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

[djh_]

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

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

- complete implementation of the following view types:

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

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

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

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

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


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

Visit the AEON website for the latest downloads:

http://www.aeoncentral.com

[MerDeNoms]

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

MDN

[jmarshall]

Hi djh_

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

Will check out the skin shortly

Cheers,
Jonathan

[stanley87]

Looking very good :-D

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

[szsori]

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

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

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

[Rand Al Thor]

Very slick, great work!!

[jmarshall]

After trying it out, a few comments:

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

2. Runs nice and smoothly.

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

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

5. See 1

Great work

Cheers
Jonathan

[Jezz_X]

Originally Posted by jmarshall

After trying it out, a few comments:

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

2. Runs nice and smoothly.

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

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

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

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

[Livin]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[MikeBeecham]

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

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

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

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