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KOver : Customizable [Kodi 16]
The problem with advance launcher is no more!!
Thank you keep up this excelllent work!
Cheers
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I found another bug in dialog window management, so because of some fixing attempts here and there, I spent some time to completely rewrite it (again). After some tests seems to be finally (I hope) OK.

I also gave a quick look at the banner view. I saw that a banner is exactly 1/3 of my 636x356px area and axactly the same size a the fixed list type. Then I added a banner view that displays the banner over the fixedlist. Than mean that if there is no banner (ex of movie sets, episodes, non video items) fixedlist will display as fallback.

@Saner. I checked the cycling extraart. Seems to be easy to do but it requires each movie to be in its own folder. Are you aware about that ? (because I wasn't and all my movies are in the same folder)
[Skin] KOver - V1.1.0 Stable (Repo version)
[WIP] ReKOver - Skinning tool project

If I've been helpful or you like my work, hit "THANK USER" button ;) ...
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@Saner : Home IDLEFADE is now on Github.

I had to find a convenient way to not break the rules of the designer. So I splitted the IDLEFADE feature in 2 parameters > Sidebar autohide and Blocs Background.
This works like this : Sidebar IDLEFADE only fades the Sidebar and Blocs background IDLEFADE fades the whole bloc set (Blocs 1 to 4, background included). I kept the HIDDEN option for this last one which introduce a new option to just have the main menu Wink ... but you loose the submenus.
Can you please test it ? It seems to work fine on my side.

EDIT : IMO, this should only activate when the a widget is not focused, I know that you don't use them but when they are focused it makes them not possible to read (fades while reading)

I also improved the banner view.
[Skin] KOver - V1.1.0 Stable (Repo version)
[WIP] ReKOver - Skinning tool project

If I've been helpful or you like my work, hit "THANK USER" button ;) ...
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Ohhhh I shall have a look as soon as I am near my box, thanks!
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Yep idle fade seems to work perfectly, and that's just what I wanted Smile


Thanks for doing that Smile
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Hi Jayz2K,

thanks again for your adjustments! Sidebar transparency in the views is fine now and banners are looking very nice :-)

I have been playing around with the skin more and more and already configured most of the views for my needs. Following your advice I also found out about the fanarts of the widgets. They are only showing when I enter the widget (which on the other hand stops the widget from cycling then), while just remaining on the resepctive entry in the main menu keeps the widgets cycling but does not show the corresponding fanart in the background. However, I am fine with that for the moment.

Anyway I think widgets and main menu could need some more flexibility. It starts with the selection of the images for the menu entries (which you mantioned would be subject to the skinshortcuts script). Also It would be nice to to trigger kind of a "multiple entries" view for the widgets (e.g. comming up movies, recent tv shows etc.) like the classic view in jurialsmunkey's Arctic Zephyr skin. That would make the main menu more interesting and informative. And the style and positioning of the submenu entries could offer more flexibility as well (e.g. icons yes/no, fixed list, wide list). And please excuse when I repeat myself (knowing that you also stated it would be very hard to implement it in a satisfactory way) but having some infos about runtime, codec, rating and especially resolution (maybe shown by their respective icons) in the info bloc of a movie would be very helpful and give the views an even more stilish look. But that's just ideas, no criticism. And I know that you have to stick to the 3x3 bloc design which provides for some limitiations. But maybe you could have different content for the info bloc depending on its size, wether it is just a 1x1 bloc (with only standard infos) or a bigger size (with additional infos). Just trying to come up with some ideas.

Also, I know this is still considered an alpha version, but the skin already seems quiet stable. So if you think about calling it beta or even nearing V 1.0 I would recommend having kind of a pre-configuration for the essential views. I know that with the skin you already provide a demo-setup. But one needs to implement it manually through the setup menu and it has the slight feeling attached that it is only kind of an example or demonstration still subject to the necessity of adjusting it or even creating a new view yourself. I think to avoid some reservations of people who do not have the time or willingness for intensive manual configuration of a skin it would be best to include kind of a standard setup of views to have the skin usable "out of the box". But also this is just a suggestion from my end, no criticism.

Another two questions from my side (which might sound stupid but I have not been able to figure out the answers yet):
1. In the "Home" section: What's the wallpaper selection for? Actually, for each entry of the main menu I would have to set the wallpaper separately in "Home menu" section.
2. In the "Home menu" section: What is the difference between "Select shortcut" and "userdefined action"? They seem to bring up the same menu for selecting an action to be executed when triggering the entry of the main menu.

I have to end my post by once again stating that this is one of the most amazing skins (mabye the most amazing skin) I have come across yet. Iits a totally new approach in design and while already looking fantastic it still offers a high potentials of things that could still be implemented to have it perfect (e.g. logos, clearts etc., as already mentioned). I am very exited about what this skin will finally end up to look like. This could really become the ultimate super skin for Kodi. :-) Thanks again for your hard work!

