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[LonWar]

Was there ever a thread that outlined the steps needed to create a mega me skin? I thought there was, but I can't find it.

If not, Can someone tell me what's involved, Do you need a Degree in Rocket Science to figure it out?

[Doof]

Not a degree in rocket science, but you do need some artistic talent.

They use an XML file to layout the different graphics and the parameters for such. If you don't want to deal with the tedium of writing out an XML file and are willing to wait for a little bit, I may have something coming down the pipe that could help...

[LonWar]

Cool,

Thanks, I will wait.

[Drowbe]

Cool.  I will hold of on my wishedtheywere skin for a wee bit then...

[Doof]

hehe... guess the pressure's on, then.

It's not a big deal, really. I'm just writing an app that allows you to set values for the various parameters in a .Net style GUI, and then it writes the XML out for you.

And I've got a LONG way to go. It's in early alpha stages now.

You can view a screenshot of it here.

Now if I can only convince Rhino NOT to try and beat me to it....

[Drowbe]

looks pretty slick!

[LisaRCT]

  ::: the  gorgeous, slender, big-breasted blonde waits patiently in a quiet corner
 for this program to be released (while her nose grows considerably) :::

       

[sraymond]

 ::: the  gorgeous, slender, big-breasted blonde waits patiently in a quiet corner
 for this program to be released (while her nose grows considerably) :::

       

OK...  what's the lie?  Are you not waiting in a quiet corner?

Scott-

[Doof]

So... you want to know the status of this little project of mine?

Well... at first I was making some nice progress on it. I got a little sidetracked working on some of the "like to dos" rather than the "have to dos" on it, and then when I reigned myself back in, I got completely derailed when I realized that the Megamorphis SDK is out of date. And since I was basing all of my work on information I found in the SDK, I found myself forced to backtrack a little ways and fix some stuff. At that point I decided to take a little break from it, and until reading Lisa's gentle prod... hadn't gotten back to it.

So tonight I'm taking another look at it, and trying to base it more on what I'm seeing in actual skins. Hopefully I'll have something for you guys to play around with fairly soon.

[Doof]

Well, I'm glad I took a break from it for a little bit. After coming back to it, I realized I was making my job much harder than it needed to be.

Now that I've made that realization, I'm making some really good progress. The base interface is done. It's just tedious defining all of the different skin components and what properties they have.

Hopefully I'll finish that part of it soon, and then I can put it out for you guys to try out and tell me what you think.... if I should keep going or if I should just quit before I waste too much more time.

Do the skinners (or would-be skinners) think something like this would even be useful? I really only started working on it as a way of re-familiarizing myself with programming (and as an "introduction" to the C# programming languange), but now I've got some other ideas I'd like to try once this is done. So I'm having fun either way.

[crowfan]

As a would-be skinner who was initially interested in skinning then gave up, I would definitely find it useful. It may help me get back into skinning and would certainly help in the creation process. I would vote yes.

 

Thanks for putting the effort into something like this. I for one would certainly appreciate it.

crow

[nila]

Looks good.

Is it going to work with Mini-Me skins too?

It'd be GREAT if on the left we could get a put together of how all the code is going to look (like basically create an artificial MC with our skin on it) so we could see how it's all piecing together.

Looks like a big project - good luck!

[Doof]

Is it going to work with Mini-Me skins too?

Right now, it's only Mega-ME. I've thought about mini-me support, and it would be difficult, since mini-me's aren't as structured as MEGA-ME is. For instance, you can have an unlimited number of window or button objects. So the interface would need to be a lot different and more dynamic than it is right now. It's not impossible, but it would require a lot of work. And this program was only intended to be a practice program for something else I want to write. We'll see, though.

It'd be GREAT if on the left we could get a put together of how all the code is going to look (like basically create an artificial MC with our skin on it) so we could see how it's all piecing together.

I thought about this, too... but it would require me to pretty much re-create Megamorphis all on my own and from scratch. So it's probably not going to happen, unless the JRiver guys wanted to share some code with me...

Looks like a big project - good luck!

It's turning out to be much bigger than I originally anticipated... but it's getting easier as I learn more. Right now I have to fight the urge to go back and rewrite  old sections when I learn how to do the same thing in a better way.

[Doof]

Hmmm.... looks like I may be able to get something out there for you guys to play with tomorrow... if I can figure out how to build an installer...

[LonWar]

 


Cool/...

[Doof]

I've just started a new thread for the first beta of this.

The thread can be found here:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=17592

Please take any discussion of this app to that thread. And then we can let imjustagamer have his thread back.