[IamLegend]

I think Hitcher worked on the other views in "Revisted" but not "Final".

As far as what code I changed, well it involved a lot of files so I don't know if it would be very easy to explain. Basically, I had to remove the video info screen image code from each viewtype xml it was listed in and then create a new include in Includes.xml with code for each possible viewtype. Needless to say, BIG Alaska has changed some viewtypes and added more so the code would not work directly if popped into Alaska Final. After that, I modified DialogVideoInfo.xml to "include" that code as well as to load the fanart for the movie that was pulled up from the search.

Maybe I can take a look at applying my fix to Alaska Final this weekend and either post the code changes or better yet, entice Hitcher to include the fixes in github. I can't make any definite promises on this weekend but I will try if I get enough free time.

Thanks man! I really appreciate any help you can give me whenever you have the time. and thanks again for all your help thus far.

[Darkcloud28]

BIG Alaska (a modification of Alaska for smaller TVs)

This is the version of Alaska that I use. It has been tweaked to make various items bigger & more visible on older TVs (I have a 32" CRT) from the magical 10 foot viewing distance.

I take no credit for Alaska and all credit should go to djh, Hitcher and anyone else previously credited. Thank you to all concerned for a terrific skin!

I am only posting this as I don't think I am the only one out there who does not have or cannot afford a beautiful new 46-60 inch Plasma/LCD screen. However, if anyone wants to donate one...

The following changes have been made (as well as other minor tweaks):

- Includes my previously released Poster Tagline/Info & Home Statistics mods
- Includes Reavens' Clear Art Mod (thanks/credit to Reaven)
- Includes more Color Themes (default plus 8 extras)
- Media flags have been reworked with larger old style codec logos, optionally animated (Flag Panels are optional now)
- MPAA rating is on all views now not just Poster
- New setting icons
- More studio logos
- Watched & New Item icons have been replaced (not really a fan of the eyeball & flame on smaller TVs, sorry)
- Various font sizes have been increased & bolded for better visibility
- Movie & TV views have been reworked
- Added new Fanart view & a Mixed TV Banner view (Banners & Poster combined)
- Removed Square View for Movies & TVShows
- Login screen text & image sizes have been increased and image border removed (See Notes below)
- Option to use shorter Movie Plot Outline vs Full Plot
- Option to turn off Poster fanart only. The fanart is not very visible in the Poster view & this reduces lag somewhat.

*This mod uses multiple TV Show image types (Poster, Banner & Landscape) at the same time. Previously this was optional but it was a bit of a hassle to code and was causing issues with the Video Info screen so it is now required for various viewtypes to display properly. The following steps are necessary for BIG Alaska to work properly:

- Set your TV Show scraper to download Posters by default
- Download & save individual banner.jpg & landscape.jpg images to each TV Show folder (TheTVDB.com is a good source).


Please note that I am still learning to mod XBMC and my goal is to make things bigger (but not obscenely so) to allow for easier visibility on "smaller" TVs. Hopefully I haven't made things worse.

Enjoy.


DOWNLOAD (~53MBs) as of 04/09/2010
Extract to your XBMC Skin folder to install. This will create a new folder titled "BIG Alaska".





Important Notes

- Various new features have been made optional & can be turned on/off in the "BIG Alaska" page of the Alaska Settings screen

- The new Fanart view only displays one movie at a time but will jump forward or back 10 at a time with the PageUp/PageDown commands

- Extra thumbs for both the Landscape & Fanart views work best if thumb1.jpg is a copy of the movie's fanart. That will provide a smooth transition in Landscape view when bringing a non-focused movie into focus. Also, the Fanart view is set to display thumb2.jpg & thumb3.jpg (this can easily be changed by editing the "Viewtype_Fanart.xml" file if desired).

- The Login screen has been redone slightly (bigger text/image) and works best with profile images that have a transparent background

- I only speak English so the BIG Alaska options text has NOT been localized & will only appear in English, sorry.


Change Log

Code:

04/09/10
- Fixed Fanart & Panel views returning to beginning of list after watching a video
- Fixed info screen images (Posters & Fanart) not changing when doing actor search & selecting different movie
- Fixed banner.jpg images not always showing (Thanks mcborzu)
- Fixed Set fanart not showing when using Landscape view with Extrathumbs option on
- Removed a couple BIG Alaska options for views and made the viewtypes part of normal menu selection
- Removed "option" to use jpg images. This is now required for various viewtypes to display properly (See instructions/explanation above)
- Increased icon size in Panel Wide view (Formerly showed 16 small panels, now shows 9 larger panels with 16:9 aspect)
- Tweaked TV Fanart View for Seasons
- Added a new color theme (Green Mosaic)
- Added/fixed a few studio logos
- Added Movie Set flag

04/03/10
- Reworked the Panel view
- Added optional TV Fanart View with banners
- Added "Alternate Now Playing (Text Only)" option. When selected,  various views will utilize the empty space in the lower left corner
- Added optional Banner mixed image view (my personal favorite now)
- Added additional Clear Art code (Thanks Muggi) and made Clear Art an  option now
- Changed Fanart View Info Screen image
- Fixed some BIG Alaska custom settings code
- Localized Episodes view Watched & New Item text
- Added seperate Old Style source & closed caption flags when using  the Alternate Now Playing option (they appear where the Now Playing  window was)
- Lowered Dialog graphics to accommodate larger date text
- Various Color Theme fixes
- Various flag fixes
- Removed some unnecessary files

03/26/10
- Updated & added 2 new color themes (older ones posted in Alaska forum)
- Reworked Files view to include optional focus lines & watched/new icons seperate from text
- Reworked Landscape view with larger main image & option for multiple extrathumbs slideshow
- Replaced Square view for Movies, TVShows & Seasons with new Fanart view
- Added Reaven's ClearART mod (Tweaked paused poster image to match size of Info image)
- Added optional large OSD text overlaying video (Old Alaska style)

03/22/10
- initial WIP version

Hello again ....any luck or time to check the weather funart for the weather in Home screen 2 ?
thank You !

