BleazleWide Skin V 6 (14 Viewers)

[Bleazle]

..The fonts cache of your skin .. is almost 80 MB...Perhaps you clean fonts created? I guess all in fonts.xml are created, so searching the XML's for the fonts not used and removing them might be beneficial for ppl with low GPM memory....

Good idea, I'll have a look at that I've already gone through and trimmed the PNG files using PNGGauntlet plus deleted a stack of images that weren't needed so the next release will be a bit leaner in terms of downloading too

Bleazle

UPDATE: OK, I've had a play around with the fonts thing - still a bit more tweaking to do but it's looking good - on my XP based HTPC the Blue3Wide font cache is 24.7MB - BleazleWide is now 7.13MB, down from 23.7MB

 

[eetaylog]

will this improve loading times for MP do you think?

 

[Spaldo]

Since we have hit 400 replies and 10000 downloads... it may be time for this to be a 'hot skin' !!

 

[eetaylog]

i cant believe it isnt already!

 

[Spragleknas]

UPDATE: OK, I've had a play around with the fonts thing - still a bit more tweaking to do but it's looking good - on my XP based HTPC the Blue3Wide font cache is 24.7MB - BleazleWide is now 7.13MB, down from 23.7MB

Nice As I said, my ver. of your skin had about 80MB of font-cache.

If you feel like trimming more, have a look at new infor in Wiki -> MediaPortal1_Development/SkinArchitecture - MediaPortal Manual Documentation

 

[Bleazle]

will this improve loading times for MP do you think?

I think it just speeds up the "loading fonts" part of the loading process. It must make running the skin better for people with GPU issues though. Blue3Wide has 14 different fonts (which means of course that so did BleazleWide) but I've chopped that back to 4 fonts and after a bit of playing around I've got it to a point where everything looks the same as before

Since we have hit 400 replies and 10000 downloads... it may be time for this to be a 'hot skin' !!

10,000 downloads? Not quite, but we're close Following your comment Spragleknas has asked if I want it promoted as a hot skin (he had seen my previous comment about preferring to keep it under the radar). I'm in two minds about it. Here's what I'm thinking:
1. On the one hand it would be good for new users of the skin who have any questions because this thread is so long now it's impossible to search.
2. It's great that there are enough regular posters on this thread (you know who you are!) who can answer questions too (so I won't get stuck with answering everything!)
3. The thing is that despite all of the time I've spent on this skin it's not as though I actually created it. As it says on the first post it's a combination of Blue3Wide and Foofaraw with the odd splash of Monochrome thrown in plus a few graphics I've had to create - which I see are now being used in another skin which is cool If I had made it from scratch I would be like "yeah, get it up there" but as it is I'm not so sure...
4. Who cares about what I think in point 3? If it's a skin that people like more people should know about it right!??

So based on the above pros and cons what do you reckon? (@Spragleknas: I'll PM you in the next few days and let you know either way, cheers)

i cant believe it isnt already!

Cheers!! - Note: I've had a look at that server link you pointed me too - it's mind boggling what that guy made!

UPDATE: OK, I've had a play around with the fonts thing - still a bit more tweaking to do but it's looking good - on my XP based HTPC the Blue3Wide font cache is 24.7MB - BleazleWide is now 7.13MB, down from 23.7MB

Nice As I said, my ver. of your skin had about 80MB of font-cache.

If you feel like trimming more, have a look at new infor in Wiki -> MediaPortal1_Development/SkinArchitecture - MediaPortal Manual Documentation

Did you get the 80MB cache on a Vista based system? That's about the size it was on mine (even bigger I think) but on the XP based system it was only 23.7MB. Black and White 1080 is 40.3MB on my Vista system but is only around 4MB on my XP system so it seems like there's a different way of handling the fonts in the two systems(?)

Thanks for the link to the Wiki - I was having a read of it the other day and it's looking very good - I don't remember it being that good when I looked at it before starting work on this skin - maybe it was but maybe I couldn't understand it at the time!

Bleazle

 

[Spragleknas]

Almost all skins are based on the default skin (previously Blue2). They just did it a while ago, and the evolved differently

Mind you that I only asked if you where interested in getting the skin promoted. (but I think you got it right anyway ).

A hot skin is a hot skin, no matter. This is more or less Foofaraw refreshed, and Foofaraw would be a candidate for a hot skin - hence is Bleazle.

Now - go make up your mind

 

[Nemulate]

Do it, do it

 

[Bleazle]

Almost all skins are based on the default skin (previously Blue2). They just did it a while ago, and the evolved differently

Good point.

... This is more or less Foofaraw refreshed, and Foofaraw would be a candidate for a hot skin - hence is Bleazle...

True - Foofaraw was a great skin (ahead of it's time!) and BleazleWide only came about because Foofaraw "died" - if it was still up-to-date I wouldn't have had to get into this skinning thing..

...Now - go make up your mind

Do it, do it

@ Spaldo - I hear what you're saying in your PM too and appreciate the advice. As you said, when people ask for features I try to accommodate them but at the end of the day I only do it if I think it's for "the greater good" I've learned about parts of MediaPortal and started using different plugins (eg. MovingPictures & TVSeries) which I'd never looked at before as a result of you and others pointing me towards them/asking for them to be supported. As a result my own MP system has really evolved since starting on this skin which is great. When I look back at the first few screenshots I took (and I have to admit I was pretty excited at the time! ) I think "damn it was ugly back then!" So to everyone who has contributed with ideas and requests (and help!!) to get the skin to where it is now (not that it's finished yet...)

I don't want the "what do you guys reckon?" question I posted earlier to end up looking like I'm fishing for compliments on the skin by leaving the decision too long, so @ Spragleknas if you would be so kind as to make this skin hot! when you get a chance we'll take it from there!

Cheers

Bleazle

 

[eetaylog]

I don't want the "what do you guys reckon?" question I posted earlier to end up looking like I'm fishing for compliments on the skin by leaving the decision too long, so @ Spragleknas if you would be so kind as to make this skin hot! when you get a chance we'll take it from there!

Cheers

Bleazle

yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh, you know it makes sense!

btw, just as an aside about your server plans, have you heard of drobo? Its pretty expensive before youve even bought the HDD's, but ive heard good things about it. Its a hot swappable NAS, and unlike most raid sets, you can use different sized disks and still use all of the space on them.