Help make new default skin

[dottore]

well, there were a few screenshots in this thread.....too few i think. i agree, we need more screenshots, still pictures, design ideas....not just text.

[sub]

Yes, I agree. This thread hasnt really made any progress towards the original goal and we're 230 posts into it.

[dottore]

to make a start, here are a few screenshots. the first is an idea, how my now called pspish menu could be changed to list more panels. i have added white translucent boxes, i wanted to play with dark text and i wanted to try something like the street skin.

the other pictures are views from a skin, which actually works with gbpvr. i have attached main menu (you have seen that before), tvguide and a popup in the guide.

[KingArgyle]

Here is one of our big limitations when it comes to the Main Menu screen:

Code:

<SpecialElement name="Buttons" loc="100,90" spacing="38" alwayCentered="false" maxVisibleButtons="7" allowTopBottomWrap="false" showNumbers="false"/>

For the main menu, all you can do is have a vertical list of buttons, you do not have the ability to pick and choose where that placement of buttons should appear. I know having one element makes it very simple to create a list of buttons, but it also makes it very limiting in what you can do with the layout of the screen. With out some sort of enhancement here, all you can do is move this list around.

A would love to propose something at least for the main menu skin is to add a feature to the skin such as:

Code:

<MainMenu>
   <Layout type="cols" pos="xxx,yyy">
       <MaxCols>2</MaxCols>
   </Layout>
   <Layout type="freeform" pos="xxx,yyy">
       <Button number="1" pos="xxx,yyy"/>
       <Button number="2" pos="xxx,yyy"/>
  </Layout>
  <Layout type="vertical" pos="xxx,yyy">
        <Button (Equivilant to the current SpecialElement)/>
  </Layout>
  <Layout type="horizontal" pos="xxx,yyy">
        <Button (equivilan to the currrent Special Element)/>
  </Layout>
</MainMenu>

Now the above is just a suggestion, how it would be implemented would be up to sub if he choose to do it. But it gives more options than the current sole specialelement option there is now. It would allow for some interesting designs and layout options.

I still use Meedio because the skinning is more feature complete in the regards to layout. The skinning it self can be a complicated mess, but it does allow for some very unique designs to be produced (i.e. curved menus layouts, horizontal/vertical/diagonal, etc).

[nightwalker]

I agree, so far from what I've read the biggest improvement for the artistic types is to not have their hands tied to certain layouts unless there is no choice.

Even if only this one change could be made for now I'd think it would open up a lot of possibilities.

[reven]

i would love the main menu to use directdraw so the ticker plugin could become smooth and a few animations similar to mediaportal could come add (sliding the buttons and fading the last/first one out). im not sure how this would work on the mvp/xcard/350, but if sub managed to do this and got it to work on the mvp etc others would begin to do this aswell. and then it would be possible for music visuals. im just not sure if directdraw is possible in this way (i think it just draws directly to the screen....).

[sub]

directdraw is a non starter for MVP/XCard/PVR350

[reven]

is it possible to return an image from a directdraw buffer (yeah i know bugger all about dd). just a way to do the animation a lot quicker and then send the image generated do the other devices (im assuming you just send the Image object (in one way shape form or another) to the xcard etc).

[Lucas_24]

Dottore,

That layout look extremly professional, and also feels very familiar. It looks great with many backgrounds. Let the user pick kind of like desktop wallpaper. I really like the design.

[sub]

Here is one of our big limitations when it comes to the Main Menu screen:

Code:

<SpecialElement name="Buttons" loc="100,90" spacing="38" alwayCentered="false" maxVisibleButtons="7" allowTopBottomWrap="false" showNumbers="false"/>

For the main menu, all you can do is have a vertical list of buttons, you do not have the ability to pick and choose where that placement of buttons should appear. I know having one element makes it very simple to create a list of buttons, but it also makes it very limiting in what you can do with the layout of the screen. With out some sort of enhancement here, all you can do is move this list around.

A would love to propose something at least for the main menu skin is to add a feature to the skin such as:

Code:

<MainMenu>
   <Layout type="cols" pos="xxx,yyy">
       <MaxCols>2</MaxCols>
   </Layout>
   <Layout type="freeform" pos="xxx,yyy">
       <Button number="1" pos="xxx,yyy"/>
       <Button number="2" pos="xxx,yyy"/>
  </Layout>
  <Layout type="vertical" pos="xxx,yyy">
        <Button (Equivilant to the current SpecialElement)/>
  </Layout>
  <Layout type="horizontal" pos="xxx,yyy">
        <Button (equivilan to the currrent Special Element)/>
  </Layout>
</MainMenu>

Now the above is just a suggestion, how it would be implemented would be up to sub if he choose to do it. But it gives more options than the current sole specialelement option there is now. It would allow for some interesting designs and layout options.

I still use Meedio because the skinning is more feature complete in the regards to layout. The skinning it self can be a complicated mess, but it does allow for some very unique designs to be produced (i.e. curved menus layouts, horizontal/vertical/diagonal, etc).

There will be support for new menu types in the next release, probably not free form layout though.