Topic: PixOS Inspired Suite for MC (Read 22020 times)

Doof · « **Reply #50 on:** September 27, 2003, 07:02:25 pm »

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This mini-me is very cool. I was wondering whether it was possible to get the album art to be displayed instead of a musical note. That would make it perfect.

(maybe it's supposed to do that, but it doesn't do that on my system.)

kiwi

That was (and still is) part of the original plan. I do intend to get that to work, but I'm not positive I'll be able to. In some testing I've done, I've been able to display a cover art image (not of the actually playing song, but just one of the images on my hard drive), but it was too big to fit, and so only a portion of it was displayed. I'm going to scour the SDK some more to see if there's a way to resize the image for display within the mini-me skin. I know that other plugins are doing it (like Rhino's Album View plugin), but I'm not sure if it'll be possible in mini-me. If not, I'm not sure it's really worth it.

Retrieving the currently playing song's coverart shouldn't be too difficult. Resizing it to fit in the space alotted is another matter entirely. I'll see what I can come up with, but if somebody else figures it out before me, let me know?

Doof · « **Reply #51 on:** September 27, 2003, 08:27:26 pm »

Well, I've got some good news and some bad news.

First, the good news: I've figured out how to retrieve the currently playing file's cover art file, and figured out that I can tell MC to retrieve the small thumbnail image to go along with it. It's a little bit smaller than it needs to be in order to fit, but the next size up is too big. I now know that I can at least retrieve the filename to the imagefile I need and in a useable size.

Now, the bad news. The function that puts a picture into a window apparently only works if that image file is in the same folder as the skin. Since that's not where thumbnails are stored, there doesn't appear to be a way to actually display the image file. I can manually copy and paste the pathname into the function and it won't work, so I know it's not a problem with retrieving the pathname. If I put the image file into the skin's folder and adjust the pathname in the skin's function, it works. So it must be that metamorphis can only set pictures that reside in the same folder as the skin. It won't even work if it's as simple as "C:\image.jpg".

I'd request a fix for this (and JRiver can consider this post to be such a request), but since I've gotten NO response of any kind to any of the questions I've asked in here regarding this skin's development (from JRiver), I'm not too hopeful that it will happen. If they did fix this, then I could probably have this done and out within an hour.

nila · « **Reply #52 on:** September 28, 2003, 05:35:04 am »

Doof,

I dont think they check these forums that much.

Try posting it in the main forum and see if you get much more luck.

It's a shame when plugin development doesn't work because of bugs/lack of features in MC because the plugin's usually add a LOT to it.

Ask enough and I'm sure they'll add it

JimH · « **Reply #53 on:** September 28, 2003, 07:40:46 am »

Nila,
What makes you think we don't read the posts? Do you have inside information?

Jim

JimH · « **Reply #54 on:** September 28, 2003, 07:42:30 am »

Doof,
We're at the point where we're done making changes in 9.1 and just purely debugging. Changes will now occur after 9.1 is released. They may make it into a 9.1 maintenance build.

Sorry if this slows you down. We just have to have a version we can ship.

Jim

Doof · « **Reply #55 on:** September 28, 2003, 08:43:27 am »

I completely understand where you're coming from. Just understand that I consider this issue (and the Set/GetStateValue problem) to be bugs. Wouldn't they therefore fall into the debugging category?

Doof · « **Reply #56 on:** September 28, 2003, 10:29:16 am »

After re-reading my post I realize it may have not come across as clearly as I would have liked.

I'm willing to wait for a maintenence release, if that's what it takes. You guys really have your hands full as it is. I'd really hate to have to wait until 10 for these fixes, though.

nila · « **Reply #57 on:** September 29, 2003, 12:40:24 am »

Nope

and u proved me wrong.

Just seen posts in the past from various people saying that some of their posts in the developement forum hadn't been answered for a while.

Doof · « **Reply #58 on:** September 29, 2003, 08:45:51 am »

I just added a GetPlayingNow Popup skin to the suite. The link is available either in this post or in the top post of the thread.

You can download it here.

Installation: First you need RhinoBanga's GetPlayingNow plugin in order to have the popup capability. Then unzip the PixOS Background.jpg file goes into the Graphics folder, and the ini file goes into C:\Windows.

lOth · « **Reply #59 on:** September 29, 2003, 10:25:33 am »

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you need RhinoBanga's GetPlayingNow 2.0 plugin

I could only find v. 1.0. Your skin works fine with it but I was just wondering if you just mistyped or if there was indeed a 2.0 I couldn't find.

