Public Beta

[jeroenpardon]

So with internal Beta 2 being done as mentioned in #79 it's time to work on getting this out into the world ;)

I expect the road to the public release to be quite short. Basically the focus remains on polishing and on bug fixes that may arise. Other than that it’s cleaning up the code, getting rid of redundant code and textures, things like that.

Any discussion not specific to a reported issue can continue here :)

[Ostrymiecz]

Give us/me some time for translation Jeroen.

[jeroenpardon]

Sure, I still have some cleaning up to do in the source file anyway. It'll probably be a week or two before the public beta. And even then we have some time after before it's submitted to the Kodi repo

[bigdaddyral]

My apologies for being away over the last month or so, I've been dry camping in the Airstream. No electrical hookups means limited internet and no HTPC usage (Or at least it has so far...). It looks like things are moving along really nicely, so I just wanted to throw out a big congrats! I'm not sure yet what the next few weeks are going to look like, so I don't know if I'll be around to help any, but If I can I will. Thanks for allowing me to offer some help in the beginning. People are really going to love the skin, you should be proud Jeroen!

[jeroenpardon]

No worries @bigdaddyral you have been a great help. I am really glad I made the decision to have a private beta test, I enjoy being able to get feedback while not having to deal with all the "noise" on the public forum.

I may decide to do this again when preparing for Kodi updates or when I am working on new features or something.

Who knows, so far this has been great 👍

[KOKONUTCREME]

Have to echo the words of bigdaddyral, thanks Jeroen for allowing me to participate in the testing. I've really enjoyed the experience as well as enjoying the fruits of your labour before the general public.

Get a thrill reading the comments on your forum post when you post the screenshots, it really is a beautiful skin to look at and use.

[jeroenpardon]

Thank you too @KOKONUTCREME and everyone else obviously :)

It's good to hear compliments both on looks and use, as I feel they are both equally important 👍

Oh, just as a sidenote, I have started commiting some basic compatiblity changes to the Leia/Kodi 19 branch. Nothing major yet, but you should at least be able to start Grid on Leia and to use basic support for Leia's game support.

This is not part of this beta test, but if any of you have been wanting to try out Leia anyway, this may be an extra incentive ;) If unfamiliar with it, just go to the Code tab and on the left side select Leia in the Branch dropdown menu. And then just download Grid as you do normally.

[Slurrrp]

@jeroenpardon hey.. some stuff not working correctly for me

• recently added episodes dont have a logo, the logos on the homescreen are mostly the wrong ones (i dont use local files) or dont show and stay on screen when going to widgets
• recently added album widget dont show full screen cover art anymore
• the new fullscreeninfo.png is too dark for me: for example when in fullscreen music view 60% of the screen is dark (counting the progress bar). I use the old one now. Will you consider making it an option to choose between the two?
• the widgets feed status bar info is empty

[jeroenpardon]

Hi @Slurrrp regarding the logo issues, I have pushed some changes that hopefully solve this properly. Please note though that I have also changed some things in the skin settings which require you to reenter your preferences. Some skins settings have been renamed / relocated / grouped.

I also recommend rebooting / reloading the skin after changing the skin settings.

I'll get back to you on the other things.

[jeroenpardon]

@Slurrrp These issue should now be resolved. About the widgets feed status bar though I have taken it out (for now). In the way the widgets are currently configured I cannot make this work the way it should. In your case it worked, but it's all very dependent on the setup. Simply put, it will work for some, it will not work for others. I do intend to bring it back in the future. But for this and other widget related features I need an update to Skin Shortcuts.

[KOKONUTCREME]

Hi Jeroen

Installed lastest commit and hiding background art while scrolling has improved the smoothness of scrolling through the library using poster and landscape view types.

There are some items in system settings that are missing labels. Tried reloading the skin after upgrading and checked but labels are still missing for:

• Scrollbar visibility
• Select text input mode
• TV Guide scrolling speed
• Show video rating overlays
• Autoscrolling speed
• Menu playback controls

Question about ratings - the option to show video rating and parental guidance rating overlays for movies and tv shows. What do they look like? I can only see overlays for unwatched and in progress items in Slide, Poster and Landscape views.

[jeroenpardon]

@KOKONUTCREME

Good to hear about the improvement in scrolling 👍

I am not seeing any missing labels though, not sure what can be the issue there. Could you post your strings.po file? It's in skin.grid/languages/resource.language.en_gb

Seems I have broken the rating overlays, will push a fix later

btw: those are two different options you're talking about though.

