[FoxTC]

Hi JM,

Any chance you could change the buffer amount indicator to black rather than white? On my TV it's really difficult to see how much of a video is buffered.

I also have a display issue, which might be a bug. If I'm in an info screen (movie info) for example, if I press the HOME (little house) button on the xbmc remote app, you are quickly taken to the main menu. The problem is the movie info screens stay on, which looks messy.

[kyotocafe]

I have just tried the skin and it is really good. I do like it.

I wish there was an option to display a big font like in Aeon Nox or in reFocus Big, as well as support for Asian characters.

[st graveyard]

I have just tried the skin and it is really good. I do like it.

I wish there was an option to display a big font like in Aeon Nox or in reFocus Big, as well as support for Asian characters.

I agree, I love this skin, but if i have one complaint, I do think the font is sometimes a bit small and hard to read ...

[st graveyard]

Hey JM,

Been playing some more with RCB and the latest version of the skin.

Some new remarks/suggestions/bugs :

- In all views of RCB, and in the info view, the text scrolling does not work. Can this be set to autoscroll like in the movie and tv show section?
- In the info panel, I think the order of the 4 small screenshots is wrong. starting from left to right :
1) In Arctic the most left shot (first shot) should be placed to position 4 (most to right)
2) the second shot in artic should be placed to position 1 (most to left)
3) the third shot in artic is OK
4) the fourth shot should be placed on position 2 (second from left)
- as you already mentioned. A zoom function on each of the 4 shots would be the icing on the cake ;-)
- In the info panel, when pressing the trailer button the video plays nicely in the big box. When I press TAB I go to full screen but the menu and 4 shots are still visible. Is it possible to fix this, I think it is a bug.
- can you make game logo's available in Arctic? In RCB you have to possibility to link the game logo as well. Can you have this displayed at the bottom of the screen instead of the title (just like in the movie and tv show section)? Artic would be the first skin to have this option actually working if you do this ;-)
- I know it is on your to do list, but I add it to this post. Possibility to remove/change the background.
- in the info screen you talk about 'author' and show the developer and publisher. Can you make this more clear and show both developer and publisher each in their seperate section on the info screen (instead of both in 'author').
- in the info view, only the publisher is shown, can you also add the developer? Maybe add this info as well in the info wall view?
- Also on your to do list, but just a reminder - please add a game counter on the main screen of the views.

I think, so far that is it. I really love the 'info' view in combination with the 3D artwork, it looks so neat!

Now some remarks from the movie section.

- Some of the logo's and technical info of the movies are pretty small and hard to read (for example the mpeg2 codec logo,ratings...) and some info is missing (aspect ratio). Would it perhaps be possible to add this info in written word (not logo) in a third column in the info screen (next to the cast column). I think you would not soil the main view, and in the info screen there is still space for a third column with some technical info. Just a suggestion of course...
- As mentioned before, to complete this section, please add the 4 extra thumbs as a seperate fanart screen in the info screen. When you press left now, you scroll to the fanart. Maybe you can make it that if you press right you scroll to a screen with the 4 smaller extra thumbs?

I love this skin, thank you so much for your hard work!

Grave

[jurialmunkey]

Any chance you could change the buffer amount indicator to black rather than white? On my TV it's really difficult to see how much of a video is buffered.

I also have a display issue, which might be a bug. If I'm in an info screen (movie info) for example, if I press the HOME (little house) button on the xbmc remote app, you are quickly taken to the main menu. The problem is the movie info screens stay on, which looks messy.

Both fixed in latest git.

The buffer has to be a greyish colour to accommodate both dark and light versions of the osd. However, I do see what you mean about the visibility on the light osd, so I've made the cache bar a little darker to improve visibility.

The VideoInfo showing on home is actually an xbmc bug (it happens for all skins) so it might be worth reporting to the xbmc team. However, I've figured out a work around by using Dialog.Close(all,force) as a Home.xml onload condition.

I have just tried the skin and it is really good. I do like it.
I wish there was an option to display a big font like in Aeon Nox or in reFocus Big, as well as support for Asian characters.

Font options are definitely planned for the future. There is just a fair bit of font clean-up that I need to do through-out the skin before I starting adding other font options.

