[aitte]

...Sadly, only for MrMC: https://github.com/MrMC/mrmc/commits/master (look at feb 2018 commits and around that point...)

They're a Kodi fork, and their code changes are fully allowed to be copied/ported back to Kodi (they say so themselves).

Here's what I'll say about the focus engine: Oh my god. Kodi finally feels like a native AppleTV application. Perfect siri remote control support, with slick, intuitive scrubbing (with AppleTV-like preview of the timeline landing location), native feeling menu navigation, etc. It's so great that I hope some hero wants to backport it to Kodi itself. Because wow... there's no way to go back to old-shool navigation after trying this method.

Best of all: The code to achieve it seems to have been pretty small. I don't understand much of the "focus engine" commits I looked at but they looked pretty tiny! I think they create an invisible AppleTV GUI on top of the app window, with virtual buttons where every Kodi navigation element sits. That way the siri remote knows how to natively navigate the maze of Kodi's GUI!

There's a lite (free) version of MrMC for those who just want to try the new v3.5 or higher to see what I am talking about regarding the amazing remote control feeling with the new Focus Engine code... and I pray that some hero wants to bring it back to the big, full Kodi!

Take care everyone!

[davilla]

Yes, it's an invisible AppleTV native GUI on top of GLES. It makes transparent UIViews that match all focusable GUI elements and tracks the element at is 'in focus'. Siri remote "knows" about UIViews and it handles the navigation between them. There is a debug mode that will color UIViews according to their focus state so you can see how it handles various situations.

Here's an example of debug mode coupled with some Xcode visual tools that show pre-focus and where focus is going. In this example, it's a left (swipe or tap) that hits one of four bounding UIViews, then our internal focus handling code catches this and send out a 'move left' to the input handler which would pop out the left panel. It even goes through a keymap that can be customized. An orange rect is the element in focus, green rects are focusable elements and white are GUI elements that might contain other GUI elements but are not focusable themselves.

And bonus, it even works with python addons that present GUI windows

[aitte]

I guess very few people here use Kodi on their AppleTVs, and that most people use MrMC instead. Or maybe this thread just got buried quickly in all the other chats. Because this thread is about a huuuuuge upgrade to the AppleTV GUI. You have done a fantastic and impressive job @davilla! :-)

[im85288]

I use Kodi on the Apple TV 4K and after you posted the news I decided to test drive the free version of MrMC to see what the fuss was about. I came to two conclusions, firstly MrMC is not for me, it is too restricted without allowing addons to be installed and lacks some of the modern skins that are now available (Embuary for example) making it feel a bit dated. Secondly with regards the new focus engine (perhaps I was missing something in the free version) but it didn’t enhance my usage of the Siri remote at all. The current versions for Kodi do lack an intuitive default keymap out the box (for example why when viewing pvr does a tap left or right change channel instead of seeking to use the timeshift facilities as it does with the default key map in other versions), but once I changed it the Siri remote is a pleasure to use. For example I have swipe up bring up the TV guide, swipe down brings up the channels screen, swipe left goes to the last played channel. Press up or down to change channels and press left to seek back or right to seek forward in timeshift mode. With these changes I’m ecstatic with Kodi on my Apple TV and have retired my Nvidia shield.

I must be missing something though, what huge upgrade does the changes in MrMC bring? Yes I did see the scrubbing but honestly I never use it on any other app on the Apple TV so it’s not a big deal for me. Does it key you swipe down and see the program/movie details as per other apps? That would be nice if so...other than that what are we missing?

[aitte]

MrMC is not for me, it is too restricted without allowing addons to be installed and lacks some of the modern skins that are now available (Embuary for example) making it feel a bit dated.

 Apple doesn't allow apps on iOS or tvOS to install addons or scripts. That's why. All addon code must be bundled inside the app already.

That's also why there are zero game emulators for Apple platforms. Because games count as "extra, downloadable code".

So yeah, Apple sucks...

Anyway, MrMC just released 3.6.0 which re-adds Python support (they got around Apple's requirements somehow?) and it will start bundling some of the most popular addons and skins. But still no way to add "ANY addon from ANYWHERE", since Apple still forbids that.

https://mrmc.tv/2018/03/28/mrmc-and-mrmc...th-python/

As for my needs, MrMC covers them perfectly. I watch live TV streams, play movies and series from network disks, and that's it...

Secondly with regards the new focus engine (perhaps I was missing something in the free version) but it didn’t enhance my usage of the Siri remote at all. [snip] I must be missing something though, what huge upgrade does the changes in MrMC bring? Yes I did see the scrubbing but honestly I never use it on any other app on the Apple TV so it’s not a big deal for me. Does it key you swipe down and see the program/movie details as per other apps? That would be nice if so...other than that what are we missing?

Yeah you're missing the point. The focus engine makes the Kodi/MrMC GUI completely "Apple TV-native".

Without the focus engine, the Apple TV / Siri Remote has NO IDEA what you are doing on screen. It doesn't know what things are buttons, what are lists of files, what you want to do in Kodi, etc... So to navigate, Kodi has a bunch of "hacks" that emulate sliding acceleration and inertia etc to make GUI navigation feel a bit more "like native", but it still felt like garbage (and was super inaccurate).

With MrMC's focus engine, the entire GUI literally becomes "Apple TV-native". The AppleTV and Siri Remote knows _exactly_ what you are doing on screen, and that your siri remote is pointing at a list of files, or at a button, etc. So when you swipe, you get totally native Apple TV feeling: GUI navigation is fast, smooth/fluid and accurate. You no longer have to fight against the GUI (such as overshooting the target file, or having to swipe tons of times to navigate a large list). It's all totally native and fluid.

That's all. And it's a big deal. I hope it gets ported to Kodi so that _both_ projects have this big improvement.

PS: The timeline scrubbing previews are also built with the focus engine, so that's another benefit indeed. And they could also add "slide down to see movie info" if you want that, etc. The focus engine opens up lots of Apple TV possibilities, in addition to making the GUI navigation perfectly native.

[davilla]

Heh, I'll just say this, before the change to native tvOS focus. I used the older 'Silver', AppleTV IR remote. Hated, just hated the Sir remote. Maybe it was my fat fingers, maybe not.

Now, I'm a Siri remote lover. The older 'Silver', AppleTV IR remote has moved into the drawer. 

As for addons/skins, there are changes brewing And that's all I will say.

[im85288]

Thanks for the replies, I’m going to give it another shot to see exactly what I’m missing. Great news about addons/skins I think that will really take things to the next level. It’s a shame @davilla has retired from Kodi development but respect his decision and look forward to what happens in the future in this area.