View Full Version : New Mac-inspired skin preview
maccabbi
2008-05-26, 23:27
I've started working on a theme to make xbmc more apple-esque. I started with the theme Back-row and am slowly changing the scripts and the graphics. I thought I'd go ahead and post some preview pics but it's not ready to share the whole thing yet. Two points about the pics. One, most of the scripting changes have been made to the 16x9 version and haven't all been merged into the 4x3 scripts, so if a image looks like the ratio is slightly off it is because the screen shots are 4x3 and I just haven't gotten to it yet.
Two, as of now I am using some images from the Centerstage project. I have no intention of using them in a version I release unless I get permission to do so. I needed something for place holders while working on the script changes and these match the kind of style I am going for.
The theme is supposed to be a kind of mix between iPhone and Leopard. right now I am calling it Leo, till I think of a better name.
Hope you enjoy the previews...
http://lh3.ggpht.com/chadesh/SDscHOAzfbI/AAAAAAAAABs/2miLsXZyZAs/main%20video.jpg?imgmax=640
http://lh4.ggpht.com/chadesh/SDscHeAzfcI/AAAAAAAAAB0/f_mlj2xUeMw/main%20weather.jpg?imgmax=640
http://lh4.ggpht.com/chadesh/SDscHeAzfdI/AAAAAAAAAB8/Nt3tqNbQb5Y/settings.jpg?imgmax=640
http://lh4.ggpht.com/chadesh/SDscHeAzfeI/AAAAAAAAACE/v7o8yLmUhHc/skin%20settings.jpg?imgmax=640
tetrakis
2008-05-27, 02:04
looks beautiful
supergimp
2008-05-28, 02:37
Especially like the font treatment. Nice.
Looks good. The text on the right on the last picture would look better with some more contrast tho (like a darker backround)
bmfrosty
2008-05-28, 04:20
Does XBMC's font renderer support semi-transparent font borders?
BlackstarBSP
2008-05-28, 04:41
:shocked: Looks awesome. Can't wait to try it out on my Mini. :nod:
I noticed some themes have color options. Would you be able to incorporate say, some different or variable background pictures as well?
Awesome job. :cool:
jmarshall
2008-05-28, 05:06
bmfrosty: It does antialiasing if that's what you mean. I believe you can specify any color you like for the drop shadow - not sure whether putting an alpha in there works.
As for the outlined fonts (such as subs) they're hardcoded to black atm. Outlined fonts aren't available to the skin in general.
maccabbi
2008-05-28, 06:53
I don't know if xbmc supports semi-transparent font borders, maybe some one else can help us there.
I may decide to darken the background behind that text a little, but theres alot of stuff to do before I go back to that.
I do plan to have the ability to customize backgrounds for the main screen and for many sub screens like music, video, pics ect.... I have a problem here though. I don't have a xbox and my computer is a mac. As far as I can tell, the browse feature on the os x port of XBMC doesn't work yet, so when I tell it to browse to let me select a wallpaper the screen comes up but it doesn't actually work.
This is my first attempt at a xbmc theme so I am learning how the scripting works as I go along. Once I get further along, I might try it under a linux distro to see if I can get the custom backgrounds to work. It was an option in the theme I am basing this one on but I have changed a lot of things in the script and it might not work right now.
Anyways, Thanks for the feedback, I'll try to base a lot of my changes on feedback that I get.
Wow,
this was something that we wanted to do back over 6 months ago, it's looking really nice!!!!
i can't wait to see it's progress.
Canuck73
2008-05-28, 17:06
This looks awesome.
My only feedback is your icons on the main page. I'm not sure what all the icons are supposed to represent, but I assume the Quicktime, music note, and flower are supposed to be for videos, music, pictures; respectively.
What not use the application icons for iMovie, iTunes, and iPhoto?
maccabbi
2008-05-31, 03:49
The icons across the bottom are iphone/ ipod touch style icons. I wanted to have some kind of dock at the bottom, and personally, I like the uniformity of the iphone icons.
rwparris2
2008-06-07, 05:42
I hope this is still being worked on!
Any updates?
