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Release Mimic 1.x for Helix
(2014-12-31, 22:00)vab.patel Wrote: The fanart view is awesome. I can't wait to have it in my system.
When are you updating the recent changes in the repo version?

V

Thanks. I'm trying to submit to the repo no more than twice per month, so it will be another week or so. I would like to update it even less, but I can't seem to keep myself from constantly tweaking something. Wink
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(2014-12-30, 17:07)schumi2004 Wrote: @bryanbrazil
It seems the issue with LiveTV/Radio channel numbers (3 or more) is back. (latest git version this morning)

Just pushed an update to git to widen the channel number labels. Four digit channel numbers should now fit, hopefully this issue won't pop up again. I don't notice it since I only get 7 channels. Sad
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This is an exceptionally sexy looking skin. I love the modern flat look you have used. You've found a really great balance between Aeon Nox and reFocus, and exceeded both of them I think. Great job! I intend to use this as my primary skin for the foreseeable future.

The biggest fault (in my eyes) is the seekbar, which I found to be far too large. It works great as the full screen "info" dialog, but my problem is that the same dialog is also used when I fast forward, rewind, or seek to a new position in the timeline. For these frequent and short operations, I very much dislike having my view of the video obstructed, so a huge animated dialog that takes up the entire bottom third of the screen with a bunch of useless information (like plot summary and movie/episode rating) every time I do this is a major nuisance to me. It bothered me so much, that I actually made my own copy of DialogSeekBar.xml that cuts out all the unwanted labels, leaving a significantly slimmer version that is much more in line with the one from Aeon Nox. The only remaining problem for me is that the "slimmed" down dialog is still used when I hit the "info" button, so when I actually do want to see more info, it's not shown here anymore. I've found this behavior exists in Aeon Nox as well, and I'm guessing was carried over from there. If you take a look at Confluence though, you'll find that it uses separate dialogs for the full screen "info" display (VideoFullScreen.xml), and a much smaller one for fast forward, rewind, and seek operations (DialogSeekBar.xml). I hope one day I'll find the time to fully understand how all this fits together and come up with my own copy of VideoFullScreen.xml too so I get the best of both worlds, but for now I'm content having my "slim" seekbar appear in both places. In case you or anyone else is interested, this is what it looks like...

Image

...and this is my DialogSeekBar.xml.

Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<window>
    <defaultcontrol>1</defaultcontrol>
    <visible>[Window.IsActive(videoosd) | Window.IsActive(fullscreeninfo) | Player.Seeking | Player.DisplayAfterSeek | Player.Paused | Player.Forwarding | Player.Rewinding] + !Window.IsVisible(MusicOSD) + VideoPlayer.IsFullscreen</visible>
    <controls>

        <control type="group">
            <top>916</top>
            <visible>Player.Forwarding | Player.Rewinding | [Player.Paused + !Window.IsActive(subtitlesearch)]</visible>
            <control type="image">
                <top>0</top>
                <left>1596</left>
                <width>300</width>
                <height>70</height>
                <texture>background.png</texture>
                <colordiffuse>background</colordiffuse>
            </control>
            <control type="label">
                <visible>Player.Paused + !Window.IsActive(subtitlesearch)</visible>
                <top>0</top>
                <left>1596</left>
                <width>300</width>
                <height>70</height>
                <font>font13_title</font>
                <textcolor>grey</textcolor>
                <align>center</align>
                <aligny>center</aligny>
                <label>[B]Pause[/B]</label>
            </control>
            <control type="label">
                <visible>Player.Rewinding</visible>
                <top>0</top>
                <left>1596</left>
                <width>300</width>
                <height>70</height>
                <font>font13_title</font>
                <textcolor>grey</textcolor>
                <align>center</align>
                <aligny>center</aligny>
                <label>[B]Rewind: $VAR[VideoPlayerForwardRewindVar][/B]</label>
            </control>
            <control type="label">
                <visible>Player.Forwarding</visible>
                <top>0</top>
                <left>1596</left>
                <width>300</width>
                <height>70</height>
                <font>font13_title</font>
                <textcolor>grey</textcolor>
                <align>center</align>
                <aligny>center</aligny>
                <label>[B]Speed: $VAR[VideoPlayerForwardRewindVar][/B]</label>
            </control>
        </control>

