[Amra]

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!

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 9 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 to increase size of graphics & text
- Added new viewtypes (Fanart, Fanart Banner, Banner Mixed, Low list, Media Info, & Media Info list)
- 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 helps reduce lag somewhat.
- Option to use TV Logos in various views
- Optional video case overlays (2 style choices)
- Newly redesigned Video Info screen (as of 2010.08.15 Dharma version)
- New Home Styles (as of 2010.08.15 Dharma version)

This mod uses multiple TV Show image types (Poster, Banner & Landscape) at the same time. The following steps are necessary for all views in 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). For the landscape.jpg file, I usually just use a TVDB fanart image with the tvshow name on it and then resize it to 640x360 to minimize skin slowdown.


Also note that as of 05/17/2010, there is the option to use TV Show logos in various views. To use this feature you will need to save a "logo.png" file in each TV Show's folder. More info (and hundreds of logos) can be found at the link below. Thanks and credit to mcborzu for getting this started.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=71954


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

Enjoy.


DOWNLOAD Final Version for XBMC v10.0 Dharma (~52MBs) as of 01/12/2011
Backup & remove your previous version (if updating) then extract to your Addons folder to install.

Optional patch if you have a lowend system & Poster or Panel views become choppy (can be used with either the version above or the older BIG Alaska version for XBMC Camelot 9.11 below).
I believe this is due to all the extra code for the cases & the system having to decide whether to show a case & if so, which one. The patch below removes the Cases code from both the Poster & Panel views and has been confirmed to help smooth out both views. Thanks to Mikesch for testing.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zmnmgd...rPanelViews.7z

To use, just extract to your BIG Alaska (or skin.big.alaska)\720p folder. It should overwrite 3 xml files.


....

More preview images of the 05/17/2010 update can be found HERE.


Important Notes

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

- Please be aware that almost all of the new video views will use part or all of the space normally reserved for the Now Playing window. I have added an option for a "Text Only" Now Playing notification that will display along the top edge of the skin if desired.

- 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, border removed) 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.


Changelog is in the download.



Older Archived Versions

DOWNLOAD for XBMC v9.11 Camelot (~44MBs) as of 05/17/2010
Extract to your XBMC Skin folder to install. This will create a new folder titled "BIG Alaska". If updating, you should do a fresh install as I have eliminated some unnecessary files in order to reduce the download size.

[Amra]

Reserved for future use.

[ValiantXI]

All I can say is wow...just wow...simply amazing job on this...I love it.

[Amra]

All I can say is wow...just wow...simply amazing job on this...I love it.

Thanks, I hope at least a few people can get some use of this. Although, I just checked and there has been about 20 downloads already so maybe more people than I thought could use it.

The larger text/images definitely has helped my old eyes while sitting on my couch.

[Malexx]

Wow, i really like it.
There are so many things inside i tried to do on my own,but couldnt get it managed.
I for sure use this.
Thank you !!!

[muggi]

hi,


i love this mod... great job.....

[ubuntuf4n]

BIG THX. Made my Day!
I really like such Visability-Enhancement-Mods.
Would be glad, if you could update your Mod from time to time.

I'd also build a larger-fonts mod for Aeon65, but it get lost when xbmc went down...

[Nubert]

Wow, only wow Amra.
Why you don't open a fork by git-hub?

[muggi]

Hi,


here is a modded Dialogfullscreeninfo.xml with clearart support for tvshows instead of thumbs. Movie covers are shown.

Its like the standard claerartmod when paused.
But this is for showing clearart when hit the info button.


Maybe Amra want to implement this in his great BIG MOD (not tested in the normal Alaska build)

Code:

