"Fusion" (ALPHA) skin, a little something i've been working on...

[agathorn]

Hello all,

I've been lurking around here for a while, and recently posting a few questions here and there. I recently started working on my own skin, and I wanted to share some of that design work with you all.

Before I post some images though, let me talk about a few things. I am building this skin for two main reasons. 1) To learn the XBMC skinning engine, and 2) For use here within our household.

It is important to understand that this is being built first and foremost for use here, in my house, and therefore will have certain design decisions based on that. The main one being that this skin is currently only designed for 4:3 standard TV because that is all we have in the house. That said however, once it starts to mature I will be releasing it for anyone else who wants to play with it.

I also should say up front that this skin's design has been heavily influenced by both Xephyr and Fluid.

The goal of this design was to put the media first, and have the UI take as far back a seat as possible while still being functional.

What you see here is all concept work done in Photoshop, although some of this is functional on my test Xbox.

So without further ado...

HOME SCREEN
http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/home_concept1.png

I absolutely love the Xephyr backpacks, and the Home Screen was designed to make use of that media.


TV SHOWS - TITLE LISTING
http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/tv_title_library_concept1.png
This is the view you will see when browsing through TV show TITLES using the Video Library. Everything about this skin is currently designed for library use since that is what we use here.

You will immediately note the lack of pretty much anything except the media content. You don't see it in this shot, but you will in a later one, but there is essentially a hidden menu. Again, the media is the focus of this skin and the UI should be as minimal as possible. It shows itself when needed, then promptly goes away when not. In this view, and all of the library views, pressing the LEFT ARROW will bring up the UI controls for the library. again it isn't visible here but you will see it in a moment.

I'm still not happy with the frame around the selected show, despite having reworked it about 5 times now. Any suggestions on that would be welcome.

TV SHOWS - EPISODE LISTING
http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/tv_episode_library_concept1.png
Once you have drilled down to the episode list for a TV Show, this is what you will see. Pretty self explanatory. The WATCHED banner of course is only visible on episodes that have been watched. If unwatched, it goes away.

TV SHOWS - EPISODE LISTING 2
http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/tv_episode_library_menu_unwatched_concept1.png
Here you can see the hidden menu accessible by pressing LEFT, as well as how it looks for an UNWATCHED episode.

The HOME screen and 90% of the TV SHOW TITLE listing has been completed in the Xbox, and i've taken a break from coding it to work on the rest of the concept work.

[matt_cyr]

Looking nice...keep up the work!

[aart]

very nice, i'll be watching this thread..

[SleepyP]

Deceptive. When you first look at this skin it seems simple, but its actually got a lot of sophisticated stuff going on in the code. I like how the skin's own graphical resources seem to be kept to a minimum. This should make it very light on memory consumption, as well as make the overall package quite a small download :)

Also, I think that there's quite a huge market for 4:3 TV-friendly skins. One of the main things I have noticed now that I have gone HD is that using PM3 in standard def feels, well, "crappy" for lack of a better word. I think its mainly due to how screen real-estate is used and the fonts and whatnot. I think this is probably because PM3 isn't very specialized, nor is that a design principle in that skin. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I think this skin will definitely have a sizable userbase.

[craze7]

looks great man, im still using a 4:3 tv too so i'll defo be checking this out!

[Gamester17]

Always nice with new skinners and new skins! :cool:

Looks like a good skin for adding themes to as well.

[agathorn]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Its always nice to know that when I feel it is looking good, it isn't just self delusion :)

Work on this will be rather sporadic, because I tend to work 4 days really long hours, then have 3 days off so most of my work on this will come on those 3 days.

I do have some newer concepts i'm working on right now though which I will hopefully post in the next day or two. I'm looking at something just slightly different that I think might work better and keep the various views tied together a little better.

One thing that is important to me is consistency in the UI. If you navigate the view up and down on one view, then you should do the same on all of them. If you get the menu to popup by pressing left in one area, it should be left everywhere. Things like that are important to me.

[jaredharley]

I love the way you've done the tv shows section - i just might have to steal - I mean, borrow - that for my own skin I use here. I'll be looking forward to testing yours out!

[agathorn]

I was working on the SEASON list view this morning, and I have a couple concepts for you all to view. I'm still not all that happy with them yet though.

The biggest problem is trying to maintain vertical list movement to stay consistent, but the season thumbs aren't really the right shape for that :p This makes it challenging.

Any comments anyone has on this would be most welcome. Personally i'm leaning towards the second concept right now, though I don't like the dead space. It could still go either way with me though if I can just figure out how to make it work a little better.

Anyway, Here is concept #1
http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/tv_season_library_concept1.png

And concept #2
http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/tv_season_library_concept2.png

[Rand Al Thor]

Very nice looking skin. I love how the images take full advantage of the available screen size. On an hdtv posters,thumbs,album covers etc look so nice they should be shown off!! I prefer the second image for season selection. Not only is the image larger i think it will look smoother flipping through seasons if you don't see the previous/next images. This is just a personal preference to but I have always liked seeing the list on the left and images on the right ;) Anyway, great work. Cheers.

[agathorn]

I have started working on bringing a bit of the concepts onto the XBOX. Granted there is still work to be done on the concept and design side, but I wanted to get this into action on the box as well.

So I have a couple screenshots for you to enjoy, taken directly from XBMC. for some reason the screenshots are slightly different than what is on the box, with black borders added left and right on the images, but on my TV itself those borders aren't there.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot002.png

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot003.png

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot005.png

Currently the list in title view navigates in much the same way as in PM3. In other words it is a standard list view, and not a FIXED or WRAP list. I'm debating which way I want to do it. you can tell from the screenshots how the position of the focused item changes, as you navigate up and down.

The home screen is using the Xephyr backpacks, and each of the various menu items displays the correct backback folder of images. Changing every so often randomly.

The menu in the video library that is only visible when you call it up works, but is not shown because I haven't finished skinning it yet.

Next up is to finish the menu, then get the season view done. Should finish those today, and hopefully get a start on the episode view.

[Hudson_Hawk04]

looks great ive been following this from the fruition of the thread looking forward to having something like this on the sdtv in my room. Keep up the good work.

[agathorn]

So i've been making progress faster than I expected. I have pretty much finished the Video Library menu, as well as the Episode listing.

Here are some more screenshots for you, direct from the XBOX. Enjoy!

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot007.png
Here is the SEASON view working pretty much dead on. It came together a lot faster than I expected and i'm pretty darn happy with it.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot008.png
Here you can see the Video Library menu that only appears when needed. It works well, and is so easy even my Mom figured out how to use it :p Just press LEFT when you need the menu, select what options you need, then press RIGHT to hide the menu.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot009.png
I have changed the TITLE view to be a Wraplist now. I like the navigation a lot better this way, with the selected item remaining in a fixed location.

[agathorn]

Once I get the EPISODES and MOVIES pages working, I might release this skin for those of you who can handle using an unfinished skin. It isn't so bad though because everything not done just falls back to PM3.

Before I can release it though it needs a name, and I don't have one yet :p

Anyone want to make some suggestions?

[jaredharley]

Is there a skin called "Focus" yet? I only suggest that because, to me, the skin seems very focused on what it's doing :)

[agathorn]

And without further ado, I present the episode view :)

This all went together a LOT faster than I expected. Once you get the hang of it, putting the skin together in XBMC is pretty fast. At least for the basic stuff.

Next stop, the movies view. I don't even have a mockup for that one yet though, so its time to head back to Photoshop.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot011.png

[Clumsy]

I like everything, except the blue borders - they somehow don't seem to fit in my eyes.

[agathorn]

I like everything, except the blue borders - they somehow don't seem to fit in my eyes.

If you mean the larger blue frames, I agree. It is on my "find a better way" list. the problem is I want to keep the rounded look, but in order to do so I need the thicker frames to cover the square edges.

I'm playing with a couple options to blend them in better.

[SleepyP]

one of the key things to remember when looking at screenies of this skin is that it's intended for use on crappy SD TVs (like the one in my bedroom :P) and as such things which look a bit over the top on your nice hi-res computer screen won't be so crazy on a TV.

The only potential issue I see in having the frame graphic the way it is now is that it will look weird with 4:3 screenies and / or episodes with no thumbnail. That particular problem is one I haven't seen very effectively handled by any skin yet. Its a shame there's no way to make it possible to do a logic fork depending on the aspect ratio of the thumbnail.

Maybe you could have two different View options to cover that particular problem?

[agathorn]

The only potential issue I see in having the frame graphic the way it is now is that it will look weird with 4:3 screenies and / or episodes with no thumbnail. That particular problem is one I haven't seen very effectively handled by any skin yet. Its a shame there's no way to make it possible to do a logic fork depending on the aspect ratio of the thumbnail.

Maybe you could have two different View options to cover that particular problem?

Yes this is an issue on the episodes view that i've noticed. Unfortunately I don't see a solution either unless the skinning code exposes the ability to check the size of the thumbnail. If that one thing could be exposed then it could be done. And even if it was something simple like checking if the icon was wide or tall would work.

A separate view option doesn't seem like the way to solve it, at least from what i've seen. In every case where I have a thumb that is 4:3, it is mixed in with other episodes that are 16x9 (The majority).

