What am I doing wrong? Help!

[Spoon]

There is an update to the skin designer that fixes many if not all of these problems. 2 weeks.

[BestRip]

Thank you Narler,
and thanks for your very extensive and easy to follow skin tutorial, it's been great help.

I have downloaded and tried out your NTM amp skin, it looked really good! I had just read your warning on how it was taking a lot of processing power, but went there anyway and got into some more of my erlier trouble (no learning capacity whatsoever...):supersmil

I actually suspect a possibility there might be a little bug there, can't pinpoint where it should be. but I've noticed that the shaded VU or scope utils are rather processor demanding, and whenever it starts being a bit tough it seems to escalate? (Don't know really.)

But, I took the advice of basing the new skin on an old one and have not had any problems at all since then (on that part). Easy as I just start with the amp image and then continue to replace button by button, having most parameters already entered - I tend to forget some of them otherwise.

Thanks and cya

[BestRip]

Thank you Spoon!

I'm really looking forward to seeing the new Skin Designer version, not so much because of any problems with this one, but that it is a delight to se all the nice features and subtle ways you use solving things.
:supersmil

[Spoon]

I am / have nearly finished a new skin - it basically the same design as 'Default', but in a gold scheme. Anyway the point of this message is - I will be releasing the GoldenAmp Real Draw Pro file with the next skin designer - so creating a new custom skin can be as easy (if you can call it that) as Load skin into Real Draw Pro and mess about with the colours then grab the skin and buttons out.

[Narler]

I look forward to seeing the new skin designer version, although I prefer to use Adobe Photoshop for image generation, mainly because I can setup the skin using Adobe's awesome multi-layer abilities, so in effect I can generate the complete skin in adobe, then just select the layers and "savecopy as" to make the bmp's. that way I can change anything on the skin extremely easily.

Does Real Draw Pro have features like that?.. If so I might check it out?

To BestRip: I'm glad my tutorial was of some benefit to you. On the topic of visual displays, yes they do use quite a bit of processor time, especially the 256 spectrum, that is the most hungry of them all and as such i NEVER use that on the main skin. If I use the 256 spectrum it's always as a user option, so they can turn it on or off.

I'm glad you like the NTM skin. The best way to learn is to experiment with a working skin, so feel free to mess around with it in the skin designer. If you have any questions or queries on how (or why) I did something, just ask.

Have fun.

[Spoon]

Yes it can have layers, but I tend not to use them.

[BestRip]

Originally posted by Spoon
There is an update to the skin designer that fixes many if not all of these problems. 2 weeks.

Hi, :happy:

Who's counting... (Sorry, just kidding, but it feels like being really small waiting for Santa or something).

I cannot get different skin layers to be stable on my test skin. I've tried some solutions similar to Narlers NTM skin where more than one skin window layer shares the same area (covers each other if loaded at the same time). When moving the amp on the desktop it's skins separate up to 1 cm sideways. Also it will swap skin (without unactivating the toggle button for the command) if I grab the amp on another area than the latest loaded skin layer. Pressing that toggle button again, the skin appears and then directly does the deactivation.

A question: should it actually work ok to use for example 2 play buttons on 2 different overlays on the same amp? I have used it but I don't understand if it is supposed to work or if it just happened to do so in this case.

Another question: are there many changes to expect in the Skin Designer v2?
:smile2:

[Spoon]

The next skin release has been released. One thing to be sure is that when adding a component when there are multiple windows is that the window where it is going is selected, so it gets placed on the right window. You might also want to post your skin so one of us could take a look at it.

[Narler]

I cannot get different skin layers to be stable on my test skin. I've tried some solutions similar to Narlers NTM skin where more than one skin window layer shares the same area (covers each other if loaded at the same time). When moving the amp on the desktop it's skins separate up to 1 cm sideways.

This could be due to the skins being to complex and using to much CPU time, you get what looks like "tearing", the skins can't stay together. Either that, or just make sure you have selected "Locked to Primary Window" from the Object Properties, for each skin.

