hAv1c and hAv1cPlus Skin release - 800 x 480 (Transparency, custom font color)

monkeyracer · 10-22-2007, 06:52 PM

I started a skin as a theory into designing a clean, nice looking, low-CPU usage skin, and here's what came out:

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/rr-s...-easy-use.html

That thread will be considered version 0 (pre-release) information.

Due to the amount of changes since that thread was started, I'm using this thread for the actual skin release. Any questions related to the skin or comments and suggestions will be placed here, as well as the most current updates. (also mirrored on my website - jcautodesign.com)

hAv1c
This skin is designed as a good, solid skin, that doesn't take up much space, and therefore doesn't have any flash or animations, or any of that fancy graphic stuff that some skins offer. This is also designed to be VERY easy to read in the sunlight, and dark enough at night to not have to use gamma controls. The buttons are large and use the space efficiently, and there is a consistent theme across all screens.

hAv1cPlus
This skin supports backgrounds and is a good night time skin. There is also a custom text color chooser to match the background.
IMPORTANT: Please note, the first time that you use this skin, there may be no background chosen. Make sure you have a background folder that is referenced in rr.ini next to picspath (for example, mine is C:\Program Files\Road Runner\Backgrounds.) If you don't have a backgrounds folder, download the one here, and place it in the same folder RR is in. In the skin, to select the default one, just click MENU>SETTINGS>BACKGROUND>(select a background)>GO. After that, your background will be there. If the weather screens don't show the icons, download the folder here, and place it in the same folder as RR.

Download Here
hAv1c - 10/29 Version 1.01
hAv1cPlus - 11/17 Version 1.03

Helper Folders
Backgrounds
Weather

Video
Here's a video of the Plus skin in action, shows most of the features, highlights the Font Color Changer and transparency effect. There is no audio to this clip. (The screen capture program made the computer run a little slower than normal in some places.)

PhotoBucket:

Screen shots:

Main Screen:

Main Screen with Visu:

Main Menu:

Audio Screen:

Video Player:

Video Browser:

GPS (iguidance) Screen:

Weather Screen:

5-day Weather Detail:

Mixer Screen: (no transparency support yet, coming soon)

(You can open this skin in the editor and re-label the two presets to whatever you prefer)

Web Browser:

On Screen Keyboard:

Plus version supporting transparency:

Notice the number pad is in the orientation like a phone rather than like a normal 10-key keypad. This is shared from my AvicZ2 skin, will be redone to better match the button theme.

Outlook E-Mail Screen:

Application Launch Screen:

Notepad Screen:

Skin Browser Screen:

Docked RRConfig Screen:

This screen is accessed through the Skin Browser Screen

Exit Menu:

Background chooser (plus version only):

Custom Text Color Chooser (plus version only, day version coming soon):

(Updated in 1.02 - 11/10/07 release)

Readme and change history:
hAv1c
1.01 - 10/29/07 - now includes ExecTBL.ini
1.0 - 10/22/07 - Initial Release.

For this skin to work correctly, the following must be done:
- Copy the fonts "bgothm" and "Webdings 3" into your fonts folder (Usually C:\Windows\Fonts\)
- If outlook doesn't dock correctly, open your ExecTbl.ini (and change the filepath to the actual location of microsoft outlook.)

hAv1cPlus

Release history:
1.03 - 11/17/07 - Added iList support
1.02 - 11/10/07 - Added transparent OSK, redesigned text color chooser, reorganized menu from main.skin (all other screens have old menu)
1.01 - 10/29/07 - Added ExecTBL.ini and included No Gestures Area in TextColor.skin
1.0 - 10/29/07 - Initial Release.

Requirements:

For this skin to work correctly, the following must be done:
- Copy the fonts "bgothm" and "Webdings 3" into your fonts folder (Usually C:\Windows\Fonts\)
- For backgrounds to work, in rr.ini the picspath=<filepath> variable needs to be changed to the folder location where your backgrounds are located.
- If Outlook doesn't dock correctly, open the Included ExecTbl.ini (change the filepath to the actual location of the file.)

Known issues and future improvements:

Bug - Sometimes when loading a screen with a docked application, the corresponding skin screen loses focus. (Not sure if "ACTIVATE;!RoadRunner!" will fix this or not...)

Bug - The first time internet is loaded (with Firefox) it wont dock the full area of the space. Switching to a different screen and then back fixes the issue.

Bug - Sometimes RR Config docks to the skin without the exit menu. Investigating why this happens.

Bug - The Audio Browser skin has the "close folder" and "next folder" in a different font.
Fixed in the 11/17/07 releases

Coming Soon - Background Support, Currently the skins are .bmp format, and they will be available for download as a .png to support changeable backgrounds.
Updated in hAv1cplus release

Coming Soon - More sub-screens such as XM radio, Phoco, etc. If there is a certain screen you wish included in this skin, please post a link to that skin so that I may emulate it here.

