Custom OUYA Launcher

CAUTION! Not working properly since Abominable Snowman; read more here:
http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?...ll=1#post98541

As the title says, this is a launcher replacement app for the OUYA, wich was initially inspired in the one shown in the kickstarter video.

http://invadergames.com.ar/ouya/000 thumb.png http://invadergames.com.ar/ouya/001 thumb.png http://invadergames.com.ar/ouya/002 thumb.png http://invadergames.com.ar/ouya/003 thumb.png http://invadergames.com.ar/ouya/004 thumb.png

Link:
NewStoreOUYA-Default-latest.apk

Currently the launcher features:

• Ability to stay on top of default launcher, option to go back to it if needed.
• Auto self-updater.
• Auto dim/turn off.
• Customizable wallpaper (only PNG, 1.777 aspect preferred).
• Custom flower keyboard (ala Steam Daisywheel)
• Differentiation between games, apps and others (sideloaded/system).
• Download/Install/remove games.
• Full integrated store, much more organized.
• Multilanguage (English, Esperanto, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish)
• No root required.
• Social features (friends, chat, recommendations)
• Turn off console (sleep), and controllers.
• Three text themes; light, dark and mix.

Stuff that may come: brainstorm!!

• Favorites / Pinned
• Updater for installed app (currently loking fo a way to do this without root)
• Remote control/management (install apps from, say your phone or tablet or PC to the OUYA?)
• Wifi management form within the app :?

If you want to see the launcher translated to your launguage add me on G+ :)
Here is the oficial doc for the translations:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

Known issues:
- When browsing the store for too long, lots of tiles are in memory for faster caching. This causes the system to (sometimes) run out of memory and close the launcher, seen as a crash with no warning, usually followed by the execution of the last opened app or the launcher being reset.
- Solution #1: Delete all tiles from chache after leaving the store section.
- Solution #2: Reduce tiles size to the bare minimum, so less memory is used.
- ..?

Changelog:
v1.0.13 (1/11/2013)
- Added option to dim screen
- Changed ABOUT a liiittle bit *wink*
- Downloads manager added
- Games or apps with no ouya icon now use the default android icon

Older:

 

v1.0.12 (22/10/2013)
- Added Esperanto and German translations
- Added an option to filter sandbox games
- Fixed overscan blurriness, now instead of scaling objects are moved
- Made games info descriptions text scrollable
- Made all options and tiles 'flatter' so they fit better together and with custom wallpapers
- Last used time in games section now shows bigger (can be disabled)

v1.0.11 (16/10/2013)
- Added Swedish translations, fixed and updated a bit on each other
- Added temporary support for videos, until I get it *right*
- EXPERIMENTAL; rearange tiles between GAMES and APPS
- Fixed a serious bug in the search

v1.0.10 (8/10/2013)
- Re engineered the store (internally!)
- Added cursor to the keyboard (use the dpad)
- Missing icons for apps will show android default icon
- KEYSTORE CHANGED! automatic installation may fail for this reason!

v1.0.9 (1/10/2013)
- After this update, updates can now be turned off
- Added more gfx for buttons/menues/tiles
- Added how many minutes ago the user was online
- Fixed some issues with social fetures
- Recommendations can now be opened
- Removed flip animation
- Slight improovements on flower keyboard (missing chars, cursor, etc)

v1.0.8 (30/09/2013)
- Added an indicator for already-installed apps/games
- Fixed a bug with boot/start animations
- Fixed all the internal API for buttons and such
- Keyboard replaced by a Big Picture-like flower input
- Social features started:
-- Friends (add only, remove coming next)
-- Messages
-- Recommendations based on your friends games
-- Uses your OUYA account name, no login requried besides OUYA's one.

