1.4.x Titan: Category images in MovingPictures upscaled and blurry (1 Viewer)

[StarWup]

Hi all,

I defined some movie categories in MovingPictures with Titan 1.4. and pooled movies to collections via the Node/Filter function in MovingPictures. For each node i defined a backdrop which I got from the well-known category image thread (https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/category-image-exchange.74382/).

The backdrops are 454x455 px in size. But they are upscaled and blurry (see screenshot below). Is there anything I can do to maintain the image size and aspect ratio?

 

[bta489]

no response for a month...that's odd. If this is still a problem:
It's my understanding that the Category Images are not supposed to be used as full-size backdrops, but rather as an additional smaller image (As the examples in the thread you linked show). If you insist to use them as backdrops you could add the following lines to the respective <control>-Item in the skinfile:

<keepaspectratio>yes</keepaspectratio>
<align>center</align>
<valign>middle</valign>

This would center the image. But make sure that, if there is a field <zoom> or <zoomfromtop>, it is set to false, not true.

More eleganty though would be an additional <control>-Item like the example code in the linked thread. This way you'll have the category image and an actual backdrop from one of the movies matching the criteria.

For instance if you add this:

<control>
     <description>Category images (Categories)</description>
     <type>image</type>
     <id>0</id>
     <posX>1600</posX>
     <posY>150</posY>
     <width>300</width>
     <height>300</height>
     <texture>C:\Path\to\your\pictures\#MovingPictures.SelectedNode.FileFriendlyName.png</texture>
     <visible>facadeview.list + control.isvisible(51)</visible>
     <animation effect="fade" time="250">WindowOpen</animation>
     <animation effect="fade" time="250">WindowClose</animation>
  </control>

to the movingpictures.facade.xml (put it at the end, just before "</controls>") and adjust the <texture>-field to your file structure. You will end up with something like this:

You can of course adjust the size and position. This is how I thought it looks best.

 

[StarWup]

Thank you for your answer and this excellent explanation! That's exactly what I was looking for. Indeed it was my false understanding that the category images were supposed to be used as a sort of backdrops (never saw a screenshot with Titan to see the proper results) - and the only location I found where to set that was in Moving Pictures under the GU settings tab.

What I was really looking for was how to use the category images as they were supposed to be, of course. But I couldn't figure out how to set that in Titan skin. I learned from your description that Titan skin doesn't support category images out of the box, is that right? What made it even worse is that I didn't get any answer neither in the Category Image thread nor in this Titan skin feedback thread for weeks. The MovingPictures website is also down for a while so here too no chance to have a look in that wiki. That's what really makes me angry with MP in general from time to time - the lack of documentation and the sudden deaths of plugins or skins.
So I dumped it all and switched to StreamedMP skin. No need to adjust anything there. It just works. I'm happy
If I would have learned the elegant way by adding an additional <control>-Item like the example code in your linked thread AND would have got any useful answer to my questions in which file to add this piece of code I would have stayed with Titan.

Again, thank you for your highly skilled answer!

Sven

 

[bta489]

Yeah, that's pretty frustrating. That's why I one day just opened some .xml's and looked what happened if I changed things. Documentation is indeed scarce sometimes, but most if it is out there somewhere.
I guess the problem with category-images is that it isn't a complete "plugin" itself, but rather a quick hack. I guess no one felt responsible to document it properly.

I learned from your description that Titan skin doesn't support category images out of the box, is that right?

Yes, Titan is rather basic out of the box. It is a good base for further customization, though. Unfortunately there are no comfortable tools for that.

StreamedMP however is a great skin. If I hadn't invested so much time in customizing Titan this would be first choice for me as well.