Thread: Carwings

Originally Posted by brandensin

gizmoq,

i followed fixero's suggestion, it works..
just add,
backgroundpath=C:\Program Files\Road Runner\skins\Carwings_V2_Transparent\backgrounds\

to ur rr.ini

That's not the point. RR has a setting for where you as an end user want to keep your background pictures. I have over 300. I know most skinners want their skins to work right out of the box, but for those of us that use multiple skins and want to keep from duplicating files (if I left all the backgrounds for all the skins I use with their respective skins I'd have thousands of duplicates all over the place - WHY!) Same goes for add-ins and plugins, especially in those skins with installer programs.

I realize skinners want to get betas out fast, but documentation is part of programming (the worst part I know) and it seems all the threads on standardization are for not. I haven't released any of my skins for just this reason (and I probably couldn't stand the criticism or keep up with the change requests). I usually just sit back and if I like a skin I mod it to my liking without comment. But lately all this catering to the Newbies and programming in a vacuum just got to me and I apologize. I remember the debacle we had with two or three sources doing different things and I don't blame Guino for never releasing the source again, but now we face skins that don't play well with others and that's just as bad. Here's a perfect example: every skin installer that registers coverflow breaks every other skins ability to use it (and I know that's a coverflow issue, but the skinner did it to us).

:RANT MODE OFF:

I'll just shut up and mod the skin to my liking.

Originally Posted by GizmoQ

That's not the point. RR has a setting for where you as an end user want to keep your background pictures. I have over 300. I know most skinners want their skins to work right out of the box, but for those of us that use multiple skins and want to keep from duplicating files (if I left all the backgrounds for all the skins I use with their respective skins I'd have thousands of duplicates all over the place - WHY!) Same goes for add-ins and plugins, especially in those skins with installer programs.

I realize skinners want to get betas out fast, but documentation is part of programming (the worst part I know) and it seems all the threads on standardization are for not. I haven't released any of my skins for just this reason (and I probably couldn't stand the criticism or keep up with the change requests). I usually just sit back and if I like a skin I mod it to my liking without comment. But lately all this catering to the Newbies and programming in a vacuum just got to me and I apologize. I remember the debacle we had with two or three sources doing different things and I don't blame Guino for never releasing the source again, but now we face skins that don't play well with others and that's just as bad. Here's a perfect example: every skin installer that registers coverflow breaks every other skins ability to use it (and I know that's a coverflow issue, but the skinner did it to us).

:RANT MODE OFF:

I'll just shut up and mod the skin to my liking.

I totally understand and I think RR should use a default location for background images. I have no problem changing to a "standard" location if we can decide on one. The path I used is inside the skin folder because the new installer does not come with background images and I did not want to do an instaler so I just made it drop in and play. Maybe I will do an installer and get a consensus of where we want our images to reside and problem solved.

I hope you didn't take my rant the wrong way. I'm not telling you or anyone else how to skin for RR. Its just that standards are being agreed upon by some and maybe they're not distributed or explained to the masses (Stickyed or FAQ). And if they were known, skinners would have to add documentation, for example, that says "there is a directory of backgrounds as a sub directory of this skin that should be copied to your backgroundpath directory, if you don't have one already step1,step2,step3,... is how to create one". Maybe the standards should have boilerplate for skinners to add to their documentation. I don't know. I think I start a new thread on this and try not to get banned.

:Back to your regularly scheduled programming:

Well Itried to make a Standardisation of plugins but got pi5sed with a certain element not bothering to take that into consideration so I have given up.

I have long been an advocate for a standard place for backgrounds folder in the root of RoadRunner as opposed to individual skins.

Also for plugins as well.

But hey, why bother?

Originally Posted by Enforcer

I have long been an advocate for a standard place for backgrounds folder in the root of RoadRunner as opposed to individual skins.Also for plugins as well.

agreed

Originally Posted by Enforcer

But hey, why bother?

AGREED

I'll second that motion ... or in this case third that motion ...

an alternative solution is to implement something like TEKNIK T/3 does (shameless plug) ... On skin start it will load a default BG pic if not exists AND you can change the path for your BG folder from inside the actual skin ... not setting INI variable by hand ... so you just browse to your BG folder.

Eveyone knows that a global variable can be declared in rr.ini that maps the background directory, right!?

As long as the skinners follow suit all skins will have a common background share, thats how my system is setup anyway. Guino implimented this back when the first GDI+ RR was released.