[axbmcuser]

New releases now online for all Kodi generations 18-22 (17 will be following)

Code:

6.7.27 (2024-06-19)

- Improved Music Videos cover art variable code (Avoids showing wrongly set Poster art which is set by Kodi)

- Improved Fanart View focus item code

- Changed global SideBar IDs from 9000/8999 to 7000/7999
This change ensures independent detection of SideBar focus since the IDs 9000/8999 are also used for other elements

- Replaced "Container.Content(X)" with "String.IsEqual(Container.Content,X)" for windows with real content containers like "MyVideoNav.xml" (= more reliable on window load. Fixes condition issues)
Windows like "DialogVideoInfo.xml" will keep using "Container.Content(X)" because the "Container.Content" string is empty there sometimes due to a bug in Kodi itself

- Added Advanced Skin settings option "Enable Skin Debug Output" (not relevant for end users)
- Improved warning related coloring/visuals for Advanced Skin settings developer options

- Misc code improvements - including, but not limited to:
PluginName detection conditions
Removal of deprecated code in regards to deprecated Add-ons - code changed to a more universal approach
Code case corrections (Corrected many property names to the identical Kodi-typical PascalCase)

- The optional Subtitles mini sub-menu is now always hidden when it has no items [VideoOSD]

[axbmcuser]

New releases now online for all Kodi generations 18-22 (17 will be following)

Code:

6.7.28 (2024-06-21)

- Reworked and improved Fullscreen Player time, seek time and duration/remaining time format (Showing "remaining time" is the new default)
Added new Skin settings option "Show duration time instead of remaining time (Default: Off)"

- TV show Seasons: Improved Total Seasons info
Internal notes:
Showing the Total Seasons info has always been achieved with a workaround to account for Kodi limitations
Now another fallback workaround via simultaneously updated Add-on "Cinema Helper" is added to assist with this
Both workarounds in combination should lead to near 100% coverage of the Total Seasons info always showing - even if a TV show is opened via Favorites (which is new)

- Visual rework of "Modern" View (Improved, simplified and now supported to be used with the YouTube Add-on)

- Visual improvements for "Text" View

- Visual improvements for "List Wide" View

- Further improved Music Videos album cover art variable code (Avoids poster art (if available) being used as mood background instead of album cover art)

- Improvements for "Songs" View
Year/Genre of Song-ListItem is not mixed up with the Albums Year/Genre on window-unload anymore

- Fixed Scrolling letter indicator being faded out too early
Internal notes:
Added pseudo time="5" attribute to Hidden slide animation because delay="X" only works with when combined with a time value of 5 or higher.
Delayed fade-out now works as originally intended.
This animation was the only one who had a delay greater 0 combined with time being 0. (There shouldn't be any more similar instances to correct)

- Misc changes and improvements
Including, but not limited to:
Disallow "Episodes" View for YouTube Add-on ("Modern" View should be used instead if needed)
Changed some "String.Contains" to "String.StartsWith" (Code cosmetics)
Changed some text strings in Skin settings Python helper scripts
Updated new version welcome dialog
Updated Debug Output strings

[axbmcuser]

Finally looking into custom sub menu support again. Can't promise anything yet, but...... :-)

Questions:

We are typically talking about custom sub menus for only two main menu entries:
- Movies
- TV shows
correct?

Editing is done via Node Editor?

Seems like it has issues on Kodi 21?

When i select "Move Node", i get an empty dialog. What's up with that? :-)

[KillroyWasHere]

Thank you for your ongoing work on this skin... I've installed the skin and so far I really like the simplicity and the minimalist appearance. My system is a huge 150" scope screen (2.35:1 using an anamorphic lens) and I am always looking for skins that fit the scope format. The most important scope features are the seek bar and the menu bar while playing/paused in movies. Your skin allows me to see the seek bar within the scope format with no issues. The menu bar is just below the active area so I can't see it. Most of the menu options can be achieved with keyboard shortcuts but it is far better for WAF to be able see the menu bar so they can be accessed with the remote control.

