BaseSkin Tutorial Comments.

[ShiningDragon]

I try to use the VAPanel..., but i am not sure if this one is working. I can't see anything, but i didn't installed Video Archiver itself, only the Panel (i think).

Where it possible to do so with the NextRecording Panel?

[Fatman_do]

I really don't think the idea I had would not work for you now that I am thinking about it more. The realtionship of the button to the text is probably not what you are looking for. I also don't remember if the recording status in VAPanel is displayed when cycling through other messages the panel can display so you may "lose" the indicator and get it back depending on the message being shown.

I think this would need to be a "recording status plugin" or such to just display a status indicator composite image. Then it can be positioned anywhere. It would be great if it was like the visualization element, so I could be displayed on all menus.

[Fatman_do]

I think I have wrapped up the themepack tutorial.

Maybe I should go into some more image descriptions like ListBarNormal.png, ListBarDetailNormal.png, ect. but I think those are easy enough to figure out.

Does anyone need more info or something clarified better?

Anyone want to try out the finished project to see how horrible it may look on a 16:9 Hi-Def display? I can upload it if so, otherwise I won't waste space on the wiki page.

I will wait a week or so before I pull all the info into a pdf file.

[ShiningDragon]

Many, many thanks to you, dear Fatman_do. Now i'll have to learn, what you've wrote down. With your knowledge/informations i'll try to play around a little bit.

Should i have more questions, then i'll ask you here ^^

[Fatman_do]

Many, many thanks to you, dear Fatman_do. Now i'll have to learn, what you've wrote down. With your knowledge/informations i'll try to play around a little bit.

Should i have more questions, then i'll ask you here ^^

Sounds like you have picked it up really good so far. You have a plan, and know what you want to try.

The hardest thing to do is skin plugins.

Lucky for those creating themepacks, BaseSkin and Chameleon have done that for you. All a themepack creator has to do is focus on the Main Menu and panels. Then create some nice graphics as well.

I will be happy to give advice ,pointers, or answer any questions you or anyone else may have.

I have a few plugins I still need to skin, and patches for Chameleon to make..

[Fatman_do]

Added a cutaway with recording indicator light. Removed nextrecording panel and moved VA panel to upper left.

The black area is the visualization area. Maybe I should move the VA panel icon or something to the right of that.

.....So are we ready for some advanced tricks yet?
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

I tried this on my 4:3 TV last night and it actually looked ok. I did notice I needed to "clean house" and tidy some thing up. Left some fonts the wrong color and such. That is what you get for creating a theme on the fly, with no plan. I might fix some things and release this as a legitimate theme.

[ShiningDragon]

Added a cutaway with recording indicator light. Removed nextrecording panel and moved VA panel to upper left.

.....So are we ready for some advanced tricks yet?

Uh Cpt. Picard, Cpt. Kirk and Mr. Yoda... please show me your secrets :-D But don't forget to save your Guides as .pdf ^^;
I would be very unhappy if all this knowledge would be accidentally deleted.

I would love to look, how you resolved my problem with the Rec-Indicator.

@sub
Why isn't this Beginner-Tut already sticky?

[Fatman_do]

Uh Cpt. Picard, Cpt. Kirk and Mr. Yoda... please show me your secrets :-D But don't forget to save your Guides as .pdf ^^;
I would be very unhappy if all this knowledge would be accidentally deleted.

I would love to look, how you resolved my problem with the Rec-Indicator.

@sub
Why isn't this Beginner-Tut already sticky?

I will do the PDF thing soon. The indicator is using the VideoArchive panel.

I have a green image there normally, then when recording, it draws the image over it.