[agathorn]

Reworked the frame to try something a bit more in line with the rest of the skin. Currently this has only been implemented on the EPISODE page, but this is what I got now.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot010.png

I think I like this though the jury is certainly still out.

[Livin]

I like the concept... but the overall look of squarish boarders and textured backgrounds inside them reminds me of a powerpoint presentation.

[Rand Al Thor]

I really love how this skin is shaping up. Very clean, very well thought out. Keep up the good work!

[SleepyP]

I like the use of alpha blending on the round screencap edges :)
And on the mixed formfactor thumbs, thats very counter to my experiences. I have scanned about 50 series from my collection into dbase, using thetvdb.com scraper, and have never seen mixed thumbs like that.

[agathorn]

And on the mixed formfactor thumbs, thats very counter to my experiences. I have scanned about 50 series from my collection into dbase, using thetvdb.com scraper, and have never seen mixed thumbs like that.

Interesting. Maybe my experiences are unique. Some, like Voyager have almost exclusively 4:3 thumbs, Smallville however has a mixture of both.

[agathorn]

I'm in the middle of my work week, so not much happening at the moment. However I did want to throw a couple images out here. I've been dabbling a bit after work on the movies screen. These are still EXTREMELY early and rough concepts, but I thought i'd share them anywhoo.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/movies_library_concept1.png
The two major problems I see about this view is the lack of synopsis information, as well as the fact that it is a horizontal navigation which is in opposition to the rest of the video library. This is more of the "traditional" poster view, however I don't feel it follows the tenants of this skin which is to be as space efficient on a 4:3 TV as possible.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/movies_library_concept3.png
This version I like more than the first one, as it better follows the rules of the skin. For one it makes better use of the square format screen, it puts the focus on the media, and it is a vertical navigation. That said however it still doesn't quite work for me so i'm still playing with things.

I'm also still playing with other layouts and ideas, as this is still very rough.

[agathorn]

A couple more variations i've been playing with. you can also see in these concepts, an idea i'm toying with to try and make the skin feel less constrained and more subtle, putting more focus on the media.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/movies_library_concept4.png


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/movies_library_concept5.png
The second concept would shrink the navigation list a bit, making room to put a little bit more information about the movie like the IMDB rating and director.

[Rand Al Thor]

Very nice. Can't wait to try this skin.

[agathorn]

Ok this one at first glance is a little odd. While I was sleeping last night I just had this strange idea, of doing the vertical navigation with a poster on the right and the list on the left, like in other concepts -- but what about instead of using a text list, it was an icon list.

So I fuddled and noodled around and this is what came out of my head. Its odd, yet I kind of like it.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/movies_library_concept6.png

Obviously something like this would only be used by people who didn't want any extra information on the movie while browsing, but I know there are people like that and i'm often one of them. Depends on if i'm looking to watch something specific or trying to find something to watch. I plan to offer more than one movie view, so i'll try to cater to both sides of that.

[agathorn]

Here is a screenshot of the new movies view up and running in XBMC.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot012.png

This layout seems a bit odd at first, but after using it a bit I really like it. It gives me the navigation and information I want the most, while still showing off the media very well. that said hwoever I WILL be including a second movies view that includes the plot information as well.

One thing i'm noticing while making this skin, is that the images XBMC downloads from the scrapers seem to be stored very small and thus don't look as good as they could in these larger formats.

Does anyone know if its possible to configure XBMC to not shrink down the images it scrapes, or at least store them not quite so small? Is there a reason for this or is it just a space issue?

[Rand Al Thor]

You can edit advancedsettings.xml and tell it to use a larger image size. I have mine set a 512x512 which looks very nice on my 720p projector on a 12' diagonal screen. Now that the scrapers can look at other sites besides just imdb for posters (such as impawards.com) you can usually find a nice quality poster to begin with. Hope that helps. Cheers.

[agathorn]

You can edit advancedsettings.xml and tell it to use a larger image size. I have mine set a 512x512 which looks very nice on my 720p projector on a 12' diagonal screen. Now that the scrapers can look at other sites besides just imdb for posters (such as impawards.com) you can usually find a nice quality poster to begin with. Hope that helps. Cheers.

Thanks that did it! Much crisper images now. I love it.

[agathorn]

Here is a screenshot showing the second movie view implemented in XBMC. This movie view gives you more information about the selected movie, including Rating, Director, and Sysnopsis.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot015.png

[agathorn]

Hello everyone!

For those looking to give this skin a test drive, I have some good news. At some point during my next days off (Tues/Wed/Thur), I will be releasing this skin in its then current state.

I do however want to stress that this release will be very unfinished, and should only be used by people who feel comfortable running it as such. At this point in time only the Home screen, and Video Library has been skinned. Pretty much everything else falls back to PM3.

Oh and I am still looking for name suggestions :)

[Rand Al Thor]

Great news! I can't wait it give it a try. Cheers.

[Hudson_Hawk04]

Looking forward to giving this one a try keep up the great work

[Gamester17]

@agathorn, if you like to open source your skin then you are more than welcomed to join the official XBMC Skinning Project (https://sourceforge.net/projects/xboxmediacenter) (a seperate subproject of XBMC for skinners and graphic artists), if you do then that means that you can use the projects SVN on SourceForge.net to ease development of your skin, and you can also host downloads of the skin, plus use the accociated bug and patch trackers. You can also request help from others, (and/or help others yourself with their skins if they like), however no one will mess with your skin there unless you approve it, and vice versa, (that is to say unless you abandond the project some day, in which case your skin becomes fair game for anyone else to take over, ...and again, vice versa).

If you are intrerested then please register an account on SF.NET and PM that account-name to me.

...oh, I guess you also need to name your skin before uploading it to the projects SVN.

[agathorn]

Thanks Gamestar17, i'm going to take you up on that offer. I'll double check what my old SF account name is and PM you.

For now i'm going to go with a working title of "Fusion" for the skin.

[Rand Al Thor]

Fusion eh? I like it!

[agathorn]

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/fusion_promo.jpg


I will be releasing the first version of Fusion either today or tomorrow, hopefully today. Above you can see a quick promo image I put together. There are still a few display bugs I want to iron out before the first release, but it won't be much longer now :)

You will however want to have the latest t3ch or SVN build before using Fusion.

[Hudson_Hawk04]

Cant wait for this....i've watched it come from an idea based on mock-ups to this....cant wait. Keep up the good work

[shizzle]

hey nice skin dude will this be for 4:3 also?

[agathorn]

hey nice skin dude will this be for 4:3 also?

4:3 is in fact what the skin was made for.

[agathorn]

Ok for everyone waiting, it will be released tonight. In fact the initial release is uploading to SVN right now over at the XBMC Skinning Project:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/xboxmediacenter/

I will be doing a more "standard" RAR'd release as well in about an hour. At that time I will be posting quick useage notes.

[agathorn]

Here it is, ALPHA 1 release!
Download Fusion ALPHA 1 (http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/Fusion_Alpha_1.rar)

Included in the archive is a README.txt file. Read it! :p It explains how the skin works and what not, so if you don't read it then don't complain about any issues :)

[agathorn]

Ok guys there was a serious mistake on my part when I packaged the textures for release, I missed the graphics needed for the home screen!

If you have downloaded ALPHA 1 at any time before this post, and are finding yourself with a home screen with no graphics, and no way to tell what item is selected, please re-download it. Very sorry about that!

[Hudson_Hawk04]

I really like what I see so far, I am re-downloading the skin now....but I am having issues with the blurb in the read me on the custom backgrounds it says that they need to be named "bg_tvshows" do the need to be in a certain format to show up ie. *.bmp or *.jpg?

[agathorn]

I really like what I see so far, I am re-downloading the skin now....but I am having issues with the blurb in the read me on the custom backgrounds it says that they need to be named "bg_tvshows" do the need to be in a certain format to show up ie. *.bmp or *.jpg?

If you are using the backpacks from Xephyr, you should just be able to extract them right into the Fusion/Media folder. I think all but backpack 1 had the correct naming scheme.

As for file format, BMP is what the backpacks use as this loads faster, but I think you can use BMP, JPG, or PNG. If doing your own backs you will want them to be the same aspect ratio as the Xephyr/Aeon ones.

[Hudson_Hawk04]

If you are using the backpacks from Xephyr, you should just be able to extract them right into the Fusion/Media folder. I think all but backpack 1 had the correct naming scheme.

As for file format, BMP is what the backpacks use as this loads faster, but I think you can use BMP, JPG, or PNG. If doing your own backs you will want them to be the same aspect ratio as the Xephyr/Aeon ones.

ok thanks so the ones on the aeon website will work as well?

[agathorn]

Ok I just went back and looked at my readme and it was as clear as mud. It was late and I was tired when I wrote it :(

To clarify for those who want to use the Xephyr/Aeon backs:

Currently the skin looks in a specific place for the backgrounds. They must be located in the Fusion/Media folder. Inside that folder you want to have several sub folders, named:

bg_tvshows
bg_movies
bg_games
bg_music
bg_pictures

Place your backgrounds inside each of those. If you are using the prepackaged Xephyr Backpacks, I think all but the first one has the folders named properly and you can just extract it right into the Fusion/media folder. Backpack #1 you will need to rename the sub folders as shown above.

