INTERACT FORUM
Windows => Third Party Plug-ins, Programs, and Skins => Topic started by: marko on July 02, 2015, 08:40:59 pm
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I think this is about ready for its first outing...
Black And Blue Too
Some pics:
(https://www.mpw.scot/pics/ia/skins/bb2/Snap-070.jpg)
(https://www.mpw.scot/pics/ia/skins/bb2/Snap-071.jpg)
(https://www.mpw.scot/pics/ia/skins/bb2/Snap-072.jpg)
(https://www.mpw.scot/pics/ia/20/Snap-063.jpg)
Credits:
I've left the OS specific images from the default Noire skin in there.
All other work is mine. My Photoshop skills are very limited, be kind.
I tried, but couldn't get the skin under the 700 Kb forum limit, so have tried using an mjp file. Download the attached, double click the mjp and the skin should download, extract and apply for you. This is only for the skin, not the extras below, which you can choose to apply, or not, for yourselves.
22/08/2016: Added a version with fat scroll bars
(https://www.mpw.scot/pics/ia/22/Snap-013.jpg)
This should help in the 'experimental tag window', where scrolling with the mouse wheel is not working correctly at the moment.
As before, download the "(SB)" version attached to this post and double click the enclosed mjp file to have the skin downloaded and applied for you.
If you are on a MAC, open the mjp file in a text editor and copy the file address to download, and apply manually after downloading.
Updated: 18/10/2017
I found an issue with both of these skins, where, if you set the font size a bit larger, ten, say, then the tabs would get all messed up. Both are fixed now.
Also, both skins now include the custom art files in the skin directory. These are skin specific, so only apply to these skins.
Archives on the server have been updated, so just double click the mjp file to download and apply the updates.
Updated: 28/01/2018
The squished tag window expanded icons have been fixed in both skins.
Updated (24/11/2019)
Added suitable colours for both variations for the new MC 26 waveform progress bar.
Updated (20/08/2020)
Replaced bright blue action window background with black.
Updated (12/06/2022)
Integrity checked xml vs filenames. Skin should now work correctly on Linux.
Added a Spotlight button.
Set the Spotlight page background colour.
Edit (04/02/2023):
Updated attached mjp files, which should now work for Linux and Mac as well as Windows.
Hope you enjoy, and, as always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.
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Extras:
I feel that the skin works better with black and white icons and art, and a custom "Start" page blends nicely.
If you want to try them, download the two "Custom" zip files and extract the folders they contain to the "data" folder found in your MC installation directory. It is important to extract both the folders and their content, not just the content, else nothing will work.
Note:
If you try the custom files, they are NOT skin specific, so, once in place, they will be used by any skin you apply. To revert to the MC defaults, simply delete the custom folders.
If you already use custom folders, I expect that you are sufficiently proficient and can manage any file conflicts etc. on your own.
At very least, everyone should use the custom "OptionsTree.png" file. The default simply doesn't work with dark skins, not even the default "Black on Black". This one works with light skins, like Noire, as well as dark skins like this.
The DSP button should turn blue when bitstreaming. I can't test this so hopefully someone who can will let me know that it's working OK.
Edit:
The custom art files have been removed as they are now included in the skin, and are skin specific, ie, they will not affect any other installed skin.
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Interested in trying this but I can't extract the archive.
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Apologies. I knew it was a kludge when I posted it! Could you try the new attachment in the first post and let me know if that works for you? Just download, extract and double click.
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Yes, that worked. I'll give it a shot this weekend.
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Brilliant. Thanks for letting me know. Hope you enjoy.
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Amazing! The Best skin. DSP blue button when bitstreaming working very good. Testing from mp3 to DSD. Thanks for beautiful view for beautiful player!
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Hmmm...
So, having finalised work on the original Black and Blue skin, I'm back to this, and I'm not sure why, but I suddenly took a real dislike to it and began tweaking it a bit here, and a bit there...
and what I have at the moment is a completely different look and feel, that I think is a better follow up to the original, more worthy of the name "Black and Blue Too"...