ChoccyHobNob
2008-06-07, 13:08
Yes it's still being worked on, discussion about it seems to be taking place here (http://forums.osxbmc.com/index.php?showtopic=41) now and the Authors homepage is at http://web.mac.com/jnr1/Leo/Welcome.html
Very good looking skin!
The Media Centre FORMALLY Know as OSXBMC?? thought it still was?
Typical Mac owners! LOL! They'll all be claimming the IBM hardware they all run on now as theirs all along soon!
maccabbi
2008-06-07, 23:25
The Media Centre FORMALLY Know as OSXBMC?? thought it still was?
The OSXBMC has been forked and I think XBMC project asked them to pick a different name.
As for updates to the skin...
I have gotten a lot further, the website is actually outdated now but I've spent more time on the skin instead of updating it. I have been making a few post on the other forum but I will definitely post here as well when there is something to download.
There are one or two things I want to figure out before a release and some tweaking to do.
looks good? any news on a release?
snuggidk
2008-06-17, 05:30
That's one fine looking skin .. I am looking really forward to a release of this baby :)
maccabbi
2008-06-17, 09:45
Testing it out on my hdtv now. As expected, there are a few things that looked great on my macbook pro don't work well on a big screen. I am making some changes to font size/ color, and some color changes in a few pictures. I hope to have a alpha release, not very polished but something, by the end of the week or beginning of next.
maccabbi
2008-06-18, 08:31
OS X users can head over to http://web.mac.com/maccabbi/Leo/Welcome.html and download an early alpha... I can't make an xpr or test things out on anything but a mac so if some other users want to test it on their machines or try compiling an xpr, contact me.
You can repack it using normal zip? never used .pkg on linux/windows and I suspect more than me will stumble on that :)
/Topfs2
maccabbi
2008-06-18, 17:31
sure, I'll have it up on the site in a few min, as a second torrent... keep in mind it has not been tested on linux, windows ect so I have no clue how well it will work
snuggidk
2008-06-18, 17:40
I will test this om linux in a few hours too see how it works :)
Gamester17
2008-06-18, 18:10
@maccabbi, please let us know if you plan on open sourcing it and if so if you would like to join the official XBMC Skinning Project (https://sourceforge.net/projects/xboxmediacenter) (a sub-project of XBMC for skinners and their open source skins).
As long agree to not violate any copyrights and ask before you modify anyone else's skin in the SVN (or wait until you have been asked) then register an account on SourceForge.net if you do not already have one and PM me the username so I can add you to the project with full write access to the SVN and the trackers (for bugs, patches and requests).
sure, I'll have it up on the site in a few min, as a second torrent... keep in mind it has not been tested on linux, windows ect so I have no clue how well it will work
Unless elan has allready made changes that break compatibility with the rest of the ports (haven't seen it in his changelogs) any skin that runs on His OSX version should run fine on any XBMC
downloaded it and ran it on my pc, but it crashed. I noticed the xpr is rather big (86MB). Maybe you should compress or resize the png's a bit. and the Build created a bunch of folders within 'media', such as 'tv', 'apps', 'default wallpaper'. But these are all empty tho.
[edit] compressed the images with xpr-express (lowered quality). Now I've got an xpr-file of just 18megs and no additional folders. This is working fine for me in xmbc_pc so far. props for the great job you did on this!
Will test it on my box also.
maccabbi
2008-06-19, 08:59
xpr? there is no xpr its just a folder
I am working on getting the mb down a bit
marlboroman1
2008-06-19, 12:27
I gave it a go on the windows port and I got the message about 2.0 skin compliance so there must be some kind of compatibility issue :no:
xpr? there is no xpr its just a folder
I am working on getting the mb down a bit
well then I did something wrong. But inside the zip-file is a build.bat file (in the root-dir). Run that and xbmctex will create an xpr..But it doesnt quite work.
I also ran the skin on my box, and some things I noticed were that it is a bit slow. This has probably to do with the large bg-files. Getting to the home-page takes very long, it even shows the reel when loading it.
Also the osd-options are hard to see, and its hard to see which option is highlighted. Maybe you should change the color from blue to white.
Again, I like it very much. One thing regarding the backgrounds came to mind. Maybe you should create different 'themes', each with its own custom bg. This way you wouldnt have to load a different background for each page.