v1.0.7 (21/09/2013)
- Added auto turn off option
- Added R/L support for main menues navigation<, fixed transitions
- Redesigned buttons / settings menu
- Some translations fixed

v1.0.6: (19/09/2013)
- Animations settings added for tiles
- Chached animations now stay in video (just loads once!)
- Experimental UI enhancements
- Store completely redesigned

v1.0.5: (15/09/2013)
- 3d-like flipping tiles added
- Changed behaviour on 'reset default lancher' button
- Fixed severe crash when opening certain websites
- Fixed positive timezones bug
- Fixed when you navigated far-right, then pressed A, then O again.
- Multilanguage support (English, French and Spanish)

v1.0.4: (13/09/2013)
- Updater version display number fixed (you wont see it until 1.0.5 is up)
- Analog sticks fixed
- Installed games/apps icons now load from the apps, not OUYA servers (no more loading bars in menu!)
- Games and Apps now show sorted by last used first, then alphabetically

v1.0.3 (12/09/2013)
- Release

I hope you guys like it! and please share your experiences so I can improove this further :D

Pretty sweet! I saw your initial G+ post about this and I was super happy to see someone finally try and make a launcher that looks like the kickstarter mockup.

Do you have any specific place you want people to submit bugs to? Also, not as important, but do you plan on posting the source at some point or just keep it a self-maintained kinda thing?

Yes yes! OMG I LAHVE U FOREVAR AND EVAR :O

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kiba urufu

Do you have any specific place you want people to submit bugs to? Also, not as important, but do you plan on posting the source at some point or just keep it a self-maintained kinda thing?

---

Just send an email to contact@invadergames.net and i will take a look asap, if it gets crowdy I may make a dedicated account for bugs :)

Abot the source... It gets tricky to coolaborate with GameMaker Studio, and there are not many gamemaker devs out there willing to help in a public repo anyways.
Also, it requires some modding in the core files of GMS to get it working (all the java part), that is probably the main reason why I havent done it yet.

In a future, if there is enough interest, I may make it public :)

Cool, just shot ya an email about the bug I stumbled upon.

Ah, didn't realize you were using GMS. I ask because I've found GitHub's issue and pull request handling to be quite a great tool.
I've been wanting to implement a global 'dashboard' for ouya so you don't have to exit games to, say disconnect a controller (only real use-case at the moment given Ouya's limited features), but it requires making a whole custom launcher so that you can catch the double U button press and that's not something I feel I can do successfully with my limited free time.

It would be nice if the option was included language pt br.

Seria legal se tivesse suporte para Português do Brasil, essa foi minha tentativa de inglês compatriotas...

The is no way to intercept the home button in Android.. (The double U button), thats something the OUYA team has to implement right on the firmware, and they did say they were going to add it for pausing games at least (I remember a video from BAWB interviewing a dev, and he said it was being worked on)

Oh and I corrected the email, sorry (its .net!)

Really? So they blocked the Home Intent? I though such a thing might be only possible with a custom rom, but I was really hoping you could just use the android Home Intent to catch it ( was still iffy on how to differentiate long home from double though). I must admit, I haven't dove very far into ouya's system so most of my idea was very speculative and, well, just and idea. I feel like the single 'U' click should be good enough for pausing, but since that's the context menu that may not be an event you can subscribe to.

Haha. Alright, I forwarded the email to the correct one now.

Downloaded and tested it.
This looks great! Thank you! Keep 'em coming! :)

Just downloaded it... It's awesome! Great job! ;)

I emailed this to the given address, but I'm posting it here too, so maybe other can confirm:

A possible bug:
In the android system setting I use network provided time, 24-hour format, GMT+2 timezone. Albeit in the system setting I see the correct time, the clock in the launcher is off by 6 hours. (The date is correct.)

A GUI suggestion:
If you are in the 'main menu' (games/apps/store/sideloaded/etc) the bottom part of the screen shows you button mappings that are not currently working. Maybe they should be faded/greyed out until you make your selection.

Great launcher, love it ! Is Is possible to add subfolder on sideloaded section and choose game / application ?

Envoyé depuis mon Galaxy Nexus en utilisant Tapatalk 4

@arm206:
In regards to your bug, I'm not seeing this behavior. I have Auto date & time, with GMT-6, and 24-hour, and the launcher shows the correct time for me.

