[Gade]

UPDATE: Rapier 10.1.1 is available through the official Kodi repository!

This update is installed automatically.
If this is not the case, you can download it here.


This is a minor update, mainly to fix some texture issues with the official repo (thanks to toppot for spotting and reporting it).
If you already have my development repo installed, you will not get this update as version numbers and content are the same (except for updated translations being included in this update).



FULL CHANGELOG

Code:

10.1.1 (3-April-16)
- Changed to new infobools.
- New default icons.
- Updated screenshots.
- Removed startup background and skin logo.
- Added Search button to presets dialog when creating custom categories and submenus.
- Updated language files from Transifex.

ENJOY!

[BobCratchett]

I'm looking forward to hear your thoughs on the skin. Having people look at it from the outside is really what helps develop the skin

As promised I found some time to have a good play with the skin. Full disclosure, I'm a simple man with simple needs and that tends to inform my decision of skin (there's a reason I maintain a Conq mod!), so Rapier isn't the sort of skin I would normally use.

And, true to that, for me the design is a little too busy - every view has at least two artworks visible (not counting the background fanart), plus things like rating, year - things that have no bearing to me on whether I want to watch a particular show. Also having the view options, sort, and other such options always on screen is too much for me, especially on top of the breadcrumbs, time and date right above (though I eventually spotted the option to hide that by default ). But that's just my needs, and I appreciate that there's plenty who would find that great.

Counter that, though, with the 'quick links' - right there is power, favourites and settings. Whilst power isn't particularly useful to me (the rare times I power-cycle either of our boxes, I have a power button mapped to my remote), the other two both are options that I can see me using regularly. It's a nice way to expand the navigation options throughout the skin, and it's something I see throughout the skin.

The home screens are always of particularly interest to me. I spend most of my time on the home screen (hence why I created both Skin Shortcuts and my own widget script). Personal preference, but having the submenu above the main menu feels wrong and adds an extra step to get to the widgets. Like the way you've generally arranged the media on the right, the information on the left (though sys info is on the right). There's plenty of info there, and plenty of access to media straight from the home screen.

In general terms, love the color scheme and the background. I'm always a fan of the darker themes and you've created a nice balance (plenty go too dark to be easily read.) It's not a skin that fits my needs, but I can see that it would fit plenty of peoples and there are some really nice ideas, particularly the quick nav throughout.

[Gade]

As promised I found some time to have a good play with the skin. Full disclosure, I'm a simple man with simple needs and that tends to inform my decision of skin (there's a reason I maintain a Conq mod!), so Rapier isn't the sort of skin I would normally use.

And, true to that, for me the design is a little too busy - every view has at least two artworks visible (not counting the background fanart), plus things like rating, year - things that have no bearing to me on whether I want to watch a particular show. Also having the view options, sort, and other such options always on screen is too much for me, especially on top of the breadcrumbs, time and date right above (though I eventually spotted the option to hide that by default ). But that's just my needs, and I appreciate that there's plenty who would find that great.

I really appreciate you taking the time to look at the skin.

I agree that some skins suit some needs and other skins suit other. And I try to keep Rapier clean (not bloated), elegant but very feature rich with detailed information.

Like you already found out, the skin is extremely customizable, and most stuff you mention can either be enabled/disabled in the skin settings or view options (the top bar, menubar etc.).

Counter that, though, with the 'quick links' - right there is power, favourites and settings. Whilst power isn't particularly useful to me (the rare times I power-cycle either of our boxes, I have a power button mapped to my remote), the other two both are options that I can see me using regularly. It's a nice way to expand the navigation options throughout the skin, and it's something I see throughout the skin.

Yeah, the power button in the menubar has always been there - since before I took over the skin. I only use that button when I'm on a touch device.

The limitation of having a horizontal menubar (where most other skins use a vertical), is that there's not much room for buttons. Hence the "Extra Options" button with an extra layer of menubar buttons.

