[Father Parsley]

I don't get the background loading for images.

From the online manual

Background loading
Images are loaded one at a time in a background worker thread and are shown as soon as xbmc processes them. Has the benefit that images can be loaded into memory before they're visible, resulting in smoother scrolling and transitions.

But where to write which images to load in the background?

My code for showing a fanart background in the videolibrary look like this

Code:

<control type="largeimage">
<posx>0</posx>
<posy>0</posy>
<width>720</width>
<height>576</height>
<visible>!IsEmpty(listitem.property(fanart_image))</visible>
<background>true</background>
<texture>$INFO[listitem.property(fanart_image)]</texture>
</control>

[ronie]

<texture background="true">$INFO[listitem.property(fanart_image)]</texture>

[Father Parsley]

thanks ronie! you are always helpful!
but I can't see no difference in loading speed when I changed the code.

say I have three items in my list.
first time i load a background (1) it goes slow. I load another background (2) and go back to previous (1) bang! shows on screen really fast.
I go back to 2 (fast) and 3 (slow) then back to 2 and 1, but now 1 is slow again.
So it only keeps the previous loaded backgrounds in memory, right?
But if I wanna load a background in advance?
Say I am at position 2 in my list and wanna load fanart for item 1 and item 3.

say like

Code:

<texture background="true">$INFO[listitem.property(fanart_image)+1]</texture>
<texture background="true">$INFO[listitem.property(fanart_image)-1]</texture>

if you know how I mean...

[magnetism]

It's not the speed of loading that is increased. The fact that it's loading in the background means it's not blocking anything else, which means that the UI will stay responsive

[ronie]

also check this thread for more info:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=51814

[Father Parsley]

ah ok, not blocking anything else from loading, ok I see.
so it's the <preloaditems> I should use?

Code:

<preloaditems>2</preloaditems>

loads the next and previous items?
and it has to be inside the list-tag

Code:

<control type="wraplist">

?

[ronie]

ah ok, not blocking anything else from loading, ok I see.
so it's the <preloaditems> I should use?

Code:

<preloaditems>2</preloaditems>

loads the next and previous items?
and it has to be inside the list-tag

Code:

<control type="wraplist">

?

depends on what you're trying to do.
for just displaying fanart images, the code i posted above would be enough.

the <preload> option can be used in panels, wraplistst, etc...

[Father Parsley]

i have a list in my videolibrary with all my movies.
the selected movies fanart shows as a backdrop.
i want the fanart image for the next and the previous item to be stored in the memory, so the image shows right away.

and this will do the trick?

Code:

<control type="wraplist">
<preloaditems>2</preloaditems>
</control>

[jmarshall]

Not unless the fanart image is being loaded from the container itself.

[Father Parsley]

So how should I do? I still don't get it.
Surely there must be some code to just copy-paste.

[ronie]

alright, let's try again...
as mentioned above, the code you need for background loading of fanart:

Code:

<control type="largeimage">
    <posx>0</posx>
    <posy>0</posy>
    <width>720</width>
    <height>576</height>
    <texture background="true">$INFO[listitem.property(fanart_image)]</texture>
    <visible>!IsEmpty(listitem.property(fanart_image))</visible>
</control>

the <preloaditems> is mostly used in wraplists/panels/etc.. for preloading thumbs.

[donabi]

whats the difference between
<control type="largeimage">
and
<control type="image">
?

[ronie]

whats the difference between
<control type="largeimage">
and
<control type="image">
?

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Large_Image_Control
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Image_Control

[donabi]

thx.

and what is the benefit of it?
there must be a good reason to have two different imagecontrols...

[jmarshall]

Zero benefit. It's been superseded by background="true". It just auto-translates that on load.