(https://mpw.scot/pics/ia/skins/bb2/Snap-042t.jpg) (https://mpw.scot/pics/ia/skins/bb2/Snap-042.jpg)
(https://mpw.scot/pics/ia/skins/bb2/Snap-043t.jpg) (https://mpw.scot/pics/ia/skins/bb2/Snap-043.jpg)
I haven't fully decided what I am going to do about this yet... I am liking the new direction, but am still a few weeks away from having anything release worthy. Will keep you all posted though...
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I'm almost done with the new look, another day or so maybe...
It's really quite dark!
Anyhoo, once done, I will just update the download and the pictures, and it will be as if this grey wrinkly thing never existed. If you actually like it, grab a copy while you still can.
Maybe I'm too hard on myself, I don't know, but the more I used it, the more it annoyed me, so I began 'fixing' it a bit, and before I knew it, it turned into something completely different.
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Tease! ;)
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:)
I've updated the pics three posts up, you can click them to load full size images. The 'forward facing' stuff is about all done now.
About this grey wrinkly one...
If anyone has this and wants to keep it, you will need to do two things...
1. Go to your MC standard view skins folder and rename the "Black And Blue Too" folder to something else.
2. Go inside that folder, find the file called "Main.xml", open it in a text editor, such as notepad, and change the name in the very first line to match the folder name you chose in step 1.
After I update the download, the new will replace the old.
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I'm intrigued by the new look. It's been a while since I tried the original; I can't remember everything about it, but it wasn't my preference.
Generally speaking I like a very dark skin, but with high enough contrast to read easily. It's also important that the top display text area be large enough to read easily. The default Noire skin has display text (up top) that's too small for my liking. I'm currently using Onyx (with some small mods) and occasionally go back to Carbon. Both have nice large display text. The included PixOS also has large display text.
How does the size of the display text in B&BT compare to the ones I've mentioned? It looks closer to Noire than anything else (display text size), but it's hard to tell because none of the screen shots show a song playing.
Thanks,
Brian.
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Morning Brian,
I updated the second of the two images above. This shows the playing now screen, using the same display font sizes as those used in PixOS.
Hopefully I'll have a 'first look' uploaded by the weekend...
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Hmm, from the screen shot, the fonts still look small. But it's hard to tell based on a screen shot. Kudos to you for working on a new skin, no matter if it's my favorite, or not! I'll definitely give it a test drive when you release it. :)
Brian.
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Updated that image again...
How big do want to go :D
If you open the skin xml file, and look at the top of the "Playerbar" section...
<Data AllowEnlargeForFont="1" />
<DisplayFont TitleSize="200" TitleWeight="800" StatusSize="150" StatusWeight="400" />"AllowEnlarge" really needs to be on, "1", and you can set the sizes as required in the other line.
Save, then re-apply the skin.
I'm hoping to have a preview of this up for the weekend. Then I may keep messing with it as I think there might be a bit too much blue now.... ::) :)
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^ Yeah, that's what I'm talking about! Nice font size in that latest picture. Also cool that it's easy to change.
I have to say that part of what attracted me to this is the nice blue highlighting I see in the first shot, in the Tagging Pane. I *swear* another screen shot showed similar highlighting in some sort of a file listing, which I liked.
Unfortunately that color scheme doesn't seem to be in Playing Now. I'd need to see it on my system to be sure, but the scheme you've chosen seems kind of low contrast. Again, MY requirements are sort of specific. Since I like dark skins, the text elements have to have rather high contrast. Otherwise, I can't read them. I guess my eyes are finally getting a little bit old.
I'll be excited to see it once you have it in a form you can release. :)
Brian.
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OK folks, that's it up. Please let me know what you think, especially if you have a high DPI thing going on. This skin should (hopefully) support that.
I don't know if it's just me, but using Firefox, the forum is displaying the images larger than actual size, which is annoying. They're fine when using IExplorer.
The custom start page files have been updated if you liked that, the new archive is in the second post.
If there is anything I missed, could do with changing or tweaking, let me know and I'll have a look at it...
Enjoy :)
-marko
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I just tried this on my non-retina (normal) Macbook Pro running MC21. Looks good, with no obvious issues. I'll have to try it again later when there's less ambient lighting and see how it looks then. Right now, the contrast of the colors is low enough that I need to turn up the brightness on my display 1 or 2 steps in order to see it well. This isn't a good long term solution for me.
