[Funkd]

Latest Release : ScopeNox 1.23 (Leia)

Hi,
Ok not sure how much interest there is in something like this but as I have it mostly done I thought I'd stick it in here. First off, love BigNoids skin. I've been using it for a long time. But the issue I had made me start looking into modding it myself.

I have a CIH Projector setup on a 2.35 screen. BigNoid is working on 21:9 version of the skin which unfortunately doesn't work for some CIH users, like myself. Those who can get their system to output a custom resolution will likely be able to use BigNoids skin. But in my case that didn't work.

Who this is for :
Those of us who output 1920x1080 on our projectors and zoom the image to fill a 2.35/scope screen and cannot use custom resolutions. This will make the Aeon Nox fit the format of our scope screens and not need to zoom out and have side bars.

The skin has been modded so that all the gui is within the 800pixel image on a scope screen. I have widened some views and made some fonts smaller. The reason for making some of them smaller is that only people with projectors would be using this so it will be on a large screen.

As mentioned its mainly repositioning. I have also added in a scope mask. This can be used where movies (like Interstellar, Dark Knight etc) change aspect ratios throughout the movie. If you want to view the movie in 2.35 then you can toggle the 2.35 (21:9) mask on and off. This will cover the top and bottom with black bars meaning you will not notice the shift in aspect ratio and the image spilling out of the screen.

I am unable to test PVR fully at the minute but on looking at the code, PVR add ons would need to be individually done as they have their own layout xmls.

Some screen shots :


















Example of a 16:9 movie without masking :





Switching the masking on :




Extras added :
For some people the aspect ratios shown are wrong in Kodi as a result of their rips containing the black bars, i.e. a 1920x1080 video as opposed to a 1920x800 video.
To get around this, as of v1.3, you can include the aspect ratio in the folder name, e.g. "Theory of Everything, The (2014) 2.35". In this case the 21:9 aspect ratio would show in Kodi. If its not in the filename then the usual aspect ratio will be shown.

In v1.3 this is only in InfoWall view, from 1.4 it will be in any view using the aspect ratio.


So if anyone is interested, let me know and if you do try it out and notice any issue then let me know. Or if this shouldn't be here give me a heads up

Cheers.

GITHub : https://github.com/Funkd/ScopeNox

[Mike_Doc]

Nice work Funkd and thanks for sharing, I'm sure it will help some people.

[Funkd]

Just to keep this thread up to date coming from other thread (http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=210806)

Ok. Watched a few movies with you skins in my theater. Very nice indeed and I like the scope masking button.
Personally I would have preferred if the GUI was within 800 pixels. I have a 2.40:1 screen and this would be less of a problem with movies that are little more than 800.
Then it does become obvious that these skins are made for TVs. Really the text needs to be smaller. It is annoying that your 130" screen can only display a few lines of the movie synopsis for instance. I do realize that it more or less requires a skin build for scope. Also in fanart of confluence, the highlighted movie thumb is smaller than the rest on the list, no too logic.
That is all the complaints I have for now. So far the skins are the best solution available for me as a zoomer, and it must be for others as well.
I wish I had the skills to make the changes myself, I have tried, but I lack even the basics. So thank again. And please keep up the good work.

Thanks for the feedback. I dont fully get the issue with the 800pixels and 2.40, is the gui spilling out over the screen? Would you want separate mask, like a mask for 2.40 and 2.35? I'll try and get some of these fixes in later this evening.

Tempted to make a skin myself but its the graphics department I'd struggle with. Trying to get inspiration on layouts from other skins.

Regarding the fonts I plan on making these smaller later. Its difficult working at it on the laptop because at times you think the font looks right only to find out that on the projector you could have reduced it a bit more. But I agree on that point, will sort that.

[AEnz]

Well my understanding was that the skin was 816 pixels high, so when I set my projector at lens memory for 2.40:1, the GUI spills a bit over the top and bottom. If it was all within 800 pixels, this would never be a problem. Of course there would be a little gap from the GUI to top/bottom when set at 2.35:1. Less troublesome in my humble opinion.
And yeah the overall awesomeness of these skins are a bit crippled by the large fonts. This was also a problem with regular skins on +100". Even regular skins needs way smaller fonts for these screen sizes.

[Funkd]

Well my understanding was that the skin was 816 pixels high, so when I set my projector at lens memory for 2.40:1, the GUI spills a bit over the top and bottom. If it was all within 800 pixels, this would never be a problem. Of course there would be a little gap from the GUI to top/bottom when set at 2.35:1. Less troublesome in my humble opinion.
And yeah the overall awesomeness of these skins are a bit crippled by the large fonts. This was also a problem with regular skins on +100". Even regular skins needs way smaller fonts for these screen sizes.

