Newb making skins has questions

from WinCustomize Forums
Okay, i've just begin designing a few docks, and so far i've been able to 'rip' off other people dimensions to make skins. haver i do have a few questions.

1) How do i get a preview image of the dock to show up in the skin select window ? i've made 5 docks, and they're all previewless !

2) Could someone post an exclamation next to each of the dimension entries to give us newbs an idea of what they do ??

i'll start, correct me if i'm wrong.

LeftWidth = 23 - Refers to how large the image is ???
TopHeight = 8 - ditto ?
RightWidth = 12 - ditto ?
BottomHeight = 10 - ditto?
ContentBufferTop = 3 - Refers to how many pixels the icon is away from the top ?
ContentBufferBottom = 0 -ditto ?
ContentBufferLeft = 2 - ditto ?
ContentBufferRight = 2- ditto ?
OutsideBorderBottom = 29 - ??
docks
4,643 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
come on, i've got over 1000 downloads on my first skin !

surely i deserve an answer ? i did serch...
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm still tryin to figure all those out myself...will try to get back to you on this...

Have you read the "SkinningTheDock.txt" file in the OD folder on your hard-drive? It has all the skinning bits in it, and how to use them.
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
come on, i've got over 1000 downloads on my first skin ! surely i deserve an answer ?

I didn't know answers were tied to download counts.

As Cerebro points out, the answers are in the OD directory.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well anwsers are given if people don't think that people are answering a stupid question, or are stupid themeselves. by pointing out my download count, i'm trying to reference that

Thanks for your repies, you are right, the answeres to the second question are in the readme (don't know how i forgot that, i've skimmed it twice)

But i still don't have any idea how to make a preview image for the dock select screen??? it doesn't mention it in the read me...
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The previews are generated from the images within the folder. I've noticed in some cases no preview is generated for tabbed docks, but I think that's due to a lot of transparency in the image being read. I'll investigate this later, and get back to you.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thankyou. I've made about 5 different docks so far, but none of them have preoeview images
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Standard docks appear to use the 'top' background for the preview, unless there's only one background image.
Tabbed docks appear to use one of the 'tab' images (in the normal state) for the preview, ignoring the background images altogther.

I downloaded your Smoke background to check, and there's no preview because your normal tab is a blank canvas. Not something I'd worry about too much.

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
heh possibly me as well.

so 1) the top background is used as the preview, but whats the difference between the normal state and the background state ? They're the same thing aren't they ?

It seemed to me like there were two parts to a skin, the Background, and the selection. The background (the tab and the tile) just 'scrolls down' to present the dock.

therefore how does the normal state and background state differ ?

Thanks alot Wizop Koasati
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The tabbed dock previews are generated from the TABS, not the background image. Tabs can have a normal state, and a selected state. The normal state is used for the preview.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ah right i see whatyou mean now. I've managed to get a preview on my 'ripped' skin
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Now, in reference to the second question in my post,

I've had this really great idea for a dock, and i've gone ahead and made the graphics for it, however there is one problem:

I've got no idea how to adapt the ini file to match the specifications of my skin.

my skins main images are 184x98 pixels.

I can't figure out how to set the margins/offsets to encompass my skin. No matter how i look at that blasted readme, it doesn't tell me what i want to know, or at least tell me in a way i can understand !!

So what i want to know is :

1) The 'Tab' part of my dock is 38 pixels vertical. How do i set this part to be the tabs, and then roll down for the icons ??

Possibly the best way for someone to help me would be for me to post the dock iamge, but i don't want anyone taking this idea because i'm not quick enough.

Perhaps someone could co-produce this dock for me.
They do the ini (and hopefully i can figure out how they did it), and i'll provide the gfx, and when i post the dock, i'll give them credit for their assistence.
to do that for me

Don't tell me to go and read the readme, because i have, and it wasn't any help. And i can't adapt any of the other docks because they're all too small.