[jmarshall]

Maybe nice use of a diffuse image will do the trick for that?

[MacGyver]

Added preliminary Filemanager, Weather, and Programs, added the abilty to set a custom picture for the bottom, top, and infobar surfaces separately, and added the ability to have it display them with or without diffuse on any of the color themes. Added purple theme (for my wife), and made blue the default theme (the brown/orange one was making me ill).
I will try to work on it alot this weekend, Sorry for no pics, I'll post them tomorrow, I am going to bed now.

[MacGyver]

Forgot my question I was so tired, anyway.
Is there a way to mirror text (upside down & backwards)?
I can't find a referance in the wiki.
The only thing my brain could come up with, would be to use a font that is that way already, I REALLY don't want to create a font from scratch, and I searched around for some, they are all either one or the other, but not both.
Clearly I want to mirror the text on the "floor", and it would have been nice to be the first one to do it, but it's not worth my time to due it first if it means I have to create another font from scratch (the first one I did was for an 4x40 lcd simulator I wrote), so for all you skinners out there who add mirrored text using a inverted font to your skin 10 minutes from now, could you please post the link to where you got it.

[jmarshall]

It would require code changes, as you suspect.

The best idea I have to be honest is adding it to the <angle> tag. You could then combine it into CAngle().

Cheers,
Jonathan

[MacGyver]

Ok, here are the screenshots from today.


The top, bottom, and infobar, are all customizable, and you can set whether or not to diffuse them against the colored themes.
There are currently 8 different colored themes (my wife wanted the purple one).
Only the screens above and all the settings menus are created so far. Nothing else.
All the code is on the SVN, talk to Chandler about access.
As you can see, we still don't have artwork of our own, other then the crappy stuff I've made.
For some reason the Win32 version diffuses the reflections worse then the real xbox, so the screenshots are not the greatest. Sorry about the compression of the screenshots (It's a huge picture). If someone wants some higher res images, I'll try to post em.
Also I still welcome suggestions.

One last thing, If someone has a full version of FontForge or similar font building program, please let me know, if I can send you a .vfb that I created with opensource fonts that have been flipped vertically, so I can use them in screens like weather where most of the screen is created with text, and add reflections.

Let me know what you guys (and girls) think.
Goodnight.

[MacGyver]

Ok, here are better screenshots.
I also added the listview screen to the available views.






A question, is it a bug that lists don't obey animate tags?

[MacGyver]

Can an xbox really output at 1920x1080?
I was working on some different resolutions, and set it to 1080, and its HUGE!
I wont even bother making a skin for it, if it can't really output that high, please let me know.

[blittan]

the gui can do it, but videos dont play very well in that res..

[edwinmcdunlap]

MacGyver, how did you do all those nice looking DVD covers?

[MacGyver]

it's a trick.
First I lay down a black rectangle in case there is no cover available, then I lay down the icon if available, then I overlay all that with a transparent dvd case.

All the icons come from the imdb except for a few I took from amazon and cut off the white border.
A long time ago I let xmbc grab all the info for my files, then I pulled all the cached icons from xbmc, then I renamed them filename.tbn, and put them next to the video files.

BTW. all the icons you see in my screen shots are with bogus video files, i just have .txt files renamed to .avi, and real .tbns with them (small memory stick) so they take up less space for development.

All graphics on the screen are built on the fly from tbns. including cases and reflections.

[edwinmcdunlap]

it's a trick.
First I lay down a black rectangle in case there is no cover available, then I lay down the icon if available, then I overlay all that with a transparent dvd case.

All the icons come from the imdb except for a few I took from amazon and cut off the white border.
A long time ago I let xmbc grab all the info for my files, then I pulled all the cached icons from xbmc, then I renamed them filename.tbn, and put them next to the video files.

BTW. all the icons you see in my screen shots are with bogus video files, i just have .txt files renamed to .avi, and real .tbns with them (small memory stick) so they take up less space for development.

All graphics on the screen are built on the fly from tbns. including cases and reflections.

So, the skin itself actually generates the "DVD case" look?

[Msan]

Can an xbox really output at 1920x1080?
I was working on some different resolutions, and set it to 1080, and its HUGE!
I wont even bother making a skin for it, if it can't really output that high, please let me know.

Yes, please include support for 1080i, that the only resolution I can properly run under..

[Livin]

Yes, please include support for 1080i, that the only resolution I can properly run under..

Most people with HDTVs run 720p, not 1080i due to problems at that resolution.

[MacGyver]

ed, yes, below is the example for the cd view (dvd is about the same)
nocdcase = black square
ListItem.Icon = cached image from amazon
cdcase = transparent middle cdcase image

Code:

            <control type="image">
                <posx>0</posx>
                <posy>080</posy>
                <width>80</width>
                <height>80</height>
                <texture>nocdcase.png</texture>
                <aspectratio>stretch</aspectratio>
                <animation effect="zoom" end="5,5,195,195" time="200">Focus</animation>
            </control>
            <control type="image">
                <posx>0</posx>
                <posy>080</posy>
                <width>80</width>
                <height>80</height>
                <info>ListItem.Icon</info>
                <aspectratio>stretch</aspectratio>
                <colordiffuse>b0ffffff</colordiffuse>
                <animation effect="zoom" end="5,5,195,195" time="200">Focus</animation>
            </control>
            <control type="image">
                <posx>0</posx>
                <posy>080</posy>
                <width>80</width>
                <height>80</height>
                <texture>cdcase.png</texture>
                <aspectratio>stretch</aspectratio>
                <animation effect="zoom" end="5,5,195,195" time="200">Focus</animation>
            </control>



<!-- mirror icon non-focus -->
            <control type="image">
                <posx>0</posx>
                <posy>163</posy>
                <width>80</width>
                <height>80</height>
                <aspectratio>stretch</aspectratio>
                <texture flipy="true" diffuse="Thumb_Mask2.png">nocdcase.png</texture>
                <colordiffuse>20ffffff</colordiffuse>
            </control>
            <control type="image">
                <posx>00</posx>
                <posy>163</posy>
                <width>80</width>
                <height>80</height>
                <info>ListItem.Icon</info>
                <aspectratio>stretch</aspectratio>
                <texture flipy="true" diffuse="Thumb_Mask2.png">-</texture>
                <colordiffuse>ffffffff</colordiffuse>
            </control>
            <control type="image">
                <posx>0</posx>
                <posy>163</posy>
                <width>80</width>
                <height>80</height>
                <aspectratio>stretch</aspectratio>
                <texture flipy="true" diffuse="Thumb_Mask2.png">cdcase.png</texture>
                <colordiffuse>60ffffff</colordiffuse>
            </control>

Also I will try to port it to all resolutions, including 1080, but without graphics that are correct for that resolution (read BIG), it may not look so good.
Also without the ability to see it at that resolution, there may be lots of graphics off by a pixel or two.

Does anyone know which is faster, small image enlarged by the skin engine, or a nativley large image?

Also is it faster to code every <control> item, or is the skin faster with common control items called from <includes>? I don't exactly know how the skin is cached so it's hard for me to tell, it's not really a big problem with 720x576, but I may need every bit of it as fast as it can be when I port it over to 1920x1080.

[jazzen]

the skin looks very nice so far, when can we expect a beta or something?