[Livin]

djh,
can you tell me what font (in FONT.XML) controls the list items and the menus when in the sub-screens (ie. Photos, Videos, etc)?

szsori,
thx, I know how the skin works but there are a ton of fonts in there!

[djh_]

Two problems:

Here's the List view as it currently exists, which as you can see displays a PLAYING label using the ListItem.IsPlaying condition. But how do I get it to display on a song that's playing but isn't selected? I tried using the above method on the unfocused items, but the PLAYING label then appeared next to every item in the list.



Also, on the media overlay for the Home page I'm displaying both the track number and the total number of tracks in the playlist. But because my ID3 tags feature a leading 0, the formatting of the two numbers isn't matching. Is there a code fudge by which I can either remove the leading 0 from the current track or add one to the total tracks label?

[portion]

How do we use the backpack to change the backgrounds?

[djh_]

How do we use the backpack to change the backgrounds?

It's in the readme file.

[jmarshall]

ListItem.IsPlaying *should* ideally work for non-focused items, but perhaps it doesn't - supply some example XMLs and I'll take a look.

And no, there's no way to alter the tracknumber format from the skin side of things. I would think that it's XBMC that's prefixing the 0, as tracknumber (I presume this is actually the playlistnumber?) is stored in an integer. Will take a look.

[tvdb-scott]

Not at the moment. I'm not even sure how I'd do it, given that the skin's designed to make full use of widescreen. It seems a bit counterproductive to have wide icons taking up all that space. I'll give it some thought.

I think even something really basic could look nice. A couple of really rough photoshops (REALLY rough due to not having the original PSD or enough time )...

The first would probably look the best and is similar to some skins out there already. The previous and next skins are just shown a little bit, to make the animation effect nicer. This could use the nice reflection effect you're using elsewhere.
http://zsori.com/Domains/zsori/UserImages/example0.jpg

The second is a lot more complicated and I'm not even sure if it's possible. It looks like crap in this mockup... the previous/next banners should have even stronger foreshortening. It would scroll around like a bingo tumbler. I've seen other skins that skew cover art, so in theory it seems like it would be possible. The cool thing about this is that I haven't really seen it in other skins. It does reduce the size of the focused banner, though, and doesn't properly use all the space. It would be better with a stronger foreshortening. I don't think it could use the reflection effect either. Dunno... just another idea to play with.
http://zsori.com/Domains/zsori/UserImages/example1.jpg

TV series icons are almost exclusively wide format, which is why I've been begging for this so much. I'll stop begging now and leave you alone.

[Livin]

Wide screen icons look nice... but it would only make sense if the TV Shows, Movies, etc screen were full screen. djh has done a great job of using screen width, but he loses just as much (or more) screen real estate on what he does not use above/below the menus... it actually loses as much or more then the PM3 skin.

djh, a few requests...

1) Can you add a variable to set the time for the background changes - I'd like to make mine more frequent?

2) Noting the first paragraph above, I'd like to see a full screen version when in the sub screen... would be more flexible usage.

3) I like the 'highlight' on the menu items better then the dot, definitely. Maybe make it end before the edges of the screen and round it a bit? The look is starting to get overly linear and rectangular.

4) Ability to use multi-paths for the backgrounds. Set it to multiple folders for a single item

5) some animation on the menu changes would be cool... like when you push up and the settings menu appears... how abount having that "drop from the sky" like it does in PM3? Menu "builds" add some flare and interest.

I'm really liking this skin... I can see I'll need to start converting my scripts!

[djh_]

Wide screen icons look nice... but it would only make sense if the TV Shows, Movies, etc screen were full screen. djh has done a great job of using screen width, but he loses just as much (or more) screen real estate on what he does not use above/below the menus... it actually loses as much or more then the PM3 skin.

This is true, though there was only ever one thing I wanted to dedicate space to in this skin, and that was the media itself. Hence big user-defined backdrops and wide wrap-lists. Buttons and interface components, meanwhile, are being kept to a minimum.

Can you add a variable to set the time for the background changes - I'd like to make mine more frequent?

I was thinking about this earlier today - definitely going to do it. The only question is how I go about it. I'm not sure if you can populate SpinControls with your own sets of options.

Noting the first paragraph above, I'd like to see a full screen version when in the sub screen... would be more flexible usage.