However, I switched to a GMT+ timezone, and did see the problem you described.

Edit: GMT:+0 also has this issue. Both timezones showed as 0:47AM

This looks most excellent, indeed. I will have to check this out in my spare time. Well done, InvaderGames :)

I have a few complaints, Ill list em below:
- Analog controls are damn near broken. They only respond 10% of the time
- App chugs for first 3 mins after boot
- Loads some tiles in low resolution

If I find more, I'll let you know! :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kiba urufu

@arm206:
In regards to your bug, I'm not seeing this behavior. I have Auto date & time, with GMT-6, and 24-hour, and the launcher shows the correct time for me.

However, I switched to a GMT+ timezone, and did see the problem you described.

Edit: GMT:+0 also has this issue. Both timezones showed as 0:47AM

---

Thanks for checking and follow-up!

ERRATA:
- When using a GMT+ timezone setting the clock on the desktop shows the wrong time.

Outstanding job. Could you please add the ability to eject / browse (if you have FilePwn installed) the external storage? Also an update notification / autoupdate would be nice.

.. clean & smooth .. but i have issue with analog .. will wait for next update :D ..

Thank you! The launcher looks great. I'm also having the wrong time show up for me as well (Eastern Standard Time).

Any way to include a screensaver?

Nice lots of feedback like it like it :D

Timezones; Will look into it!

Analog controls; Indeed they are a bit chunky, I might remove them altogether until I find a better solution, but I will definately look for one today!

Low-res tiles: This is to improove loading time, tiles are gathered from OUYA's servers at the resolution I ask for, and I dont want having to wait too long for them to show up, at least not on he store! I could add an option to have them load at higher resolution if you want, but it will load slower.

Screensaver: I cant include Android's default wallpaper and live wallpapers, or at least I dont know how as the game is being drawn to a GL Surface (GMS stuff), but if you want to add custom wallpapaers just put any .png in the sdcard/CustomOUYALauncher/ directory and the app will recognize them (preferraly 1920x1080 or 960x540) :)

Thanks all for the feedback! expect an update today with theese changes, and keep it coming :D

Anyone else notice their fan constantly on? When the launcher sits idle in the home screen my temp was clocked at 65C. It normally sits 50C with the default launcher..weird

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Papi

Anyone else notice their fan constantly on? When the launcher sits idle in the home screen my temp was clocked at 65C. It normally sits 50C with the default launcher..weird

---

O.o
I hope its not the launcher causing that.. If it is, I have no control over that, the OS decides weter or not is nessesar to turn the fan on (wich is never a bad thing I guess)

On a side note, I was exchanging emails with a reviewer at the OUYA team to get the launcher on the store, so far they liked it and they are looking into making a list of requirements for apps like this one (wich they havent made yet), so if it all goes well and I can keep up to the requirements, It may get into the store :D :D :D
One requirement was no root, so...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by InvaderGames

Low-res tiles: This is to improove loading time, tiles are gathered from OUYA's servers at the resolution I ask for, and I dont want having to wait too long for them to show up, at least not on he store! I could add an option to have them load at higher resolution if you want, but it will load slower.

---

You could load the low-res ones and then when all the visible titles have loaded, load the hi-res ones over them.

What about my feature request for a button to eject storage/browse with external app? Doable? It really sucks to have to go all the way into Advanced Settings to eject my stick.

Thanks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pandronic

You could load the low-res ones and then when all the visible titles have loaded, load the hi-res ones over them.
Thanks

---

Yeah I guess that would be possible as well :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pandronic

Outstanding job. Could you please add the ability to eject / browse (if you have FilePwn installed) the external storage? Also an update notification / autoupdate would be nice.

---

I use FilePwn as well, but I dont know what you mean by eject/browse.. you mean, mount storage or just open the file browser to the sdcard? :S
If you mean the second, just go into APPS and open FilePwn from there, If you meant the first, it requires root.

