Rockbox Technical Forums

Support and General Use => Theming and Appearance Customization => Topic started by: Genre9mp3 on May 05, 2006, 09:38:54 PM

Title: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: Genre9mp3 on May 05, 2006, 09:38:54 PM
(http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/?getfile=11577)

This is my try to make a wps for all Rockbox targets. It is based on the iCatcher WPS for H300  I made some time ago and posted at MisticRiver. Of course these versions do not utilize album art and don't require any patches to work.

I tried to cover any screen that rockbox currently supports, from the Archos ones and the iriver remotes to the iriver H300 and iPod 5G. I tried to enhance similar capabilities for all targets and make an interface simple but yet functional with as many possible information it could fit without get busy.

I hope you like the result...

You can find it in the patchtracker, here:
http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/5297 (http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/5297)

Positive feedback only accepted!  :P
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: RedBreva on May 06, 2006, 05:43:12 PM
I really do like this theme, not one I would use as the font is too small and the contrast too low for me to read it when on a treadmill...  But I do think it is a good standard WPS that should be considered as a default for all models...
One thing I would add is a problem I noticed when swapping between several themes recently - you don't specify a backdrop, and a lot of other themes do - when you switch to this one afterwards you can end up with a real clash of styles between the main menu screen and the WPS screen, and if you are unlucky, it may even be unreadable...
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: Mr. Brownstone on May 06, 2006, 06:07:10 PM
you don't specify a backdrop, and a lot of other themes do - when you switch to this one afterwards you can end up with a real clash of styles between the main menu screen and the WPS screen, and if you are unlucky, it may even be unreadable...
All you've done is describe a known-bug. The official 3.0 release is intended to ship with as few known-bugs as possible, so it is likely that this will be fixed before the month is out.

Good work on a great looking theme, but I agree that the contrast is rather low for the colour-targets. I'd also like to see an inverted-colour version. :)
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: Llorean on May 06, 2006, 06:12:23 PM
I think he's talking about the fact that when you change the WPS, it doesn't change the menu backdrop, and that if you have say, light text in the WPS, and the menu backdrop happens to be an image with very similar colours, you can't see it.

Even if you do everything right with the WPS, you do have to take into account possible menu display issues as well. ;-)
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: XavierGr on May 06, 2006, 08:16:18 PM
All of you are talking about the configuration file details. These things can be changed very easily.

Things that matter are WPS code, icons, and general layout for each target. Which I found perfect for CVS inclusion and/or default Rockbox theme for all targets.
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: RedBreva on May 07, 2006, 02:03:37 AM
Quote
All of you are talking about the configuration file details. These things can be changed very easily.

I am aware that it is very easily fixable by the end user - if they understand these things, and am currently using it with forground color set to black...  but if it is to be considered as a default setting, it really should be newbie proof. 

but I do agree that it would make an excellent default WPS screen... Not perfect, but a very polished and profesional look for an equally excellent firmware.
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But I do think it is a good standard WPS that should be considered as a default for all models...
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: woodensoul on May 07, 2006, 06:30:26 AM
I really like the iCatcher WPS.  I use the album art version on my H320 and boy does it look nice.  :) The graphical icons are the best I've seen. 

The date is missing from this version though.  It could fit easily between the bitrate display and codec icon or possibly on the same line as the genre or album in parentheses.  One other suggestion would be to move the current track title above the progress bar so that it appears with the artist, album and genre.  I'd personally put it directly below the artist.  Good job and isn't Rockbox great.  ;D
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: XavierGr on May 07, 2006, 10:25:19 AM
I am aware that it is very easily fixable by the end user - if they understand these things, and am currently using it with forground color set to black...  but if it is to be considered as a default setting, it really should be newbie proof. 

I am just saying that these things are details that can be discussed be developers and users before a CVS commit. I agree that there can be a slight modification if needed.
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: Genre9mp3 on May 07, 2006, 02:20:34 PM
Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I really appreciate it and I am glad you like the WPS.

Now, about the backdrop issue. This is not a WPS issue at all. It can happen with every theme (not WPS) that does not specify a backdrop. IMO, whenever you load a theme, if there is no backdrop specified, then the right behavior should be to clear the backdrop. Unfortunately this doesn't happen and AFAIK you cannot clear the bacdrop via a .cfg file. A quick fix for this would be to specify a plain white bmp for backdrop, but of course this wouldn't be the appropriate approach.

For the contrast issue, I tried to match the text colour with the grey colour of the bars, but if this makes the text difficult to read for some, then yes, the text will have to be changed to black.

Also, I'll soon upload some alternative colour themes (just like what I did with the album art versions).
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: tucoz on May 07, 2006, 05:17:43 PM
Nice looking WPS's you have created there.
There were some discussions some time ago if we should ship a default wps with the 3.0 release. I think this is a very good looking approach, and I would definitely prefer to get this as the default wps as opposed to the current one(s). Not that I am in the position to decide such a feature of the 3.0 release, but if this would be the default theme, maybe it should be in more Rockboxish colours for the colour targets.
Just some thoughts, and I am looking forward to seeing this at least shipped with Rockbox by default (not necessarily as the defualt :))

Martin
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: perfectdrug on May 07, 2006, 05:20:56 PM
i´m not quite sure if you do allready...
but i think you should use unifont for a standard wps
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: woodensoul on May 07, 2006, 06:58:29 PM
Do you have any plans to add the date?  If not, I might have to break down and learn to do it myself.  How about an EQ display icon like the album art enabled H300 version?  That would be nice too, right next the battery icon.
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: paulheu on May 07, 2006, 07:37:21 PM
both those features are specific to the experimental build and would not work on the CVS version which is the point of the 'generic' WPSes presented here (I guess)
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: woodensoul on May 08, 2006, 01:42:08 AM
Displaying the date is specific to the experimental build?  I think not.  There is no reason why displaying the date would prevent it from working on all targets.
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: Llorean on May 08, 2006, 02:42:09 AM
I think he meant EQ and Album Art.
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: Genre9mp3 on May 08, 2006, 11:27:36 AM
Colour themes are added to the patchtracker for every target.

