Help make new default skin

[dottore]

looks nice, tried it too. the backgrounds have to be dark, otherwise it isn't that readable.

it would be a cool feature if sub could implement instant background changing. what i mean: reload the background.jpg when it is called from a plugin. so one could use the mypictures-plugin and choose an option for the selected picture ("set as background" or something similar). the picture would then be copied in the gbpvr-directory and renamed to background.jpg.

would that work?

[dottore]

sub asked for a new skin and skin ideas. all i do is post my ideas. no ideas - no new visual style.

[sub]

I'm happy to hear any suggestions, including new menu layouts etc. I may not implement them all, but its good to hear a variety of options.

[Kevl]

How about making menu button behaviour something that can be set in GBPVR configuration (in a similar way to how myHTPC button control worked)

Provide options to select menu button arrangement. myHTPC allowed this to be configured such that you could select how the buttons making up a menu behaved. It was possible to set number of columns of buttons on a screen and the positions of the columns.

Extend the idea to allow vertical or horizontal menus (arrays of buttons), Have no of rows and columns configurable e.g. 1,5 rows x columns for dottores arrangement and 5,1 for tipstirs vertical menu, have the graphics file that provides the button picture selectable and have the background picture selectable and a function of which button is being selected.

Such an arrangement might satisfy otherwise unsatisfyable requirements.

Given I prefer static buttons (rather than having the buttons move about - I liken this to microsofts idea of hiding menu items you dont often use.) this behaviour should also be configurable - ie. scroll button array or leave it nailed down.

Not sure how hard this is to do but can imagine it pleasing most people. Given skins would then be easy to make I can imagine a large number of skins appearing from unskilled skinners (like me)

Kev

[Jeff]

Its obviously not a widely use feature, so we've not really worked through those sorts of things. I dont know what the answer should be.

There is no API for doing this. You'd have to parse the main menu skin.xml

In the next rev of the weather plug-in I've added an option to use the current conditions for the task image. The plug-in reads the main menu skin file and scales and centers the forecast image to match the task image size.

Jeff

[dottore]

wow, thats cool!

concerning to kevls ideas: this is exactly, what i wanted to post right now ;-)
leave the options to the user and include several possibilities in the skin (centered menu, vertical, horizontal) -> the config-app would then check the capability of the skin and display several options.

don't know, if this is hard to implement.

[pwtenny]

I'd like to improve the general look of GB-PVR, but unfortunately I'm artisically challenged, so I'll have to look to the wider community for help.

...

To help ensure we can make a great skin, I'm happy to make changes to the core components of GB-PVR, but I have to be realistic about what can be changed in a reasonable period of time, and what can be done within the limitations of the devices we support, so not everything will be possible.

I really wish there were a more detailed screen system for some things. Some of the recording popups I can't seem to change, and even if I could, skinning them would be much easier (and useful) on a page of their own. If that existed, I'd go nuts on a new skins instead of just occasionally modding a few so I can see them better for my own use.

[Old Dog]

I call this one "Simpleskins".

http://forums.gbpvr.com/attachment.php?a...1128604487
Simpleskins.jpg

Goals:
Easy to do -- just a few mods to Blue
Target user is 15 years old
Laid-out with overscan in mind
Works well with various backgrounds

[KingArgyle]

One thing that would help and I've seen this issue mentioned on this thread and many other threads, is to have a way to view the skin without having to fire up GBPVR. One way this could be done is to convert the Skin.xml file to an HTML representation. For those that known XSLT, it could be used to convert from the skin.xml to an html representation for easier viewing. It may not give you an exact representation but it would at least give you a close representation.

Now some of the problems with doing this, is that the Presentation and the application logic between the plugins and the skins is still intertwined. There is no agreed upon standard usage or terms between plugins for their skinning. Which in general makes it more difficult for skinners because they have to learn each plugins terminology, and what the various special elements do.

Not sure how you exactly would go about addressing this issue.

[Lucas_24]

jdstarling,

That's really nice, too bad I'm well over 15 .