Skining newbiieeee..looking for some help n clarifications (1 Viewer)

[mrabie]

First i'd want to say that this is a great product so keep up the good work.. your guys ROCK!

I wanted to start skinning but i donno where to start... so bare with me in answering the list of 1020323 questions below! (j/k).

1) I looked at the skinning guide and it said to create the background, controls, etc and place all the images in "Media" folder and XML files that defines the windows etc in the skin folder. So i tried something just replaces the backgound.png in the BlueTwo skin and nothing happed, i played around till i found "packedgfx20.png" that has all the picture in there and when i changed the background in that file it was actually reconized by MP. What's this file and how can generate it or how does this work in general?

2) Fonts: how can i define fonts? i am trying to localize the app but can't define a skin... what are these .ads and .ads.xml files? can't i just use a normal windows font? and if i can how?

3) How can i display info from plugins on the home screem? let's say for example 2day's weather on the home screem?

i guess that's everything for now.... will hold off my other questions till i get passed this stage so i dont bore you

a lots for your help guys!!

Mustafa Rabie

 

[Inker]

Hi,

1) when changing any gfx you always have to delete all packa* files in the skin dir. These files are created automatically on startup if they don't exist. They are a sort of cache that speeds things up.

2) just specify the fontname in the xml files. You can delete the contents of the font folder. It too will be generated automatically

3) not sure about that.....perhaps someone else can help

Good luck with your project
Inker

 

[mrabie]

thx a lot for this valuable info

 

[Sh4nn0w]

3) How can i display info from plugins on the home screem? let's say for example 2day's weather on the home screem?

Mustafa Rabie

Think you'll need mofux's WeatherOverlay.dll plugin to display weather info on the main screen.

 

[Boilermaker]

I've attached the weather overlay files you will need. I had to add the second .txt extension to be able to post them to the thread. Just rename the files dropping the second extension.

Place the weatherOverlay.xml file in your skin directory
Place the WeatherOverlay.dll file in your Plugins/windows directory
Enable the Weather overlay in the plugins section in the MP config program.

Make sure if you are using a skin without the weather overlay (such as the default skins), you disable it...or MP will not start properly.

Good luck with your new skin.

 

[mrabie]

Hi,

1) when changing any gfx you always have to delete all packa* files in the skin dir. These files are created automatically on startup if they don't exist. They are a sort of cache that speeds things up.

ok i deleted the packa* files from the skin file, changed the background in the Media folder and i got is a black screen with lots of white scan lines and the packa* files were not created. what might the problem be?

My background image is in png 72 pix/inch and 8bit RGB
attached is the media portal screenshot

 

[mirk]

Did you delete both the packedgfxXX.png files and packedgfxX.bxml files?
It should work...

 

[Inker]

Yes, sounds like you didnt delete the bxml. Easiest is to create a small batch file that will delete all packaged* files. so you don't have to find them all the time and may miss one.