[Skin] Rapier Clarity Mod (3.5.49)

[byron]

I've corrected the label issue I was describing, just a simple correction. Also found and corrected a couple of other things that I must have missed while updating (video/audio scan wasn't showing up when scanning was started from video/music files). It was hard to catch everything when updating nearly 2/3 of this project apparently...

@ Strelki...Excellente Hopefully you'll be able to try it out, I'm curious how I did with my label positioning (and suggestions you might have on improving this mod). I'm guessing some top menu bar labels are going to stretch past their <texture> due to longer words through translation...but if you change "BreadcrumbFont" in font.xml to just a tad smaller size (20-21) you should still be able to clearly make out which window you're in and also see no text overrun. I appreciate you translating this, very kind of you indeed.

Cheers,

byron

[FoxForceFive]

Hi, first off, I'm new here, been using XBMC on my HTPC for many years & have seen it running on the xbox but never actually owned one.

Been thinking of a solution for getting a media centre in my kids room as well as some gaming options & when I spotted a crystal xbox this weekend at a car boot sale (a little like a yard sale for you non brits!) I grabbed it for £12 with two controllers, leads & a few games.

I found out quickly by stripping it down that it had a 'superaladdin' modchip inside & within an hour I'd installed chimp, xbmc, updated the bios to evo8 plus (thanks Heimdall for his amazing engineering disc!) an old 250gb hdd & coinops 3.

I was however, very disappointed with the skins I found, my kid is used to using confluence on my raspi or Aeon Nox on my HTPC, & confluence was sluggish & the PM3 skins felt dated at best.

Then I found this skin. It's as close to the new HTPC XBMC feel I've found, runs very smoothly whilst looking superb, the addition of Todds is brilliant too.

However, I'm left with a just two queries having read through this thread, they may or may not be skin specific, as I'm new to XBMC on Xbox please forgive me if it's not skin specific, I've done loads of googling the last two days & my head is full of new information & ways of doing things!

Firstly, is there a way to 'brighten' the fanart background? For instance using Large poster view in movies, the fanart is barely seen, in Aeon Nox there is a 'dark' fanart setting, that this seems to have by default.

If there's somewhere in the skin xml I can change it myself just let me know what code I'm looking for & I'll have a play, as I'm sure that's very user specific.

Secondly, I've successfully set up two homepage shortcuts (custom1 becoming Emulators linking to Coinops xbe file & custom2 becoming a favourites link to my games folder with some xbox games in).

Emulators link works fine, boots coinops as expected.

However Games doesnt open up the games folder (f:games) as I expected but instead takes me to a list with favourites on, how can I create a shortcut to the games folder, so when the Games link is pressed the list of games simply appears?

Now, a request, followed by a little bit of feedback if you dont mind?

I have created a third custom shortcut from the home screen, linking to a kids channel (saved as a favourite) in the BBC iPlayer plugin. The kids channel is called 'CBeebies', is there any chance you could do the fonts image file for 'CBeebies' so I can name it correctly on the home screen?

As for the feedback, it's only something small, but when adding custom1 etc, it felt a little 'clunky' as when selected on the left hand side of the screen, the next box that needs an entry (path) isnt focused, it's not immediately apparent that you need to hit right to then enter that path. The same thing happens again after path is selected, the box below needs moving to but again it isnt apparent.

Like I said, it's extremely minor, but it's just something that struck me as feeling a little off having been used to using a HTPC version of XBMC for so long, there could be a good reason for it, but thought it worth mentioning!

Again, thanks so much for making such a polished & up to date skin.

As a final point, I'm so pleased with this xbox I'm now looking to get one for the bedroom as a secondary games & media box up there, I love it & that's in no small way thanks to the fact it has a great looking skin.

[byron]

This is what I wish everyone that tried this skin would do...feedback and opinion (and flattery ) Welcome to the forum, and quite a nice in depth first post. Having said that....

Firstly, is there a way to 'brighten' the fanart background? For instance using Large poster view in movies, the fanart is barely seen, in Aeon Nox there is a 'dark' fanart setting, that this seems to have by default.

