"Community Skin" testers needed.

[Ambro]

Is it just me or is anyone else unable to download this and other skins, such as sassari :confused:

[Old Dog]

Is it just me or is anyone else unable to download this and other skins, such as sassari :confused:

There is a temporary problem with the wiki. It should clear up in a few days.

[McBainUK]

Could I just check something though? I use a tweaked version of BlueMCE2 which isn't compatible with the latest version of GBPVR. My tweaks are minor and are little more than a few replacement graphics and I figured I could probably tweak the skin a little to suit my taste a bit more.

However, I noticed, with the BlueMCE2 theme, that a lot of things just looked totally different to the original. Did you have to make compromises on things like text sizes, button sizes and item placements in order to support the skin plugin "theming" to work? even after a lot of tweaking I still couldn't get the skin to look *exactly* like the original BlueMCE2 and I gave up in the end :-(

Themes effect the look of GBPVR but not the layout. Button sizes and item placements are common across all themes. Themes define the images used for the backgrounds, button, list items etc and so change the appearence of the screens.

[Fatman_do]

I finally managed to test with this yesterday and I can't complain about how thorough it all is and how flexible.

Could I just check something though? I use a tweaked version of BlueMCE2 which isn't compatible with the latest version of GBPVR. My tweaks are minor and are little more than a few replacement graphics and I figured I could probably tweak the skin a little to suit my taste a bit more.

However, I noticed, with the BlueMCE2 theme, that a lot of things just looked totally different to the original. Did you have to make compromises on things like text sizes, button sizes and item placements in order to support the skin plugin "theming" to work? even after a lot of tweaking I still couldn't get the skin to look *exactly* like the original BlueMCE2 and I gave up in the end :-(

Regards
Dave

This skin isn't necessarily a 100% appearance replacement for MCE2. There are some things that were done that differ from the original MCE2, but they shouldn't have been major differences.

Button sizes were made slighlty larger to provide longer text strings for other languages. Graphics with text were replaced with acutal text, to support other languages also. Some other things that were done were standardizing on image names and where they are used (for "themeing purposes"). Also, the ability to use larger text for better visibility when using smaller TV's is being worked on. That also will affect the overall look.

Is there any particular plugins that you really would like to see more like the original (or your own custom mods)? If so, zip and post the original skin.xml files and I will take a look a making you a working version of those.

[acidfiend2003]

This skin isn't necessarily a 100% appearance replacement for MCE2. There are some things that were done that differ from the original MCE2, but they shouldn't have been major differences.

The real big differences are in the main menu. The position, spacing, size and colour of just about everything onscreen is different to the original, and doesn't "gel" as well IMHO. There's also a major difference in the way the font looks in pretty much everything else I looked at and this affects the overall look considerably.

Minor issues - that yellow highlighted text colour seems to me to be an unnecessary extra addition, the skin looks much better using white instead for highlights - is it possible for themes to specify font size/colour overrides? perhaps something to consider for a future version maybe. That is, I suppose, if getting a replacement for BlueMCE2 is a goal. If that is a goal, I don't believe that goal is being met by the current skin because it just looks too different. If looking like the original skin isn't a goal at all, then feel free to complete ignore me ;-)

In general though what strikes me as totally bizarre about GBPVR is the fact that engine updates break plugins and skins. If that happened in my field of work (VST and Audio Unit synth and effect plugins for pro music apps) there wouldn't be the diverse and thriving market that we have now. The community skin is a step in the right direction, but if GBPVR can't attract dedicated, artistically-talented skinners and plugin developers who are able to keep up with Sub's current rate of development sometime in the future nothing will be compatible with anything else :-(

Regards
Dave

PS - I don't want to sound ungrateful for the efforts of people who are volunteering their time and giving their work away free. OTOH I would happily pay £100-£200 for GBPVR if it meant stunning skins, a bit of eye candy and didn't break my rig with each update...

[Fatman_do]

The real big differences are in the main menu. The position, spacing, size and colour of just about everything onscreen is different to the original, and doesn't "gel" as well IMHO. There's also a major difference in the way the font looks in pretty much everything else I looked at and this affects the overall look considerably.

I'll take a look and see what can be done. I thought the fonts and color were the same, let me double-check this.

Minor issues - that yellow highlighted text colour seems to me to be an unnecessary extra addition, the skin looks much better using white instead for highlights

Ok, I will make that change to the MCE2 theme.

is it possible for themes to specify font size/colour overrides? perhaps something to consider for a future version maybe.

Using themes in the Skin Plugin does provide for different font and color over-rides as a global change, not a dynamic user selectable change however. Font Color changing is a future "todo" item for the SkinPlugin.

[Fatman_do]

I have updated the MCE2 theme to reflect the original BlueMCE2 skin more accurately.

Changed is white text instead of light gray (missed that one before).
Majority of main menu otherwise was very much the same. I did move the buttons back closer to original position and made size closer to original.

Also, yellow is no longer used for selected text.

Latest snapshot, on the way to 2.0 release
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VGEYPC8E

[ydekmekji]

could someone pm me the skin... i want to give it a try

[Fatman_do]

use the link in the above post

[Tyx]

I think you have an extra '\' somewhere...
I get lots of failed copies when saving skin configurations, like this:

Copy failed: C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\skin\SkinPlugin\TaskImages\Mayhem3\MainMenu.png -> C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\skin\Community\\Main Menu\task.png

(note the 2 \\ before Main Menu\ on the second line...)

It works however, and the skins change. I'm not sure if it's a bug or not, just thought I'd tell you.

Thanks for all your work