Brgds,

FantasticN
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Quote:It starts with the selection of the images for the menu entries (which you mantioned would be subject to the skinshortcuts script).

This makes sens and I already talked to Bob about this point. Seems it's difficult to handle with the 404 custom button of SkinShortcuts but he told me he will take a look if it's possible to do something in the script for that. We don't promise anything but if we can achieve something for that, it will be included since I have no way to handle all custom entries of skinshortcuts outside of the script. Bob is actually busy so it can take some time.

Quote:Also It would be nice to to trigger kind of a "multiple entries" view for the widgets (e.g. comming up movies, recent tv shows etc.) like the classic view in jurialsmunkey's Arctic Zephyr skin.

If you talk about the multiple widget view when pressing twice "up" in Zephyr (which is a geat skin), I already had an idea in mind but it's not going to happen soon. I still have some job to do before. Was thinking about changing widgets on the fly by pressing the opposite direction when Home mainmenu is hilighted (ex. sidebar is bottom, pressing down switches the widget, pressing up hilights it as it is working now). But this is not a feature I looked in skinshortcuts so I don't know if this works in the code.

Quote:And the style and positioning of the submenu entries could offer more flexibility as well (e.g. icons yes/no, fixed list, wide list).

This can be doable with skinshortcuts templates I think. But be warned if this happens it will change the submenu style for "ALL" items' submenu. This will definitely not be possible per item. And this will only be possible with some of the views' ListTypes (that excludes icon on/off).

Quote:And please excuse when I repeat myself (knowing that you also stated it would be very hard to implement it in a satisfactory way) but having some infos about runtime, codec, rating and especially resolution (maybe shown by their respective icons) in the info bloc of a movie would be very helpful and give the views an even more stilish look.

It's an idea but ... the choice for informations was simple and relative to one question : "What I am looking for to play it ?" Answer is Title (of course), Genre, Duration, Rating and Plot. Other than that, IMO it's more advanced user's informations. Ex. My wife uses KOver everyday (she's my best tester :p ) and she absolutely doesn't know know what AAC, H264, 1080p (this one I think she knows but doesn't care) and those won't make her to watch or not watch what she wants Wink ... However, in a > 1x1 size, when I'll be done with important features / fixes, I "maybe" will take a look.

Quote:I would recommend having kind of a pre-configuration for the essential views.

I didn't want to talk about it until a feature I needed was out but it's already in progress. You probably noticed that skinshortcuts window has change and that's the reason. I'm on the way to move back the designer as a custom window and make it "optional" with a toggle settings. SkinSettings will be simplified with minimum requirements for common users and a wizard to set KOver out of the box. I will use the new skin.helper restore feature in "silent mode" (targets directly the file without prompt) to import presets files depending on which configuration he wants (PVR, fullscreen, black, white, etc.). This feature is bug free since 2 days Wink My thanks to Marcel for that.

Quote: 1. In the "Home" section: What's the wallpaper selection for? Actually, for each entry of the main menu I would have to set the wallpaper separately in "Home menu" section.

If you set items background to "None" in skinshortcuts, it applies a fallback picture to the background.

Quote: 2. In the "Home menu" section: What is the difference between "Select shortcut" and "userdefined action"? They seem to bring up the same menu for selecting an action to be executed when triggering the entry of the main menu.

This is more a question to ask in skinshortcuts thread but AFAIK, using userdefined action allows you to set also a custom action (manual entry) if you previously set something with "Select shortcut". But yes, instead of that, other options are the same.

Cheers
[Skin] KOver - V1.1.0 Stable (Repo version)
[WIP] ReKOver - Skinning tool project

If I've been helpful or you like my work, hit "THANK USER" button ;) ...
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(2015-09-22, 15:13)Saner Wrote: Yep idle fade seems to work perfectly, and that's just what I wanted Smile

Great Wink
[Skin] KOver - V1.1.0 Stable (Repo version)
[WIP] ReKOver - Skinning tool project

If I've been helpful or you like my work, hit "THANK USER" button ;) ...
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Hi Jayz2K,

thanks for your answers and all your efforts to actually consider these suggestions.

(2015-09-22, 17:56)Jayz2K Wrote:
Quote:It starts with the selection of the images for the menu entries (which you mantioned would be subject to the skinshortcuts script).

This makes sens and I already talked to Bob about this point. Seems it's difficult to handle with the 404 custom button of SkinShortcuts but he told me he will take a look if it's possible to do something in the script for that. We don't promise anything but if we can achieve something for that, it will be included since I have no way to handle all custom entries of skinshortcuts outside of the script. Bob is actually busy so it can take some time.