Show parental guidance ratings for movies and tv shows turns on the text based labels in various viewtypes, Show video rating overlays displays ratings over posters next to the unwatched/in progress indicators

Thanks!

[jeroenpardon]

On a related note, unfortunately quite a lot of extended infolabels provided by the skin helper add-on have stopped working lately. None of the custom ratings providers (rotten tomatoes, metacritic, tmdb) are working anymore so I'm probably going to remove those custom rating sources as it doesn't look like they will start working again any time soon. You will still be able to choose between online and personal ratings though.

[KOKONUTCREME]

Hi Jeroen

Thanks for fixing the missing info labels and ratings overlays.

With the latest commit, list views are showing fanart views behind poster if you select posters to be shown for list views.

[jeroenpardon]

Hi all,

Just as a heads up I have just pushed a rather large number of changes, mainly to do with reworking the skin settings for background images, but also the actual loading of those images.

As you know I didn't set out to make a lot of changes this late in the game but I really felt this should be improved upon. So as I was working on a fix for #93 I thought I'd might as well get it over with.

In any case, when you update from Git you will have to reconfigure your background / homescreen artwork settings. Some skin settings related to this have been renamed, moved, etc.

This was all done fairly quickly last night and I am sure I have not tested all scenarios yet, so do expect to come across bugs.

@KOKONUTCREME the fanart behind posters should be fixed.

Cheers, Jeroen

[KOKONUTCREME]

Nice work with this latest push Jeroen. LIke how you've separated the display of homescreen global custom art from library fanart in the various views. I was going to ask if this was a possible enhancement for after the public beta release but you've already done it

No issues experienced so far but will report back if I come across anything. It's getting better and better with each refinement.

[Ostrymiecz]

I've got weird bug in Grid on RPi 3. After stopping any video it hangs/freezes on that video and nothing happens. I have to reboot RPi to fix it. Same skin build on second machine in my home (which is x86) works without any issues. Anyone had such bug?

[jeroenpardon]

So I think I have decided on a release target.

I want to release the public beta on, or in the weekend of August 12th.

If we run into any big issues this could be delayed, but I feel I need to set some sort of deadline for myself.

Hopefully you guys can find some time to do a final round of testing that would be great.

[Ostrymiecz]

And one more thing to my previous post. When I switch back to reFocus skin on that RPi 3, then everything works like it should. It happens only in Grid.

[jeroenpardon]

@Ostrymiecz I will upgrade Grid to a recent build on my rPi sometime this week and check it out.

[Ostrymiecz]

I think I must provide a debug log. I'll see if it catches anything.

[jeroenpardon]

@Slurrrp I just noticed I haven't really come back to you about

the new fullscreeninfo.png is too dark for me: for example when in fullscreen music view 60% of the screen is dark (counting the progress bar). I use the old one now. Will you consider making it an option to choose between the two?

I decided to set a lighter texture for the music info as readability isn't all that much of a concern here. The opacity for the texture used for the video info might could be tweaked a bit more, but it needs to be darker for readability. Having settings for textures is not something I would consider.

[Slurrrp]

@jeroenpardon yeah i saw it.. This works fine. Also tnx for the other fixes. Don't have a lot of time lately. Didn't even know about all the new settings in skin shortcuts.. Very cool. Can you add logos for the movies too in the widgets? And the youtube images are a bit too low.. I'll post pics later.

Just curious.. Are you planning something different for the full-screen info in the future?

[jeroenpardon]

@Slurrrp Not sure what you mean about the youtube images. Tried to see for myself but I'm always getting they "quota exceed" error even though I hardly ever use it.

I'll take a look at movie logos in the widgets.

I don't have any plans for future changes in the fullscreen info, no.

[jeroenpardon]

So, I think I have decided on an (estimated) public release date. We have arrived at a point where most reported bugs are pretty easily solved, which to me is an indication that the codebase in general is stabilizing. Other than that I need to set this goal for myself. I'm very much a perfectionist, and if I don't put up some restrictions I could go on forever tweaking and raising my own bar.

Anyway, considering I will have some extra time to spend on the skin next monday, my plan is to release a public preview somewhere in the weekend of August 12th. Of course if really serious bugs arise this could be delayed.

So if you guys can find some time to put the skin through it's paces again I would really appreciate it!

Edit: I now realise I actually already told this yesterday haha. Nevermind, I'll see myself out :D

Cheers,

[jeroenpardon]

Oh, and @Ostrymiecz I actually had some time to upgrade my LibreElec install on my Raspberry Pi 3 and update Grid to the latest commit. I tried playing a bunch of videos and I didn't run into any problems. So yeah, maybe a debug log will give some clues as to what is happening.

