Rockbox Technical Forums
Support and General Use => Theming and Appearance Customization => Topic started by: Immolate on September 05, 2007, 03:11:20 PM
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Hi everyone,
I have mocked up a stunning theme based on the zune software, but I have tried to script it up and I am lacking the skills required to bring this baby to life. I was hoping someone more experienced could work with me to release this theme.
(Update)
This project has been completed and the theme is available on the rockbox themes site.
Please post any bugs found, with as many details about the problem as possible.
[attachment deleted by admin for age]
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That theme is beautiful! Really nice work.
I wish I could help with the wps-coding, but I'm not so skilled myself either. :-\
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nice design just that with different types of fonts that wps would only be used by custom builds with the multifont patch and you would also need a album art patch
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Looks like you'd also need the scrolling margins patch too.
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yes, so evilg's release. I just think this would be really nice for all us fifth gen vid owners.
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it'd be better if you made a wps based on the official builds so that more people would be more encouraged to use them rather than a unofficial ones since they dont really get updated.
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I'd be willing to take a stab at that if you send me all the files you used in the mock up (photoshop hopefully)
I think the play button and the little play logo next to the the title are rather redundant though
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it'd be better if you made a wps based on the official builds so that more people would be more encouraged to use them rather than a unofficial ones since they dont really get updated.
On the contrary, many of the themes (at least on the top 30 chart) use some custom patch and they are downloaded a lot.
I'd also be willing to help with the wps code if needed.
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it'd be better if you made a wps based on the official builds so that more people would be more encouraged to use them rather than a unofficial ones since they dont really get updated.
It would be impossible to make that mockup into a WPS for official builds. The trouble with the official builds is that they can really bind your creativity. I'm not saying that you can't make good themes without Album Art/Customline/Scrolling Margins/what-have-you (Kelp is HOT. :P), but if you're stuck to the official builds, there's a lot you just can't do with WPSs.
That being said, it's certainly possible to make this one, but it would require Album Art and Customline.
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oh I do agree but by working under such strict limitations you can show your real skill. Take for example stuff that phk has released. Also by creating wps based on the official RB then users will be more inclined to use the official rather than the outdated unsupported builds. remember not everyone can patch.
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Speaking from a strictly selfish standpoint, I make WPS's to suit my wishes not those of others. I release them for the sake of sharing, because that is the heart of an open-source project. But like we hear so often on these boards, things don't get done usually because people request them, but because somebody is interested in doing them. So to constantly harp about making standard build compatible WPS's is irrelevant in my mind. Most artists who are interested in expressing their creativity like the features offered by the patches, its as simple as that. I understand that puts people at mercy of patches and custom builds if they want to use them, but that is their choice. I think it is fairly well documented what themes need custom builds. Maybe the solution in the future is to separate the galleries for standard build and custom build WPS's.
So this one, if the OP wants the WPS to look the way it was posted will require the multi-font and custom-line patches as well as album art. But that is what he wants. I offered to help because I would want this WPS as well and I have worked with those patches.
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Speaking from a strictly selfish standpoint, I make WPS's to suit my wishes not those of others.
I'm with you.
Except my themes are so for me I'm thinking no one else would find them functional also the majority of them break the copyright rules.
It just makes me wonder why the developers don't merge certain patches into the source if there really popular. Album Art has got to be the most popular why not just make it part of the source? Even little stuff like the Slider Progressbar, I love those sorta cosmetic changes.
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We've explained hundreds of times: The Album Art patch cannot be merged for various technical reasons that are being worked on.
Just because a patch "works" from a user standpoint doesn't mean it meets the requirements to enter Rockbox.
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I love the look of this mock-up. I would be interested in getting a port of it on the Sansa.
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And I'd be interested in porting it to the Sansa (sans album art, I suppose). Would you mind posting the source images?
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Here is the source .psd, looking forward to seeing this come to life.
http://www.mediafire.com/?5z1oc1x9xtu
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(http://biomoose.com/files/rockbox/wps/dump%20070912-181507.bmp)
Still getting the placement and stuff working. I should have have it done by the end of the weekend.
Would you mind licensing your images under a Creative-Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)?
edit: got a bit more work done...maybe i shouldn't use the title track as an example...
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I'll get working on this as soon as possible, which means starting friday.
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Still getting the placement and stuff working. I should have have it done by the end of the weekend.