(1) In all views of RCB, and in the info view, the text scrolling does not work.
(2) In the info panel, I think the order of the 4 small screenshots is wrong.
(3) In the info panel, when pressing the trailer button the video plays nicely in the big box. When I press TAB I go to full screen but the menu and 4 shots are still visible. Is it possible to fix this, I think it is a bug.
(4) can you make game logo's available in Arctic? In RCB you have to possibility to link the game logo as well.
(5) in the info screen you talk about 'author' and show the developer and publisher. Can you make this more clear and show both developer and publisher each in their seperate section on the info screen (instead of both in 'author').
(6) in the info view, only the publisher is shown, can you also add the developer? Maybe add this info as well in the info wall view?
(7) Some of the logo's and technical info of the movies are pretty small and hard to read (for example the mpeg2 codec logo,ratings...) and some info is missing (aspect ratio). Would it perhaps be possible to add this info in written word (not logo) in a third column in the info screen (next to the cast column).
(8) As mentioned before, to complete this section, please add the 4 extra thumbs as a seperate fanart screen in the info screen. When you press left now, you scroll to the fanart. Maybe you can make it that if you press right you scroll to a screen with the 4 smaller extra thumbs?

1. Already aware of this, just haven't got around to doing it yet.

2. Is there any reasoning behind this, or is it just personal opinion? The thumbs are ordered according to how RCB supplies them -- it goes: upper-left, upper-right, lower-left, lower-right. Which usually is fanart, boxfront, cartridge, boxback. This order makes sense to me because it makes the cartridge and boxback art most accessible, which is generally what I want to examine more closely because I already know what the box front and fanart look like.

3. I'll fix this when I get a chance.

4. Can you give me a link to info on logos for rcb? The only art I see it able to add are fanart, boxfront, cartridge, boxback and video.

5. "Author" is just a pre-existing string I'm using as a placeholder until I have the screen finalised.

6. Yeah I will be changing info view to show developer in place of the console now that the console is available in the info tags.

7. I'm working on something regarding aspect and audio channels, just not happy with it yet. Not going to add another column to video info -- it just adds too much clutter to the screen and makes it harder to find the info I want to see. Most of that info isn't really that useful, it just serves a mild curiosity (bar perhaps audio channels, which I'm working on).

8. I will be adding it, just figuring out the best way to. Right side is reserved for the metadata actors script -- so it will be on the left side, most likely left then left again.

[Kokonutcreme]

Jurial

Love the subtle changes to the OSD very nice and clean the height of the dialog box has forced me to revert to showing posters instead of clearlogos as it fills the space better but it looks great.

Well done

[MeMeMe]

Is there a way to get descriptions to show up for views under the Programs home menu?

When using advanced launcher or SteamBMC, i have access to a bunch of games and other programs, that have descriptions. I cant figure out how to get their descriptions to display.

Edit: when looking at the views available, only Big List and Thumbnail are available.

[st graveyard]

Any chance you could change the buffer amount indicator to black rather than white? On my TV it's really difficult to see how much of a video is buffered.

I also have a display issue, which might be a bug. If I'm in an info screen (movie info) for example, if I press the HOME (little house) button on the xbmc remote app, you are quickly taken to the main menu. The problem is the movie info screens stay on, which looks messy.

Both fixed in latest git.

The buffer has to be a greyish colour to accommodate both dark and light versions of the osd. However, I do see what you mean about the visibility on the light osd, so I've made the cache bar a little darker to improve visibility.

The VideoInfo showing on home is actually an xbmc bug (it happens for all skins) so it might be worth reporting to the xbmc team. However, I've figured out a work around by using Dialog.Close(all,force) as a Home.xml onload condition.

I have just tried the skin and it is really good. I do like it.
I wish there was an option to display a big font like in Aeon Nox or in reFocus Big, as well as support for Asian characters.

Font options are definitely planned for the future. There is just a fair bit of font clean-up that I need to do through-out the skin before I starting adding other font options.

(1) In all views of RCB, and in the info view, the text scrolling does not work.
(2) In the info panel, I think the order of the 4 small screenshots is wrong.
(3) In the info panel, when pressing the trailer button the video plays nicely in the big box. When I press TAB I go to full screen but the menu and 4 shots are still visible. Is it possible to fix this, I think it is a bug.
(4) can you make game logo's available in Arctic? In RCB you have to possibility to link the game logo as well.
(5) in the info screen you talk about 'author' and show the developer and publisher. Can you make this more clear and show both developer and publisher each in their seperate section on the info screen (instead of both in 'author').
(6) in the info view, only the publisher is shown, can you also add the developer? Maybe add this info as well in the info wall view?
(7) Some of the logo's and technical info of the movies are pretty small and hard to read (for example the mpeg2 codec logo,ratings...) and some info is missing (aspect ratio). Would it perhaps be possible to add this info in written word (not logo) in a third column in the info screen (next to the cast column).
(8) As mentioned before, to complete this section, please add the 4 extra thumbs as a seperate fanart screen in the info screen. When you press left now, you scroll to the fanart. Maybe you can make it that if you press right you scroll to a screen with the 4 smaller extra thumbs?

