Slate Skin

[Hairy]

Slate is the update I've been working on. It better represents what I had originally planned when I first started developing for the new app. It also hopefully explains some of the overall design decisions I made with the Wave skin.

Slate consists of two different layouts. Two-Tone will be familiar to anyone who has used Wave before (although it has been completely redone for this update) and Overlay is a new alternative layout. Both of these layouts are designed so that users can simple change the background image, to customize the look. Slate come with 10 original images to choose from, so there should be something in there for most people.

It supports the following plugins:
Searchlite
Netflix
Weather
Webradio
System

Given how my skin plugin suggestion landed, any changes will have to be manually made.

Install Instructions:

1. Extract out the contents of "Slate_v1.zip".
   
2. Install the "DroidSans" and DroidSans-Bold" fonts (usually just right click and select install).
   
3. Copy either or both of the Slate layouts (Overlay / Two-Tone) to your application skin directory (usually "...Users\Public\NPVR\Skin").
   
4. Select your prefered background image for the relevant layout, from the (Slate_Overlay/Slate_Two-Tone/)"_backgrounds" folder.
   
5. Copy your choice to the skin layout root folder (i.e next to the global.xml) and rename this image to "background".
   

Screenshots (externally hosted)








Download: www.epgtools.com/Hairy_gb/Slate_v1.zip 26.4MB (Thanks to Whurlston for the hosting).

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(Even though she'll never read it) I want to say a big thank you to Cait for the use of her images.

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Important: Please read the post below.

[Hairy]

Here's the rub:

I've decided to take a break from developing skins for this project. I thought long and hard over whether to release something I wasn't willing to maintain. In the end I decided that it was better to finish it and release it, in the hopes that others will maintain it. I also personally felt that, there is some really good stuff in this skin and some of my best work.

I hit the ground running when I joined 3 years ago and as difficult as I found it, I enjoyed contributing to the community skin. I firmly believe that the whole was greater than the sum of it's parts with that addon. The thing is, for me, this project is a very "code/coder" centric one. For all the benefits of that, a major downside is that development tends to be very isolated. Just like the application itself, most addons are developed from start to finish by one person. I respect the core concentration on function, but sometimes that can make it hard to be someone trying to concentrate on form.

My hope is that I've given back, in some small way, to this excellent and genuinely unique project and community. I'll stick around to answer any questions about get up and running with the skin.

Cheers folks and all the best.

Pete

[johnsonx42]

Wow, that looks really nice. I just don't have the talent for doing stuff like that... if I tried to do a skin, it would look like a 4-year-old did it with crayons and a set of letter stamps. Badly.

Do I understand then that Slate effectively replaces Wave?

Regarding the second post, I'll just say I understand how you feel about it. You've given A LOT, and I thank you.

[sub]

Regarding the second post, I'll just say I understand how you feel about it. You've given A LOT, and I thank you.

Yep, I'd have to echo that. You've done an awesome job.

[pcostanza]

I'm pretty sure my earlier post disappeared so in case it doesn't show up, I'll repeat.....Pete, thanks for all you've done to make a great program better for those who like to tweak and play around. It's very much appreciated.

[ReggiePerrin]

Wow... Speaking as a user of NPVR, rather than a contributor, thanks for all your hardwork and time. I love the Slate_overlay with Bokh background.

[gEd]

The new skins are the crowning glory of your considerable contribution to the gbpvr community. Utterly jaw dropping. I honestly can't get over how good they look.

I am obviously sorry to hear you have decided to stop but can perfectly understand your reasoning.

Thanks again from someone who has used your skins with gbpvr almost from day one.

right, I'd better move over to npvr then...

[Hairy]

Thanks for the kind words folks.

Do I understand then that Slate effectively replaces Wave?

Yep, right from the start wave was always just a background image for me. I was using the feedback to try and hone the layout.

P.S. The link in your post appears to be incorrect, it points to 'http://forums.gbpvr.com/www.epgtools.com/Hairy_gb/Slate_v1.zip'

http://www.epgtools.com/Hairy_gb/Slate_v1.zip

Cheers, I've fixed the link in the original post. It should be good to go.

[Fatman_do]

Thanks for all your help along the way Hairy. I greatly appreciated it as well. Developing and maintaining a skin is very time consuming and labor intensive. The pain and suffering of having to code all those xml files over and over again is what led the the image based skinning system used by the GB-PVR CommunitySkin. That effort will probably never be duplicated again, as nobody would be so crazy to put in the hours that went into the skeleton like this apparent masochist had. I applaud your attempts and skills on going at it alone...Welcome to the Dark side Padawan.

[pBS]

yea, thanx for everything, your works have made it much more polished and a pleasure to use...

and some of us are STILL using Community Skin...
[and i plan to port a skin over from it to npvr too]