        <control type="group">
            <!-- <animation effect="slide" start="0,70" end="0,0" time="200">WindowOpen</animation> -->
            <!-- <animation effect="slide" start="0,70" end="0,0" time="200">VisibleChange</animation> -->
            <top>1010</top>
            <visible>true</visible>
            <control type="image">
                <top>0</top>
                <left>0</left>
                <width>1920</width>
                <height>105</height>
                <texture>background.png</texture>
                <colordiffuse>background</colordiffuse>
            </control>
            <control type="progress">
                <top>0</top>
                <left>0</left>
                <width>1920</width>
                <height>70</height>
                <info>Player.ProgressCache</info>
            </control>
            <control type="progress">
                <top>0</top>
                <left>0</left>
                <width>1920</width>
                <height>70</height>
                <info>Player.Progress</info>
                <colordiffuse>background</colordiffuse>
            </control>
            <control type="label">
                <visible>![VideoPlayer.Content(episodes)]</visible>
                <top>0</top>
                <left>24</left>
                <width>1566</width>
                <height>70</height>
                <font>font13</font>
                <textcolor>grey</textcolor>
                <align>left</align>
                <aligny>center</aligny>
                <label>[B]$VAR[PlayerTitleLabelVar][/B]</label>
            </control>
            <control type="label">
                <visible>[VideoPlayer.Content(episodes)]</visible>
                <top>0</top>
                <left>24</left>
                <width>1566</width>
                <height>70</height>
                <font>font13</font>
                <textcolor>grey</textcolor>
                <align>left</align>
                <aligny>center</aligny>
                <label>[B]$INFO[VideoPlayer.TVShowTitle,, • ]$INFO[VideoPlayer.Season,,x]$INFO[VideoPlayer.Episode,,. ]$VAR[PlayerTitleLabelVar][/B]</label>
            </control>
            <control type="label">
                <top>0</top>
                <left>1596</left>
                <width>300</width>
                <height>70</height>
                <font>font13</font>
                <textcolor>grey</textcolor>
                <align>right</align>
                <aligny>center</aligny>
                <label>[B]$INFO[Player.Time]$INFO[Player.Duration, / ][/B]</label>
            </control>
        </control>

    </controls>
</window>

By the way, I noticed one of your screenshots shows a "Wall" view, but I could not find this in my installation. Only an "InfoWall" view, which was similar but not quite the same. Was this view removed from the skin, or do I need to install something else to add this view as an option?

Thanks for the wonderful skin! It really looks great.
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(2015-01-01, 02:55)jsn9000 Wrote: If you take a look at Confluence though, you'll find that it uses separate dialogs for the full screen "info" display (VideoFullScreen.xml), and a much smaller one for fast forward, rewind, and seek operations (DialogSeekBar.xml). I hope one day I'll find the time to fully understand how all this fits together and come up with my own copy of VideoFullScreen.xml too so I get the best of both worlds, but for now I'm content having my "slim" seekbar appear in both places.

By the way, I noticed one of your screenshots shows a "Wall" view, but I could not find this in my installation. Only an "InfoWall" view, which was similar but not quite the same. Was this view removed from the skin, or do I need to install something else to add this view as an option?

Thanks for the wonderful skin! It really looks great.

Thanks! I never use the info button on the full screen menu...I see now that a lot of the information is duplicated in the seek bar. I'll take another look at cleaning this up when I have time.

I added Wall view after my last submission to the repo. It is available from git and will be included in the next version (1.2).
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I hope you don't mind just a little criticism bryan. I absolutely love the work you did on Mimic. However, I am not a huge fan of flat UI's. Is it possible to maybe add a them that has maybe a little more pleasing look to the menus for Movies, TV Shows, etc.? Even if not 3D, maybe some kind of gradient to make it look a little cooler?

