Graphics for SageMC (Glassy Icons, etc.)

[MeInMaui]

Hi all,

I have finally completed and posted the first version of the glassy show icons in the downloads area. Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions, and especially to kricker for his advice. I plan to add additional graphics over time as well, so I would like this thread to be a central place to discuss them all rather than start a new thread for each new project.

Aloha,
Mike

Glassy Show Icons

You can download the glassy icon set by following this link:

Glassy Show Icons v1.3

This download contains a complete set of glassy show icons and encoder markers for SageMC.

Highlights include:

1. Large icons for HD resolutions and small icons for SD resolution.
2. Encoder specific 'currently recording' icons are included to support SageMC v6.6.
3. Online and offline icons are included for video collections in anticipation of this functionality being added in the future.
4. Alternate versions of the series record and watched icons are available in this set. Just rename them by removing the '2' from the file name(s).

To install, extract the zip file to a location of your choice. Choose the zip file within that corresponds to the icon set you wish to install and extract to your /Program Files/SageTV/SageTV directory. The Encoder Markers will overwrite the originals in

.../SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images

and the Show Icons will overwrite the originals in

.../SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images/ShowIcons

If you want to keep the original icons, be sure to back them up before installing.

Version History

v 1.0
Initial release

v 1.1
1. Increased graphic size in curr_rec icon for better visibility
2. Included icon sets at 35%, 50%, 75%, and 100% opacity in large and small formats

v 1.2
1. Corrected size of series_rec icons. (They will now appear with the same scale as the other icons.)
2. Changed color gradient in watched and watched2 icons to improve their appearance.



Glassy Show Icons, Squared

You can download the square version of the glassy show icons by follow this link:

Glassy Sow Icons Squared v1.0

This download contains a complete set of square glassy show icons and encoder markers for SageMC.

Highlights include:

1. The set includes large icons for HD resolutions and small icons for SD resolution.
2. Encoder specific 'currently recording' icons are included to support SageMC v6.6 and higher. (Alternate yellow versions are included. Just rename them by removing the '_2' from the file name(s).)
3. Online and offline icons are included for video collections
4. Alternate version of the watched icon is available in this set. Just rename it by removing the '2' from the file name(s).

To install, extract the zip file to a location of your choice. Choose the zip file within that corresponds to the icon set you wish to install and extract to your /Program Files/SageTV/SageTV directory. The Encoder Markers will overwrite the originals in

.../SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images

and the Show Icons will overwrite the originals in

.../SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images/ShowIcons

If you want to keep the original icons, be sure to back them up before installing.

Aloha,
Mike

Version History

v 1.0
Initial release

Genre Icons

There are two sets of Genre Icons available for separate download: Color Icons and Blue Icons. There are available at the following links.

Color Genre Icons v1.0

Blue Genre Icons v1.0

This download contains Genre Icons for SageMC. These icons are otherwise identical to the Color Genre Icons. As of SageMC v6.10, there is an alias properties file in the GenreIcons folder that allows mapping of icons to other variations of the genre name.

To install, extract the zip file to your /Program Files/SageTV/SageTV directory. The Genre Icons will overwrite the originals in

.../SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images/GenreIcons

If you want to keep the original icons, be sure to back them up before installing.

Important notes about full size icons.

1. Fullsize genre icons are disabled by default in SageMC. They can be enabled in the SageMC options menu.

2. You will have to use the full size icons in conjunction with my glassy selection bars for things to look right. Things will look really bad if you try to use anything else. My apologies, this issue could not be avoided. The shape of the genre icons is matched to the shape of my selection bars and in SageMC the selection bar will overlay the genre icon so you can see what is selected. The consequence of this is that the selection bar must be transparent (which mine are). The original view will still be available by disabling the new full size view in the SageMC Options menu for those who want to stick with the stock selection bars and/or screen layout.