1. Already aware of this, just haven't got around to doing it yet.

2. Is there any reasoning behind this, or is it just personal opinion? The thumbs are ordered according to how RCB supplies them -- it goes: upper-left, upper-right, lower-left, lower-right. Which usually is fanart, boxfront, cartridge, boxback. This order makes sense to me because it makes the cartridge and boxback art most accessible, which is generally what I want to examine more closely because I already know what the box front and fanart look like.

3. I'll fix this when I get a chance.

4. Can you give me a link to info on logos for rcb? The only art I see it able to add are fanart, boxfront, cartridge, boxback and video.

5. "Author" is just a pre-existing string I'm using as a placeholder until I have the screen finalised.

6. Yeah I will be changing info view to show developer in place of the console now that the console is available in the info tags.

7. I'm working on something regarding aspect and audio channels, just not happy with it yet. Not going to add another column to video info -- it just adds too much clutter to the screen and makes it harder to find the info I want to see. Most of that info isn't really that useful, it just serves a mild curiosity (bar perhaps audio channels, which I'm working on).

8. I will be adding it, just figuring out the best way to. Right side is reserved for the metadata actors script -- so it will be on the left side, most likely left then left again.

Hi JM,

2. my reasoning was a compare with MQ4. I see that in Arctic, the order of my art is different than mq4. That being said, I think I can re-order using the config file of RCB, so forget I mentioned this.
4. Again, I seem to have made a mistake here. However, currently I'm using the 'title' for my title screen artwork. You could also use 'title' for the game title artwork and use screenshot, action or gameplay for ingame screenshots. If you could link 'title' to the bottom of the view in Artic, than we have logo's for RCB. That would be awesome.

Thanks for the reply.

Cheers.

[st graveyard]

Hello JM,

I have some more suggestions.

I was thinking about the new feature for extrathumbs. So in the movie section when you press left, you see the fanart. If you press left again, the extrathumbs appear. That would be cool. But what about extra fanart? I'm not using this in the movie section but wouldn't it be cool if you go to the info view of a movie, then you press left and you go to the fanart screen and then you press up or down for the extra fanart?
And how about this ... In the TV Show section I'm working with season fanart. If I would go to the info screen of a TV show and press left, I see the fanart. If I would press up or down in that screen, the season fanart is displayed. I think that would be cool.

Another suggestion for the movie section. Let's say you are in the classic info view. When I highlight a movie and press down, the disc art goes down (cool!!!). It would be if I press down again, the whole movie artwork goes down and only the fanart is visible. I know other skins have this. I think that is a nice gimmick.

I just read in the AEON MQ5 thread that you now have the possibility to add movie themes to the movie section (like in the TV show section). Might be cool to look into this for Arctic.

Finally the home screen. When you are using your own set of backgrounds, in 'simple' mode the background is in full color, not in the soft arctic white, I think this is a bug.
Also, the white bar in 'simple' mode at the bottom of the screen (the part containing the time on the right) is so empty and white. Is it possible to add something in here? The wheater or something? Or perhaps make it transparant or remove it? I don't know, it just doesn't look that good.
No problems in Panel mode, just a bit too crowded for me ...

That's it for now.

Cheers.

[Baswazz]

(1) The problem i am facing is that you don't have set a static dark or light background, so the icons are not shown how it should.
For example: National Geographic channel logo does have a white text, and white text on a light/white background will blend in.

(2) Movieinfo screen: The text is sometimes hard to read with fanart which has light parts in it.

1. I prefer my logos to be clear rather than have a dark background added to them. This is something that should be up to the user. If you want dark backgrounds on your logos its not hard to modify them in gimp or photoshop to have a dark background layer.

2. You can change the transparency of the background fade by modifying the colour theme xml that corresponds to the colour theme you are using (e.g. "skin.arctic/colours/Dark.xml" for the Dark theme or "Defaults.xml" for the default theme etc.). The part you are looking for is this:

Code:

<color name="Mod_Overlay_Dimfanart">bbeeeeee</color>

The first two digits (the "bb" in this example) are the opacity of the background fade in hexadecimal -- increasing the value will increase the strength of the fade, so you could change it to something like "dd" increase how much the fanart is faded.

Jurialmunkey thanks for your reply.
The logo's i am using do have transparent background.



I have made 2 versions, one with white text and one with black text. So when i am using a dark skin i can set the white one, and when i have a light skin like Arctic i can set the dark one's.

Now your skin:



The above 2 images will look best with dark text logo's. As white on a white/grey background is hard to see from couch from 2 a 3 meter.




The above 2 screens have a dark as-well as a white/grey background where the logo's are shown.
So when i use dark text logo's i can't see the logo's on the dark part and vice versa.
I hope this makes clear what i mean.