Also it will swap skin (without unactivating the toggle button for the command) if I grab the amp on another area than the latest loaded skin layer. Pressing that toggle button again, the skin appears and then directly does the deactivation.

This sounds like a Z-Order problem, I made a post about some of the hassles I've had with Z-Order.

You can Read this post HERE I also made a test skin that just looks at how Z-Order works, and if you test it, then move the skin, you'll see which window (skin) takes priority. (in the above link, is the link to download this test Z-Order Skin).

However the way skins operate (almost irrespective of the Z-Order setting) is completely different when these skins are placed ontop of the main (IsAmpWindow) skin. For the NTM skin I had to do something tricky in order to get them to display as I wanted, and not change when the IsAmpWindow is moved around the screen. So while you're getting use to the Z-Order setting etc. I would suggest not trying to put the skins ontop of the IsAmpWindow. maybe just put them on the right of the skin, then you can experiment with the Z-Order without having to worry about what happens with IsAmpWindow. Hope that makes sense.

For example, say you set the IsAmpWindow to Z-Order 10, and then make a new skin that sits over the top (activated by a button) and you set that skin to Z-Order 1, the moment you click anywhere on the IsAmpWindow (even though it's set to Z-Order 10 (which is lower than Z-Order 1), it will still take priority (focus). There is a way around this and I can detail how to do that if you wish. I have done this workaround in the NTM skin, but I didn't do the workaround in the Narler's X Skin. You will see on that skin, if you open the EQ, the moment you click anywhere on the IsAmpWindow, the eq disappears.

One quick workaround for this is do what I did in the Narler's X Skin, and that is put a tab (or leave part of the window exposed) that way the user can click on the tab, and that window will come back into focus (ontop), this is especially good if you have multiple skins (windows) overlayed. You can see that in the Narler's Tie Fighter Skin. I have 5 skins that overlay and each has a quick tab that hangs out. Now with the NTM skin i put these tabs inside the skin (the tabs have the green writing on them on the left), so you can quickly select a window if you have all of them open.

Now if you check that Z-Order test skin I made you'll see how multiple skins (without the IsAmpWindow being in the way) react when you move the skin. So the best way to make sure that whichever skin the user opened last remains ontop of the other open skins, is to make sure all those skins have the exact same Z-Order number.

If you wish me to detail how I got the windows to display correctly in the NTM skin, lets know and I can go through that. It's a little more work than creating the tabs, but as you've probably noticed, it looks better.

A question: should it actually work ok to use for example 2 play buttons on 2 different overlays on the same amp? I have used it but I don't understand if it is supposed to work or if it just happened to do so in this case.

I'm not 100% sure what you mean, but I think you're asking if you put a play button on each skin (say you have 5 skins that would = a total of 5 play buttons). What will happen is every play button (irrespective of how many you have) will all ONLY operate as one play button. This is because all of them are set to perform the same function "evtdBPlay". So if you click on one of the play buttons, ALL of the play buttons will be set to play. This goes for every button you create. If you check the Narler's NTM skin, you will see about 6 buttons that can turn the EQ On or Off. If you click on one of those buttons to turn the EQ on, All the other buttons will also show the EQ is on.

Hope some of that info is helpful.

[BestRip]

Thanks again Narler,

It was quite enlightening. I have now fooled around a bit with some test parts and gotten a better idea how it all works. (It's really great how fast you can test a new idea, about 1-2 seconds on my machine :supersmil )

I understand why the skin part that you activate by mouse clicking on it really should become the active (and top most) part, it would be kinda odd if not. Also the function of "magnetic" sticking of parts that can be moved around separately is good, but making the idea of building with separate parts a little difficult as some parts can tear apart the others (hope this is understandable).
I feel that it should be great to have an option to lock parts together or something similar.
Well I don't know really all that is lying behind the coding and what is easy to do and not, but I have replanned a bit of the design and I think I'm going to get by with what is at the moment.

Maybe we should think this issue through a bit more and try to come up with a good suggestion to Spoon on the Wishlist for the Skin Designer. For now I just wish him a great vacation.

Thanks and cya