CommunitySkin 4 Open development thread.

[Fatman_do]

I am going to be adding some more definitions to the baseskin.xml file.

To increase the potential that some themes may use masks for button overlays and such, I noticed I needed Buttons added to "CommonImages"

These will be..

Code:

        <!-- Buttons -->
        <CommonImage name="ButtonNormal">
            <DrawImage filename="..\_CoreImages\Button_Normal.png" loc="0,0" size="100,100"/>
        </CommonImage>
        <CommonImage name="ButtonSelected">
            <DrawImage filename="..\_CoreImages\Button_Selected.png" loc="0,0" size="100,100"/>
        </CommonImage>
        <CommonImage name="ButtonSelectedInactive">
            <DrawImage filename="..\_CoreImages\Button_Selected.png" loc="0,0" size="100,100"/>
        </CommonImage>
        <CommonImage name="ButtonPopupNormal">
            <DrawImage filename="..\_CoreImages\ButtonPopup_Normal.png" loc="0,0" size="100,100"/>
        </CommonImage>
        <CommonImage name="ButtonPopupSelected">
            <DrawImage filename="..\_CoreImages\ButtonPopup_Selected.png" loc="0,0" size="100,100"/>
        </CommonImage>
        <CommonImage name="ButtonPopupSelectedInactive">
            <DrawImage filename="..\_CoreImages\ButtonPopup_Selected.png" loc="0,0" size="100,100"/>
        </CommonImage>

This will allow more flexibility in the future. We don't currently use different images natively for SelectedInactive buttons as few plugins use these.

[Fatman_do]

I was waiting until this latest release of gbpvr to really tackle the next step. The innovations created by the "Slick" skin, along with new skinning elements for background images are going to present a lot of possibilities and benefit creativity.

I have reviewed a few skin xml's and I need to change up a bit of the legacy plugins and am currently working on that.

Anyone is welcome to poke around with the other features of "Slick" and come up with working counterparts for the CommunitySkin.

I have also opened up a Google.code page for this project. Don't know how or if it will be used (I have no clue right now).
http://code.google.com/p/communityskin-for-gbpvr/

If you want to be added as a project owner just PM me.

[McBainUK]

My 1st thoughts are to work on the xmls and a set of (hairy's?) images for a default theme. Other themes and a new skin plugin can come later.

[Hairy]

My 1st thoughts are to work on the xmls and a set of (hairy's?) images for a default theme. Other themes and a new skin plugin can come later.

Yep sounds good, although there might have to be a few decisions about how to handle some of the new stuff introduced with this release (separate main menu backgrounds, metadata layout from slick, etc).

On that note I've had limited success messing around with the new main menu layout options, any chance of some of the xml code monkeys knocking up some working examples. Does the new horizontal menu type handle background masks like the vertical does?

On the graphics end, I've been working away on the CS_Blue idea I posted here last month. Again I'll say, if anyone else wants to chip in please just let me know

[McBainUK]

Hariy - if I said I wanted to have 1 theme (or range of themes) which one would you say to use. Reflect, Cast or Wave? Which one is the latest?

[McBainUK]

What do you think of this for a SVN structure?

#INSTALL
All files related to the creating the installer setup.exe
eg
- NSI script
- icons, images and logos
- readme/license/contributers & acknowledgments files

#PLUGIN
All files that would go into gbpvr/plugins/SkinPlugin
eg
- plugin dll
- helper dll
- helper exes
- config dlls
- plugin images
- current theme xml file

##RESOURCES
All images, xmls and themes that will be distributed with the default install.
Other themes and images will be handled and stored seperatly due to licensing and file size considerations.

#SKIN
All XML files for the plugins and default GB-PVR screens.

##GBPVR
All files that would go into gbpvr/skin/CommunityX

###_CoreImages
All these folders will have the default theme files.

##PVRX2
All files that would go into gbpvr/skin2/CommunityX

###_CoreImages
###_TaskImages
###_SpecialImages
All these folders will have the default theme files.

(# mark folders)

[Hairy]

Hariy - if I said I wanted to have 1 theme (or range of themes) which one would you say to use. Reflect, Cast or Wave? Which one is the latest?

Do you mean as a default theme for the new CS+plugin installer? If so then I thought the idea was to develop a default theme (CS_Blue posted on the first page here). I've been working away on that and my personal preference would be to use that. If you guys want to get a wriggle on then give me a couple of days and I'll try to tie it together.

If you mean personally, then none of them they're all sh1te. They all need to be re-done

I know it looks like I've been really quite since "wave" (5 months now :eek, but I've been working away here on the basics. I can't say I like too much anything I've released so far, so I wanted to see if I could improve the way I went about it, doing this default theme is part of that for me.

[Hairy]

Code:

##GBPVR
All files that would go into gbpvr/skin/CommunityX

I won't pretend that I really understand SVN structures , but couldn't we maybe drop this, since sub is fazing this out?

[McBainUK]

It's just for testing the "open source - anyone can build it" stuff at the moment. Thought it would be best to use the latest theme.

I can't see CS4 being ready in a couple of days, so there's no rush on CS_Blue!

[McBainUK]

Code:

##GBPVR
All files that would go into gbpvr/skin/CommunityX

I won't pretend that I really understand SVN structures , but couldn't we maybe drop this, since sub is fazing this out?

We have dropped the GBPVR default screens that use this type of skin. But there are plenty of legacy plugins (Screensaver, Solitaire for example) that use the older skin code - so it's there for that. CS4 will not work on gbpvr.exe!