CommunitySkin 4 Open development thread.

[Hairy]

I'm trying to create a SkinPlugin resources directory structure and theme.xml file for it - I am working on the SVN setup and installer testing.

Nads! I meant to ask. Will that directory structure be alterable? I.E is it a big deal to alter the directory structure down the road, as it relates to the SVN. I'm toying with the idea of including different graphical and formatting options pre defined as themes, so ideally graphics and the like should be structured appropriately.

[McBainUK]

Won't be a problem. Just have to start with something...

[Hairy]

Cheers

Ignorance is the catalyst of silly questions

[McBainUK]

I'm toying with the idea of including different graphical and formatting options pre defined as themes, so ideally graphics and the like should be structured appropriately.

Care to expand on this?

[Hairy]

I was thinking about including some variations of CS Blue (as it's now offically known ) pre defined as themes.

Like:

CS Blue [Glossy] - glossy buttons and selectors
CS Blue [Matte] - matte
CS Blue Dark [Glossy]
CS Blue Dark [Matte]

We could also do, (but I'm afraid of it getting silly ):

Mainmenu Align:

• left
  
• Right
  
• Center
  
• Slick
  

But I'm just mulling it over, effort/reward and all that jazz.

[McBainUK]

Hairy: in the zip file you sent a little while ago there is are only some of the files required for a full theme (_CoreImages contents). What images are you using for the others, or do you plan to create some more?

[Hairy]

Yeah what I posted here and the one I sent you guys are really just the bare bones to give an idea of the look. I plan on having top/down new graphics, but I have to decide on a look before doing all the extra little graphical elements. I think I've made some progress on that front since I sent the last draft.

If you just need enough to temporarily build a theme from the plugin, then I'm sure there are some graphics from older themes that would fit.

[Hairy]

Re-compile installer to combine Skinplugin and pull out themes.

When we do this I'd really prefer not to include any of the themes I've done so far. I'm not too pleased with how they look and would prefer not to make them available for download with the new version.

My hope is to replace them with newer versions after I nail down CS Blue.

[Hairy]

Usually I don't like posting what I plan to get done, just in case I don't . But here is what I'm aiming for with CS Blue and beyond.

I'd like CS Blue to have some graphical options out of the box, so like I hinted at earlier I'd like to have CS Blue and CS Blue Dark with glossy and matte elements. I'd also like to include 3 different task image sets. This along with formatting options would give a little bit of customizeability from the default install.

Beyond that I'd like to redo Reflect and introduce Glow, and here's the master plan These themes should be based on the same RGB colour pallet as CS Blue and as a result most graphical elements released in the future will be aesthetically compatible with each other and allow people to mix and match.

I'll decide on what to do with Cast and Wave (my personal least favourites) based on whether there is any real interest in them.

Obviously the above is very dependent on time, but that's what I was hoping to achieve.

[Hairy]

And to round out the brain fart for this morning

I'd like to suggest some additions to the selections in the plugin:

• The new graphical elements introduced in the last release, seperate mainmenu background, background_overlay, menu_backdrop etc.
  
• Selecting between traditional main plugins layout and new meta layout
  
• A Screen name header graphic
  
• Selecting a TV Guide layout also loads an equivalent live-guide.xml
  
• That old favourite OSD (OSD_timeline, OSD_Vol, OSD_title, OSD_desc and skin.xml)
  

Just suggestions though, as they come up while putting together the theme.