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Ellipsis Beta One - Released Friday 4th December 2009
#16
xxxboxxx Wrote:all i know is with how much you have been hyping up this skin it better not suck.

Hey I got an idea, it's actually more common sense IMHO. If you don't like Ellipsis there are a dozen or more other skins you can use, so chill with the negative remarks for a skin you haven't even had your hands on yet.

nowisn Wrote:honestly for the length of time you guys worked on this thing it may just flop due to the lenghtly time to get it out there

hard to beat the ones out now with mods coming to them almost every day and rapier is my choice now for a default as he's done an awsome job putting it together

just release it so we can tear it apart and test it so we can make it better cause thats whats going to happen anyhow


no offence, just my opinion

Yes it may be your opinion but it is clearly unfounded. The time taken to create Ellipsis is due to the fact Steve and Pete have real lives outside of skinning for FREE.

And with all the improvements being made all the time to the engine it's pretty tough to keep up with the changes sometimes.

My last point I would like to make is that Ellipsis is by far better than most skins available today, without all the mods and random user bullshit added to it. Ellipsis is a great skin and you will see on the 4th.

And NO just because I am part of Team Blackbolt I'm not being biased.

RockDawg Wrote:I completely agree on that point, but I must also add that I give Scarfa huge props for working on Rapier behind the scenes, and therefore bypassing all of the incessant hype. I would love to see more done that way.

Sometimes I think it may have been a better idea to keep a skin behind the scenes, BUT it's actually quite nice to hear user reactions for something new you just added to the skin, hence the very reason we kept Xperience updated with images for people to see.
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#17
Looking forward to the release Team BB, the screenshots and video look great.

Not sure why you get so many complaints about your dev process here. Sure, it's fun to play with a new skin as it changes and matures (e.g. Alaska), but it's also great to have a finished, polished version work out of the box on release (e.g. MediaStream, Ellipsis I assume).

Ignore the strangely inflated sense of entitlement some posters seem to have Smile

L.
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#18
just keep what your doing guys if the idiots don't like it then tough lol

or just lock this thread as some posters don't have nappies big enough to hold thier crap Tongue
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#19
wrasor Wrote:Will this skin be memory friendly for the Xbox?
I second this. At this time, Scarfa's RAPIER is the best skin out there, really fast and memory-friendly: all aeon, horizon, transparency etc etc are really slow compared to RAPIER.

I would love to have an alternative to that wonderful skin (which lacks of a good lastfm integration, @tips for the devs Smile )
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#20
XBMCG33K Wrote:Sometimes I think it may have been a better idea to keep a skin behind the scenes, BUT it's actually quite nice to hear user reactions for something new you just added to the skin, hence the very reason we kept Xperience updated with images for people to see.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing the "pre-release announcement" skins. Far from it. I'm just saying I liked not having to endure all the anticipation, waiting, complaining or 200+ feature suggestions. At the same time, the only reason I'm subjected to those "annoyances" is because those skins also capture my interest and I follow the thread. So I recognize and enjoy the talent and skill of those making any of the big skins.
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#21
I'm not going to defend the way things have gone with Ellipsis' development, but maybe I should just let people know the facts.

When I worked on mc360, I was unemployed and had a lot of free time. There were also almost 10 guys working together on it. So when I started the project on December 29th 2005, it took us till June 6th 2006 to release the first release. Obviously once that first beta was done, we stepped off the gas a bit and it then took myself, jezz_x and a couple of other guys till February 17th 2007 to have a final 1.0 version ready. In the mean time we just released updates almost weekly, aswell as being in the xbmc svn. Because of the time I was able to dedicate to skinning, I was able to provide everything in the timescales projected.

While finishing off mc360, I started to develop a new skin, ellipsis. My plan was to try to code his skin with a smaller team, or even alone. So I began designing and I felt I was happy with some of my designs so I planned out how I would get the skin coded and textures done and saw it only taking a month or two. Then I got a job offer I couldn't refuse. So I took that, that involved moving. It also meant my freetime just went out the window. So for almost 2 years I wasn't able to much at all, so I thought at least if I keep designing, I wouldn't have to just cancel the project. So in what very little pockets of time I had, I would just fleshout window layouts.

Then in December 2008, I felt I could start spending a little more free time to the project and I was able to get equinox to come on board for coding. Now equinox at this point didn't really know xbmc skin code at all, but he is a software engineer by profession so he would pick it up along the way. So it wasn't until december 2008 that the skin even began really moving forward. So since then pete and I have pretty much sacrificed all our relax time to make this skin happen. A LOT of hours have been put in. We spent a long time making sure things work, are user friendly and are perfectly setup for a home media environment.