Is there a way to raise the menu bar above the seek/timeline bar?

[axbmcuser]

@KillroyWasHere

Hi, thanks for the feedback. I worked on a scope masking feature some years ago which i cancelled due to no user feedback.

I can't find the the screenshots this second but with some more info from your side i'm happy to evaluate if i think that we can create some improvements or improvement option for your use case.

- What resolution and AR does your projector output?

- What does the lens do with that said resolution in your case? Does it stretch the image and also you're cutting off some of the projected picture at the top and bottom which is why the bottom OSD buttons are kinda out of view?


Additional to your response/info, feel free to send a PM with some real life pictures of how things look on your non-standard scope setup with the skin.
Thanks!

[KillroyWasHere]

@KillroyWasHere

Hi, thanks for the feedback. I worked on a scope masking feature some years ago which i cancelled due to no user feedback.

I can't find the the screenshots this second but with some more info from your side i'm happy to evaluate if i think that we can create some improvements or improvement option for your use case.

- What resolution and AR does your projector output?

- What does the lens do with that said resolution in your case? Does it stretch the image and also you're cutting off some of the projected picture at the top and bottom which is why the bottom OSD buttons are kinda out of view?


Additional to your response/info, feel free to send a PM with some real life pictures of how things look on your non-standard scope setup with the skin.
Thanks!

My projector is a JVC RS3000 (4K) and I use an ISCO 1.33X anamorphic lens. I use my Lumagen Radiance Pro to stretch any scope content to the full 3840x2160 panel and then the anamorphic lens horizontally stretches the image to an equivalent of 3840x1620 (2.37:1). Since the Lumagen stretches the scope content to the full panel, any content that is NOT in the scope area (1620 pixels) will get cropped out of the actual image.

I will try to get you a real picture of my screen using your skin and a different scope-safe skin I use to illustrate what I am seeing. The reason I really like yours is that it shows a lot more covers on the full scope screen compared to other scope-safe skins.

Right now, your skin would work great just moving the bottom menu bar above the seek bar but if you really want to improve it further for scope screen, the 3x and 4x cover options need to be maintained within the scope-safe area. I can show you examples later via images and video (I can post them on my YouTube). I understand that certain features cannot be modified due to the way the Kodi interface is done and if this is the case I will fully understand. Your skin in quickly becoming my favorite due to the simpler GUI and the scope-safe of the main menu.

BTW, here's the image link I posted earlier in case you can't see it. https://imgur.com/efsA3WP

[axbmcuser]

@KillroyWasHere

Thanks for the info. I'll read through this in a quieter moment.


Just another thing to quickly clarify:
Do you know about Kodis Interface Zoom feature?

System/Settings > Interface > Skin > Zoom > Set so -20% or -22% (should work about right for you, if my tests are correct)

Important: After changing the Zoom, always do a ReloadSkin() - if you don't do that, the font sizes don't correctly adapt.


It's a great feature for edge cases i think. Let me know if you knew already about this feature so we are on the same page.


That being said, i'll still evaluate making native improvements for scope-like resolutions.
Maybe even combining Kodi Skin Zoom with native improvements would be worth some thoughts. I think i went that route when i first did some tests years ago.

Cheers

[axbmcuser]

@all @jdig4240 @SeriousP1nk @iOSID @VelvetKevorkian @Dicky142 @SirMaple

Happy to announce that custom sub menu support is in the works.      Stay tuned! Will keep you posted.

[axbmcuser]

Also working on
- cinemascope improvements in combination with skin-zoom
and besides that
- letterboxed support of the 3 more most common display aspect ratios:

21:9-ish aspect ratio for previously most common 2560x1080 px displays
21:9-ish aspect ratio for todays most common 3440x1440 px displays
16:10 aspect ratio for 1920x1200 px display

(...so we finally don't have the ugly skin stretching anymore on those resolutions)

That being said, being a cinema player targeted skin, the skins primary aspect ratio will remain 16:9 - as for essentially all todays media player devices.

