Hacking Coverflow7 USB Loader

[matriculated]

Maybe the loader could be archived with a sample cover in the right folder so people know where to put them.

 

[AppleBelly]

would that require 3 images for each game. faded perspective, and the other two?

or possibly 5 images per game.

3 images for each game + 3 flipped images with the shade effect (so 6 images in total per game)

QUOTE(akex @ Apr 23 2009, 12:45 PM) @PNo4 : for reflection, did you look at opencv library ?

No. the only thing tested and fail so far was freeimage library in trying to use 1 single picture size, and resizing it in code, it fail BIGTIME because every function of the Loader broke because of it.

The idea was abandoned, and eventually people went on to the LibGUI versions of loaders.

Freeimage wasn't a failure, so actually that point wasn't valid. When i initially wrote the code for that bit i was debating how best to do it, wether to resize with freeimage, or get djtaz to have a smaller version. It actually worked perfect.

Reflection of image isn't possible using the current libs. I started messing around with libwiigui and actually got reflections working a bit. However i got a bed fed up with a certain persons attutide here and haven't continued the code. Problem is it was near enough a major rewrite of the gui side of the usb loader (as per the other ones) and it can't be done without totally forgotting the current version and starting from fresh.

 

[Gamii]

Nice effect. What do you think about merging it into GUI Loader?

Thanks a lot for your effort, I always liked this stuff since A showed it in their stuff and later N in their "official loader".

 

[lexlth]

I just tested it, and I liked a lot. Didn't test the options, but the loader and the cover downloads worked as a charm...

I would sugest somebody with good touch with graphics to develop a better background, it is good, but it may be better...

I saw once a video with a loader like this (or it was just an animation) that the covers rotates when we change them, with an animation like an iphone... It would be cool to implement something like this !

Thankyou for the good work !!!

-- UPDATE:
These are the videos... is it possible to implement something like this ?

Video 1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z73azC6nDSU

Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bvtKbePX4E

 

[Don Killah]

AB, when dealing with the freeimage lib, it introduced some severe bugs.
the nastiest one was that it corrupted almost every game you're installing to the usb device so everyone removed it.
plus it made the boot.dol size's increase upto 300%... from a small 474Kb upto almost 3Mb.

but yep, you're right, the wii doesn't have a dedicated gfx chipset, so all the gfx maths have to be done by the main cpu... which obviously slow down the process.
dealing with the libwiigui is another solution, i think that we can do awesome things with it, but some users don't like its lack of eye-candy aspect.

 

[Gamii]

Don Killah and Cdreams, are you considering becoming members of the GUI Loader Team? That could be very nice, more forces to the same project.

I appreciate all work on homebrew, just it could be nice to see a big project with tons of members on it, doing things a lot better than in an individual way.
This is just a suggestion from a poor clueless non-coder (starting to learn C soon), so sorry if I said something that makes no sense or not understood something.

 

[akex]

AB, when dealing with the freeimage lib, it introduced some severe bugs.
the nastiest one was that it corrupted almost every game you're installing to the usb device so everyone removed it.
plus it made the boot.dol size's increase upto 300%... from a small 474Kb upto almost 3Mb.

but yep, you're right, the wii doesn't have a dedicated gfx chipset, so all the gfx maths have to be done by the main cpu... which obviously slow down the process.
dealing with the libwiigui is another solution, i think that we can do awesome things with it, but some users don't like its lack of eye-candy aspect.

You know, it's better for people to be able to say to their friends "look at my wii, my loader, is the greatest, the best .... ". I still really like this gui, even w/o reflection. Maybe a good way would be to have reflected covers on SD. You won't spend too much time trying to render reflections, and have more time to add some "must have" functionnalities

.

A way to have reflected covers, is using Photoshop "macro" but still long to run. Or, having some windows interface to do it

, using for example ActiveX librairy to build the reflection.

Well it's my point of view.

QUOTE(Gamii @ Apr 23 2009, 07:34 PM) Don Killah and Cdreams, are you considering becoming members of the GUI Loader Team? That could be very nice, more forces to the same project.