I think I'll leave this to the community to add. It's not really "part of the vision", if you see what I mean.

I like the 'highlight' on the menu items better then the dot, definitely. Maybe make it end before the edges of the screen and round it a bit? The look is starting to get overly linear and rectangular.

I see what you're saying. I might try a few different ones and see how it looks.

Ability to use multi-paths for the backgrounds. Set it to multiple folders for a single item

You can do this? Tell me more!

some animation on the menu changes would be cool... like when you push up and the settings menu appears... how abount having that "drop from the sky" like it does in PM3? Menu "builds" add some flare and interest.

I was planning to use a tweening animation on the Home menu text. Haven't implemented it yet, though.

[Livin]

djh,
For changing the background timing, you should move the
<animation effect="fade" time="800">VisibleChange</animation>
into the INCLUDES.XML
like how I did it with PM3...

Code:

<include name="home-backgrounds">
        <posx>100</posx>
        <posy>55</posy>
        <width>680</width>
        <height>410</height>
    <timeperimage>5000</timeperimage>
    <fadetime>2000</fadetime>
    <aspectratio>scale</aspectratio>
    <randomize>true</randomize>
    <animation effect="fade" time="1000">VisibleChange</animation>
    <animation effect="fade" time="2000">WindowOpen</animation>
    <visible>!Player.HasMedia | Skin.HasSetting(HomeViewToggle)</visible>
    </include>

then ask JM how to make the time a variable to set inside the skin.

As for the "full screen" sub screens, I'd be happy to make one but I'd need the photoshop file so I can create the glass menu. Below is a mock-up of what I was thinking, it adds 30% more usable menu. I'd love to even add a 4th row by tweaking the spacing more. Realistically the backgrounds are not necessary in the sub screens... you really cannot see them, they just add 'coloring'

[jmarshall]

It's a personal thing, but that's too much info (items) for me on screen simulataneously.

And only way I can think of to have time variable is to have X different backdrop multiimages, each with separate timings, with conditional visibility. Anything else will require C++ side code.

[Jezz_X]

It's a personal thing, but that's too much info (items) for me on screen simulataneously.

I'm with JM it takes away from the feel of the skin which is its great backgrounds if you cover them it looks worse

[Livin]

JM, too many items on screen at once... this from a coder?
There are actually the same # of items in PM3... so you don't like that skin?

Also, I'm not asking djh to change the skin, just make an alternative screen for each sub screen that allows more utilization of real estate... OR provide me the PSDs or completed BMPs and I'll make it myself and provide to whomever wants to use it.

I have thousands of pictures and music albums... to have only a few onscreen at a time is too inefficient (e.g. takes too long) to scroll through them all.

To each his own... but I'd like to use the skin with that minor change.

[djh_]

The first would probably look the best and is similar to some skins out there already. The previous and next skins are just shown a little bit, to make the animation effect nicer. This could use the nice reflection effect you're using elsewhere.
http://zsori.com/Domains/zsori/UserImages/example0.jpg

You're *that* close to convincing me about this, though there's one thing that's stopping me taking it further. These icons look enormous, which isn't a problem in terms of performance, but is the quality going to suffer? Can you actually set the icon cache size large enough to stop them upscaling?

[tvdb-scott]

You're *that* close to convincing me about this, though there's one thing that's stopping me taking it further. These icons look enormous, which isn't a problem in terms of performance, but is the quality going to suffer? Can you actually set the icon cache size large enough to stop them upscaling?

Hmm.. not sure if upscaling can be prevented with XBMC, but you could probably do it with your skin. The default (actually, ONLY) size for wide banners is 758x140. We originally got this size from tv.com's banners and now force all wide banners on our site (thetvdb.com) to that size. It's a little smaller than my mockup, but then you'll see about 1/3 of the prev/next banners instead of 1/10. IMO, that's a good thing. This would just use a wraplist on your end, right?

PS: My now-playing screen came up completely black. Is that still waiting to be skinned, or is something messed up on my end?

[djh_]

PS: My now-playing screen came up completely black. Is that still waiting to be skinned, or is something messed up on my end?

Possibly. Something I should stress about these different builds is that they occasionally reverse the boolean settings used in the Custom menu. In other words, be sure to delete the stored settings from your XBMC config file when updating. There'll be a new build tonight anyway, so give that a try.