Alpha 20240226_0148A

Caution

This release have performance issue as stated in ( #91 ) and also possibly some compatibility issue

It's been a while since CrossLauncher have a release APK (8 months, I think?). And since then, there has been multiple features added, some fixed, codebase quality improvement.

Added

• Hold OK button opens Item Menu
• System Notification Listener
• Media Listing (preliminary)
• Layered Backgrounds
• Menu Background Music
• New Version Check (not fully tested yet)
• Move App to other Category

Fixed

• Wave coldboot and wave surface recreation bg color reset by @Kethen in #69
• Double UI audio playback on PadL by @Kethen in #70
• D-Pad button move the cursor twice and now can continously scroll ( #41 )

Changed

• Default resolution for icons is now unified and is set bigger than the previous 100px, thanks to @Kethen in #71
• Some resources is now loaded using kotlin coroutine instead of thread.

Codebase Changes

• GitHub Action building, thanks to @Quackdoc in #50
• Some function is now moved to a more dedicated class instead of using Kotlin class extension. which is closer to how OOP should be done.

New Contributors

• @Quackdoc made their first contribution in #50
• @Kethen made their first contribution in #69

I might not listed all the changes here because there is so much changes in very long time, so for the full change listing (albeit you should also checks the commit messages and not only PRs because I batches the changes), please check the full changelog.

Full Changelog: a_20230702...a_20240226

Alpha 20230702_1117P

Added

• Audio volume menu
• App description selector
• App icon priority is now can be changed

Removed

• Some dynamic shadow layer cleanup

Preview

Preview Video

Full Changelog: a_20230528...a_20230702

Alpha 20230402_0653P

Added

• Legacy Icon Background (request #34 )
  • Can also use Android 12's Material You colors if your phone supports it, but only adapts if the icon is reloaded
• Some part of the app now uses Bitmap Manager
  • These bitmaps is should now loaded one-time and then reused instead of loading it every single time to make memory usage smaller.

Removed

• Glow effect in text and icon, due to high memory leak

Preview

Preview Video

Full Changelog: a_20230402...a_20230528

Alpha 20230402_1025P

Added

• Signed debug variant
• Dedicated file logging on debug variant
• Null check on File?.combine(string... paths),
  Preliminary fix for issue #32, and if not, may detect on what causes the null value and write it to the log file on debug variant apk

Preview

No preview as no new feature is added

---

Full Changelog: a_20230327...a_20230402

Alpha 20230327_0530A

Fixed

• Crash on Android < 10

Added

• Debug variant with Exception Logging

That's it.

Alpha 20230129_0235P

What's New

• Package Installer, easily installs your customization package (in form of XPKG file).
  Accessible via Settings category, it's the bottom-most option.
• Custom Resolution, have to support those weird aspect ratios.
  Accessible via Settings > Display Settings.
• System Bar Visibility, the launcher already have a status bar!
  Accessible via Settings > System Settings.
• Overflow scrolling texts, only when there is not enough display space for the text.
  It's rarely occuring on a real PS3, unless you have a music file with a very long ID3 Tag or you use certain CFW, it won't happen. So too here.

Fixed

• Memory leak when drawing arrow, changes vector path rendering to bitmap-based rendering, IDK why.
• No touch interaction in app info dialog
• Some settings set wrong value to preferences
• System orientation now uses right description
• Category arrangement dialog now shows rectangle to signify which item is now active

Removed

• Reference Resolution Menu, replaced by Reference Resolution dialog instead.

Links

Sample XPKG File : ClashOfClans.xpkg

Preview Video

Full Changelog: a_20221218...a_20230129

Alpha 20221218_A0528

Added

• App Info Dialog
• Can change display name and description of app
• Can hide apps

Fixed

• Fixed keyboard input
• Exit button will now visible on Home category if app is launched not as default launcher

Known Issues

• Launching shortcut crashes the launcher
• Album and Category did nothing so far
• Searching hidden app with Show hidden app turned on then opening it's App Info dialog will show other app instead

Preview Video:

Preview Video

Full Changelog: a_20221205...a_20221218

Alpha 20221205_A0139

Added:

• Search function (mapped to PlayStation's Select/Share Button, Xbox's Back Button, Nintendo Minus Button, Tap on Category Icon on Touchscreen)
• Vulkan API version on System Settings > Information
• Option to disable Gameboot and launch app directly

Fixes:

• Custom Coldboot and Gameboot Icon Loading and Unloading
• DualSense mapping on Android >= 12 now uses default mapping
• Right-side sliding area width to open menu is now narrower on Portrait screen

Removed:

• Launcher display language option, moved to Debug Settings (which will not available on release apk)

Preview:

Alpha 5

It's been a long time since last pre-release. I almost lost track of what is actually changed.

Changes :

• Now uses referenced scaling, supporting most device resolution (#6 )
• PS3 / PSP Layout switching, and additionaly a Bravia TV Layout (which is PS3 Layout without status bar)
• Animations is more fluid
• Wave Live Wallpaper is now available, even though still not configurable
• Extensible code base

In Preliminary State:

• Wave Live Wallpaper configuration
• Some custom file is still not used yet
• Pinned Shortcut support
• Preference saving (#2 )
• Support for custom status bar text format
• XMB Specific Dialog Layout

Not yet fixed or implemented:

• Customization Package File, to simplify customization sharing and hosting?
• Media Players (Audio, Video)
• Standby mode (Show only status bar and wallpaper, without showing the entire launcher)
• Internal wallpaper layer (Since Android TV didn't have wallpaper)
• Widgets? maybe?

Concerns:

• High resource usages, Battery drains and temperature raises faster than an usual launcher.

This release is a debug build instead of the usual release build, you may need to uninstall previous version to install this one.

Update: Added release build, for anyone who failed to install the APK due to not activating development settings.

Alpha 4

Added :

• Minimal Video player
• Item Options
• Dynamic Item Icon & Text (implemented but has not been fully utilized)
• ( #1 ) Adjustable Menu Background Color (Cross Menu-only)
• ( #1 ) Clock bar can now be hidden
• ( #1 ) Additional line between item title and subtitle (can be hidden)

Fixed:

• Video thumbnail aspect ratio should now kept with original
• Item caching and rendering have improved thanks to Dynamic Icon

Not yet fixed or implemented:

• Debug category is empty
• Some menu icons is missing
• Audio Items Entirely corrupted. (Not corrupting the original data, just in launcher)
• Internal audio player is gone, to be programmed as a separate service / activity
• Touchscreen interaction for video player (now only keyboard, gamepad and simulated inputs)