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Windows => Third Party Plug-ins, Programs, and Skins => Topic started by: Skeezix on October 03, 2015, 11:32:24 am

Title: Tweaking Items in the Skins (Resolved)
Post by: Skeezix on October 03, 2015, 11:32:24 am
I can't seem to find anything that would help me edit or "tweak" skins in the Wiki. For example:

1. I'm using the "Z" skin in MC 21 with Contrast turned up almost all the way and with the greyscale Effect selected. When I select Tools>Options all of the option names are in about an 80% grey and the background for those options are about 90% or 100% grey. Hard to read. I would like to change the background color to white if possible.

2. I would also like to change the color of the progress indicator that runs along the top of the screen to some bright color, or even black, so I can see it from 5-6 feet away.

I'm hoping somebody can get me started on the right track so I can eventually tweak those, and other items in the skins. Where do I start?
Title: Re: Tweaking Items in the Skins
Post by: Skeezix on October 05, 2015, 02:49:05 pm
I found my "Z" skin in Skins/Standard, made a copy of it and changed its name to "My Z Skin". Then I edited the "main.xml" file to point to the new file. I have two questions:

1. I used Photoshop to change the color of "Playerbar_SliderPosThumb.png" from grey to a darker red. Then in "main.xml" I changed the scale of that entry from "2" to "1". Next, I opened MC21 and saw that although the size of the playerbar slider increased (nice), its color changed to a darker grey (not so nice). Also, the filesize of "Playerbar_SliderPosThumb.png" shrank from 16,216 to 1,509 bytes. Why were the rest of the bytes not saved?

2. How can I change the color of the slider and maintain the 16kb filesize?

3. In "Z" skin the background color in the leftmost window pane of the "Tools>Options" function is a dark gray and its text is solid black, making the text very hard to read. I want to change it to a light gray but I don't know the name for this background or where to find it. Can somebody please point me in the right direction?

Title: Re: Tweaking Items in the Skins
Post by: marko on October 05, 2015, 02:58:49 pm
I'm not at my PC for a while now, and would need that for reference to answer #1

For #2, look in the xml, in the "Frame" section, look for "Options List"

-marko
Title: Re: Tweaking Items in the Skins
Post by: Skeezix on October 05, 2015, 03:08:01 pm
I looked, but the word "Options" does not appear in main.xml.

Also, you answered while I was editing my original post so maybe you can reread it (I added something)?
Title: Re: Tweaking Items in the Skins
Post by: marko on October 05, 2015, 03:38:28 pm
it's there. Bear in mind I don't have any reference and am working from memory. If you're searching, try the word "optionslist".

If I recall correctly, it's near the bottom of the Frame section.

If it turns out that "Z" is doing something different, have a look in the xml of another skin, Noire, perhaps, or any of mine, to see how it is formatted, and then if it really isn't present in "Z", you can add it and it should work.
Title: Re: Tweaking Items in the Skins
Post by: Skeezix on October 05, 2015, 03:51:17 pm
Update:

By changing my Skin Effects from "Greyscale" to "None" the color problem described in (1) and (2) was fixed. The button is now red. Its size remains large as I want. However,

In problem (2) the filesize remains small. I don't know what else that may affect but I guess I'll find out sooner or later.

Problem (3) still exists. A search of main.xml yields no results for "options" or "optionslist". I'll try looking in other places for it.
Title: Re: Tweaking Items in the Skins
Post by: marko on October 05, 2015, 04:19:07 pm
You want something along these lines inside the "Frame" section of the XML:

Code: [Select]
<Entry Name="OptionsList" >
<Colors Back="2e3138" Text="737c8d" SelectText="758d73" HilightText="669aff" Shadow="ff0000" Hilight="0000ff" />
</Entry>
The colours are from "Black and Blue", which also uses a selection image, but if you get it applying the colours, it should then be easy enough to tweak them to suit your needs.
Title: Re: Tweaking Items in the Skins
Post by: Skeezix on October 05, 2015, 05:49:46 pm
Okay. I entered your code under "Frames" and changed "Colors Back" from "2E3138" to "FFFFFF".

That gives me an all-white background. Excellent! Just what I wanted!!!

Thank you very much!!!   :) :) :)
Title: Re: Tweaking Items in the Skins (Resolved)
Post by: marko on October 06, 2015, 01:32:36 am
You're welcome. Now that I'm back...

The answer to the question of where does "Z" get it's colour from, is the "Shadow3D" colour setting.

Setting it specifically is probably better though as Shadow3D is used in other places also, and changing it can produce some rather unwanted results elsewhere in the program.

-marko