That's looking very nice! Can't wait to see the final WPS.
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So I was playing around with the PSD in GIMP and I came up with the following for the Sansa e200 series.
Above the AA would be the title of the playing track (next to the orange play icon), to the right of the AA would be Artist, Album, etc., and then below would be the title of the next track.
Beneath the volume bar, I was thinking of putting the time. I haven't tried to put it together as a true WPS yet, so the font needs to be determined.
Just thought I would share what I was thinking would look good.
EDIT: Removed the image as the WPS would not be able to be licensed/distributed.
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That looks great. That definitely might just become my default when it comes out.
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So I have a fully functional WPS for the Sansa e200 series. Actually, I made two different versions depending upon what information you want to show to the right of the Album Art section, as well as a couple of backdrops for the main menu. I know krazykit asked if Immolate would license the images so that a WPS could be posted for everyone to download. I am not sure if this has been done or not, so I can't post it until they have been licensed.
Here is a screen capture of the Sansa and a potential X5 WPS:
Since I have gotten the targets I want set up, I went back and arranged the original layout, which is 320 x 240. I will send it on to Immolate once I have everything set.
EDIT: Removed the images as the WPS would not be able to be licensed/distributed.
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I've got a 320x240 version working and everything. The only thing missing right now is a backdrop for the menu/browser screen. I didn't really know what people wanted for that since I have never seen that screen on a zune. But I can just make something if people want.
http://www.mediafire.com/?ehumlxgxw9o
Tell me what you think.
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Hello,
I have some bad news for everyone interested and participating in this project. I cannot license these images because they are exact replicas of the copyrighted zune software. Also, the name "zune" cannot be used. But, this is just a minor setback.
I have already started to compile new images that are very "similar" to the ones you see, and improved if you ask me. Each image will be fully layered, and separate, allowing for easy colour modifications.
I plan to try and keep the images the same size as the ones in the mockup, but they will probably be a few pixels off in size. I know this is a huge inconvenience for kockroach, and knight4led, but if you guys hold tight for the next 2 days I can produce an even better version which we can all be proud of for our hard work.
That being said, please check back soon for the new source file which will be licensed, and ready to distribute freely.
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well I'll be happy to start over again on the wps. For now I am using the one I made on my iPod.
This is still showing some of the major problems that the multiline patches cause. First and foremost the color of the font in the browser sometimes changes to one of the colors used in the WPS for no reason. This can be solved by reloading the theme, but it is annoying when it turns to the darker grey. Second, sometimes if two lines are updating at the same time, one will use the font of the other. I will report these to whoever is working on these patches.
Also EvilG has released a new iPod build without the patches we need, but there is another build out there now with the patches.
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I will be more than happy to convert another PSD...especially if colors can be manipulated. The orange/grey looks good, but I have a preference for blue. I have been able to get my two versions of the first PSD converted into working WPSes on my Sansa and my newly acquired X5. It will be great if the layer sizes are similar, but GIMP was pretty easy to work with to make any changes I needed.
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I have finally finished the .psd, the layers are a little messy but that not really too important right now, getting the theme released is ;)
The theme name has been decided to be "Raybo Radio"
All images are licensed under Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Here is the sample and source files.
http://www.mediafire.com/?ekcimkncmzp
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Here is the backdrop:
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ok, I'll get working on this when I have some time. I left my flash drive at home and I just moved so internet has become about a once a week thing. Still, I will try to get this done as soon as possible.
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I could try to make a nano port. I dont kno how good it'll look, but I could give it a shot. If thats okay.
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Just so you guys know, the bug with the multifont patch where the font colors in the browser can take on the font colors of a line from the WPS has just been fixed.
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Hi!
Thanks for this really good Design! I took the Pics and tried to make a Theme for Sansa :)
I'm almost done. Need to adjust the Volumebar...and a few things more...
Here what it looks like at the moment:
(http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5456/unbenannt2wt2.jpg)
Greatings,
larc0s
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Anybody have a good idea for the backdrop for the menu screen? Right now I'm using the one from Slant on this since the angular quality of the menu font seems to work nicely with that, but a backdrop that matches the WPS would be great, not to rush anyone.. ;D
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I'm still working on this theme, just been a bit bogged down lately because I moved and my life is a mess. To top it off I have no tables in my house and closest internet is a 30 minute bus ride away down a dirt road. So please be patient, it should be worth it.