Version History

v 1.0
1. Added Biography and Music icons
2. Added elongated icons for the fullsize list view in SageMC (*_list.png)
3. Added icons for the fullsize folder view in SageMC (*_folder.png)

Color Coded Guide Bars

This graphics set can be downloaded at the following link:

Color Coded Guide Bars v1.2

This download includes three sets of color coded guide bars for SageMC: The original dark set, a bright set, and a glassy set.

All versions in the download include highlighted bars for shows now playing, darkened bars for shows not currently playing, replacement left and right arrows, and a replacement color highlight for the currently selected show.

The category color codes are as follows:

Sports (incl. non-event & talk) = Green
Movies = Dark Purple
News = Red
Specials (and Holiday Specials) = Yellow
Children (and Children Specials) = Light Purple
Animated = Light Blue
Documentary = Brown
Default = Blue

Installation Instructions

1. Backup your .../SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images folder if you wish to revert to your original guide graphics.
2. Download and unzip the attached file into a location of your choice.
3. Unzip the enclosed zip file corresponding to the guide bar set of your choice (Bright, Dark, or Glassy) into your .../SageTV directory.
3. Restart the SageTV UI.
4. It is recommended that you set your 'Guide Black Text' to 0xAAAAAA for the dark guide bar set. This can be done within the Advanced Settings screen under 'SageMC 16x9 Options'. For the Bright Guide Bar set you can leave the 'Guide Black Text' set to 0x000000.
5. If you are using the Glassy Show Icons, it is recommended that you use a set will at least 50% opacity so they do not look washed out and discolored.

Version History

v1.0
Initial Release

v1.1
Added the Bright Guide Bars set to the download.

v1.2 Added Glassy Guide Bars to the download.







Replacement for MediaPortal Main Menu Graphic

This is a glassy graphic based on the SageTV logo. Copy the attached file into your .../SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images folder.

hp_start.png

improved hp_start.png

Glassy Selection Bars

Glassy Selection Bars v1.0

This download contains glassy selection bars for SageMC in several designer colors.

The following colors are available:

Clear
Blue
Green
Red
Purple
Magenta
Gold

Installation Instructions

1. Backup your .../SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images folder if you wish to revert to your original guide graphics.
2. Download and unzip the attached file into a location of your choice.
3. Unzip the enclosed zip file corresponding to the selection bar set of your choice into your .../SageTV directory.
4. Restart the SageTV UI.

Each set also contains an alternate shortened hp_selectionbar2.png (Main Menu selection bar) designed specifically for 16x9 interfaces. To use, just rename the original hp_selectionbar.png file and then remove the ‘2’ from the hp_selectionbar2.png file.

Version History

v1.0
Initial Release

Billiard Ball Icon Set

billiardball_showicons_v1.1

These are round "billiard ball" replacement icons for the default Show Icons and Encoder Markers in SageMC.

To install, unzip the file into your SageTV directory. The Encoder Markers will overwrite the originals in

/SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images

and the Show Icons will overwrite the originals in

/SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images/ShowIcons

If you want to keep the original icons, be sure to back them up before installing.

Version History

v 1.0
Initial release

v 1.1
corrected naming of "conflict resolved" icon
added hdtv icon

[dflachbart]

Awesome ...

Cant wait to get home to try them out


Dirk

[technazz]

Nice,

How much bigger are the high resolustion? I run at 1776x1000 and the other icons seems small when using this resolution compared to 856x480.

Cant wait to try them. Good work.

The reds in the glossy seem a little faded did the original reds cause some problems?



Technazz

[dflachbart]

Mike,

the firstrun icons seem to be missing in the zip file...


Dirk

[MeInMaui]

Thanks Dirk,

I have no idea how that happened.

It's fixed now. Sorry about that.

Aloha,
Mike

[geogecko]

Fantastic. I cannot wait to get home and try these out. I posted a link to this thread, in case your thread subscribers were still waiting for something over in the original thread.

Those are great. Thanks again for your addition to SageMC.

[geogecko]

Just a suggestion, but I noticed how the MovieTimes Plugin zip file was structured, and it was a pretty good idea.