This is why I said it's not exactly a begginer's skin in the OP...too many things to find before you can use it efficiently (worth the learning curve imo). I'm guessing you have not found/tried this:

Click on the Screen Settings Icon and tick "Do Not Dim Fanart"...

And should be more to your liking...

However Games doesnt open up the games folder (f:games) as I expected but instead takes me to a list with favourites on, how can I create a shortcut to the games folder, so when the Games link is pressed the list of games simply appears?

I'm not entirely sure what to tell you on this one...I want to say that it's not a skin issue, but I'm uncertain. I remember reading on a similar question for confluence lite or a different skin not too long ago, but wasn't able to come up with a link for you. Perhaps xbs or Dan dar3 might be able to shed light on this for both of us. Either way, we can straighten that out quickly I'm sure.

As for the Custom Menu items, yea the interface is a little "wonky" but quite efficient at the same time (wish I wouldn't have had to use scripts as they take RAM and never give it back). I couldn't find a better way to do it with what I had to work with (if you read through the thread than you understand it was mostly integration not creation), just too many things to try to tie up for a rookie skinner I guess. Bottom line is that it works, and again once you understand how to do it, it's really easy and pretty slick. That's the thing about a GUI, it's hard to please everyone but the feedback is certainly welcome. I don't really know what else I could do to make it better without tearing 10 windows apart that I'd just as soon never fiddle with again. However, do you think it would make a substantial difference if once "button 1" or "button 2" (etc...) was selected the "Scripts" button ("Plugins" etc...) had focus? Where would you think the focus should go? I'm curious because you obviously use mainline, and chose this because it sort of has that feel according to you. What would you do to make that section smoother?.

I have created a third custom shortcut from the home screen, linking to a kids channel (saved as a favourite) in the BBC iPlayer plugin. The kids channel is called 'CBeebies', is there any chance you could do the fonts image file for 'CBeebies' so I can name it correctly on the home screen?

Certainly not a problem, just give me some time to remember how to do it Shouldn't take too long...do you want "CBEEBIES," or "CBeebies?"

As a final point, I'm so pleased with this xbox I'm now looking to get one for the bedroom as a secondary games & media box up there, I love it & that's in no small way thanks to the fact it has a great looking skin.

Much appreciated, also much thanks to BuZz for the "playground," and Skatulski, Kozz, Dom and others for working plugins etc... Thanks again for your thoughts, and if anything else jumps out at you let me know and I'll address it...the goal is to make it as current (and lite) as I am able for as long as possible.

[Dom DXecutioner]

For xbox games you need to add the path in the programs source where your games are located (usually "F:/Games", though I use "F:/Content/Games"), the name of source should be "Games."

The you use the following code on your shortcut button:

<onclick>ActivateWindow(Programs, Games, Return)</onclick>

The code will activate the programs window and take you directly to the games virtual folder; the "Return" parameter tells xbmc to return to the last window when you press back and not to the root directory (not sure if it actually works for programs window).

[byron]

@Dom...Thanks for the info, that's how I have it in Home.xml, so maybe FoxForce named the source differently or something and that's why it isn't working.

@FoxForceFive...I couldn't really help it, even with the anti-aliasing the letters didn't turn out perfect:

CBeebies.jpg (7.9 KiB) Viewed 8954 times

anyway, here is the zip. Just unzip and place the blurred and focused .pngs into Rapier Clarity Mod/media/Custom Home Categories/. Also on the OP if you click 720p + extras link there is a folder in there called custom home cat's and that's where I have the images that I just made for you (along with SHOUTcast, ICEFILMS, AND NAVI-X so far). For the games issue, did you name your source Games? That would be the problem right there if you didn't...

[FoxForceFive]

Ha, I should have tried clicking every option, I knew to press left to activate a selection window as some other xbmc skins (inc aeon nox) use that, but didnt spot that icon for brightness! Good to know it's there!

Glad you didnt mind my long winded post (I do go on...), & i appreciate the fact that it's a helluva lot more difficult to change something like window focus than it is to ask for it, like I said, it's a very small thing!

Regards the custom wording, either way is fine, I shouldnt have stressed the caps when I typed it out the first time!