[hoopsdavis]

Looks good Baswazz

Here's more Channel Logos



Anyone looking for channel logos I've also shared a folder of color and BW logos at the link below


Channel Logos

[jurialmunkey]

Love the subtle changes to the OSD very nice and clean the height of the dialog box has forced me to revert to showing posters instead of clearlogos as it fills the space better but it looks great.

Thanks

When using advanced launcher or SteamBMC, i have access to a bunch of games and other programs, that have descriptions. I cant figure out how to get their descriptions to display. Edit: when looking at the views available, only Big List and Thumbnail are available.

There should be a number of views for Adv.Launcher. I will be adding the info wall view as a view for add-ons, I'm just in the middle of making some changes to other parts of the skin so I can't commit it yet -- but it should be in soon.

(1) You could also use 'title' for the game title artwork and use screenshot, action or gameplay for ingame screenshots.
(2) it be cool if you go to the info view of a movie, then you press left and you go to the fanart screen and then you press up or down for the extra fanart? If I would press up or down in that screen, the season fanart is displayed.
(3) When I highlight a movie and press down, the disc art goes down (cool!!!). It would be if I press down again, the whole movie artwork goes down and only the fanart is visible.
(4) I just read in the AEON MQ5 thread that you now have the possibility to add movie themes to the movie section.
(5) Finally the home screen. When you are using your own set of backgrounds, in 'simple' mode the background is in full color, not in the soft arctic white, I think this is a bug.
(6) Also, the white bar in 'simple' mode at the bottom of the screen (the part containing the time on the right) is so empty and white. Is it possible to add something in here? The wheater or something?

1. I'm not sure what you mean by "title" artwork for rcb? Like I said before, the ones that I can see in rcb are: fanart, boxfront, cartridge and boxback. If it is one of those, then no I can't really do it because a lot of people wont have their rom collection artwork set up that way.

2. I quite like this idea. The only problem is that the xbmc skinning engine doesn't provide a way to check if a physical file exists and extrafanart doesn't go into the library so there isn't any way to manually switch through extrafanart images. It's actually proving to be quite difficult to achieve this sort of functionality in a way that I'm happy with.

3. I also quite like this idea. However, it would have to be on up rather than down for two reasons: 1. I think most people access the view menu via pressing down; and 2. it would be quite confusing if you are trying to navigate to the scroll bar and suddenly everything disappears and all you can see is fanart.

4. I'l look into this. Didn't know that the tvtunes addon could do that now -- I don't really use it myself. I thought it was cool initially, but I ended up finding it really annoying and turning it off (its especially annoying when you have a random tvtune that is much louder than the rest for some reason...)

5. Yeah this intentional. I originally had the white fade here, but then lots of people complained about it. However, I'm inclined to agree with you -- I think it looks better and more consistent with the fade on the simple homescreen. However, to add it back in it will have to be optional because otherwise people will complain about it....

6. I've previously discussed why it cannot be transparent. If you turn on "Skin Settings > Home > Show profile image" it will show your profile name and image on the left side along with library information (e.g. when tvshows is highlighted, it shows how many episodes you have). I already have plans to add weather info there if show profile is disabled, I just haven't got around to it yet.

The above 2 screens have a dark as-well as a white/grey background where the logo's are shown.
So when i use dark text logo's i can't see the logo's on the dark part and vice versa.
I hope this makes clear what i mean.

I already understood what you mean. What exactly are you suggesting I do about it? There is already an option to switch the osd colours between light and dark (Skin Settings > OSD > Use dark osd). I personally don't have an issue with the split colours in the epg-timeline because I avoid logos that have plain black or white text. The alternative is that you can add your own solid background to your logos.

[hoopsdavis]

Need a little help. See below image how the movie info in the set shows, this works fine on my server/client pc but on my client only pc I'm unable to get the set info to show.

Is there a setting I'm missing?

[jurialmunkey]

Need a little help. See below image how the movie info in the set shows, this works fine on my server/client pc but on my client only pc I'm unable to get the set info to show.

Is there a setting I'm missing?

By server/client do you mean that your media files are centralised on a server then shared via a network protocol such as samba? Or does your server also share the actual library database?

Either way, check that you have the extended info script installed on your client machine -- https://github.com/phil65/script.extendedinfo

The extended info script is what makes set info accessible to the skin.
- If you have it installed and your xbmc library database files are shared then my guess would be that the extended info script doesn't play nicely with remote database files.
- If its only media files that are shared and the client pc has its own library database then my guess would be an issue with the way the movie info scraper is set up on that machine (i.e. its not grabbing the set info to begin with).

[hoopsdavis]

Actually I have all media on the server but but only sharing folders across the network with each PC having its own media db.

Make sense?

But yes I'll install the extended info scrip

Thanks for the quick feedback as usual


Thanks Jurial, that did the trick.