So please bare this in mind, it might have been much easier for me to just cancel the project, but I really wanted to make it happen so with pete's incredible help, we've been able to make that happen. If we weren't working, the skin would probably have taken a month or two, not eleven.
Team Blackbolt - Digital Design
Twitter.com/TeamBlackbolt | TeamBlackbolt.co.uk
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#22
I would like to also add, along the way I have also been also working on several other sub projects, such as:

1) Adding needed functionality/bug fixes to XBMC source thruout project
2) Coding and development of teamblackbolt website (GFX Blackbolt)
3) XBMC Virtual Controller (GFX Blackbolt)
4) XBMC Localizer (Due out soon)
5) Ripple effect anim generator (output used in Xperience)
6) Globe anim generater (output used in Xperience)
7) Not tryign to hype this but summin else that im not going to announce till complete.
8) Carousel generator
9) XML Validator and tidier tool

Hopefully if you consider this all you can see we have packed alot of stuff in since we properly started on ellipsis. Especially if you consider i didnt even know the context menu existed and various other things when i first started Big Grin
Currently working on Ellipsis 1.3 Updates. Update Requests Here.
Ellipsis for XBMC 1.2.1 Click here to download & for SVN details.
Twitter.com/TeamBlackbolt | Facebook.com/TeamBlackbolt1 | TeamBlackbolt.co.uk
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#23
what's xbmc localizer?
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#24
Some people simply don't realise the amount of time these things take and, like you say, most of it's done in what little free time we get.

Quote:9) XML Validator and tidier tool

Consider me interested.
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#25
I will wrap up the tools mentioned and put on site as soon as possible. I like to make sure everything I do is of a high standard and as problem free as possible.

At the moment im interfacting a Tira (infra red device) to xbmc using event client.

http://www.home-electro.com/tira2.php
Currently working on Ellipsis 1.3 Updates. Update Requests Here.
Ellipsis for XBMC 1.2.1 Click here to download & for SVN details.
Twitter.com/TeamBlackbolt | Facebook.com/TeamBlackbolt1 | TeamBlackbolt.co.uk
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#26
Blackbolt Wrote:I'm not going to defend the way things have gone with Ellipsis' development, but maybe I should just let people know the facts.

When I worked on mc360, I was unemployed and had a lot of free time. There were also almost 10 guys working together on it. So when I started the project on December 29th 2005, it took us till June 6th 2006 to release the first release. Obviously once that first beta was done, we stepped off the gas a bit and it then took myself, jezz_x and a couple of other guys till February 17th 2007 to have a final 1.0 version ready. In the mean time we just released updates almost weekly, aswell as being in the xbmc svn. Because of the time I was able to dedicate to skinning, I was able to provide everything in the timescales projected.

While finishing off mc360, I started to develop a new skin, ellipsis. My plan was to try to code his skin with a smaller team, or even alone. So I began designing and I felt I was happy with some of my designs so I planned out how I would get the skin coded and textures done and saw it only taking a month or two. Then I got a job offer I couldn't refuse. So I took that, that involved moving. It also meant my freetime just went out the window. So for almost 2 years I wasn't able to much at all, so I thought at least if I keep designing, I wouldn't have to just cancel the project. So in what very little pockets of time I had, I would just fleshout window layouts.

Then in December 2008, I felt I could start spending a little more free time to the project and I was able to get equinox to come on board for coding. Now equinox at this point didn't really know xbmc skin code at all, but he is a software engineer by profession so he would pick it up along the way. So it wasn't until december 2008 that the skin even began really moving forward. So since then pete and I have pretty much sacrificed all our relax time to make this skin happen. A LOT of hours have been put in. We spent a long time making sure things work, are user friendly and are perfectly setup for a home media environment.

So please bare this in mind, it might have been much easier for me to just cancel the project, but I really wanted to make it happen so with pete's incredible help, we've been able to make that happen. If we weren't working, the skin would probably have taken a month or two, not eleven.

You guys don't have to explain yourselves to anyone. It's YOUR skin, and it will be ready when your group has the free time to finish it. It's just xbmc, not life or death.
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#27
Can't wait to try something new.
HTPC= AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 l Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G l G Skill 2GB l HVR-1800 l PVR-150 l Ultra MicroFly Case l 180GB SATA l 250GB IDE
Old HTPC Build / Current 780G HTPC Build / My Website
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#28
as asked before... how is it performance-wise? how does it compare to the "speedy" rapier? is it xbox compatible?
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#29
EqUiNoX Wrote:I will wrap up the tools mentioned and put on site as soon as possible. I like to make sure everything I do is of a high standard and as problem free as possible.

At the moment im interfacting a Tira (infra red device) to xbmc using event client.

http://www.home-electro.com/tira2.php
Look forward trying it out, thanks.
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#30
Cimi Wrote:as asked before... how is it performance-wise? how does it compare to the "speedy" rapier? is it xbox compatible?

If you turn off fanart and don't use any custom wallpapers, then it runs fine
Team Blackbolt - Digital Design
Twitter.com/TeamBlackbolt | TeamBlackbolt.co.uk
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Ellipsis Beta One - Released Friday 4th December 20090