For xbox games you need to add the path in the programs source where your games are located (usually "F:/Games", though I use "F:/Content/Games"), the name of source should be "Games."

The you use the following code on your shortcut button:

<onclick>ActivateWindow(Programs, Games, Return)</onclick>

The code will activate the programs window and take you directly to the games virtual folder; the "Return" parameter tells xbmc to return to the last window when you press back and not to the root directory (not sure if it actually works for programs window).

Ok, that sounds like it's what I need, where do I put that code? In an xml file or somewhere else? Sorry if it's a bit of a noob question, only done some very minor xml editing in the past!

[FoxForceFive]

@Dom...Thanks for the info, that's how I have it in Home.xml, so maybe FoxForce named the source differently or something and that's why it isn't working.

@FoxForceFive...I couldn't really help it, even with the anti-aliasing the letters didn't turn out perfect:

CBeebies.jpg

anyway, here is the zip. Just unzip and place the blurred and focused .pngs into Rapier Clarity Mod/media/Custom Home Categories/. Also on the OP if you click 720p + extras link there is a folder in there called custom home cat's and that's where I have the images that I just made for you (along with SHOUTcast, ICEFILMS, AND NAVI-X so far). For the games issue, did you name your source Games? That would be the problem right there if you didn't...

Fantastic, that will do fine!

I did name the source Games. I'll go back into it now, clear the settings & start again for that custom category, I may have done something idiotic, I have to do all my setting up late in the evening after the kids have gone to bed & the wife has spent an hour or so with me so I've been known to make basic mistakes!

[FoxForceFive]

Still doesnt seem to be going to the list of games (inside F:games), rather to the favourites list.

Just to make it clear I'm getting the basics right, I'm going into 'Programs' adding the source 'F:Games', then pressing white & 'add to favourites', then I'm going into skin settings & creating Custom1 & pointing 'path' to the 'Games' Favourite that appears.

Is that correct?

This is what I end up with & the custom home setup screen:

[byron]

Yup, that's what you should do...add source, add it to favourites and should be good. I just tried a custom home button with my movies folder from favourites and that one worked. Hmm, could be something to do with games? There is a games item on the programs home sub-menu (which is what I thought you meant originally), try that and see if that works. Also, does it work when you try selecting it from favourites? I'm sorry, I'm not sure why it isn't working for the custom menu...maybe post a debug log?

[FoxForceFive]

Debug Log:

http://www.xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=29626

If this is clogging up your thread, please feel free to split it off into a new one (unsure what the forum etiquette is here).

I deleted the old favourites link, & cleared the custom menus, then enabled debug, rebooted, then added F:games as a favourite, then set up the custom menu, then tried to use it from the home screen. Just for good measure, when it failed I went into the F:games folder.

Good job I did, cos the debug log says F:games is not a valid source, yet you can see it's there cos the log then shows me going into it & the thumbnails for each game loading (if I'm reading the logs correctly).

http://www.xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=29626

[FoxForceFive]

Ok, found the issue, albeit a bizarre one!

Filezilla seems to have created multiple folders, I found this out when creating a Movies folder on F. It was creating three sets of folders, (F:games>games>games) however when I clicked the first 'games folder' it would show the folders & xbe files as being in there, when they were actually three levels down (hope that makes sense, hard to explain in words!).

I'm just about to install cyberduck to try to fix the mess it's left!

EDIT: Cyberduck is doing the same thing now. Maybe something is up with the F drive & the way it's setup?

[byron]

Here is a debug of when the file browser opens and caches all of the images in the custom icons folder

http://pastebin.com/zSRYinRE

The error code when it opens is because it doesn't open into the actual folder (custom fallback inside the folder is what it's looking for), but I don't think that's too serious of a problem. The reason I posted the debug log is because after the file browser opens, my box starts caching the images....yours starts throwing more error codes and I don't get why.

1) Have you tried accessing your games directly from programs (if so do you have access to them, and can you use them?)

2) Same as above with a different skin?

