Test UI Skins: Blue & Pink

[Keeyrah]

The whole UI skinning thing got me nosey enough to actually try it out.

So I downloaded the art pack and was shocked by the sheer amount of files.
After looking through the tutorial, I found that it's sadly incorrect and misleading.
There are several backslashes missing, which caused the confusion.

So here's what I did.

I went to the folder where DDO stores my screenshots.
There I created a folder ui. Then I created a sub-folder named skins.

Essentially it looked like this in my documents folder:

Dungeons & Dragons Online\ui\skins

Now in that folder I simply created another one and gave it the name of the
skin, in my case it was TestSkin and the second one was PinkSkin.

Then I copied and pasted in all the files from the UI art pack I previously downloaded.

Aside from editing the images, all I needed to do is adjust the name of the skin
in the file SkinDefinition.xml.
In the third line, you'll find a tag

<SkinName Name="UIArtPackTemplate"></SkinName>

I replaced UIArtPackTemplate with TestSkin and the other one with PinkSkin,
matching it with the folder names they were in - just like described in the
tutorial. Al the rest could be ignored for now. The structure was there and I
didn't intend to touch it.
All I wanted was to colourize it to show the change.

Btw I tested it on Risia and it works

Careful through. When you change your skin, your client will lag out! Do not click
a second time or you will most likely hit the default button.

I can only assume that the client has to load and cache all 1000+ images, which
takes a moment. During that time it looks like it's hanging and didn't take your
choice.

Here is what the result looks like. Careful, the pink might make you go blind.



Is it possible to upload the files here somewhere? They're both between 4
and 5MB in size. I used WinRAR to pack it up. I also asked my former guild
leader, who's still hosting all the guild stuff.

The blue skin images were all manually coloured and saved using Paint Shop Pro X.
Since I'm lazy and there are a lot of files, I looked into scripting and batch
processing. Turned out I could easily create a macro that coloured the file,
then saved it. PSP let me batch process the entire folder

What definitely is interesting is selecting a skin and then logging out. It will
keep the skin active and show all frames and buttons in blue or pink. Same goes
for the character generation screens. I haven't tested it yet but I assume it
takes the skin of the character that was last logged in.
If you close your client, changed skin or not, and restart it again, the login
screen goes back to default. Your character should keep the changes though

[Cairenn]

Originally Posted by Keeyrah

Is it possible to upload the files here somewhere? They're both between 4 and 5MB in size. I used WinRAR to pack it up. I also asked my former guild leader, who's still hosting all the guild stuff.

That's the whole idea behind the site. If it's a complete skin replacement, then it goes in the "complete" download section. It'd be better if you use .zip though, instead of .rar as your compression method. More people know how to deal with .zip, as it's pretty well standard, but a lot of people would have no idea what to do with a .rar file.

[Keeyrah]

I must be blind

Thanks for your response. I'll upload the pink and blue one as zip then.

[cyriana]

Very nice Keeyrah. I played with the skinning to, but at the moment I couldn't test it. Don't have a Account on Risia. Have to wait since mod6 hits europe.

I try to make a minimalistic DDO-GUI. Maybe the most borders very thin und translucent. I always say: "The best gui is that gui a don't see."

;-)

[Gax]

What program did you use for a skin editor?

[cyriana]

Hi Gax,

i can suggest you GIMP. Its free and has all features you need.

greetings

Cyri

[Keeyrah]

Originally Posted by Gax

What program did you use for a skin editor?

Gimp should do it, I suppose.

However, I used Paint Shop Pro X. I liked the older versions going back to when
it was a mere picture viewer, then got PSP X cheap for around 20 Euros. Might
even be cheaper now that X2 is out.

I'm not sure Gimp has macro scripting and batch processing. That was very helpful
when doing those skins, but it's also a very lazy way. There are a bunch of graphics
that probably should not be entirely colourized ... and I was lazy

[sheldie]

Originally Posted by Keeyrah

I'm not sure Gimp has macro scripting and batch processing.

It sure does.

[mudfud]

I used photoshop cs2 to edit the whole package to different colors. Has a built in batch processor, just had to program what u wanted done and change.
Took all of 5 minutes to do.
But alas, now its time for the fun things like changing images and such and different things instead of just colors.!.

[Keeyrah]

Go for it, Mudfud

I'm eager to see the skin - or any other from somebody who knows what
they're doing.

I was just testing and for a visual result it was enough