[Skin release] SimpleMP Beta 4 (MP 0.2.3.0) (1 Viewer)

[fo0d]

I really like this skin as well.
Could you let us know when you will be releasing beta 4.

Thanks

 

[vankata86]

Greetings from Bulgaria

That's a really nice skin
But here in Bulgaria we use cyrilic and it seems that it can't display non-latin characters Will this be fixed in the next release?

 

[mikael]

Hi everyone! I'm still alive and so is the development of the SimpleMP skin. Sadly, I havn't had much spare time to work on the skin on. The SimpleMP beta 4 skin is about 95% complete with a long (great) change log.

With the new great 0.2.3 build of MediaPortal it's really time for me to release the new skin version. "I'm working on it" and it will be released "soon" (you'll hate me for using that word).

vankata86 -> I have no idea why SimpleMP doesn't support non-latin characters, does BlueTwo do that? I will have a look into this issue but can't promise anything at this time. SimpleMP and BlueTwo uses the same xml code base so it seems strange that the skin would act different...

 

[xemumanic]

The SimpleMP beta 4 skin is about 95% complete with a long (great) change log.

That's some of the best news I've heard all day.

 

[vankata86]

Yes, Blue Two has no problem with that. But I found why. In Blue Two's fonts.xml file for each font declaration there are two lines of code that are missing in SimpleMP's fonts.xml:

<start>0</start>
<end>1536</end>

Adding them to each font declaration in SimpleMP's fonts.xml file solves the problem

 

[mikael]

Yes, Blue Two has no problem with that. But I found why. In Blue Two's fonts.xml file for each font declaration there are two lines of code that are missing in SimpleMP's fonts.xml:

<start>0</start>
<end>1536</end>

Adding them to each font declaration in SimpleMP's fonts.xml file solves the problem

Then I'll add it to the next version Thanks for your research!

This must been a new feature for 0.2.3 since I never seen that before... however, great to know that MP is supporting non-latin languages!


Allright, since you ppl are curious... here is the current todo-list before the release:

* Add support for SVTPlay plugin
* Kick on Sh4nn0w to send me the final My-TVseries xml's
* OnlineVids - Fix some overlapping issues
* Wikipedia - Change some layout for better usage of the screen
* Track MP's recent changes and see how it affect the skin (compare B2 skin files)
* Look into my videos stacking problem
* Fonts for non-latin characters issue - see post above (allready solved)

Seriously, this isn't much work to do... just have to take my thumb out ... and do it!

 

[solis66]

Nice. Looking forward to see this...

Regarding your problem:

* Look into my videos stacking problem

If it's the file stacking dialog that's the problem, just copy "dialogFileStacking.xml" from Blue Two. With 0.2.3.0 you cant set your own position for the elements

Cheerio

 

[mikael]

I have now looked into the dialogFileStacking.xml file and made SimpleMP Beta 4 compatible with the new stacking system.

While I looked at the xml code, I also found out a new idea to number the discs in the stack. Maybe everyone of you can count to 3 or in some cases 4... but I really think the numbers will help anyway. The numbers are text strings but works up to 20 stacked items (MP doesn't support more either)

See attached screenshot of the new SimpleMP stacking dialog and the old B2 stacking dialog:

 

[its_me_gb]

excellent, i really like this skin! i cant wait till beta 4. will there be descriptions of each series in MPTVSeries? and also will there be support for My Films?

george

 

[mikael]

<start>0</start>
<end>1536</end>

Adding them to each font declaration in SimpleMP's fonts.xml file solves the problem

There is a strange problem with those start and end tags... For some font sizes the letters looks "pixelated" or zoomed. SimpleMP uses Arial 48 for the transparent title text in the upper left... when adding this start and end tags to font48 it looks really bad. Same for font12 (as I shouldn't use anyway). All other fonts work perfectly with the start and end tags.

Note: I have deleted the cache fonts in the ProgramData folder (using vista)... that's not the problem.

Until I have a solution on this, font48 will only use the standard range of characters.


Another thing I noticed a while ago is that my vista installation of MP has smaller fonts than the XP one on my HTPC (looks better on XP)... this happens with all skins... does Vista's DirectX font handler automatically reduces font sizes...?

...will there be descriptions of each series in MPTVSeries?

Yes, just like in BlueTwo

...will there be support for My Films?

Nope, not by default in beta 4. The reason is that I don't use that plugin (yet) on my HTPC. Feel free to make some own contributions here. I can guess that the BlueTwo skin file will work to 90% with SimpleMP too, both uses the same xml base. Some tweaks and gfx's may however need to be changed to make it look superb...