by Marbles_00 on Fri May 21, 2010 10:14 pm
I think we are thinking similar, but on two different levels. What I'm talking about modular, is to supply a base skin which doesn't do much more than show the main menu. I'm including weather screens so at least it has some functionality. Each menu item will then be provided by a different module download. If you want to use the skin for movies, then you would download the movie module package. If you want to use the skin for music, then you would download the music module pack...TV, then the TV module pack, etc. Each module would include the events, screens, plugins to use that module in the skin, and the main screen events would get modded to accommodate the new module pack.
I thought of doing this because from my own experience, I find when working on a skin, I jump around alot, and the finer details of specific things get lost and forgotten. Doing things in steps like this, I can concentrate on one thing, get it working just right, and then release it. I also find, that I'm primarily using my skins for the playback of movies and video, and not so much in the playback of music, or viewing pictures. So I'm getting a keen sense of how to display a video library, and how I want that aspect of the skin to behave. This is where the community could contribute, as if someone has a keen sense of how to display and run music, then they could design a music module for the skin. Or in the case of TV, someone like lar282 has a keen sense of how to run and display TV, since he has dealt with the MP TVEngine plugin, so he could contribute to the skin with a TV module pack.
The most difficult thing here would be to try and keep the modules to within the behavioral parameters and look of the primary skin. So individuals wishing to contribute would have to understand that in order for it to all work, we would have to keep a strict pattern in the overall structure of the skin, its screens and events.
Ultimately my goal, down the road, is to release this skin for freelobby, and be able to easily port it over to V3...which is another reason for doing things in modules...so I can port a section over at a time.
I don't know...how does all that grab people?