[axbmcuser]

@altern8tube Thanks and check your PM. I now implemented some debug output as announced last year which could help me with debugging.

[axbmcuser]

New releases now online for Kodi generations 20-22 (17-19 will be following)

Code:

6.7.29 (2024-06-25)

New feature (by popular demand):

Custom sub menus

- Movies, TV shows and Music sub menus can now be customized
- Every custom sub menu of this three sections can be enabled separately
- Every custom sub menu of this three sections can use a custom node path of the users choice

- Added new tab "Sub menus" to Skin settings

(Some parts of the new code is adapted/reworked/improved on base of Confluence code, thx @ Hitcher)

New features:

Improved support for negative Interface/Skin-Zoom values

Including the addition of black "out of bounds" masking to black out elements which should not be visible to users of these use cases.
(Especially useful for users with Cinemascope ultra wide projection situations)

Support for additional aspect ratios

Added letterboxed support for common display aspect ratios: 16:10, 21:9
(Primary target for almost-21:9 are 3440x1440 displays - slightly different aspect ratio of 2560x1080 displays also works well)


- Restructured and improved Skin settings

- Added new Skin settings Debugging options: "Reload Skin", "Debug out of bounds UI masks"

- Added support for Music Videos album art when Fullscreen Video OSD is opened

- Minor text string changes in Skin settings (Including: One string change to adapt to the above Music Videos album art changes)

- Fixed wrongly displayed and overlapping TV show name when playing a PVR recording on later Kodi generations
(should only be visible for TV show Episodes, never for LiveTV/PVR related playback)

- Expanded universal support of "Modern" View for Video Add-ons like YouTube (Follow-up to recent change)

- Corrected title width for "Modern" View (Prevents rare visual overlap. Too wide before)

- Improved visuals for section headers: Removed header icon in "CommonWindowHeader" and "PVRHeader"

- Added another "Special List": "In progress movies"

- Fixed position of developer "24p" indicator position with non-default Home screen style

- Improved Confirm Dialog to be used as 3 button variant (rare) while retaining a minium l/r-margins to the dialogs edges

- Changed button label "Play recording" to "Play" for PVR Info Dialog

- Improved SideBar hitbox for rare cases using negative Skin Zoom and Mouse control at the same time

- Subtitle search dialog improvements:
Hide "Manual search string" button if no subtitle services available
Improved SideBar hitbox

- Code cosmetics (Formatting; also removal of unnecessary spaces and tabs at line ends)

Textures:

- Added DefaultVideoVersions.png
- Added dtsma.png audiocodec flag (fallback redundancy)
- Deprecated header section icons have _not_ been removed since they are used in other situations like notifications and the custom search dialog

Kodi 21+ only:

- Added Video Versions/Extras Dialog [DialogVideoManager] (Adapted/reworked/improved on base of latest Confluence template, thx @ Hitcher)
- Added support for Video Versions/Extras to Select Dialog [DialogSelect]
- Added optional support for "Extras" and "Videos" buttons for Video Info Dialog
- Added new Skin settings option "Show "Versions" and "Extras" buttons (Default+Recommended: Off)"

[axbmcuser]

@KillroyWasHere

Please check out just released version 5.7.29/6.7.29 (Kodi 20-22) - read changelog - in regards to the discussed topic and please provide some feedback when you got the time.
(Also the answer to the question if you already knew about Skin Zoom would be helpful)

Also make sure "Cinema Helper" Add-on is (most likely automatically) updated to version 2.1.11 on Kodi 20-22 (required)

Thanks!

PS: I even have some further ideas, but we have to go step by step first. So i'll wait on feedback and do some more testing in the meantime. ^^


@all @jdig4240 @SeriousP1nk @iOSID @VelvetKevorkian @Dicky142 @SirMaple

Please provide some feedback on Custom sub menus on skin version 5.7.29/6.7.29 (Kodi 20-22)

Thank you!