Now in a future version of the skin I will be including skin settings where you can set these yourself, thus allowing you to place the backgrounds wherever you want.

So to recap, this is how your folders/directories on your Xbox should look:
http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/background_layout.png

[agathorn]

ok thanks so the ones on the aeon website will work as well?

Most definitely. Simply go to AEON -> Backdrops, download the ones you want, then unzip them and place them in the correct folders.

[Hudson_Hawk04]

Just a heads up...when i build from the svn it errors off says its missing a file

[agathorn]

Just a heads up...when i build from the svn it errors off says its missing a file

If you want to use BUILD.BAT from the SVN copy, you will need to have XBMCTex.exe (from the XBMC tools) in the same directory.

[agathorn]

Fusion ALPHA 2 Release

HIGHLIGHTS
-----------
- HOME screen navigation should be a bit smoother when using backgrounds
- Basic weather summary now displayed on the HOME screen
- Longer movie titles will now scroll when in MOVIES 2 view

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot016.png

DOWNLOAD
----------
Fusion_Alpha_2.rar (13.7mb) (http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/Fusion_Alpha_2.rar)

CHANGELOG
-----------
1138
changed: modified home wraplist to be more smooth with backgrounds

1137
cleaned up Home.xml's wraplist code a bit

1135
added: weather overview added to home screen
fixed: some errors in build.bat
tweaked: README to be a bit more clear in areas

1134
tweaked: MOVIES view to feel less crowded
fixed: MOVIES and MOVIES 2 views to scroll longer titles until wrapping is fixed in xbmc
added: weather overview added to home screen

1133
fixed: added missing gfx for home screen

1127
fixed skin.xml to actually be my skin

[aart]

so does it support 16:9 also or will everything be stretched as this was originally made for 4:3?

[agathorn]

so does it support 16:9 also or will everything be stretched as this was originally made for 4:3?

This skin is designed for 4:3, and does not currently support 16:9. I may make a 16:9 version at some point, but to be honest it would probably be a different skin. One of the design basics in this skin was making the most efficient use of the 4:3 display, and that wouldn't translate well to 16:9. Space would be wasted.

[aart]

thats clear now...but that screenshot 2 posts above looks like its 16:9..thats what made me wonder. thanks for clearing it up. Maybe if JezzX releases his converter for skins, I could make it compatible with 16:9. I like what you created so far.

[jaredharley]

thats clear now...but that screenshot 2 posts above looks like its 16:9..thats what made me wonder. thanks for clearing it up. Maybe if JezzX releases his converter for skins, I could make it compatible with 16:9. I like what you created so far.

I'll bet that the screenshot was taken from XBMC_PC in "pixel" mode.

[agathorn]

I'll bet that the screenshot was taken from XBMC_PC in "pixel" mode.

Actually, its form the xbox. The reason the image seems widescreen is due to overscan, and some weirdness of how the screenshots from XBMC come out.

When I take the raw screenshots off the xbox, they have black borders around them that I assume is the overscan which I don't see on my TV. I crop that out. In addition, the screenshots always seem to me to be a tad stretched horizontally. They don't look that way on my TV but they do when they come out of XBMC as a screenshot. I have no idea why.

[agathorn]

A quick note to anyone who is running in PAL mode. Due to an oversight on my part (read: I forgot to test in PAL mode), you will most likely have some font issues. You can either pull the latest SVN version, or simply copy the font.xml file font in the NTSC directory to your PAL directory.

Sorry about that!

[agathorn]

A couple of things going on in this screenshot that I wanted to show everyone. The first is that this home screen is native NTSC. Up until now i've done all my work on top of the existing PM3 stuff in the PAL directory. As a result when I bring it up on my NTSC Xbox/TV, everything gets auto-scaled by XBMC to 720x480. It isn't a huge deal, and i've accepted it up until now, but I wanted to start moving over to the right resolution. So I built a new home screen, but instead of just copying it over, I actually re-did it to conform to the smaller resolution. As a result there is a lot less black, after all i'm losing 96 pixels in height! The end result though I am quite happy with. In fact I like it better than the PAL version right now :p

The other thing going on in here is a graphics upgrade. I've been focused on the layout more than the graphics lately, but i've not been happy with the graphics so far. When building this home screen I used it as an excuse to re-do the graphics as well and try to make them a bit more in line with what I originally envisioned. I tweaked and tweaked my glass in Photoshop to the point where i'm pretty happy with it, and the change in the colors i'm very happy with. The old blue was just not the blue I wanted. The more green/sea blue is more in-line with the colors I envisioned originally.

All in all this home screen brings Fusion a lot closer to my original inspirations which were Xephyr and Fluid for those who haven't read my first post on this thread :) Both those skins have totally inspiring and awesome graphics that while I can't quite touch, I can at least aspire to.

So here it is, the new NTSC native home screen. I'd love feedback on this graphics upgrade, or anything really.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot017.png

[agathorn]

Playing around with modifying the TV TITLE view slightly. My mom has commented that she misses having the number of episodes listed like PM3 has. Apparently she used that to know if there were new episodes to watch without having to go "into" the show.

So I went about changing things to include that information, and while I was at it use the new graphics. In the process I thought about showing less show titles at a time but having them larger to better enjoy the graphics -- again the focus is always on the media.

So this is what I came up with. You would see three titles at a time (In NTSC mode. In PAL I _might_ be able to squeeze in a fourth. I havent' looked.), and the list would be a wraplist like it is currently, so that focused one would always be in the center. I'd love some feedback on if you think functionally this is better or worse than the existing view (ignoring the graphics -- just looking at the functionality of it).

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/tv_title_library_concept2.png

EDIT: And while i'm at it, I might as well show the updated SEASON view as well. I'm not finished working on this one in the concept stage, but figure might as well throw it out there at the same time. So here you go. I really miss those 96 pixels in NTSC resolution :(

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/tv_season_library_concept3.png

[agathorn]

So I had a lucky session with Photoshop -- I managed to go nearly an hour without it crashing! As a result, I managed to knock out almost all my new graphics.

I showed the mockups to my Mom and she liked the newer layout better than the old. That combined with myself liking them better, meant I just went ahead and redid them all. So at this point I have all the library views except MOVIES 2 redone with the new graphics in NTSC. I have not done PAL yet.

Here are some XBMC screenshots for you to pick apart.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot018.png




http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot019.png




http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot020.png




http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot021.png

[Livin]

I like the 'new' style.

[anoobie]

Just wanna say I like your skin. :grin:

[agathorn]

Thanks for the comments guys! I always appreciate feedback, good or bad. Working in vacuum is hard :)

[agathorn]

Ok everyone here is some more eye candy for you. This is my current mockup for the MOVIES 2 view in NTSC. I think the text layout might change SLIGHTLY when I translate it into code, but overall I really like it.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/movies_library_concept7.png

[Hitcher]

I can't load the skin - it just loads PMIII.

[agathorn]

I can't load the skin - it just loads PMIII.

Are you running in 4:3 or 16:9? If you are in 16:9 then it will most likely load PM3 because all the files in the 16:9 folder are still stock PM3. This skin is designed specifically for 4:3.

If that is NOT the issue, and you are in fact running 4:3, then let me know and we'll figure out what is going on.

[RockDawg]

I haven't tried this skin yet so I'm only going by what I see in this thread. For me the problem with this skin would be navigating large video libraries. I don't seen any screen shots with more than 5-6 movies listed at one time. I have 650+ movies in my library and there are a lot of people with way more than that and it would seem very cumbersome to me to continually have to scroll to browse for a movie.

IMHO you need at least one view with many more titles listed to facilitate quicker and easier browsing through large libraries. Maybe your list view without the movie info displayed and the whole left side a title list. Or check out xTV's list view. It displays the a large title list on one side with a large cover on the other side, but when you stop scrolling after a few seconds the large cover shrinks down and it displays some movie info like yours does.

Just some food for thought on an otherwise seet looking skin.

[agathorn]

I haven't tried this skin yet so I'm only going by what I see in this thread. For me the problem with this skin would be navigating large video libraries. I don't seen any screen shots with more than 5-6 movies listed at one time. I have 650+ movies in my library and there are a lot of people with way more than that and it would seem very cumbersome to me to continually have to scroll to browse for a movie.

IMHO you need at least one view with many more titles listed to facilitate quicker and easier browsing through large libraries. Maybe your list view without the movie info displayed and the whole left side a title list. Or check out xTV's list view. It displays the a large title list on one side with a large cover on the other side, but when you stop scrolling after a few seconds the large cover shrinks down and it displays some movie info like yours does.

Just some food for thought on an otherwise seet looking skin.


I appreciate the feedback. I'm confused though. I have a few hundred movies and TV shows in my own library as well, but I don't find it an issue. My main question to you is this: "How does having the view show more titles at once help you find the movie?" Regardless of how many movies you have, you still have to scroll one by one, yes? And if they are in alphabetical order, then you know where in your list it is. Its not like a scavenger hunt.

Maybe i'm just not understanding, but i'd be glad to be educated and have no problem with a view to help for larger libraries. Just help me understand the issue a bit better.