<!--Alaska-->
<window id="142">
    <defaultcontrol>2</defaultcontrol>
    <controls>
        <include>OSDHeading</include>
        <include>OSDSeekbar</include>
        <control type="group">
            <include>Animation_SlideUpFadeOut</include>
            <posx>0</posx>
            <posy>630</posy>
            <control type="image">
                <width>1280</width>
                <height>100</height>
                <texture>common/white.png</texture>
                <colordiffuse>OSDBackground</colordiffuse>
            </control>
<!-- tvshows -->
            <control type="largeimage">
                <posx>30</posx>
                <posy>-130</posy>
                <width>280</width>
                <height>280</height>
                <texture>$INFO[Player.FolderPath]../clearart.png</texture>
                <aspectratio>keep</aspectratio>
                <visible>VideoPlayer.Content(episodes)</visible>
            </control>
<!-- movies -->
            <control type="image">
                <posx>30</posx>
                <posy>-210</posy>
                <width>280</width>
                <height>280</height>
                <texture>$INFO[VideoPlayer.Cover]</texture>
                <bordertexture border="8">common/thumb_border.png</bordertexture>
                <bordersize>8</bordersize>
                <aspectratio align="left" aligny="bottom">keep</aspectratio>
                <visible>!VideoPlayer.Content(episodes)</visible>
            </control>
            <control type="label">
                <posx>300</posx>
                <posy>650</posy>
                <height>50</height>
                <width>1280</width>
                <font>Font_Time</font>
                <textcolor>FF525252</textcolor>
                <label>$LOCALIZE[20339][COLOR FFb70303] $INFO[VideoPlayer.Director][/COLOR]   $LOCALIZE[562][COLOR FFb70303] $INFO[VideoPlayer.Year][/COLOR]</label>
                <visible>VideoPlayer.Content(movies)</visible>
            </control>
            <control type="textbox">
                <description>Plot Info</description>
                <posx>300</posx>
                <posy>2</posy>
                <width>550</width>
                <height>80</height>
                <align>left</align>
                <font>Font_Date</font>
                <textcolor>Date</textcolor>
                <label>$INFO[VideoPlayer.Tagline]</label>
                <autoscroll time="3200" delay="6000" repeat="6000">Skin.HasSetting(autoscroll)</autoscroll>
            </control>
            <control type="label">
                <description>Year Info</description>
                <posx>1250</posx>
                <posy>10</posy>
                <width>360</width>
                <height>18</height>
                <aligny>center</aligny>
                <align>right</align>
                <font>Font_Date</font>
                <textcolor>Date</textcolor>
                <label>$INFO[VideoPlayer.Year,[b]$LOCALIZE[40124] [/b]]</label>
                <animation effect="slide" end="0,22" condition="IsEmpty(VideoPlayer.Rating)">Conditional</animation>
                <animation effect="slide" end="0,22" condition="IsEmpty(VideoPlayer.Director)">Conditional</animation>
            </control>
            <control type="label">
                <description>Rating Info</description>
                <posx>1250</posx>
                <posy>32</posy>
                <width>360</width>
                <height>18</height>
                <aligny>center</aligny>
                <align>right</align>
                <font>Font_Date</font>
                <textcolor>Date</textcolor>
                <label>$INFO[VideoPlayer.Rating,[b]$LOCALIZE[563]: [/b]]</label>
                <animation effect="slide" end="0,22" condition="IsEmpty(VideoPlayer.Director)">Conditional</animation>
            </control>
            <control type="label">
                <description>Director Info</description>
                <posx>1250</posx>
                <posy>54</posy>
                <width>360</width>
                <height>18</height>
                <aligny>center</aligny>
                <align>right</align>
                <font>Font_Date</font>
                <textcolor>Date</textcolor>
                <label>$INFO[VideoPlayer.Director,[b]$LOCALIZE[40125] [/b]]</label>
            </control>
        </control>
        <include>Object_DebugGrid</include>
        <control type="group">
            <include>Debug</include>
            <visible>Skin.HasSetting(debugmode)</visible>
        </control>
    </controls>
</window>

greetz muggi

[issun00]

Wow, nice mod. One question though, is it possible to add the "BIG Alaska" function to Hitcher's version?

[Amra]

Wow, nice mod. One question though, is it possible to add the "BIG Alaska" function to Hitcher's version?

Not without a lot of code change. Sorry.

Wow, only wow Amra.
Why you don't open a fork by git-hub?

I've never used github before except to download Hitcher's Alaska but I will look into it to see what is required.

Hi,


here is a modded Dialogfullscreeninfo.xml with clearart support for tvshows instead of thumbs. Movie covers are shown.

Its like the standard claerartmod when paused.
But this is for showing clearart when hit the info button.


Maybe Amra want to implement this in his great BIG MOD (not tested in the normal Alaska build)

Thanks. I'll take a look at it but I want to investigate github first before I go making any more changes.

[Amra]

Been playing around with a second (optional) banner view that would use multiple image types. Still have more to do on it but I think it shows promise.

[gekados]

Been playing around with a second (optional) banner view that would use multiple image types. Still have more to do on it but I think it shows promise.

Looks really good, definately a view I would use for my tvseries ! Looking forward to a rls of this view ;-)

[swoopsta]

How difficult would it be to get this mod working on the xbox? I've got Hitchers version running fine, but all of my setup is strictly old school (xbox & small SD tv.)

[Amra]

How difficult would it be to get this mod working on the xbox? I've got Hitchers version running fine, but all of my setup is strictly old school (xbox & small SD tv.)

I don't have an xbox (well, one that I run XBMC on anyway) so I'm not sure. I would imagine though that Hitcher's Alaska Revisited might be the best option for the xbox.

This mod is based off of Alaska Final which has a lot more code and then on top of that, I've added yet more code. Chances are that it would perform worse than Hitcher's version but maybe someone out there could verify my suspicions.