The home screens are always of particularly interest to me. I spend most of my time on the home screen (hence why I created both Skin Shortcuts and my own widget script). Personal preference, but having the submenu above the main menu feels wrong and adds an extra step to get to the widgets. Like the way you've generally arranged the media on the right, the information on the left (though sys info is on the right). There's plenty of info there, and plenty of access to media straight from the home screen.

In general terms, love the color scheme and the background. I'm always a fan of the darker themes and you've created a nice balance (plenty go too dark to be easily read.) It's not a skin that fits my needs, but I can see that it would fit plenty of peoples and there are some really nice ideas, particularly the quick nav throughout.

Maybe you're right that there are too many button clicks to get to the widgets. It could be interesting to place the submenus below the main categories instead.

Again, thank you so much for looking at the skin. Let me know if you have any other thought

Cheers
Gade

[Gade]

Personal preference, but having the submenu above the main menu feels wrong and adds an extra step to get to the widgets.

I just tried to place the submenus below the main categories, but I'm not quite sure about it... The reflection from the focused category makes it harder to make out the submenus.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?
It would take quite some coding of navigation, but if enough people like this, it can get added as a skin option.

[cd2022]

I like the skin, thanks for the great works.

Is it possible to place add-on shortcuts on a menu screen other than Video and Movie? I set these two to display fan art in background and I do not want the shortcut icons to obscure the artworks.

[Gade]

I like the skin, thanks for the great works.

Is it possible to place add-on shortcuts on a menu screen other than Video and Movie? I set these two to display fan art in background and I do not want the shortcut icons to obscure the artworks.

Thanks for the kind words.

It's possible to add add-on shortcuts for the following categories:

• Videos
  
• Movies
  
• TV Shows
  
• Music
  
• Pictures
  
• Programs
  
• General
  

[Gade]

I just uploaded 10.1.4 to my development repo!

It required latest version of script.skin.helper.service from Github: https://github.com/marcelveldt/script.sk...master.zip

[Thales]

Quick question for you Gade. I just installed the lastest nightly of Krypton. On start up, it gave me a window with a choice to disable Rapier because a dependency wasn't met. I ignored it and Rapier seemed to function ok. But then I couldn't select the "Appearance" setting tab. I could select the "Skin" tab, but not Appearance.

So I went to the Add-on page, found Rapier, and tried to update it. Got the following error message: The dependency on XBMC.GUI Version 5.11.0 could not ... (The message would then disappear after that.)

Don't recall ever seeing such a dependency before. Any idea what that means and how to install it?

[Gade]

Quick question for you Gade. I just installed the lastest nightly of Krypton. On start up, it gave me a window with a choice to disable Rapier because a dependency wasn't met. I ignored it and Rapier seemed to function ok. But then I couldn't select the "Appearance" setting tab. I could select the "Skin" tab, but not Appearance.

So I went to the Add-on page, found Rapier, and tried to update it. Got the following error message: The dependency on XBMC.GUI Version 5.11.0 could not ... (The message would then disappear after that.)

Don't recall ever seeing such a dependency before. Any idea what that means and how to install it?

Hi Thales.

Glad to see you're still using the skin.

You're probably using Rapier 10.1.1 with the latest nightly, which won't work. I have pushed an update - 10.1.5 - to the official repo, which should be available in few days.

Until then, you can install my development repository from zip to get Rapier 10.1.4. This version fises your issues both with the gui version and settings. The gui version doesn't need any action from the user, as it's handled by core and the skin.

Follow these instructions to install my development repo: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1956172

[Gade]

Anyone using the "Animations" section in the skin settings to disable animations?

I was thinking of removing this function and add ONE skin setting in the General section to enable low CPU mode. This setting will disable some animations, disable video playing in the background, visualizations etc.

What do you think?

[j0k3r]

Anyone using the "Animations" section in the skin settings to disable animations?

I was thinking of removing this function and add ONE skin setting in the General section to enable low CPU mode. This setting will disable some animations, disable video playing in the background, visualizations etc.

What do you think?

