Thread: Win $25 for designing the best skin for the Fusion Brain's Software!

Alright, I guess nobody like money...

Well here is the skin settings that I said I would post:

All of the items must be encased in #STARTNEW# and finished with #ENDNEW#.

Also each of the categories are setup with << and the name of the category and all finished with >>END. Only 5 different categories:
>>MAIN
<<END

>>OUTPUTS
<<END

>>AI_INPUTS
<<END

>>DI_INPUTS
<<END

>>OTHERBUTTONS
<<END

>>DEAD
<<END

_________________________________________

MAIN is where the program settings go. Below is an example using all the possible options:

Code:

>>MAIN
#BACKIMAGE#\Images\BMV2_Background.jpg
#TILESTRETCHBACKIMAGE#TILE
#SIZE#640;480
#TRANSPARENT#000255255
#COLOURDOWN#Transparent
#COLOURUP#Transparent
#SYSTEMTRAY#false
#ANIMATIONINTERVAL#100
#ANALOGUEINTERVAL#75
#USESPEECHRECOGNITION#false
#USESPEECHFULLDICTATION#false
<<END

#BACKIMAGE#path

The path to the image to be used as a background. The root folder is determined as the folder that the program was launched out of. So if you launch the program from C:\Fusion and have your images in C:\Fusion\images\back.jpg then path would be \images\back.jpg

#TILESTRETCHBACKIMAGE#TILE|STRETCH|CENTER

If TILE, then the image is repeated over and over until it fills the screen. Can be useful for repeating backgrounds.
If STRETCH than the image will stretch to fill the entire window no matter how big or small the original image, or if the aspect ratio is different. This is the most useful setting.
If CENTER then the image is just placed in the centre. If it is too big, the edges will be clipped, if it is too small then you will see a border around the image.

#SIZE#width;height

This sets the size of the main window. 640x480 would be 640;480 and 800x600 would be 800;600. You can change it to anything you want, and it will display. You may then need to adjust the cooresponding locations in the skin file if you are modifying a previous file instead of creating a new one and the sizes vary. As of now the application does not autosize, but it is in the works (06-06-07)

#TRANSPARENT#RRRGGGBBB

This is the colour that is set to transparent. So if you want you can create a non-rectangular area by creating a shape and then filling in the remaining rectangle with a colour. Take that colour in its red/green/blue format and put it in here. Always should be 9 numbers.

#COLOURDOWN#Colour
#COLOURUP#Colour

These are for the backing of the buttons. Should not be required anymore, but should be set to Transparent until this completely removed. It will set the background for the buttons when they are pushed and not pushed. Needs a name of a standard colour like Red, Blue, Green, White, Black.

#SYSTEMTRAY#true|false

If true then the program will start minimized in the tray so that external applications can control it without you needing both applications visible. There are currently people working on programs to control in externally.

#ANIMATIONINTERVAL#xxx
#ANALOGUEINTERVAL#xxx

ANIMATIONINTERVAL is the interval the digital outputs are refreshed at where xxx is a number greater than 0. An interval of 100 means 100ms or 10 times a second. This is plenty fast for you not to notice the time from when you click a button to when it goes on. However, if you want extra speedy times, or if you want an animation that switches fast, or to control digital logic, then you can set it higher. Anything below 80mS starts to add CPU cycles. On a via board you might start getting laggy, because the analogue inputs you want high. So you can set which is a higher priority. ANALOGUEINTERVAL is for the analogue input refresh. If you are only using the temperature sensors and other sensors that dont really need fast updates, then this value can be higher. However for accelerometers, you want this as fast as your computer can handle. 75mS updates are suffucient and runs well on a via board. The fastest you can go is 30mS update but the CPU cycles go up because it is a lot of data back and forth.

#USESPEECHRECOGNITION#true|false
#USESPEECHFULLDICTATION#true|false

If USESPEECHRECOGNITION is to enable speech control of the unit. If you are not going to be using you NEED to set it to false. The speech engine will produce false positives if there is no microphone connected, and it is enabled. This will result in it randomly telling you the temperature and turning inputs on and off. If USESPEECHFULLDICTATION is true, then it tries to figure out what you said using a full english dictionary. This will produce less accurate results, but will allow more freedom when you speak. The default is false as well as the reccommendation to leave this false. If false it goes to a speech file where you can set what the commands are what they do.

These are the possibilities of the digital ports as well as an example:

Code:

>>OUTPUTS
#STARTNEW#
  #NAME#Out 1
  #TYPE#RELAY
  #DEFAULTSTATE#ON
  #IMAGEON#\Images\BMV2_Button60_Down.gif
  #IMAGEOFF#\Images\BMV2_Button60.gif
  #SIZE#60,60
  #LOCATION#10,10
  #SHOWTEXT#true
  #PAGE#0
  #PORT#0
  #LINK#1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8;9;10;11
  #ANIMATION#{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0}::FOREVER::0
  #VIDPID#vid_04d8&pid_000c
  #TXTCOLOURON#LightGray
  #TXTCOLOUROFF#DarkGray
  #BORDERSIZE#0
  #FONT#Arial Narrow;18;BOLD
  #TIMER#30
#ENDNEW#
<<END

#NAME#Text to Appear

The Text To Appear is what appears on the button over the image. For example have textual buttons as well as or instead of all graphical buttons/icons.