Check them here: http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/?getfile=11590 (http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/?getfile=11590) and download the whole pack here: http://users.teilam.gr/~yngwiejo/iCatcherColourThemes.zip (http://users.teilam.gr/~yngwiejo/iCatcherColourThemes.zip)

About the date tag: Yes date tags are supported in the CVS. However, I think that impementing this to the WPS will make it a bit overloaded and busy. I think that the basic info should be related to the playing track but anyway you can always change this for your preference. It's not a hard task to do. Here's all you need to know: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/CustomWPS (http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/CustomWPS)
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: Genre9mp3 on May 20, 2006, 12:49:21 PM
iCatcher & UniCatcher Updated:

- File re-arrengement/renaming to the new WPS building system

- Completed codec icons (added icons for aac, aiff, alac & shorten)

- Smoother pause animation

- Lessen bmp files for H100/iPodMini targets

- Lay out changes (Track title moved up some lines, progress bar moved down one line, genre information removed) IMO it's better this way - Text is not crowded anymore (eg. H300 target)

- An icon is placed next to battery % level so it's not confusing anymore - Sorry, couldn' live without it! :)

- Two colour options for CVS inclusion (White OR Default Rockbox Colours)

Screenshots:

http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/?getfile=11671 (http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/?getfile=11671)
http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/?getfile=11672 (http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/?getfile=11672)
http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/?getfile=11673 (http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/?getfile=11673)
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: epithetless on May 26, 2006, 12:41:15 PM
Hey Genre9mp3, I'm digging the look of this theme, especially with the updates you made...but I'm having some trouble getting the updated version to work on my iRiver H120. I used the iCatcher-White zip file (which is meant for greyscale targets, no?), placed the "iCatcher" folder of bitmaps in my player's wps folder, and proceeded to try both the "iCatcher.160x128x1" and "iCatcher.160x128x16" WPSs. The result: text comes up fine, but none of the bitmaps show up at all. :( If you have a moment, could you tutor me on which files and folders should be used for the H120 -- and how to make them display right?
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: lowlight on May 26, 2006, 01:00:27 PM
Looks nice and consistant across all targets.

Personally, I would move the time & track number to above the progress bar, instead of the bitrate and codec icon. Then put the codec icon and bitrate in the upper right corner where the time & track number were.

Good job.
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: Davide-NYC on May 26, 2006, 06:14:54 PM
Really really nice. Especially the fact that it's so consistent across all targets.
Good job!  :)
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: Captain Spandrel on May 26, 2006, 11:37:49 PM
Hey Genre9mp3, I'm digging the look of this theme, especially with the updates you made...but I'm having some trouble getting the updated version to work on my iRiver H120. I used the iCatcher-White zip file (which is meant for greyscale targets, no?), placed the "iCatcher" folder of bitmaps in my player's wps folder, and proceeded to try both the "iCatcher.160x128x1" and "iCatcher.160x128x16" WPSs. The result: text comes up fine, but none of the bitmaps show up at all. :( If you have a moment, could you tutor me on which files and folders should be used for the H120 -- and how to make them display right?

I've got the same problem. No bitmaps displaying on my h120.

Edit: woops I see - the package on the tracker is for the build system, not read-to-eat. So, as usual, the .wps file and subfolder need to have the same name for the file to read the bitmaps in situ. Renaming the relevant .wps to 'icatcher.wps' solves everything. D'oh!

Edit2: For the time being, I've repackaged the required files for the 160x128x1 version (including .rwps and theme files included in the previous release) at http://philrsss.anu.edu.au/~carl/iCatcher(160x128x1).zip - it should just work by unzipping into your .rockbox directory now.

Genre9mp3: I'm assuming this is okay by you: but let me know if it isn't and I'll take it down. Cheers for a great wps!
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: Genre9mp3 on May 27, 2006, 06:29:26 AM
@epithetless: As Captain Spandrel said, these are actually the source files to be (hopefully) bundled into the CVS source.. If you want to use it, you just need the folder with the bmps and the wps file for the H100 (160x128x1) to have the same name. Renaming the wps file to iCatcher.wps will do the trick. Also, if you want to use the rwps as well, you need to rename it the same way.
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: epithetless on May 27, 2006, 07:22:15 AM
Ah, gotcha. Thank you. Am I correct in choosing the iCatcher-White version over the iCatcher-DefaultColors one (for my H120)?

Edit: Also, what's the difference between the iCatcher.160x128x1 and iCatcher.160x128x16 WPSs?
Title: Re: iCatcher & UniCatcher WPS
Post by: Genre9mp3 on May 27, 2006, 08:01:07 AM
Quote
Ah, gotcha. Thank you. Am I correct in choosing the iCatcher-White version over the iCatcher-DefaultColors one (for my H120)?

It doesn't make any difference for non-color targets

Quote
Edit: Also, what's the difference between the iCatcher.160x128x1 and iCatcher.160x128x16 WPSs?

The iCatcher.160x128x16 is for iAudio X5.