Mod Modification of Confluence for low resolutions (CRT, SD)
#1
Information 
Hello Kodi-users,

for a long time I've searched a usable/readable skin for old CRT TV's, but didn't found one?! Just scaling the font sizes in Font.xml is not satisfying and leads to a bunch of scrolling or overlapping labels.
For this reason I've decided to create a modification of the default skin. It targets low resolution screens or scenarios with a big distance between user and screen.

Versions
The newest version was build for Kodi 19.x and is based on version 4.7.15 of skin.confluence. See below for older releases for Kodi 18.x - 15.x.

The following screens give you an overview. Please note that I'm not targeting an 'always good locking skin', but readable text in common usage scenarios. For this reason, I've added this 'fancy' greyish background (less flickering), use less transparent textures and add an colour theme with a yellow font. This changes aren't active by default and needs to be enabled in the 'skins settings' section (opaque / black).

Downloads
Prebuild Zip-Archives can be found here:

Kodi 19.x (Matrix): https://github.com/YggdrasiI/skin.conflu...ag/v4.7.15
Kodi 18.x (Leia): https://github.com/YggdrasiI/skin.conflu...tag/v4.5.5
Kodi 17.x (Krypton): https://github.com/YggdrasiI/skin.conflu...tag/v3.1.6
Kodi 15.2 - 16.x: https://github.com/YggdrasiI/skin.conflu...9e3d629e35

Installation
1. Download or build addon archive (see below) and copy it on your Kodi system.
2. New in Kodi >= 17.0 (Krypton, Leia…) Allow addons from unknown sources in Preferences>System>Addons
3. Use the 'Install Addon from Zip' option and select above file.
  Alternatively, you can extract in manually into the addon directory of your
  Kodi installation, i.e. ~/.kodi/addons
4. Finally, select the skin under Preferences>Display. If the new skin is not listed, the skin
  version seems not to be compatible with your Kodi version.

Sources and Building The code can be found here:
https://github.com/YggdrasiI/skin.confluence.480

After cloning/downloading the repository two additional steps are required to use the addon:
  1. ./parseTemplates  ⇒ Converts the extended xml files in 'templates' into common kodi xml files.
    If you want change a detail of this skin, but can't find the matching location in the sources, try ./parseTemplates --debug-labels. This replaces label texts with the text "[filename] + [line number]".
  2. ./bulidPackage --pack  ⇒ Build addon (copy required files into a new folder) and updates the texture packs
    If the Kodi tool TexturePacker is not installed you can omit the --pack argument. For Linux users I've added a script, TexturePackerBuild.sh, which can compile TexturePacker out of it's sources.
Regards YggdrasiI

Screenshots
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image (Kodi 18.x variant)
Image (Kodi 18.x variant)
Image (Kodi 18.x variant)
Image (Larger Font selected)
Image (Larger Font selected)
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#2
I've updated the link in the first post to 'release0.8'. Most changes affects OSD-Files and PVR-Files. Here are a few more screenshots to show the differences to the normal Confluence screen. At the first moment, they looks strange if the where directly compared, but I've find readability better at high distances.

Image (default)
Image (changed)

Image (default)
Image (changed)
Image (default)
Image (changed)
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#3
Hi. I am looking for this quite some time for my Car 3.5" TV.

Thank you so much for the mod
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#4
Hello,

I've updated my modification of the skin to Krypton 17 (tested on 17.0 Git:20170210 and LibreELEC 7.95).

Installation instruction (without building)
1. Download https://github.com/YggdrasiI/skin.conflu...ase0.9.zip
and copy it on your kodi system.
2. (New in Krypton…) Allow addons from unknown sources in Preferences>System>Addons
3. Use the 'Install Addon from Zip' option and select above file.
Alternatively, you can extract in manually into the addon directory of your
Kodi installation, i.e. ~/.kodi/addons
4. Finally, select Skin in Preferences>Display(?). If the new skin is not listed, the skin
version seems not to be compatible with your Kodi version. If your Kodi version is older,
check the version infos of older releases of this skin.
Reply
#5
Hi
I've just found this work you have done on confluence.
It is exactly what I need for a music player I am building for my car.
I have already done some work on the standard Confluence skin to make it more readable on the small screen in the car, but the everything is to small to be easily readable when driving.
Your skin seems to be an ideal solution, but when I edit the home.xml file (as I did in the standard confluence) I don't see any changes in Kodi.
Do I need to edit different files in your skin?
Regards
Steve
Reply
#6
Hello Steve,

yes, the directory of the XML files differ. If you had downloaded/cloned the complete Github repository,
it contains the folders "720p", "templates", and "out".
The first one is the common folder, but here it just contains the default conflunence files.
The "out" folder contains the files, used by Kodi and
in "templates" are the xml files, with placeholders for the dimensions (position, width, height, etc) of each element.

