OpenDash - Windows Build 237

Hi. I am releasing today a windows binary of build 237 of opendash. Skinners can use this to see how their skin looks without needing to upload the skin to the xbox. Anyone interested in skinning for OpenDash should take a look at this release and play with it a bit.

There is also a (WIP) manual for skinning and configuring the dash at:

OpenDash Skinning/Config Guide.

People should take a look at the config.xml file in the windows build as an example of a simple skin. Currently, keep the Resources, Elements, and Menu nodes all in the config.xml file - ignore the part in the guide that says to create a skin.xml file. That is not yet implemented (but will be before the first xbox release, so that people can change skins on the fly.)

Still to be done: a significant amount of testing on the xbox itself - all the file copying, xbe launching, has to be tested before the dash is ready for primetime.

If anyone sees any major issues with that windows build of the dash, or errors in the manual please let me know here or via email.

Skinners looking for hosting for their skins, PM me and we can arrange something.

wow great work gonna try throw so simple skins together keep it up and keep us updated!

EDIT: just ran it and i daresay it already looks better than evox!

-wolf

I disagree (at least, not yet) but thanks .

I forgot to mention how to use the program:

controls: up/down arrows in the menus.


buttons are layed out as:

s
a x
z

so z=a, s=y, etc..

Use "z" to select menu items, x/s to back out of menus, etc...

to test a hotkey, press lshift+rshift+hotkey button. These have to be configured already in the menu.

If you want to test the menuing system and everything, make a fake xbox games directory that has some default.xbe's in subdirectories under it. ie, create the directories/files:

c:/games
c:/games/doom/default.xbe <--should be a real .xbe file
c:/games/quake/default.xbe <--"" ""
c:/games/whatever/default.xbe

Then make a <XBEMenu> item in the config.xml file with directory = c:/games/. When you select that item it should pop up the proper menu for the directory.

Just tried this out and it looks great. It's good that so much can be customised. I'm impressed you managed to get scripting in there too. One slight issue I noticed is that the messages in dialog boxes can go off the edge of screen if too long. It would be good if there was either word wrap or a way to add line breaks to a message.

Also seeing as pretty much everything else is configurable it might be nice to be able to change what text appears for things like the tray state. That way Openbox could be internationalised with all messages translated into French or German or whatever.

I've been messing around moving things about the screen and adding submenus inside submenus, etc and everything seems to be working as advertised. Just want to say great work, looking forward to the release of the Xbox version

One of my non-xbox-specific TODO's. It will probably understand newlines but will still be up to the scripter to set them properly. We'll see.


Good idea! I'll make it configurable in the config.xml.


Thanks. Me too .

I have a little problem.

Download the iconv.dll and copy it to C:\Windows\system

Awesome dash man. That´s a nice jobe right there.
With greats skins this could end up with a great substitute of the EvolutionX and others.

I´m a graphic designer here in Spain and would like to help with the skinning part.
Interested email me at yorch77@hotmail.com

Salutes
Keep up with da ns work dude.

Must say I'm very impressed This should be one of the most highly anticipated releases to hit the Xbox. Keep up the great work and i can't wait to see what things you add next.

Looking good d0wnlab.

It's nice and clean and does exactly as advertised.

I had that problem to, thanks.

It's looking good, I may well skin this .

that link for iconv.dll doesn't work (at least not anymore), so here is another: http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?iconv

Originally I had the iconv problem and I downloaded the dll and that was fine, but now a new error screen happens within the program. See the screenie below:



If for some reason the image doesn't display it says:
Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed)

Never mind sorry, when i first had the iconv problem i tried to put it in Windows98 compatibility mode, and after i fixed the DLL i never put it back to normal. So i took it off and it worked.

BTW excellent contribution to the community d0wnlab, can't wait to finish work and hit Photoshop

Well I just mucked around before dinner and decided to show a sort of beta preview skin I'm working on. I'll add the finishing touches tomorrow.

