Windows development

Team-XBMC is currently porting XBMC to Micosoft Windows (from the XBMC for Linux port project which uses SDL toolkit and OpenGL). The goal for this XBMC for Windows port project is this to become a full port of XBMC with all the features and functions that are available on the Xbox version of XBMC (with the exception of Xbox exclusive functionality such as Trainers, launching Xbox Games, etc.).

This is a huge task, which is why we are making this public request, seeking C/C++ programmers to volunteer in assisting us with this project. Whether you have contributed to The XBMC Project in the past or not, please consider doing so now. Those of you who are completely unfamiliar with XBMC can get a good overview of what XBMC offers for its end-users by reading through the XBMC article on wikipedia.org

Note to XBMC end-users! Please understand that this XBMC for Windows port project is in a very early development stage so respect that we do not officially offer support to end-users and that not all features are fully working. If you are an end-user and have any general questions or need to get something off your chest about this then please direct that towards the existing XBMC for Windows end-user forum.

Why port XBMC to Windows (Win32)?

The main reasons for porting XBMC to Microsoft Windows (Win32) are non-technical, (so it is not that the Xbox hardware is too slow or to old for the XBMC GUI or its existing features/functions), the real reasons are that we want XBMC to get a larger end-user and developer-base, because the more people who use XBMC and help maintain the code (and skins) the longer the project will grow and stay alive. The main reason from an end-user point of view is that the Xbox hardware can not playback native high-definition video (at 720p and 1080i/1080p), especially not if the video is encoded with a H.264 or VC-1 codec. Nevertheless, note that we will still keep the old Xbox as the reference platform for standard-definition resolution video for some time (possibly a few more years), which means that the same GUI (and skins) that runs smooth under Microsoft Windows (Win32) on a relatively new computer must also run just as smooth on the old Xbox hardware (or a old computer that closely matches the Xbox hardware, at 733Mhz Intel Pentium III CPU and only 64MB shared memory with supported 3D accelerator).

Where do I start (Win32)?

End-users

An experimental build (revision 13239) can be downloaded here.

Keep in mind this is still an experimental build and still contains plenty of features that haven't been ported yet (and bugs).

Developers

The Win32 development platform is Microsoft Windows XP (32-bit for x86 Intel-processors). There is a Visual Studio .NET 2003 project file available in our SVN (Subversion revision control system). After you've done a SVN checkout, follow the install guide in the SVN (README.win32) to setup the required packages and so on. Team-XBMC developers think that the best thing to start with is just to take a look through the source code and try to understand how it all fits together. Test things out, find what works and what does not, then try and track down why.

XBMC for Windows port plan

Disclaimer: This XBMC for Windows port of course excludes all Xbox exclusive functionality (like for example Trainers, launching Xbox Games, etc.):

• Milestone 1 - Get all existing XBMC functionality (features/functions) working as they already work on the Xbox version of XBMC.
  • During this first phase XBMC will only need to be running under Windows as a third-party application.
• Milestone 2 - Port of Python scripting support, add support for the official Apple Remote with all keymap to fully support XBMC control, AC3 and DTS downmix support, port all of XBMC Virtual File System features (SMB, FTP, UPnP, XBMSP, etc.).
• Milestone 3 - Add Windows (Win32) specific items (hardware configuration, network settings, multiple input-device support, driver packaging, etc.)
  • XBMC package will need to have all the built-in settings for mouse, keyboard, joystick, etc. to act as a shell (without third-party dependencies).
• Milestone 4 - Native 64-bit support, XBMC and all its libraries to be compiled on and for 64-bit.
• Milestone ? - Yet to be decided.

What has already been done on the XBMC for Windows port

These are most of the major things that are already working in XBMC for Windows:

• Code fully compiles on Microsoft Windows (32-bit 'Win32' x86).
• Full GUI implementation using SDL (minus on-screen keyboard weirdness).
• Full-screen support (XBMC with 1080p output support that just works!).
  • OpenGL/SDL - using the GPU, working but relies on an accelerated OpenGL version
• Picture viewing working (including slideshow and it's effects).
• Video playback using XBMC's own DVDPlayer core (including DVD-Video menus support).
  • Hardware accelerated pixel shader (RGB->YUV) with NVIDIA and AMD/ATI graphics.
  • Software conversion from RGB->YUV on other graphics cards due to lack of proper OpenGL support (tested on Intel).
• AC3/DTS digital passthrough.
• PAPlayer and its major audio decoder DLL codecs (MP3, OGG, AAC, FLAC, MPC). Some codecs have still not been ported. See To-Do list below.
  • (checkout HOW-TO: Debug Dynamic Link Libraries).
• Python interpreter (and python scripts/libraries, AMT not working atm).
• Virtual File System support (SMB, UPnP, RTV, DAAP, TuxBox, XBMSP).
• OpenGL visualization (Spectrum Analyzer, Waveform and Project M).
• Playlists
• Weather.
• Networking (though some small issues still need to be sorted out).
• Video thumbnail lookups; IMDb, TheTVDB, AllMusic, etc.

