A few things that are puzzlin' me (newbie)

[mickeblue]

Hi there everyone, newbie here with a few questions.

Thought about skinning when I used to use Ultraplayer, started two but never completed either. But I've decided to try my hand at a skin for dBAmp - and complete it!, but one of the things I seem to be having problems with are file sizes.
I use PSP and Net Studio for drawing, and I find in both programs when I save images as bitmaps the file sizes are HUGE. Can anyone suggest a way to further reduce image files sizes without degrading the images?

Also, I know that for dBAmp, files need to be bmp., but nosing through the skin for N-Log (which is a beauty!) I noticed that the "backdrops" for 'playlist' & 'previously played' were jpegs. How come they still function within the skin if they aren't in the same format?

Finally - questions! questions! - is it possible to open up a skin file with a text editor? I'd be interested to see what is going on inside one as I find this helps me to understand what it is I'm trying to do.

:komisch9:

[donny]

yes all of the files that you use in skin designer must be bmp. And yes they are usualy large, and there is no way of compressing them. The only thing you can do is not to put the source files (that are not bmp, and for example, have layers
About those jpg. They are for the parts of the player that isn't actually made for skining, anyway not complete. on these (playlist, prevplayed, menu and mmc) you can only change the background images and the buttons, but you can't move them around. These are jpgs because they are so in the default skin. To find more about skining these parts there is a thread about it somewhere around here. It's sticky so you won't have problems finding it.

Of course you can open the skin file with a text editor you can open basically everything with a text editor And I can tell (more or less) what will you see... the list of the components of your skin and their settings...
Hope we'll see soon what you've made...

[donny]

here's the thread about the extra parts:

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=1349

it is not necesary to skin these, but if you feel like it go ahead...

[BestRip]

Hi
Cool you'd like to do some skinning!
I'll try to answer your questions...
Bitmaps are bmp's all the way through.. except for the "backdrops" that are jpegs.. that is just the way Spoon has written the pgm. To get them right you open the backdropfile of a skin and redo the graphics... watch for the outer edges where they end... there is a mask somewhere programmed that I haven't been able to find.

A typical bmp (like a button or something) should be around 1-5-10k or so... a skin backimage 100-500k or so... when you "create a skin install" file with the SkinDesigner it will pack the files quite a lot...

You can "dissect" any skin in the SkinDesigner... it will ruin that installation of the skin if you can't move the parts back, if and when you "update to dBPowerAMP"... but when you have messed it up totally you can just reinstall from the downloaded original install file and your'e back to the original again... have a blast... it's very revealing...:D

[donny]

about them masks, BestRip, for the playlists and others - I think they are somewhere in the program code - so they are not editable - well not without the source code - and then you would have a different program...
and about sizes - I think that the larges skin (unpacked) is Stereo Ga Ga (6824 kb) - when packed it's about 1.2MB. And I think that the largest packed skin is 3DWood - 1.5MB - on hard 3.5MB - so it varies depending on how "repetetative" your images are - for example in Stereo Ga Ga there is this one bmp that is almost 3 MB big but the most is one texture repeating itself so that can be compressed very nicely

[mickeblue]

Thanks for your response guys. I've been trying to reduce file sizes to the point where the definition is getting lost, but what you have said is encouraging. It doesn't seem so bad that my base skin is 200kb.

I have found that if I try opening a skin file with say Notepad, all I get is a page full of little squares! I've also tried Webpad ( an html editor ), and Wordpad but with no luck. I don't know what that's all about!

Is there a list of USER defined commands somewhere? I've tried introducing a STOP PLAY button but it won't work. Only wasy I seem to be able to get around it is to use the pause command.

I must admit though, using the skin designer is a lot easier than trying to determine all the co-ordinates yourself. And hat's off to Narler for his superb tutorial.

[BestRip]

Hi

I would not try to reduce size at all... nothing! It will only save a few kB on the users harddisk and it will ruin the skin... Skip it totally is my recommendation...

What do you expect to see in the texteditor??? there is no safe way to edit code there I think...

If you check out how the dAPDOS-XT stopbutton is set in the SkinDesigner you will find that instead of the default setting of "toggle" it says "clear" "evtdBPlay"... that is as close you can get to the stop command.

Yes SkinDesigner rocks!!! and hats off for Narlers great tutorial... without it I would have given up:D

[mickeblue]

Cheers BestRip. Oh how it all becomes clear - once someone has given you the answer!

What did I expect to see in the code? Well dare I mention the Big Win? If you open up the XML files for those skins you can get to find the more elaborate commands that some of the geeks have sussed out for themselves. So you could then incorporate them in your own skinning. I was hoping that I would get the answer to the questions I've asked here by looking in an opened skin file.

Never mind, allowing for my own stupidity - considerable - I'm getting on quite well with the latest skin, and time permitting should have it finished soon.

[donny]

the little squares you mentioned are codes that don't have letteres (or signs) connected to them. For example code 0 - you will see a lot of these if you try to open some of the .enqued files, or the mmc file. Ussually these mean nothing, but in some cases this is where, for example, is the z-order.
co-ordinates of your skins are not saved in the file. when first time run the window is centered on the screen, or locked to another one, or in a special case where the primary windowit is locked to the primary window then it will apeare at (0,0) - the top, left corner.

And also I can't believe I have missed Narlers tutorial all this time. I'll have to take a look at it. Knowing Narler it really rocks!

[BestRip]

Cheers BestRip. Oh how it all becomes clear - once someone has given you the answer!

:D - like a miracle :D

dBpowerAMP is totally different that way... NO readable code... AND... NO CODING NEDED!!! (Halleluja!!!)

Your'e welcome with questions (as is anyone with a desire to make skins for dAP) and I'll try to answer if and when I know the answers!