Messages

Sorry for the late response, I sent you a PM jimbodude.

eNoodle

@posde, I agree, having a consistent layout on all variations is a must. UI2 is a little bit different, but at least the popups can get the same layout. That's exactly what I'm trying to build: One layout for all.

eNoodle

Good idea jondecker. What about the iPhone? I guess it has a solution of 480 x 320, if we add a new variation wouldn't it make sense to target these devices too, even if it is an exotic resolution?

eNoodle

Hi Linux_da,

the Basic skin folder is very important, as it is the fallback folder for all skins. If OrbiterGen can not find a graphic file for a skin, it tries to get it from Basic. I recommend watching _all_ screencast from tschak, as it is essential to understand the logic behind HA Designer and OrbiterGen. There are a lot of pitfalls in designing skins for LinuxMCE, watching the screencast avoids the most.

eNoodle

Hi jimmejames,

as far as i know, the status is polled from LMCE. There was a discussion regarding floorplan device state, have a look here. Maybe that answers your question.

eNoodle

eNoodle - If I could make a suggestion.... at the moment, a critical need is for at least 1 alternative UI2 skin! I think the eye-candy stuff would be a vastly lesser interest to most people who just want am alternative skin to Basic when using UI2 the eye-candy stuff can come later... and from what I have read from Thom before on the MNG stuff you would be in for a messy time, and hugely long skin regen times... I would love to see your existing skin transposed to UI2 without the MNG stuff first

Hi colin,

of course, you can always make suggestions.

I like to play with HA Designer and try to see, what is possible. I do this, to get an overview of what can be used within a UI1 skin. Currently I'm only adding support for UI1 Normal Horizontal and PDA version. After that I'll directly try to add a Symbian version. The eye candy stuff isn't that important, I agree at that point, but it is there so I have to see it at least once.

UI2 will be a different task and a harder battle. From what I understand now, there is a lot of stuff hardcoded within different portions of codes. Making a new UI2 skin is not only a question of designing, a lot of programming has to be done too. So I'm still trying to get all that stuff into my head.

eNoodle

Ok, this doesn't sound good. I'll give it a try, when going over to UI2, maybe it is usable in some cases.

One question here, if OrbiterGen is rendering it frame by frame, doesn't this also mean, that embedding MNGs would be time-killing at the end?

eNoodle

count me in...

eNoodle

Is it required to putting the new images folder in the core system also under /usr/pluto/orbiter/skins ?

Of course, you need to put your skin into that folder and after that do a full regen. Otherwise you won't see anything.

eNoodle

The Static Nature of UI2 can be overcome somewhat with MNG based graphics, and OpenGL effects for UI2. Look in the Effect/EffectType tables for examples. These were not used because of the processing power required at the time, but they are available in the code.

I've seen some MNG graphics within the skin directory, but I haven't seen them used in any DesignObj. Are they for UI2 only? I would like to add some graphical goodies to the UI2 version, so animated graphics and some OpenGL effects extend the possibilities.

eNoodle

use webadmin and got to Orbiters, then choose your skin and do a full regen. After that the skin should appear.

eNoodle

Hi los93sol,

I'm not a designer, and I feel my skills in Photoshop aren't perfect, but it is enough to design a skin for LMCE. I guess the harder part is digging into HA Designer and build a completly new skin. I recommend doing all the graphic stuff first (Mainmenu, Floorplans, Remotes, etc..) and do some testing with new objects first (for example, I like to have some kind of dropdown for User and Room selection instead of a seperate screen...).

Currently I'm building a bunch of Photoshop templates. Design single screens and elements and slice them according to my needs. With that done I only need to open a screen within Photoshop, press export and I get all the smaller bits exported into the correct location.

I hope to have the major part done the next weeks, I then suggest to move the templates to the linuxmce.org server, so people willing to help can jump in and help finish a completly new skin.

Greets,
eNoodle

Thanks guys, I hope I get it done until 810 is released.

Thank you so much for your work.

Thank you for your screencasts...

eNoodle

[Floormap Buttons on each page]

I'll also try to show you some tricks, which makes working with HA Designer much easier.

Floormap Buttons on each page

NoodleSkin has on every single page buttons for the floorplans (the buttons on the left side). Instead of adding "Set Floorplan" on every single screen, I build a group of buttons and added the "Set Floorplan" action to the startup section of this group, this saves some time and is much easier. I now only need to place the group of buttons on the left side and do not need to worry about "Set Floorplan" and "Show Floorplan", because everything is done within the group.

Tabstrip

I did several test trying to realize the Tabstrip on the left side. However, having single buttons and setting different backgrounds for normal and selected state is working, but sometimes you will get ugly borders. I guess this is due the fact, that the screen is resized while rendering. To avoid this, I recommend to use different backgrounds and use transparent buttons.

eNoodle