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Author Topic: MC Mac Skins  (Read 6903 times)

rkhorton

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MC Mac Skins
« on: December 14, 2013, 10:24:27 am »

Somewhere in an earlier version of MC Mac there was a question about the included skins. I thought there was one that was recommended since the skins were ported over from the Windows version. Any help with the recommended skin would be appreciated.
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Paul PMN

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2013, 04:19:54 pm »

The only Mac skin can be accessed from the view tab; its name is 'Noire'
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mwheelerk

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2013, 11:05:31 pm »

Why is that identified as a "Mac" skin versus the others available?  Is there a functional difference?
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Believe In Music GR MI 1973 - 2002

Matt

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2013, 07:50:55 pm »

Why is that identified as a "Mac" skin versus the others available?  Is there a functional difference?

Yes.  Noire supports Retina and Mac-style window buttons (close, maximize, etc.).

Updating a skin for Retina support is a big project, and unlikely to happen for any other skins during v19.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

mwheelerk

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2013, 07:40:01 am »

Thank you. I hadn't noticed before. The white background on Noire is just too bright and harsh to be able to use. It would be nice if you could provide some more flexibility in Mac Choices in this area.
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Believe In Music GR MI 1973 - 2002

MtnBeachBum

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2014, 02:12:29 am »

Yes.  Noire supports Retina and Mac-style window buttons (close, maximize, etc.).

Updating a skin for Retina support is a big project, and unlikely to happen for any other skins during v19.

If we were to make our own skins is there anything to be aware of when compared to skinning for Windows. Any of the processes involved alien to how skinning is done for Windows? I haven't looked at the Noire folder yet.
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jimm2

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2014, 01:57:02 pm »

I too didn't have much love for the Noire skin so I made an amateur attempt at updating a few of the graphic elements in this skin. For anyone with a mac retina laptop this tweaked Noire skin should work. At least it works fine on my 13" screen, not sure about larger displays. I didn't bother making it professional and putting the highlighting on the buttons. This is as far as I'm planning to take it for now but others are free to use it as long as JRiver doesn't mind me sharing it.

To use it, download the folder below and place it in your Standard View skins folder on the Mac and then it will be visible in MC under your Skin menu. Since it's built from the Noire Mac skin, it has scaling for retina devices. I'm new to skinning on Media Center so it's strictly an amateur attempt to improve the GUI a bit. My goal was just to change up the buttons, sliders and color scheme more to my liking. All of the graphic elements were pulled from various public websites.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dkv8wpz8s008c22/0Oqa8kow4K

Here are a few screenshots

https://www.dropbox.com/s/prqx4202nz9q1q8/Noire%20Tweak%20Mac%20Skin.png

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ieezz8ynzxws4s1/Noire%20Tweak%20Mac%20Skin%202.png
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rinoatomy

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2014, 01:13:21 pm »

I too didn't have much love for the Noire skin so I made an amateur attempt at updating a few of the graphic elements in this skin. For anyone with a mac retina laptop this tweaked Noire skin should work. At least it works fine on my 13" screen, not sure about larger displays. I didn't bother making it professional and putting the highlighting on the buttons. This is as far as I'm planning to take it for now but others are free to use it as long as JRiver doesn't mind me sharing it.

To use it, download the folder below and place it in your Standard View skins folder on the Mac and then it will be visible in MC under your Skin menu. Since it's built from the Noire Mac skin, it has scaling for retina devices. I'm new to skinning on Media Center so it's strictly an amateur attempt to improve the GUI a bit. My goal was just to change up the buttons, sliders and color scheme more to my liking. All of the graphic elements were pulled from various public websites.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dkv8wpz8s008c22/0Oqa8kow4K

Here are a few screenshots

https://www.dropbox.com/s/prqx4202nz9q1q8/Noire%20Tweak%20Mac%20Skin.png

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ieezz8ynzxws4s1/Noire%20Tweak%20Mac%20Skin%202.png

EXCELENT WORK, love it! Now if only the skin folder didn't disappear when updating MC would be great. I suspect we would have to copy the noire fix folder to the standard view folder every time we update.
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jimm2

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2014, 07:36:01 pm »

Glad you like it.

Yes, that's correct about the folder getting overwritten during an update. I save the file in a separate location and copy it back each time I update.
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MtnBeachBum

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2014, 02:00:14 am »

Whats the location of the skins folder on Mac?
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rinoatomy

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2014, 05:19:34 am »

right click on MC19 in the apps folder and click show package content > MAC OS > SKINS > STANDARD VIEW
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xj32

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2014, 05:39:55 pm »

Thanks! That makes everything easier on the eyes!
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jimm2

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #12 on: January 20, 2014, 07:54:11 pm »

Thanks! That makes everything easier on the eyes!

My pleasure.

In the short time since I purchased Media Center, I think the JRiver guys do a fantastic job but I do wish they would focus a little more attention on the interface. For me, it's the Achilles Heel of an otherwise wonderful product and prevents me from recommending it to family and friends who use Mac's and are sick of iTunes.

After becoming a little familiar with the skinning engine, I think it would be nice if JRiver could offer a small selection of a few buttons, sliders and background styles so users could create their own skin style. That only requires a small handful of images and building a method for users to select them. I would think that's  much easier than building all new skins and would probably satisfy a good portion of users. Every few years you could update the images to reflect current interface styles so it doesn't become obsolete.
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MtnBeachBum

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Re: MC Mac Skins
« Reply #13 on: January 20, 2014, 11:35:44 pm »

right click on MC19 in the apps folder and click show package content > MAC OS > SKINS > STANDARD VIEW
Thank you!
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