Win2X : Alternative Frontend


any1 wants to make some pix of it how it looks? some comparison with the default menu would be nice, too. how're the loading times?
 
Will this only work with a stylus?
Why not map the Menu button to some WIZ button (similar like the Windows key).

I mostly play games which don't need the touchscreen, would be silly to put it out just to load them :)
 
chp said:
Anyway I have tried to solve this issue, here is the link:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZBTM07M3

Could you try it and give me some feedback?(For safety reasons, I made the MENU button run the original menu - in case you run "install.gpe")
Thank you for your time and I really apreciate your suggestions.I will make use of the D-PAD aswell...

Touchscreen still doesn't work for me and the Menu button loads a black screen then freezes. Oh and I guess I should mention I'm still running the original FW 1.0.0 not sure if that should make a difference but thats the first thing people ask is if you have latest firmware, I do not.
 
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MiOdd said:
chp said:
Anyway I have tried to solve this issue, here is the link:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZBTM07M3

Could you try it and give me some feedback?(For safety reasons, I made the MENU button run the original menu - in case you run "install.gpe")
Thank you for your time and I really apreciate your suggestions.I will make use of the D-PAD aswell...

Touchscreen still doesn't work for me and the Menu button loads a black screen then freezes. Oh and I guess I should mention I'm still running the original FW 1.0.0 not sure if that should make a difference but thats the first thing people ask is if you have latest firmware, I do not.
Well,I use FW 1.1.0...so this would be the case...and the black screen may be due to some files corruption.Finally I have added keyboard
support for almost everything(except the desktop and the properties window)but this should give you a very good idea of the system(If it works this time). http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4KPJQLSM
I really thank you for your patience and your time...
 
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This is superb, I love it. Please keep up your good work. Is there anyway you could add functions like copy/paste and delete to the explorer? That would be a great asset. Also, did I miss something, is there a way to put icons on the desktop? Finally, will you integratee some support to associate movie files and jpg's to their relevant players (and emulator roms associated to their emulators perhaps)?

Anyway - that's all for the future - thanks again for this superb piece of work.
 
TitanUranus said:
This is superb, I love it. Please keep up your good work. Is there anyway you could add functions like copy/paste and delete to the explorer? That would be a great asset. Also, did I miss something, is there a way to put icons on the desktop? Finally, will you integratee some support to associate movie files and jpg's to their relevant players (and emulator roms associated to their emulators perhaps)?

Anyway - that's all for the future - thanks again for this superb piece of work.
First of all:Thank you for your good words!(I really needed that).As this is a pre-pre-release version(only a week old) be assured that I will
keep improving it as much as I can.About the explorer and the emulators-yes it can be done quite easily(as long as the respective emulator supports
command-line arguments).As of the multimedia support...I'll have it in mind too..
Did the TS work for you??
To add icons to the desktop:Open a window(e.g Games),create a link,select it,click on the properties icon and select 'Send to Desktop'.But this will work only with touchscreen(for now).Until tomorrow I will give it full keyboard support aswell.
 
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Touch screen was working fine for me - I haven't put the latest version on yet, but one thing which is quite urgent - include a screen saver/screen off option - I'm copying some stuff over from the PC right now, and I already have the old "USB connected" screenburn problem, so this might make things worse unless implemented soon. Again, I really like this and if I can help test anything out for you let me know.

EDIT: Just a tiny idea that popped into my head while copying, the wiz surely has power to multitask a little, perhaps a game of tetris/freecell/minesweeper could be implemented to wile away those 10 minutes while my files are copying over....
 
TitanUranus said:
Touch screen was working fine for me - I haven't put the latest version on yet, but one thing which is quite urgent - include a screen saver/screen off option - I'm copying some stuff over from the PC right now, and I already have the old "USB connected" screenburn problem, so this might make things worse unless implemented soon. Again, I really like this and if I can help test anything out for you let me know.

EDIT: Just a tiny idea that popped into my head while copying, the wiz surely has power to multitask a little, perhaps a game of tetris/freecell/minesweeper could be implemented to wile away those 10 minutes while my files are copying over....
OK Titan,I will get to it right tomorrow..(it is almost morning here in Greece).Thank you very much for your feedback!I really appreciate it.
One last question:What FW do you use?I need to know,just for figuring out the TS problems the other users had.
 
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Just tried the newest version and it looks very nice. My touchscreen still doesn't work which I expected, so I'm guessing you have to open a window and click the + sign to create icons and such?

I like the sleek simple design, it's nice and easy to navigate the USB connections and explorer works nicely for me. The link to the Gp2x Menu still gives me a black screen but I'm guessing thats my firmware again (I'll update it one of these days ;) ) thats all I can really test at the moment as I can't create icons but so far I think this looks great, kudos.

As for suggestions I totally agree with Titan that some sort of screen saver should be a must for the final version and as much customization as you can is also appreciated, for example I see you have preset categories in the start menu, will we be able to rename these? add or delete them as we see fit? Things like that. I'm really excited to see how this progresses. Again, keep up the great work.
 
