Problems editting musicoverlay.xml (1 Viewer)

[Thijs_O]

Hello all,

First of all: sorry if this isn't the right board for it, I'm new here and not entirely sure.

I'm currently working on a custom version of the Monochrome basic home screen, you can see my current version here. As you can see, aside from various modifications I've moved the 'Now Playing' functionality for music to the upper-middle to prevent it from interfering with the menu. This was done by editting musicoverlay.xml and changing the X and Y positions. However, this resulted in the MusicOverlay.xml being relocated in every screen, overlapping with the interface on various occassions. So I came up with the following idea/solution:

1. Keep MusicOverlay.xml without changing it (being in the down-left corner of the screen) but setting the <allowoverlay> function in BasicHome to 'no' in order to prevent it from being displayed there.
2. Creating a changed version of the overlay (being relocated, as in my current basichome) named 'MusicOverlay_2.xml'.
3. Add the function <import>MusicOverlay_2.xml</import> to BasicHome.xml, which bypasses the AllowOverlay=NO rule and displays a specially relocated version of Now Playing only on the Basic Home screen.

However, it probably sounds too good to be true, because it doesn't work. If I add this function, I instead get a crash after a few seconds in the BasicHome-screen. I think this is because he try's to load it while there is no music playing. So does anyone know how I can make the <import> function only be active if music is playing? Then, I might be able to make it work and use two versions for MusicOverlay seperately.

Thanks in advance,

Thijs.

 

[2BitSculptor]

I named my MusicOverlay replacement 'common.nowplaying.xml' and have had no trouble with it, but I built it from scratch and not a mod of the MusicOverlay.xml... I just duplicated another 'common.xxx.xml' and replaced everything after the first <controls> label. It is positioned in the lower left corner and displays either music or video, but you can change any of that.

Here it is attached, hope you find it helpful.

regards

Chuck

 

[Thijs_O]

Thanks a lot! It seems to work great for me. I do need to make a few changes to it (location, etc) to be able to reproduce a Now Playing-thing like I have here, but i'm sure that I can manage that. Not good enough with XML's to create them myself but editting goes just fine for me. Just two questions:

1. It doesn't display albumart with music atm, does display small video window when video is being played though. Is this just scripted this way - if so I'll try to add it myself - or should it work?
2. Some people already said they'd be interested in my Basic Home mod; would it be okay with you if I'd include my own version of your XML when sharing my BasicHome, ofcourse giving credits to you for it? Would be nice.

Cheers,

Thijs.

 

[2BitSculptor]

I just checked it on my skin and it works fine..... not sure why you don't get album art on yours.

Glad you could find some use for it, no need to give me credit, as there are others involved who I'm grateful for assistance as well.

regards,

Chuck

 

[Thijs_O]

I found that your XML refers to blackbar.png to be used as a texture, as well as cdcover.png. I don't have those files in my /Skin/Media folder (using Monochrome) so perhaps it has something to do with that. Could you share those two files as well please? Would surely be appreciated. Are there any other files linked to in the XML I could be missing? Didn't find any (aside from the two mentioned) but perhaps I missed a spot.

Cheers,

Thijs.

 

[2BitSculptor]

Blackbar.png is just a filler behind the TV preview window, there may be another used in monochrome instead.... maybe black.bmp, or just remove it.

cdcover.png isn't used in monochrome, so you can just remove the control or replace it with some glass overlay or whatever monochrome might use. You can also place it before the cover art and put the frame from monochrome there (with some tweaks), it's up to you. I'm streamlining my skin a bit by using Blue3 as a base, and cdcover.png is used there.

Chuck

----

you might copy the music thumb controls from monochome and adjust their placement and size... the important part to keep is the visability controls from my xml. If the visibility controls are the issue, check the version of MP... I'm using RC4 with the latest SVN. that's all I can think of.

 

[Thijs_O]

I've made some progress, pretty much rewriting the custom MusicOverlay.xml I already had with your visability controls. And it seems to be working, except one thing: the images. I see the song title, playtime etc etc but I don't see things like the Play-button (like here), the thumb-background and the thumb (albumart) itself. Actually everything which is <type>image</type> doesn't seem to work. So I'm kinda stuck here. Any suggestions anyone?

 

[2BitSculptor]

you might try exiting MP, then delete the cache for that skin, so MP can rebuild the quick-graphics

just a guess.

Chuck

 

[Thijs_O]

Nope, that didn't help. I am going to try to integrate the entire script into BasicHome.xml, because it'll only be used there anyway. Using <type>image</type> works there anyway, so I'm hoping that it will work that way. Appears to be some problem with that <type> in an imported XML or something.

Update: That did the trick! At least for music playback, now I'll have to edit the video/movie part as well. This in some sense is just as good because I'll only use this alternative Overlay for the Basic Screen. Thanks for the help.

 

[2BitSculptor]

congrats!!

is this fun or what?

Chuck