Work in Progress: x10's GM-LAN OEM Skin

x10 · 12-12-2001, 12:47 AM

Ok so I know that the Car PC isn't supposed to look like OEM..because it isn't. But I thought it would be cool if I could do a mock up of how the navigation system looks in the new GM vehicles. I have a new GMC Sierra and figured this would look pretty sweet in it. You can bash my skin if you want although I'd rather receive suggestions of how to make it better. Either way, I'm probably only like 20% done. This skin is loosely back boned by DFX3. I used a lot of John's ideas for this skin. One idea he has that I love is the buttons being dynamic. I plan on using this concept to make the ability to make predefined XM/Sirius Preset buttons. The main reason for this skin is because I want to have the ability to control almost everything from one screen without looking cluttered. I just started this but as of now here's the progress:

Menu (with 5 Preset Sub Menus) = 100%
Audio Player Menus = 99.9%
Mixer = 50%
Sirius/XM Player = 25%
Video Player = 0%
Video Browser = 0%
GPS = 10%
Photo Viewer = 0%
Web Browser = 0%
Calendar = 0%
Calculator = 0%
Weather = 0%
Misc = 0%

Now for the screen shots:

First off, this is the motivation:

Here's the main menu. The buttons on the left and right are the same for every screen. The top screen is always there as well. The only items that change are in the main center screen. The buttons on the top and bottom of the screen are used as menus for each screen. The left knob is broken into a top and bottom for up and down volume. The power symbol above that brings up the exit menu (shown 2 screens down). The right knob brings up the mixer and the music symbol above it brings up the visualization.

Since my main use for the CarPC is Sirius, I added preset buttons to the main screen so that it was faster to get Sirius up and running.

If the Music button on the left is pressed, it takes you to the main Music screen, shown here:

The buttons/tabs on the bottom go to the corresponding screen:

As of now I am heavily working on the Sirius radio section of the skin.

Leave any questions and comments!

Thanks for looking!

tundra2000 · 05-16-2008, 10:47 AM

nice, but some of those fonts are really small. these touchscreens are really small too and thats gonna be terribly hard to read.

also, i like the solid colored select bar in your ilist better than the gradient one. more OEM ish.

overall, great start to a skin, maybe make some fonts bigger and if you really wanna earn some points, make that blue background changeable by making this all in PNGs. keep it up! youve done a very good job reproducing an already elegant look

tundra2000 · 05-16-2008, 10:48 AM

also, just curious, what does the menu button do?

x10 · 05-16-2008, 10:53 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by tundra2000

also, just curious, what does the menu button do?

The Menu button should probably be relabeled. It is basically a back button. It will take you to the previous screen. And yeah, I'm worried about the fonts being too small as well...I have a 10.4" screen so I probably wont mind as much as a guy with a 7"...thanks for the comments

WarningSLO · 05-16-2008, 12:04 PM

I like it, but the side bars and top bar do take up a lot of real estate, leaving minimal window room for playlists and navigation screen area.

tundra2000 · 05-16-2008, 12:09 PM

yea even at 10.4", you will probably still struggle to read that while driving. if possible, make it so your lists just show song titles. then you can make your font bigger without making it look silly. you know what i mean/

monkeyracer · 05-16-2008, 12:27 PM

Also, your albumart in the first few screens is squished, and therefore unnecessary. Plus having the song details on the top part and in the screen below is redundant, I'd use that space to make the ilist bigger.

Other than that, you've got something really nice going here.

x10 · 05-16-2008, 12:46 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by WarningSLO

I like it, but the side bars and top bar do take up a lot of real estate, leaving minimal window room for playlists and navigation screen area.

Very true. I was thinking this the whole time but I was so strict in making this look like the OEM...probably my first problem. I may ax the side buttons and knobs all together and integrate them into the main screen.

Quote: Originally Posted by tundra2000

yea even at 10.4", you will probably still struggle to read that while driving. if possible, make it so your lists just show song titles. then you can make your font bigger without making it look silly. you know what i mean/

Yeah. I think I am going to eliminate the side buttons...the more I think about it....it does take up alot of the screen and they have minimal use once they are clicked...how often would I be switching between Video playing and Sirius....probably not enough to warrant taking up 25% of the screen real estate...I'm going to rework my screens...

Quote: Originally Posted by monkeyracer

Also, your albumart in the first few screens is squished, and therefore unnecessary. Plus having the song details on the top part and in the screen below is redundant, I'd use that space to make the ilist bigger.
Other than that, you've got something really nice going here.

The problem I have is that the normal Album art is basically a square 1:1 ratio....and the Sirius and XM art are rectangles almost 3:1 ratios...they both use the same code so it is hard to have both look good....I guess thats why no one has done it like this before...lol...I think I'm juts going to have to eliminate them from the main menu as much as I hate to...
And yeah you're right about the redundancy....I'll need to rework this some more...

Thank you all for the comments....I love this board...speaking of boards....I guess its back to the drawing boards for me....lol...(I know very lame) hhehe

ThunderStick · 05-18-2008, 04:32 PM

There is only one thing I do not care for in this skin. The mixed music and GPS screen. IG is way to squished to consider it usefull.
Other than that. THis is one sharp looking skin so far.

x10 · 06-02-2008, 07:00 PM

ok I went back and reworked the skin...i think it looks and feels and lot cleaner than the first version.

I move some things around...made the main screen bigger, cleaned up the UI, added the ability to hold down on one of the bottom Sirius buttons to select a different Sirius channel for the preset (it seemed a lot easier at first than it turned out to be)...I also made the audio GPS a little bigger and more useful...
So here are some new screenies...pretty much same screens as above, just updated...
Let me know what you guys think....I love constructive criticism....your posts help me out a lot...

monkeyracer · 06-02-2008, 07:20 PM

looks a lot less cramped. I like the direction you are going in.

millsy · 06-02-2008, 11:20 PM

I think the skin looks great,personally i would prefer the first ones, would it be possible to get the dual nav/music screen with destinator,i reckon it is a great idea for when you just want to get an idea where you are going, when you want to do full turn by turn nav. just go full screen.Im not sure bout a GMC but my "ford" lights up green at night ,it would be great to have green labels for a night skin. Defo keep if going

x10 · 06-04-2008, 09:48 AM

Updated the screens again...
I added a glass effect for the top screen as well as the ability to change the background of the main screen.

EL CAMINO · 06-05-2008, 12:17 PM

loving the way this skin is looking, sometime back i tried to do something similar but without the radio look, i was not to sure on using that but, your work looks really nice this way. i'm watching this threat very closely...

x10 · 06-05-2008, 03:29 PM

more screens done...
Network (Pressing on Connect uses Rasdial to connect to my bt phone and dial out...disconnect uses rasdial to disconnect)

And Utilities