...yea thinking about something what makes the skin a lil bit faster on my atv4. Sometimes when I enter my Movies or TvSeries Section, it takes a lil bit (3-5 secs) to open the Movies or Tv section. Is the atv4 under-powered for that kind of skins? Estuary didnt have these Prob, it takes 1sec to open my Movies or Tv Section

[Gade]

Anyone using the "Animations" section in the skin settings to disable animations?

I was thinking of removing this function and add ONE skin setting in the General section to enable low CPU mode. This setting will disable some animations, disable video playing in the background, visualizations etc.

What do you think?

...yea thinking about something what makes the skin a lil bit faster on my atv4. Sometimes when I enter my Movies or TvSeries Section, it takes a lil bit (3-5 secs) to open the Movies or Tv section. Is the atv4 under-powered for that kind of skins? Estuary didnt have these Prob, it takes 1sec to open my Movies or Tv Section

Thanks for the feedback.

Estuary is super light, while Rapier is more heavy on CPU power. It's the same on my Raspberry Pi2 as you experience.

I have already added the setting in Skin Settings > General, and the next official update should be available in few days.

Let me know what you think of the setting once you have tried it out. I might improve on it in the future - disabling more animations or skin settings - to make the skin lighter on low powered systems.

[Thales]

Thanks for the update on 10.1.5 Gade. I've never used nightlies with any version before and had never seen the XBMC.GUI error before.

Have you had any luck with the "Extras" flag on the TV Shows page? (Sorry to keep bugging you about it. Just hoping all these Kodi and plug-in updates will make that easy for you to add one of these days. I use the Extras folder a lot now for tv shows and a flag for it sure would be nice.)

And great job keeping up to date on all this. Seems like I just installed Jarvis and now I'm messing with Krypton. Hope all the skinners and plug-in developers can keep up now with all the updates.

[Gade]

Have you had any luck with the "Extras" flag on the TV Shows page? (Sorry to keep bugging you about it. Just hoping all these Kodi and plug-in updates will make that easy for you to add one of these days. I use the Extras folder a lot now for tv shows and a flag for it sure would be nice.)

This is still on my to-do-list. I gave it shot a while ago, but it didn't turn out exactly as I had wished. So I might give it another go at some point.

And great job keeping up to date on all this. Seems like I just installed Jarvis and now I'm messing with Krypton. Hope all the skinners and plug-in developers can keep up now with all the updates.

Yeah, the skin changes for Jarvis and especially Krypton are massive, so it's hard for some skinners to keep up.
Add-ons working with Jarvis should also work with Karyton.

[Gade]

UPDATE: Rapier 10.1.6 is available through the official Kodi repository!

This update is installed automatically.
If this is not the case, you can download it here.


This is quite the update, where highlights are:

• Animated posters are available for all movie and sets views
  
• A Movie Set button has been added to the movie information window's Extra Info dialog. Click this button to display a poster list of movies in the set. Screenshot below.
  
• Added Awards / Critics to ExtendedInfo video information window. Screenshot below.
  
• Skin Settings > Supported Add-ons section will now have add-on descriptions.
  
• Skinned dialog for script.user.rating (requires v1.0.2 or higher). Screenshot below.
  
• Added Quick Jump navigation, which can be enabled in the Skin Settings. Screenshots below.
  
• Completely reconfigured settings window for Krypton. Add-ons and Profiles button has been added to the menubar. Redesigned Profiles window. Screenshots below.
  
• Added Subtitle Position button to fullscreen video OSD subtitles popup. Use this button to position your subtitles. Actions are: click for positioning methods, left / right for positioning fixed subtitles. Screenshot below.
  
• Added List View and List Info 2 View to Youtube Browser window. All Youtube searches will now use script.extendedinfo and the Youtube Browser. Screenshots below.
  
• Skin Settings: Fanart, backgrounds and custom backgrounds are now dimmed individually on a 0-100% scale. Screenshot below.
  
• Added home screen music playlist widget with player controls and full navigation. Screenshot below.
  