Doof · « **Reply #60 on:** September 29, 2003, 10:43:56 am »

Oh... you're right. It is 1.0. I could have sworn it said 2.0 somewhere... I'll go back and fix it.

Doof · « **Reply #61 on:** September 29, 2003, 02:19:30 pm »

Great news, guys and gals! Nikolay was kind enough to make some of the changes I'd asked for so now I'm able to put the coverart stuff in.

Basically the way it works is this : Audio files without coverart should display the musical note. Video files will display the note with the film, and audio files with coverart will display the coverart. It's working perfectly for me here, both with internal and external coverart. The picture is a little smaller than it needs to be, but until we're given a way to actually manipulate the size of the images from within Metamorphis, (or until somebody shows me something that I missed), it'll have to do.

The download link is in the first post of this thread.

So, enjoy! And thanks again, Nikolay!

kiwi · « **Reply #62 on:** September 29, 2003, 03:07:22 pm »

What Version of MC do you need? 9.1.262? I have a really slow connection + metered bandwidth, so I try to only download MC updates periodically.

Extremely please to hear about the image being available. I figured that it was on the road map, just didn't think that it was going to happen this soon.

Do you know whether or not it works with internal images? Or do I have to store my images out of the files? I'm downloading 9.1.262 now, so I guess that I'll find out soon enough.

Great mini-me skin.

kiwi

lOth · « **Reply #63 on:** September 29, 2003, 03:10:15 pm »

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audio files with coverart will display the coverart

Not working here. Just downloaded and installed the latest version of the skin and using MC 9.1.256

Edit:

Updated to MC 9.1.262, it now works great

kiwi · « **Reply #64 on:** September 29, 2003, 03:31:56 pm »

Ditto

Doof · « **Reply #65 on:** September 29, 2003, 03:38:04 pm »

Yeah, sorry, I should have specified that. You'll need 9.1.262 for this to work. The changes I needed weren't included until then.

And yes, it works with internal coverart as well as external.

matshif · « **Reply #66 on:** September 29, 2003, 07:07:54 pm »

It's a masterpiece. Even with the PopUp thing.

Thank You, Doof.

Mats

lOth · « **Reply #67 on:** September 30, 2003, 05:19:18 am »

Hairstyle! Hairstyle! Hairstyle!

Doof · « **Reply #68 on:** September 30, 2003, 06:12:11 am »

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Hairstyle! Hairstyle! Hairstyle!

I've emailed a couple of people seeking permission to use their wallpaper in my hairstyle skin. I haven't heard back from them yet. I'm not really sure how to handle all this, since the wallpapers I'm interested in are availalbe for free.

Part of me thinks it then becomes ok for me to use them in my skin since I won't be seeking any kind of payment for it, and since I would somehow credit the original author.

The other part of me would really like to have their explicit permission to use it. I really don't want to step on any toes here.

But then I'm thinking that I could probably just create the buttons and all that, distribute it with the default JRiver wallpaper, and provide you all with a link to some really nice PixOS style wallpapers...

So what do you think? Anybody have any experience with this?

lOth · « **Reply #69 on:** September 30, 2003, 07:00:06 am »

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Part of me thinks it then becomes ok for me to use them in my skin since I won't be seeking any kind of payment for it, and since I would somehow credit the original author.

I'm with that part of you

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So what do you think? Anybody have any experience with this?

My experience is that I did just that, use backgrounds available for free, and made a couple HS skins available for free. Follow the link below and you'll see that for the first one I shamelessly plundered JC's work. For the second one, the background is from a wallpaper I downloaded for free I don't even remember where (wincustomize.com?) and the buttons are adapted from JRiver's default HS. I had no problem with either of those. But I understand you want to make sure about that.

http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=MediaCenter;action=display;num=1058407203;start=0#1

Doof · « **Reply #70 on:** September 30, 2003, 07:14:46 am »

Well, let me show you what I have so far. It's the same layout as the default skin, but with a new wallpaper and some different buttons.