#TYPE#RELAY

Right now the only option is RELAY which means a regular digital out. Future options may be EXTENDER for a board that allows 64 digital outputs, or LCD for a character LCD screen.

#DEFAULTSTATE#ON|OFF

When the program starts all the outputs are off on default. However if you are controlling your amp to prevent startup pop, you want this set to ON or else you would need to manually turn on your amp every time.

#ANIMATION#{0|1,0|1,0|1,...}::FOREVER|0|1|2|3...:: 0

This allows you to create an animation to turn on and off outputs with some pattern. Such as flashing lights, or even turning outputs on for a time period and it automatically turns off. The part within the brackets is the animation sequence. 1 is on and 0 is off. Sp {1,0,1,1,0,0} would turn the outputs on, off, on, on, off, off. Then 2 colons are required ::. Then either FOREVER or an integer number greater than 0. This is how many times it repeats. FOREVER means it will never turn off until you manually turn it off. You can set it to repeat 2 times for example so it would be on, off, on, on, off, off, on, off, on, on, off, off and then stay off until you click it again. Another way of using this is to set the animation to {1} with the repeat equal to *time you want it on for* divided by your ANIMATIONINTERVAL. So if 1 output turns on your horn, you only want it to blast for 1 second. So if your animation interval is set to 100mS, then 1000mS/100mS is 10. So the total would be {1}::10::0. The ending 0 is which frame it starts on. 0 being the first frame. This number needs to be between 0 and the total number of frames (minus 1).

#IMAGEON#path
#IMAGEOFF#path

IMAGEON is the image to display when the output is on, and IMAGEOFF is the image to display when the output is off. Follows the same rules as the background image in the main section. The root folder is determined as the folder that the program was launched out of. So if you launch the program from C:\Fusion and have your images in C:\Fusion\images\button1.jpg then path would be \images\button1.jpg

#SIZE#width, height
#LOCATION#x,y

Both comma seperated. for LOCATION 0,0 refers to the top left corner.

#LINK#x;x;x
#ANTILINK#x;x;x

When this button is turned on, the buttons in LINK will also be turned on. Also it will turn off the buttons in ANTILINK. The x is determined by the order in the skin file, not the port number. So the first digital output defined is 0. Semicolon seperated.

#AUDIOFROMOFFTOON#path
#AUDIOFROMONTOOFF#path

These are the sound files that will be played as the button is pressed on or off. path is like the image, with the root being where the application was launched.

#SHOWTEXT#true|false

If true then the text from NAME will be displayed on the button otherwise nothing will show.

#PAGE#x

Where x is the page where this button will be drawn. 0 is the first page. You can have unlimited amount of pages.

#PORT#

This is needed to determine which output this button connects to. Must be a value between 0 and 11 if RELAY because there are only 12 outputs on the board.

#VIDPID#vidpid

If you use multiple firmware versions, then you need to change this. Default is vid_04d8&pid_000c

#TXTCOLOURON#Colour
#TXTCOLOUROFF#Colour

If the button is on the text will be the TXTCOLOURON colour, otherwise it will be TXTCOLOUROFF colour. Needs a name such as Red, Blue, Green, Black, White and other standard colors. Default is LightGray and DarkGray to go with the BMV2 skin.

#BORDERSIZE#x

The border around the button. Set to 0 for graphical skins.

#FONT#name;pt size;extra style

The font for the text on the button

#TIMER#xxx

This is the individual shutdown timer for each of the outputs. After the device is disconnected, and the output is on, the output will remain on for xxx seconds.

This is the configuration for the Analogue Input Ports as well as an example below:

Code:

>>AI_INPUTS
#STARTNEW#
  #NAME#RAW VOLTAGE
  #TYPE#VOLTAGE
  #SETTINGS#CELCIUS
  #VIDPID#vid_04d8&pid_000c
  #IMAGESTATIC#\Images\BMV2_Button.gif
  #SIZE#190,50
  #LOCATION#80,350
  #SHOWTEXT#true
  #PAGE#0
  #PORT#0
  #TXTCOLOUR#LightGray
  #BORDERSIZE#0
  #FONT#Arial Narrow;18;BOLD
  #PLOTLENGTH#100
#ENDNEW#
<<END

#NAME#Text to Appear

The Text To Appear is what appears on the button over the image. For example have textual buttons as well as or instead of all graphical buttons/icons.

#TYPE#ACCELEROMETER|PHOTOELECTRIC|PHOTOELECTRIC|PO TENTIOMETER|TEMPERATURE|VOLTAGE

The type of the sensor connected to the port. Used to determine how to parse the SETTINGS area.

