redllar
Member
OP
Or skinner/dev site even ;)
Skinnable Menu Design Help
By redllar
801 views
11 replies
grimspoon
Member
Ehh.. Elwin leaving..where? <BR> <BR>
doreen
Member
redllar <BR>(Elwin is not leaving it is Scarebear)
redllar
Member
Oh futz. Sorry folks (especially to Elwin.)
oinky
Member
A new skinning spec? The way kewlpad does it is easy enough and should work well for this. <BR>http://kewlpad.deviantart.net/main.html <BR>It has images for each part of the frame: corners, vertical and horizontal segments, etc. The .ini is simple, just specify colors and fonts. The only thing I´d add is an image in the middle instead of plain color. Is this what you had in mind? I get the feeling that I´m missing something. <BR>-oink
elwin
Member
Aloha all - I´m back! <BR>{:p <BR>
elwin
Member
Oh yeah, and what Oinky says. A center section that can be tiled or stretched would be a nice addition to a lot of skinnable apps. <BR>:)
redllar
Member
Ola Elwin. Sure I shouldn´t be wearing that hat? :) <BR> <BR>Oinky, I didn´t know kewlpad skinned its menus. Thanks for the heads up. <BR> <BR>I already have the background, item (in all states), separator, and submenu arrow as skinnable. They use a 9 section slice/dice of an image, one image per "thing." Non-fixed sections may be tiled or streteched. Oh, and there´s alpha-masking too. <BR> <BR>What I was really looking for where 2 things: <BR> <BR>1. Simplification of the skin spec itself? One bmp per "thing" works well for mockup, but there are a lot of ini values that have to be entered if you want complete control. So, one bmp/many ini, or many bmps/few ini? Or something like what ColorPad uses? Or something completely different? <BR> <BR>2. New menu "things" to skin. Here are some ideas we came up with so far: <BR> o A connector piece used as a bridge between menus. Maybe using connection points. Animated? <BR> o A menu cap in which is placed the menu name. <BR> o Animating the "popping up" of the menu. <BR> o Item selection animation. <BR> o Item icon animation. <BR> o Sounds? <BR> <BR>Just curious if anyone had any thoughts/ideas on all this from a skinner´s perspective.
dorkydood
Member
/me is so0O happy to see redllar back.... <BR>the ini setup is a tough one, depending on how available to the newbie you want to make this. few ini is what i prefer, but one can get lost in it easliy, and if 1 little thing is out of whack, it can be hard to track it down. many ini´s can be just as confusing to muddle through to determine which is for what, and goes where again? So, now that i´ve said absolutely nothing on that issue, on to the next... <BR> <BR>i like the idea of connectors. could it just be inserted in the ini as ´connector´ in between menu lines, to make it easier? and are you gonna use gif´s for that? <BR> <BR>oh and, kill me later, but i just love the .png format, small filesize and alphamasking to boot! <BR> <BR>and, placement control of where the menu pops up, with the ability to make it sticky. <BR> <BR>ok, i´ll go home now.....
oinky
Member
In my experiences with the coolplayer playlist, the one .bmp, many .ini entries system is a real pain to work with. About half of coolplayer skins don´t include a playlist, it seems like people aren´t willing to spend so much time learning how to skin it. <BR> <BR>We all know how important skins can be to a program´s success; the best way to get lots of skins is to keep it simple and easy for newbies to jump right into. For that reason, I like the many .bmp, few .ini system. <BR> <BR>There could be some optional parts to be left out by newbies but included by anyone willing to learn the more advanced functions. Animations and sounds could fall into this category. This stuff sounds like it needs an .ini, but that´s no problem. Anyone willing to put that much work into a skin won´t mind learning some technichal details. I think this is the best way - it´s easy to get started, but there´s still a lot of power to keep people coming back. Of course, it sounds like a nightmare to code. Oh well, just ideas.
elwin
Member
(listen to Oinky - again...) <BR> <BR>As far as looking for ideas is concerned, take a look at the ini file of a more complex eFX skin. Lots of parameters involved, but they flow within a step by step progression from top to bottom, with advanced abilities that are optional in nature. In other words, it can be as simple or as complex as the skinner NEEDS it to be. <BR>That´s one of the reasons why I still use it. Doesn´t need a rocket scientist to skin it, but you can sneak some pretty slick stuff into a relatively simple format. <BR> <BR>{:p
redllar
Member
DD, thx for the connector use idea. Will probably do png/mng, but no gif; it´s a dead format to me. <BR> <BR>Thx for input all. You´ve given me plenty to think about. I don´t really care whether this thing is "successful" or not. It already does what my co-worker wanted. I´m just making it skinnable ´cause it´s fun. <BR> <BR>Cheers.
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