creating scalable skins

[pateruck]

I would like to design a skin that looks good in both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. Specifially, I would like to use 1024x768 and 960x540. My reason for wanting this is that I have a 16:9 projector connected to the HTPC, and also multiple 4:3 televisions. I would like to be able to use one skin for everything.

So, is this even feasible? Any advice on what scales good and what does not? Is anyone else interested in a skin like this?

[BaddaBing]

The easiest way to address multiple displays in XL is to run clients with a resolution dedicated skin. Check out this thread for more details:
http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2390
The most common problem in running a skin at multiple resolutions is that the font sizing gets hosed when the image is scaled.

[pateruck]

Thank you for the link to that thread. So if I understand correctly, I would make a single skin, but some of the screens in the skin would be designed for 16:9 and others would be designed for 4:3. Then using this client/server functionality (which I have questions about), the projector would get the 16:9 screens, while my TVs would get the 4:3 screens. Is this correct? If so, then how do I cause certain displays to get certain screens? Do the clients need to be running on seperate PCs from the server?

[BaddaBing]

Correct, each device would connect to its own PC. One machine running XL in server mode, the others running the client. There is a server.txt file that is read by the client which tells it which skin to load. Here is some additional info on setting up a client and configuring the server.txt file
http://www.xlobby.com/Documentation/ClientServer

[pateruck]

I need for this to work on a single PC. Here is a diagram of how my HTPC connects to the projector and televisions:
http://64.122.22.4/Home%20AV%20Map.pdf

You can see that the VGA output goes to the projector and the S-VIDEO output (which is in clone mode) goes to the televisions. I switch resolution between 960x540 and 1024x768 depending on whether I am watching a television or the projector. I do not ever expect to use both at once. But I need xlobby to look right on all devices. I know I could use two different skins, and somehow switch between them. I liked the idea of a single skin with some screens designed for each aspect ratio, but if this requires 2 PCs then it won't work for me. Is there a better way to acomplish my goal?

[ukbubs]

Just a thought, but......... you could try running two instances of xlobby on the one machine, with one as server and one as client?

The 'two instances' bit would be ok, but I'm not so sure about the IPconfig for the client/server relationship - can somebody else chip in here?

[pateruck]

I tried that. At first I put 127.0.0.1:radio into the servers.txt file and then I tried 192.168.1.11 (my IP) and neither worked. The xlobbysd.exe process would die just a second after starting. I assume this means that you can't do it, but I hope I'm wrong.

[Cooch]

The servers.txt file format has changed

Check out:

http://www.xlobby.com/Documentation/ClientServer

[pateruck]

Thats why it wouldn't work. I tried the new format:
server:192.168.1.11
screen:radio

and the client started up on the radio page. But now, after thinking about it more, I don't think this is the proper solution for me. There is really no reason to run 2 instances of xlobby at once on the same PC, using the same video output. Since I don't ever intend to use two display outputs at once, I just need a way to switch between 16:9 screens and 4:3 screens. I could still keep all of the screens in a single skin, but is there a way to switch resolutions on the fly? I looked through the list of events available and don't see anything that would do it. I could use a batch file that replaced the xlobby.xml with one that had the resolution I wanted to switch to, but I'd need some way of restarting xlobby. Any ideas?

[kjheu]

Do you use different remote controls in each location? Using the remote for the projector, you could program a button to display the widescreen version of the main menu. The buttons on this screen would point to only widescreen screens. Then a button on the remote from a TV would goto the 4x3 main screen, which points only to other 4x3 screens.

[BaddaBing]

kjheu
That won't work with with a single PC running Xlobby. Xlobby is given a resolution when it starts - even if you create a 640x480 sized skin - if Xlobby or the client starts at a high resolution (widescreen for example) it will simply stretch lower resolution skins to fit.