The really sticky part here is that I edited the wallpaper to make it more HS friendly. The original had some logos on it that looked kind of cluttered once the track list was displayed. So that makes me want the original author's permission even more.

http://www.dooftoo.com/MC/Downloads/PixOS/Hairstyle/hs2.jpg

Doof · « **Reply #71 on:** September 30, 2003, 07:18:22 am »

Without the track list:

http://www.dooftoo.com/MC/Downloads/PixOS/Hairstyle/hs3.jpg

Eventually I'll change these screenshots to just links...

lOth · « **Reply #72 on:** September 30, 2003, 07:46:01 am »

Doof,

it looks like a great start. I think I would try to go towards something that gives more of a PixOs feel to it. Maybe you could try to do some of the things I did with the Brushed Metal inspired from JC's work, viz. make a border around the visualization window and put a special (bordered) background for the 'location' information and the clock. These borders and background could be made on the model of the mega/mini-me.

As for the general background, why not use something more simple like the same blue gradient of the mega/mini-Me skin? That might solve one issue that I see (and that I ran into with the Brushed Metal), namely that the white font of the track listing is difficult to read on a light background such as the one you've choosen. You could also play with the font color since it's now configurable.

As for the buttons the color is great, but I would have seen, again, something that feels more like the overall theme, that is buttons that look like the play control buttons of the mega/mini-Me (viz. same bevel, border, colors).

I hope this won't sound too critical, for I think you already have a great basis, something that looks far better than what I could have done myself...

Doof · « **Reply #73 on:** September 30, 2003, 09:43:05 am »

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it looks like a great start. I think I would try to go towards something that gives more of a PixOs feel to it.

The reason I picked this particular wallpaper was because it's offered up on the official pixtudio website. It's not part of the official skin suite, but it is definitely recognized as "PixOS". The original wallpaper had the PixOS logo etc. on it, but I removed it to avoid clutter. The rest of the wallpapers on their site had a little too much going on.

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Maybe you could try to do some of the things I did with the Brushed Metal inspired from JC's work, viz. make a border around the visualization window and put a special (bordered) background for the 'location' information and the clock. These borders and background could be made on the model of the mega/mini-me.

I'll take a look at that. I definitely wanted to do something with those things, but I'd really only just begun working on it.

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As for the general background, why not use something more simple like the same blue gradient of the mega/mini-Me skin? That might solve one issue that I see (and that I ran into with the Brushed Metal), namely that the white font of the track listing is difficult to read on a light background such as the one you've choosen. You could also play with the font color since it's now configurable.

I'd thought of that as well. I did actually find one wallpaper I liked that was a darker blue, but then I started wondering if there was just too much blue around, and opted for the more white\silverish look. I'll play around and see if I can find something that works better in both regards.

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As for the buttons the color is great, but I would have seen, again, something that feels more like the overall theme, that is buttons that look like the play control buttons of the mega/mini-Me (viz. same bevel, border, colors).

I hope this won't sound too critical, for I think you already have a great basis, something that looks far better than what I could have done myself...

Can you even do that with Hairstyle? What I've seen so far seems to suggest that you get only one style of button to use, and that button is used everywhere (except for the mouse navigation buttons - which I haven't come up with anything for yet). If that's not the case, I'll definitely try something fancier.

Doof · « **Reply #74 on:** September 30, 2003, 09:44:59 am »

Here's another one I had played around with for a little bit. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, though...

http://www.dooftoo.com/MC/Downloads/PixOS/Hairstyle/hs1.jpg

I think it would work really well if the big PixOS logo wasn't there, so maybe I'll try and find something similar.

Mads_H · « **Reply #75 on:** September 30, 2003, 12:20:06 pm »

I'm looking forward to a new hairstyle skin. Whats available now is not convincing and something like what you've done PixOS mini would be great.

lOth · « **Reply #76 on:** September 30, 2003, 04:32:25 pm »

Okay, better than words, 2 screenshots of something I did quickly:

without track listing:

http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/gr37/capture1.jpg

with track listing:

http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/gr37/capture2.jpg

Doof (and others?), feel free to take whatever inspiration you might find in there.

Doof · « **Reply #77 on:** September 30, 2003, 07:51:37 pm »

I just collapsed all of the Hairstyle screenshots into url's to help those on dialup.

But I will post this one.

This is something I came up with while playing around in Photoshop for an hour tonight. What do you think? Right track? Or stop now and get back to the drawing board?