Filezilla seems to have created multiple folders, I found this out when creating a Movies folder on F. It was creating three sets of folders, (F:games>games>games) however when I clicked the first 'games folder' it would show the folders & xbe files as being in there, when they were actually three levels down (hope that makes sense, hard to explain in words!).

I can't even access my F drive so I'll be no help to you there, are you doing this via ftp or xbmc? Anyone else out there have any similar problems related to the F drive doing something similar to this?

++EDIT++
I noticed that when I looked at your debug.log you're using quite a bit of an older build, might be worth a try to install r31785...

[Dom DXecutioner]

Still doesnt seem to be going to the list of games (inside F:games), rather to the favourites list.

Just to make it clear I'm getting the basics right, I'm going into 'Programs' adding the source 'F:Games', then pressing white & 'add to favourites', then I'm going into skin settings & creating Custom1 & pointing 'path' to the 'Games' Favourite that appears.

Is that correct?

This is what I end up with & the custom home setup screen:

Close but no... Once you add the source, click into it to make sure all of your games show up; on the custom shortcut, the code or path is "ActivateWindow(Programs, Games, Return)", exactly as written.

The reason why your log shows that you don't have a valid source is because you instructing it to look for the source named "f:/games", but the source's actual name is "games", xbmc will take care of the actual path for you, hence virtual folder.

[FoxForceFive]

Ok. Fixed the issue with the F drive, it was setup incorrectly as a 225gb drive (unsure how, when I first used ABpartitioner it was 120gb but I flashed the bios after that so possible that caused it.

Anyway, I repartitioned the space as two 115gb drive (F & g) & it's no longer creating multiple folders (i presume that created the errors you referred to in my debug log).

However that was a red herring, the error still remains.

Addressing doms point is tricky, as I can add the game source to favourites but when the skin creates the path it automatically adds the 'f:games' bit into the path & it's not possible for me to amend this within the window for path.

I've looked in the home.xml but can't see the path to amend.

The programs sub menu shortcut works perfectly, but as you pointed out that path is exactly as he recommended earlier, unfortunately the path created to the games as a favourite doesn't create the same code.

If I can edit it to match the code for the program sub menu activatewindow then I'm sure it'll work, I just can't find it in the home.xml!

[byron]

Line 2305:

Code: Select all

<item id="2">
   <description>Games</description>
	<label>15016</label>
	<onclick>ActivateWindow(Programs,Games,return)</onclick>
</item>

It's the code that works on the "sub-menu," and if I'm understanding correctly it won't do any good to change that. You could open up your favourites.xml and edit that....(I think that's the path you need to change but might not work either). Open that up and see what the path looks like and change it to ...ActivateWindow(Programs,Games,return) and see what happens.

Favourites.xml is in XBMC/Userdata/

[FoxForceFive]

Brilliant!

Got it working by changing the favourites.xml games path to 'ActivateWindow(Programs,Games,return)'. This then corrected the button path after I cleared it & reset the favourite & custom button.

Thanks so much for the help!

BTW, I've just discovered the 'kiosk mode' function, to my great delight, I hadnt even bothered looking for one on this skin as most mainstream/htpc xbmc skins often dont have it. This is perfect for stopping my kid breaking things!

[byron]

- NEW FEATURE (RAM SAVING BACKGROUNDS) -

So finally after working on and off for the last 6 weeks --- mostly on --- I have good news! More RAM available (almost 41MB available on the Home Screen) plus much more multilingual support Granted it's not much (and very plain looking), but 1-2mb extra RAM isn't exactly a kick in the teeth either. Quite simple to turn on and 4 colours to choose from:

- NEW FEATURE (UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND OPTION) -

This would be good if you have an image that you always want on every window (over-rides all other background options)...I've included 5 colours like the above example -- Blue, Gray, Green, Purple, and Red -- but once you click the "IMAGE PATH" button you may choose any of your own backgrounds as a single ultimate image to be displayed throughout the entirety of the skin (explorable via "FileManager").