Here's just a very basic idea. I understand though if it goes against your vision of the skin. There's just something about the flat 1 color box that just seems to need something.

Image
Server: Synology Diskstation 1511+ with 8x WD Red NAS 3TB drives, DSM 5.2
Main HTPC: Home Built i3, 8GB RAM, Corsair 128GB SSD, nVidia 630GTX, Harmony Home Control, Pioneer VSX-53, Panasonic VT30 65" 3D TV, Windows 10, Isengard
Bedroom HTPC: Zotac-ID 41 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Rii micro keyboard remote, Samsung HW-E550, Sony 32" Google TV, OpenElec 6.0 beta 4
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(2015-01-01, 02:55)jsn9000 Wrote: The biggest fault (in my eyes) is the seekbar, which I found to be far too large.
...
Consider this a very strong "second" for using this seek bar (I don't even mind no plot summary on the Info request - I know what I'm watching already!).

@bryanbrazil - my wife thinks this skin is the best looking thing she's ever seen on a TV (aside from that Benedict guy...) and this minor tweak just puts an extra dab of icing on the cake.
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(2015-01-01, 07:10)patseguin Wrote: I hope you don't mind just a little criticism bryan. I absolutely love the work you did on Mimic. However, I am not a huge fan of flat UI's. Is it possible to maybe add a them that has maybe a little more pleasing look to the menus for Movies, TV Shows, etc.? Even if not 3D, maybe some kind of gradient to make it look a little cooler?

Here's just a very basic idea. I understand though if it goes against your vision of the skin. There's just something about the flat 1 color box that just seems to need something.

No offense taken. Smile I'm open to additional themes if someone wants to create them. I might try something like that at some point, but it's fairly low priority for me.
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(2015-01-01, 07:46)crackers Wrote:
(2015-01-01, 02:55)jsn9000 Wrote: The biggest fault (in my eyes) is the seekbar, which I found to be far too large.
...
Consider this a very strong "second" for using this seek bar (I don't even mind no plot summary on the Info request - I know what I'm watching already!).

@bryanbrazil - my wife thinks this skin is the best looking thing she's ever seen on a TV (aside from that Benedict guy...) and this minor tweak just puts an extra dab of icing on the cake.

I want to change the Info button on the player controls menu so it displays the same dialog as pressing i on the keyboard. I don't really care for the upper dialog it currently displays. If I can get this to work then I can see reducing the seekbar.

I don't know about the best looking thing on TV, but tell your wife thanks, haha. Smile
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Hi all,

After updating openelec to 5.0 I found that mimic is the best way to go since refocus light doesn't work with helix at this point.
I found a strange issue thought.
In some random modules the Cover is not displayed at all when "list" is selected but are OK when "posters" or "shift" is selected
This eg happens latetly with the hellenic tv addon. but happened also on the local collection I have but at somepoint ( I don't know how) it was fixed by itself

Btw Is there a way to change the default background and the oppacacy of the skin?
Can I change the main menu items to lowercase?

Thanks and keep up the good work with this skin
Reply
I wish good and fun new year to everyone!

Bryanbrazil, You do some excellent progress with skin development, thank You! Smile
Added Roboto 2014 font is very nice and fits to the skin vey nicely. It's fixed width font and resolves moving number issues, lists starting with track numbers also look much better. Arial is too fixed width font, maybe You should use only fixed width fonts?

Here is little tip for the top bar weather icons: https://github.com/erikflowers/weather-icons
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OK.. call me stupid (or hungover) but how do I get the movie and TV icons to show up. When I open Kodi, TV, movies and Music don't have any poster art or images until I open them up....

Image
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(2015-01-01, 09:48)bryanbrazil Wrote:
(2015-01-01, 07:46)crackers Wrote:
(2015-01-01, 02:55)jsn9000 Wrote: The biggest fault (in my eyes) is the seekbar, which I found to be far too large.
...
Consider this a very strong "second" for using this seek bar (I don't even mind no plot summary on the Info request - I know what I'm watching already!).