[agathorn]

I've just finished doing the MOVIES 2 view for NTSC in the new style. Here are some screens from the box to gander at.

For those of you running in PAL, unfortunately you are still stuck on the old style, but fear not. Only a couple more things to wrap up in NTSC for now, and then i'll get on updating PAL to the new style as well.

All of these changes are in SVN for those wanting the bleeding edge, but I have not done a release yet containing any of the new style graphics. Once I wrap up a couple more things in NTSC I will be doing an ALPHA 3 release for those without SVN.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot022.png


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot023.png

[agathorn]

I'm hard at work on some "fluff" features that i've been wanting to try and do for a while now. I don't have any screenshots yet, but I have a couple of them working and its so cool.

Coming Soon
------------
Smart View Mode Controls
Toggling through views with a button is old school. Smart view controls present options such as "Auto Select" which selects the best view type based on the media being shown, Filtered list of views to choose from, again based on media present, and Next/Previous view mode buttons.

Dynamic Font Sizing
Why settle for static font sizes when they can be dynamic? Everyone's TV set is a different size and a different distance, and what works for one doesn't work for another. This feature currently lets you change the font size for plot/synopsis information ON THE FLY, from the handy pop-up menu. Three sizes available, Small, Medium, and Large fonts.

[shizzle]

hey could you post the latest svn revision also how do i change the wallpaper? BTW nice skin

[agathorn]

Ok everyone time for more screenshots!

These screens show the new features I mentioned a couple hours ago. I'm ready to actually show them in work now.

In these screens you can see the cascading menu system that is only visible when you need it.

Here you can see how you can set the font size of the text used in the Plot boxes, as well as the view mode menu.

In the view mode menu notice how the items listed under the seperator change based on what media is present. This smart filter displays only the views of relevance.

Auto Select will select the most relevant based on media, which actually corresponds to the first view in the smart filter list.

You can still of course select any view you want with the Next/Previous view options.


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot024.png


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot025.png


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot026.png




hey could you post the latest svn revision also how do i change the wallpaper? BTW nice skin

I will be updating SVN here in probably about 15-30 minutes (EDIT: SVN is up to date now). However I won't be releasing a full build until I finish one more thing. Right now the font changing doesn't affect movie plots, so I need to finish that. Once that is in I think I can release the next build.

As for changing the backgrounds, please see the README file.

[aart]

very nice work man

[Rand Al Thor]

Wow! This skin is really coming along nicely.

[RockDawg]

I appreciate the feedback. I'm confused though. I have a few hundred movies and TV shows in my own library as well, but I don't find it an issue. My main question to you is this: "How does having the view show more titles at once help you find the movie?" Regardless of how many movies you have, you still have to scroll one by one, yes? And if they are in alphabetical order, then you know where in your list it is. Its not like a scavenger hunt.

Maybe i'm just not understanding, but i'd be glad to be educated and have no problem with a view to help for larger libraries. Just help me understand the issue a bit better.

In some skins you can enable a scrollbar which for some views allows you to scroll a "page" at a time (check PM3's "Big List" for example). So if you coded your list view to display 25 titles at a time and allowed similar scrollbar functionality a user could scan through a list of 500 movies with 20 clicks instead of 500. Much easier.

As for finding movies, maybe my wife and I are different than most. The bulk of our library is made up of movies we've seen before and a lot of the time we're not sure exactly what we want to watch. We'll just start scrolling through the list until something catches our eye. So in some regards it can be like a scavanger hunt. But even if you know the title you want to watch, it's easier to get to it if it only takes 12 clicks instead of 200.

Personally, I would much prefer a poster wall like view but nobody has implemented one that I'm aware of although there has been some discussion of how it would work.

Anyhow, this is all just my opinion and I still think you've got a nice looking skin. I'll be sure to try it out when I get the chance.

[agathorn]

Thanks for the comments. Really appreciate it.

Ok everyone after some last minute "what the heck is going on!" troubleshooting on a problem, I now have ALPHA 3 ready for you all!

Fusion ALPHA 3 Release

Highlights

Native NTSC windows
Total new graphics upgrade
Cascading on-demand menu system
Dynamic font sizing for plot information boxes
Smart View Filter


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot017.png

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot018.png

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot024.png

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot026.png

Download
Fusion_Alpha_3.rar (15mb) (http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/Fusion_Alpha_3.rar)

Changelog
1145

fixed: movie plot boxes now work with dynamic font changer


1144

more work on NTSC native windows -- all windows should be in NTSC now with new graphics layout
added: new cascading menu system
added: dynamic font changin for plot boxes
added: smart view mode system


1143

first pass at NTSC native windows
new graphics upgrade -- curreently NTSC only


1139

added: changelog.txt
fixed: PAL fonts are now correct
changed: fonts to only include the used font types
changed: tightened up the menu wraplist on HOME screen

[agathorn]

In some skins you can enable a scrollbar which for some views allows you to scroll a "page" at a time (check PM3's "Big List" for example). So if you coded your list view to display 25 titles at a time and allowed similar scrollbar functionality a user could scan through a list of 500 movies with 20 clicks instead of 500. Much easier.

As for finding movies, maybe my wife and I are different than most. The bulk of our library is made up of movies we've seen before and a lot of the time we're not sure exactly what we want to watch. We'll just start scrolling through the list until something catches our eye. So in some regards it can be like a scavanger hunt. But even if you know the title you want to watch, it's easier to get to it if it only takes 12 clicks instead of 200.

Personally, I would much prefer a poster wall like view but nobody has implemented one that I'm aware of although there has been some discussion of how it would work.

Anyhow, this is all just my opinion and I still think you've got a nice looking skin. I'll be sure to try it out when I get the chance.

Thanks for the input. I'll mull it around and see what comes out :)

[agathorn]

For those of you who run in PAL and feel like you are missing out, don't worry too much. You won't have too long to wait. I'm starting work on new PAL windows now, and while I probably won't get them all done today, I will do a release tonight with whatever is done by then.

EDIT: Apparently I totally overestimated how much work the PAL side would be. I'm really flying through it. There will be another release with the PAL side done probably within the hour.

[agathorn]

Fusion ALPHA 4 Release

Highlights

New graphics update now available to PAL users as well as NTSC
Minor bug fixes and tweaks


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot027.png

Credit
Custom backgrounds for HOME screen shown are from Xephyr/Aeon backdrops, and not a part of this skin. Backdrops created by djh, and others and all kudos and credit to thier work.

Fusion is highly inspired by Xephyr/Aeon and Fluid.

All graphics and code for Fusion were created by Agathorn, with the exception of any content used from Project Mayhem III upon which Fusion was built.

Download
Fusion_Alpha_4.rar (15.1mb) (http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/Fusion_Alpha_4.rar)

Changelog
1153

All native PAL windows now use the new graphics
fixed: screwed up watched overlay in NTSC and PAL
fixed: navigation bug with cascading menu when in view menu, auto select, with episodes present
changed: changed most text to be standard case rather than upper case

[bionic1234]

freakin' cool can't wait to get home and try it out, thanks for sharing

[agathorn]

When I was showing my Mom the new features in the skin, I realized that I had made a big mistake in the design of the new cascading menus. I forgot who my target audience and target platform was. On here 32" TV in the living room, which sits probably about 12-15' from the couch, the menu is all but unreadable. It was horrible!

When doing this stuff it is important to remember that what works well on a computer monitor doesn't necessarily work well on a television screen -- especially a standard def one.

In this case it is more an issue of graphics and layout than functionality, so my next focus will be on refining the menu system to be more friendly on its intended platform.

[agathorn]

Yay its the weekend again! And the weekend means more development on Fusion of course!

I haven't really started rolling with any momentum quite yet, but I'm starting this weekend of updates off with a revamped menu system. Nothing drastically different than it was, just some minor changes and tweaks graphically to make it actually usable on smaller screens and on TVs that are a good distance away.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot028.png

As you can see the menu font is much larger, making it easier to read. In addition, the menu graphics are slightly larger. There is a dimming of the actual media content in the background, bringing the focus to the menu better. And last but not least, the little arrows indicating menu options that have submenus.

[Hudson_Hawk04]

love the progress :grin: keep up the good work

[agathorn]

Here are a couple screenshots of the latest movie view I have been working on. This was born out of RockDawg's request for a movies view that was friendly to those who have lots and lots and lots of movies to choose from.

In the end it essentially turned into a single combined movie view that I think can please almost everyone at once. In using it i'm really liking it.

This first screenshot shows the initial view. The long list of movies, plus available scroll bar will allow you to flip through very large collections with ease. The nice full size poster on the right side stays true to Fusion's design concepts.


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot030.png


But wait there's more! Pressing to the RIGHT gets you to the scrollbar, to flip through pages at a time, but if you press RIGHT one more time, the view changes itself to what you see in the second screenshot, giving you detailed information on the selected movie.


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot029.png


Easy navigation through large libraries, nice large movie posters, and detailed movie information available only a couple clicks away. It really is nice to use.

[agathorn]

Hello all. I'm back to ask for everyone out there using this skin, or interested in this skin, to help me generate some ideas.