There's a fullsize screenshot here. It's big... 1280x1024.

lOth · « **Reply #78 on:** September 30, 2003, 08:09:27 pm »

Doof,

I would say that what you did in the upper part (the location part) is definitely on the right track. Then I guess it's a matter of making something more uniform, viz. apply that style in the upper part to the lower part (same colors, beavel, etc.). The buttons would certainly gain from getting a more PixOs inspired look, like what I tried to do rather awkwardly as you can see on the screenshots I posted above. Here is a link to the buttons I made, if you want to have a very rough idea of how it might feel like:

http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/gr37/Button.gif

Doof · « **Reply #79 on:** September 30, 2003, 08:16:28 pm »

I was trying to mimic both sets of colors in the PixOS skin suite. With the blue background, the text shows through, better than with the silver. And I really don't like the black text in the buttons.

The buttons I used are nearly identical to the taskbar buttons in the official PixOS skin suite. I'm not sure you can get any more PixOS inspired than that.

I'll play with it a bit more tomorrow. Right now I need to get to bed.

Doof · « **Reply #80 on:** September 30, 2003, 08:21:19 pm »

I took a look at your buttons... I understand what you're saying now. I'll play around a bit and see if I can come up with something that works.

skeeterfood · « **Reply #81 on:** September 30, 2003, 08:38:40 pm »

Hey Doof,

I think I found a bug in your JScript. If playing now is empty and you switch to your mini-me, you get the following error:
JScript Error.
Code = 800a138f
Code meaning = Unknown error 0x800A138F
Source = Microsoft JScript runtime error
Description = 'null' is null or not an object

The first time I did it all the transport controls were enabled, but now only Play is. If I hit the play button I get the same error dialog, then one that says:
Please select file(s) to play.

Otherwise, I love this mini-me!

-John

Doof · « **Reply #82 on:** October 01, 2003, 05:21:20 am »

D'oh! My programming professors always told me to test for 0. Guess I forgot to do that...

What are you doing switching to mini-me with nothing in Playing Now anyway?!?

I'll get right on it.

Doof · « **Reply #83 on:** October 01, 2003, 07:39:34 am »

Ok, that should be fixed. The new version is available at the same link.

Let me know if you find anything else.

Doof · « **Reply #84 on:** October 01, 2003, 09:22:29 am »

Ok, I just put up a new version which requires at least 9.1.264 to work right.

Hmm... guess that kind of leaves MJ8 and MC9 out, doesn't it... darn.

I can probably whip up a version that works for MJ8 and MC9. It won't have the coverart stuff, though.

skeeterfood · « **Reply #85 on:** October 01, 2003, 02:22:50 pm »

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D'oh! My programming What are you doing switching to mini-me with nothing in Playing Now anyway?!?

Actually, I had an empty playing now and I downloaded the new PixOS mini-me, which of course automatically switches to the new mini-me and voila error window

Then, I just started pushing buttons to see what other troubles I could cause

Thanks for the great work!

-John

Doof · « **Reply #86 on:** October 13, 2003, 05:10:56 pm »

The PlayingNow (formerly GetPlayingNow) popup skin has been updated for use with v. 1.1. Download link and screenshot is available in the first post in this thread.

milehigh · « **Reply #87 on:** October 15, 2003, 12:22:08 am »

Hi Doof,

I really like the mini pixOS- I am new to media center - I have a few questions that may be dumb -

1. I would like to utilize pixOS Luna 2 but I would like to display the comments (I am also using the Chart lister from King Sparta) and also maybe the lyrics - I am not sure what I would have to alter to get this to display on this page - did you ever make a PixOS Luna 3 - or is there somthing I can change in the ini file?

2. I am also using the pop up from Rhino - I had previously installed it and it comes up fine - I am not sure what the one mentioned in the first post does - and I really am not clear on where to put the files that are unzipped - I don't have a playing now folder in my jriver folder.

3. lastly - when I display the pixOS Luna or Luna 2 the boxes on the left overlap - the file information and other boxes. thanks for your help.

Doof · « **Reply #88 on:** October 15, 2003, 09:59:10 am »

Quote from: milehigh on October 15, 2003, 12:22:08 am

1. I would like to utilize pixOS Luna 2 but I would like to display the comments (I am also using the Chart lister from King Sparta) and also maybe the lyrics - I am not sure what I would have to alter to get this to display on this page - did you ever make a PixOS Luna 3 - or is there somthing I can change in the ini file?

I actually haven't even started on PixOS Luna 3... I kind of stalled on the whole project. But just so I know... where would you (and everybody else) like Comments to be displayed? There are 3 pages that can be displayed (via the links in the upper left corner). Comments are already displayed on the "Notes" page. For PixOS 3, I was considering adding Notes, and Bios to that page as well. But I could also put Comment on the main page. I was just afraid that if people had long comments, it could screw things up.