Code:

<settings>
    <!-- Text Style -->
    <TextStyles>
        <TextStyle name="BigText" color="White" typeFace="Arial Narrow" size="24" style="bold"/>
        <TextStyle name="MediumText" color="White" typeFace="Arial" size="18" style="bold"/>
        <TextStyle name="SmallText" color="LightGray" typeFace="Arial Narrow" size="18" style="bold"/>
        <TextStyle name="WarningText" color="Red" typeFace="Arial Narrow" size="18" style="bold"/>
    </TextStyles>
    
    <!-- Composite Images -->    
    <CompositeImages>
        <CompositeImage name="VAPanel" size="[color=Red][B]1280,720[/B][/color]">            
            <!--<DrawRoundedRect loc="2,5" size="310,100" radius="5" borderWidth="1" borderColor="Transparent" fillColor="Black"/>    -->
            <!--DrawText text="@Time" loc="5,5" size="295,35" textStyle="BigText" align="Left"/-->    
            <!--DrawText text="@DayOfWeek" loc="150,5" size="295,40" textStyle="BigText" align="Left"/-->    
            <!--DrawText text="@Date" loc="5,36" size="295,28" textStyle="MediumText" align="Left"/-->    
            
            <!-- Up to 5 different priority of messages can be queued -->
            <!-- If you only want to group messages together so that you only see the highest priority message -->
            <!-- within the group, set the loc field off all the mesasges in the group to be the same -->
            <DrawText text="@Priority0Message" loc="425,120" size="500,90" textStyle="WarningText" align="Left"/>    
            <DrawText text="@Priority1Message" loc="425,120" size="500,90" textStyle="WarningText" align="Left"/>    
            <DrawText text="@Priority2Message" loc="425,120" size="500,90" textStyle="SmallText" align="Left"/>    
            <DrawText text="@Priority3Message" loc="425,120" size="500,90" textStyle="SmallText" align="Left"/>    
            <DrawText text="@Priority4Message" loc="425,120" size="500,90" textStyle="SmallText" align="Left"/>    
        </CompositeImage>                                        
    
        <!-- Panel-level icon that will be displayed whenever a recording is active -->
[COLOR="Red"][B]        <CompositeImage name="RecordingInProgress" size="30,30">            
            <DrawImage filename="RecordingInProgress.png" loc="0,0" size="30,30"/>
        </CompositeImage>[/B][/COLOR]    

        <CompositeImage name="Background" size="[color=Red][B]1280,720[/B][/color]">            
        </CompositeImage>                                        
    </CompositeImages>        
                

    <!-- Special Elements -->
    <SpecialElements>
        <SpecialElement name="VAPanel" size="[color=Red][B]1280,720[/B][/color]"/>
        
        <!-- The image location of the panel-level icon 0 -->
[COLOR="Red"][B]        <SpecialElement name="PanelIcon" loc="957,381" size="30,30"/>    
[/B][/COLOR]        
        <!-- The location of the image, if any, associated with the highest priority message being displayed -->    
        <SpecialElement name="MessageIcon" loc="[color=Blue][B]425,215[/B][/color]" size="80,80"/>
    </SpecialElements>    
</settings>

What is in red is the key. Make the panel the same size as the screen. Move the text to the right spot from the screen 0,0. What is blue is the other icons that the VA panel shows. I can move all these things around wherever I want. I could use it for the time and date also. I will break this down better in the tutorial. Along with the grill over the task images.

[ShiningDragon]

Thanks to you, Fatman_do. But one question left: Which files do i need explicit for the VAPanel?
I need one .xml within the Panel folder..., but which .dll for the Plugin-Folder is needed? And has to be a file within GB-PVR root?
Because VAPabel didn't worked right for me, i kicked it from the harddisk. And i don't want to install the whole VideoArchiver, because it's an automated setup. I don't like these ones and i will never use these ^^;

You know how i install the Weather-Plugin? I move the WHOLE GB-PVR Folder to another Disk, then install the Weather-Plugin, copy the neccessary Folder/Files, deinstallate the Weather-Plugin, move GB-PVR back to it's root and integrate the copied Weather-Plugin Files ^^;

[ShiningDragon]

Another question:
If i would use the VAPanel your way..., also all about the whole Screen..., would i have any crashes with the Weather-Plugin-Panel, which is integrated within my main menu too?