Skin Viewer for Windows (in Visual Basic)

hey guys!

i'm currently working on a skin viewer to simplify skinning process. uploading an underdevelopement skin and testing it out on the xbox is really a pain, so i thought it would be useful.
for the moment only a few controls are supported (image (with colorkey and colordiffuse), button, buttonm, ...) but i'm stuck with id's. for instance, the button 'my programs' seems to switch to my programs section only because it has id=2, but i'm not sure about this. is there a listing available that says what those id meens exactly ?

thanks a lot

moving thread the development forum as you need help with the development of the application, (so you don't just get requests for it)
ps! i believe frodo said/suggested before that it would be simplest to port 'the real' xbmc skin engine from xbox to windows (in c++)

window switching is done via the hyperlink tag. for example the my programs button should have a line like this: <hyperlink>1</hyperlink> in it. window ids are set in the respective window's xml file (at the top). certain button ids have special meanings in the code (reboot, exit to dash, power down, credits, etc.) these can be found by checking the .cpp file for the appropriate window (e.g. guiwindowhome.cpp for the home window).

hmm... just a thought: wouldn't it be possible to port xbmc skin engine/interpreter to windows?

(hullebulle @ mar. 15 2004,20:47 Wrote:hmm... just a thought: wouldn't it be possible to port xbmc skin engine/interpreter to windows?

offcource but to do so you have to know some cpp programming. and from the looks of the screenshot this guy is using vb.

but a strait port from xbmc would definitely be a better choise as it would reflect the exact same thing.

but give the guy a chance. it could be a great self learning thing.

i guess sooner o later a cpp developer will make a 4 hour port of the skining engine
//nickman

a really great idea to make a skin viewer. maybe this can be extended to a skin designer later, with property pages for controls and all that stuff.

also a integrated strings.xml editor would be neat, so eg. localization would be much easier.

just some ideas.

greets

bobbin007

well i thought about taking xbmc code to do this but i hate c++   and there's thousands of stuff inside the code that would need to be cleaned up, and it is something really difficult to do if you you're not the one how coded it. besides i'm 50% done, it's already too late...

Quote:but a strait port from xbmc would definitely be a better choise as it would reflect the exact same thing.

agreed! but it's not reallly a problem, most of the skin is based on bitmaps and their positions are fully described in the skin. the only thing you have to guess is relative positions, like how much pixels is the checkmark picture from the text that describes it.

the only thing i have problems with is fonts. i can't use xprs but since they are based on regular ttf fonts, i'm mapping ttf with xprs in a xml settings file and ... voila!

Quote:also a integrated strings.xml editor would be neat, so eg. localization would be much easier.

already done !  

Quote:maybe this can be extended to a skin designer later

of course this viewer is only a preview module of a larger skin editor ... :lol: i'll post more screenshots later

art

(art @ mar. 16 2004,07:26 Wrote:well i thought about taking xbmc code to do this but i hate c++   and there's thousands of stuff inside the code that would need to be cleaned up, and it is something really difficult to do if you you're not the one how coded it. besides i'm 50% done, it's already too late...

Quote:but a strait port from xbmc would definitely be a better choise as it would reflect the exact same thing.

agreed! but it's not reallly a problem, most of the skin is based on bitmaps and their positions are fully described in the skin. the only thing you have to guess is relative positions, like how much pixels is the checkmark picture from the text that describes it.

the only thing i have problems with is fonts. i can't use xprs but since they are based on regular ttf fonts, i'm mapping ttf with xprs in a xml settings file and ... voila!

Quote:also a integrated strings.xml editor would be neat, so eg. localization would be much easier.

already done !  

Quote:maybe this can be extended to a skin designer later

of course this viewer is only a preview module of a larger skin editor ... :lol: i'll post more screenshots later

art

sounds like you'r ontop of it all.. can't wait to see the end result. best of luck!

//nickman

hey,

here's a couple of shots showing xpr font mapping support and a render of the hifi skin in myvideos. speaking about fonts, does anyone know what the original ttf fonts are for common-fontxx.xpr and matrix8.xpr ??





art

the matrix font used in the screensaver can be found here;

matrix symbol font by lexandr (mcode 1.5 - http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/2040700/)