He had two zip files inside of a zip file. So, you double click the downloaded zip file, then you are presented with two more zip files inside of that. You could do the same thing here, with largeicons and smallicons, that way it keeps you from having to select the actual files, people will just have to double click on the respective zip file, and tell it where to extract it to.

Just thought I could help (or nag...)

Jason.

Similar to the attached file. (Notice, I removed the Large/Small Icons path, so that you don't have to worry about it using that path. Just unzip to your /Program Files/SageTV/SageTV directory, and you're good to go.)

[MeInMaui]

geogecko,

Great suggestion. That is much easier. I looked though your modified zip file and it looks like everything is in order, so I uploaded your file to the downloads section (I hope that's ok) and updated the instructions accordingly. Thank you very much.

Originally Posted by technazz

How much bigger are the high resolustion? I run at 1776x1000 and the other icons seems small when using this resolution compared to 856x480.

Cant wait to try them. Good work.

The reds in the glossy seem a little faded did the original reds cause some problems?

The small icons are 30x30 and the large icons are 60x60 (4x the resolution). The large ones look good on my 1600x1200 monitor, so I hope they'll look good on your setup. As far as the faded color goes, I decided to make all the icons more transparent. It made them look more convincing to me and I was also thinking that they shouldn't take over the screen.

If there is some interest, I can add opaque (or much less transparent) versions to the download. The colors are definitly very vibrant when fully opaque. Now that geogecko has offered a better file structure for the download, it will be relatively easy to provide several alternate versions of the icons. It just takes time to generate them.

Aloha,
Mike

[geogecko]

Not a problem. Glad I could help, or be a nag, depending on how you look at it. With so many zip files that I download, it just makes it easier to reinstall everything, if I just have to remember one place to unzip everything to.

Looking forward to how this looks on a 1920x1080 monitor...

[geogecko]

So what's the deal with the size changing on the icons? I've never really noticed this before, except when we started adding the new icons. Does the size depend on something?

Mike, you did a wonderful job on these. I'm sure my wife will like them too. Thank you!

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by geogecko

So what's the deal with the size changing on the icons? I've never really noticed this before, except when we started adding the new icons. Does the size depend on something?

Mike, you did a wonderful job on these. I'm sure my wife will like them too. Thank you!

I'm not quite sure what's going there, but I have a few suspicions. First, looking at mlbdude's original screenshots, it looks like the status icons have always been displayed larger (taking up nearly the full vertical height of the EPG cell). It looks like the original icons were all 30x30 _except_ for the firstrun icon. I think it was 20x20 (I have to verify that). I suspect that when the firstrun icon is used by itself, it is resized to fit within a small panel, thus the icon size shouldn't matter. But when displayed overlayed with one of the status icons (recording, watched, etc.) the two icons are probably positioned within the same larger panel with the large icon scaled to fit, but the firstrun icon probably not scaled. I haven't actually gotten into Studio to track this down, but I bet I'm not far off. This has turned into a long ramble, but the bottom line is that the scaling for the overlayed firstrun icon probably just needs to be tweaked.

I'm really glad you like the icons, your early comments in the Addon thread helped spur me on to actually do them. Thanks!

Aloha,
Mike

PS. I don't know if you noticed, but I added the online and offline videos icons per your feature request. Now we just have to apply a little pressure to Dirk to add the functionality to SageMC.

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

I'm not quite sure what's going there, but I have a few suspicions. First, looking at mlbdude's original screenshots, it looks like the status icons have always been displayed larger (taking up nearly the full vertical height of the EPG cell). It looks like the original icons were all 30x30 _except_ for the firstrun icon. I think it was 20x20 (I have to verify that)

Yeah, my firstrun icon is 22x22. They are actually all part of the same panel, but the firstrun widget has been set to a smaller size (intentionally, I didnt want to take up too much screen estate). But now, with all the great new icons available, we have to talk about this again - which icons to show simultaneously, which size, etc, I will follow up on this later ...

