Roku Developer Program

[harvestonline]

Hello,

I have searched the forums, the documentation, design guides, and the web and have been unable to find what the proper size is for the new Roku home channel screen. The size that the previous Rokus used was 336x210 but that same exact image is being squished when it gets installed using the sideloader on the new one. I tried looking to the example projects on the site but those are also being squished. Even the Photoshop file is still referencing the old interface. An e-mail was sent out to use that we needed to update our art but the new sizes were not included. The size that I found on some john doe blog of 290x218 seems to work for the new size. So I have several questions:

Where can I find the correct sizes listed on the developer site?
How is this change backwards compatible with older Rokus?

[gonzotek]

See here: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=55502&start=0

[harvestonline]

So I just have to hope and pray the icon will look good unsquished? Especially since no PSD template is available?

[gonzotek]

"harvestonline" wrote:
So I just have to hope and pray the icon will look good unsquished? Especially since no PSD template is available?

No. I believe you could create a dummy channel just for testing the artwork, package it, upload it as a private channel via the developer website, and then install it via the private channel code to see what it would actually come out looking like. But you need to understand that there are two sets of icons now - the SD/HD icons inside the package/zip are used for the old(<5.0) interface home screen, and the SD/HD icons uploaded through the form on the developer website when channels are submitted are used by the channel store on both interfaces, AND by the new interface "My Channels" area. So in the new interface, the packaged icons aren't used now, only the icons provided on the website( AFAIK ). But if you want to support the oldest Rokus(1st generation), that won't be getting the updated interface, you have to provide them.

[harvestonline]

That seems like a ton of work just to test a graphic. Why is none of this listed on the developer site?

[gonzotek]

"harvestonline" wrote:
That seems like a ton of work just to test a graphic. Why is none of this listed on the developer site?

The documentation generally lags behind releases. Roku's growing fast, but its development team is still rather small. Personally though, I'm hoping that 5.0 docs go up soon, if not before the interface rolls to R2 models, then within a few weeks after.

[TheEndless]

"gonzotek" wrote:

"harvestonline" wrote:
So I just have to hope and pray the icon will look good unsquished? Especially since no PSD template is available?

No. I believe you could create a dummy channel just for testing the artwork, package it, upload it as a private channel via the developer website, and then install it via the private channel code to see what it would actually come out looking like. But you need to understand that there are two sets of icons now - the SD/HD icons inside the package/zip are used for the old(<5.0) interface home screen, and the SD/HD icons uploaded through the form on the developer website when channels are submitted are used by the channel store on both interfaces, AND by the new interface "My Channels" area. So in the new interface, the packaged icons aren't used now, only the icons provided on the website( AFAIK ). But if you want to support the oldest Rokus(1st generation), that won't be getting the updated interface, you have to provide them.

No need to go so far as to create a dummy channel. Just temporarily point the manifest at your channel store icon to test it.

[gonzotek]

"TheEndless" wrote:

"gonzotek" wrote:

"harvestonline" wrote:
So I just have to hope and pray the icon will look good unsquished? Especially since no PSD template is available?

No. I believe you could create a dummy channel just for testing the artwork, package it, upload it as a private channel via the developer website, and then install it via the private channel code to see what it would actually come out looking like. But you need to understand that there are two sets of icons now - the SD/HD icons inside the package/zip are used for the old(<5.0) interface home screen, and the SD/HD icons uploaded through the form on the developer website when channels are submitted are used by the channel store on both interfaces, AND by the new interface "My Channels" area. So in the new interface, the packaged icons aren't used now, only the icons provided on the website( AFAIK ). But if you want to support the oldest Rokus(1st generation), that won't be getting the updated interface, you have to provide them.

No need to go so far as to create a dummy channel. Just temporarily point the manifest at your channel store icon to test it.

Palmface. :oops: :mrgreen:

[RokuJoel]

"gonzotek" wrote:
The documentation generally lags behind releases. Roku's growing fast, but its development team is still rather small. Personally though, I'm hoping that 5.0 docs go up soon, if not before the interface rolls to R2 models, then within a few weeks after.

There is not yet a Brightscript interface for the new GUI components, so there isn't a new SDK for 5.x. All existing Brightscript components that work on 4.9 should work on 5.0.

The current SDK docs do include a new component (for 4.9 and higher firmware), roTextureManager to help manage graphics caching for the 2D APIs.

We are now treating the online http://sdkdocs.roku.com as a living document, bits of it are being revised and updated every day.

- Joel

[TheEndless]

"RokuJoel" wrote:
We are now treating the online http://sdkdocs.roku.com as a living document, bits of it are being revised and updated every day.

And the dashboard view (http://sdkdocs.roku.com/dashboard.action) is a great way to track what's changed.