New Community Theme: Bamboo (1 Viewer)

[morpheus_xx]

A small update from my side: the problem seems to be in our plugin manager in the order of activation of dependencies.

But for now I won't touch this part, as there is already a reworked version pending (including package installer). So I need to postpone this to later (but this year )

 

[morpheus_xx]

@ge2301 is it ok for you to link to this thread from release news? I'd like to take one screenshot as example for new community themes.

I'd also like to move thread to skin forum and rename it a bit...

 

[ge2301]

@ge2301 is it ok for you to link to this thread from release news? I'd like to take one screenshot as example for new community themes.

I'd also like to move thread to skin forum and rename it a bit...

Sure, you can move it of course. No problem for me
I also plan to create further themes by time. But my idea is a little bit more complicated, so I have to study the coding much more at first.

 

[morpheus_xx]

A small update from my side: the problem seems to be in our plugin manager in the order of activation of dependencies.

@ge2301: I found the issue and a solution:
The problem arises from the plugin acivation order: Bamboo depends on BackgroundManager which is correctly references as dependency. But at this stage it is not yet activated (assembly not loaded), so lookup of skin resources fail.

To solve this problem, please change the plugin.xml of BackgroundManager and FanArtService by adding AutoActivate="true" to the plugin descriptor. Example:

<Plugin
    DescriptorVersion="1.0"
    Name="BackgroundManager"
    PluginId="{F6C71648-3874-4d27-9232-C41EBEDE0337}"
    Author="Morpheus_xx"
    Copyright="GPL"
    AutoActivate="true"
    Description="Automatic exchange of backgrounds according to selected menu item"
    PluginVersion="1.0">

Then the bamboo theme runs fine as standalone plugin

I will add those changes to git' dev branch, so next releases are fixed.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
BambooDark is working now too, after I changed "default" to "Titanium" as folder name inside the "Skin" directory.
I like it and want to use this as a basis to modify the skin for my needs.

BTW two skinning questions.
First, is it possible to exchange the background picture based on the menu item that has focus? Like it is in PureVisionHD or StreamedMP skins for MP1?
Second, is there a way to sort the menu elements top my wishes? I know I can remove elements from menu but did not know how to sort them.

 

[ge2301]

Thanks morpheus_xx, I added the code to the plugin and it works finally

Bamboo Skin:
TitaniumBambooSkin.7z

Bamboo Dark Skin:
TitaniumBambooDarkSkin.7z

Until when do you think the centered autofocus problem can be fixed? After this is implemented the skin could also move to the plugin download area.

PS: Question from Lehmden goes also in the direction I want to go. Can be the button picture changed when focussed? By this nice effects as changing from grey scale to color cale then focused etc. can be implemented. Also I would like to try semitransparent buttons. Currently the buttons are JPG, is PNG also working?

 

[morpheus_xx]

First, is it possible to exchange the background picture based on the menu item that has focus?

Yes, take a look at BlackBackdrop theme, themes, styles, otherControlOverrides:

  <!-- default brush used to paint the background of a page/window -->
  <ResourceWrapper x:Key="BackgroundBrush">
    <VisualBrush x:Name="BackdropImageBackgroundBrush">
      <VisualBrush.Visual>
        <Image x:Name="BackdropImageBackground" Stretch="Uniform" Source="{Binding Source={StaticResource BackgroundManagerModel}, Path=BackgroundImage}" />
      </VisualBrush.Visual>
    </VisualBrush>
  </ResourceWrapper>

Only problem is to make this working correctly with all other images for backgrounds (i.e. animated fanart when hovering a series), and video background. If you don't use any of those, it's like the style above.

Can be the button picture changed when focussed?

Yes, there are triggers that act on "HasFocus", you could set one image visible and another one invisible (like already for the "glow border")

Also I would like to try semitransparent buttons. Currently the buttons are JPG, is PNG also working?

Yes, png works of course. Only "limitation" is the skin that builds filenames using ".jpg". But you can also rename png to jpg, it will be decoded in any way.

I know I can remove elements from menu but did not know how to sort them.

This is possible by the custom menu model I implemented for ApolloOne (which is still WiP): there you can create a "tabbed" layout, specifying which tile is shown where and in what specific size.

 

[MJGraf]

Confirmed working - and it looks awesome!
Finally some more progress in the skin area
Thanks for your work!

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
Hope this did not disturb this thread but I'm using BambooDark theme as a base for my own modifications. That's why I ask for help here.
I have started with the bottom bar. Moved it to the bottom completely and got rid of those "bunny ears" I never liked on Titan or any derivation of..
That's how far I've come today.

Next I want to do is to move the menu also to the bottom, just above the bottom bar. Then I want to get rid of the button images, leaving text only. This way I also want to replace the scroll indicator by two "arrows" in the menu bar to indicate where to scroll.The button images I want to replace with exchanging backgrounds depending on the focused menu item. The example background on the screenshot is meant for menu item "weather". And finally I want the navigation bar on top looking like a headline or title of the page. For this the rightmost item of the bar should be at center of the screen, printed bigger than the rest, without gxf around and the "rest" of the navigation menu should be added to the left of this "Headline Item".
Next I need to find is the place where the position of the main menu is defined. I really have a hard time to find the place where something is defined in MP2 skins. This is completely irritating as I'm not able to find the logic behind all this up to now. So please if someone can tell me where I can find the position of the menu, thanks. Maybe some day I can find the logic behind so I don't need to ask for every step. But for now I'm completely lost without the help of skin experts.

 

[morpheus_xx]

Next I need to find is the place where the position of the main menu is defined.

it's in master_homemenu.xaml, "MainLayoutPanel", defined using margins:
<Grid x:Name="MainLayoutPanel" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Margin="10,220,-25,0">

The 2nd number is the "top" margin, increasing it will move the grid down, making it smaller in height.