NextPVR Forums
  • ______
  • Home
  • New Posts
  • Wiki
  • Members
  • Help
  • Search
  • Register
  • Login
  • Home
  • Wiki
  • Members
  • Help
  • Search
NextPVR Forums Information Community Announcements v
« Previous 1 … 31 32 33 34 35 … 56 Next »
Too many skins, too many options, too many plugins...

 
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
Too many skins, too many options, too many plugins...
MixMan
Offline

Posting Freak

Posts: 1,239
Threads: 100
Joined: Oct 2005
#51
2006-07-08, 08:42 PM
Describing names is good. I think that common skin images can be kept in the skin root.
Have a look a Revens plugins, he has really many images in some of his plugins. Plugin unique images should stay in the plugin skin directory or a /resources or /image directory.
I think the programmers would go for MNC ....Minimal Necessary Change
Best Regards
MixMan
[SIZE="1"]
Antec Fusion case with Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-SH, AMD X2 4850e, 2GB RAM, AMD780G Onboard graphics. WinTV-PVR 150 MCE (With FM), Twinhan DVB-T, 750GB + 250GB HDD. Windows XP Pro SP3, MCE 2005 Remote, 29" 4:3 monitor and a 47" Philips 9603H LCD[/SIZE]
Old Dog
Offline

Posting Freak

Posts: 1,083
Threads: 99
Joined: Jul 2005
#52
2006-07-08, 09:40 PM (This post was last modified: 2006-07-08, 09:44 PM by Old Dog.)
MixMan Wrote:I think most skinner are looking for an harmonic or appealing combination of colors, shapes and "spaces". It is a little bit like being a painter, trying out different combinations. When a satiesfying "combination" is found, the need to make more variations with backgrounds and buttons don't really exist.
I have never felt like i should do 5 more buttons in different colors or 5 more backgrounds for the same design.
I think Old Dogs AM concept with overlays is technically very smart, but it really don't apply to me, even though I have almost the same possibility to use overlays in the BaseSkin. I have just used it once.

From the end-user perspective, pretend there were 500 of you. Would you all want the same combination?
Learning new tricks!
Visit Plain Jane's Collection
psycik
Offline

Posting Freak

Posts: 5,210
Threads: 424
Joined: Sep 2005
#53
2006-07-08, 09:47 PM
I have been and we keep watching this thread with interest. I am like Jeff. i use BlueMCE so when i code I design for BlueMCE and then put in Blue and i think on one of mine I also do ContourHC. But i haven't seen much on contour lately.

One thing that i do notice that that the developers have different ways of naming things in their skin files (here I'm talking about the SpecialElements and CompositeImages). Depends on what scheme they use for their drawing - CommonGBPVRUtiltities, GBPVRUIElements etc or their own (I think reven uses his own ways and I've just started doing it myself).

I like the idea of trying to keep it all standardised - like baseSkin and AM (honestly i haven't really played with either of these), but will using these support just changing the colours and images used? Or can they support more fundamental changes - i.e. switching between vertical and horizontal menus??

Maybe a guide for the developers with some base element names that should be used - oh and another thing, I think we should really start trying to use the baseSkin a bit more, it was put in and it was a great idea to reduce the size of skin files and the amount of duplication required. And by making better use of it we might be able to make large changes to say fonts and fonts sizes in just one place - rather than having to do it it about 20 different skin files (an exercise I just did!!!)

Hopefully not a rant, just a bit of a brain dump - no sure how coherent the message is Big Grin

Just like to say to the skinners - you make the place look a lot better, I know coming from somebody with the artistic ability or a 2 month old frog that what you guys can do is really great....if we could just tighten up the integration between the developers and skinners we'd be onto a great thing!!!
Old Dog
Offline

Posting Freak

Posts: 1,083
Threads: 99
Joined: Jul 2005
#54
2006-07-08, 09:50 PM
Old Dog Wrote:From the end-user perspective, pretend there were 500 of you. Would you all want the same combination?

BTW, my bias has always been towards the end-user rather than the skinner or the plug-in programmer.
Learning new tricks!
Visit Plain Jane's Collection
MixMan
Offline

Posting Freak

Posts: 1,239
Threads: 100
Joined: Oct 2005
#55
2006-07-08, 10:26 PM
Psysik...download the BaseSkin I posted on the Wiki today, and try it out.
I applied the BlueMCE2 Themepack before I posted it.
I made some modification to the icon view images in the Themepack tonight.
But I haven't posted the modified ThemePack yet.
Tell me what you think of the BaseSkin version of BlueMCE2.
Best Regards
MixMan
[SIZE="1"]
Antec Fusion case with Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-SH, AMD X2 4850e, 2GB RAM, AMD780G Onboard graphics. WinTV-PVR 150 MCE (With FM), Twinhan DVB-T, 750GB + 250GB HDD. Windows XP Pro SP3, MCE 2005 Remote, 29" 4:3 monitor and a 47" Philips 9603H LCD[/SIZE]
Old Dog
Offline

Posting Freak

Posts: 1,083
Threads: 99
Joined: Jul 2005
#56
2006-07-08, 10:32 PM
psycik Wrote:can they support more fundamental changes - i.e. switching between vertical and horizontal menus?

This is a tough one.

AM is an end-user application intended to enrich the user's experience by making GBPVR more personal and more fun to use. Personally, I am pleased to think that somewhere there might be a preschooler that thinks of AM as their own toy.