[Ostrymiecz]

OK @jeroenpardon I will update Grid to latest today and retest with debug log enabled.

[Ostrymiecz]

@jeroenpardon is Transifex loaded with latest English strings?

[loggio]

Sounds good Jeroen

I've had the opportunity to have a good play around with this skin a bit the last week and I have to say it's pretty solid now I think. So much so that I've been having some fun playing around with some fonts... hehe

I've added my favourite font 'Roboto' which is used in the Jurialmunkeys Arctic Zephyr skin. I'm quite happy with the results actually http://imgur.com/a/D1APN

let me know if you want to have a look and i'll send you through the files.

[jeroenpardon]

@Ostrymiecz yeah, it was. But I spotted some duplicate strings yesterday, I just uploaded the latest version.

[jeroenpardon]

@loggio Good to hear :) I like Roboto Condensed (and other variations) a lot on print or applications where you're close to the screen. For viewing at larger distance I don't think it works out that well, especially with long pieces of text like plot descriptions. In places like the home menu / at bigger size it works out allright though. I actually used it in reFocus for the horizontal menu as it allowed me to have more items on the screen at once.

I might do some alternate fontsets in the future actually, but I really like the Montserrat font.

[KOKONUTCREME]

Nice Loggio.

Out of curiosity, to achieve the dark background behind the text of the home menu items, is that achieved by using options in skin settings or are you using a different overlay?

[loggio]

@KOKONUTCREME

Just change the colours in the setting of the skin to the darkest black, then drop the opacity 'till you're happy with the results

[monkeyboyohyeah]

Sorry haven't been very active lately - hopped on tonight to post some issues that I've been encountering, but with the latest commit all my issues appear to be resolved.

Is 'full keyboard' the default for 'select text input mode'? This was causing me some grief as the menus were not appearing as detailed in #95 . However, these are now fixed! Yus!

Love the skin. The best skin yet. Thanks.

[jeroenpardon]

@monkeyboyohyeah "Full keyboard" was not set as default, as I discovered when setting up my rPi :) But it should be now, goof to hear cheers :)

[Slurrrp]

@jeroenpardon this is the widget youtube image 'problem'.. https://ibb.co/dfUCSF And i hardly use it myself but the big list view in uitzendinggemist has some bleeding effect on some pages.. https://ibb.co/kNXtZv I understand this add on related and not high or any priority but i dont encounter other bugs myself anymore.

[KOKONUTCREME]

Hi Jeroen

Installed latest commit and there's a problem with setting up widgets. When I select any menu item from Videos, Movies, TV Shows to be added, the full keyboard appears with no text to accept. Once the keyboard is closed, the menu item for the widget is blank so I can't create widgets any longer.

The only way I've been able to set them up is if I navigate to an item via the "Other" menu.

Also the thumbnail option is missing from the layout menu if you setup a widget for TV episodes, I don't know if this omission is by design.

The filesize of zip file to download from GIT is much smaller also. The backgrounds folder is no longer included, not sure if that is by design also.

[jeroenpardon]

@KOKONUTCREME so if I understand correctly you hit "add shortcut" and when you select a widget from the list, then the keyboard pops up? I can't reproduce it, but I have been making some changes to the widget selection process. Maybe you're just missing a commit or two and it will be solved when the next bunch of changes are pushed.

Same goes for the thumbnail option missing

The filesize is smaller because of the backgrounds being gone. People will set their own backgrounds anyway. I may throw the images and other ones I have been selecting and make a background images from them or something.

I am not feeling to well at the moment so fixes are probably going to take a bit longer.

[jeroenpardon]

@Slurrrp The first problem I can fix, the second one not so much. It's the age old problem of a total lack of standards in how plugins should behave.

Big list view shouldn't even be available there as that view just isn't really suited for it. The plugin however reports it's content to be tv shows (which from a media standpoint might be somewhat correct), but the plugin does not provide artwork that conforms to the same criteria your scraped movies and tv shows do. So the skin expects 16:9 thumbnails, 3:2 posters, etc. which the artwork here isn't. Long story for saying, there's nothing I can do about it :)

[jeroenpardon]

Also, a question in general. Is any of you terribly attached to the vertical - stream homemenu layout? I have been experimenting with another homemenu layout which I feel differentiates from the other layouts more. That one would be horizontal and widget centric. And as I don't want to end up with too many layouts to maintain the vertical - stream layout would be nominated for removal.

