Posted by enemyace on February 08, 2002 at 11:28:12:
In Reply to: I can't hold it back any more. Read this! posted by ArcadeFX on February 07, 2002 at 22:36:39:
Sounds nice. That would be a very user friendly and easy way to do it. Will you be able to resize the game artwork? I agree that the skinner in RD is hard to use, but you can always just edit the .ini directly. Build your skin in Photoshop, resize it to 640x480 to measure pixel distances, and then multiply the measurements by 12 to get the number of twips. I did my Mr. T skin this way, and the only thing I had to use the skinner for was to set the font options, highlight and background colors. I'd rather do it this way and get the precision I want. Will your .ini file be editable like this? If not, maybe you could implement some sort of snap-to-grid option in ArcadeFX for moving arwork.
: I have been working on a much better solution than Howards. No offence Howard but I don't like the skinning tool in RD. It is a great start but for AFX I wanted something easier to use and more option. I was not going to say anything until it was really ready but I can't hold it back anymore after reading this post.
: I have working right now in AFX what I consider to be the best skinning options. Here is how it works. I have a lock and release button in the admin options. If you want to more any of the images around on screen you simply click the Release button. It unlocks every graphic on screen. You can drag and drop them anywhere you want. In real time! No extra tools for to use.
: When you are done dragging your images around you simply click the lock button. This locks everything down. Nothing is movable.
: What impact does this really have? Well for one - unlimited resolution will be supported with AFX. On the fly resolition. Click a button and the resoltion will jump from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 768 or any other resolution. No need to exit AFX. You simple created a background to your desired reslution. Save it into the skins folder. Select that skin in AFX. Use the unlock button. Move your graphics around to your desired location and away you go. Very easy to use. All in real time!
: This was surprising easy to develop and only took 10 minutes to figure out. The hard part in front of me is to do the following:
: - to save the new locations of all the images out to an ini file so they are saved and loaded next time you load the app.
: - dynamically move all the clickable areas to match their graphic location.
: - and the hardest part is moving each text link at the bottom movable. This is going to require some redesign of my coding as it stands today.
: I am confidnet that I can finish these last 3 items as soon as I finish my cabinet this weekend.
: I will release one update before begining the final development on the skins update.
: Cheers,
: Ed