Autoupdate is up and running for the Launcher only, until I figure out a reliable way to check for updates for all installed games and apps right from the system, its already in the priority list.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by InvaderGames

Yeah I guess that would be possible as well :D
I use FilePwn as well, but I dont know what you mean by eject/browse.. you mean, mount storage or just open the file browser to the sdcard? :S
If you mean the second, just go into APPS and open FilePwn from there, If you meant the first, it requires root.

---

Maybe I wasn't too clear - if you plug in an USB stick, it would be helpful if the Launcher would detect that and ask you if you'd like to browse it and later when you are done with it, it would be nice to have an easy to reach button to eject the stick directly from the launcher without the need to go into Android's Advanced Settings. It's not a must have feature, just a little bit of polish to make our lives with OUYA easier.

Quote:

---

Autoupdate is up and running for the Launcher only, until I figure out a reliable way to check for updates for all installed games and apps right from the system, its already in the priority list.

---

Good to hear.

I always like to see custom launchers! Thanks for your work here. Definitely going to try this out today.

First update! :D

Quote:

---

v1.0.4: (13/09/2013)
- Updater version display number fixed (you wont see it until 1.0.5 is up)
- Analog sticks fixed
- Installed games/apps icons now load from the apps, not OUYA servers (no more loading bars in menu!)
- Games and Apps now show sorted by last used first, then alphabetically

---

If you want to have the high-res thumbnails loaded right from the apps, just clear the app data from the Android system settings :)

Edit: I noticed FilePwn does not show correctly when sorted alphabetically, this is because the display name in FilePwn is the same as the package name..

Wow! This is a great launcher alternative. You did an excellent job and love that it fits into the Ouya theme so well.

One thing though, Is it possible to add support to control the launcher with a keyboard? I have a mini keyboard I use for XBMC and I find I have to turn my Ouya Controller on to get into XBMC then use the keyboard from there on. If you could add that, then that would be great.

Thanks again

Totally rocking this on my Ouya! Can I ask some things?

- It can be possible to change the game tiles? This goes because:
- Is it posibble to add shortcuts? Many emulators have an option to add a shortcut to a specific game, and having the games right on the main screen would be just so nice!, and this leads to:
- Can new tabs be created? You know, like one that says "retro".

Excuse my english, and nice work! ;)

EDIT: Something I forgot, I think something that your launcher needs is a update icon for the tiles, since some of my games needs updating, and since the launcher just launch the game, I really don't know which app needs updating. Thanks(:

InvaderGames: Update on the bug I emailed you. It seems that it is not just an issue with ethernet as it happens on wifi too. You got the email after I re-sent it, right?

Also, one suggestion I have is to keep the main menu choices visible when scrolling down. At least for me, I find it a bit annoying to have them disappear as you go down when they're all visible from the first choice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RoinGrindwald

Wow! This is a great launcher alternative. You did an excellent job and love that it fits into the Ouya theme so well.

One thing though, Is it possible to add support to control the launcher with a keyboard? I have a mini keyboard I use for XBMC and I find I have to turn my Ouya Controller on to get into XBMC then use the keyboard from there on. If you could add that, then that would be great.

Thanks again

---

Thanks! I will look into adding support for regular keyoard inputs (shouldnt be too hard), altrough I cant guarantee it will work on USB keyboards or bluetooth (bluetooth may not work at all), 1.0.5 ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cristian Ugalde Cascante

- It can be possible to change the game tiles? This goes because:
- Is it posibble to add shortcuts? Many emulators have an option to add a shortcut to a specific game, and having the games right on the main screen would be just so nice!, and this leads to:
- Can new tabs be created? You know, like one that says "retro".

---

Shortcouts to emulated games; theese would really depend a LOT on the specific emulator/app and where do you have your games stored.. It is SO variable right now, and it needs so many configuration to be made within the launcher that it might be just a whole lot of work just to save the lazyness of actually navigating into the game and selecting your games right from there.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cristian Ugalde Cascante

EDIT: Something I forgot, I think something that your launcher needs is a update icon for the tiles, since some of my games needs updating, and since the launcher just launch the game, I really don't know which app needs updating. Thanks(:

---

Right now, as I said earlier, I have no way of detecting if a game needs to be updated. It is TOP in my priority list to figure this out as soon as possible, but once I do, games will get updated automatically, as that is the OUYA way.

