Just got an idea...

P3rv3rt B3ar · 03-08-2006, 03:05 PM

... how to return static 1-click enabling sidebar to centrafuse.

Skinbedding centrafuse with sidebar.

Now could u with more experienced with skinbedder please tell me if it would work. There seems to be hotkeys for apps in centra. so building sidebar and skin bedding centra on right side of it should be straighforward, right?

justintime · 03-08-2006, 05:38 PM

OK, I thought I was desperate for wanting static menu back, but YOU take the trophy! Not against the idea, but the mere thought of having CF running in this fashion starts to give that 'clunky' feeling!

P3rv3rt B3ar · 03-08-2006, 09:25 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by justintime

OK, I thought I was desperate for wanting static menu back, but YOU take the trophy! Not against the idea, but the mere thought of having CF running in this fashion starts to give that 'clunky' feeling!

had few initial tests... and i think it really could work... allthought cf doesnt bed too well... but mayby static menu on right side... im not relying epia but intel M instead so have little slack speedwise...

P3rv3rt B3ar · 03-09-2006, 02:39 PM

Got it working with external bottombar... didnt do sidebar yet... but i think theres not problems with that either... there seems to not be hotkey for nav in cf... but since im running dual frontend now using rr to do nav its not biggie.

Somebody was complaining somewhere that theres only fixed set of resolutions in 1.6, this is accurate for setup... but if u manually configure xml file, u can chooge any resolution u want.

This idea of skinbedding cf and dual frontend seems to solve so many problems which i have before:

- Since i love to play music videos while driving, before i had to use 3 clicks to skip video. 1 to get back from full screen, second to hit skip button, and third to return fullscreen... nowi can just skip with external skinbedder button and continue watching and driving.

- Again cause i like to watch music videos... swithing between videos and music use to be so ******* tedious in cf media manager... now i can just use cf to play videos and rr to play music.

- and also i have horizontal area reserved for cf which is good for videos, dvds and web and so on, but vertical area for rr which works better with navigation, mayby pdf, and related apps.

tj!2k4 · 03-09-2006, 02:46 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by P3rv3rt B3ar

continue watching and driving

Uh Uh Uh, You didn't say the magic word !

turbocad6 · 03-09-2006, 03:07 PM

bear, your setup is like mine, & i'm running rr & cf togeather, (were probably the only two here doing this), but I never played with skinbedder.... I was thinking of trying to set up buttons in rr to control cf, but I don't know if that's better or skinbedder is a better way to try & do this.... should I start playing with skinbedder too?

turbocad6 · 03-09-2006, 03:08 PM

& btw, I usually run music video's while driving too

P3rv3rt B3ar · 03-09-2006, 07:13 PM

Yes i think mayby u should... skinbedder is very neat application. Im not too familiar with it either yet, just started to play around with it when editing google earth skin.

Anyway i was stupidly thinking to make kind of central console with skinbedder to middle of frontends and place play, next and previous tracks buttons to it, and remove them from frontend skins... but then i realised there is no way to decide which fronthead send play command, that is case to for next track... cause software logic in both front ends starts playing when hitting next track. So now im thinking to make bottom part of button to control rr and upper part centrafuse... thats bit stupid solution, but atleast makes solution look nice.

P3rv3rt B3ar · 03-09-2006, 09:23 PM

Hmmm im having troubles to fire key commands from skinbedder to road runner... anybody done this?

turbocad6 · 03-09-2006, 09:43 PM

I don't get it, if the center bar top buttons control the top skin, & the bottom buttons control the bottom skin, why not just put those indevidual buttons in the bottom of the top skin & top of the bottom skin, it'll look the same & work the same without skinbedder, no?

P3rv3rt B3ar · 03-10-2006, 08:19 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by turbocad6

I don't get it, if the center bar top buttons control the top skin, & the bottom buttons control the bottom skin, why not just put those indevidual buttons in the bottom of the top skin & top of the bottom skin, it'll look the same & work the same without skinbedder, no?

yes u r right... i was just making the central console thinking it could control both apps... but it was futile...

turbocad6 · 03-10-2006, 09:10 AM

I've been playing with the dual frontends a bit more & learned a few things.....

first of all with roadrunner, when you move the main skin down to lets say <x>0, <y>481, the whole app moves down with it, any windows or dialogs it opens moves down with it as well, & the whole skin functions perfect

with centrafuse, if you do the same & move the skin down to the same point, the app runns down there, BUT the windows & dialogs that open don't follow, they will open up higher on the screen & outside of the main skin area.... this can be fixed by changes in the xml, but were talking a lot of changes

I was able to make centrafuse display let's say an iguidance window completely above the main screen, & display kinda like a dual display..... only problem with devoloping this idea further is that once you click on the main screen the gps window disapears.... I gotta try this with something that keeps focus like web, if cf can open multiple windows or dialogs there would be some real interesting skins that could be done for a vertical screen, but for now it makes sense to have rr on the bottom part of the screen & keep cf at <x>0, <y>0...

for me, centrafuse will be my main media player, roadrunner will basically do navigation,web, cameras & I can keep my security camera feed from my business there too.... the second front end is just an auxilary to facilitate dual display areas, & rr is perfect for that as it is highly configurable & easy to skin....

I did have one problem this mourning, having web displayed down low in rr, media up top w/cf.... when I click on menu in cf, the ie window in rr disapeared, I'm guessing it went behind.... when I clicked anything in the rr buttons the ie window came right back...... gotta play with this some more...

P3rv3rt B3ar · 03-10-2006, 11:08 AM

Interesting findings. Thats exactly reason i keep centra at coords (0,0) and rr below it. For me skinbedder is must, cause with it i can implement buttons which control playing of music videos in centra while its in fullscreen mode... at first i was silly and thought i could use those same buttons controlling rr... but it turned out i dont manage to get any commands delivered from skinbedder to rr... i think im not succeeding embedding it well... or mayby centra somehow eats all button presses... anyway this way i also experience problem which u described... rr going bottom of deck of screen... so i dont think ill actually try to bed rr anymore... just fire it from skinbedder and leave it to occupy its own space and use its native buttons.

I had first experiments adding sidebar to centra with skinbedder, which purpose is to replace the drop down menu... its turning out to be success... only thing which is bit depressing hotkeys seem to be have dimished since 1.5 so i think i cant fire all apps from it

turbocad6 · 03-10-2006, 11:27 AM

I gotta play with skinbedder when I get a chance.... sounds like a nice addition...

camsgs3 · 03-10-2006, 02:19 PM

good idea guys....do u mind posting some pics of your layouts