couple are from deviantart, cropped/resized to fit the proper dimensions.

http://picasaweb.google.com/szsori/XboxWallpapers?authkey=MFdlcsdMutI

PS: The first 2 are my favorites.

[jmarshall]

Found the problem with your skin and crashing in settings. Will dwell on a solution to it.

[djh_]

Found the problem with your skin and crashing in settings. Will dwell on a solution to it.

It was just some weird conflict with the IDs I had for my Time panel, which is an include. The IDs in question were id="31", which typically weren't even being used - they were legacy code. The weird thing is that I'm aware of no other controls using that ID, especially those in the SettingsCategory.xml.

Still, removing them from the Time controls fixed the problem.

[djh_]

Can someone point me in the right direction for more background images please?

I did ask in the Backpack thread but got no replies -

Sorry, you'll get no useful info out of me. I spent forever searching for decent music backgrounds and found zip. Massive Attack have some cool hi-res ones on their new mini-site, but none that really fit.

Here's one tip, though. Run a Google image search (large images only) for border.se and luger.se. They're two Swedish promotional sites that store shitloads of high resolution press images. Mostly indie bands, but you'll find a ton of stuff.

[dinkelheimer]

szsori, could you post those backgrounds? I love em

[ralob]

this is shaping up spectacularly man, keep up the awesome work

[diogee]

diogee

I had that Movies problem myself with my default view being the root folder. I fixed it by going into my sources.xml and changing the default <Videos> title to the word <Movies>. I think djh has coded the skin to look for that filename specifically. Hope that might help.

D

Thanx JustMeD, gonna give it a try!:grin:

[szsori]

szsori, could you post those backgrounds? I love em
http://zsori.com/Domains/zsori/Documents/wallpapers.rar
29mb download.

[dinkelheimer]

Thanks man, much appreciated! :)

[MikeBeecham]

I am getting hold of some more wallpapers, which i will pass onto DJH when I am done...maybe he can release a pack 2 or something, i dunno!

[Nick8888]

Yeh Ive been looking for nice wallpapers all night.

Heres the only one im really happy with. I cut the top bit off to make it the right size.

http://abeautifultragedy.deviantart.com/art/Thinking-Allowed-Graphics-4695381

[blaize]

your happy with that ?

heh...

[skunkm0nkee]

hehe :laugh:

[MikeBeecham]

I wont touch deviantart for any wallpapers, due to the fact that just taking them without requesting permission from the artist is a breach of copyright.

The ones I have are in similiar vein and quality to the pack that djh originally made available. i can tell you that the ones I have so far include the following:

Bones
CSI: NY
Bionic Woman
24
Stargate
Medium
Hyperspace
Iron Man (2008)
Shrek the 3rd
The 4400
Private Practice (Greys Anatomy spinoff series)

And more yet. As I said, I will collect them, then pass them to DJH for him to provide as pack2 if he so wishes!

[szsori]

I wont touch deviantart for any wallpapers, due to the fact that just taking them without requesting permission from the artist is a breach of copyright.
Actually, not entirely true. Taking them and using them for yourself doesn't violate any copyrights. However, djh shouldn't include any of them in his pack without checking with the authors first because redistributing can be a violation. Many deviantart authors allow derivative art, though, and in fact many of them use other people's art to create their own. It's just a matter of being careful and reading their copyright stuff if you're planning on redistributing.

[MikeBeecham]

indeed...but as an artist on dA myself, I fully understand how it feels to take work that I have created from scratch then see it being used somewhere without my consent...copyright or not.

I guess it comes down to basic manners at the end of the day!

:D

[djh_]

My two cents:

Using other artists' work as wallpapers, which are purely decorative and incidental to the skin itself = fine. Unless you have the audacity to charge for them, of course.

Other artists' work as skin components, or material you fundamentally tout as your own = not fine.

Promotional material such as movie, TV and music PR assets = absolutely fine. Granted, using a photo shoot may tread on the toes of whichever magazine commissioned it, but magazines are transitory things anyway. Most don't even stay in print for more than a few months. I can live with that, tbh. Again, nobody's trying to resell this stuff or diminish the original author's market.

[djh_]

Some new bits:

Thanks to the new static content menu on the Home page, I've sorted out the Movies and TV Shows links so they change as you switch between Library and Files modes. So if you're a Library user, you'll no longer have that problem where you go to an empty list every time you select.

The Wide Info view is now implemented. Screen to follow.

You can now enable/disable any button on the Home menu. It's completely user-definable.

[JustMeD]

djh

Any eta on your next release date as I'm looking forward to your new Wide Icon TV shows view and the settings fix you've put in place. Also as I had mentioned in an earlier post was playing about with creating a custom xpr but upon applying it nothing happened have you implemented some kind of coding that won't allow Xephyr to be themed.

Looking forward to your updates.

D

[Nick8888]

I wont touch deviantart for any wallpapers, due to the fact that just taking them without requesting permission from the artist is a breach of copyright.

Maybe you should get out a little more. The artist actually gives permission on his page.

[djh_]

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.

[Nick8888]

And btw, do your requesting permission rules apply for music, tv and movies?

[Nick8888]

@Djh

Nice!! I knew you could pull wide icons off.

[jmarshall]

djh: I'll see if I can have some time to have a play tonight. It won't be pretty (my skinning never is) but that's your job anyway ;) I'll focus on trying to get it smooth-ish.