Hello all. I've been absent for a while, it is true, but anyone who thought that I was idle, was mistaken. I spent this time preparing a new skin to be called Ace.

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF ACE

Well, Ace has a concept and design quite different from what I had been doing with Aeon, a skin that is thought to be more simple, but clean and fast.
The Ace skin was written for the new XBMC Frodo.
There’s no need to install any additional addon, all important addons are installed automatically.
The concept of skin textures has been optimized to the maximum to make it lightweight and small.
The sources have an appropriate size for reading from far and the skin layout is optimized for use with touch screens.

WHAT'S NEW IN ACE?

- Thanks to the vertical menu on the screen you have up to 12 concurrent menus.
- Up to 12 most recent items always in sight.
- List of active and upcoming tracks with the album cover, you can choose an item from the list and start playing from it.
- In progress Items also for albums and concerts.
- New list view mode, very complete with all labels and media arts.
- And much more to come...

The CUSTOMIZATION AND HOW IT WAS?

This skin brings the customization mode to Generation 4 which is very simple to operate and works like any other adjusting skin window. Enter it, change, press 'return' or Esc and it’s ready, everything is done.
The color picker and custom covers are already working.

A LIGHT AND SMALL SKIN, BUT CAN I HAVE NEW MENUS AND SUB?

Prepare to be surprised, there are up to 20 new menus and 64 submenus!
The menus are predetermined, just setup them.
The submenus follow the smart style, choose wherever you want to include and it’s ready, all very simple and fast.

I GOT IT, BUT WITH ALL THIS ISN’T THIS SKIN SLOW?

No, customization in Generation 4 follows a concept unlike anything I've ever done, even with all that the skin will work at full speed.

Skin Ace is available now via the official XBMC Frodo repository. Please for more details, check this thread about public release.

I'm releasing version 0.2.3 today.

- Some fixes.
- Some changes layout.
- Inclusion of view Banner and Banner Info.
- Dialog TV partially working.

You must reset skin after install.

Test and tell me the impression please.

I'm running this skin (version 0.2.3) on latest Frodo RC2 and i must say that i'm really impressed by the looks and feel of this skin. It's fast, light and it even runs on my Android tablet ;)

Now LiveTV sections is partially working i can use it more on a daily basis on my main system.

With some help from Wanilton, on showing some issues found and showing how a few functions work i noticed a bottom bar (as seen in MQ4) but can't seem to find that myself, not a big deal but maybe there are features hidden there i can't or haven't accessed before.

Overall i'm loving this skin already even though it isn't finished yet but i think in it's current state it can be used on a daily basis as main skin.

To get back on the Android part, it can be used but for me it's in a sort off Kiosk mode since i can't access submenu's (left arrow etc) on main menu since my tablet doesn't provide me to do such actions.

@schumi2004, for bottom menu bar with options appears, press "S" in keyboard. If you need more help, post here, and I'll be back to assist you via teamviewer. Thanks for sharing your experience with the skin, and for translate to dutch, too.

(27/12/2012, 13:59)Wanilton Wrote:  @schumi2004, for bottom menu bar with options appears, press "S" in keyboard. If you need more help, post here, and I'll be back to assist you via teamviewer. Thanks for sharing your experience with the skin, and for translate to dutch, too.

@Wanilton, thanks for your quick reply and assistance.

The S key seems to do the job but i was wondering, how can this be done when your using a MCE Remote for navigation which doesn't have a S key available like i'm using on my main system (OpenELEC Linux)?

In MQ4 i could access it with the down key on my remote, this doesn't work in Ace.

A possible solution would be to use the right direction key when your on settings to open bottom bar?

Edit:
Not sure what is already know as issues but i found this when i opened channel list in Live TV

I just tested Ace out a bit on my Pivos Xios DS (not the fastest hardware) and I'm really really pleased to see that it's running so smooth!!!
Incredible, I didn't think this was possible!

I also really love the clean look of the skin.


Some bugs that I encountered (I'm sure you are aware of them and maybe some are there because it's a bug in the Pivos build :) )
- [MAIN MENU] Recently added in the main menu isn't working at the moment for TV shows (on my pc setup it's not working for Movies & TV shows)
- [BANNER MODE] When I'm in the menu of a show and go back to all the tv shows it doesn't show the menu anymore, only the backdrop of the menu I was just in.
- [SLIM LIST] Highlight doesn't work. A highlighted episode or movie has such a dark color that you can't read the name anymore.


I will definitely be using this as soon as some of those issues are worked out and there are more views added.
Amazing! Thank you :D


@ Schumi
I just pressed the Standby button on my remote control and it gave me the same menu as the S-button on a keyboard :)

@sidewalksuper

My remote doesn't have a Standby button. I'm using a Logitech Harmony One with MCE Remote SE profile loaded.

Marcos/Wanilton,

Great skin so far. Really appreciate all of your hard work. Didn't think I'd like anything more than MQ4 but I'm really enjoying the simple clean interface of ACE and it will definitely help on one of my under-powered machines. I also like the idea of running the same skin for my Android installation as well. I just have a couple of notes below.

I just installed the latest update and noticed a couple of things... when trying to add an add-on to the submenu for Movies, it says i've created one, however it does not show up. I am able to create an add-on item under TV-Shows however without issue. I've reset the skin twice, so I don't believe it's an issue on my end. (edit -- after restarting xbmc a few times throughout the day they now show up. Maybe an issue w/ Release Candidate 2)

Another note.. when viewing items using the Slim List option, the title you are selecting is not highlighted but rather blacked out. Not sure if this is on purpose or not, but I'd much prefer highlighted.

Lastly.. this is a personal preference but thought i'd throw it out there. By default when you load the skin every option is available under the sub-menu. Any chance of having them disabled by default and then having the user select to make them visible? I go for a simplified look and only use 2-3 options under each menu item and end up having to de-select everything else. Again, not a big deal, but just a thought.

Really only small things, especially for such an early build. Keep up the great work.

@rog0003 i can confirm your issues except the custom items don't show up here (yet) after several reboots.

@Wanilton/Marcos, Any ETA for new version?

Anyone else use PseudoTV? For some reason with the latest version of ACE I can no longer see the text on the channel guide. Don't have this issue when using other skins.

@rog0003
Got the same thing with TVHeadend ;)

schumi2004, as explained, the development of the Ace is being done in the closed area of the forum.

In Google Drive, I believe that by the end of the week I should publish a new version.

@MarcosQui
It wasn't a bug report but more a confirmation reply for @rog0003.
Anyway thanks for the update, end of the week shouldn't take that long now ;)

This is very strange because the PseudoTV works by itself, independent of skin.

(04/01/2013, 08:01)MarcosQui Wrote:  This is very strange because the PseudoTV works by itself, independent of skin.

I think he means the channel list in PVR section (not EPG).
So when your watching a TV show and you open channel list, you can't see txt only logos and progress bar.
That is what i confirmed.