@bryanbrazil - my wife thinks this skin is the best looking thing she's ever seen on a TV (aside from that Benedict guy...) and this minor tweak just puts an extra dab of icing on the cake.

I want to change the Info button on the player controls menu so it displays the same dialog as pressing i on the keyboard. I don't really care for the upper dialog it currently displays. If I can get this to work then I can see reducing the seekbar.

I don't know about the best looking thing on TV, but tell your wife thanks, haha. Smile

Ok, I moved the seek bar details to the fullscreen info dialog for everything but Live TV. Left the Live TV seekbar as-is since it doesn't have a button to display info. Also removed the custom info window, so pressing i on the keyboard or the info icon in the player controls goes to the same dialog. Let me know what you think...

(2015-01-01, 11:53)manman3 Wrote: Hi all,

After updating openelec to 5.0 I found that mimic is the best way to go since refocus light doesn't work with helix at this point.
I found a strange issue thought.
In some random modules the Cover is not displayed at all when "list" is selected but are OK when "posters" or "shift" is selected
This eg happens latetly with the hellenic tv addon. but happened also on the local collection I have but at somepoint ( I don't know how) it was fixed by itself

Btw Is there a way to change the default background and the oppacacy of the skin?
Can I change the main menu items to lowercase?

Thanks and keep up the good work with this skin

This is a result of me using ListItem.Thumb instead of ListItem.Icon in order to prevent the default icons from showing up in List View. Unfortunately, this negatively impacts video addons. I don't use any so hadn't noticed before. I'll see what I can do.

You can replace the default background (default_bg.jpg) in the skin's backgrounds folder. The opacity of the background overlay is defined in the color themes (colors/*.xml). Or you could replace the background.png file. You can make the main menu and submenu lowercase by replacing UPPERCASE with LOWERCASE in Home.xml and Includes_Home.xml. Good luck!

(2015-01-01, 15:15)djstallion Wrote: I wish good and fun new year to everyone!

Bryanbrazil, You do some excellent progress with skin development, thank You! Smile
Added Roboto 2014 font is very nice and fits to the skin vey nicely. It's fixed width font and resolves moving number issues, lists starting with track numbers also look much better. Arial is too fixed width font, maybe You should use only fixed width fonts?

Here is little tip for the top bar weather icons: https://github.com/erikflowers/weather-icons

Thanks, glad you like Roboto. I plan to leave the default font as-is, it has more character to me than Roboto. Roboto will continue to be an option, though, and Arial is just there for foreign languages that need unicode.

(2015-01-01, 23:50)felixxx999 Wrote: OK.. call me stupid (or hungover) but how do I get the movie and TV icons to show up. When I open Kodi, TV, movies and Music don't have any poster art or images until I open them up....

Mimic doesn't come with any default backgrounds. You have to setup the backgrounds and widgets in the main menu customizer. You can also set default backgrounds per section in the skin settings. You have lots of options to choose from, including a folder of images, random fanart, or live discs.
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(2015-01-02, 00:16)bryanbrazil Wrote: Ok, I moved the seek bar details to the fullscreen info dialog for everything but Live TV. Left the Live TV seekbar as-is since it doesn't have a button to display info. Also removed the custom info window, so pressing i on the keyboard or the info icon in the player controls goes to the same dialog. Let me know what you think...

Nicely done! (Can't vouch for anything on Live TV since I don't use it.)

The frame around the bar seems a bit "thick" compared to the rest of the skin, though. My opinion. Wink
Reply
Huge improvement with the seekbar (I also do not use Live TV, so cannot comment about that). I am especially grateful I now no longer feel the need to maintain a custom DialogSeekBar.xml file, as this resolves my biggest complaint. Thank you for your dedication and hard work!
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Is it possible to include the progress bar (and thus the end time) in the info dialog, or are there overlap issues with the seekbar you can't work around? Personally, I prefer to see the end time on the info dialog instead of the seekbar, but if the seekbar could simply be combined with the info dialog, then that would work too. Right now the seekbar does not appear at all when I click the info [i] key.
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Mimic 1.x for Helix9