You see, 99% of what I and my family use XBMC for is the video library. Movies and TV Shows is our thing. The only music I have is in iTunes, and I listen to it mostly only iPod not on my TV. We don't have any photos in the system either, though we are thinking about it. As a result of this, I have really no idea what to do with the music library, or photo library. I have no idea what works and doesn't work, and what would be good for people. Is what is in PM3 just fine, or could we do something that would work better?

I'd love for you all out there to give me some input on this.

[agathorn]

Latest SVN version now includes the new movies view for both NTSC and PAL.

EDIT: I just realized that when I rebuilt the pop out menu system and separated it into its own includes, I inadvertently introduced a rather nasty bug. The menu will be unaccessible from any of the default views that are in PM3. I didn't notice it until just now when I started skinning the file mode screen, because up until now i've not used any of the default views.

This will be fixed, but not right away, as its going to take a lot of reworking things in various spot. I just wanted you all to be aware of that. In the meantime I would recommend not using any of the default views or you may find yourself kind of screwed :(

[Hudson_Hawk04]

Hello all. I'm back to ask for everyone out there using this skin, or interested in this skin, to help me generate some ideas.

You see, 99% of what I and my family use XBMC for is the video library. Movies and TV Shows is our thing. The only music I have is in iTunes, and I listen to it mostly only iPod not on my TV. We don't have any photos in the system either, though we are thinking about it. As a result of this, I have really no idea what to do with the music library, or photo library. I have no idea what works and doesn't work, and what would be good for people. Is what is in PM3 just fine, or could we do something that would work better?

I'd love for you all out there to give me some input on this.


As far as the photo library I have never used it and I don't see using it in the foreseeable future. On the other hand I use the music library on a rather frequent basis, I have never really tried using i-tunes via xbmc. Most if not all of my music is ripped from cd into a network shared folder on my main pc. The default pm3 views for my music would work fine. Thats just my opinion hope it helps.

[agathorn]

@Hudson_Hawk - Thanks it does help.

@Everyone - The nasty bug with views SHOULD be fixed now in SVN. I haven't finished testing every view, but it should be good.

[Hudson_Hawk04]

anything i can do to help love the skin so far and thanks for all the hard work you have put in to Fusion. :grin:

[agathorn]

anything i can do to help love the skin so far and thanks for all the hard work you have put in to Fusion. :grin:

The best help anyone can give is to simply use Fusion, and give feedback. Let me know if things don't' work right, give suggestions on improvements.

If you know how to pull down and build the SVN version, that helps even more as you can be helping to test things as I work on them and before they go out to the "public".

[agathorn]

Everything should be completely sync'd now between NTSC and PAL. I hope so anyway. If anyone notices something missing from one or the other please let me know.

Right now I am working on skinning the video FILES view, and once that is complete a full public alpha will be released.

[agathorn]

There is now hope for a High Def widescreen version of Fusion! Yay!

Originally when I made this skin, it was to be a skin to made the best use of standard definition, fullscreen real-estate. After all that was the TV I had.

That hasn't changed, as I still have that TV...in my bedroom. But now, we have a new 1080p HD LCD in the living room. YAY!!!! That means I just HAVE to make a version of Fusion that is loads of fun to play with on that new TV.

So as this skin moves forward, you can look forward to a widescreen version of Fusion. My first goal is to get the widescreen up to date with the current state of the skin, then customize it to be more appropriate for that format, then move forward with everything together.

This does not mean that the fullscreen will suffer. It won't. I still have that standard def, 4:3 TV in my bedroom and I do a LOT of XBMC viewing on that TV.

[Rand Al Thor]

Great news! Congrats on the new TV ;)

[agathorn]

Just about to turn in for the night, but i've ben playing around with the 720p home screen. I want to be able to show off the backdrop, just like in the 4:3 mode, but because we're widescreen I can't take advantage of the nice black borders :p

So i've been trying to come up with a way to present my information but not step on the backdrop too much, at the same time I didn't want to end up with the same layout as Aeon. I certainly don't want to steal djh's awesome work.

This is what i've come up with so far, but i'll sleep on it and see if I come up with something overnight.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/screenshot031.png



EDIT: To the left of that 21C on the left side there is the current weather image. For some reason XBMC_PC doesn't show the image.

[Jezz_X]

EDIT: To the left of that 21C on the left side there is the current weather image. For some reason XBMC_PC doesn't show the image.
You need to make a temp dir for z: I made a folder in the xbmc dir called cache (name dosn't matter) then did subst z: q:\cache
because XBMC needs a Z: drive as well to extract to the weather images

[Rand Al Thor]

very nice. Can't wait to get my hands on this one.

[RenZ0R]

nice, Ive liked the way this is coming on, and was dissapointed it was 4:3 only at the time, cant wait to test the 720p version

[Gamester17]

You need to make a temp dir for z: I made a folder in the xbmc dir called cache (name dosn't matter) then did subst z: q:\cache
because XBMC needs a Z: drive as well to extract to the weather imagesDoesn't "run_me_first.bat" that comes with T3CH's XBMC_PC builds do that for you?subst q: .
subst p: q:\userdata
subst t: q:\userdata
subst z: q:\cache
XBMC_PC.exe
subst q: /d
subst p: /d
subst t: /d
subst z: /dJust make sure that you do not have a real drive or partition that have one of those drive names.

[Jezz_X]

It probably does Gamester but I bet he dosn't have the folder cache in his xbmc dir

[agathorn]

Thanks guys that did it. Just needed to create that cache directory.

[Gamester17]

ah, so T3CH's shoud really add and "md cache" to his "run_me_first.bat" subst q: .
subst p: q:\userdata
subst t: q:\userdata
md cache
subst z: q:\cache
XBMC_PC.exe
subst q: /d
subst p: /d
subst t: /d
subst z: /d

:rolleyes:

[jaredharley]

Due to an issue in Vista (causes xbmc_pc.exe to lock up when you try to exit), my brother modified the script some for me:

@echo off
subst q: .
subst p: q:\userdata
subst t: q:\userdata
subst z: q:\cache
start "" "XBMC_PC.exe"
pause
taskkill /im xbmc_pc.exe /f
subst q: /d
subst p: /d
subst t: /d
subst z: /d

To exit XBMC_PC, I go to the command prompt and "press any key".

[agathorn]

Here is where my brain is currently leaning for a TV Titles view under 720p. This isn't set in stone yet. I'm playing around with ideas that make use of the 1280x720 resolution, which is of course vastly different from 720x480 :)

This is a mockup, and in the actual implementation there would be multiple show banners there, a typical wraplist. I just only did the two for my sake.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/720_tv_titles.png

[Hudson_Hawk04]

does this mean your gonna abandon the standard def?

[agathorn]

does this mean your gonna abandon the standard def?

Nope not at all. As previously stated, I will be working on the 720p stuff first to bring it up to the same level of functionality as PAL and NTSC standard def, then I will be proceeding forward with all three at the same time.

[Hudson_Hawk04]

Nope not at all. As previously stated, I will be working on the 720p stuff first to bring it up to the same level of functionality as PAL and NTSC standard def, then I will be proceeding forward with all three at the same time.

Cool beans you had me worried for a bit there.

[Rand Al Thor]

I really dig that screen shot. So there will only be two wide icons visible at a time? Or do you only have to series in the library right now? If the first is the case you might want to include a total object count at the bottom of the screen so people know that there are more than 2 shows in the Db. Just a thought. Cheers.

[agathorn]

I really dig that screen shot. So there will only be two wide icons visible at a time? Or do you only have to series in the library right now? If the first is the case you might want to include a total object count at the bottom of the screen so people know that there are more than 2 shows in the Db. Just a thought. Cheers.

No there would be a full list. I just only put in two in the mockup because I was being lazy.

[agathorn]

Arg!

Just a friendly tip. If you spend half a day wondering why your skin works fine in XBMC_PC but not on your Xbox itself, do yourself a favor and check to make sure you still have hard drive space left!

I just wasted I don't even KNOW how many hours all because the files I was copying over were not saving because the drive was empty and I didn't realize it :(

[agathorn]

Well what can you do with a seasons view. When it comes right down to it there aren't very many ways to lay it out that makes sense, and there isn't really any "extra" information worth showing either.

In the end I decided to try and just run straight through Titles -> Seasons -> Episodes with pretty much the same style. We'll see how it works.

Here's my SEASONS mockup.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/720_seasons.png

[Broads]

Agathon, Just a few words of encouragement from me, your skin is really begining to get some momentum, if those last couple of screenshots are anything to go by the design and layout are heading somewhere special, keep plugging away. :D

[agathorn]

Following along in the same theme and layout, here is a mockup of the EPISODES view. I also wanted to let you all know that the proposed TITLES and SEASONS views have already been implemented and they are working great. I'll probably get this EPISODES view working tomorrow evening, and move onto the movie views soon after.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/720_episodes.png

[agathorn]

Just an update -- I got up early this morning, and was able to put the code together for the EPISODES view pretty quickly. So now all the 720p TV views are done. I'm going to get at least one movie view done, do some cleanup, and then a release. Will definitely go out by Tuesday, maybe earlier.

