BlueMCE2-X cleanup project

[MixMan]

Answer to McBainUKs question about image sizes

Regarding image sizes...I havent been thinking of that at all.
The Christmas skin from MP is impossible to to port due to the borders size7width,
The transparent image padding/borders related to the actual image size are more important.
That is my experience from porting so many skins.

[McBainUK]

If the aim is to make a "general" set of images that can be swapped and changed and used by all current and future screens/plugins then the images should have screen/plugin titles in their names. They should describe what they are.

Regarding image sizes...I havent been thinking of that at all.

I'm thinking image use and scaling. If this is a list of common images that all plugins can use then sizes are important. Eg popups: one plugin may want an almost full screen one (eg recordings) another may only need a small "popup message" type sized popup (eg gmail).

[Fatman_do]

If the aim is to make a "general" set of images that can be swapped and changed and used by all current and future screens/plugins then the images should have screen/plugin titles in their names. They should describe what they are.

I'm thinking image use and scaling. If this is a list of common images that all plugins can use then sizes are important. Eg popups: one plugin may want an almost full screen one (eg recordings) another may only need a small "popup message" type sized popup (eg gmail).

That can be done easy enough. I did this for chameleon. I used that InfoRapid program I have to scan for "listview.png" and I get a list of all listviews with size and locations. I then can process that data to come up with ratios and such. For Listview.png I used an average.

Did you mean "images should NOT have screen/plugin titles in their names" in your post?

[MixMan]

If the aim is to make a "general" set of images that can be swapped and changed and used by all current and future screens/plugins then the images should have screen/plugin titles in their names. They should describe what they are.

I'm thinking image use and scaling. If this is a list of common images that all plugins can use then sizes are important. Eg popups: one plugin may want an almost full screen one (eg recordings) another may only need a small "popup message" type sized popup (eg gmail).

I don't understand what you mean with "images should have screen/plugin titles in their names"

Yes, the idea is to have a set of names/images that plugin developers can use when are skinning the plugin.....if they would like to have their plugin to used with as many skins as possible....that will use the new "core" image standard.
Otherwise....it will be like today, that the plugins doesn't work with that many skins.

I think that Sub is watching to see what we skinners/plugin developers will come up with. BlueMCE2 is the most liked/supported and has the most images, thats why this is a good starting point, with hands on.

We can resize the images later, to be a reference skin.....or hopefully that the artistic talented will make new images for Sub to use for the "default" image based skin.

[MixMan]

McBainUK

If you are talking about the "TitleLogos" for plugins.
There are no plugin developer or skinners that has contributed with any graphics work to any Theme.
The GBPVR users don't say a word or comment skins at all in general.
I will not make individual images for all the new plugins that comes along.
They have to use "group" names for individual images.....the same goes for task images...and the distribution logic of those.

A scenario. A plugin developer thinks, wow, this looks better if use this image, that has a different size/color or shade to it, so he adds a new image named ListBox_DialogDark2.
How many themes/skins will that plugin work with?
Answer. Just one! The one mod he made to that skin.
This is the "problem" in a nutshell......with BlueMCE2 also.
This is why I am agianst keeping all possible images a plugin developer might come up with in the same directory as the Core skin could use. Very soon we will be in the same situation again, where plugins dont work with "Themes/Skins"

But the idea with this project is to identify the image "need" ..... with as few images as possible.

[McBainUK]

Woops :o , it should have been

images should NOT have screen/plugin titles in their names

I then can process that data to come up with ratios and such.

This is good.

the idea with this project is to identify the image "need" ..... with as few images as possible.

Well said, I agree. Think we are getting somewhere now

[MixMan]

Woops :o , it should have been


This is good.


Well said, I agree. Think we are getting somewhere now

These Common Images that we are identifying and naming, shall also have a HTML reference list like the one you made and a more explaining section to describe where they are used, how they are used, padding and so on.

[MixMan]

Why shall we stick with JPG format in background.jpg ?

The talk about trancparency is irrelevant....who uses transparency on a background.
The advantiges with PNG is more information in the image. Some backgrounds with more details will look a lot better when stretched to large screen like a 42" plasma.
My freind complained about the "blockiness" of the ContourHC backgrounds on his plasma. (but he is picky)
If someone wants to do color mods for AM, the PNG is closer to the original image and will result in better quality for some colors (I have seen the difference when modifying colors)
I always have a background.png in the Themes for this reasons.

What do you think of the button naming suggestions?

[Fatman_do]

Appearance Manager implementation is critical and is very easy to do.

There are some limitations on how it works with images.

Requirements in the skin root:

MainBackground.jpg
Background.jpg
MainButtonNormal.png
MainButtonSelected.png

All images processed and copied over by AM are placed in the skin root.

Any image placed in the ..\Appearance\ButtonSets\XXXXXX\ directory will be copied to the skin root.

MainButtonNormal.png and MainButtonSelected.png must be in those sub-directories.

Any image we want AM to changeover (now or in the future) needs to be in the skin root.

All other images can be in a common directory.

"se.png" is not required to use AM, it is optional (requires commenting out lines in ..\Appearance\skin.xml file). I should be considered to be included.

Those reasons are why I feel most of the general screen elements need to be in the screen root.

[MixMan]

Appearance Manager implementation is critical and is very easy to do.

There are some limitations on how it works with images.

Requirements in the skin root:

MainBackground.jpg
Background.jpg
MainButtonNormal.png
MainButtonSelected.png

All images processed and copied over by AM are placed in the skin root.

Any image placed in the ..\Appearance\ButtonSets\XXXXXX\ directory will be copied to the skin root.

MainButtonNormal.png and MainButtonSelected.png must be in those sub-directories.

Any image we want AM to changeover (now or in the future) needs to be in the skin root.

All other images can be in a common directory.

"se.png" is not required to use AM, it is optional (requires commenting out lines in ..\Appearance\skin.xml file). I should be considered to be included.

Those reasons are why I feel most of the general screen elements need to be in the screen root.

Yes I know that AM works that way. But I'm sure that Old Dog would be willing to modify his skin and the AM, now that we change almost everything and Sub accepts/modify our suggestions for his new image based skin.

I am not against keeping the images in the skin root, but right now when reskinning I think it is better to have the images in a temporary directory.
It's so easy to do a search and replace later.

I want to have an agreement on the basic image names, that we can propose to Sub...soon.