The download size
#1
I was thinking 125 MB is pretty huge download for a skin (it even beats AEON) so out of curiosity I checked it out and noticed you package the full 100mb Weather fanart pack with the skin Shocked . I think many people would appreciate if you made that seperate so its much smaller download to update Nod
Reply
#2
Have you been following the weather fanart thread ?
If you did, you must have noticed how many people have trouble adding the xml code to their skin, jus to get it to work.
And there's probably a weather fanart thread in every skin's subforum too with posts of frustrated people who only see a black screen as soon as they added the weather fanart pack.

The same applies to all other mods. There are currently about a dozen mods for Aeon and they are all great. But the problem is, they are not compatible.
If you apply a mod, it will probably break another mod. And if you apply three mods, you'll probably break the entire skin.

So my approach is the spare people all this frustration and provide a solution that will work out of the box. All mods are fully included and most of them enabled by default.

I realize this comes at the cost of a bigger download size, but it'll save you a lot of time later.
I hope i soon will be able to move my skin to some svn site, which will deal with the problem of having to download everything again on each update.

Believe it or not, i've got a few requests to even add more artwork to Transparency!.

Like they say, size doesn't matter. ;-)
Do not PM or e-mail Team-Kodi members directly asking for support.
Always read the Forum rules, Kodi online-manual, FAQ, Help and Search the forum before posting.
Reply
#3
I'm a pretty big fan of the fact that I don't have to do much of anything additional to make the skin work. One suggestion to cut down size (that you can, obviously, take or leave) is to offer an "initial install" file and and "update" file that can simply be merged with the skin.
Reply
#4
Would just like to add that the download size is not completely irrelevant. I run my XBMC off a CF card and when size starts hitting the hundreds of megabytes region, I have to start thinking about my space left.

Perhaps it would make more sense for it to be possible to remove the weather fanart. This can probably be done already I imagine but could you tell us how.
Reply
#5
I'd agree with natethomas on this. I think your average Joe will really appreciate having the XML preset and the files already there. Just cut it back to a couple of images per condition and then link to the larger file and explain where the images need to be extracted to.

Definately agree that the skin should come essentially pre configured though. The competent among us can reconfigure a preconfigured package, your average user on the other hand will struggle and be put off by there being too much tinkering needed.
Reply
#6
Sure Its your skin after all do as you wish I just find it odd having to have multi weather fanart installs in my skin dir.
I kind of went the other way and added a button to enable it and then a browse for the path to the fanart button. Makes it much easier to find and use and saves the download and multi copies (if all skins do it) all it needs is a couple of visible conditions to turn off the default backgrounds

Image

Image
Reply
#7
Jezz, does that mean MediaStream now has Weather Fanart?
Reply
#8
Hitcher Wrote:Jezz, does that mean MediaStream now has Weather Fanart?

Getting off topic Smile but no it means my copy I'm doing I mentioned here http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=3...post352736 has it as you can probably see it does not look like regular MS weather
Reply
#9
I just wanted to say that I personally like that the skin includes the weather fanart pack - I wish the other skins would as well.

I think probably 95%+ people use this on a HTPC with plenty of HD space and a broadband connection that makes the time to d/l a 100mb file seem negligible.

Also the genre folder icons - it's fantastic that these are included. I remember how much of a pain it was when I was first messing with them. These are so small in size that I feel like these need to be in all of the skins.
Reply
#10
rausch101 Wrote:Also the genre folder icons - it's fantastic that these are included. I remember how much of a pain it was when I was first messing with them. These are so small in size that I feel like these need to be in all of the skins.

thanx for mentioning the genre icons. i had a look and they were pretty big (42MB).
i just reduced the size of all the images, to exactly match the size i'm using in the skin.
they're now down to 21MB.

edit: i can save another 10MB by converting them to .jpg (without using to much compression)
Do not PM or e-mail Team-Kodi members directly asking for support.
Always read the Forum rules, Kodi online-manual, FAQ, Help and Search the forum before posting.
Reply
#11
maocul Wrote:I'd agree with natethomas on this. I think your average Joe will really appreciate having the XML preset and the files already there. Just cut it back to a couple of images per condition and then link to the larger file and explain where the images need to be extracted to.

the next release of Transparency! will contain a reduced weather fanart pack. main reason for this is, i couldn't guaranty all the images were 'free to use' and i certainly don't want to violate any copyright regulation by distributing them as a part of the skin.
so those just had to go. it'll cut another 30MB of the download size.

old download size: 175MB
new download size: 110MB

i hope i can meet everyone half-way by making these changes.
Do not PM or e-mail Team-Kodi members directly asking for support.
Always read the Forum rules, Kodi online-manual, FAQ, Help and Search the forum before posting.
Reply
#12
Vote for the complete package. One thing I love about this skin is everything being bundled into a single download.

Thanks for the hard work.
Reply
#13
Ronie, from what I have seen of your screen shots, I would really like to use your skin. There is one problem though. You are using zshare.com and I am currently deployed to afghanistan at the moment. Over here, the satellite connection and zshare do not get along at all. I wouldn't mind taking the 8 hours to download the skin if all would cooperate. Is there any way that you might could post it on rapidshare.com? That is pretty much the only service that does not lose the connection because of it being too slow.

On topic though, one way that you could really cut down on size if you wanted to is to put it into multiple rar's, like putting it 3 deep into a rar file and then sending it off. I know that may sound a little pretentious, but it does work though. I have used that method many of time to get things to send through yahoo mail.

Good work on the skin though and hopefully I will be able to download it as soon as I can get a link other than zshare. Thanks for your hard work.
Reply
#14
Ronie i'm with you on this one stick with the complete package as it's a lot easier for the majority of users. for those like me who don't use the weather just delete what you don't need. don't be bullied into doing doing something your not happy with, if you want to do the extra work on makeing it smaller that's ok as long as your happy with it.

And keep up the great work your doing on this port of JezzX's great Pm3HDSmile
XBMC Frodo 12 - Windows 7 - Asrock Ion 330HT - Aeon Nox
Reply
#15
Ronie keep it as it is the more complete a skin the better for me tbh Smile
Reply

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
The download size0