[agathorn]

Ok gang, just a heads up. The initial 720p build is uploading into SVN as I type this. This includes all TV views, as well as a movie view, and essentially brings 720p up to sync with NTSC/PAL as far as i'm concerned. There are still some small tweaks and fixes to do in 720p but 99% of it is there.

I will be releasing a proper ALPHA later on in a couple of hours but if you want to grab it from SVN you can.

[agathorn]

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/FusionPromo_720p.png

Highlights

Major update now includes full 720p support and 720p specific views!
Added new Movies 3 view to NTSC and PAL, providing the best of all worlds when it comes to movie views
Updates to cascading menu system make it easier to read and use


Credits
Custom backgrounds shown are from Xephyr/Aeon backdrops, and not a part of this skin. Backdrops created by djh, and others and all kudos and credit to their work.

Fusion is highly inspired by Xephyr/Aeon and Fluid.

All graphics and code for Fusion were created by Agathorn, with the exception of any content used from Project Mayhem III upon which Fusion was built.

Download
Starting with this release, there will be two different files released for Fusion. One for NTSC/PAL, and one for 720p. This way you don't have to bog your XBMC down with extra graphics that are unused if you are not using 720p.

Fusion_Alpha_5_SD.rar (http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/Fusion_Alpha_5_SD.rar) (5.7mb) - NTSC/PAL Only
Fusion_Alpha_5_720p.rar (http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/Fusion_Alpha_5_720p.rar) (9mb) - Additional 720p content

Changelog
1171

added: initial 720p build and files


1168

added: XBMCTex.exe file added to make it easier on those doing SVN builds


1167

added: MOVIES 3 view mode into smart list on menu (Movies - Combined)
fixed: couple menu bugs fixed

1166

Minor tweaks and fixes to layout positioning in PAL TV views


1165

fixed: Hopefully fixed nasty bug with pop up menu and default PM3 views
changed: streamlined menu includes


1164

added: MOVIES 3 view added for PAL
changed: minor fixes and tweaks
changed: moved cascading menu out to include


1163

changed: minor graphics tweaks
added: new menu graphics


1162

started moving cascading menu over to includes


1160

added: new movies view for NTSC
changed: started moving code around to pull cascading menu system into its own file


1159

changed: scrollbar update


1154

ALPHA 4 Release

[Rand Al Thor]

very nice! I will have a go with it tonight and let you know!

[agathorn]

I'm making a pass through to fix little annoying bugs. If anyone has noticed anything, please let me know.

This will be my first pass through to take care of those things. Then I will be moving on to skin the files mode view. After that i'm contemplating a graphics tweak for NTSC/PAL.

Here is what's been fixed so far in this pass, and i'll keep this post updated throught the day.

added: initial skinning of video files view for NTSC
fixed: views menu to work in video files view
added: files view graphics
fixed: scrollbar placement/display in NTSC tv episodes view
fixed: fixed scrollbar placement in PAL episodes view
added: menu code for switching between files and library mode
changed: made a separate version of cascading menu for 720p views
changed: removed extra movie views from 720p views menu
changed: started coding for files mode in PAL - not yet finished
fixed: cascading menu fixes in PAL/NTSC
fixed: fixed space problem with 720p home screen date & weather panels

[Competes2win]

Nice skin, after adding 720p support I downloaded it to see what this skin was all about. I thoroughly like it, It may definitely become my default skin if/when the rest of the skin get's skinned.

keep up the good work.

[agathorn]

Ok so i've started working on things today. This post will contain an updated list of today's changes as I make them.

I figure this way of doing things keeps posts down and also lets you guys see what progress i'm making through the day without having to check SVN. Just bear in mine that when I edit this post it won't show as new so just check it every now and then :)


added: Skinned video files view for 720p
added: skinned video files view for PAL

[Rand Al Thor]

@agathorn

I downloaded the 720p version of the skin and it looks awesome. Only the home screen didn't seem to work. Do i need to get the original skin and overwrite it with the files from the 720p download? Also i saw that you mentioned you have a program that takes your shows and renames them according to thetvdb and moves them to the appropriate folder. Which program is that? It sounds like a real time saver! Thanks and keep up the great work.

[agathorn]

@agathorn

I downloaded the 720p version of the skin and it looks awesome. Only the home screen didn't seem to work. Do i need to get the original skin and overwrite it with the files from the 720p download? Also i saw that you mentioned you have a program that takes your shows and renames them according to thetvdb and moves them to the appropriate folder. Which program is that? It sounds like a real time saver! Thanks and keep up the great work.

When you say the home screen didn't work, can you be more specific? Did it totally not work and all you got was PM3?

As for the program, its called TV Episode Renamer:
http://forums.thetvdb.com/viewtopic.php?t=406

It is very buggy, bloated, and sometimes doesn't work, but despite that its the best i've found yet for doing what I need (which is to monitor a specific folder and when a show appears, move it to the right spot for XBMC).

[agathorn]

@Rand

I just installed a totally clean copy of the 720p download and the home screen worked fine, so please if you get a moment give me some details as to what you're seeing/not seeing and i'll see if I can figure out what is going on.

[Rand Al Thor]

Sorry I should have been more specific. I get only the PMIII homescreen. I did delete all the Fusion lines in guisettings.xml It could be because i am using the linux build and instead of actually running at 720p it runs at 1280x720 desktop resolution. Sometimes this causes it to look for files in the PAL folder instead of in the PAL16x9 folder. I will install a fresh copy when i get home from work and let you know how it goes. Also thanks for the heads up on that program. I think I will give it a shot tonight.

[agathorn]

Sorry I should have been more specific. I get only the PMIII homescreen. I did delete all the Fusion lines in guisettings.xml It could be because i am using the linux build and instead of actually running at 720p it runs at 1280x720 desktop resolution. Sometimes this causes it to look for files in the PAL folder instead of in the PAL16x9 folder. I will install a fresh copy when i get home from work and let you know how it goes. Also thanks for the heads up on that program. I think I will give it a shot tonight.

Yes you MUST be running in 720p mode, not just widescreen. SETTINGS -> APPEARANCE -> RESOLUTION in XBMC should be set to "720p 16x9"

[agathorn]

Hey gang,

I'm contemplating changing the graphics and layouts of the SD (PAL/NTSC) views to be basically the same as in 720p, though with some slight changes to make them work. I really like the layout and feel of the 720p views. I don't like how the SD views feel all thrown together since nothing really matches from one screen to the next.

I'd like to get some input on this. I'll post some mockups I did in PS a little bit later tonight.

Pros:

Nicer look
More unified visual look, and unified navigation
larger lists
faster navigation
larger season posters


Cons:

Tv show banner in seasons/episode views would be noticeably smaller
Not quite as much room for episode description

[agathorn]

Ok here are some mockups for you to look over.

On the movies screen, the right side will have the ability to also show you movie details. This would most likely be a setting if you want it to be auto or not. If auto then after about a couple seconds, the picture would scale down and detailed info would appear. If manual, then you would scroll right to activate the detailed view. Similar to how MOVIES 3 works right now.

http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/sd_movies.png


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/sd_tvtitles.png


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/sd_seasons.png


http://www.jwvanderbeck.com/files/sd_episodes.png

[Ayala]

agathorn, wanted to say good work!. the last few fusion screenees have triggered ideas in my head! i like some of your layout. keep it up!

[agathorn]

agathorn, wanted to say good work!. the last few fusion screenees have triggered ideas in my head! i like some of your layout. keep it up!

Thanks!

Much of your concept work on "Fluid" was inspiration for doing this skin in the first place.

[agathorn]

Anyone have any comments about moving to the unified layout for SD modes? Right now i'm leaning towards making that move.

[Competes2win]

Hey Agathorn I don't personally use your skin in SD so can't really comment on your question, although it sounds like a good movie...

On a different note, while using your skin in 720p mode the bottom right box that contains the time often shows a black corner around the rounded edge of that box... Hard to explain but its like the rounded box is fitting in a black rectangle and the corner sticks out when the rounded box should cover it...

[agathorn]

On a different note, while using your skin in 720p mode the bottom right box that contains the time often shows a black corner around the rounded edge of that box... Hard to explain but its like the rounded box is fitting in a black rectangle and the corner sticks out when the rounded box should cover it...

Yes this is a bug in the latest release. It has been fixed in SVN however, so you can either grab it there or the next release will have the fix.

[agathorn]

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Hostgator pissed me off earlier today, and i've decided to cancel my service with them. I will be moving my domain to another webhost I have, but in the meantime there will be an outage.

I will have things up and running again ASAP.

[agathorn]

I know there hasn't been much visible activity on Fusion, but I have been working on things. My last days off were spent coding up some internal functions for the XBMC skinning engine that were needed for Fusion as well as some other skins out there (I think Fluid is using them for one) so that took time, but i'm back at it this time around on Fusion. I'm currently working on moving NTSC/PAL over to the new format as previously mentioned. I've also tweaked it a tad and will be doing the same tweaks to 720p. I'm also making a pass at things to reduce memory consumption, especially in 720p as it was hovering right on the edge way too often for my tastes. After that comes an update to the video menu to include sorting options.

