Positioning of elements in skins (...and some other questions)

[ShiningDragon]

Hi!

Just a quick question: Is it possible to use absolutely positions for images within skins of nPVR? I started to "reactivate" my old WiP Skin and want to port it to nPVR.
But the procentual positions are not good and precise enough for me, so that the skin isn't looking well (enough for me) atm. I would need a pixelprecise mapping.

PS: Did i overlooked any kind of documentation for nPVR skinning?

Thanks in advance for any hint/tip/help

[sub]

Just a quick question: Is it possible to use absolutely positions for images within skins of nPVR? I started to "reactivate" my old WiP Skin and want to port it to nPVR.
But the procentual positions are not good and precise enough for me, so that the skin isn't looking well (enough for me) atm. I would need a pixelprecise mapping.

Like PVRX2 before it, NPVR uses percentages for its skins. This is pretty much the only way to get automatic support for multiple resolutions.

If you're wanting to position to exact pixels, you're obviously designing to fixed resolution display, so you can of course 'do the math' to make sure you're percentages are on the exact pixels where you want to position things. For example, if you're designing for a 1920x1080 screen, and need a element to be at pixel "430,100" then use "100/1920*430,100/1080*100" ie "22.39583,9.259259".

Personally, I think it seems like a waste of time developing a skin specifically for a single resolution.

[imilne]

I can't check the API just now, but isn't there something that allows you to convert from skin co-ordinates to actual pixels? If so, you could define an element/image starting at 0,0 with size 100,100 and that would then give you the screen size. From there you might be able to paint wherever you want.

All in theory of course. I could just be talking complete bollocks

Iain

[ShiningDragon]

Personally, I think it seems like a waste of time developing a skin specifically for a single resolution.

This is true, but if you (try) to built a skin with "Textures" instead playing with colours and frames, then is a precise positioning a must be. Otherwise it would be looking ugly and with every resolution other, than it should.

Ok, i`ll try your suggested method and hope, that the result will looks acceptable. Thank you for answering. ^.^

Iain, that were a nice thing, me agrees.

EDIT
Let me show in pictures, what i mean:


This one is an example, as i built this skin for gb-pvr. If the positioning is not precise, then it will look really, really awful.

[sub]

EDIT
Let me show in pictures, what i mean:


This one is an example, as i built this skin for gb-pvr. If the positioning is not precise, then it will look really, really awful.

To be honest, I dont see anything in that screenshot that makes me think percentages wouldnt be inadequate. You can be very precise with percentages. ie, you dont have to use integer numbers - it does double precision floating point, so you can end up with very precise placement that looks correct at all resolutions. A person may have problems if they used your skin on a 4:3 display when you designed it for 16:9, but all 16:9 resolutions should look fine. I think you're worrying unnecessarily.

[ShiningDragon]

Yes, it seemed that i misunderstood something. Even with precise calculation (with a lot of numbers XD) the positions weren't perfect. But this is not your fault, it was my fault: my graphics had transparent borders... your recommendation is working as it should. Annoying to calculate, but it works.

Another short question: Is it Possible to change the formatting of date/time within mainmenu? I can't find the formatting for this (currently DD, dd MM YYYY, hh:mm which is not attractive to me). I would prefer a split of clock / date like: hh:mms(?) | dd.mm.yyyy or yyyy.mm.dd ?

[sub]

Another short question: Is it Possible to change the formatting of date/time within mainmenu? I can't find the formatting for this (currently DD, dd MM YYYY, hh:mm which is not attractive to me). I would prefer a split of clock / date like: hh:mms(?) | dd.mm.yyyy or yyyy.mm.dd ?

Not currently, but I've made a couple of minor changes to enable this in the next release. Currently the skin can only use "@dateTime". For the next release you can also use "@date" and "@time", which provide the short date and short time strings.

[ShiningDragon]

Ah, ok this is good to know.

Now i have another question: I need to know more about the (currently) working functions within nPVR. Which panel / function is already usable/viewable within nPVR. ATM i know, that the main menu has the vertical menu, a net radio display, a message windows centered of the screen and the datetime panel. Is there a way to see all panels active at the same time, so that i could better plan a skin?

And another question: The picture quality of displayed graphics is not as good, as it should be. A little bit unsharp. I think this has to do with the 3d graphicsmode. Is there a way to raise the picturequality of graphics? Currently i save the graphics into the .png format (32-Bit) with transparency.

We have a lack of documentation. ^^ The GB-PVR community skinguide is good, but there are a lot of open questions to me (one of the things, why i stopped the skin for gb-pvr 4 years before...)

[sub]

Ah, ok this is good to know.

Now i have another question: I need to know more about the (currently) working functions within nPVR. Which panel / function is already usable/viewable within nPVR. ATM i know, that the main menu has the vertical menu, a net radio display, a message windows centered of the screen and the datetime panel. Is there a way to see all panels active at the same time, so that i could better plan a skin?

No, you'd have to perform the actions that trigger those items to appear.

And another question: The picture quality of displayed graphics is not as good, as it should be. A little bit unsharp. I think this has to do with the 3d graphicsmode. Is there a way to raise the picturequality of graphics? Currently i save the graphics into the .png format (32-Bit) with transparency.

I cant say I've noticed it myself. Make sure you have the UI Rendering Resolution setting set to 'Auto' though, so that it renders to the same resolution as your desktop, since this gives the best quality.

We have a lack of documentation. ^^ The GB-PVR community skinguide is good, but there are a lot of open questions to me (one of the things, why i stopped the skin for gb-pvr 4 years before...)

Sorry, I dont see this type of documentation happening. If you have specific questions though, just ask and I'll do my best to give you decent answer.

[ShiningDragon]

I cant say I've noticed it myself. Make sure you have the UI Rendering Resolution setting set to 'Auto' though, so that it renders to the same resolution as your desktop, since this gives the best quality.

Ok, i think i am understanding what is happening. It looks like AntiAliasing or something like this, also seems the quality to depends of the used graphicshardware and driver(-setting).

Sorry, I dont see this type of documentation happening. If you have specific questions though, just ask and I'll do my best to give you decent answer.

Good, let's start with some basic things. While i plan the layout of the skin, i already tried a little. I saw some methods of displaying bitmaps like:
<Image source="Panel_ScreenName.png" location="0,0" size="100,100"/>
or
<Image location="0,0" size="100,100" source="button_background.png" />
possible more...

What is the difference between Image source / Image location and the other commands? For what is the vertical.xml within the Skin/Default/Menu folder? I removed this one without something happens to the main menu?