Brushed Metal for CF - Page 6

asci01 · 02-04-2005, 11:34 PM

Any idea why this is happening?

GizmoQ · 02-05-2005, 12:46 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by asci01

Any idea why this is happening?

Yea, and this is the part thats no fun. Your button locations in the skin.ini dont match the jpg picture. One of them is going to have to be changed. Let me know which you're more comfortable changing and maybe I can help.

OBTW, Meta!

I noticed this yesterday. Your skin only has five radio buttons, whereas, the original Centrafuse skin has 6.

GizmoQ · 02-05-2005, 02:14 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by asci01

Any idea why this is happening?

Try these:

CF Brushed Radio Files

Put the nav_down... and nav_off... files in the global directory and the rest in the screens directory.

If Those work, I have the rest I can send later.

Meta · 02-05-2005, 09:05 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by asci01

Any idea why this is happening?

Gizmoo is right, I was never able to test the "radio" pages and hence never finished them. I've uploaded a new skin.xml file for 'Stretched 800x600' that should do the trick.

Download Page

He's also right that I never noticed there were 6 "radio preset" buttons. Ugh. Well, instead of redoing all the graphics, I'm opting to just have 5 preset buttons on this skin.

PS. I have no way to test this out, so if you can let me know how it works, I'd appreciate it.

Meta · 02-05-2005, 11:01 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by wysocki

With the addition of this excellent skin, I need to checkout this CF thing. Unfortunately, it looks like www.MetaphysX.com is down right now. If I can get xm then CF is a real possibility for me. Are there blue-down skins for 800x600 stretch (Xenarc) yet?

Also, I'm a LITTLE experienced with Photoshop, it'd be great if some of these skinner guys could put out a quickie tutorial on how we can do a little editing on their creations, like changing glow colors, drawing buttons, window edge effects, etc. I know there are a bunch of PS tutorials out there but something specific to these skins would be cool.

First, the "Red Glow" and "Blue Glow" files are now available stretched 800x600. I also recommend using the new skin.xml I posted, as the original cuts off some of the glow effects.

As for modifying the skin, I recommend NOT trying to modify the raw .JPG's. Instead, download the .PSD's. The older ones are there now, and I'll upload my latest 'work files' today. All of the files are heavily layered (ie, not 'flat' images), which makes it much easier to apply styles to various components, hide and replace elements, etc.

The way I do it is start with the "down" version of a screen. Build it as you want, then Save As, for example, "main_down_music.jpg". Then go back to the same PSD and modify the styles for the "off" version and save that one as "main_off_music.jpg". Finally, again back to the same PSD, hide most of the elements to make the "empty" file, and Save As "main_empty.jpg". This keeps all the elements in place for the down/off/empty versions and saves you from starting from scratch for each one. And, if you started with the "main" screen, use this as your template for all the rest of your pages, so your player controls, main buttons etc, all stay in the same location. Add the specific elements for the screen your working on and apply/reapply styles, etc just like above. Once you get moving, it gets to be pretty easy. By the way, I'm far from a PhotoShop expert. I've never really used it until about two weeks ago.

The tough part is building the skin.xml file. But yesterday I found CoordPad. It never made it out of "alpha", not everything works perfectly, and the output is restricted to sectioned .ini format (I tried, but can't get it to write XML tags so I could copy/paste.) I started building sections in the coordpad.ini specifically for CF. Basically, you load up your image and draw boxes around your buttons. The output I get looks like this...

[GLOBALNAV/BUTTONS]
VOLDOWN=11,510,63,86
VOLUP=73,510,62,86
MUTE=134,510,62,86
MAIN4=0,411,123,82
MAIN5=0,333,123,79
...etc

It's still tedious, because you still have to manually type all the generated values into the skin.xml file the first time around, but it's the easiest way I've found.

If anyone has a better solution for getting the button coordinates, please share.

-Meta

asci01 · 02-05-2005, 07:19 PM

It looks like there's a mismatch with the different screens. Look how well defined are the main buttons to the left and the volume buttons.

asci01 · 02-05-2005, 07:20 PM

vs the main and GPS screen

camsgs3 · 02-05-2005, 07:44 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by asci01

It looks like there's a mismatch with the different screens. Look how well defined are the main buttons to the left and the volume buttons.

hey whats up buddy, do you have your hauppage working with CF?