Having said that, much work went into updating ALL aspects of my project and fair amount of time went into making the Home Menu "multilingual" friendly. In case you didn't notice from the first example, the Home-Menu-Bar is now in sync with the rest of the work that I've done to make this skin legible from language to language. I've also updated my strings --- Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish are all now fully supported, however my translations are more than likely suspect at best (any help with further translation support would be much appreciated btw). I'm making a big effort in this aspect of my project, so any of you non English speakers that are using this skin are MORE than welcome to help in this area.

Soooo many other little adjustments that I don't even want to think about at this point, but overall this is a major improvement and with no loss in quality as far as I'm concerned (the overall size of the skin was also diminished by almost 10MB). One other change I made that I think is worth mentioning (curious as to what others think) is what I did with DialogKeyboard. I went ahead and made it fullscreen as I've done with many other dialogs. If it's too much I can easily roll it back to the way that it was, but after a little getting used to it's actually really cool imho...

As always, any feedback is more than welcome so don't be afraid to give me an opinion or a suggestion...this skin is highly customizable and quite efficient on RAM so give it a go and you might be pleasantly surprised. Also wanted to throw a very big thanks out to all those involved in moving xbmc4xbox forward ---

[5l1p]

Hi Byron. Thanks for the update I’m still enjoying your skin and the large keyboard is a welcomed change for me. I also like the way you have made the navigation icons font based, makes adding custom links much friendlier!

A little bug: miss-alignment of fonts.

Could you possibly extend the amount of font characters in the info pane to the other end of the screen please rather than it cut off with “…”

And to this view also (Track title)

I would also like to request the “list2” view I mentioned in the past, if you would consider doing this I will be most grateful, it would make the Youtube plug-in more pleasant to the eye.
Thanks again, keep it up!

[byron]

You've been using it for awhile now 5l1p...it's really nice to know that at least one other person is actually enjoying this alongside myself Your feedback has been much appreciated over the last many months and I still am trying to figure a "slik" way to put RAM and CPU usage into this monster as a user defined skin setting (have not forgotten and have made several unsuccessful attemts).

Thanks for bringing the misaligned labels to my attention from the ListView. I took care of that issue, took down the bright white label just a notch to more of a gray color, expanded the width of the label to combat the scrolling, and also made an attemt to center the big icon for the view in the allotted amount of space...I didn't like how offsetting all of these things were once I took a closer look at this particular view. As far as the the "List2 View"... gonna need some time there, but will DEFINITELY get to that soon.

I took care of the InfoPane label width (non library views), and also extended the width of the Viz title label...

I also like the way you have made the navigation icons font based, makes adding custom links much friendlier!

So cool that you noticed...I wasn't sure how one might react to the wider spacing of the menu, but you hit the nail on the head...friendlier. I tried to keep things as close to original as possible, but we're only dealing with 64mb of RAM. Scarfa had to make all HomeMenu items as :icons: and my thinking was "why do I want to keep trying to manufacture multilingual images?" Plus, in getting rid of all of those images on the Home Screen the skin itself became much more responsive and multilingual at the same time...couldn't have worked out any better. Also wanted to let you know that I re-compressed the full 1080p conditional weather pack and integrated it into this skin (no more installing nonsense necessary), so please let me know if you notice that the images look worse than before so I can upgrade them a bit

Download and install the updated 720p and let me know what you think about the "ListView" adjustments please, and thanks again for the input ---

[5l1p]

Yes… it certainly has come along since your initial release! I do think you have compressed the conditional weather pack a bit too much, the jpg distortion is quiet evident in some of the pictures however, your adjustments to the list view look fine and more natural. The info pane now makes my browsing experience more rapid. Thanks!

I’m really picking now!

The programs icon doesn’t do a little “jiggle” when pressing up unlike the other icons.

This on-off highlight is green, I’m assuming this is an error because I haven’t seen any other green highlights in the skin setting menu.

Also the “hide category icons when video playing” doesn’t appear to do anything, I’m unsure of what this is for and if it has anything to do with library mode which I don’t use.

I look forward to those additions byron but please, take your time. I always pop on to these boards to see what is going on with xbmc4xbox when I have the time, even though I don’t post very often.

Could you also apply the universal background to the weather screen as well, when conditional backgrounds are disabled as it doesn't take priority.

If I notice anything then I will be happy to report. Thanks again!