Jowaldo's skin, beta 3 test

[jowaldo]

I'm not done with my skin yet for the next release but should be by the time Steven is ready for his release.

But I'd like to get some bugs ironed out of my skin before that. So I need some feedback on any possible bugs in the skin, or suggestions for improvement. If you are using my skin full time but have specific customizations, I wouldn't spend too much time tweaking this release, because there are still quite a few things I"m going to do before the next "official" release very soon.

**********requirements**********

1) Make sure that you are updated to the very latest exe's http://www.xlobby.com/xlobby2.zip

2) If you want the weather images, please download them here: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/5215175/ and unzip them to the xlobby/plugins/xweather/images folder.

3) for audiocd and dvd autoplay functions to work correctly, hit f2 to go to setup, then the misc tab. Under autoplay click audio cd, and then assign the Autoplay:audiocd inserted event to it, then click dvd and assign Autoplay:dvd inserted to it.


Things I want feedback on

1) Bugs in general

2) The help screen, to get to it just click the ? on the main menu. There are two new things there, a button to get to the files section and to turn on/off the tool tips aka popups.

2) Pop up help... roll the mouse over most any button that doesn't already have text on it describing what it is, and you should see a yellow popup tool tip box. One particularly nice one is try dragging the mouse on the volume level to make it go up and down, and you'll see something cool.

3) Playlists... Go to the music playlists page and you'll see a few new things. Try loading some songs into the playlist. Then click save on the bottom left side of the playlist page. You will note it automatically saves them as playlist1 playlist2 etc.... Also the name of the currently loaded playlist is in the upper right hand corner. You are also able to delete playlists now too. I am working on getting the ability to rename them, and it will be ready by the release time.

4) Files... accecesed from the help menu for now at least. You can delete files from here, and renaming is partially done, but not fully functional yet. It will be for the release.

5) "glossed" buttons thanks to colby It really makes the skin look better imho

6) the music note button on any of the music pages. Click on it and you will see new options

7) on that popup, check out multizone for those who use it... I realllllly need feedback on this and how it works because I don't use that feature.

8.) built in cover art downloader/spider... accessed from that music note pop up menu. Make sure the album you want to download art from is highlighted first, then click that

9) cdex cd ripping. right now the page is ready and fully functional, but until steven offically releases the plugin this page will have to wait.


Thats all i can remember right now. Oh with the latest exe's the ppc screens don't show up right at all, I know steven is working on it, but there isn't much new on the ppc screens for the moment if you are wondering.

So here is the link, please give as much feedback as possible

http://www.xlobby.com/files/jowaldo/jowaldobeta3test.zip

[AtTheGates]

New buttons look great and pop help works everywhere that I would want it to. A couple times the pop up appeared behind another object but this small error was difficult to recreate. The new music cover downloader screen looks good but I find it quite a bit slower than working through the setup dialog. Cdex screen looks promising if I visualize what will replace plugin>cdex.
The files screen is the best I've seen but still has a few problems. I would like it if the font was reduced a little so that more fits on a screen and the icons are not so blocky. Also, when browsing My Computer I get big pauses where the selection box will not move. Overall it looks better and is more functional. Great job.

[jmv]

Jowaldo, your skin remains a model example (unfortunately, my wife doesn't like the color scheme so I am going to be left alone in the dust when the new xlobby is released

1) Text does not fit on the screen lots of examples where it is que... etc. I would shrink the font as ... doesn't look very "polished". Some of the yellow button descriptors don't show up (e.g. Home / Minimize on the main music screen (just a yellow empty box shows up)

7) Multizone support w/o showing what zone you are on in the main page and also not having the sync option selectable. Also, I don't think folks who actually use multizone will want to dive into the advanced menu to activate it. (at least I wont).

[jowaldo]

Jowaldo, your skin remains a model example (unfortunately, my wife doesn't like the color scheme so I am going to be left alone in the dust when the new xlobby is released

1) Text does not fit on the screen lots of examples where it is que... etc. I would shrink the font as ... doesn't look very "polished". Some of the yellow button descriptors don't show up (e.g. Home / Minimize on the main music screen (just a yellow empty box shows up)

7) Multizone support w/o showing what zone you are on in the main page and also not having the sync option selectable. Also, I don't think folks who actually use multizone will want to dive into the advanced menu to activate it. (at least I wont).

Sorry she doesn't like the colors. Is it all the colors she doesn't like, or just some?

What resolution are you running xlobby at?

I figured most people won't want to go through the sub menus to get to multizone. I just put it there for now until I get that overlay set up better.

[oajungen]

Jowaldo,
Your skin is getting better and better!

Unfortunally the color and text of the ppcmenu's is a problem at this moment, but as I understood this is in the xlobby exe.

Do you think you will ad a picture option in the ppcmenu?

[jmv]

She doesn't like the orange blue scheme (she's more of a white blue kind of person, so she saw the default and said "don't change that") I am running Xlobby at multiple resolutions but the main one is 1024x768 (also use 1280x720 and 1280x1024).

The main multizone things of interest are zone switching (I currently have next/previous arrows with the zone>current text descriptor between them on my main music screen), zone syncing (would be really nice if the button changed looks between sync'd and unsynced but I think that requires steves help--I'd love to have the button change between a broken and unbroken object if it is sync'd or unsync'd...it is really hard to tell if zones are sync'd since when there sync'd it's hard to hear the different zones ). Last would be multiple and master volume controls but again at think were at Steve's whim for that one...please steve please!!!.

mv

[jowaldo]

Jowaldo,
Your skin is getting better and better!

Unfortunally the color and text of the ppcmenu's is a problem at this moment, but as I understood this is in the xlobby exe.

Do you think you will ad a picture option in the ppcmenu?

Thanks... its good to hear that... keeps me motivated to put more time into it.

I will add a picture option to the ppc, but I've kinda been waiting for a picture rotate option. The orientation of the ppc screen isn't too great for most pictures taken horizontally, so it would be nice if I could rotate pictures 90 degrees.

jmv: I'm not sure why some of the buttons do not show up right with the text inside them. As long as you are using a 4:3 resolution it should be fine. I'll take a look at it tho in those resolutions and see what I find.

I'll make some of those changes to the multizone options too

[rhinoman]

I haven't tried the skin....yet, been real busy but I'll echo jmv's comments with regard to showing which zone and being able to change it from the main pages as being required when you use multiroom. I am running a modified standard skin for that reason with those changes and similarly to the ppc to make changing zones more accessable with less button pushes.

Keep up the good work jowoldo.

[theendisnye]

How do you use the trailer feature and associate a trailer with a specific video? Steve