Creating skins

[stuartambient]

What do I need to do to create my own skin. I'm a bit confused right now. I've found the skin editor and know what my options are there.
I'm talking more specifically about a complete new skin.
Do I need to know or use XML ?

I purused the forum but didn't see anything that really answered this question.

Thanks
Stuart

[ThE ScReW]

Hello dude, first of all, welcome on this peace of software ! You'll love it once you started !

I also made a skin but i worked on the default skin, i moved, i deleted, i added, .... it's much easyer then just start from scratch.

If you want to start from scratch you just copy the default folder to anotehr name : myskin.
Once you have a copy in the skin folder, you can delete all the xml files exept SPLASH,MENU AND EXIT !! Those files you better work on it because if you remove them, xlobby doesn't start i think !

Then you start the skin editor and choose add screen. You'll get a blanck screen. choose thye background, add buttons,.....


For the best working with screens, downlaod the newest version. it's in the announcement forum, read topic Alpha 40 experimental 6 download it and then downlaod the upgrade e xperimental 7. It's just the exe file.


Else come on the chat please , it's really good there !!

Download mirc, connect to efnet server and then type #xlobby and you can talk to us !

[ThE ScReW]

Another think : if you are just a noob, like i was before, it might be helpfull to just start working on the default skin before you start a new one !! You'll learn it the best of all !

I'm working on an xlobby skin now for 2 months, it's my seconds skin now and even now i didn't start from scratch, i only work on my old skin and for my old skin i worked on the default skin

[stuartambient]

Thank you the SCREW. You answered my question.
I do have another question, a bit more granular to the first.
Is it possible to change the number of album that show up in the music screen. In skin editor when I clicked there it seemed the whole window moved with all the little album windows inside of it.
My preference would be to have less albums showing up there and maybe large covers.

Stuart

[jrg]

I think it also helps to look at the xml files to give you a sense of what everything is. Some 'buttons' are really catagories (movie posters/cd covers), others you can see exactly what is going on when you click it.

for example:

Code: Select all

<eventbutton>
  <eventid>goto:goto movies</eventid>
  <imagename>dvd menu button.png</imagename>
  <location>66,65,400,70</location>
  <navitem>True</navitem>
  <showhide>dvd_cover:dvd_desc1</showhide>
</eventbutton>

This is my button on the main menu screen that takes you to the movies screen.

The <eventid> defines the action (goto moives)
The <imagename> is the actual png file (like a jpg) of the button. Buttons usually consist of 3 files, button.png...button-enter.png...button-down.png. the '-enter- is for the highlighted button. the '-down' shows up when a button is clicked. All of these files have to be in the 'buttons' dir
<navitem> means that it can be navagated to using the keyboard
<showhide> triggers another button or text box when you mouse over or highlight a button.

[ddiv]

Actually Im interested in waht stuartambient asked about the CD covers as well. Can they be larger and less on a page, more liek the DVD screen? Im not sure if jrg was giving a hint as in "go look at the xml and youll find out" or if it was just a general comment.

thanks

[mattdisaster]

Changing the amount and size of the cd covers (or any cover arefor that matter) is easy: open the skin editor and go over to the "Edit Category" tab and change the amount of colums(my spelling is getting worse by the day) that are displayed, then resize the display area of the cover art untill they hit the size you want, also play around with the ratio, which will resize the overs as well. Good luck!

-matt

[ddiv]

thanks matt!

[jrg]

i had that post written hours earlier before actually sending it and did not see your specific question RE Covers.

The event manager included in the newer versions makes it pretty easy to peruse all the Xlobby functions and see what they are. My brain is just wired differenty and understand this stuff better when i can see the details.