Cheers Aenz. Taking a look here now and I can see what you mean. My overlay for repositioning was slightly off. I'll get that corrected and let you know. 2.35 would be about 817pixels and 2.40 is 800 pixels as you say.

I am going to change some of the fonts now tonight also. I'll start with the main things like plot info etc..

[Funkd]

Hi, I have committed two new folders.

235 = 2.35:1 format. (Original)

240 = 2.40:1 format.

The default in the addon.xml is the 240 folder. So if you try it again now Aenz it should fit a bit better. Let me know if there are any areas I've missed.

I've only done a few font changes so far. Need to read up a bit more on the fonts in Kodi.

The mask in the player is also now 2.40.

[AEnz]

I have been very busy. But will continue to appreciate your work. For some reason I have an off topic problem in my theater that prevents me get the full enjoyment of your hard work. Any kodi version (all after 13.2) will not give me fluent playback (23.976) This was not easy getting in the first place I remember. I will need to try other platforms I guess.
My current HTPC use a haswell i3 with HD4600 graphics, running Win7 and now again XBMC 13.2
I have had a look at the new skin on other computers and we are almost there skin-wise. Would love to know what you think is possible font-wise. Again, the size of most items is a problem in regular skins as well. I remember when I used to just shrink the GUI at max -20%. That helped a lot, but obviously did not show more info at the time.

[Funkd]

I have been very busy. But will continue to appreciate your work. For some reason I have an off topic problem in my theater that prevents me get the full enjoyment of your hard work. Any kodi version (all after 13.2) will not give me fluent playback (23.976) This was not easy getting in the first place I remember. I will need to try other platforms I guess.
My current HTPC use a haswell i3 with HD4600 graphics, running Win7 and now again XBMC 13.2
I have had a look at the new skin on other computers and we are almost there skin-wise. Would love to know what you think is possible font-wise. Again, the size of most items is a problem in regular skins as well. I remember when I used to just shrink the GUI at max -20%. That helped a lot, but obviously did not show more info at the time.

Hi Aenz,

With the latest code alot of the fonts have been reduced. In the majority of my movies now I can see the full plot without scrolling. Some have a bit of scrolling but not much. On the recent movies widget I removed the director tag and brought the plot up and reduced the font along with increasing the width so again alot of the plot shows better now. Buttons etc have also been reduced. Open to suggestion for other areas to reduce also. Have a few more things to fix yet when I get time.

[AEnz]

That sounds awesome, can't wait. Another thing that would be nice with scope setups is to have more of the text and menu items closer to center. The far sides should only really be used for fanart and backgrounds etc. But for most part its good enough already. Also scrolling text in the plot is not a big problem. Plots will vary in length. The problem is only having 2-3 lines available on a screen that should be big enough.

[Funkd]

Yeah the font looks better to me now. I get what you mean with the centering of things. You lose the effect of the background art by cutting off the top and bottom of the screen for scope. Are you suggesting reducing the width of areas to get more of the art visible? Could do that on a few views. I need to center some of the menus in general as some are a bit off. I was using different heights for 2.35 and 2.40 but I might leave all the heights and leave the only difference being the position of the top and bottom of the screen.

[AEnz]

The scope format hitting the background art is a problem I do not have a solution for. The backgrounds somehow need to be just that: fullscreen, so cropping is probably the only solution. I guess they are 16:9 so some will fare better than others.
I like the idea with 2.35 and 2.40. I have a setting for both on my screen and lens memory, but the whole idea with a scope skin is to not hit the zoom/lens mem each time you are in the GUI. Therefore I would think the best compromise would be to have the GUI within the widest aspect. And there are a lot of movies in 2.40:1/800pixels.

[Funkd]

Yeah there are currently 2 seperate skin folders, one for 2.35 and one for 2.40 (default is 2.40), but what I'm going to change is that if 2.35 is selectd then top and bottom bars are moved 9 or 10 pixels up and down respectively as some people might want the gui to fill the 2.35 screen so at least the option is there.

[AEnz]

That would be ideal. But will there be a toggle option or likewise in the GUI?

[Funkd]

Yeah, I'll probably add it in to the Configure section of the skin so you can toggle between 2.35/2.40. Just need to read up a bit more on adding configurable options.

[Funkd]

I got this done this evening. I've added in the skin settings. You can now toggle between 2.35 and 2.40.

I didn't get a chance to commit the code yet but I'll get that done tomorrow.