Appearance Manager

[Old Dog]

Appearance Manger now enables language selection with your remote control.

Download and install the latest version of Appearance from the wiki at plugins\Appearance.

Download and install the StandardLanguages SkinPack from the wiki at skins\SkinPacks.

-David

[Fatman_do]

Cool. I'll have to check it out.

Will help with width of buttons and such. I won't know what the heck I am reading though.

[Old Dog]

Why are there empty directories in the Appearance directory tree?

There is a reason for empty directories.

If you have an xml file that expects an se.png, but you don't have one specific to that plugin, create an empty directory for it and AM will find a default png to put in the destination directory of the same name. There are two levels of defaults, one for the theme ("Blue") the other is global and is blank.

Blue-AM should have lots of empty directories. There are only two se.png files, one for main, the other for all the other plugins. The second one would be found at "Blue-AM\Appearance\SkinEffects\Blue".

(File names and even the example are approximate because I'm at work)

[Old Dog]

In my discussions and examples regarding skin effects I have always pointed out the neat things that can be done with partial transparency.

This may have led to a misunderstanding that partial transparency is required in skin effect files. This is not so.

If you have a skin based on brushed metal, just create submenu (plugin) se files with the static graphics; bezels, panels, headers, etc. The text from the plugin will be wrtten on top of the skin effect as will the dynamic graphics; buttons, highlights, indicators, etc.

[SIZE="2"]Later, if you wished, you could create similar se files with say, woodgrain elements, resulting in a new skin reusing your orginal xml files.[/SIZE]

[Fatman_do]

[SIZE="2"]Later, if you wished, you could create similar se files with say, woodgrain elements, resulting in a new skin reusing your orginal xml files.[/SIZE]

Radar! You have been peeking on the woodgrain bit! No fair!:eek:

My imagination exceeds my skill level though.

(Another use of skin effects is for layout references to be used in skin design. Non-transparent reference lines and zones work best here.)

[Old Dog]

The StandardLanguages SkinPack has been updated with the latest translations and now includes a few more languages.

Find it on the wiki at skins\SkinPacks.

[Old Dog]

Appearance Manager has been modified so that all files in a skin effect's root directory are copied into the skin's root directory.

For example, when Plain Jane's Groove skin (effect) is selected, all the files in "...\Plain Jane\Appearance\SkinEffects\Groove" are copied to "...\Plain Jane".

This new feature allows the skin designer to use multiple image files to compose a plug-in's static layer and to share the files among multiple plug-ins.

This new behavior is in addition to AM's existing behavior.

-Old Dog

[Fatman_do]

Downloaded it from wiki and I get this error.

Code:

8/11/2006 11:43:45 PM.562    ERROR    [1]    Error initializing menu plugin: C:\gbpvr\plugins\AppearanceManager.dll
8/11/2006 11:43:45 PM.562    ERROR    [1]    Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
8/11/2006 11:43:45 PM.562    ERROR    [1]       at System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandle& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck)
   at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean fillCache)
   at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks, Boolean fillCache)
   at System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic)
   at GBPVR.Backend.Common.xc4f12ec3a8a4c96b.xb77fa95273e0c228()
8/11/2006 11:43:45 PM.562    ERROR    [1]    Inner exception: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at AppearanceManager.Appearance..ctor()
8/11/2006 11:43:45 PM.562    ERROR    [1]       at AppearanceManager.Appearance..ctor()

CommonGBPVRUtilities version 3.0.2390.41145 (in case it matters)

[Old Dog]

Hey Fatman!

I don't have this problem so I'm shooting in the dark. Please try the attached version.

Best Regards,
Old Dog

[Fatman_do]

That did it.

Works as advertised.