skinning documentation and some questions on xml settings

[butcherBoy]

hi!

i'm working on a new mp skin (mce mod) and was searching for some documentation about skinning. and i didn't found one. ok, skinning mp seems to be very easy, easier than meedio, even without any skin-editor. but some explanations how the xml stuff works would be great.

for example the texture tag. didn't know that it is used for scaling the image. but how does it work? with the default value <texture>-</texture> my hover images won't get scaled. replacing '-' with 'hover_image xy.png' the hover image gets a relative size value and will be scaled.

and what about '<textureNoFocus>-</textureNoFocus>' or <visible>no</visible>?

the butcher

[Harley]

hi,

for the hover images you can change the position on this Part of Home XML

<control>
<description>template for hover image</description>
<type>image</type>
<id>1000</id>
<posX>80</posX>
<posY>150</posY>
<texture>-</texture>
<visible>no</visible>
</control>

When you would change the size you must added this

<width></width>
<height></height>

with your Pixel like this:
<width>200</width>
<height>150</height>

With the :
<visible>no</visible> or <visible>yes</visible>

you say if it visible or if it not

For <texture>-</texture> you must believe it for the hoverimage because there are a lot of difficult images.

Greetings 8) Harley

[butcherBoy]

hi harley!

ok, most of the tags speak for themselve. but take a look at my hover-image code

<description>template for hover image</description>
<type>image</type>
<id>1000</id>
<posX>485</posX>
<posY>230</posY>
<texture>hover_my music.png</texture>
<visible>no</visible>

description and type are almost clear. something important with the id tag?
changing position on x and y axis is no problem. but what is texture? i found out that changing the default value of '-' to an image file will scale the hover images relative to the mp window. what else can i do with the txture tag?

btw setting the visible tag to 'no' has no effect on my hover images.

the butcher

[MrMario64]

the texture tag is not used for scaling
As this is a template no texture is fed since the code in MP will load the correct texture itself.
just name it like hover_plugin name and you will be fine in this specific place.

Things to control the scaling is simply the width and height.
But
If you always want the picture to keep AR add
<keepaspectratio>yes</keepaspectratio>
Now MP will make sure the picture has max size in the given zsize window but is in correct AR.
When a user sets the pixelratio for his TV in setting, the pic will also be adjusted with this.

I advice you not to only look @ home for learning the skin as home is pretty mutch determined by code.

[butcherBoy]

hi!

it's me again

is there any way to change the style of a font? for example from normal to bold.

another question about labels in music modul. there are 5 different views. song, album, artist, genre and top 100. when i change the view to 'song' there is a control showing me the name of the view.

<control>
<description>Songs text label</description>
<type>label</type>
<id>1</id>
<posX>120</posX>
<posY>22</posY>
<label>134</label>
<font>font16</font>
<align>left</align>
<textcolor>ffffffff</textcolor>
</control>

but there seems to be an error. when i choose 'artist'-view i get 'album' as decsription, choosing 'genre' i get 'playlist'. the rest is ok.
is there any way to change this via xml or is it hard coded?

when i'm in album-view the last viewed album is always shown above the current selected album. is it a bug? i think it's a little bit confusing showing the last selected album above the current selection.

greetz
the butcher