thinking out loud

[regener8ed]

here's a little mod i tried using matt's wa modern skin. trying to produce an animated drawer type extension using breaks and stretching - take a look at the behaviour of the colorthemes extension. this brings up a couple of comments:
1. the painting obviously has issues with controls on the extension; hit F5 when you've opened or close the extension. (it gets really bad if i left the other vis extensions on top of the body. wierd stuff..)
2. it would be nice to be able to set a maximum limit for stretching; so the extension can only go so far. carrying this concept a bit further, you might even be able to 'automate' the stretching and unstretching (hence opening and closing) of an extension so it slides from minimum to max position on its own?
3. more precise and absolute extension z-order control would probably be useful.

[ace2701]

OK, still ANOTHER dumb question. I've dowloaded the zip file, looked at all the BMPs and ini files, but how do I get it together to show the completed product :confused: ?

[regener8ed]

juz put the zip file in your QCD/skins folder. it will show up in your skin browser.

[ace2701]

Yeah, that did it! Looks good for a start, although I noticed that when I restored the slider, it didn't close completely, and some lettering appeared (hovering over them showed "next mode").

[Young Twig]

Definately interesting.
Automated stretching would be cool.
I think you need alpha-blending for it though. :D :D :D Look at where the bottom layer meets the top (where it origianally said "Color Themes")


Otherwise... cool. I like the idea. I've thought about drawer extensions myself, but in a different way. I've always thought of having an extension slide out from under the main body on open (as opposed to fade in).

[fatal error]

at least what you are trying isnt crashing the player.

[Lich]

I cannot test it - QCD is crashing:(

[ace2701]

I cannot test it - QCD is crashing:(
Obvious question .. Are you using it with build67?;)

[regener8ed]

i've been doing a variety of testing on skins which stretch overlapped extensions and while stretching works great on a regular flat skin, there are several painting issues using overlapped extensions. it seems especially so when controls, sliders, or visuals happen to be on another extension that overlays the stretch point of another extension, and on the stretched extension itself as controls are revealed from behind other extensions. some methods have eventually even crashed the player.
has anyone else been playing with the stretching, or have some experiences to relate?
paul; i can produce several different examples/scenarios for you to play with.

[Young Twig]

i've been doing a variety of testing on skins which stretch overlapped extensions and while stretching works great on a regular flat skin, there are several painting issues using overlapped extensions. it seems especially so when controls, sliders, or visuals happen to be on another extension that overlays the stretch point of another extension, and on the stretched extension itself as controls are revealed from behind other extensions. some methods have eventually even crashed the player.
has anyone else been playing with the stretching, or have some experiences to relate?
paul; i can produce several different examples/scenarios for you to play with.
Have you checked out my latest skin -- Snow (in Skin Development forum)? Resizing of the encoder and playlist can be scary. I've actually had the skin freeze up a few times. :(

[regener8ed]

Have you checked out my latest skin -- Snow (in Skin Development forum)? Resizing of the encoder and playlist can be scary. I've actually had the skin freeze up a few times. :(
checked it out... made some mods for you.

[Paul]

i've been doing a variety of testing on skins which stretch overlapped extensions and while stretching works great on a regular flat skin, there are several painting issues using overlapped extensions. it seems especially so when controls, sliders, or visuals happen to be on another extension that overlays the stretch point of another extension, and on the stretched extension itself as controls are revealed from behind other extensions. some methods have eventually even crashed the player.
has anyone else been playing with the stretching, or have some experiences to relate?
paul; i can produce several different examples/scenarios for you to play with.
Coo, ill check out your examples when I get back.