This is wonderful.
I liked the design of the Kickstarter video, only to be dissapointed to find the menu quite... Horrible.
This is just amazing!
I love you. <3

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kiba urufu

InvaderGames: Update on the bug I emailed you. It seems that it is not just an issue with ethernet as it happens on wifi too. You got the email after I re-sent it, right?

Also, one suggestion I have is to keep the main menu choices visible when scrolling down. At least for me, I find it a bit annoying to have them disappear as you go down when they're all visible from the first choice.

---

Yep got the email, altrough I cant replicate it, not even on ethernet.. :( (wiped settings and all) As far as I can see, it would seems like your connection is a bit poor and doesnt load up correctly during the first load? :S not sure..

main menu; this is more a design choice, kept from the kickstarter vid idea.. I kinda got used to it and I like it.. If I get a better idea (thats both stylish and works) I can change it :)

Its a fantastic project already. You have to wonder what train derailed inside OUYA before retail launch to cause the brain damaged coloring book OUYA UI we have now. Well done. I'll be using this and keeping an eye on the progress.

You might see if you can somehow do a template system or something. We have a lot of talented graphics people here and there is a thread where we had UI mockups being posted for creative fun that were excellent ideas.

I actually like this better then default ouya. keep up the good work.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by InvaderGames

Yep got the email, altrough I cant replicate it, not even on ethernet.. :( (wiped settings and all) As far as I can see, it would seems like your connection is a bit poor and doesnt load up correctly during the first load? :S not sure..

main menu; this is more a design choice, kept from the kickstarter vid idea.. I kinda got used to it and I like it.. If I get a better idea (thats both stylish and works) I can change it :)

---

hmm, i'll have to look into in then. It's also not on just the first load, it's a consecutive thing. As long as I have a network connection I get the error. I wonder if any of my sideloaded stuff could be interfering.

Oh wow, never noticed that functionality in the video; only really remember the still. I just kinda prefer having all main menu options visible at all times, I find it helps keep track of where you are located when scrolling up and down. Speaking of scrolling up and down, what do you think about adding triggers as a way to navigate the main menu options? I thought about using it for my maybe-only-theoretical dashboard. Back to the UI, I understand wanting to keep it until you find a better solution =) Maybe, for now, leave the menu item just above the current one visible and make it translucent, to help hint that they're currently not at the top?

Triggers. the trigger buttons? yeah totally doable.. wouldnt be my control of choice trough, since its vertical, but I can do it for sure ;)

@Wraith_Vague; I will definately check if I can get some inspiration from there! thanks for the tip!! :D
Right now a template system would be INCREDIBLY awesome, but damn GMS wouldnt really allow me to do it in a 'simple' way.. actually it wouldbe even simpler to let it open source and let anyone who wants to hack it and try to make mods.. we will see..
PS; they mention the kickstarter mockup a LOT haha
http://ouyaforum.com/showthread.php?...dream-OUYA-UI/

This is something I'v been working on today, remember the flipping tiles animations in the kickstarter mockup? well.. I really liked it..
http://s16.postimg.org/57euji2v9/Sin_t_tulo_1.png

Its time for sleep now...

Here I had problems, installed, and when I "open" the app it says:

ERROR in
action number 1
of Draw Event

Androidplayer: try disconnecting from the internet and opening the app. if that works, you're having the same issue as me. When you get the error, scroll down and report the rest of the error.

InvaderGames: Yeah something about trigger navigation just sorta appeals to me since it feels so convenient. I'm also planning to use the bumpers (or maybe i'm getting triggers and bumbers confused; I tend to do that), for navigating 'groups'/tabs inside my dashboard screens.

Now the messege is:

Error in action number 1 of drawn event for object playlist_game

Trying to drawn non existing sprit. at gml object playlist game draw 0

sorry for my english, i am brazilian.