I like the many view-options you put in. Maybe you should work on the fanart-view to make it more appealing. I am a big fan of fanart..:)
My two cents so far on this amazing piece of work.
I uploaded the skin here : http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/25898/Leo.zip
The skin runs perfectly if you don't generate an xpr, I just left the graphics as they are in the media folder and removed all Mac OS files. Very nice work so far!
maccabbi
2008-06-19, 17:02
dgm1960 has the right idea. I haven't tested any xpr builds or anything, some one sent me an xpr build, don't know what settings they used, but it didn't work right at all. For now its best to just use the folder.
as for backgrounds... the plain is to make it pretty customizable. Right now you can change the home screen layout and use your own backgrounds. If you set a background for music on the homescreen then it is also the background in the music section.
Eventually I want to separate this out so you can set the backgrounds for the home screen and set separate/ no backgrounds for the subs sections. Higher on the priority list is a button that lets you turn off backgrounds in the subsection. I've already reduced the size by about 20 mb and will reduce it more over time, but some computers and the xbox may benefit from being able to turn the backgrounds off...
Oh maccabi, i juste want to say, as a Mac user, very good job, and very nice !
The only thing is, on my Mac Mini, the skin is a bit "slow". Is it because the Mac Mini is not a very powerful machine, or you think you optimize it ?
snuggidk
2008-06-19, 18:49
So I tested this on windows and linux .. working fine on both.. though I have this problem that some of the text is dark in linux .. anyone know if this is a problem related to the skin or xbmc .. tried on two versions with same result .. and tried all the fonts available in the skin...
MikeBeecham
2008-06-19, 20:09
how do you get it into a format for windows? I downloaded but it was a .pkg file?
snuggidk
2008-06-19, 20:17
I downloaded the torrent from his website which is a .zip file with folder for mac and one for other OS's ...
marlboroman1
2008-06-19, 21:08
:oo: I just transfer the folder over as well so when you all have it working working I check the folder Leo in the XBMC\Skin folder and it was empty weird :rofl: god knows how I managed that, I transferred over again working great now cheers
snuggidk
2008-06-19, 21:44
Have anyone else tried this one on linux? .. Looks like it has something to do with the shadows of the fonts .. The text is fine in the appereance-menu + some other menus .. but in the skin-menu and in everything else in the skin it is fucked :s ..
maccabbi
2008-06-19, 22:38
Soner- I'm using a mac mini hooked up to a samsung. The mini is a 1.83 intel, so I'm not sure what it is like on lower models. That said it is quite bulky at the moment. I just spent some time resaving some images. Some dropped from 7+ megs to 2.3 megs. There are also some transition settings in the code that could slow things down. Speeding things up is a goal for future releases.
several people have mentioned text probs. could someone post a screenshot of the problem. I'd like to get that fixed soon.
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/4217/screenshot001gz8.th.jpg (http://img293.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot001gz8.jpg)
Though you cannot see it here, on my sd-tv I cannot read the red text. I think you should change any red text to a brighter color.
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/2218/screenshot000tn5.th.jpg (http://img293.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshot000tn5.jpg)
It's hard to see which option-menu is selected in the OSD. Maybe you can change that also. Hope this helps!
snuggidk
2008-06-19, 23:00
If I can figure out a way to take a screenshot of that x-session then I can post one in a few.. hopefully someone else can post a screenshot in the maintime so you don't have to wait for me :)
marlboroman1
2008-06-19, 23:16
Just press PRINT SCREEN in XBMC that should work in theory :laugh:
snuggidk
2008-06-19, 23:20
In linux? :p
maccabbi
2008-06-19, 23:30
Thanks for the post. Is it mainly the red text or do you have trouble with the white as well. Pretty much anything red means I haven't gotten around to editing it yet. Red is nice in Back-Row but it doesn't match leo.
The play pause thing is easy to fix. The options are behind the semi-transparent background instead of in front of it. That whole thing will be eventually changed to look more like vlc or quicktime controls on a mac, so I hadn't bothered to fix it. If it makes it more useable I'll go ahead and fix that
snuggidk
2008-06-19, 23:37
I am having problems with the white text .. it is all black everywhere.. but dont know whether it is a problem related to the skin since it works in windows .. It is in linux the problem is related too :S
Thanks bro, I appreciate it. It's just the red text thats not readable.
