ONGOING DEFAULT THEME CONTEST!!!

[bluebrother]

imho there should only be a contest for one target (maybe one with a bigger diplay) and after that is done this WPS can be ported to the other targets.

I disagree -- porting especially large, colored themes to monochrome, small displays will look really ugly on all except the original device. To make a theme look nicely on all supported players all those should be kept in mind while designing.

[denny]

What about separate themes for the archos targets and another for all larger screened targets? The reason I ask is that keeping any sort of continuity between the large versions of my theme and the archos versions is a bit difficult. It makes more sense both visually and functionally if the theme used on the small archos screens is different to the one used as a default for the other targets.

[Llorean]

1) It must work on all targets. This doesn't mean it needs to look identical on all targets, or even have exactly the same information (for example, if the screen is small, you could leave off next track information if you chose to include it). It just needs to have a similar visual "feel" between versions. It can even use different fonts on each target. Note: To be considered working on targets with LCD remotes, it MUST include a RWPS.

Clearly on the very small screens, you can stretch "feel the same" quite a bit. If you're playing with 1bpp and a very small number of pixels, you can't be expected to have them look identical, but I felt "feel the same" was vague enough to give people the elbow room they need, but not at the same time allow for vastly different themes on each. If that were the case we could just have a vote on our favorite theme from each gallery, and be done with it.

[pixelma]

I think the same as Llorean. The iCatcher theme proofs that it is possible as it in my opinion provides the same feel even on my Ondio. I appreciate it more now that I also try to make an all-targets theme, having the problem the other way round because I started off with Archos, made an 160x128 greyscale version but now it's really hard for me to nicely fill larger screens...

On a related note, the Archos screens aren't that far away from the iRiver lcd remotes (in number of pixels) which should also be considered and are even more problematic 'cause at the moment there is no way to have different fonts for main screen and remote, so you probably end up using a larger font than for the Archos version.

P.S. If one candidate catches my interest and gives me an idea, I'd be willing to help with the Archos "port" (giving feedback, especially since it looks quite different on the target than in the sim).

[denny]

Maybe I didn't make my point very well. What I meant was that perhaps it would make more sense to have a specific wps for targets with troublesome screens, to produce a better end result. Especially if the same wps for archos targets, according to the rules, can be very different from the same wps for larger screen targets. I don't see how it would equate to choosing the best theme for each target.

I don't wish to argue, and I'm sorry if it comes across that way.

Anyhow, I've once again run out of time and wont be able to work on my entry for a long time . Good luck to those attempting this, its harder than I imagined.

[adam917]

Will the new WPS take advantage of the new WPS-supported tags like Album Artist, Comment, and Composer? I feel that especially AA & Composer should be somewhere in the main WPS, especially since there are a lot of compilation & classical albums out there.

[Llorean]

I don't feel that it's necessary it does. It depends on what is submitted, but I would rather it not end up feeling cluttered so some things are going to have to be left out. What that ends up being depends on the WPS artist.

[jmsunlinenet]

I've been using my Gigabeat for quite a while now with a WPS of my own devising,  and almost forgotten about this forum, but today I was fixing up a (new) i-Pod I bought for the girlfriend--the first time  I had laid hands on an i-Pod myself--and of course ran into the dreaded default theme. Not being used to the trackwheel (or whatever you call that thing) it took me a few minutes of fiddling about to be able to click on the Browse Themes screen and get it into something with a more visible font. If I had not had previous experience of this with my Gigabeat, I might have given up on Rockbox right there.

Incidentally, I installed a theme called phkTAPE, which is terrific and really amusing, though not really suitable as a default theme.

[Davide-NYC]

I just discovered the "Cabbie" theme and must offer a vote for it.
It is a very nice, useable theme that accentuates the Rockbox color theme and stands out from what the majority of original firmwares are doing.

It may have a couple of minor copyright issues with the "gigabeat", "iPod" and "iriver" logos that I've seen on the various incarnations of the theme.

Anyways there's a vote for "cabbie".

[miles_power]

i like the origonal besides the small font can be hard to read

[saratoga]

I just discovered the "Cabbie" theme and must offer a vote for it.
It is a very nice, useable theme that accentuates the Rockbox color theme and stands out from what the majority of original firmwares are doing.

I have to agree.  It works very nice on both my Sansa and my Gigabeat.  I think with some minor changes it would be fine on landscape targets as well.  Its simple, but nice looking, doesn't require any extra patches, and matches the rockbox logo quite nicely.

Anyone else looked at it?

[elborak]

I think it's a well designed theme, accomplishing what it aims to accomplish.

But I also think it's a rather ugly color scheme.

[fasmaie]

Hello,
I am the author of the 'Cabbie' theme, and I heard about this contest a few weeks ago. This is the first chance I've had to look this up. I had no idea that the theme was popular enough to even be considered for use as the default theme for RockBox.

I am willing to port it to all targets, if I get a little help. People have already ported it to several targets, and these could be used with the permission of the maintainers. Also, the license can be changed to something more permissive.

Requests for changes would also be welcome.

All this is assuming that there will be some sort of a demand for a default theme for RockBox.

Thanks.

Yohann

[GodEater]

There's very definitely a demand for it. I don't think anyone is in any doubt that the current default one sucks.

[rmahoney]

One problem I had with the default theme is that the font is so tiny.  I created a large font theme (called BigFont) and it is currently available for the Sansa.  I think it would be a good idea to include a large font theme as an addition to the chosen new default theme.