Sounds great, thank you! I think it is quiet essential since your skin offers the possibility to assign new menu entries ("Home Menu" customization) and therefore it needs the option to assign images to those new entries (and maybe also adjust the ones for the standard entries). However, having menu entries with images and those without does not look all too good together in the home menu. So as an alternative (if it ends up being to difficult to implement such feature) you could offer the option to not show any images at all. Actually I do not really see the benefit from those images. I would rather concentrate on the look of main menu entries themselves and the assigned widgets, while maybe showing some additional information (numbers of movies, of episodes, of albums, current date etc.).


(2015-09-22, 17:56)Jayz2K Wrote:
Quote:Also It would be nice to to trigger kind of a "multiple entries" view for the widgets (e.g. comming up movies, recent tv shows etc.) like the classic view in jurialsmunkey's Arctic Zephyr skin.

If you talk about the multiple widget view when pressing twice "up" in Zephyr (which is a geat skin), I already had an idea in mind but it's not going to happen soon. I still have some job to do before. Was thinking about changing widgets on the fly by pressing the opposite direction when Home mainmenu is hilighted (ex. sidebar is bottom, pressing down switches the widget, pressing up hilights it as it is working now). But this is not a feature I looked in skinshortcuts so I don't know if this works in the code.

Actually I was talking about the "classic" look of Arctic Zephyr's main menu. I now tried to switch to the standard view (which only shows one widget item, not multiple) and pressing up two times, but it did not change a thing. There were no multiple widget items coming up then. But maybe that is because I am using im85288's mod. Beside the "classic" look this mod also offers an interesting alternative with the "emby" stile of the main menu. However, all I am saying is that the main menu could use some "gadgets" to be showing (infos, cycling covers/fanarts etc.) which would make the look a bit more interesesting. And therefore the widgets are quiet helpful. I think that is what they have been designed for in the first stage :-) However, I think you will surely find the right touch for finally comming up with something brilliant as you have already proofen by the design of the skin itself (well, now I have set the stages high for you). :-))

(2015-09-22, 17:56)Jayz2K Wrote:
Quote:And the style and positioning of the submenu entries could offer more flexibility as well (e.g. icons yes/no, fixed list, wide list).

This can be doable with skinshortcuts templates I think. But be warned if this happens it will change the submenu style for "ALL" items' submenu. This will definitely not be possible per item. And this will only be possible with some of the views' ListTypes (that excludes icon on/off).

I think this is also just a side aspect of the handling of the main menu that I was more or less refering to in all the other comments above. So if you play around with the widgets, the images and the information to be offered at the main menu than you will surely come up with a way to also inculde the submenus entries in an appealing way. Currently I just got the feeling that the main menu in general needs some attention and that is why I offered those several suggestions.

(2015-09-22, 17:56)Jayz2K Wrote:
Quote:And please excuse when I repeat myself (knowing that you also stated it would be very hard to implement it in a satisfactory way) but having some infos about runtime, codec, rating and especially resolution (maybe shown by their respective icons) in the info bloc of a movie would be very helpful and give the views an even more stilish look.

It's an idea but ... the choice for informations was simple and relative to one question : "What I am looking for to play it ?" Answer is Title (of course), Genre, Duration, Rating and Plot. Other than that, IMO it's more advanced user's informations. Ex. My wife uses KOver everyday (she's my best tester :p ) and she absolutely doesn't know know what AAC, H264, 1080p (this one I think she knows but doesn't care) and those won't make her to watch or not watch what she wants Wink ... However, in a > 1x1 size, when I'll be done with important features / fixes, I "maybe" will take a look.

I understand and of course it is your skin and therefore your decision what you want it to show and what not. However, I personally deem at least some of those information quiet interesting, especially the resolution (is it FullHD or Is it just SD?) when scrolling through the movies. And some parents might also find the rating useful when deciding about what to watch together with their kids. However, the prime reason for this suggestions is - like my pervious comments on the main menu - based on the "need for some more gadgets" that I think the skin now has (of course it has, being still in its early alpha stage). You may have to find out the right balance between a sneak, simple and self-explanatory design and usbaility on the one side, and offering a bunch of information and gadgets (like logos, cleararts, cdarts, widgets etc.) on the other. Remember: The latter is one of the reasons why we are all using Kodi and not the stupid, unemotional, un-informational and boring media players that have been included in our SmartTVs :-) Up to now I found Artic Zephyr (as already mentioned) offering the best combination of both - clarity and purity on the one side and gadgets and information on the other -, especially in im85288's mod (since he also implemented logos for the music section and some additional views). So I think that skin could be a good basis for orientation when looking for ideas or a good balance. However, I always have to say that I - of course do - not have the right and do want to instruct you on what you may or may not do. I am just a little bit excited about the potential of this skin. So please forgive me if you find my comments optrusive. That is not my intention.