I will keep tracking this for any updates, again, great job so far:)
davidw89
2008-06-20, 11:52
What operating system does this work for?
What operating system does this work for?
it should in theory work for any
NickyZero
2008-06-20, 20:53
Has someone got a conventional Zip or Rar of this? It looks really good and would love to test it on my XBox, but cant open PKG files in windows :( !
rwparris2
2008-06-21, 10:55
'tis a shame this is so slow on my xbox. Looks beautiful...
maccabbi
2008-07-02, 20:18
Updated version on my site, listed earlier in the post. Smaller and quicker but not alot of new stuff
Gamester17
2008-07-03, 01:33
@maccabbi, please let us know if you plan on open sourcing it and if so if you would like to join the official XBMC Skinning Project (https://sourceforge.net/projects/xboxmediacenter) (a sub-project of XBMC for skinners and their open source skins).
As long agree to not violate any copyrights and ask before you modify anyone else's skin in the SVN (or wait until you have been asked) then register an account on SourceForge.net if you do not already have one and PM me the username so I can add you to the project with full write access to the SVN and the trackers (for bugs, patches and requests).@@maccabbi, the offer still stands. Register a SourceForge.net account and PM me the name of it if you like SVN write access to the the official XBMC Skinning Project (https://sourceforge.net/projects/xboxmediacenter).
Updated version on my site, listed earlier in the post. Smaller and quicker but not alot of new stuff
Maccabbi, I only tested the skin in XBMC_4_Windows, but I got one word for it:
"SWEET"
I think next to PMIII, MC360 and AEON it is one of the best looking skins sofar!
I'll be checking in frequently, keep it up!
marlboroman1
2008-07-03, 12:57
The experience on the xbox is much improved on this version. In the last one backgrounds kept not showing up but that seems to be fixed in this revision There are some really great views in this skin and it looks good all round.
The only issues I had with it is that in the home window the pop-up icons didn't all show up. The setting icon didn't pop up at all and the tv and photos icons were occasional. These problems don't seem to exist in the "window" version so I assume that its a memory usage problem.
The interchange between screens wasn't what I'd call snappy but then again it isn't in Back row ether. The last thing is personal preference I think it would be better to have the dark mask in the home screen of by default
I'm looking forward to seeing how this skin progresses keep up the good work
I've downloaded the zip file but there's no build.bat.
marlboroman1
2008-07-03, 17:15
I'm just using the Leo folder from inside the Zip I'm not sure what the __MACOSX folders for as it seems to be an additional osx focused build. It seem a wast of bandwidth to include it, maybe just for developers ???
dgm1960 has the right idea. I haven't tested any xpr builds or anything, some one sent me an xpr build, don't know what settings they used, but it didn't work right at all. For now its best to just use the folder....I modified the xTV build.bat and XBMCTex.bat files. Using those I created a build of Leo with textures.xpr and it works fine in XBMC win32. I haven't tried it on the xbox yet.
Will you add an option to turn off all the skin transitions?
maccabbi
2008-07-07, 04:12
I'll be speeding up the transitions and trying to optimize memory usage. The dock is a real memory hog so I rewrote it and still have a few more things to change on it to make it's foot print smaller. I plan to add an option to turn it off but I am not sure how that will affect its memory footprint. I may add an option to turn of transitions if people want it.
texture files can now be made on os x so I will be trying that out for the next update.
peppe_sr
2008-09-09, 09:18
@maccabbi: I would like to download your skin but the torrent that i'm trying to download doesn't start!!!
is ther another way to download this fine skin?
thank you
this looks sweet. Has anyone tried it on the xbox yet?
does anyone have a working xbox version of this? there is no build.bat in any of the copy's i can find. :(
does anyone have a working xbox version of this? there is no build.bat in any of the copy's i can find. :(
Google for XPRExpress this will compress the media folder into a .xpr hence the name?
Place that file in the media folder.
But i tried this skin months ago and looked only part finished and so you know it is
Based around the Back-Row theme.
It looks nice but it was so slooooo on my xbox good luck with it mate:;):
Is this skin still being working on? DL links seems to be dead, any of you still have it?