To-Do list for the Windows port

This is a To-Do list of things that still need to be done in XBMC for Windows, anyone is more than welcome to help out with any of these tasks:

Major To-Do tasks with high priority

• [MAJOR - HIGH PRIORITY] DVDPlayer porting to Windows - work in progress. Open Issues:
  • Partial support for external subtitles (SRT and DVD-Video/VobSub subtitles are currently supported)
  • No good support for streaming video from the internet (HTTP/HTTPS/UDP/RTSP/RTP/RTCP/RDT/SDP/MMS)
  • Deinterlacing (software and hardware)
• [MAJOR - HIGH PRIORITY] Proper A52/AC3 and DTS downmix support in software (for analog stereo output)
  • 5.1 (A52/AC3) surround-sound downmixing to 2.0 (stereo)
  • 5.1 (A52/AC3) surround-sound downmixing to mono (single channel)
  • 6.1 (DTS) surround-sound downmixing to 2.0 (stereo)
  • 6.1 (DTS) surround-sound downmixing to mono (single channel)
  • 7.1 (Dolby Digital Plus) surround-sound downmixing to 2.0 (stereo)
  • 7.1 (Dolby Digital Plus) surround-sound downmixing to mono (single channel)
• [MAJOR - HIGH PRIORITY] Mono (single channel) and stereo (2.0) upmix support in software (output to all channels)
  • 2.0 (stereo) upmixing to 5.1 (surround-sound) PCM
  • Mono (single channel) upmixing to 5.1 (surround-sound) PCM
  • 2.0 (stereo) upmixing to 6.1 (surround-sound) PCM
  • Mono (single channel) upmixing to 6.1 (surround-sound) PCM
  • 2.0 (stereo) upmixing to 7.1 (surround-sound) PCM
  • Mono (single channel) upmixing to 7.1 (surround-sound) PCM
• [MAJOR - HIGH PRIORITY] Network: Servers (FTP, Web, UPnP), Clients (FTP, UPnP, Time)
  • Also all network settings needed available to the end-user from the the XBMC GUI settings section.
• [MAJOR - HIGH PRIORITY] Apple Remote control support using WinLIRC (LIRC for Windows).
• [MAJOR - HIGH PRIORITY] Gamepad/joystick support (Xbox orginal wired gamepad, Xbox 360 wireless and wired gamepad).

Major To-Do tasks with medium priority

• [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] Development of a platform-independent wrapper interface to SDL / DirectX / OpenGL / graphic backend interfaces, particularly with respect to how this interface should be exported to visualisations (.vis) and screensavers (.xscr), etc.
• [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] NTSC and PAL-50/PAL-60 TV-out settings for composite, S-Video and standard-definition component.
• [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] Audio-output hardware settings (and if user got AC3 / DTS capable reciever or not)
  • Stereo, head-phones, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, SPDIF pass-through, etc.
• [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] Visualisations: Port all existing XBMC visualizations to also support OpenGL
• [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] Screensavers: Port all existing XBMC screensavers to also support OpenGL
  • Some kind of detection code and tags will have to be added so only supported .vis is listed under system platform
• [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] "My Programs" section for Windows (to launch other Win32 games/applications/emulators)
• [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] MPlayer porting to Windows (not sure if this will ever be done, or is wanted)

Major To-Do tasks with low priority

• [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] Hardware Accelerated Video Decoding offloading to the GPU in some shape or form.
  • The possible methods are GLSL or Cg Pixel Shader (Shader Model 3.0), and/or GPGPU technology
• [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] Credits (make it support DirectX and OpenGL, detect platform. Plus add some eye-candy)
• [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] Sysinfo section under Windows for x86 computers (CPU, GPU, chipset, and HDD temperature, etc.)
• [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] LCD/VFD External Display Panel support (USB/RS323/I2C connections)
• [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] Native 64-bit support (AMD64/EMT64), XBMC and all its libraries to compile on and for 64-bit.

Minor To-Do Tasks with high priority

• [MINOR - HIGH PRIORITY] Fix hacks which might not work on some platforms (improve cross-platform code)

Minor To-Do Tasks with medium priority

• [MINOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] Video adapter / graphic controller settings inside XBMC GUI settings:
  • VSYNC enabling/disabling setting
• [MINOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] Complete missing codecs for PAPlayer:
  • AC3
  • ADPlug
  • DTS (DCA)
  • SHN
  • Monkey Audio (APE)
  • NSF (Nintendo Sound File) via NoseFart
  • PCM and WAV
  • WavePack
  • WMA
• [MINOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] LIRC or alternative implementation for IR/IrDA (infrared) remote support under Win32
  • Though maybe not possible/best, it might be smart if "IR/IrDA" could be added to SDL via CMIL for platform-independence(?).
  • Add default configurations mappings to "Lircmap.xml" of the most popular HTPC-remotes (like Apple Remote, Microsoft RC6 MCE control-Done, Meedio X10 remote, ATI Remote Wonder, SnapStream Firefly).

Minor To-Do Tasks with low priority

• [MINOR - LOW PRIORITY] make sure .AAC plays gapless with PAPlayer
• [MINOR - LOW PRIORITY] Support better anti-aliased text (subpixel accuracy via vertex/pixel shaders) rendering. Basic idea is to cache the characters to an 8 bit texture at 3 times the horizontal resolution, and have that texture loaded into the 3 texture slots, and use a pixel shader/vertex shader to compute the texcoords for each component of the pixel (RGB) to get 1/3rd pixel positioning and antialiasing. This can probably be extended to even more precise location by increasing the size of the texture cache (eg 2x vertical, 6x horizontal)

Cleanup To-Do Tasks

• [CLEANUP - ALWAYS AN ONGOING PROCESS] Document (doxygenize) all of the current/existing code (using doxygen)
• [CLEANUP - ALWAYS AN ONGOING PROCESS] debugging (also back-port any fixes to the Xbox branch)

Post-trunk-merger To-Do Tasks

After this XBMC for Windows port (and the Linux, and Mac OS X ports) reached a maturity the "linuxport" branch in SVN may or may not be merged into the "main SVN trunk" and if so would require:

• Merge dllLoader (DLL loader) and soLoader (SO loader), and rename to just "loader", (similar to MPlayer cross-platform loader library)
• Merge "Lircmap.xml" into "Keymap.xml" (creating a sub-section in Keymap.xml for LIRC)