Noob Skinning question (1 Viewer)

[TVKiwi]

What are the packed graphics for?
How do I create/use/alter them in a skin.

EG - If I wanted to replace the hover image for the TV in the home screen I tried placing a different image with the same name in the Media file but this does nothing. Do I also need to change the graphic in the packed file?

MP is the first program I have attempted skinning and I was curious as to how other people have learned to skin. Are there any resources which might help me - I feel like I am being a pain in the a** posting what to many are probably stupid questions. I am making quick progress though and am getting the hang of the xml codes so hopefully my days of annoyiong posts are numbered and I can start offering some new visuals (I am planning on a star wars theme with holograms for hover images, lasers for focus etc).

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Smirnuff]

The packed graphics are generated at runtime and are used to help keep the rendering portion of the application as efficient as possible. Until recently the packed graphics were generated each time you started the application, now they are only created when no packed graphics already exist - hence the recent dramatic improvement in startup times.

You can effectively ignore the packed graphics and continue to work with the individual graphic files with one exception... you need to delete the packed graphic files and/or the related .xml each time you make a change, otherwise you'll not see your changes.

I feel like I am being a pain in the a** posting

Ask, we'd rather see you take up 30 seconds of our time than waste several hours of your own... all that is assuming we get a regular stream of new skins from you .

If you think you're going to have lots of questions then it might be an idea for you to create a single post where all your questions can go, could benefit others more easily.

Cheers,
Smirnoff.

 

[TVKiwi]

Thanks smirnoff - makes sense.

I think what we need is a type of 'Skinning For Dummies'. Perhaps I will start a blog type post which other noobs wanting to apply 'the good old kiwi do it yourself' attitude can learn from my mistakes.