2018-05-03, 02:06
@curael As far as size issues are concerned, I'm afraid it's a case of usability for many. A long time ago there were complaints from users that they couldn't see the existing flags properly. Though I presume their couch was a bit too far away from the TV, I still decided to swap and increase the icons and some other elements, as I believed that being able to read the info comfortably was the whole point of having it there. It's really like a pendulum swing, at some point I'll change something at someone's request, only to get a request to do the opposite a while later. I personally don't even use the flags, but there you go. I have thought about adding some more nuance to the flags, but the problem is with all those additional settings that tie into them that aren't that simple to remove.
Realistically, it would have made much more sense to fix some of the information (like watched/unwatched, etc) together with the text content instead of trying to have it both ways, but the problem with that is that the skin includes too many completely different viewtypes, so the space around the panels ends up being the only free field. Anyway, as much as I love customisation, it has gotten to the point of being too unwieldy, with very little room left for logical organisation and clean presentation of settings. I'm at a point where I prefer to keep things clear since there's a lot of folk new to Kodi that just can't manage with the level of settings that are there.
As far as media Info goes, that's actually a nice catch. That one really fell through the cracks. Anyway, it was a pretty easy fix and it'll be included in the next update, which will happen just as soon as I figure out what to do with the source flags. The new behaviour should be simple - anywhere in the skin where there are season posters available, they should appear at the episode level. I'll see what I can do about the OSD icons, that's one of the oldest modifications made to the skin, there's some strangeness there that needs resolving, but if I manage to think of something, that might be included in that update as well.
You got me a bit confused with the "now playing" bit? The setting should be called "Show background video" and should work just fine? The only thing that might hinder the viewing experience is the background tint, as it acts as a universal overlay. If you have something like a 90%-99% opaque white tint, then you'll hardly see anything, but anything below that should still be discernible? With the background tint, it's all about reaching the optimal compromise between legibility and fanart visibility. I've experimented with various fixed gradients before and realised that there's no way I could ever design the perfect setting. At their worst, the effects were jarring, and much more egregious on darker setups, where the panels would blend into darker scenes and just leave slabs of white text. So I just left it tied to the tint. I've found that around 50-60% of opacity on pure black or white colours works very well.
Realistically, it would have made much more sense to fix some of the information (like watched/unwatched, etc) together with the text content instead of trying to have it both ways, but the problem with that is that the skin includes too many completely different viewtypes, so the space around the panels ends up being the only free field. Anyway, as much as I love customisation, it has gotten to the point of being too unwieldy, with very little room left for logical organisation and clean presentation of settings. I'm at a point where I prefer to keep things clear since there's a lot of folk new to Kodi that just can't manage with the level of settings that are there.
As far as media Info goes, that's actually a nice catch. That one really fell through the cracks. Anyway, it was a pretty easy fix and it'll be included in the next update, which will happen just as soon as I figure out what to do with the source flags. The new behaviour should be simple - anywhere in the skin where there are season posters available, they should appear at the episode level. I'll see what I can do about the OSD icons, that's one of the oldest modifications made to the skin, there's some strangeness there that needs resolving, but if I manage to think of something, that might be included in that update as well.
You got me a bit confused with the "now playing" bit? The setting should be called "Show background video" and should work just fine? The only thing that might hinder the viewing experience is the background tint, as it acts as a universal overlay. If you have something like a 90%-99% opaque white tint, then you'll hardly see anything, but anything below that should still be discernible? With the background tint, it's all about reaching the optimal compromise between legibility and fanart visibility. I've experimented with various fixed gradients before and realised that there's no way I could ever design the perfect setting. At their worst, the effects were jarring, and much more egregious on darker setups, where the panels would blend into darker scenes and just leave slabs of white text. So I just left it tied to the tint. I've found that around 50-60% of opacity on pure black or white colours works very well.
