Is it possible to create plug ins for the Xbox 360 dashboard?
I was looking to turn the 360 into the hub for the family. So you could for example turn the xbox on, and there on the dashboard see all the families calendars merged, todo lists, grocery lists, birthdays etc.
I can't see anybody talking about plugins for the dashboard around the net so I'm guessing you can't, but thought I'd check. Next option will be something like a net top running in the family room, but that means 2 devices then, one for gaming and one for the family functions
You can't. I think your best bet will be to look at XNA, and then create a "game" that fetches and displays all the data you want.
Related
I am looking to create a WebAR app which recognizes custom image markers and show content augmented on top of them, have looked in to "blippar" and "zappar" both of which are a no go because of pricing.
8th Wall and amazon sumerian combo seems the best solution forward, but since 8th wall has multiple solutions for platforms. none of the documentation is satisfying enough to clarify if what i want to achieve is possible using it for the web.
Finally, After actually developing the application using 8th Wall and sumerian, Here is my answer to the feasibility of this option-
Yes, 8thWall provides proper marker based WebAR solution for amazon sumerian, They have a very active slack channel which you should join, It contains code snippets to primary issues faced by users in the chat history.
Can anyone give me some basic directions to keep me going?
My general requirements for this application
country street map (ok)
Six different categories of PINS for volunteers to use eg Lost, Found, Alert etc (no idea how to provide that
Pin category filter to show on the map
permanent pins and non permanent
it will also be linked to website
Are there any tutorials or advice you can provide to help get me going on this project?
I would check out appcelerator.com it's mobile development product titanium I think has everything your looking for. Maps are quite easy to do in it and the pins your talking about are called annotations in the API you are able to specify images for them, this could be how you categorise them by showing a diff color or image all together, then by using an SQLite db in ur app you can make a list of them and pull out which ever ones you need.
If you were tasked with operating a commercial DVD player from a computer program, how would you do it?
My company sells a product that does exactly that. We have a couple of different approaches, and they both have major issues:
Get an IR Transmitter, Pretend To Be a Remote Control
Pros: Works with pretty much every commercial DVD player in existence.
Cons: The IR transmitter is another moving part that can (and too frequently does) go wrong. Only allows one-way communication; you can talk to the DVD player, but it can't talk back; you can only tell if it's on or off by seeing if it's putting out a video signal.
Get a DVD Player With an RS-232 Serial Port
Pros: Everything that's "con" with the IR transmitter approach simply goes away. The direct connection is more reliable and allows the code to understand just what the machine is doing.
Cons: Niche market; very few machines actually have an RS-232 port. So, when a manufacturer discontinues a model you've been using, you're left scrambling to find a replacement.
And I suppose for the sake of completeness, I should mention....
Just Use the DVD Drive In the PC
Cons: Boss doesn't like it.
What other approaches are available? I've seen DVD players with USB ports, but the last time I researched the subject, it seemed that was just for playing media stored on an iPhone or the like and not actually a potential control mechanism.
I'm really hoping somebody will say something like "Silly boy, don't you know about the ridiculously common FOO port that allows a home theater system to control the DVD directly? Just get a USB -> FOO converter and you're all set!" But I'm grateful for any options I haven't already considered.
The DVD drive is the way to go.
But if he does not like that, I'd go ahead and get a PIC microcontroller, one with USB built in (forget which part number this is). I'd write code to control this, having the IO lines go out on lead wires that attach to the inside of the front panel buttons. You'd need less than a dozen.
If a model is obseleted, it only changes where the lead wires attach. A hole can be punched out of the back of the commercial DVD player, and one of those little rubber gaskets can seal the USB cable to it. It looks like a regular player with a USB A cable coming out of the back.
The cable itself would be rather cool, I'd buy a few if someone sold them. My "USB betamax VCR" would be hilarious.
Bonus points if you integrate it with Front Row, complete with another icon/menu entry.
Many Blue-Ray players can be controlled via the HDMI port. The protocol is probably proprietary and different for each vendor...
I am am a big fan of optical media but it is a dying form of media.
Have you considered building a small windows or linux computer with an SD card slot (Raspberry Pi) and placing a DVD disc image on the SD card? From there you could write software to playback the DVD from the image and interact with it. You could even use something like Adobe Director as a framework for playing and interacting with the DVD content.
