Transparent Tiles

[ScottIsAFool 517]

Who wants them? I know being able to set a background image for your tiles is pretty popular in 8.1, just deciding whether I should add an option for transparent tiles. 

 

If you want this, shout now, cos I'll aim to get it in the next release if it's requested.

[Counterfitninja 6]

Yep.. ill be interested to see what you come up with

[ScottIsAFool 517]

It would be a transparent tile, nothing much to really come up with

[fredmarkle 0]

Count me in for a transparent tile, would look great with my wood grain

Edited April 23, 2014 by fredmarkle

[techywarrior 689]

Meh, I support the option since having all the tiles be transparent makes the background image option in 8.1 worthwhile. Personally I haven't found the background image worth using yet. It makes text hard to read (depending on the image of course). But I know a lot of people are doing it... and 50% of the apps I have seem to have been updated in the last week or two just with transparent tiles. lol

[MrWebsmith 598]

id vote for the option yes... on the wide tile if the left (text side) was transparent, and the grid of posters left alone that could be cool.. so just the blue portion under the logo i guess?

 

8.1 is nice so far.. no issues really here yet

[JayAre 11]

Me too, transparent tile please.

[gcoupe 63]

Yes, please. I find the arbitrary movie artwork that currently gets plastered over the tile somewhat confusing. Give me an MB3 icon on a transparent tile, and I'll be less confused.

[ScottIsAFool 517]

You don't have to have that artwork. If you go to the settings, you can turn it off.

[gcoupe 63]

You don't have to have that artwork. If you go to the settings, you can turn it off.

 

Ah - ok - it's now turned off. But I'd still like a transparent tile, please.

[ScottIsAFool 517]

It's coming

[ScottIsAFool 517]

Something like this, yes?

[techywarrior 689]

Looks nice. Slightly related question. On the medium size tile, when it flips to show a poster (and probably on the large tile too) how come it never seems to change? Can't you make the poster change every hour or something?

[ScottIsAFool 517]

It should change every time you open the app. There was a bug around this area that I fixed last night, so would be interesting if you still see this now with the new beta. But if you aren't seeing it update after each time you launch the app, there might be another bug there.

[techywarrior 689]

No, it does seem to change each time I open the app. Any way to have it randomly cycle thru some images every few hours? The transparent tile works well. Should let people know they may need re pin the tile after changing the setting. Or perhaps it was just that you need to reopen the app so that the background image refresh updates the tile.

[ScottIsAFool 517]

After you changed the setting, did you press start or back? If you did the latter, it should have taken care of all your tiles.

[techywarrior 689]

It may have been home then. I didn't really pay attention until it didn't change. Then when I tried it again it worked. And since I didn't pay attention the first time I wasn't sure what I did different.

[ScottIsAFool 517]

Yeah, unfortunately it  can only do it when you press back, once you've pressed the start button, the app gets deactivated, so wouldn't have time to refresh all the tiles.

[techywarrior 689]

Not a big deal.

 

Any thought about making the live tile more live though? Not sure what the limitations are but having it update every few hours would be cool. Or even just having it cycle between four cached images that are refreshed each time the app launches would be good. Just something to make the tile flip worthwhile.

 

Maybe I don't use the app as often as other people so it's more of an issue for me.

[techywarrior 689]

I just went into the app. Turned off background images and transparent. Backed out. Relaunched, turned transparent tiles back on. Backed out. Tile wasn't updated.

[ScottIsAFool 517]

When you backed out, did you just back out of the app, or just that page? If the former, it goes off to the server to get the new images for rich tile (if turned on), if you back out of the app before that finishes, it won't update the tile.

[ScottIsAFool 517]

When you backed out, did you just back out of the app, or just that page? If the former, it goes off to the server to get the new images for rich tile (if turned on), if you back out of the app before that finishes, it won't update the tile.

[techywarrior 689]

I backed out pretty fast. Good chance then that it didn't finish receiving anything from the server. But I turned off the background image so technically it shouldn't have made a server call.

[ScottIsAFool 517]

There are two options for tiles though, there's the wide tile option and the tile background. Even if you don't have a wide tile showing, it still goes off to get the images for it. If you choose the non-rich wide tile, that would have updated straight away.

[techywarrior 689]

Ah ok...