(2015-09-22, 17:56)Jayz2K Wrote:
Quote:I would recommend having kind of a pre-configuration for the essential views.

I didn't want to talk about it until a feature I needed was out but it's already in progress. You probably noticed that skinshortcuts window has change and that's the reason. I'm on the way to move back the designer as a custom window and make it "optional" with a toggle settings. SkinSettings will be simplified with minimum requirements for common users and a wizard to set KOver out of the box. I will use the new skin.helper restore feature in "silent mode" (targets directly the file without prompt) to import presets files depending on which configuration he wants (PVR, fullscreen, black, white, etc.). This feature is bug free since 2 days Wink My thanks to Marcel for that.

Ah, sorry. I should have assumed that you had already something in mind for that issue. And now you had to spoil it because me asking. My bad. But I can keep a secret ;-) Btw.: That sounds great!


(2015-09-22, 17:56)Jayz2K Wrote:
Quote: 1. In the "Home" section: What's the wallpaper selection for? Actually, for each entry of the main menu I would have to set the wallpaper separately in "Home menu" section.

If you set items background to "None" in skinshortcuts, it applies a fallback picture to the background.

Quote: 2. In the "Home menu" section: What is the difference between "Select shortcut" and "userdefined action"? They seem to bring up the same menu for selecting an action to be executed when triggering the entry of the main menu.

This is more a question to ask in skinshortcuts thread but AFAIK, using userdefined action allows you to set also a custom action (manual entry) if you previously set something with "Select shortcut". But yes, instead of that, other options are the same.

Ah, I see. Thanks for your explanation.

Now that you already have me had commenting on some design elements there is another thing for your consideration: How about having the option for a larger info-screen (2x3 instead of only 1x3 blocs) for movies, tv-series/episodes and music that would not only show the cover, but also the the basic infos straight away (like codec, rating etc.) and the fanart (and - maybe in a later stage - extranfanarts and logos)? Again the Arctic Zephyr skin could work as a good example what and how to present. Also it would be helpful if the focus was always set on the "play"-button when first entering the menu, since some people (like me) may have the info showing up as the standard action when selecting a movie. And it is quiet annoing when you then have to "fumble" to the play button first before you can then start the movie (I also have to maintain a certain "woman accaptance factor" in my household).

This far for my comments. Once again I have to point out that this all is absolutely not criticism (which I am in no position to give), This is just thinking about things that could be implemented from the perspective of a future user of this great skin. :-)

Best regards and thanks again for all your hard work!

FantasticN
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@fantasticn : Will take a closer look at the Zephyr standard mode to understand what you mean. Concerning the widgets and submenus, are you aware that when you have a widget hilighted, pressing right shows the submenu ? Not sure if this what you're talking about. For dialog size, there nothing much I can do for that. It was already a pain to make it work this way and including a resizing feature would make me to rewrite everything from scratch (what I'm not going to do). However, a fullscreen option to see more infos straight after a idletime (like Zephyr do) is much more a possibility. Forthe Play button autoset, it makes sens and will see what I can do for that.
[Skin] KOver - V1.1.0 Stable (Repo version)
[WIP] ReKOver - Skinning tool project

If I've been helpful or you like my work, hit "THANK USER" button ;) ...
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OK, I think I got what fantasticn means about the classic mode. Since it's the second time I have a request for the Home customization and because even if I'm now satisfied with the Home menu, I'm bothered by limitations I placed in it, I made a huge brainstorming with myself lol and I maybe have a solution as follow :

Adding 3 more kind of viewtypes in Home. The actual first (and only) one will be used for submenu layout, the second one will be used for movies/shows/music widgets, the third one for LIVE TV widget, the fourth one for Weather widget. That's the only and pretty straight forward solution (views 1 to 9 are coded from start but not showing), to handle 4 different menus like widgets look at the moment. This way I can keep the actual design (important for me and my wife who's now habituated !).

That will also allow me to free hidden features to have access to all available in other sections. The only change I will have to proceed is to use the bloc 4 for the actual left thumbnail instead of the video embedding.

Zephyr classic menu will be someway possible to reproduce (without the showing/hiding plot) and much more.

This will require a huge rewrite and some time but I'm ready to try (my last). You will have then to rebuild everything from scratch in Home customization since it introduces new parameters.

What you guys think ?
[Skin] KOver - V1.1.0 Stable (Repo version)
[WIP] ReKOver - Skinning tool project

If I've been helpful or you like my work, hit "THANK USER" button ;) ...
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Go for it Jayz2K! Thank you!
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Oh, wow. Sorry to cause you so much work, but to me your ideas sound amazing.

Regards,

FantasticN
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this skin is absolutly amazing, even if i needed some time to check the configuration. Go for it!
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More customization is always good, if you have the time and mental energy for it I say go for it. If not kill any bugs and save new features for version 1.1 :p
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