Meta · 02-05-2005, 07:57 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by asci01

It looks like there's a mismatch with the different screens. Look how well defined are the main buttons to the left and the volume buttons.

Looks like I've got a mixup between the graphics and skin.xml for the 848x480 and 800x600 versions. Damn. Thanks for letting me know. I'll look into it and post fixes tomorrow morning.

Meta · 02-05-2005, 09:07 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by asci01

It looks like there's a mismatch with the different screens. Look how well defined are the main buttons to the left and the volume buttons.

I was comparing the images you posted to what they "should" be, and noticed that the first image you posted is from the FIRST version of the skin. In the latest revision, the bottom black bar (that contains the buttons for volume control, the player/radio controls and dim/vis, etc) extends all the way left and right, and touches the bottom of the screen like in the second pic you posted. See the difference? Looks like you've got a mix of different versions. Sorry for the confusion.

I recommend downloading the latest Stretched 800x600 and replacing what you have. Let me know if that doesn't fix the issue with the bottom bar/controls not lining up.

-Meta

PS. I will be changing the MUTE button per GizmoQ's suggestion. Also, FYI, from comments I've heard from David regarding functionality in the future, I purposely left out the MIXER button, as I gather that will be in the Tools/Utilities section later, and the "blank" button on the far right is purposely there to house a future global "exit" button. The graphics are already in place, I just can't assign an action to it yet.

GizmoQ · 02-05-2005, 10:01 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Meta

I recommend downloading the latest Stretched 800x600 and replacing what you have. Let me know if that doesn't fix the issue with the bottom bar/controls not lining up.

-Meta

PS. I will be changing the MUTE button per GizmoQ's suggestion. Also, FYI, from comments I've heard from David regarding functionality in the future, I purposely left out the MIXER button, as I gather that will be in the Tools/Utilities section later, and the "blank" button on the far right is purposely there to house a future global "exit" button. The graphics are already in place, I just can't assign an action to it yet.

Dear Sir,

I must first say that I think this is the best skin for CF that anyone has thought up so far. And in my haste to get it installed in my system, I took certain liberties with your creation. This letter is a formal apology for being a nuisance to the proper development of this effort. I hearby yeild to the greater talent and greater good of the community.

Until I get and learn photoshop for the creation of my own skins, I will only tweak skins for my personal use and never share mods to someone else's baseline. In my defense, when you first posted the skin and disappeared for two weeks, I took it upom myself to finish it for you and the rest of the community thinking you had abandoned the project. Boy was I wrong.

I have only been a member here for less than 6 months and have learned a great deal. I only wanted to contribute back to that community. For example: To eliminate that annoying scrolling volume label increase the value of the skin/globalnav/labels/volume/width setting by an increment of 20 (on mine I went from 90 to 110) and voila a stable volume label from 0-100%.

From now on I will continue to make recommendations and in my free time try to create my own skins to share with the community.

Meta keep up the great work.

Sincerely,

Giz

asci01 · 02-05-2005, 10:11 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by camsgs3

hey whats up buddy, do you have your hauppage working with CF?

I got it to work with FP but I don't know if it'll work with CF yet. I imagine it will since radiator is the one controlling the hauppage. I'll send you a PM so we don't hijack this thread.

asci01 · 02-05-2005, 10:17 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Meta

Looks like I've got a mixup between the graphics and skin.xml for the 848x480 and 800x600 versions. Damn. Thanks for letting me know. I'll look into it and post fixes tomorrow morning.

Downloading the lastest fixed the mismatch, but the radio screen still looks off

asci01 · 02-05-2005, 10:23 PM

By the way, IMHO the main buttons on the left looked more clear on the first version than on the second. For example, look at the difference in the DVD buttons between the two versions. Is it possible to make them look like the originals?

Meta · 02-06-2005, 07:59 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by asci01

By the way, IMHO the main buttons on the left looked more clear on the first version than on the second. For example, look at the difference in the DVD buttons between the two versions. Is it possible to make them look like the originals?

Do you mean the outer edge of the buttons was clearer, or the white part (the white icon of the DVD, Video, Radio, Globe, etc)? In the original version, the off/down states were pure white. Later, tho, I applied a "satin" effect to the icons in the "off" state to give it a little 'flash' and to make a bigger distinction between the two states.