Focus (an XBMC Media Center skin) discussion thread

It already is, isn't it? I thought the new resizing stuff was the magic bullet in that respect. Anyway, thread derailment complete.

MikeBeecham Wrote:it's very clean and for us 16x9 and 4x3 users it's very easy to see all the elements. You can tell that thought has gone into this.

Thanks a lot, it's good to see people specifically commenting on things that were key goals for this skin. Makes me feel bad about abandoning the SD version though I'm pleasantly suprised that the skin is usable on 4:3, I didn't take it into account at all

Quote:Second is that the scrollbar on all views is sitting in the centre of the centre and sits behind all the text. I assume that it should be over on the right hand side, and I assume it should be on the right?

Yes, I haven't worked on the scrollbars at all, so practically all of them are in the wrong place. I am still in doubt whether to include a scroll bar option in the next version at all. I personally never use them, I find them cluttering. I see no real use browsing by scrollbar. The only benefit I see in them is to provide an indication of how far down a list you are. Something else I have been thinking about is to hide them or obscure them untill they are focused.

I'd like to hear more people's thought on scrollbars. Do you use them a lot? Are they essential to you? So in any skin?

Quote:Also, for some reason the images onto your screenies seem to be darker than on my screen.

I noticed that too. It comes out quite a bit lighter on my CRT TV. Since the TV is reasonably old I find it hard to imagine how it would look on most TV's. The screenies are made on a win32 build, and other than downsizing them and adding the reflections they have had no editing. Although I may have been using a slightly lighter diffuse in the version I released, I'm not sure.

Quote:oh, and also the fanart screen does not resize the images...they are too big for the screen.

Ah ok. I had alreay used the version I posted to make some changes for the HD version and forgot to adjust that back. I updated the download in the first post.

And here is a quick fix for that, replace the contents of includes.xml with this:
http://pastebin.com/f18c96f34

Thanks for the heads up

djh_ Wrote:I was thinking of doing a post-Aeon one-size-fits-all skin, but it looks like you've hit the nail on the head with this one. In a word, classy.

Thanks

The more I use the skin, the more I like. It even has a high WAF! Which is very important.
It's fantastic skin to use as a base for modifications also! I'm getting inspired by the cleanness I'm a loyal PMIII user. I've tried several different skins, but even the nicest looking just don't cut it (Aeon for example).
I really hope you'll keep de PAL version and not only HD.

One suggestion...
I love the easy access to libraries and menus. Almost everything is accessible with the arrow keys and the OK button. Except for the menu you enter with the 'title' button on the XBOX remote when a file/directory or library item is selected. The right arrow has no use yet and since the left button provides access to the 'info' menu it seem logical the 'title' menu can be accessed with the right button.

Looks very nice...looking forward to trying it out when I get home! Glad to see a slick looking skin for SD TV's. I've been running a modified version of Jezz's Vision - Basic, but wanting a cleaner skin that supports 4:3.

Bram77 Wrote:It even has a high WAF! Which is very important.

???WAF?

Quote:I really hope you'll keep de PAL version and not only HD.

We'll see. At the moment I want to focus (heh) purely on the HD version. Maybe after that I'll do some updates to this one, though it will probably mainly be maintenance releases to iron bugs out and port new xbmc features.

Quote:One suggestion...
I love the easy access to libraries and menus. Almost everything is accessible with the arrow keys and the OK button. Except for the menu you enter with the 'title' button on the XBOX remote when a file/directory or library item is selected. The right arrow has no use yet and since the left button provides access to the 'info' menu it seem logical the 'title' menu can be accessed with the right button.

I'll have to think about it. It seems a bit counter-intuitive to press right to open a menu on the left. Maybe a user definable setting would do the tricj. Also, I'll have to make a decision about what I'll be doing about the scrollbars first. Because if they will be staying the right button would be needed for that.

Jeroen Wrote:???WAF?

Wife acceptance factor. It's a common term for HTPC and home theater buffs.

I love this skin this may well be my new default, the navigation using the drop down menus is very cool and I'm loving the feel of this skin I am hoping it can be maintained for us sd users.

The font change made it crash for me and when i restarted there were no fonts making navigation impossible; so I had to delete the skin I think the last skin font selected was "funky" or some such.

I think i'll stick with the default fount next time thanks for creating this the hard work is much appreciated.

szsori Wrote:Wife acceptance factor. It's a common term for HTPC and home theater buffs.

Hehe ah ok. I guess I have to update my slang dictionary

marlboroman1 Wrote:The font change made it crash for me and when i restarted there were no fonts making navigation impossible; so I had to delete the skin I think the last skin font selected was "funky" or some such.

I think i'll stick with the default fount next time thanks for creating this the hard work is much appreciated.

Yeah, Mike already notified me about his crashing XBOX when changing fonts
Focus has just one fontset. Basically there's leftovers of the default PM3 fontsets in the fonts file, it's a mess. And because those fonts are not present in the Focus package XBMC seemingly keeps searching for it ultimately going bonkers
I'll update the package tomorrow to take care of it.
And thank you.

Quote:I'll have to think about it. It seems a bit counter-intuitive to press right to open a menu on the left. Maybe a user definable setting would do the tricj. Also, I'll have to make a decision about what I'll be doing about the scrollbars first. Because if they will be staying the right button would be needed for that.

My aim is opening the menu at the right, like you'd expect when pressing "right"

Also.... it might be cleaner to open the menu in an overlay, without moving the file or library list (semi transparent ?), eventhough the current animation is quite unique, as far as I know and I love new perceptions .

Ik gooi maar wat intuitive ideen in de groep