Spoon, is there a Skin Priority when Building?

[Narler]

Hi Spoon,

I'm in a bit of a Jam here, I've been building my new skin, and for the first time, I didn't lay down the <IsAmpWindow> skin first, Mainly because it was going on-top of other skins, and as there's no re-sort option in the Skin Designer, I added all the other skins first.

However, after building the skin for <IsAmpWindow>, when i goto test it, Nothing is displayed?..

Is there a rule that the <IsAmpWindow> HAS to be placed as the first skin in the Skin Designer?

When i set the first skin I used to [Show Always], then my <IsAmpWindow> skin appeared, but that's not a viable option.

So I have 2 questions

• Does the First skin placed when making a skin Have to be the <IsAmpWindow>
  
• If yes to the above, is there any way around this, such as editing a .BIN file so that I can set the <IsAmpWindow> Skin to the first one? (Currently the <IsAmpWindow> is the 5th skin. ) If this is an option, can you provide me with the file structure for the .BIN so I know which bits to edit.

Thanks in advance.

[Spoon]

By the 5th skin you mean the 5th skin on the AMP component?

[Narler]

I meant the 5th skin layed down in the Skin Designer. When Creating the skins (the order in which they are made within the Skin Designer program).

Normally the first skin I make is also assigned <IsAmpWindow> but on this occassion, I made 5 + other skins then I made the skin for <IsAmpWindow>.

I can only get the skin to display if I set the *first* skin I placed (made) in the Skin Designer, to <IsAmpWindow> or if I set it to [Show Always], then the real <IsAmpWindow> will appear aswell.

I think it's got to do with the way the Skin Designer setups the priorities. Just looking at the Object Properties for the Skins. There is an option for "Show Position". and the option is Lock to Primary Window.

So by that I now assume, Primary Window is the First skin created in the Skin designer, and is in no way related to which window is assigned <IsAmpWindow> status.

Does that make sense? (it's 02:30 in the morning here

cya

[Spoon]

Ah right, realistically you will have to start that skin again - the Bin file for a skin is not fixed length, a skin then the components then the next skin follows. It would be even though for me with a program to extract that skin.

[Narler]

I guessed that would be the final outcome, So I've Re-built the skin.

However now i've come across another problem, and I'm out of ideas. So I'll start by asking a question if I may..

• What are the physical Limits to the number of skins on one component? (such as AMP)

Is this a fixed (or unknown) number?.

The reason I ask, is this. I have rebuilt most of my new skin and all options, skins, buttons etc work perfectly when a track is playing, but if i stop playing, and then click on Play. BANG. dbpower "Not Responding" and I have to kill the task in Close Program (CTRL ALT DEL) box. However the music is still playing?

I've narrowed it down to anything new past a certain point. For instance, if I add another skin, set it to <Show Always> and use a new (currently unused) bmp picture, and leave this skin bare (as in NO objects, labels, buttons etc). Now i click on play, And DAP dies?.. if I delete that bare skin, click on play, DAP plays fine?

So this can't simply be due to an existing skin, otherwise I would expect DAP to die on each Play click. The fact that I can get it to die each and any time i add a new skin, makes me think it's related to something else? Currently this Next track and Start Playing causing DAP to crash has got me buggered.

• What are the physical Limits to the number of objects on one component? (such as AMP)

Are there limits to how many buttons, labels etc?.. OH could it be to the number of times a Z-Order is used?.. Is there any limits on how many skins can be assigned the same Z-Order ? Maybe that's what was effecting the New Z-Order test

I'll rebuild the skin from scratch again and see if that resolves this problem, but it would be nice to try and identify what causes it in the first place. The lockup problem is the same one that occurs on the Z-test skin i did when it's loaded into DAP that's currently playing a track.

If need be I can send you my current skin for you to use as a limit test. (FYI, there are currently 28 BIN files in the AMP directory for this skin, and I've not finished building it yet. Each skin is locked to Primary Window, so therefore I'm unable to use a UserDefined Component.)

Any thoughts or suggestions are most welcome.

Thanks.

[BestRip]

Hi Narler,

I really do not have any idea at all about the problem you have been running into, I just have to comment that the skin sounds like something quite fun. You got me really curious.

[Spoon]

Sounds like a small resource skin

There shouldn't be a limit to the number of buttons, etc... Send it too me, I will see if I can find out what is crashing it.

[Spoons]

you might have to post the min specs required to run the skin.
P5, 3 GIGhz cpu, and 5 GIG ram :D j/k

[Narler]

Hi BestRip,

Yes the skin is a little more complex than my previous ones. It was fun to make, now if I could only get it to function flawlessly I'd be happy. Also with all skins open I have a radical Tearing problem aswell, but there's not much I can do about correcting that, other than hope no-one opens all skins then moves the player around the screen to fast :blush:


Hi Spoon,

Sounds like a small resource skin

hehehe, well you know me, not many of my skins could be classified as "standard" Although this is going to be one of the smallest skins I've made, the install .EXE is currently only about 500kb.

There shouldn't be a limit to the number of buttons, etc... Send it too me, I will see if I can find out what is crashing it.

Ok thanks for that, I'll rebuild the skin from scratch again today to see if that has any effect, and if not I'll email it to you.



Hi Razgo

you might have to post the min specs required to run the skin. P5, 3 GIGhz cpu, and 5 GIG ram j/k

HEHEH. well you only need that IF you press Play, So I recommend you just load the skin and look at it, then it'll be ok even on a 486 :shocked:

[Spoon]

Thanks for the email, it will be a number of days before I get a chance to look at it.

[Narler]

No worries Spoon,

When ever you get a chance to look at it, that'll be cool.