question for flash developers about the UCI

[number5toad]

couldn't think of a more specific way to label this thread that would fit in the title line, so apologies for it being a bit vague.

my main gripe about my S9 right now is the lack of a cohesive appearance, due to the various UIs I'm using (Cube modern for music, Asurada for movies, bouncing between Claw and Aero Ultimate for the main menu)...I love that the S9 allows you such a range of customization, but I still wish there was an all-in-one system that was prettier and a bit flashier than the stock UCI yet maintained the same visual aesthetic on all screens.

so my question is, can such a UCI even be created? is it possible to build one that doesn't load a separate swf when you select music or movies, but rather opens the same options, as well as the album art or the video itself, right in the main menu screen?

[Claw]

Of course it can ... but memory requirements may be an issue. We don't really know - at least not yet - how much memory we can safely use in an SWF.

[Insta]

Claw, it seems to be fine. I have music, video, and a browser (still working on pic and radio) running from my mainmenu, and it actually seems to be much faster (in terms of navigation) than swf based UIs. Also, I can use "page transitions" and its a bit easier to manage everything and troubleshoot imo. Just have to remember to "garbage collect" when unloading each portion to load another one.

[knoia]

i would guess the main reason cowon set it up the way they did was more for code modularity and less for performance reasons. the thinking being that people could work on only the portion of the uci that they wanted to without being overwhelmed by the entire code set. this works fairly well with the exception, that yes, it does lead to mostly incomplete themes.

[number5toad]

thanks for the answers guys.

Claw, do you mean the size of the swf, or the amount of RAM it uses to run? do you have any idea how far the limit has already been pushed, or what the average memory use is for an swf?

Insta, am I understanding this right - you've already worked this idea into Swipe? so you swipe to the music screen, for example, and without loading a separate swf you're seeing album art, playback controls, EQ options, etc? if so..... [excited]

knoia, that's what I think too, and the freedom to work on just one part has resulted in some awesome ideas already, but the perfectionist jerk in me is dying for a visually unified theme other than Cowon's stock UCI. I went out of my way and spent hours fooling with both Claw and dnw's UCIs, to make sure all the icons were replaced with awesome custom icons and to make sure they progressed from screen to screen either in the same places or in geometrically ideal patterns - but then I go to watch a movie and my painstaking work goes out the window!

[Insta]

number5toad, yup. [laugh]
I was actually thinking the same thing as you when I began development and decided to add it after i had finished the actual main menu...which was like a month ago lol so it SHOULD have been out by now but i just HAD to try out the whole one-swf idea lol

[lane32x]

so, Insta...you are trying to do all features under one UCI? I pondered this a while back...scared since Aero has speed issues when you load too many widgets at once...but bring it on. let's try it out!

[Insta]

Well for the initial release, not all of them. Just the media related stuff like music, video, radio , pictures, and the browser for now. If everything keeps on schedule i should have it out on sat/ sun :)

[number5toad]

Insta, you are my new favorite person

to hell with your education, finish Swipe!! ;)