So there is a bunch happening and a bunch coming. I expect to have the SD conversion done by tonight so i'll post some screens today for you. Just hang in there :)

[agathorn]

I'll keep this post updated throughout the day as I get stuff done, along with eye candy :)

Got the movies view done. The way this works is when you are browsing through the movies, you have the titles on the left and the poster on the right. If you stop navigating, and leave one movie selected, then after about 2 seconds the view will change to show you the movie information on the right and the poster will slide to the left.

changed: TV Library to use new layout, NTSC
changed: Movie library view is now in new layout for NTSC


http://www.johnvanderbeck.com/fusion/screen_tvtitles_ntsc_1.png

http://www.johnvanderbeck.com/fusion/screen_tvseasons_ntsc_1.png

http://www.johnvanderbeck.com/fusion/screen_tvepisodes_ntsc_1.png

http://www.johnvanderbeck.com/fusion/screen_movies_ntsc_1.png

http://www.johnvanderbeck.com/fusion/screen_movies_ntsc_2.png

[agathorn]

All NTSC views have now been updated with the newest style, and SVN has been updated.

changed: PAL tv titles view updated to new style
changed: PAL tv seasons view updated to new style
changed: PAL tv episodes view updated to new style
changed: PAL movies view updated to new style
changed: Changed PAL and NTSC movie views to use a small icon poster in detailed view, rather than covering up the list with a full size poster
changed: tweaked NTSC tv episodes view to properly cut off plot text at small and large font sizes

[Rand Al Thor]

Very nice. This thing get better and better every day!

[gratefuljamhead]

Amazing...simply beautiful

[agathorn]

Thanks gang.

I'm actually working on a very basic totally crappy website at this point. This thread is just kind of getting a bit too large for its own good.

Hopefully i'll have something up soon.

[BenO169]

Hey agathorn. I love the pics that I can see on the forum but I can't seem to get it working! I am running XBMC @ 720 in Linux. Are there Linux users that have this skin working fine? The one that comes up is like a PMIII/Fusion frankenstein. It could also be that I have my res set to "Desktop 1280x720" which is 720p but the setting is not actually the setting "720P". Could that be affecting the skin directories? I have been able to use other skins at 720p w/o changing any dirs around like AEON etc. I tried using Alpha 5 if that helps.

[Rand Al Thor]

@ben
I am running linux as well and ran into this same issue. It IS because you are running at desktop resolution instead of at true 720p. You might want to try experimenting with putting copies of the "720p" files into the other folders of the fusion skin. If memory serves me correctly at 1280x720 desktop resolution the linux build will actually look in the PAL folder instead of PAL16x9. Or at least it did a while ago. Hope that helps. Cheers.

[agathorn]

So what is happening with Fusion today? A website! I know I briefly mentioned it before. It isn't anything totally exciting, but I think its about time Fusion had one just for simplicity sake.

The website is still a work in progress, but its mostly finished. I just need to get some more screenshots up, as well as finish writing the PHP code for the downloader. This is what is taking the most time but it should be done in the next few hours.

In the meantime, you are welcome to visit the webpage at:
http://fusion-xbmc.weebly.com/

[Gamester17]

In the meantime, you are welcome to visit the webpage at:
http://fusion-xbmc.weebly.com/Great, however it should be noted that XBMC is officialy no longer named "XBox Media Center", it is just "XBMC" now (hence the new website, and the word "Xbox" removed from the GUI in as many places as possible), ...this is all in the spirit of cross-platform'ism

[agathorn]

Great, however it should be noted that XBMC is officialy no longer named "XBox Media Center", it is just "XBMC" now (hence the new website, and the word "Xbox" removed from the GUI in as many places as possible), ...this is all in the spirit of cross-platform'ism

Oh I didn't know that. Ok I can make that change I guess.

EDIT: Fixed

[jaredharley]

For what it's worth, I like the webpage. Simple == Good

The only change I would recommend is adding download links on the right by "What is Fusion?" - you know, two big graphical arrows for the different versions. That way, people don't have to hunt (not that it's hard) for the download links.

Other than that, keep up the good work!

[agathorn]

Ok I wanted to take a minute to talk about the new website. This is what I like to call a soft opening, meaning the website is up and open for use, but not officially. I'll use this period to iron out any kinks that show up before officially opening it.

With that said, it is mostly done. I have just turned on the downloader script I wrote, so that should be working now for downloading the latest version. Eventually I will expand the script to give you access to ALL versions should you want to download an older version.

I have also installed a blog on that website. I will use the blog to talk about news related to the skin itself or the website, and I highly recommend anyone interested in this skin check out the blog and add its RSS feed to your reader of choice. I would very much appreciate people using the comments on the blog to give feedback.

Once again the website is at: http://fusion-xbmc.weebly.com

To access the blog just look in the upper right corner of the website.

[agathorn]

Well al ot has happened in the last few weeks. Those of you who read the Fusion blog (http://fusion-xbmc.weebly.com/blog.html) will know that i've been working on adding Fanart support into XBMC so Fusion development was on hold.

I'm done on that for the most part and happy to say Fanart is now in XBMC. As a result i've turned back to Fusion.

For those who use this skin or are interested in it though, i'd like to ask you PLEASE check out the latest Fusion Blog post (http://fusion-xbmc.weebly.com/1/post/2008/03/fanart-is-in-xbmc.html) and give me your feedback.

[agathorn]

There has been a lot more work done, and you can see the latest in the In Development section of the Fusion website. If you havent' taken a look, please do. I'd love your feedback.

http://fusion-xbmc.weebly.com/in-development.html

[Rand Al Thor]

Looking good. The bottom matte and no overlay is a really nice view. It looks (to me at least) that the videos section is pretty much polished and pretty. Any ideas on what you are going to do for music, pictures, etc? I am anxious to see what you come up with.

[Competes2win]

Quick question, so is the blue color or the grey color the new default?

I Also like the bottom matte and no overlay view... I do think its a good idea though to have that overlay as a skin setting like you have said. The one thing that has always bothered me about skins that have differing backdrops, is the way different colored backdrops change how the skin looks... I just feel sometimes you work so hard to get the coloring looking nice but then in comes a backdrop which doesan't go at all, that always frustrated me.

keep up the good work... I too am curious about the other views, music and such.

[agathorn]

The grey will be the default theme.

[imickey503]

You know I just got out of the hosptial today and I decided to try the Skin. Well know I got a cloud and a bunch of black in 16x9. I don't even have text so I can't chose anything. Worse yet, I think i disabled FTP, So i think I am double screwed. is there any safe mode for XBMC or any way to get back tothe defualt skin? Or do I have to reload XBMC via a disk or somthing (Hard becase I think my disk drive is going th way of the dodo...

[agathorn]

Either start XBMC while holding down WHITE+Y on your XBox controller, ore use the XBMC Sking Manager to reset the skin.

[imickey503]

Well What did this smart guy do? I loaded up the xbox ultimate boot disc 4.0. And thought it failed to intlize after the burn to a DVD on my mac, the disc worked great, the software loaded up ok. but then it will not connect to the network. Man sometimes you just wana cry out "TECH SUPPORT" It'a back to square one. This is going to be a fun learning experience. I originally had my box moded by some else. Now I can't get a hold of him. Hey thanks for the tip. WISH I WAITED! Let this be a lesson to all. BE PATIENT!.

[agathorn]

New screens posted In Development:
http://fusion-xbmc.weebly.com/in-development.html

[Rand Al Thor]

Dude.... wow! Very nice agathorn. I'll give it a go later tonight. Thanks again.

[agathorn]

None of this is in SVN yet i'm afraid.. I actually was working on it completely seperate until I was sure htis was the way it will go.. Will probably get it into SVN in a couple days, but i've been holding off because a lot of this new skin requires an up to date SVN. T3ch hasn't caught up yet.

[Rand Al Thor]

ahh right. Yeah, I haven't been able to add fanart to my Aeon mod since there hasn't been a linux sync since then ;) Anyway, it looks great!

[Competes2win]

Very nice man keep it up... I like the grey very much.

Quick question for those who use this skin on an xbox. I was just wondering how much the skin slows down for you? This and Aeon get too slow for my liking after a while. I'm not complaining I was just curious if it's the same with all of you. I mean I'm a bit lenient, I'm well aware of the limits of the xbox, but Its still not at a point where I can use it as my default.

I guess I really should look into xbmc linux... anyone know how doable running linux is on a mac?

[agathorn]

Odd.. I use Fusion on both xboxes in the house and have no issues with it.

The ONLY slowdown is on the main menu when moving between items as it has to load the new image, and that will be fixed in this new Fusion.

[Competes2win]

Odd.. I use Fusion on both xboxes in the house and have no issues with it.

The ONLY slowdown is on the main menu when moving between items as it has to load the new image, and that will be fixed in this new Fusion.

Ya, well I believe it. My other xbox, which I stupidly sold, ran aeon fine at the time. But I got this new xbox with a ram upgrade and I feel that sometimes, extra ram or not something is amiss with the cpu... although it runs xbox games fine. After a while, but only like 5 min, of navigating through either your skin or the aeon skin, the box will totally freeze. Who knows, its not any fault of anyone's really just frustrating.