If you want edit the Home.xml file it exists two ways.
1. Edit the file in "out".
2. Edit the file in "templates" and run the python script parseTemplates, i.e.
python3 parseTemplates.py --force

The second way recreates the files in "out" and was tested on Linux only. The script also had the option --debug-label, which replaces label textes with its position in the xml files. Made it easier to find the correct lines to edit :-)


Regards Yggdrasil
Reply
#7
Hi Yggdrasil

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I have edited the home and includes xml files in the out directory, and now the skin works perfectly for me.

Regards

Steve
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#8
Hi, YggdrasiI
Searching for a solution for my CRT TV, I found yours as being the best bet!

I'm on an Android 6.01, Kodi 16.1:

Downloaded the file "skin.confluence.480-master.zip"
extracted to folder (not sure that could be the correct one...):
./Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/addons

Inside Kodi, the skin appears on list, but can't load.
(I receive a message about "some files are missing".)

(Edit: Tried execute commands on terminal... couldn't due to "permission denied", even under root.)
Anyone got it working on Android?
Reply
#9
(2017-03-18, 03:54)Shadethinker Wrote: Hi, YggdrasiI
Searching for a solution for my CRT TV, I found yours as being the best bet!

I'm on an Android 6.01, Kodi 16.1:

Downloaded the file "skin.confluence.480-master.zip"
extracted to folder (not sure that could be the correct one...):
./Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/addons

Inside Kodi, the skin appears on list, but can't load.
(I receive a message about "some files are missing".)
[...]

Hello Shadethinker,

the folder seems to be correct but as mentioned in the first post your Kodi version needs an older version of the skin.
Please it with https://github.com/YggdrasiI/skin.conflu...ase0.8.zip

Executing of the build script should not be required unless you changes some of the xml files.
Reply
#10
(2017-03-20, 15:06)YggdrasiI Wrote:
(2017-03-18, 03:54)Shadethinker Wrote: Hi, YggdrasiI
Searching for a solution for my CRT TV, I found yours as being the best bet!

I'm on an Android 6.01, Kodi 16.1:

Downloaded the file "skin.confluence.480-master.zip"
extracted to folder (not sure that could be the correct one...):
./Android/data/org.xbmc.kodi/files/.kodi/addons

Inside Kodi, the skin appears on list, but can't load.
(I receive a message about "some files are missing".)
[...]

Hello Shadethinker,

the folder seems to be correct but as mentioned in the first post your Kodi version needs an older version of the skin.
Please it with https://github.com/YggdrasiI/skin.conflu...ase0.8.zip

Executing of the build script should not be required unless you changes some of the xml files.

You simply ROCK! Just like your skin, that should be included in default install.
THANK YOU!
Reply
#11
Wink 
(2017-03-20, 22:16)Shadethinker Wrote: [quote='YggdrasiI' pid='2552275' dateline='1490015188']
[quote='Shadethinker' pid='2550621' dateline='1489802086']

You simply ROCK! Just like your skin, that should be included in default install.
THANK YOU!

This should be the default skin for Krypton.

I don't care for estuary at all: B- on Form; C- on usability from me.

A+ on both counts for your modded Confluence!
Reply
#12
Hello, I've updated the skin to Confluence 4.1.43, Edit: Sorry, I mean 3.1.37 (Krypton compatible).
The new addon zip can be found here.

A working skin version for older Kodi systems is still available.
Reply
#13
I've updated the repository to newer versions of Confluence Smile Please check the starting post for links the the newest releases (Only published over Github, sorry…)
The modification bases on version 3.1.6 (Krypton) and 4.4.2 (Leia), now.
Reply
#14
Thank you for keeping this updated. 

It does exactly what I wish Kodi could do on it's own - scale text to a point that it's useful from across a room.
Reply
#15
The Leia version (Kodi 18.x) of the skin was updated on v4.5.4, now.
Some glitches, (missing background image in the context menu, wrong side blade position in games menu, clipped label in weather menu) could also be fixed.
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Modification of Confluence for low resolutions (CRT, SD)0