Coming Soon - iList support.
Updated in 11/17/07 releases

Coming Soon - Ultralight version - Saved in .jpg format, and on/down skins removed (no button animation.) Optimized for quick performance.

Coming Soon - 800 x 600 version - Sure, you can change the display resolution in the .ini file, but certain things won't resize correctly, and the text labels will be slightly off. In the official version these issues will be resolved.

Please report any bugs or suggestions here.

Enjoy!

treetop777 · 10-22-2007, 08:24 PM

Thanks for sharing.

Got "WingDings" font but not "WebDings3" - can you post it..

monkeyracer · 10-22-2007, 09:51 PM

If you downloaded it before this exact moment, then the fonts weren't in the .rar file. The Webdings 3 Font is one of my own creation, and is by no means complete. They are now, and the file is ready to be downloaded.

Note - RRConfig in screenshot is old version, make sure you have the newest version to make sure everything works correctly.

monkeyracer · 10-24-2007, 10:22 AM

any comments? suggestions? rants or raves?

guino · 10-24-2007, 10:58 AM

Suggestion: This would be a nice skin to be made with PNG files.. I mean, to become transparent.. I'd say: just keep the Buttonized effects, and make up a light shade under the text areas and bam! You'd have yourself a nice skin which could look the same as right now, or very customized with a sunny background for instance.. This should be fairly easy to do if you're using PhotoShop.. of course, keep the existing version for lower-cpu users -- but I'd say using PNGs with GDI+ might make it even faster.

monkeyracer · 10-24-2007, 12:37 PM

The text is ALL labels, there's no text encoded in the .bmp's (and therefore in the .png's) at all, (except for the mixer screen.) so once the png conversion is complete (see first post under known issues and future improvements) the end user can change the font color to suit the background they choose. This skin is pretty fast as is, and that is without having any skin preloaded... If one wanted to preload the weather, gps, and other skins, it would be even faster.

Is there an easy way to change the font color in the skin? (one click to change all labels color it rather than going through every label and changing the color code) if I could put that in the hAv1c+ skin it would be great.

Enforcer · 10-24-2007, 01:09 PM

Colour.skin

Code:

/DEFINE Selected 255,162,0
/DEFINE Fore 255,255,255
END

then in each skin at the beginning

INC,colour.skin

And make you labels like

L,030,060,160,020,#Fore#,18,"Tahoma:B","=Visuals", ""

ie have the #Fore# Where the colour would normally be.

monkeyracer · 10-24-2007, 01:32 PM

sweet, thanks Enforcer. I'll try that out tonight. If I wanted to make a skin that allowed the color to be changed along with the background how would I be able to allow that skin to change and save the new info into the color.skin?

Enforcer · 10-24-2007, 02:08 PM

That's not so easy.

I know JohnWPB has done a colour picker for his skin, but that needs a script to work, it's not just done with RR skin codes.

monkeyracer · 10-24-2007, 02:13 PM

i didn't think it would be that easy, but at least changing the label codes is easy... all anyone needs to do it open the color.skin and change the /DEFINE Norm XXX,XXX,XXX to whatever values they wanted... so tonight I plan on trying to do the .png conversion and making a background chooser skin... This will be implemented in the hAv1c+ release coming soon...

guino · 10-24-2007, 05:03 PM

Also, IF you use the skin editor, I recommend you do this for best compatibility:

/DEFINE FRed 255
/DEFINE FGreen 255
/DEFINE FBlue 255

L,030,060,160,020,#FRed#,#FGreen#,#FBlue#,18,"Taho ma:B","=Visuals", ""

monkeyracer · 10-24-2007, 05:24 PM

I haven't tried your skin editor yet, gonna dl it tonight...

Since I'm only going to use one set of colors, i'll just use this:

/DEFINE R 255
/DEFINE G 255
/DEFINE B 255

L,030,060,160,020,#R#,#G#,#B#,18,"Bank Gothic Md:B","=menu", ""

It really doesn't matter unless i'd be using multiple text colors... right?

monkeyracer · 10-25-2007, 11:12 AM

ok, what am i missing? I saved the files as .png, and I can change the color in rrconfig, but I can't select a background. it allows me to set the path to where my backgrounds are, but what do I need to do now?

monkeyracer · 10-25-2007, 12:08 PM

ok, basically copied what johnwpb did for his skin to get the skins to change backgrounds...

here's one thing that I can't figure out, the backgrounds don't fill the J area correctly, see pic below. They apply to the skin correctly, I just want to preview the backgrounds correctly first. The picture is in the same aspect ratio as the red boxed area, but it stretches it smaller. I want the image to stretch to fill the red area (even if it's not that aspect ratio...)

guino · 10-25-2007, 02:43 PM

using the J area in picviewer.skin will make an indicator with this code: "PICTURE:A"

If you change the J definition to an I defintion of code: "PICTURE" it will stretch to the area.. but chances are that if you change the screen's physical aspect ratio (in RRConfig) it will also fill the area.

for the background, sounds like you're missing background=path+file to the image of the background you want to use.