Constructive Criticism welcome



Download Here (190kb *.rar)

Hey d0wnlab, guess whos back from a really damn long holiday...
i see you've really pulled this one off! loves it.

im gona have a play with this, if u'll let me...heehee
yea im in a happy mood. it can have slight 3d functionality by 'adding' source, like the last dash...correct?

well done on this.

I had a little session with this earlier today and made a PM III style skin for it, I know imageshack postings are censored, what image hosting sites can I use to post a screenie of my little hack? I think it is actually looking pretty good for a 15 minute hack. Would like to see what others think about it...

Regards,
Los93soL

this project is really looking promising... keep up the amazing work!

@Los93soL: seems we both had the same idea! I was messing around with a pm3-style skin too.
p.s. I would love to see what you came up with - check out this thread for a list of image hosts you can use.

Just a little messing around....still more work to be done on it, but it's starting to come out pretty good. I tried adding animated gif images but it appears they do not work as of yet.

Had a little more time to play with it so here is another screenie I just added the popup dialogs from PM III to the skin as well. The skinning engine would have to be polished up a bit to do this skin properly, but overall I am very impressed. I was able to get a lot further with this than I thought I would.

Regards,
Los93soL

EDIT: Thanks to Chokeman for PM III. The skin I am showing pictures of was built on slightly edited images from Chokeman's skin.

@Los93soL: That PM3 skin is great! Nice work

Well heres my attempt...

As you can tell I wasn't that faithful to the original and I also managed to get the app name wrong!

two words.
holy crap...

thses are amazing guys and now im ashamed to try
Still you can see how well this is turning out...even when it's a WIP (ish).

Well done everyone,
Ronnel

WOW.

Sorry I haven't been on the forums for a number of days. I just moved across the province, just got internet back today. and..

WOW.

That is insane work guys!

Over the next while I will be tweaking some of the graphics code and doing heavy testing on the xbox to get all the features working (and adding some other stuff like editable dialogs for internationalization and skin/config logical separation).

Anyone who reaches a nice milestone with their skin please email it to me th0mas.sixbit.org@gmail.com

I decided to get into the spirit of things and my wip as of 30mins (mainly due to me being crap at GIMP editor) is here.

I was going to do 90 degree rotated text but openbox doesnt support this. Also, the menu slide transition isnt compatible with the size of the back of the button image so that wont work but im getting there.

ronnel



based on PM3 Chokemaniac's skin

hey looks cool... I like the 360 style

I'll implement a rotation tag in the Element node so you can rotate text. The menu for now won't be able to handle it but it'll be able to handle any of the other text nodes.

I am impressed at how easy it is to skin this dash even though the skinning engine and really the entire dash is in the very beginning stages. I have a few suggestions to help people skinning even more though. It would be great to be able to switch and reload the skin from within the dash so you don't have to physically restart the dash to view edits or changes as you are getting everything lined up and adjusted how you want it. Also it would be nice to have a directory structure for skin so you could assign a skin.xml file and have it all placed like skin/yourskin/*.xml or something to that effect. It appears you already have plans for this and are moving in the right direction. I would have to also suggest having a peak at XBMC's skinning engine as it is by far the most robust, simplest, and by far gives the user the most control. Of course like I said this project is still in the beginning stages and given it is already coming along great I have my faith you have a few tricks up your sleeve.

Regards,
Los93soL

Thanks a lot, d0wnlab.
Ill post more progress when ive filled up on coffee, guys.



Cheers, i liked your green one though, so great.
Will anyone agree...How easy is it to skin this dash?! Amazingly! Also legal, which is what i love. This my friends is the way to go. (Hahaha like a commercial).

Also im soon taking a REAL cpp course, instead of eye-torturing internet books, so i may be contributing pointless apps once i get my head around openxdk i look forward to it

Ok im done, byes.
ps linux related:
which distro suits my sh'pooey nforce mobo, considering it usually crashes when loading kde. (lovely...)

-Ronnel

Gave it a bit of a rethink.



Some different "flavours"