Hacking Coverflow7 USB Loader

[atupac]

You're Right CDreams lets first let DK refine & finish this (killing me

) Loader!

Until then, i'll try surching ideas of how coding this "Cooliris WALL covers" in C/C++ (Javascript...maybe).

About the VDO (videos) of Coverflow loader, i'll make them on my flat screen and post them on Youtube ASAP!

 

[Sledge1]

stupid internets

 

[Sledge1]

delete

 

[Sledge1]

Need a delete button..

 

[Don Killah]

yep that would be better... but don't expect it to really be faster.
it's just an little optimization that i've done.

i'm also wondering if we're not gonna increase the settings' console height with 1 or 2 more lines.
don't worry i'll tell you when it has to be done, if i ever ask you for this.

i'm also planning those things, tell me what you think about cdreams. it would be nice for users to make their own "theme", to achieve this, a theme will consist of 2 pictures:
- the main background + the config one
- specific colors for the text and the console
so i'm wondering, it it wouldn't be easier for the end user to have a small tutorial on telling them how to achieve this.

We can already set the custom background in this version (alpha3),j ust edit the relevant infos in the config file.
For example to enable the black "theme", edit it this way:
background = replace_with_the_black_main_background.png

add this line (it's working but yet not dociumented in the config file, i forgot to add it... sorry):
console_color = 15,0 (the 1st value is the color of the text and the second one is the background one)

use this chart:
Dark colors: 0=black, 1=red, 2=green, 3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=purple, 6=cyan, 7=dark grey
Light colors: 8=light grey, 9=red, 10=green, 11=yellow, 12=blue, 13=purple, 14=cyan, 15=white

rename the white config.png to whatever you want, and rename the black version to to config.png.

 

[Sledge1]

damnit..

 

[Don Killah]

I noticed that my previous post wasn't that clear, so i'll explain it a little bit more.

Let's assume your black main picture is called "1dark.png", copy it into the main folder (usb-loaderAB).
Rename your white "config.png" to "config_white.png".
Copy the "2dark.png" and rename it to "config.png".
then edit your config.txt with these values:

background = 1dark.png
console_color = 15,0

*: The default black theme pictures "1dark.png" and "2dark.png" are located inthe backgrounds folder in the archive.
Both made by Cdreams.

That's it, you should have a black main menu/settings options with white font over a black console.
At least, if everything went fine ^^

@Sledge1
thanks for the gameid, i'll change one of my game's id to this one and see if i can reproduce this bug.

@atupac:
thanks for help with the video mate.

 

[MickeyBlue]

yep atupac, i think that i got it
First off, Mortal Kombat Armegedon is not working with usbloader for now (maybe in the forthcoming cIOS fix: cIOS36rev11).
And then, if you get it when scrolling your games, you're the one i'm looking for mate.
can you please answer those little question, it would help me a lot to fix this issue (i think that i did it, but i just wanna be sure of the reason that causes this bug to appear).

I answered in the order of questions to ask

3.2E
cIOS36 Rev 10
71 Games
Nothing,simply scroll games
Yes & No
Yes
It's possible ^^

No problem

but as I said above, I am wrong, it does more with mortal kombat, but when I scroll the list of games

 

[cdreams]

HMm I'm a little unsure what you mean. Would you want me to make the two main themes, say the light and dark versions we have now. But then just give instructions on what font I have used ect so they know what to choose?

Regarding changing the themes, are you able to put it as a coded option so they would Press B to go to the Options and in there they can select a theme, say again light or dark and the loader will know to choose the correct two images from that theme folder? If so then that would be perfect for changing themes. I could include a text file that has the coordinates and image sizes ect where they need to have them for the loader to load in the right places.

 

[cdreams]

LOL I was posting a reply and then saw your modified post, goddam forums.

OK here is my idea if possible.

In sd:/usb-loaderAB/ there would be three main folders: covers, small and themes. You already know what covers and small are so themes is the only new additions. In here you would hve a folder for each theme you want to have as an option when using the loader and each one would consist of the main.png and config.png.

When your using the loader and you go to the options, in the themes selection it would look into that themes folder and each theme would be shown as a name, so Ligh and Dark in this instance. Then the loader would take both the png's already names main.png and config.png and use those as the main images.