[KillroyWasHere]

@KillroyWasHere

Please check out just released version 5.7.29/6.7.29 (Kodi 20-22) - read changelog - in regards to the discussed topic and please provide some feedback when you got the time.
(Also the answer to the question if you already knew about Skin Zoom would be helpful)

Also make sure "Cinema Helper" Add-on is (most likely automatically) updated to version 2.1.11 on Kodi 20-22 (required)

Thanks!

PS: I even have some further ideas, but we have to go step by step first. So i'll wait on feedback and do some more testing in the meantime. ^^

Yes, I am aware about the Skin (negative) Zoom feature and that works for the OSD but makes the main menu and the cover pages look wrong (they have black bars on the sides and the top bottom of the main menus get cropped out (date/time)....see my example screenshots)

I have attached some other screenshots (last three) from another scope skin (it is way too busy and I do not like to use it but the scope elements on the main menu and covers are perfectly in the scope frame.

[axbmcuser]

@KillroyWasHere

Clarification needed:

Using negative Skin Zoom, you still have some cut off at the top and bottom because you did not increase the negative value enough for everything to be visible. Is this assumption correct?
My estimated value of -20/-22% was just a lucky guess ofc - seems like -26% is the correct value to almost exactly reach the "safe area" of 800px height (spoken in relation to a native 1080px UI height)
(which also seems to be exactly what ScopeNox is using as the safe height)

It reads like there is an issue where even when using negative zoom, you still have a top/bottom cut off which is due to an error, slider limit or something.
Would like to get that out of the way.
(Especially since i changed ~90 files with the latest update while introducing the listed additions and aspect ratio improvements)

Goals of the latest update were:

- Improved support for use of negative Skin Zoom like in your situation with values like -26% or similar (by adding a wrapper to every file, clean out of bounds blackout-masking & improving hitboxes for all sidebars)
- Introduction of letterboxed support for 16:10 and true almost-21:9 resolutions without non-proportional stretching


That being said and on another note:

I fully understand that you would like a Scope-Variant of this skin better than using negative Skin Zoom because you don't like to have unused left/right space on your scope screen when using the UI / Home screen / Wall Views


I just added a 800px safe height indicator for debugging and will have some thoughts while using the Skin in all it's sections.


Maybe we can come up with a hidden Experimental
"Partial Scope Improvements"
option which would change some elements of highest priority for scope screens when not using negative Skin Zoom.

Let's agree on a let's say top 3:

Top 1) Fullscreen video Seekbar + OSD button visibility

2 and 3?

- Scope improvements for Wall 4X?
- What about a "Scope Mask" which blacks out everything outside of the "800px" scope safe height - this is something ScopeNox offers, if i saw correctly?
- Scope improvements for Video Information Dialog?

Just brainstorming at this point... Let me know & let's discuss.

Edit 1:

Another question: is 800px the best/most commong target safe height we should aim for? At the moment we still have wiggle room if not.

1920/2,40 = 800px safe height ...that's what ScopeNox uses.

Edit 2:
Side question: What platforms do you run Kodi on? All MacOS? Kodi version 21?

Edit 3:
After some experiments, another question: Maybe beside Scope-improved Wall View 2X, 3X, 4X even an additional 5X?

[axbmcuser]

New releases now online for Kodi 19-22 (17-18 will be following)

Code:

6.7.30 (2024-07-08)

Video Info Dialog Rework
Further visual refinements and UI simplification
Also adapted changes to PVR Info Dialog
Auto-suppress/close dialog for unwanted content like "years" (Workaround core bug)

Default Icons Rework
Improved and simplified 31 default icons + some more for a coherent look and feel

New View: "Wall View 5X"
including some additonal Wall View refinements

Rework of main menu and sub menus
Further visual and functional rework of main menu and sub menus

New Skin option for "Sub menus": "(Default) Fade out when not focused"
Also added helper dialog for this new default feature [Custom_SubMenuHelp], additionaly reworked old helper dialog for sidebar [Custom_SideMenuHelp]