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

PS. I don't know if you noticed, but I added the online and offline videos icons per your feature request. Now we just have to apply a little pressure to Dirk to add the functionality to SageMC.

Nah, no pressure needed I just have to get into the offline stuff, I never used it before...

Dirk

[geogecko]

Sounds good. I think you may have lost me in all of that, but I think I generally understand. It's kind of neat how they overlap each other a little, and are not right on top of each other, but then other times, they are so small, you almost can't tell what they are. I haven't tried the smaller icon set yet, wonder if that would help or hinder?

I've found that complements go a longer way that criticisium (sp?). Sounds like it will get worked out in the end, but for now, I am enjoying them!

Yep, noticed the offline and online icons in the screenshot. Very nice idea for them!

[kricker]

I took a bit of time and played around with Studio a bit, trying to fix the strange icon sizing issues. I think I got something that works for now, at least until flachbar has a chance to address it. I ended up tucking all the guide icons up in the right corner of each show. Then I went thru and cleaned up the icon sizing in the recorded tv lists. It was a little tricky. The icons and panels are referenced from one screen to another quite a bit, so if you change something for one screen it changed it on another. I think I got it worked out for the most part. Here is my .xml file if anyone is interested. FYI I edited my .xml file that had webradio and movietimes already imported into it. Use the file at your own peril, 'cause I am just starting to play around with Studio.

[MeInMaui]

Just so I don't get too complacent here, I think it's time to start the next project on my ToDo list...color-coded backgrounds for the Guide.

The screenshot below is the result of playing with the graphics for about 5 minutes. It isn't much yet, but I wanted to see if this is even the look everyone (anyone?) is interested in. (Please ignore the color, I chose it at random) Once the look is worked out, then I'll generate the colored variations for each of the important categories. This begs the question...What are the important categories? Also is anyone aware of a standardized color coding scheme that is used? I haven't had a chance to start searching yet. Thanks.

Aloha,
Mike

[geogecko]

Nice work on the guide, Mike. I think it's needed color like that for a while!

Can't wait to see what's next on your "To Do" list!

Maybe, perhaps, a Sage or some type of icon to use instead of the Media Portal icon when using the MP themes, on the Main Menu? I just deleted the hp_start.png (renamed, actually), so that it would go away, but now it looks kind of empty without it.

[kricker]

Mike,
The icons are looking good, but after my experiments last night, I think I would need some versions with less trancparency. Any Icon that does not have white in it is impossible to read, and they are so transparent they all kinda start looking grey on the blue two background.

[MeInMaui]

jds23,

Thanks for the comments! I will update the endcaps too. I just messed around with the one graphic element to get a proof of concept. I plan to make all of the graphics in the guide seemless in the new style.

geogecko,

Consider the MP icon added to the list. I will probably also have a look at the other main menu icons at some point as well.

kricker,

Not a problem. I was kinda thinking about including 3 versions of the icons in the set: 35% opacity, 50% opacity, and 100% opacity. The current set is at 35%. That way everyone would have some degree of flexibility for their own setup. Would that do the trick?

Aloha,
Mike

[geogecko]

Mike. Thanks for adding that to the list. And, wow, how accomodating (sp?) on the opacity! Can't beat that.

If you plan on going further with the main menu icons, why not just come up with your own theme addition to SageMC? I think it would be pretty easy to find all of the image references within SageMC, and that would give you a list of what you would need for your theme...

Although that would probably be a lot of work, to change every little detail...not sure. Worth a thought though.

[MeInMaui]

geogecko,

Yeah, I am toying with the idea of a complete theme. (But I think the orbital skin will have to go on hold for a while. That is definitely more work than just a theme) It's just a matter of the time involved. We're expecting the twins to be born within the next 3 weeks at the most, so I'm trying to get as much done as possible before that. My output will probably slow down a bit after they arrive. The nice thing is that I'm getting quite a bit faster at doing things in Photoshop. The quickie guide graphic that took me 5 minutes last night would have taken hours just a couple weeks ago. I'm having too much fun with this stuff.

Aloha,
Mike