Quote

2. I am also using the pop up from Rhino - I had previously installed it and it comes up fine - I am not sure what the one mentioned in the first post does - and I really am not clear on where to put the files that are unzipped - I don't have a playing now folder in my jriver folder.

The PlayingNow folder is probably located in either "C:\Program Files\James Dickson\GetPlayingNow 1.0" or "C:\Program Files\James Dickson\PlayingNow 1.1" depending on which version your using. The zip file should be unzipped into the Skins folder that's in there. So if you're using PlayingNow 1.1.01 (the latest version), you'd unzip it to "C:\Program Files\James Dickson\PlayingNow 1.1\Skins"

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3. lastly - when I display the pixOS Luna or Luna 2 the boxes on the left overlap - the file information and other boxes. thanks for your help.

I'm not quite sure I understand. Can you post or mail me a screenshot? I've tried resizing the display to all sorts of different sizes, and I can't reproduce this. The only overlap I can get to happen is the text can overlap the album art if the display size is too small. But other than that, I can't get any of the text to be overlapped by anything else. Is anybody else seeing this?

milehigh · « **Reply #89 on:** October 15, 2003, 10:51:01 am »

Thanks for the help!

I would prefer to have the comments on the main page - under the year on both Luna and Luna 2.

Thanks for the pop up help.

I pm'd you about the screen shot.

Thanks.

Doof · « **Reply #90 on:** October 20, 2003, 10:36:19 am »

Did you ever get the overlapping problem figured out?

milehigh · « **Reply #91 on:** October 20, 2003, 10:57:56 am »

No - I never did get it to work - I did d/l MJ Luna and it has the same overlapping problem - it must be my video card or something since it seems like I am the only one with the problem. I will be getting a new video card soon and I will keep you posted. Thanks again for your help....

lalittle · « **Reply #92 on:** October 22, 2003, 07:52:28 am »

I'm getting this overlap issue as well with Luna 1 and 2. I can see the "File information" window on the left, then there is some overlapping blue and black text that is partially cut off by the "Other" window below it. The text appears to be the blue "File Information" repeated, with black text saying "Rating"in the same spot.

Larry

lalittle · « **Reply #93 on:** October 22, 2003, 08:03:47 am »

I think I may have figured the overlap issue out. I'm using an LCD monitor with 1600 x 1200 native resolution. In order to make the text a more confortable size at this resolution, I have to use the "large" font size. When I drop the font back to the normal "small" setting, the windows on the left of the Luna "playing now" screen display normally.

milehigh -- do you happen to be using the "large" or a custom font size?

Larry

milehigh · « **Reply #94 on:** October 22, 2003, 09:43:54 am »

LaLittle - Bingo - you solved the mystery. Yes I do have the "Large" font size displayed. Thanks,

Doof · « **Reply #95 on:** October 22, 2003, 11:46:49 am »

So I guess the real question now is... does anybody know of any good ways to address this from the web developers point of view? If it's something relatively easily addressable, I'd be willing take a stab at it...

Although I think some people are probably ready to lynch me if I don't get Luna 3 and the Hairstyle skin done...

Doof · « **Reply #96 on:** October 27, 2003, 05:28:16 pm »

I just added a new PlayingNow skin. It's based on the Slimline skin, has a color scheme closer to the PixOS skin, and is really basic. I'm using it in my signature (hence it's very basic design). The download link is available in the first post in this thread.

lOth · « **Reply #97 on:** October 27, 2003, 06:00:49 pm »

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I think some people are probably ready to lynch me if I don't get Luna 3 and the Hairstyle skin done...

Hell yeah!

knickelfarz · « **Reply #98 on:** October 27, 2003, 06:21:01 pm »

Quote from: Doof on October 27, 2003, 05:28:16 pm

I just added a new PlayingNow skin. It's based on the Slimline skin, has a color scheme closer to the PixOS skin, and is really basic. I'm using it in my signature (hence it's very basic design).

I like that tiny version, especially for signatures... some of those PlayingNow screenshots seem to get bigger every day... it's already hard to discover the text between all of them in some threads...

Doof · « **Reply #99 on:** October 27, 2003, 07:16:49 pm »

I agree. It was the reason I suggested to Rhino the ability to display one skin locally and a different one for FTP\File Saving; so I can have a nice "big" skin popup here, and have a simplified, dial-up friendly version for my signature.

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Author Topic: PixOS Inspired Suite for MC (Read 22020 times)

nila

nila