[loggio]

I only use the default vertical menu. Not having a submenu is a no go for me... So I haven't really even played with the other menus to be honest.

[jeroenpardon]

Check. Vertical - stream has submenus though :)

[loggio]

Ah yes, correct. Not really to my taste though. One vertical and one horizontal, done right, is all you need I think... But that's just my thoughts.

[KOKONUTCREME]

I like the Vertical Stream menu but I do constantly switch between that and the Vertical minimal menu. My family prefer the Vertical stream because they can immediately see widgets for recently added items but it's not a big deal to use the Minimal menu and press right to see the widgets on the full screen.

With regards to the widget issue I'm experiencing.

I don't click add shortcut as I already have my home menu items created.

I navigate to the home menu shortcut, press right to the Widget menu and click on the Content menu. Selection menu from extended info addon appears and I navigate to TV Shows for example and it doesn't matter what item I select, it doesn't save. The full text keyboard appears where I can change the label for the widget eg. New TV Episodes instead of the default Recent Episodes. Instead of overwriting the text label "Recent Episodes" on the keyboard, it's blank and the widget menu content is blank so I can't add a widget to any home menu item from extended info.

However if I select "Other" and navigate to the various Kodi library options, then that is saved. Think the problem may be with extended info.

Hope that explains it better.

[Ostrymiecz]

I also only use vertical menu like @loggio. For me there should be vertical and horizontal menu and that's it.

[jeroenpardon]

@KOKONUTCREME thanks, I'll see if I can reproduce that.

About the vertical stream layout, even though I like it for the reason @KOKONUTCREME mentioned, I haven't gotten comfortable with it from a looks perspective. So I think it's going to be removed.

I have been trying out some ideas for a horizontal menu again, which isn't without it's own compromises but I guess it's sort of a good thing as it offers a different experience. A vertical menu will always provide a a better experience to people with more "complex" menu structures imo.

I think the horizontal menu will also use horizontal submenus, mixing both just doesn't seem to fit in right, considering widgets need to be accessible too. The horizontal menu I am working on now puts the horizontally scrolling home menu and widgets all in one vertically scrolling container which is something I really like. Also looking into incorporating script.colorbox features into this.

[loggio]

Hopefully you can pull this off jeroen. Sounds interesting. I've yet to see a horizontal submenu that I like

[jeroenpardon]

@KOKONUTCREME thanks for the explanation. I cannot reproduce the problem in my local version. That should mean the problem was fixed after the latest push. Currently right in the middle of working on home menu and widget features which I cannot push right now as it would only present you bugs I am aware of ;)

@loggio I doubt it will pull you from using the vertical menu, it will not even do so for me ;) Like I said, there are downsides to horizontal menus that are just unavoidable.

However there will surely be demand for a horizontal menu. And even though I am not a crowd pleaser, it's something I want to add. Although I am sure people will be asking for a different horizontal menu too.

Anyway, I am actually quite pleased about the direction it's developing in. It has that "little something different" I didn't find last time I tried putting together a horizontal menu.

[Slurrrp]

@jeroenpardon I'm not attached to the vertical stream menu, and looking forward to the horizontal one. When you made it available in refocus i never went back.

[jeroenpardon]

@Slurrrp thanks. I expect to push a preliminary version to Git hopefully sometime this weekend, else shortly after that.

Just to give a general idea about it: as it is right now, the horizontal menu will be aligned to the bottom of the screen. Then you'll have two choices for the submenu:

• Press up to open the submenu above the main menu. The menu will be horizontally and vertically aligned to the center of the screen. The homescreen slideshow that will be behind that submenu will have a blur effect because of readability and because of looking cool :)

• Press down to open the submenu below the main menu The menu will have the same height as the main menu (both 1/10th of the screen) but use a smaller font to make a visual distinction from the main menu. This submenu will scroll horizontally.

In both cases there will be a smooth gradient behind the menu that reaches just a bit higher than the menu itself. The color of this gradient however will change color depending on the colors of the fanart being displayed in the background slideshow. The same goes for the color of the menu text. I will probably make this optional.

When you scroll down from either the main menu or submenu (depending on what you chose above) you will go to the group of widgets you have configured. In short it's all one big vertically scrolling list which transitions from menu's to widgets in a really seamless way. When scrolling the background slideshow will stay in place with the blur effect applied to it. This makes the colors shine through between the widgets without being distracting I think.

[Slurrrp]

Sounds really cool.. Can't wait. Will it have the category icons?