BleazleWide Skin V 6 (5 Viewers)

[Spaldo]

hmm I wondered when that was coming. I don't know if it's a good thing though - a lot of the fanart I see isn't worth downloading anyway - usually a whole group of people standing around in different poses with their arms folded - I only need one of those shots for any given series!

Thats true, but, they will also be allowing an option of how many it automatically downloads... which is very important. So you can just make it grab 2 or 3 then if you want more, you can browse the remainder before downloading it. I think it will be an improvement.

The problem is at the moment, if you do a fresh reinstall, it doesn't download anything at all !! You have to manually press download in each series just to get it started...

The new version will be the best of both worlds I think

...We will require a skin update when this release is out..

Man you know I'll be on it!!

I have no dobut what so ever! Always delivers..

 

[Bleazle]

Animated Hover Images

Hi All

here's something for you to try if you're a bit bored and feel the need to do some tweaking.

I've never liked the way the hover images appear in the Home and Plugins screens - the way they just appear with a "clunk" - not very stylish IMHO. I'm not after anything fancy, just a nice fade in effect to go with the rest of the skin, so I was stoked* to see that there was a way to animate these images a couple of days ago (see this thread if you're interested https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/skins-50/animating-home-page-gifs-video-55962/)

So after spending most of Saturday stuck in the computer room (yeah, the wife was really happy with that ..) I came up with fading hover images/effect for my tv, my plugins, my pictures and my music. Unfortunately I've found that running this on my system is a real RAM killer so I've ditched it but I figured I should make the files available to give anyone that's interested a go at trying them out.

To enable the animations do the following

1. DELETE the BleazleWide cache!!!

2. Copy the XML files into the MEDIA directory and rename the "my tv, my plugins, my pictures and my music" PNG files - don't delete them you might want them later!!

3. Copy the "tv, plugins, pictures and music" folders into the ANIMATIONS directory.

That's it. Now you will have a subtle fading effect when these hover images load. Try going to any other screen and then returning to the Home screen - I found that it took about 15 seconds for the Home screen to load which is why I've ditched this but I'm interested to know what others come up with (I'm running 1gb DDR RAM with a P4 3Ghz CPU)

If you try this and don't like it all you have to do is DELETE the cache and change the renamed PNG files back to their original names (plus you can delete the XML files and folders you added if you like doing house work )

Dave

* Translation for my non-Kiwi friends = "very happy"

 

[Bleazle]

An update to the above post:

The RAM usage issue has been sorted so the fade effect will be included in the next release of the skin. If you want to enable it now for the images included above do the following:

1. DELETE the BleazleWide cache!!!

2. Drop the attached XML files in the MEDIA directory, overwriting the files included in the above post.

3. Open the "tv, plugins, pictures and music" folders which are in the ANIMATIONS directory and dump all of the images into the the Media directory (i.e. don't copy the folders into the MEDIA directory - copy and past the images contained in them into the directory - just trying to be really clear here!)

3. That's it.

It takes a bit longer for the initial cache to be created and for the skin to reload later on as it contains a lot more images now but I'll trim these down a bit for the next release. You should find that the skin "runs" pretty much as fast as before though.

Once again, if you try this and don't like the effect all you have to do is DELETE the cache and change the renamed PNG files back to their original names (plus it would pay to delete all of the image files you've put into the MEDIA directory)

Dave

 

[sa_ddam213]

An update to the above post:

The RAM usage issue has been sorted so the fade effect will be included in the next release of the skin. If you want to enable it now for the images included above do the following:


Dave

So caching fixed low RAM . Was gonna pull out some RAM and see but lazyness got the better of me.
BTW just for fun i preety much animated every picture in my skin to see how it handled , Took 3 min to load MP but all worked with very little lag .

Look forward to you new skin ... Chur

 

[Bleazle]

An update to the above post:

The RAM usage issue has been sorted so the fade effect will be included in the next release of the skin. If you want to enable it now for the images included above do the following:


Dave

So caching fixed low RAM . Was gonna pull out some RAM and see but lazyness got the better of me.
BTW just for fun i preety much animated every picture in my skin to see how it handled , Took 3 min to load MP but all worked with very little lag .

Look forward to you new skin ... Chur

Yeah seems pretty good - I've only had a 10 minute look so I'll test it a bit more before posting confirmation on your thread. Thanks again for sharing how to do this and working out the RAM thing!!

The next version of the skin won't hold any surprises - just more "under the bonnet" tweaking and plugin support going on...

Dave

 

[Spaldo]

Sounds good... ill test out the new version/changes when I get some free time

 

[Cuitlahac]

Hey Bleazle,
just in case you don't already know: Seems that some things have changed for the skins on the way to MP 1.0.1. For example, with Bleazle V6.1.2 and actual SVN the TV recordings aren't displayed anymore.
Devs say it's something skinners have to change in their skins for the upcoming MP 1.0.1

But I'm sure you already have an eye on MediaPortal1_Development/SkinArchitecture/MP_1_0-to-1_0_1 - MediaPortal Manual Documentation. Wow, I don't understand a single word in that wiki...

Man, I'm really looking forward for the next release...

 

[Spaldo]

Bleazle, I am trying out the different views with MyTVSeries and just tested out ListBanners.

I am not sure if it is to do with the skin or the plugin. However, on the main plugin screen where the TVSeries are listed, it lists some in white and some in blue... I am guessing watched & unwatched. I can see the point of this in regards to episodes, however, is there any point for entire series. Is it possible to make them all white in the main screen ?

 

[Bleazle]

..with Bleazle V6.1.2 and actual SVN the TV recordings aren't displayed anymore. Devs say it's something skinners have to change in their skins for the upcoming MP 1.0.1

But I'm sure you already have an eye on MediaPortal1_Development/SkinArchitecture/MP_1_0-to-1_0_1 - MediaPortal Manual Documentation...

No I wasn't aware of that thread so thanks for pointing it out!

...Wow, I don't understand a single word in that wiki... ..

That makes two of us!!

..Man, I'm really looking forward for the next release...

There won't be any major changes from now on - just more tweaking. The recorded TV issue shouldn't be a problem to sort - that's the good thing about having the skin based on Blue3Wide - as long as something works in that skin it's not too much of an issue for me to get it working in BleazleWide - I just need to tweak it so that it looks the way I want it to look (it's all about me after all!! - and what you guys ask for too! )

Bleazle, I am trying out the different views with MyTVSeries and just tested out ListBanners.

I am not sure if it is to do with the skin or the plugin. However, on the main plugin screen where the TVSeries are listed, it lists some in white and some in blue... I am guessing watched & unwatched. I can see the point of this in regards to episodes, however, is there any point for entire series. Is it possible to make them all white in the main screen ?

Do you get some in orange too? I'm sure it won't be too hard to change them all to white (and to be honest I don't know why they change colour - maybe you could post that question on the TVSeries thread?).

How'd you go with the fading hover images?

Dave

 

[eetaylog]

Dave, its been a while dude!

Im now using your skin full time after building a new htpc (here if you fancied a look) and just wanted to tip my hat to you on a great skin. id been messing about with it at work with a dummy MP setup but now im able to get my hands dirty properly, and i think it looks great.

the only issue im having is the front covers in the myfilms plugin looking squashed (when you actually go into a film and look at its details)? im sure ive read of other people having this issue, but cant find whether it got fixed or not?