[jediry]

From watching the //build videos, it seems that Kodi would retain all of its abilities that it currently has, since this is basically just a new way of packaging a win32 desktop app. This should be pretty easy, so I'm going to give it a try. I'll post back with what I learn.

I will laugh very very hard at that statement
Safe yourself the trouble as I already faced all the troubles.

I assume the statement you're laughing at was that "it should be easy"?

So you already attempted this? What were your results? If you got stuck, what was the issue that blocked you?

[Martijn]

From watching the //build videos, it seems that Kodi would retain all of its abilities that it currently has, since this is basically just a new way of packaging a win32 desktop app. This should be pretty easy, so I'm going to give it a try. I'll post back with what I learn.

I will laugh very very hard at that statement
Safe yourself the trouble as I already faced all the troubles.

I assume the statement you're laughing at was that "it should be easy"?

Yup it was indeed about "it should be easy"
That's what our contact told us as well as he had Kodi running as UWP.

So you already attempted this? What were your results? If you got stuck, what was the issue that blocked you?

Step 1:
throw away the auto converter and run makeappx manually. Spend to much time on it and failed each time to get it working properly.
You had to have the anniversary update installed to get the special VM running where the converter did it's magic. End result was still a non functional installer with files missing like the VC redist we need. At least there were some improvements to the auto converter we reproted back (see last changes in the desktop converter changelog ). It's certainly not as easy to use as the video shows. Guess that's standard marketing talk

Results:
Kodi needed code changes to work as we aren't allowed to load DLLs in the way we did (we had them in subfolders and needed to move them). Our windows dev took the axe and started chopping so i now have it running local. All in all the UWP desktop app is nothing more than a different package format just like our current NSIS installer or APK files are on Android with a little more sandboxed environment.
One huge disadvantage is the way Microsoft decided to say screw the default C drive and we will always install every single app on it and don't the user the choice to put it somewhere else. Sure you can switch the default install location but then you would have to reinstall everything after the switch. No idea who's idea that was but they should hunt him down with pitchforks.

Kodi downside is there's no way to use the portable install mode for regular users and no installer options like we now have. Maybe it's possible but not looked into it and don't really care either on that.

A true UWP app would certainly be a much nicer goal but as you said (and experienced) it's not easy. If any one is willing to assist in that we would be very grateful as getting to the XBOX would be fun in several nostalgic ways.

[jediry]

A true UWP app would certainly be a much nicer goal but as you said (and experienced) it's not easy. If any one is willing to assist in that we would be very grateful as getting to the XBOX would be fun in several nostalgic ways.

I would be willing to help some on the Windows side. Getting on the Xbox is personally less interesting to me, as I don't own one. But I'm highly interested in enabling other UWP-related features (especially Cortana integration and voice control of Kodi playback). Would love to ditch the remote control entirely.

[Martijn]

A true UWP app would certainly be a much nicer goal but as you said (and experienced) it's not easy. If any one is willing to assist in that we would be very grateful as getting to the XBOX would be fun in several nostalgic ways.

I would be willing to help some on the Windows side. Getting on the Xbox is personally less interesting to me, as I don't own one. But I'm highly interested in enabling other UWP-related features (especially Cortana integration and voice control of Kodi playback). Would love to ditch the remote control entirely.

All i can say is here's our code https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc which you can already compile and package/sign locally to run it as UWP I'm sure you are already familiar with that part though.
Always develop against our master branch. We just switched to cmake build so you need to follow the windows part here https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/master.../README.md to get the Visual Studio files for debugging/development.
Here's some more info http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Compile_Kodi_for_Windows that may need some updating to current situation.

For Cortana integration we would love to see the most generic way for interfacing (likely JSON-RPC) with Kodi so we can easily extend with other platforms like Android and keep platform specific code to minimum. If you need help you can open thread in dev section with specific questions on best way to handle integrations.

[harpreps]

I thought python cant be run in the UWP apps?
I will be willing to help out too if anyone is actively working on this.