[Competes2win]

Also agathorn, I have a request for your programs section, whenever you start that. Specifically for the emulators section, can you do an "emulators info" view? This is what I did while modding the xtv skin...

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=646115

However, I'm not sure how easily done this would be in fusion. the work I did was customized to the emulators I have, and won't be the same for everyone. Just a thought though, lol you're the pro, not I.

[imickey503]

Very nice man keep it up... I like the grey very much.

Quick question for those who use this skin on an xbox. I was just wondering how much the skin slows down for you? This and Aeon get too slow for my liking after a while. I'm not complaining I was just curious if it's the same with all of you. I mean I'm a bit lenient, I'm well aware of the limits of the xbox, but Its still not at a point where I can use it as my default.

I guess I really should look into xbmc linux... anyone know how doable running linux is on a mac?

Straight from the factory!

http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/store/index.php?submit=hardware&submitimg%5Bhardware%5D%5Bapple%5D=1

[matt_cyr]

I guess I really should look into xbmc linux... anyone know how doable running linux is on a mac?

Have you tried osxbmc? It's the xbmc port for macs www.osxbmc.com

[Competes2win]

Have you tried osxbmc? It's the xbmc port for macs www.osxbmc.com

oh thanks for the info.

[agathorn]

Another new screenshot up, showing the new "slide over" menu.
http://fusion-xbmc.weebly.com/in-development.html

[agathorn]

Just posted a mockup for the Movies view.
http://fusion-xbmc.weebly.com/in-development.html

As always, feedback is appreciated!

[Competes2win]

NIce! in my opinion, I feel that the background was too apparent in that mockup, keira knightley's face (as pretty as it is) kind of stole iron man's thunder.

[agathorn]

NIce! in my opinion, I feel that the background was too apparent in that mockup, keira knightley's face (as pretty as it is) kind of stole iron man's thunder.

Keira can certainly have that effect!

Seriously though, as with all the other views, you can toggle on or off the background mattes if so desired. I just had them off in that shot.

[Competes2win]

oh ok cool, i'm not using your skin too much these days so didn't know that. my fault

[shizzle]

Wonderful

[agathorn]

I was messing around yesterday, and decided to get myself a bit more organized than my scratches in a notebook about what I neded to do on Fusion. At the sametime I figured it would be good if I had a way to allow you all to report bugs.

So I went ahead and set up an actual project tracker for the skin. Its a nice little easy to use program that will allow you all to submit bug reports, see what bugs are open and what progress is being made on the skin.

You can access it here:
http://www.johnvanderbeck.com/fusion/tracker

You can also use it to see a "roadmap" indicating where we stand on the next release of the skin. You can see that by clicking on "roadmap" in the tracker, or directly from this URL:
http://www.johnvanderbeck.com/fusion/tracker/index.php?do=roadmap&project=1

[Rand Al Thor]

Very nice, keeps thing tidy and lets all of us keep up with the progress. I assume there is a link to the tracker from your fusion website?

[agathorn]

Very nice, keeps thing tidy and lets all of us keep up with the progress. I assume there is a link to the tracker from your fusion website?

No, but I guess I should add one :p

[Hudson_Hawk04]

Love the skin keep up the great work :grin:

[Rand Al Thor]

No, but I guess I should add one :p
Just thought I should point that out to you :D

[agathorn]

Fusion Alpha 6, nicknamed Vusion, WILL be released this week.

This is a total rewrite of Fusion and completely new graphics. Essentially this is Fusion from scratch. It will be up to the same level of functionality that the existing alpha 5 is, but will only be for 720p at first.

[shizzle]

im glad to hear you are finally realesing the skin =) Will this be for 4:3 sometime? and is all the windows skinned or is it pm3

[agathorn]

The next release will initially be for 720p, but after that i'll be working on the 4:3 version.

As for what is skinned, it will essentially by the same as the current Fusion release. That is Home Screen, Video Library, and Video Files. Everything else will be PM3 until it gets skinned.

It really all comes down to how this skin started. It was for myself and my family, and those are the features we use. Now that's not to say the other stuff may never happen, it just isn't on the top of the priority list. And since everythign else falls back to PM3 it shoudl still be useable in those other sections.

[run088]

I really dig this skin and wanted to say nice job on the work.I got curious by the link in your sig and checked it out.I will more than likely leave this as the primary skin on atleast 1 of my xboxes.I am interested on how to get some kind of picture on the home screen because mine is all black.As well as somehow changing the colors either on the pm3 side or the fusion side to make them look uniform together.Any ideas on how to do this?Or is it even possible?

[Rand Al Thor]

agathorn, now that you have added time/date functionality i was wondering what sort of neat tricks you had planned for this feature?

[agathorn]

agathorn, now that you have added time/date functionality i was wondering what sort of neat tricks you had planned for this feature?

None really at the moment, though that doesn't mean I won't at some point. It was actually done as a request from other people for a change :p

By the way everyone, Alpha 6 "Vusion" has already been quietly and UNOFFICIALLY released. Its in SVN for 720p. I have NOT tested the SVN release yet though, but feel free to give it a yank. It should work fine but I may have goofed somethign in the checkin.

[Competes2win]

top notch work.... Looks far and away better than your already great old version. I know you said that you don't have any high priority plans of taking out the Pm3 stuff but, if nothing else I feel that you should do away with Pm3's opening animation, that way you get the full 'fusion' effect all the way through, if you're just using the media.

Also one issue I found is that when browsing the tv episodes, unless focused episode's of a certain length aren't contained in the text box. Under focus however, they adhere to the size of the box and properly scroll. Similarly, if you were to have a movie linked to a tv show then it's possible for the movie title to overlap with it's cover icon...

overall topnotch, I especially like the animations. The color now is much better than the blue...

One question, when you say that this skin works fine for you on the xbox, do you cache your thumbs in default resolution or did you perhaps 'upgrade' it to 384?

[agathorn]

top notch work.... Looks far and away better than your already great old version. I know you said that you don't have any high priority plans of taking out the Pm3 stuff but, if nothing else I feel that you should do away with Pm3's opening animation, that way you get the full 'fusion' effect all the way through, if you're just using the media.

Also one issue I found is that when browsing the tv episodes, unless focused episode's of a certain length aren't contained in the text box. Under focus however, they adhere to the size of the box and properly scroll. Similarly, if you were to have a movie linked to a tv show then it's possible for the movie title to overlap with it's cover icon...

overall topnotch, I especially like the animations. The color now is much better than the blue...

One question, when you say that this skin works fine for you on the xbox, do you cache your thumbs in default resolution or did you perhaps 'upgrade' it to 384?

Thanks for the bug report. I'll add that into the tracker.

On my xbox I have thumbsize set to 512 and they look great on the HD set.

[Kuhl]

Where can I download this? When I get to your page it says no hotlinking allowed. Basically nothing works.

[Hitcher]

Check his sig.

[steve1977]

Looks really awesome!!! Looks terrifc, thanks for all the great work.

I have some questions as I don't get it to properly work.

1) Does it work on XBMC for Mac OSX? (overall, do all skins always work on the separate platform?)

2) Does it work on "old" televisions (non-HD)


If both above is yes, there appears to be another error with my configuration. After pasting in the skin-directory and selecting it, the screen is completely black and the menu bar looks really ugly. Only weather in the top-bar works properly.

Cheers, Daniel

[agathorn]

I would assume it works in OSX but I don't know for certain. This leatest release, codenamed Vusion, which is in the SVN is for 720p only and does not support SD televisions. However, the older web released version does.

[NineT9mustang]

hey! ^ i caught you! get your ass back in skinning channel!

[Kuhl]

AH firefox won't download fusion from the website. IE works just fine.

[agathorn]

hey! ^ i caught you! get your ass back in skinning channel!

Sorry.. Hell of a week at work. I'll be popping back in probably tomorrow night (my Friday). But I always scan the forums in the morning before work.

[agathorn]

AH firefox won't download fusion from the website. IE works just fine.

How odd. firefox downloads fine for me. Are you using a download accelerator or some type of plugin to download files rather than the native FF downloader?

[Bram77]

Somhow this kin won't load at all on my XBOX. When I select it from the configuration PMIII is loaded. What am I doing wrong?

[Bram77]

I'm running the latest T3CH build by the way...

[Competes2win]

Somhow this kin won't load at all on my XBOX. When I select it from the configuration PMIII is loaded. What am I doing wrong?

sorry, but i assume you have exited out of the settings and all that? since this skin is still largely pm3 still so once you initially load it your just going to be in a pm3's settings page until you back out to the home screen... lol ya but you probably know that.

i don't know why else it would do that.

[ChoccyHobNob]

You installed the wrong version, theres a sd and a hidef version, you are using the wrong version... just a guess

[Bram77]

At first, I did install the wrong version. But when I discovered the difference between the two versions I installed the correct version, I think... I have a PAL wide screen TV. I installed the 720p version. With the exact same result. I did go to the home screen :)

Do I have to clear some cache directory or something, because I had the wrong version installed?

[Bram77]

Sorry for the bump, but it seems impossible to get this skin to work on my XBOX.

I have a PAL widescreen TV and a hardmodded XBOX running the latest T3CH build (16-06-2008). Is there anything I can try to get it showing?

[davidw89]

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