[Amra]

Hello again ....any luck or time to check the weather funart for the weather in Home screen 2 ?
thank You !

Sorry about that, I must be getting old.

Anyway, I did take a look at it a while back when you originally asked but did not have any luck getting it to work. So I tried again this last weekend but was still unsuccessful. I'm still new to xbmc modding and just don't know how to get it working for you so if anyone else knows maybe they can help.

Sorry

PS: the code for home2 is in the Includes.xml file if it will help anyone else.

[Amra]

For anyone interested, here are a couple previews of the next BIG Alaska version. As previously stated, I hope to post it after XBMC 10.5 is released.

.


The first preview is of a new viewtype "Low List" that is reminiscent of the Low List view from Aeon Hitched. I've been using this view a lot and really like it for TV Episodes. Note that the Low List view for Movies has the option of replacing the Tagline with extrathumbs.

The second preview is for optional TV Logos as shown in this thread by mcborzu.

[Livin]

Amra,
Love the next gen... and the Miami Vice is like icing on the cake!

[Darkcloud28]

Sorry about that, I must be getting old.

Anyway, I did take a look at it a while back when you originally asked but did not have any luck getting it to work. So I tried again this last weekend but was still unsuccessful. I'm still new to xbmc modding and just don't know how to get it working for you so if anyone else knows maybe they can help.

Sorry

PS: the code for home2 is in the Includes.xml file if it will help anyone else.

thank You for the skin any way so much ....still on the top of the skin

i did shape my style fiinly after testing all of the skins ...just jumping beetwen Your Big alaska and Aeon )))

and i dont really need any changes any more , just the weather think , but its just for Fun ...not real function ...

thank You , the Dude !!

[reaven]

Sorry about that, I must be getting old.

Anyway, I did take a look at it a while back when you originally asked but did not have any luck getting it to work. So I tried again this last weekend but was still unsuccessful. I'm still new to xbmc modding and just don't know how to get it working for you so if anyone else knows maybe they can help.

Sorry

PS: the code for home2 is in the Includes.xml file if it will help anyone else.

whats the problem with the weather fanart ?

I did a weather fanart slideshow MOD a while back maybe you could incorporated in yours, if that was what are you after.

[Amra]

whats the problem with the weather fanart ?

I did a weather fanart slideshow MOD a while back maybe you could incorporated in yours, if that was what are you after.

He was looking to have the current weather fanart show in Home2 as fullscreen wallpaper when the weather icon was focused. I tried to get it working so that I could help but without any luck.

It's not something I wanted to add to BIG Alaska myself but I was willing to try and help. Anyway, my lack of expertise was my downfall.

[tuckbodi]

Hi Amra, I'm really diggin' your Big Alaska mod but I'm having trouble with something. I like the old style media flags but I want to turn a couple of them off. Without mucking with the code, is there someplace to turn these on/off like you have for the Media Flags Panel? I can't seem to find it. TIA!

Big Alaska 4/09
XBMC svn28937

[Darkcloud28]

He was looking to have the current weather fanart show in Home2 as fullscreen wallpaper when the weather icon was focused. I tried to get it working so that I could help but without any luck.

It's not something I wanted to add to BIG Alaska myself but I was willing to try and help. Anyway, my lack of expertise was my downfall.

like i Said ...i Love what You did ) Alaska original one its the best looking think out there and Alaska Big is the best think happen to Alaska )



i can stay with super duper icons for the weather ...+ its good to put out a finger out of the window to check the weather and also just to look out of the window is good to )) im lucky to have wiew from 21 st floor to Manhattan , time to enjoy !

thank You for help one more time .!

[Darkcloud28]

whats the problem with the weather fanart ?

I did a weather fanart slideshow MOD a while back maybe you could incorporated in yours, if that was what are you after.

is it for home screen 2 ?

if yes is it still for share ?




thanks !

[Amra]

Hi Amra, I'm really diggin' your Big Alaska mod but I'm having trouble with something. I like the old style media flags but I want to turn a couple of them off. Without mucking with the code, is there someplace to turn these on/off like you have for the Media Flags Panel? I can't seem to find it. TIA!

Big Alaska 4/09
XBMC svn28937

Thanks & sorry but with the old style media flags it is all or nothing. Only the original Alaska panels are individually selectable. If you want to try changing the code yourself to eliminate certain flags then you will want to backup & edit the "Includes_MediaFlags.xml" file.

Search for "old style media flags" and you will find two large sections of code, one for "Static" & one for "Animated". I would suggest changing the "Static" code by removing whatever flag's section you do not want (each flag's section is noted) and then modifying the remaining flags' <posx> numbers so that they move over to fill in the gap made by the flag you just removed.

Note that if you edit the code for the Animated flags then you may need to also edit the "Includes_Animations.xml" file to modify the remaining flags animations so that they all slide back into position uniformly.

[tuckbodi]

Yup, no worries, kinda figured that. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing it somewhere or it wasn't planned for the future. Thx for the tip and I'll take a stab at it!

[Amra]

Just playing around, can't decide if I want to keep them or if I want to use the more traditional case graphics.

[Avigrace]

I personally think those ones are much nicer than the traditional cases.