#VIDPID#vidpid

If you use multiple firmware versions, then you need to change this. Default is vid_04d8&pid_000c

#IMAGESTATIC#path

#IMAGESTATIC# is the image to display for the input. Follows the same rules as the background image in the main section. The root folder is determined as the folder that the program was launched out of. So if you launch the program from C:\Fusion and have your images in C:\Fusion\images\button1.jpg then path would be \images\button1.jpg

#SIZE#width, height
#LOCATION#x,y

Both comma seperated. for LOCATION 0,0 refers to the top left corner.

#SHOWTEXT#true|false

If true then the text from NAME will be displayed on the button otherwise nothing will show.

#PAGE#x

Where x is the page where this button will be drawn. 0 is the first page. You can have unlimited amount of pages.

#PORT#

This is needed to determine which output this button connects to. Must be a value between 0 and 9 because there are only 10 analogue inputs on the board.

#TXTCOLOUR#Colour

The text will be the TXTCOLOURcolour. Needs a name such as Red, Blue, Green, Black, White and other standard colors. Default is LightGray and DarkGray to go with the BMV2 skin.

#BORDERSIZE#x

The border around the button. Set to 0 for graphical skins.

#FONT#name;pt size;extra style

The font for the text on the button

#PLOTLENGTH#

When you draw a graph, this is the number of data points will be stored on the graph. The rest of the points will be stored in a log file.

#MULTILEVELGRAPHICS#
#HIGHTHRESHHOLD#
#LOWTHRESHHOLD#
#HIGHKEYSEQUENCE#
#HIGHMAINWINDOWTITLE#
#HIGHSUBWINDOWTITLE#
#HIGHMAINCLASS#
#HIGHSUBCLASS#
#LOWKEYSEQUENCE#
#LOWMAINWINDOWTITLE#
#LOWSUBWINDOWTITLE#
#LOWMAINCLASS#
#LOWSUBCLASS#
#ENDNEW#

Will be the digital ins and an example below:

Code:

>>DI_INPUTS
#STARTNEW#
#NAME#Winamp - Play
#KEYSEQUENCE#x
#MAINWINDOWTITLE#winamp
#PORT#3
#MINTIMEBETWEEN#500
#VIDPID#vid_04d8&pid_000c
#ENDNEW#
<<END

Digital Input Ports
#STARTNEW#
#NAME#
#KEYSEQUENCE#
#MAINWINDOWTITLE#
#SUBWINDOWTITLE#
#MAINCLASS#
#SUBCLASS#
#PORT#
#VIDPID#
#ENDNEW#

Will be other buttons and an example below:

Code:

>>OTHERBUTTONS
#STARTNEW#
  #NAME#GRAPH1
  #FUNCTION#GRAPH
  #SETTINGS#0
  #PAGE#0
  #TXTCOLOUR#LightGray
  #IMAGESTATIC#\Images\BMV2_Button60_Graph.gif
  #SECONDARYIMAGE#\Images\BMV2_Button60_Graph_Down.gif
  #BORDERSIZE#0
  #FONT#Arial Narrow;18;BOLD
  #SIZE#60,60
  #LOCATION#10,350
  #SHOWTEXT#true
#ENDNEW#

#STARTNEW#
  #NAME#+
  #FUNCTION#TIMER_OUT
  #SETTINGS#+10
  #PAGE#0
  #TXTCOLOUR#LightGray
  #IMAGESTATIC#\Images\BMV2_Button60.gif
  #SECONDARYIMAGE#\Images\BMV2_Button60_Down.gif
  #BORDERSIZE#0
  #FONT#Arial Narrow;18;BOLD
  #SIZE#60,60
  #LOCATION#10,200
  #SHOWTEXT#true
#ENDNEW#
<<END

Other Buttons
#STARTNEW#
#NAME#
#FUNCTION#
#SETTINGS#
#PAGE#
#TXTCOLOUR#
#IMAGESTATIC#
#SECONDARYIMAGE#
#BORDERSIZE#
#FONT#
#SIZE#
#LOCATION#
#SHOWTEXT#
#ENDNEW#

Will be dead buttons and an example below:

Code:

>>DEAD
#STARTNEW#
  #IMAGE#/Images/dead1.gif
  #PAGE#0
  #SIZE#35,190
  #LOCATION#200,400
#ENDNEW#
<<END

#IMAGE#
#PAGE#
#SIZE#
#LOCATION#

I think I might want to give a crack at it. I'll try it out a little later this evening.

Originally Posted by monkeyracer

I think I might want to give a crack at it. I'll try it out a little later this evening.

Alright. I still havent finished this sort of FAQ for the skinning, but the overall idea of what can be done is here.

Of course if you need any help just let me know.

sorry, just so eager to get going on another skin project.
i did give it 24 hours before posting though