I have the latest firmware, though I have been thinking of downgrading to see if it'll boot faster - seems to take ages with this one. Hmm - it's 4.15am here, think I ought to get some sleep myself.
 
MiOdd said:
Just tried the newest version and it looks very nice. My touchscreen still doesn't work which I expected, so I'm guessing you have to open a window and click the + sign to create icons and such?

I like the sleek simple design, it's nice and easy to navigate the USB connections and explorer works nicely for me. The link to the Gp2x Menu still gives me a black screen but I'm guessing thats my firmware again (I'll update it one of these days ;) ) thats all I can really test at the moment as I can't create icons but so far I think this looks great, kudos.

As for suggestions I totally agree with Titan that some sort of screen saver should be a must for the final version and as much customization as you can is also appreciated, for example I see you have preset categories in the start menu, will we be able to rename these? add or delete them as we see fit? Things like that. I'm really excited to see how this progresses. Again, keep up the great work.
The Gp2xMenu link works only in case you have installed Win2X as the primary OS!That's why it gives you black screen...
You can add icons to the windows by pressing R which pops up the explorer window...And as far as I can tell the TS problem is because of the FW.
I suspect that Version 1.0.0 did not support SDL Mouse events(wich the WIZ translates as TS events).About the preset categories,I'll see to it and as of icons customization:it currently support any add/delete/rename and send to desktop aswell.Thank you very much of your time and your suggestions.
 
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TitanUranus said:
I have the latest firmware, though I have been thinking of downgrading to see if it'll boot faster - seems to take ages with this one. Hmm - it's 4.15am here, think I ought to get some sleep myself.
Downgrading will give you faster boot time,indeed.But it will give you some other problems aswell(e.g unstable NAND,multimedia bugs..not to mention the faulty TS-which is very handy since FW1.1).
 
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Excuse me for these questions:

Can I try Win2X without installing it ?

And if I only launch the gpe file, have I any risks having to reflash original FW or not ? 
 
Mr 2X said:
Excuse me for these questions:

Can I try Win2X without installing it ?

And if I only launch the gpe file, have I any risks having to reflash original FW or not ? 
Yes you can try it without installing it(just run "Win2X.gpe") and no there is no risk reflashing the FW since the keyboard support I added.
Even if you install it by mistake(run "install.gpe",you can still uninstall it through "uninstall.gpe".
 
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I'm really impressed with this! I'm fed up with the default launcher (and don't use gmenu for the same reasons as the rest of you), and this is just what the Wiz needs.
Still playing around making shortcuts and such so I've not installed it yet, but it's likely that I will especially if it gets more attention. A few points:

  • It would be nice to be able to navigate the desktop icons and launch them without using the touchscreen.
  • Confirm on delete (trash can icon) would be kinder!
  • Ability to change icons.
  • Scale huge images as icons - currently if a .png of the same name as the .gpe is found it will use as an icon but even a huge image will attempt to be displayed thus spewing pixels off the screen.
Apologies for the list, I'm a developer myself and used to designing user interfaces, if you want any more suggestions I'm sure I can find more ideas. Another suggestion would be to have an option to scan the filesystem for executeables and icons and auto create shortcuts (much like Alex's incredibly useful INIMaker), or possibly import any existing .ini files, and then have an option to re-assign shortcuts to different menus.

If you need any help testing I will be happy to help (as time allows), I'm keen to see this project succeed. Thanks for your efforts.
 
Thank you frolik!I'm happy you liked it.I'm fed up with the default launcher aswell.I created Win2X for myself in the first place(that's why the bugs and defections),but I'll be glad if I can contribute to the WIZ community with it.I am already working on it:added full keyboard support, brightness control,screen saver function etc...Your suggestions are very neat and some of them were in my mind too...I'll get to it...
 
Will you be uploading your latest version with these enhancements soon? I hope so, I really need that screensaver! Sounds like you are getting things done pretty fast, please keep up the good work and provide us with updates.

I'm just curious, how much faster is the old firmware to boot up? Sounds like it had plenty of problems, but I'm sure they could have been fixed without slowing the boot-up time. I'm pleased to see so many of the issues being fixed with emulators (especially tearing and screen scaling) and with people like yourself developing alternatives to the crappy GPH interface the future of the Wiz is starting to look a lot healthier!
 
chickendung said:
When I try to run an application I get a black screen, and when I try to run original frontend I get a black screen. When did you get you Wiz, chp? Maybe you got one with a later firmware that GPH secretly created for new devices... :huh:
The original frontend will run ONLY if you have previously run "install.gpe",otherwise it'll give you black screen...As of the applications I can't think of sth right now...Have you downloaded the latest version(with the keyboard support)?I got my WIZ about a month ago...but it's irrelevant because I have flashed the FW 1.1 from GPH's official site.Maybe is due to the FW version itself(you have 1.0.0 if I'm right?).
 
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