Or you can bypass the DVD image idea altogether and build an interactive framework in Flash, HTML/CSS or Adobe Director which allows you to draw menus on the fly and playback audio/video when a link/button is selected. This would have the added benefit of being more flexible than a multiplexed DVD. You could program the menus to build from an XML file for easy language localization, typo corrections, etc. And you could support playback of video with multiple audio streams, subtitles, etc.
It depends... are you being tasked with controlling (almost) any dvd player, or do you get to decide the model? If you're trying to control whatever AV setup a customer may have, then you're basically required to go the IR transmitter route. And there will still be things you won't be able to handle (like a PS3) without additional hardware.
Most AV devices don't put out any input about their current state short of power draw and video/audio output, and the ones that do usually use proprietary rf (sony is big on this in the near future) or localized standards (like scart in europe). A handful will send/recognize command signals over coax, but that went out of style in the 90s.
Is there a way to get a user's achievements list from Xbox without dealing with screen scraping etc.?
How do sites like http://www.trueachievements.com do it? (they're definitely not screen scraping as they do not have my Live ID credentials...)
I know there's the Xbox LIVE Community Developer Program (XCDP) that provides some API but they do not provide achievements information as far as I can tell (links below)
http://duncanmackenzie.net/Blog/put-up-a-rest-api-for-xbox-gamertag-data
http://file-pasta.com/file/XML_Feeds.pdf
If you want this information you can check out my new site https://xboxapi.com.
Again if your profile is public then you can see friends, games and achievements. This has taken me over a year (on and off) to code and is now in public beta. To date it has served nearly 2,000 requests and growing. I am still working on optimising this script and it should only get better in time.
I currently have an API request limit setup for 120 requests per hour per IP.
Lets hope there are no major updates to xbox.com any time soon.
It says at the bottom of the TrueAchievements website that they are a member of the Xbox LIVE Community Developer Program. That leads me to believe that the XCDP does give information about achievements. Duncan Mackenzie's API for xbox worked for me for a little while, but then his web service seemed to go offline. Duncan also says that his web service will not be returning sadly. I can't get ahold of him to ask for release of his source code. I'm currently looking for another solution in retrieving the data. Unless I can get official access with XCDP, it looks like I'll have to do screen scraping. The screen scraping approach is not going to be pretty though. I'll let you know if I get any more information.
The current XCDP API does not give you any individual achievement information. At the moment the only way to get achievements is by page scraping and as of a couple months ago Microsoft has removed their non-JS log in form for xbox.com making it very difficult to log in. TA has found a way to get around this but he's trying to monopolize the scene and isn't willing to help others on this topic.
Even though TA does not have your LIVE credentials if your xbox.com page is public and if you give them your gamertag anyone can get your information by going to http://live.xbox.com/en-US/GameCenter?compareTo=GAMERTAGHERE
With the change the Microsoft has done they've also modified achievement icons. If you're looking at a friends profile and if you don't have the game or have unlocked the achievement the icon will be monochromatic even if it's unlocked by that person.
Does anyone know how I can purchase the above SDKs? Calling the standard Sony / Microsoft Sales numbers does not seem to get me anyone who knows what I'm talking about.
Firstup the SDKs are free, though not publicly available. If you're really keen you can probably find them floating around on torrent sites. They're interesting but of little use without any actual hardware..
So I suspect your real question is "how can I buy development hardware?"
Devkits are only available to approved developers and publishers, and cost substantially more than the consumer hardware. A simple test station (runs unsigned code) can cost several thousand, a full devkit is in the region of $10k. (they used to be around $20k but things are 'cheaper' now).
To have any chance of purchasing you need to become a registered developer, which ranges from "hard" to "impossible" based on your company, your track record, & your publisher/financial backing. If you're a new developer without either a publisher or an extremely good demo your chances are effectively nil I'm afraid.
One alternative is to look at something like XNA studio which allows you to develop on the consumer Xbox hardware, and possibly sell your game via Xbox Live later. This is one way you could create a demo to try and attract interest, though you may later have to port from C# to C/C++ if it's to become a 'proper' Xbox or Xbox Live Arcade title.
If you're interested here are the links;
http://www.scedev.net/common_licensing_info.php
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/dev/regdev.htm
http://creators.xna.com
You cant just purchase them. First you have to register with either company, and then once approved, you have to fork over $20K+ in order to buy the unit. For MS, I would try one of their XNA sites