Refinements for Home screen Widgets including new fallback textures with coherent look to other fallback-posters/textures

Reworked Multi Search dialog including updated textures

System/Settings and Skin settings Rework

Further rework, refinements and restructuring of dialogs including some language string updates
Custom language strings altering via "Cinema Helper" add-on to improve untouched Confluence language sources

Added new, separate "Always force Preset Views" ID for "All Movie Sets" (Default: 500)
The ID can be customized the same way as before under: Settings – My Skin – Advanced


Follow-up refinements for additional aspect ratio support

Increased Slider Dialog top margin from 10 to 12 px to be in-line with recent changes to similar dialogs, also improved dialog animation

Removed focus label for "Search" and "Power" buttons on Home screen


Improved Kodi cross-generational code to avoid (harmless but still) log file warnings about missing window(s)

Minor code clean-up
Misc code improvement (case)
Misc text string improvements (removed a . here and there where it looked wrong) (python helper script confirm dialogs)

Code improvement for image blurring feature using listitem helper (expanded conditions)
[DialogVideoInfo] [DialogAddonInfo]

Refined and improved context menu and it's position

Dialog Keyboard: Fixed slightly wrong onup click target of IP/Password button

Created new poster textures including fallbacks, "folder back", "Sets" and "Versions" variants
Additionally adapted these changes to all UI accent color schemes
Updated and expanded variables code

Added invisible header option for "DialogBackgroundCommons" to use with the new "fade out sub menus" helper-dialog

Rework of Fanart View with new visual-scrollbar code (no visible change for the end user)
(Preparation for cinemascope skin variant)

Improvements for Music Videos support in Wall Views and Video Info Dialog

Corrected dialog dimensions for GameOSD dialog
(Most likely the only and final minor regression from the semi-recent dialogs rework)

Updated language strings to latest Confluence GIT
Including:
Added variable for "Recently added" string for cross generational skin use (Replaced Confluence string #31328 with Kodi string #20382 for Kodi 18+)
(Internal note: Don't update Kodi 17 skin version language strings since it's missing Kodi language string #20382 which got introduced with Kodi 18)
Minor change to deprecated Music View to account for now missing string #31310
Minor change to Weather Views to account for now missing string #31909


Textures:

- Reworked very many default icons to for a more simplified, coherent look and feel (31 default icons + some more)

DefaultAddonInfoProvider.png DefaultAddonInputstream.png DefaultAddonMusic.png DefaultAddonPeripheral.png DefaultAddonPicture.png DefaultAddonProgram.png DefaultAddonPVRClient.png DefaultAddonService.png DefaultAddonsSearch.png DefaultAddonTvInfo.png DefaultAddonUISounds.png DefaultAddonVfs.png DefaultAddonVideo.png DefaultAddonWeather.png DefaultInProgressShows.png DefaultMovieTitle.png DefaultMusicRecentlyAdded.png DefaultMusicRecentlyPlayed.png DefaultMusicSearch.png DefaultMusicVideoTitle.png DefaultPVRSearch.png DefaultPVRTimerRules.png DefaultRecentlyAddedEpisodes.png DefaultRecentlyAddedMovies.png DefaultRecentlyAddedMusicVideos.png DefaultSets.png DefaultTVShowTitle.png DefaultVideoPlugins.png

DefaultFolderBack.png DefaultFolderBack_poster.png DefaultFolderBack_poster_solid.png

GoFullscreen.png

icon_search.png icon_search_large.png icon_search_large_uhd.png (newly) icon_search_uhd.png

- Renamed poster border textures to be more neutral
- Added poster border variants, diffuse masks and progress bar texture for new "Wall 5X"
- Reworked CalibrateReset.png to be coherent with similar icons
- Updated textures for Multi Search dialog changes
- Updated submenu-focus-neutral.png to match sub menu refinements
Additionally adapted these change to all UI accent color schemes