I guess, as I've been saying for a while, I really like high contrast skins.
I hope others will enjoy this skin more than I do. It's really a matter of taste. :)
Brian.
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Monitors... I find them annoying!
So, I've made the skin to look good on my screen, which I'm sure you will agree is all I can do really, but even at that, when I look at these screenshots on my PC at work, they look even better than they do here, while a kind of fun skin I made a while back, in 2009, Seamless (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=50925.0), is the complete opposite and looks absolutely awful on my work monitor.
Thanks for having a look though, and for the feedback, it's appreciated.
-marko
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I used BaBT last night when the light was much lower and it was a nicer experience. I'm going to leave this one installed for a while and use it as a night time skin for a while and see how I like it.
Thanks for developing a skin for all of us to use. Skins REALLY add to the MC experience in a positive way!
Brian.
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Hi, Marcus
Just installed the latest & sorry to say, I just can't find any bugs or nits to pick... >:(
Another great looking skin to enjoy. Thank You!
Brian:
Can't you use View>Skin>Skin Effects to tweak the brightness to your liking?
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^ Yeah, I just tried that and I can definitely improve it for my needs. Not perfect, but I'll probably experiment with that some more a little later when my eyes are less tired. Thanks for reminding me about that menu.
Brian.
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I've updated this a tiny tweak you might not even notice...
Redone the 'group box top border' (as seen in the smartlist wizard for example)
Redone the tag group header in the experimental tag window.
In other news, a higher contrast version is now availble here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=100570.0
enjoy :)
-marko
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The release of Media Center 21.0.23 on the main board will have broken this skin slightly as JRiver changed some of the skin scaling from this build forwards.
I have updated the download to fix that (just double click your saved mjp file to update) but, this means that the skin is no longer backwards compatible.
If you update to build 21.0.23 and find that you're missing window buttons (Close, Maximise etc) then update the skin to correct that.
If you have not updated, do not update the skin until you have updated MC and see a problem.
-marko
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A version of this skin with regular, grabby vertical scroll bars has been added to the first post.
I found this necessary as using the experimental tag window with just the mouse wheel doesn't work correctly and was driving me nuts!
-marko
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Looks great Marko!
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Hmm. I've been using B&BT HC SB for many months now. As far as I know it's always had "fat scroll bars" in the ETAW. I just checked and they are there.
Brian.
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Looks great Marko!
Evening Mr ChriZ, glad you like it.
Hmm. I've been using B&BT HC SB for many months now. As far as I know it's always had "fat scroll bars" in the ETAW. I just checked and they are there.
Brian.
Indeed, but the non-HC version was never released with an "(SB)" alternative, until today, of course :)
Pleased to hear that the "HC (SB)" version is still cutting it for you, that's brilliant news.
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Just tried it in linux, very sharp!
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I love this skin. Nice job!
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Bob, Wildcat, thank you both for taking the time to say so. It's appreciated. Making a good MC skin is not easy and takes quite some time. It's rewarding to know that others also enjoy the results.
The (SB) version just posted uses the new art data, so you get custom icons with the skin itself, negating the need for the custom art file in the second post.
My first effort had really white check boxes which for me, didn't quite work with the skin. I've darkened them down a bit now but am still not 100% happy with them. I'll let you know if (probably when) I update them further.
-marko
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Updated: 18/10/2017
I found an issue with both of these skins, where, if you set the font size a bit larger, ten, say, then the tabs would get all messed up. Both are fixed now.
Also, both skins now include the custom art files in the skin directory. These are skin specific, so only apply to these skins.
Archives on the server have been updated, so just double click the mjp file to download and apply the updates.
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I'm missing the volume slider on linux.
Filename case sensitivity issue??
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Well, that's no good. Wonder why that would be. Chuffed that you're still enjoying the skin.