I appreciate all work on homebrew, just it could be nice to see a big project with tons of members on it, doing things a lot better than in an individual way.
This is just a suggestion from a poor clueless non-coder (starting to learn C soon), so sorry if I said something that makes no sense or not understood something.

Not the same purpose aimed by this both projects, no ?

 

[akex]

@DragTom70

A quick modification of your picture with unstretched covers.

 

[cdreams]

Sorry for being quiet today. I have the worst flu I have had in a long time.

AB can you please drop it with trying to make me look like an asshole, it's getting tiring. I have let it go myself and have given you credit on many occasions but every time you come on here you have to have some F**king dig. We didn't see eye to eye, lets leave it at that and move on. If your can't bring yourself to act like an adult then keep your mouth shut.

Don Killah how have you been today my good man. Lots of action through the night and today it seems. I'm fooling around with the templates and if I feel better I will get them finished off soon.

That image by akex is nice, obviously take out the reflections as they are too much hassle on the loaders and have the current backgrounds I've made with the little dots as the scroll bar. When you click on it, it would glow neon blue, easy enough, I'll just made two images, and if that could be made into a functioning bar it would be really sweet.

How is Alpha4 coming along?

 

[PNo4]

@DragTom70

A quick modification of your picture with unstretched covers.

Like the design, but not all X coordinates is dividable with 4, that will make coves not load, so some small movement will be needed of the locations.

 

[wiiman123]

.....................................................

 

[lexlth]

another doubt : does it install games from dvd ?

 

[ganons]

@DragTom70

A quick modification of your picture with unstretched covers.

looks good but top looks plain

 

[G2K]

@DragTom70

A quick modification of your picture with unstretched covers.

looks good but top looks plain

I think the things B-E-A-UTIFUL, and would buy it if it was for sale!

If you think the top is plain, maybe the game name could be placed up there, but I think simple and clean is what the design is aiming for, and text would drag that down a bit.

EDIT: I had a VERY good idea for the reflections... I haven't tested this because of the lack of a HDD, (which I'm getting tonight), but couldn't you just take the box art and create some action or batch process in Photoshop to ADD reflections TO the photos? That way it would just be an add on to the photo, and not twice the strain on the CPU! Of course, I'm probably wrong, aren't I?

 

[Bakkon]

@DragTom70

A quick modification of your picture with unstretched covers.

This looks amazing, but I don't think the slider down at the bottom is necessary. It's pretty intuitive that you just scroll left and right.

 

[G2K]

@DragTom70

A quick modification of your picture with unstretched covers.

This looks amazing, but I don't think the slider down at the bottom is necessary. It's pretty intuitive that you just scroll left and right.

I think the slider was intended as more of a progress ar, to see how far through your game list you are.

 

[pepperoni]

I think the slider was intended as more of a progress ar, to see how far through your game list you are.

Yeah, it would make for easy access if you want to get from A to Z quickly, for example. Just grab the scroll bar and move it to one end or the other.

I know that PNG files have alpha channel transparency, meaning you could have a box art image with the reflection and it'd look right on both white, black, and polkadotted backgrounds. I don't know if the png viewing method you're using supports transparency in pngs though.

 

[RobertJP]

I haven't used this yet but I am very impressed so far. I think it would be cool to be able to roll the wiimote to control scrolling. I wrote a script for glovepie a while back where you would hold b and roll the controller left or right to scroll and a would select the album in itunes coverflow.

 

[G2K]

I think the slider was intended as more of a progress ar, to see how far through your game list you are.

Yeah, it would make for easy access if you want to get from A to Z quickly, for example. Just grab the scroll bar and move it to one end or the other.

I know that PNG files have alpha channel transparency, meaning you could have a box art image with the reflection and it'd look right on both white, black, and polkadotted backgrounds. I don't know if the png viewing method you're using supports transparency in pngs though.

I just looked it up. The method the USB loader uses is pngu - which supports Alpha. Now I'm really excited to try this! If this works, and if the boxarts could be arranged the way in the mockup, and made dynamic instead of static, I'd be the happiest person ever.

 

[PNo4]

I know that PNG files have alpha channel transparency, I don't know if the png viewing method you're using supports transparency in pngs though.

alpha channel transparency gets stripped away instantly on png load.