• Skin Settings: Added "Enable Low CPU Power Mode" button to Skin Settings > General. This replaces "Animations" section and might improve performance on lower powered systems.
  When enabled, you can choose between these two options:
  
  1. "Disable animations only", which will disable selected animations.
     
  2. "Disable animations and CPU demanding skin settings", which will disable selected animations AND these CPU demanding skin settings: Video playing in the background, Play trailers in a window, Music CD art, Animated backgrounds and fanart (both music and video), Music visualization and artist fanart in the background (when playing music), Fanart slideshow using script.artistslideshow (when playing music)

FULL CHANGELOG

Code:

10.1.6 (21-May-16)
- Added "Enable Low CPU Power Mode" button to Skin Settings > General. This replaces "Animations" section and can disable animations and reset CPU demanding skin settings.
- Added home screen music playlist widget with player controls.
- All Youtube searches will now use ExtendedInfo with Youtube Browser window.
- Added List View and List Info 2 View to Youtube Browser window.
- Skin Settings: Fanart, backgrounds and custom backgrounds are now dimmed individually on a 0-100% scale.
- Skin Settings: Custom backgrounds preview image is now dimmed according to settings when "Background Brightness" button is focused.
- Fixed home screen addon shortcut focus animation.
- Updated script.rss.editor for Krypton.
- Next Aired infolabels will now properly use a fallback label.
- Added Subtitle Position button to fullscreen video OSD subtitles popup.
- Updated DialogSelect.xml label2 for Krypton.
- Updated descriptions for Supported Add-ons with "Required" labels.
- The selected Skin Settings section button will now stay highlighted when other items are focused.
- Settings changes for Krypton.
- Updated Profiles window and added it as part of the Settings window.
- Added Add-ons button to menubar in Settings window.
- Added oninfo to Programs views to open custom programs window.
- Added Quick Jump navigation, which can be enabled in the Skin Settings.
- Skinned dialog for script.user.rating (requires v1.0.2 or higher).
- Fixed home screen custom widget scroll animation.
- Massive code cleanup.
- Bugfixing of add-on settings dialog and system settings radio buttons.
- New default icons.
- Switched to using ListItem.DBTYPE for items inside info windows.
- Update of script-ExtendedInfo Script-YoutubeList.xml
- Completely removed codec information from music visualisation and fullscreen video.
- Animated posters are available for all movie and sets views.
- Updated includes.
- Code cleanup.
- More ExtendedInfo Krypton changes.
- Added Movie Set button to movie information window Extra Info dialog.
- Added Similar Movies button to movie information window Extra Info dialog for movie sets.
- Added onclick function to movie / tv shows information window Similar Movies / TV Shows list.
- Fix for top options menubar Update Library button.
- Added Awards / Critics to ExtendedInfo video information window.
- Added ExtendedInfo TV Show Information in season and episode levels.
- Skin Settings > Supported Add-ons section will now have add-on descriptions.
- Skin Settings will now have main category descriptions.
- Updated script.globalsearch for Krypton.
- Oninfo changes for Krypton.
- New default icons.

Added Movie Set button to movie information window Extra Info dialog


Added Awards / Critics to ExtendedInfo video information window


Skinned dialog for script.user.rating (requires v1.0.2 or higher)


Added Quick Jump navigation, which can be enabled in the Skin Settings
MOVIES - List Info 3 View


Added Quick Jump navigation, which can be enabled in the Skin Settings
TV SHOWS - List View


Settings changes for Krypton.
Updated Profiles window and added it as part of the Settings window.
Added Add-ons button to menubar in Settings window.




Added Subtitle Position button to fullscreen video OSD subtitles popup


Added List View and List Info 2 View to Youtube Browser window
List Info 2 View


Added List View and List Info 2 View to Youtube Browser window
List View


Skin Settings: Fanart, backgrounds and custom backgrounds are now dimmed individually on a 0-100% scale


Added home screen music playlist widget with player controls



ENJOY!