I don't think it's filename related. The xml file references the three parts like so:
Name="VolumeSlider" Bitmap="PlayerBar_SliderVol.png"
Name="VolumeSliderFront" Bitmap="PlayerBar_SliderVolFront.png"
Name="VolumeSliderThumb" Bitmap="PlayerBar_SliderVolThumb.png"
and that's how they're named in the skin folder. The only change I made in to the skin was in the xml, where I added scaling parameters for the tab bar buttons. Surely they wouldn't knock onto the volume slider, in Linux, but not in Windows?
I need to try and get a VM up and running with Linux... any tips?
Looking for clues in the meantime...
Is it missing in both variants of the skin?
Could you try the HC version, if only to see if it's missing for you there too?
All three are based, more or less, off the same files and xml, so I'm thinking if it's present in one but not another, I can look for differences.
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OK, so I got Ubuntu Gnome installed in a VM... First time I've ever had anything to do with Linux, and, well, that was painful.
All that 'repository' stuff? Really? I mean, I was just copying and pasting from Awesome Donkey's post, but really had no idea what I was actually doing...
Anyhoo, I got MC23, build 54 I think it was, installed, then, when I tried to add a skin, it took me an age to find the folder, then, having found it, it wouldn't let me add a folder, so I learned about "chown" and did loads of typing in a 'terminal' and so on...
Anyhoo, I see that there's no volume slider, and I've no idea why. I installed the "HC" variant too, and it's the same...
I chucked the old xml file without the scaling in there, and still no volume control, though scrolling where it should have been did change the volume!
I tried changing the size to 200% and found that I've messed up the scaling on the tree selection graphic (it's the same mess on Windows). I will try and sort that in the near future.
So after all that 'walking through treacle' experience with Linux, I see that the volume slider is missing, but have no idea why. It's there on Windows, and, as far as I know, it's there on the MAC too.
The referenced filenames match between disc and xml. Do you have any other clues?
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Maybe there is no audio device. Can you play anything?
Try changing the volume to internal or none.
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OK, so I got Ubuntu Gnome installed in a VM... First time I've ever had anything to do with Linux, and, well, that was painful.
All that 'repository' stuff? Really? I mean, I was just copying and pasting from Awesome Donkey's post, but really had no idea what I was actually doing...
Anyhoo, I got MC23, build 54 I think it was, installed, then, when I tried to add a skin, it took me an age to find the folder, then, having found it, it wouldn't let me add a folder, so I learned about "chown" and did loads of typing in a 'terminal' and so on...
Anyhoo, I see that there's no volume slider, and I've no idea why. I installed the "HC" variant too, and it's the same...
I chucked the old xml file without the scaling in there, and still no volume control, though scrolling where it should have been did change the volume!
I tried changing the size to 200% and found that I've messed up the scaling on the tree selection graphic (it's the same mess on Windows). I will try and sort that in the near future.
So after all that 'walking through treacle' experience with Linux, I see that the volume slider is missing, but have no idea why. It's there on Windows, and, as far as I know, it's there on the MAC too.
The referenced filenames match between disc and xml. Do you have any other clues?
Just tried on the Mac and the slider works fine.
I'm not sure what the issue is since it doesn't appear to be case sensitivity which is the main difference between linux and windows/mac. It's weird since the other skins seem to work (except the ones that use transparency like Noire Glass).
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Thanks for updating your skins, Marko! Working fine here on Win10.
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Huh, does the .mjp import even work on Linux? Not having any luck thus far. I'll have to install it on Windows and copy the decompressed skin over to Linux to test.
P.S. How do you even create the .mjp files for skins anyways? Might come in handy. ;)
EDIT: Confirmed, no slider. Changing the volume from system to internal doesn't do anything either. Can't think of a reason why it's not working - looking at main.xml it *should* work.
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Huh, does the .mjp import even work on Linux? Not having any luck thus far. I'll have to install it on Windows and copy the decompressed skin over to Linux to test.
P.S. How do you even create the .mjp files for skins anyways? Might come in handy. ;)
EDIT: Confirmed, no slider. Changing the volume from system to internal doesn't do anything either. Can't think of a reason why it's not working - looking at main.xml it *should* work.
Linux doesn't have the package installer part of MC so it doesn't install mjps. Just pull the link out of the mjp, download the zip and put the resulting directory into the ~/.jriver/Media\ Center\ 23/Skins/Standard\ Skins dir.