Hope that makes sense

So if I wanted to have Dark and Light themese available in the loader it would need the following:

sd:/usb-loaderAB/themes/dark/(then in here main.png and config.png)

This way it removes the need for people to fool around with config.txt and potentially cause issues with messing up directories, it would all be handled with the loader. The only thing they would need to do is download new themes to the correct folder. Obviously anyone who knows what they are doing can do it in config.txt if they want to.

and

sd:/usb-loaderAB/themes/light/(then in here main.png and config.png)

 

[Don Killah]

@MickeyBlue:
thanks mate, i'll see what i can do to fix this.

@cdreams:
i just want to share with you the idea that in a near future, it would be nice for the user to have a themed version of this loader. theming will involve pictures and editing the config.txt.
so yes, it would be nice to have a specific option in the config file for the console coords.

i think that using the option to select which theme is to be used in the settings is a nice feature, however i think that it might collide with user's theme selection, so i'll think about it.

 

[cdreams]

Don, I think I know what your getting at, maybe just a little hard to get over completely in text lol.

I could make a basic template that has for instance the placeholders for th images and everything else can be made with multiple colours or something. So the placeholders remain constant but the background colour for the whole image could be set to whatever or even set to another image so they could have their own graphics, same with text. I hope this is what your meaning.

 

[Don Killah]

yep that's almost it.
but we could also change the placeholder of the settings. screen to wherever the designer wants.
he'll just have to providr the console's new coords to mathc his/her design.

 

[cdreams]

OH also been having a little think about some stuff, maybe this is stuff to consider in the future as I think it would make the loader even more intuitive but requires probably some difficult additions to the loader.

I was looking at Bushings Bootmii image and I really like it. Especially how it has the little dots under the current selection. So I got to thinking how about under the main image it has the same, but instead of just showing the selected game, it would act as a scroll bar, so you would highlight it with the remote and press A say to drag it left and right to scroll through the games. The closer to the edge you go though the faster the scrolling becomes. This would make the loader maybe a bit easier to use for people with larger libraries.

If that could be done using the ir pointer, then it could also be used for the options page, so instead of having text saying For Options Press B, it would just have an icon that you press.

 

[cdreams]

Yeah the coordinates idea would be fine, however I need to work out how to do transparent placeholders. i think it's easy enough. I'm fairly new to Photoshop so still working my way around bits and bobs. But yeah I could make a template small and large placeholder that they can place wherever and then just match it up with the correct coordinates.

For that idea could you have this then. In the Options you have pre-sets for say Light and Dark as choose-able skins, but there is a third option as Custom and it has the correct code to take the stuff for custom backgrounds?

 

[Don Killah]

you can use a tweak in photoshop: layers.
1 - draw your settings picture without the console place holder.
2 - create a new layer and move it above the settings' layer, you'll use this one as the placeholder layer.
save this project as a .psd file (otherwise you'll loose the layers) and spread it as a template.

this way users, who wants to make their own theme will just have to replace the main layer with their own and move the place holder where they want.
They can even make their own style placeholder if they decide to hide your place holder (click on the eye, in the layers menu).

i don't have the code for the theme written yet, i was just sharing ideas.
well enough of talking, let's get back to code.
see you later mate.

 

[cdreams]

Ahh makes sense now, you have just opened up a hole world of creative fun for me lol.

I'm going to work on layers then for pieces that could be template properties and I'll let you know what I have when I have a few done so you can see what you think.

 

[pepperoni]

Getting some weird issues.

When I press B to go into config settings, and press B again to go back, everything is in grayscale, including the game that loads.

Also, still getting the abort called error, every time I scroll over to MadWorld now.

 

[Pegasos123]

hi there

is there any wad forwarder for the latest version
...i tested the forwarder in at the first page but it doesnt work

it says ...what? Ô.ô
and then the homebrew channel pops up

 

[cdreams]

The forwarder should work you have to have the boot.dol inside usbloader in your apps folder, otherwise it won't work. However I would hold off on it anyway as it seemed to play up and do some strange things with my colour when I used it last.