A no-touch skin at 800x480

**monkeyracer** · 04-11-2008, 09:40 AM

I have two REF1242W's and they kick pretty hard. I like them for sure.

The inverter is for the playstation or to charge my laptop or any thing that needs a house charger. The DC-DC PSU powers the CarPC, but I just got this new car, and haven't got around to installing everything yet.

I like the idea of having the screen change to a radio, etc. for the different functions, so I will look into that a little tonight.

**bes51659** · 04-11-2008, 11:00 AM

Just a couple of pics

[media]http://files.turbosquid.com/Preview/Content_on_3_21_2005_08_56_49/phone_booth_01.jpg673d02fa-0737-4822-af6b-7c724d336c1eLarge.jpg[/media]

[media]http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/archives/images/set2/radio.jpg[/media]

[media]http://www.newenglandtravelplanner.com/assets/vt_images/stowe/stowe_info_sign5694.jpg[/media]

[media]http://www.nolimitcaraudio.com/images/store/5703.jpg[/media]

I have had my car for 7 years because of this project. I bet I am the first one _saving_ money on a carputer :-)

B-O

**monkeyracer** · 04-18-2008, 06:15 PM

I'm kinda waiting to get any further with this until I get some stuff done with making it a flash skin. It works, sure, but there's no dynamic transitions, and the buttons are hardcoded. (headphones, clapboard, etc...) so instead of having 200 possible screen combinations for the different menus, I want to get it into flash...

Still learning it, so it will be a little while before it's ready...

**bes51659** · 04-18-2008, 07:25 PM

That's fine.

I was thinking how I can contribute. I thought that having a 'story board' (isn't that what they call it in the movie's?) would be a way of knowing where we are heading, and also to be able to split work up. "Identifying activities", is what we would say at my work.

A bit difficult for me as I do not know what you can do with flash, so I kindof throw idees on you.

But if I get you right, I will hold on and when you got something in flash you'll show it and we'll take it from there. More like a competence project for the time being. If so, I might do a really simple skin (like my drawings) in the mean while.

Are we talking the same language?

**monkeyracer** · 04-18-2008, 07:51 PM

Yup, I have it pretty much laid out how I want the skin to flow (story board style) but I don't want to put the footwork into building all the images until I get more info on how hard this would be to implement into flash.

I'm familiar with flash before actionscript came out and haven't done anything with it since then, so there is a LOT to catch up on. A lot of this would be easier if there was a simpler flash program. I've DL'd the trials for flash cs3 and swish max 2, and the interface is pretty similar between the two. If there's a simpler one out there, I'd love to try it.

A simple skin that at least gets the functionality going might help with my designs to see how you would use the skin. So if you want to design some simple screens (you said pencil and paper at one point) that would help me get a better idea of what you would use.

**monkeyracer** · 04-19-2008, 03:14 PM

I found the OVERLAY plug in and that might be what I needed to get some more headway on this skin. basically, there would be each function, autozooms into fullscreen after set interval, and pressing menu brings up an overlayed menu that would be available from every screen... When I get home later, I will try to play with this a little and see what can be done.

**bes51659** · 04-20-2008, 06:18 PM

I will surf the internet for the keywords you've used to get an idee about what you are talking about :-)
- actionscript
- flash cs3
- swish max 2

I will also make my 'storyboard' with simple pictures, probably hand drawn, as comprehencive as I know at this moment.

**bes51659** · 04-21-2008, 06:32 PM

Aha!... I think.

Flash is a script language that runs typically on web browsers with plugins. And roadrunner with flash support is really roadrunner with flash plugin?

So does this mean that the normal navigation with skins and buttons in roadrunner isn't used? It is all within a big "flash" script? Can I still make skins as before and then add flash on frame after frame, or is there a fork-road right there at the start?

I think I will make drawings, scan them and then use skinmaker to put it together. Is that a simple way to make a "storyboard"? (or rather prototype)

B-O

(I saw something in wikipedia about SwiSH only working on 800x600 or greater...)

**monkeyracer** · 04-21-2008, 06:57 PM

Originally Posted by bes51659

I will surf the internet for the keywords you've used to get an idee about what you are talking about :-)
- actionscript
- flash cs3
- swish max 2

I will also make my 'storyboard' with simple pictures, probably hand drawn, as comprehencive as I know at this moment.

Actionscript is the language that controls the different flash functions. Similar to html for web pages. It allows variables and controls when certain things do what they are supposed to do.

Flash CS3 is the Adobe program that allows end users to create flash projects and use actionscript, Swish Max 2 is a third party program that is very similar to Flash CS3.

Originally Posted by bes51659

Aha!... I think.

Flash is a script language that runs typically on web browsers with plugins. And roadrunner with flash support is really roadrunner with flash plugin?

So does this mean that the normal navigation with skins and buttons in roadrunner isn't used? It is all within a big "flash" script? Can I still make skins as before and then add flash on frame after frame, or is there a fork-road right there at the start?

I think I will make drawings, scan them and then use skinmaker to put it together. Is that a simple way to make a "storyboard"? (or rather prototype)

B-O

(I saw something in wikipedia about SwiSH only working on 800x600 or greater...)

Look at sonicxtasy's skins, they are made in flash. Really it just allows better animations with the different functions in road runner. I think I found a plug-in for RR that will let me do what I want to do with these (except the zooming feature) without any kind of flash at all. Check out the plug-in here:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/1203500-post23.html

If you get some reference "story boards" together, I can clean up the images (scanned in images will not look the best) and help you make them into a functional skin...

**bes51659** · 04-23-2008, 08:40 AM

I downloaded rr skineditor and found how a flash script was invoked from the skin file! Starting to make sense together with your great explanations and patients!

I will make my story board with rr skin editor. It will be crude as the pictures I've already put in here, in fact I will use the same pictures and make the boardmonitor buttons clickable... When complete it would be a live illustration on what I want from my skin.

One thing that surpriced me was that the screens was in jpg format (at least in the BMV2 skin)! bmp most be much better!

( glad you liked the radio pic I found :-) )