Thanks a bunch to tdtooke for keeping us in updated builds by the way. I am getting his latest right now.
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Thanks for keeping us informed knight4led, looking forward to seeing the final result.
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Ok, here goes version 1.1, now titled rayboradio up and on DeviantArt for now.
Let me know any issues people find that are related to the theme and not to a build.
http://if0rg0t2remember.deviantart.com/art/rayboradio-67063936
if we like it, and there are no issues with copyright, we'll put this up on the wiki and the themes site.
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Excellent job knight4led,
I have only encountered 2 bugs so far...
1 - on the now playing screen, if the track name is long and needs to scroll, sometimes the text bg turns orange.
2- When browsing files or the database, if a title is too long it wraps around to the left side slightly.
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For your problem with the orange background on scrolling text: my apologies, the latest customline patch (or a custom build featuring it) will fix that (My drawmode follies are all done for 16 bit screens and 2 bit remotes at least.) Setting listxpos as 0 and the listwidth as 312 in the .cfg for the theme will fix the other issue.
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good to know about the second solution, I'll fix up the file listed on my deviantart link this week and post back here when I can.
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This is a really cool theme, I'm going to try it out tomorrow! But for the love of all things sacred, PLEASE spell Led Zeppelin correctly... -cries into pillow- ;D
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I meant to mention that, but I quietly changed it on all my .psd documents. Regardless, the mockup won't change your files.
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I was only kidding, knight4led! Thanks for making this theme, I've been messing w/ it all morning.
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i will do a nano port soon. i called it!
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I did a minor update with tdtooke's suggestion from a while back. It is up at http://if0rg0t2remember.dviantart.com
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knight, besides having the album art patch, and your album art saved as bitmaps, whatelse is necessary to get the album art to show up?
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search the forums for unsupported builds that support album art for your player. if you have problems with the build do not ask here but ask in that unsupported builds thread on the forums.
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actually this is a good place to ask about it. considering it COULD be related to the wps. and yes i'm using a build (unsupported obviously) that has the albumart patch applied. i thought that mentioned the patch and having correctly saved and sized bitmaps was explainatory enough that i'm not just some n00b posting a question. i've searched, and have consulted the wiki, forums and even taken a look through the wps to be sure it was set right.
that is why i asked here to be sure it wasn't something i was missing with this particular wps. yes i will try a different wps that supports album art, i just wanted THIS one to work since i've already done some basic modifications to it (nothing related to changing tags that are related to the album art stuff).
so PLEASE, if you don't have more of an answer than "search for unsupported builds that support album art for your player", then please don't answer.
:P
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actually this is a good place to ask about it.
I'm sorry but it isn't. Ask a patch author about their patches, or discuss unsupported builds in the approriate forum thread. Those are the rules of the forums and they get enforced.
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wow, so even if it isn't PROPERLY CODED in the wps (not saying that it is or isn't in this case, just using it as an example) to use album art when it says it should, i still can't ask about it here when it could have easily been a problem with the wps??
if i'm using a build with the album art patch applied, and they confirm that everything is fine with the build, where do i go? i've gotten a pretty lame response thus far from this side of the issue (this side being from the wps' thread.. granted i've only had 2 responses now, but not good ones none the less).
point being, it is very related to ask about it here if there was messed up wps coding.
i'm all for keeping things right and following forum/site/wiki/help rules, and i feel that i am following all rules thus far. i've just been met with opposition regarding my query with no real foundation for it.
so be it, if you still feel i'm wrong, i'll just shut my yapper, but just know that i don't feel that i'm in the wrong here at all.
p.s. yes i'm bored and have a lull period at work where i can respond instantly to your post :)
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The point is that you are asking about WPS coding features (here album art tags) that are not in official rockbox, and official rockbox is all we support. There is a wiki page on AlbumArt and how to use it, and you can check out the flyspray task too.
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this is the last response i'll give, because i kind of have a feeling that some of the admins may be ban-happy around here due to the large number of questions they have to mull over.
i understand YOU as an administrator or as a core developer, etc doesn't support album art in the supported/core builds, however THIS WPS supports it, and as such, if I have a question about a feature that looks like should be working in this WPS, then I feel like its a valid question to ask. i never once made mention about wanting help about a supported build, i wanted help with a feature that THIS WPS supports.
that's all.
i understand you guys get 100's of newbie type of questions all the time, and most of them are probably related to unsupported builds and you guys are programmed with a regular response about those unsupported builds, fair enough, however if a question is related to the topic the OP is posting in, then sheesh man, it is a valid question. sure it relates to an unsupported build too, but, anyway, i digress before i say something to put a nail in the coffin for my being banned.
anyway, take all of that how you will.