I'm wondering if there is some overlap with the elements above the slider? Or maybe that MC on linux doesn't do retina like scaling like windows and mac does.
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Both of these have now had their expanded tag window icons fixed.
Files on the server have been updated, so just double click your mjp file (attached to the first post if you need a new one) to download and apply the updated skin.
-marko
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Thank you Marko. I have been using black on black but yours is easier on the eye.
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Thank you for taking the time to say so. Glad you're enjoying the skin, it's the most popular of my skins by quite a long way.
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Updated (24/11/2019)
Added suitable colours for the new MC 26 waveform progress bar.
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Updated (20/08/2020)
Replaced bright blue action window background with black.
(https://mpw.scot/pics/ia/skins/bb2/awbgold.jpg) (https://mpw.scot/pics/ia/skins/bb2/awbgnew.jpg)
This has bugged me for a long time, so today, I fixed it, hopefully, without upsetting too many of you :)
This also affects the other action window tasks, such as rip/burn CD etc. I've had a quick look at those and do not think these lose anything with this change. Please let me know if I missed anything being broken though.
Both variants of the skin have received this update and are currently available.
Regards,
-marko
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Updated (11/06/2022)
Integrity checked xml vs filenames. Skin should now work correctly on Linux.
Added a Spotlight button.
Set the Spotlight page background colour.
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Newest versions are also live on the Skins download page (and will auto-install on all 3 platforms).
https://yabb.jriver.com/mediacenter/accessories.php
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I love this skin, but I have one tiny problem with it. How do you close tabs?
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I love this skin, but I have one tiny problem with it. How do you close tabs?
Center click mouse button on windows.
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I have that mapped to showing Task View in Windows. Other skins have the X button on tabs to close them (including Black and Blue Too HC), but not this one unfortunately. Thankfully the default Windows keyboard shortcut works too, though. So I can use that.
Thanks!
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I've added the close button back in. It shouldn't have been removed. I remove it for my own personal use because with many tabs open, it takes up too much real-estate in the tab bar.
At some point, my tweak ended up in the public release. Apologies :)
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Mac and linux won't use the old packageinstaller format.
You might want to change the mjp.
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes" ?>
<MJPF version="2.0">
<Package>
<Name>Black and Blue Too</Name>
<Action>INSTALLSKIN</Action>
<URL>http://www.mpw.scot/files/Black%20And%20Blue%20Too.zip</URL>
<Version>1.0</Version>
<HasActions>0</HasActions>
</Package>
</MJPF>
You can version it in there too.
Also, I can change the entry on the MediaCenter accessories page so it pulls the zipfile from your URL for automatic install too if you wish.
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I've added the close button back in. It shouldn't have been removed. I remove it for my own personal use because with many tabs open, it takes up too much real-estate in the tab bar.
At some point, my tweak ended up in the public release. Apologies :)
No worries. Aesthetically, I like it better without, too. This skin is amazingly good. I just couldn't figure out how to close tabs. Now that I've realized the normal Windows keyboard shortcuts work, I'm fine without it being there.
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Mac and linux won't use the old packageinstaller format.
You might want to change the mjp.
ET has kindly done the heavy lifting for me in that regard. Thanks ET :) I'll get it sorted soon. Need to finish integrity checking the filenames vs the main.xml references first :(
You can version it in there too.
How does that work? Currently, if I make any changes, the new just replaces the old.
Also, I can change the entry on the MediaCenter accessories page so it pulls the zipfile from your URL for automatic install too if you wish.
Six and two threes to me. Maybe a good idea? As per above, the new replaces the old, so clicks from the accessories page would always get the most recent version of the skin. "The Fly" on the accessories page, for example, is, I think, quite a bit behind now.
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Edit (04/02/2023):
Updated mjp files attached in first post, which should now work for Linux and Mac as well as Windows.
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ET TrackInfo Plugins are available for Marko's Black And Blue Too + Black And Blue Too (SB) Skins and all his other skins.
You can read about them here - https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,134776.0.html (https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,134776.0.html)
or View and Download them here - [URL] https://englishtiger.uk/index.html [/URL}