[Rufoo]

Here is a small preview of how the rewrite for Kodi has been shaping up...

[paradix]

looking great

[nyny77]

Fantastic !
Thank Rufoo

[Rufoo]

Another preview shot. Video fanart has been implemented in various ways across the views as shown in the picture included (see Dead or Alive 5: Last Round). These are triggered a moments after hovering on the intended type and can be enabled /disabled from the slideout. Included is another screenshot of the new rewrites tighter and more elegant integration with Cirrus rather than just being a hacky MOD. Furthermore, some of the newer views which were initially designed for games (like the one 2 posts above) are being expanded to appear in the movies / tv areas of the skin as well as other new viewtypes.

[Turnspit]

God, this looks fantastic! Gonna try it out as soon as I'm home! =D

[Rufoo]

Further refinements to the panel viewtype shown in my last post showcasing the sleeker look the rewrites are looking to obtain. Work still continues...



Contrary to earlier statements, the next release will be cross compatible with XBMC / Cirrus Extended 3.1.2 and the build of Cirrus Extended for Kodi informally known as the "onedrive" variant due to it being hosted on Onedrive by Paradix in the first post on this thread: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=153704

The release will NOT support the build on Github for Helix as there has been SIGNIFICANT changes to the code and attempting to introduce the former WIP release or the upcoming one will break many core aspects of the Cirrus Skin. As a result, a separate release will occur for that build but only once Cirrus Extended gets an "official" release for Helix or Isengard and all the main changes to Cirrus are final.

[Rufoo]

Another shot showing off some of the new versatility and enhancements that will be available to users. The features demoed in this are:

Persistent Backdrop: This allows a user to specify a singular repeating background for the current viewtype which overrides the presentation of what is defined for the fanart. As a practical example, this would be useful for those who wish to use a 1920x1080 image of a console logo as the constant background for that section but are using low resolution screenshots for each titles fanart. In the picture above, this is shown with the galaxy background.

Expanded Fanart: SexyCirrus specific viewtypes can now disregard the default Cirrus user definition of where extra fanart for Advanced Launcher is located. Instead, these viewtypes now use the Extra Fanart option the user can specify per title in Advanced Launcher itself (found under Edit Item>Advanced Modifications>Change Extra-fanarts path in each title) and displays them in a way appropriate for the viewtype used. This will be a welcome addition to anyone who wants to use extra fanart / screenshots and especially for using those extra assets with games that have characters in the title (ex: ! : *) as the directory containing each titles assets can be whatever name the user desires. In the picture above, this is shown with the screenshots of each game on the right.

Alternate Thumbs: As part of Expanded Fanart, Alternate Thumbs allows the user to add in an alternate style thumbnail when applicable. A select few boxtypes will be supported (mostly common NTSC-J types). This overcomes the common constriction of most viewtypes and will allow mixing and matching while retaining visual coherency. The user needs to place the alternate thumbnail in the same directory as where they placed their extra fanart for that title. In the picture above, See Return of Double Dragon and Super Bomberman 5.

Clearlogos: Logos can be used in various viewtypes when applicable. Similar rules as above apply. This is not shown in this screenshot.

PNG Icons: This is probably overkill, but as shown in the screenshot below, you can now also use PNG icons in certain views. For demonstration purposes, many commonly found deviantart style icons were used. This feature will be more used for the series of viewtypes designed to be sectional frontends so that console images could be used. It also may appear as an alternate option in Square based views.

[J7AYU]

Is this still in development as I know you were waiting for an Isengard update to the skins Base, which I think Paradix doesn't have time for at the moment.

[Rufoo]

Is this still in development as I know you were waiting for an Isengard update to the skins Base, which I think Paradix doesn't have time for at the moment.

For the moment I am still working away at this bit by bit when I have the time. The rewrite is mostly done but I keep experimenting and trying out new designs and have been modifying other areas of the skin for fun. There is still some cleaning up to do before they are ready to be released. However, given that it is looking increasingly unlikely there will be a new "official" release of Cirrus Extended anytime soon and developing this is stuck between using the old 3.1.2 binaries or the still heavily in-progress Helix build I have become a bit more disinterested and may not bother.

In recent times, I have looked at Bello with some interest and may move development toward it.

[J7AYU]

Have you also seen the skins by Jurialmunky, Eminence and Artic Zephyr. These seem well written and catch the essence of a modern UI, there just missing proper Advanced Launcher support. You seem to know what your doing in that department though .

[Rufoo]

Have you also seen the skins by Jurialmunky, Eminence and Artic Zephyr. These seem well written and catch the essence of a modern UI, there just missing proper Advanced Launcher support. You seem to know what your doing in that department though .

I have tried neither of those skins, I will have a look into them tonight. So far Bello Fredo is winning me over as the skin of choice. Basically, I'm looking for something which ticks all the boxes for other sections (movies, music, etc...) visually but lacks strong Advanced Launcher support. Can't truly have an awesome HTPC without proper game support.

[J7AYU]

If you try Artic Zephyr check out the mod by im85288, it has most things incorporated now and im85288 is actively developing it, listens to suggestions and incorporates them if he can. And I couldn't agree more can't have a HTPC without gaming hence why I got the Alienware x51 going to upgrade the graphics card soon to a GTX 970. If you want a seamless launching experience from Kodi to your emulator of choice you should check out Rocketlauncher http://www.rlauncher.com.

[Rufoo]

Never heard of RocketLauncher, so I will try that this evening too. I achieve the whole seamless thing via Advanced Launcher itself and if anything requires explorer.exe (such as PC games using .lnk files) I set it to start minimized so there is no user perception of it. Plus I use xpadder with my Xbox360 controllers and have several profiles on that setup depending upon emulator (which are automatically triggered) so you can save state, load state, quit, etc... via certain button combos.

Either way, I will have a look at Artic tonight and see if I like it.

Put it this way, development on the viewtypes still continues because I am still trying to create something to satisfy my own purposes too. So until I make something to my complete satisfaction, the project isn't dead, it just may find a new home outside of Cirrus at this stage.

[Rufoo]

Have you also seen the skins by Jurialmunky, Eminence and Artic Zephyr. These seem well written and catch the essence of a modern UI, there just missing proper Advanced Launcher support. You seem to know what your doing in that department though .

Tried Artic Zephyr and liked it but didn't care much for Eminence. Still more of a fan of Bello. However, if I am reading the most recent post from Paradix in the main Cirrus thread correctly, a new "official" build of Cirrus Extended is actually on the horizon.

Which means SexyCirrus shall continue.

[J7AYU]

Been meaning to post a video of what RocketLauncher can do but couldn't find decent video capture software, however I managed to get a half decent result with Open Broadcaster Software. Note at 1:04 in the video where it jumps back to Kodi and again during the Sega Saturn emulation demo. doesn't happen in real time its just the video capture software switching sources to grab the game footage. On the PC Game Ride it has a pre-launch window with the game settings this was annoying when using only Advanced Launcher because I would launch the game using a controller then have to dig out my mouse to click play. Also I keep all my emulated games in a 7z compression file format. RocketLauncher will unzip these to a temporary location, once done unzipping mount the image if it needs to be mounted and launch the emulator after your done playing it will delete the game from the temporary folder. I also had problems with games stored on a network drive with Advanced Launcher as my network drive wouldn't always be mounted when I restarted the computer, no such problems with Rocket Launcher. Anyway that's enough of my ramblings watch the vid and you'll get what I'm on about.