So how complicated do you want it to be? There are lots of things that AM could do. In some cases the user interface may be to complicated, in other cases it may be too difficult to provide immediate feedback. Your example is one that currently falls into both of these catagories.
Learning new tricks!
Visit Plain Jane's Collection
reven
Offline

Posting Freak

Posts: 5,782
Threads: 396
Joined: Sep 2004
#57
2006-07-08, 11:17 PM
Jeff Wrote:I think the only reason the plugin developers all support the blue skin is because sub has requested that plugins do so and that blue is the 'standard' skin today. I am not sure that any of us actually use blue. I use my own customized version of bluemce2, for example, and spend all of my time on that skin. I only check blue at the very end right before I release an update and I spend very little time on it trying to make it look pretty, which is partly why it does not. I also do drawing with xml on the blue versions of the skins because that seems to be what sub has done in his. In my bluemce2 version I use images.

Jeff
thats the exact same thing i do, i skin everything for the pm3 skin and at the last second do the blue skin.
psycik
Offline

Posting Freak

Posts: 5,210
Threads: 424
Joined: Sep 2005
#58
2006-07-08, 11:47 PM
reven Wrote:thats the exact same thing i do, i skin everything for the pm3 skin and at the last second do the blue skin.

So generally Plugin developers are lazy!! Big Grin
Fatman_do
Offline

Posting Freak

Posts: 3,482
Threads: 95
Joined: Nov 2005
#59
2006-07-09, 03:35 PM
psycik Wrote:I have been and we keep watching this thread with interest.

Thanks, developers interacting is the only way something really can get done here.

psycik Wrote:One thing that i do notice that that the developers have different ways of naming things in their skin files (here I'm talking about the SpecialElements and CompositeImages). Depends on what scheme they use for their drawing - CommonGBPVRUtiltities, GBPVRUIElements etc or their own (I think reven uses his own ways and I've just started doing it myself).

Those differences really don't impact skinning. Hard coding elements on screen are the hardest thing to work around.

psycik Wrote:I like the idea of trying to keep it all standardised - like baseSkin and AM (honestly i haven't really played with either of these), but will using these support just changing the colours and images used? Or can they support more fundamental changes - i.e. switching between vertical and horizontal menus??

ThemePacks allow you to change the style (Horizontal, Vertical menus and such). If those themes use naming conventions that AM supports, then the user can choose different backgrounds and buttons. Maybe in the future more elements can be changed.

psycik Wrote:Maybe a guide for the developers with some base element names that should be used - oh and another thing, I think we should really start trying to use the baseSkin a bit more, it was put in and it was a great idea to reduce the size of skin files and the amount of duplication required. And by making better use of it we might be able to make large changes to say fonts and fonts sizes in just one place - rather than having to do it it about 20 different skin files (an exercise I just did!!!)

Hopefully not a rant, just a bit of a brain dump - no sure how coherent the message is Big Grin

Just like to say to the skinners - you make the place look a lot better, I know coming from somebody with the artistic ability or a 2 month old frog that what you guys can do is really great....if we could just tighten up the integration between the developers and skinners we'd be onto a great thing!!!

Thanks again for some input.
Fatman_do
[SIZE="1"]
HTPC: AMD XP+2500, 512MB DDR (400) ~ Capture Device: Hauppage PVR-150
Storage: 30GB OS & Recording, 160GB Post Processing & Archive
Video Output: HD 32" TV via eVGA Geforce 6200le 256MB AGP DVI-HDMI cable out
Audio Output: Turtle Beach Riviera S/PDIF Optic Output (Digital pass thru only) to Home Theater Receiver[/SIZE]

[SIZE="2"]
Moderator | Tutorials | Community Skin | CommunitySkin-SVN[/SIZE]
MixMan
Offline

Posting Freak

Posts: 1,239
Threads: 100
Joined: Oct 2005
#60
2006-07-09, 03:51 PM
All skin designers/ graphical designers have gotten tired of their skins or don't have the time to keep them updated, send me a PM and I will do my best to create/generate a skin for you based on my XMLs. Tell me what plugins you would like to support in your skin.
Best Regards
MixMan
[SIZE="1"]
Antec Fusion case with Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-SH, AMD X2 4850e, 2GB RAM, AMD780G Onboard graphics. WinTV-PVR 150 MCE (With FM), Twinhan DVB-T, 750GB + 250GB HDD. Windows XP Pro SP3, MCE 2005 Remote, 29" 4:3 monitor and a 47" Philips 9603H LCD[/SIZE]
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »

Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)

Pages (19): « Previous 1 … 4 5 6 7 8 … 19 Next »
Jump to page 


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Pandora Internet Radio and MusicMonkey (MediaMonkey) music plugins cncb 19 8,433 2011-12-17, 02:02 AM
Last Post: steeb
  SkyNews and ABC Australia mini-plugins released for UbuStream ubu 0 1,073 2007-02-24, 11:24 AM
Last Post: ubu
  2 new Plugins McBainUK 7 3,103 2007-01-25, 11:22 AM
Last Post: MixMan
  MultiDec Plugins and Card Server howto MixMan 0 2,028 2007-01-19, 07:15 PM
Last Post: MixMan
  2 New Plugins added to Wiki rwmech 0 1,294 2006-10-16, 05:16 PM
Last Post: rwmech
  Appearance Manager skins: Mayhem, Black Jack, Contour Old Dog 1 1,423 2006-05-17, 06:20 PM
Last Post: Old Dog
  Using an Installer for plugins jorm 11 4,144 2005-05-18, 12:33 PM
Last Post: jorm
  Skins? womble 8 2,993 2005-04-19, 07:25 PM
Last Post: HenkH
  Skins Don't Support Live TV on MVP in Latest GBPVR DavidJames 2 1,800 2005-03-28, 03:21 PM
Last Post: reboot
  My Programs Plugins Released reven 37 12,408 2005-02-04, 11:38 PM
Last Post: Guest

  • View a Printable Version
  • Subscribe to this thread
Forum Jump:

© Designed by D&D, modified by NextPVR - Powered by MyBB

Linear Mode
Threaded Mode