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You won't get banned for this discussion! Anyway, I have no say on who does or doesn't get banned.
The thing is, that this WPS uses unsupported features, and if you need help in getting it working, you are talking about getting unsupported features working. By asking about getting the album art working in a WPS you are asking about how to use the album art patch, which is unsupported. I'm not unsympathetic, it is just we would get flooded with how do I use patch x y and z.
By the way, have you looked at http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome?topic=AlbumArt
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yes, bigbambi, several times i have. like i said i even used that wiki page to confirm the tags are correct in the wps, AND am confirming with the author of the build i am using.
not to toot my own horn, but i'm not a moron by any stretch of the imagination. i may have a low post count because previously i had just been using stock rockbox on my old 3g ipod, until i got a video ipod i decided to go all out and integrate more stuf into it using some unsupported builds.
my original question only wanted to know if i was missing anything else besides correctly sized and named bitmaps, in the correct folders, using a build that had album art installed. that was all. i would have been completely fine if the first responder to my question had of said, yeah it looks like you have everything you need, you may want to make sure the album art patch was applied correctly to whtever unsupported build you are using. instead the automatic response is "it's an unsupported build, and any utterance of such things can ONLY be done within the confines of that single forum topic and it's subtopics".
i appreciate any responses to my questions, at least a response tells me people are alive here, but it could have been a bit more thought out, if the original responder had read my question fully.
anyway, i'll just keep playing with it and will try other wps that support album art as well. thanks, and if you care about the outcome, i can post back with my findings in case some other person with the same inquiries goes looking for similar answers.
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yes, bigbambi, several times i have. like i said i even used that wiki page to confirm the tags are correct in the wps, AND am confirming with the author of the build i am using.
Sorry, I missed that.
not to toot my own horn, but i'm not a moron by any stretch of the imagination.
I never said you were!
i may have a low post count because previously i had just been using stock rockbox on my old 3g ipod, until i got a video ipod i decided to go all out and integrate more stuf into it using some unsupported builds.
Believe me, post count doesn't have to correlate with anything.
my original question only wanted to know if i was missing anything else besides correctly sized and named bitmaps, in the correct folders, using a build that had album art installed. that was all. i would have been completely fine if the first responder to my question had of said, yeah it looks like you have everything you need, you may want to make sure the album art patch was applied correctly to whtever unsupported build you are using. instead the automatic response is "it's an unsupported build, and any utterance of such things can ONLY be done within the confines of that single forum topic and it's subtopics".
i appreciate any responses to my questions, at least a response tells me people are alive here, but it could have been a bit more thought out, if the original responder had read my question fully.
anyway, i'll just keep playing with it and will try other wps that support album art as well. thanks, and if you care about the outcome, i can post back with my findings in case some other person with the same inquiries goes looking for similar answers.
I understand your sentiments, but if instead of pointing out the rules when asked about unsupported features we always just gave the answer, then what would be the point in having the rules at all? You may argue that the rules are wrong, but it doesn't change what they currently are. I do hope you sort out your problem and understand that we are just trying to keep the forums manageable. If we gave the impression we supported unsupported features, it would open the floodgates.
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Without going through the back and forth about whether this is a good place to post I will say that you need the album art patch, bitmap resize patch and correctly labeled .bmp album art.
I am not 100% sure if the resize patch is required but the WPS uses a tag for the album art that will resize undersized or oversized album art to fit 100x100. If you have 100x100 album art already it may work without the resize patch, but I have never tried.
I don't know what build you are using, but I recommend tdtooke's underground build. I know it works and he is the guy updating the patches that this WPS runs on.
If you are compiling your own build, then I say ask tdtooke about it.
Hope that clears some things up.
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Thanks Knight; that is the build that i've been using since I got my 5.5g ipod.
To those that care, apparently the resizer patch isn't working OR there is a file size limit on the bitmaps it can resize. I did a few tests of various bitmaps to use and that is what I narrowed it down to.
Anyway, sorry Immolate and Knight4led for destroying your post with my back and forth with admins and psycho_maniac.
You may continue with your regularly scheduled chatting...