BlueMCE2-X cleanup project

[McBainUK]

You could help checking the common images list and see what more images should be defined in a documentation

What I was working (put on hold untill new GB-PVR version is released).

[Fatman_do]

Ok,

Using Nullsofts NSIS installer, and a plugin for it, I have a skin installation package that will insert the skin files for the Calculator Plugin into whatever the active skin is by reading the GB-PVR config.xml file.

Someone want to test this out? Use a skin that does not have this already installed.

This will also include the source script file installed to the GBPVR root directory.

(Edit, sorry, posted my original installer instead of new one)[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]


This is the xml plugin for the NSIS installer for used to create this.

(Edit, sorry posted wrong zip files. Here is correct one NSIS plugin)[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
Extract these contents to these NSIS installation directory.

[Fatman_do]

What I was working (put on hold untill new GB-PVR version is released).

Very detailed list there.

If there is a standard library, then I don't see any reason why that many cannot be included as a toolset.

Two schools of thought.

1.)Define the minimum set.
2.)Define the maximum set.

I have been a minimum set guy, but maybe I should rethink this. If a plugin developer doesn't wish to be hassled by creating new images, maybe having a larger "stock" image set is better.

[MixMan]

What I was working (put on hold untill new GB-PVR version is released).

Looking good.
I agree on that it would be good to define image names for images that not are in the core skins ot the plugin skin today, but soon might be there.

[MixMan]

Resolution independent skin

If the buttons for a plugin is not defined in the baseskin.xml, the plugin skin will be resolution independent.
Meaning.....if the compositrimage definitions are kept in the plugin skin, a 720x480 plugin skin will work with a high resolution wide screen skin like Sassari without reskinning the plugin.
With a common image name and path, the appearance will be almost the same.

I will let the current BaseSkin die when I reskin it to 1024x768....in a months time or so.

[MixMan]

Overscan has been mentioned at 10%. My HTPC does not display with overscan, I adjusted it out of the video card so I do not know.

How images for icons are built can be left up to plugin author or skin creator. I just think a common name for selection and non-selection should be established. Backgrounds are more commonly used than a forground image. If a skinner wishes to do something different, that is up to them.

As far as textstyles are concerned, I think subs new definition method can go a long way with common styles pre-defined in the baseskin.xml.

Plugin specific textstlyes will always exsist, but some elements tend to be similarly sized (list text, list icon text, general description text.)

Plugins like Weather will hardly need common definitions, but I can see many others using it. Most of the standard font sizes in plugins are around 13pt. It doesn't seem like much maybe on a single plugin basis, but applied to an entire skin would make a dramatic impact. If "GeneralText" is one font style on one screen and another style on others, that makes a skin look less polished. Since "GeneralText" is usually 13pt, having it defined in baseskin.xml makes sense. Once sub's new method is introduced, a plugin can choose to use that same GeneralText font and color, but use its own size.

That is something that should be considered when cleaning up BlueMCE2.

Don't concern yourself too much, let me look into it.

10% sound like a lot, this would 25-35 pixels on each edge?
Several BlueMCE2 skins have almost o space at the edges.
Do they work with TVs and overscan?

It is this kind of work I'm thinking on aligning the the elements in the XMLs....like Old Dog did for the Xseries plugins.
If we get all plugins imagebased like the BlueMCE2 skins....tidy up the XML so they look good. When Sub comes with a image naming list, it will be a simple work to change the image names in the skins....to convert the to a "standard" skin.

[Fatman_do]

10% sound like a lot, this would 25-35 pixels on each edge?
Several BlueMCE2 skins have almost o space at the edges.
Do they work with TVs and overscan?

It is this kind of work I'm thinking on aligning the the elements in the XMLs....like Old Dog did for the Xseries plugins.
If we get all plugins imagebased like the BlueMCE2 skins....tidy up the XML so they look good. When Sub comes with a image naming list, it will be a simple work to change the image names in the skins....to convert the to a "standard" skin.

I thought 10% sounded like alot myself. Then Old Dog mentioned to not bother with overscan since it can be corrected in the config.xml

By the way, I totally screwed up my post earlier about with attaching the wrong zip files. I corrected this. This shows an installation that does not need %SkinRoot%

[Fatman_do]

Resolution independent skin

If the buttons for a plugin is not defined in the baseskin.xml, the plugin skin will be resolution independent.
Meaning.....if the compositrimage definitions are kept in the plugin skin, a 720x480 plugin skin will work with a high resolution wide screen skin like Sassari without reskinning the plugin.
With a common image name and path, the appearance will be almost the same.

I will let the current BaseSkin die when I reskin it to 1024x768....in a months time or so.

With sub's new method, you will be able to reference baseskin.xml then change what you wish. Textstyles for example wouldn't need ButtonText, ButtonTextHD, and ButtonTextWS. One is all you would need.

This would be your baseskin.xml for standard sized button text

Code:

<TextStyle name="ButtonText" color="White" typeFace="Arial"
size="14" style="bold"/>

Then, if you had "HD" plugins, you would use this.

Code:

<TextStyle name="@@ButtonText" color="@@ButtonText" typeFace="@@ButtonText" size="20" style="@@ButtonText"/>

This way, it would share font style and color, just its size would be driven by the plugin.

[MixMan]

Yes, I saw the new font feature. But don't think it makes that much difference for the core skins. It gives less baseskin.xml control....and more moved to the individual skin.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to also clean up all the text definitions being used......at some point.
There are usually only 4 variations of Arial 12, 13, 14 and sometimes 15 points Bold.

Well, having a defined Image Directory and Image Names will certainly
take the plugins a long way.

[MixMan]

What shall we do about the TitleLogos?
1.Having one TitleLogo defined with the common images?
2.Having defined groups eg, television, music, video, photo with the common images?
3.Having them in a separate directory....like I have now

I vote for number 2
Having TitleLogos with the other common images.