I started messing around with "The Fly". The idea being to create "The Fly 2" with more original, and less borrowed content.
I began messing around with player bar display ideas, drawing a little incentive from the "amped" mini skins...
This is still rough, just some preliminary messing around to get a feel of what does what..
Now, the player_bar_display image is actually a part of the main_frame_top_border image because I could not work out how to place the display text within the display. The top line of text was being placed at the absolute top of the image, so parts of the text were over the black border at the top, while there was ample empty space at the bottom for it all to drop a few pixels and still fit in nicely. Is it possible to place the text, or is my work-around actually the correct way to tackle the issue? As you can see, the text could still do with dropping another few pixels to be properly vertically centered.
The other thing I need help getting to grips with is the matrix drawing system.
I can grasp the basics of the 'old style' way, using margins, sections A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,J and DrawModes, but I cannot get my head around the rows, columns and ?-flex stuff of the 'new' method.
I've found a few skins that use the new way, with row numbers such as 5, or 41, etc. but when I edit the row numbers to get an idea of what effect it will have, nothing in the skin changes, leaving me floundering.
Are they percentages? I see some images with row numbers of 100?
or does the skinning engine draw the matrix depending upon how many rows and/or columns are specified?
and if so, is a corresponding "numberimages" value also required?
I've a feeling some rather neat stuff could be achieved if I could just get some momentum built up.
fx. I see some "Action Window" template images that contain two images, but don't understand why, or how, they would be implemented. IIRC, Aruba is one such skin...
Anyone out there up for a quick "skinning workshop"?
-marko.