Hereby, I start a contest to make a new skin for the Nexuiz 2.4 menu. Skin, that is, just graphics files, font sizes and color definitions.
How to do it:
- Grab a current Nexuiz development build or make your own. You can get a development build from http://emptyset.endoftheinternet.org/~p ... ntrunk.zip
- Grab the example skin made by Morphed from http://emptyset.endoftheinternet.org/~p ... ple-v2.pk3
- Extract the example skin into your Nexuiz/data folder (so that it shows up as Nexuiz/data/gfx/menu/example)
- Rename the "example" folder to the name you want to give your skin
- Edit colors and font sizes in skinvalues.txt
- Replace ALL TGA images in the example skin
- Test it by running Nexuiz, opening the console, and executing:
- Code: Select all
menu_skin yourskinname
menu_restart
or by running Nexuiz like- Code: Select all
nexuiz-linux-glx.sh +menu_skin yourskinname
or- Code: Select all
nexuiz +menu_skin yourskinname
- When done, make a screenshot of it in action, and make a pk3 by compressing the gfx folder into a zip which you then rename to give it the extension pk3
- Post the screenshot and a download link to the PK3 you created in this thread. The link must be valid for at least 14 days after the deadline.
Rules:
- Skins are rated according to how well they are usable (unreadable text at 800x600 is a no-go, for example), how well they fit Nexuiz and - obviously - how good they look (which, of course, is highly subjective).
- The TGA files in your menu skin must have been entirely made by yourself from scratch, NOT using media you found somewhere on the internet. Especially, you are not allowed to use any skin posted in this thread as a base, including Morphed's (unless you are Morphed, of course). You may work as a team, but then you have to name all members of your team. As an exception, textures previously released under the GPL (NOT including stuff posted in this thread) may be used, e.g. those included with Nexuiz. An exception is charmap.tga, which you may leave as is.
- All image files except charmap.tga must have a power of two for width and height. Some graphics cards blur images that don't fulfill this requirement. Valid values for width and height therefore are 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 and 1024. Width and height may differ, as long as both are powers of two.
- You must allow Alientrap to use it under the terms of the General Public License version 2 (read it on http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html). You may license it under "2 or any later version"; if you do so, say so.
- Any "source files" for the menu images must be provided. Like if you write a C program to generate a texture for it, you have to provide that C program. If you created the image using an image editing application that supports layers or other advanced editing techniques, you have to provide the skin images also in the native format of your image editing application (e.g. PSD or XCF). Nobody knows for sure whether the GPL requires that or not, and the opinions on this vary widely - but to be safe, we require submissions to fulfill this policy.
- Menu skins may not contain content that's offensive to some people. No political views must be represented by them.
- Any discussion on this thread is forbidden and will get your posts deleted. Make a new thread for that purpose. You may ask questions here, which we may delete, answer via PM, or add to the FAQ or rules at our own discretion. Only submissions shall be replies to this thread.
Technical stuff / FAQ:
- Q: What are the weird _c, _d etc. stuff at the end of file names?
A: Some menu items use multiple files for different states. Generally, _c is "clicked", _d is "disabled", _f is "focused" (mouse over) and _n = "normal" (no specific state). For checkboxes, an additional 0 is added if the box is unchecked, and an additional 1 is added if the box is checked. For scrollbars and sliders, there is an additional _s image - which contains the slider background, while the other images are for the slider knob. - Q: What is this skinvalues.txt file?
A: It defines all colors, margins, transparency values and font sizes the menu uses. Colors are specified in 'red green blue' form, where the color channel values are in the range from 0 to 1. You are allowed and encouraged to use the existing skinvalues.txt file as a base for your skin. - Q: I get weird borders around transparent stuff. How to fix it?
A: This is a bug in your image editing application. Try on the Nexuiz console:- Code: Select all
r_fixtrans_auto 1
r_restart
If the images then show up right, it means your image editing application has problems saving transparent images. However, we can repair the images for you if r_fixtrans_auto fixes them. In that case, make your screenshot with r_fixtrans_auto enabled and write so in your forum post with the new skin. Your skin won't be rated worse because of that. - Q: Some images are mapped in a weird way. How?
A: Buttons and dialog backgrounds aren't completely stretched. In case of buttons, the left quarter and the right quarter stays as is, and the middle part stretches. For example, if your button texture is 512 pixels wide, 0..127 and 384..511 stay as is, and 128..383 gets stretched to reach the full width. For dialog backgrounds, the same is done in both coordinate axes. That way, the same image can be used for differently sized buttons/dialogs, and they still look consistent when stretched. - Q: I get weird sharp borders at image edges. / At image edges, I see part of the opposite edge.
A: This can't be fixed. Just don't use the outer pixel rows and columns (make them fully alpha transparent instead), and you are safe.
What's new?
I updated the Nexuiz build to be used. The following changes have been done regarding skinnability:
- By default, the titles in zoomed out state now are ABOVE the windows, and don't get scaled down with them. This should make them easier to read, and make the main screen more user friendly. You however can turn this off.
- Top margin no longer also defines bottom margin; left margin no longer also defines right margin. If you changed these values, the corresponding other value may need changes too.
- HEIGHT_ZOOMEDTITLE: defines where the title is displayed when a window is zoomed out. If set to 0, the old behaviour (let it stay on the window) is used. If it is negative, the text gets displayed above the window. If it is positive, it gets displayed inside the window. The number is measured in lines height of a box containing the title (like HEIGHT_TITLE).
- COLOR_DIALOG_CREDITS: color of the credits dialog
- POSITION_DIALOG_... can now be used to give the initial positions of the scaled down windows
- new credits dialog with its own skin settings
- added MARGIN_BOTTOM and MARGIN_RIGHT skin settings
Your submissions do not need to be for the new code. They will work with minor changes (duplicating MARGIN_LEFT to MARGIN_RIGHT, and MARGIN_TOP to MARGIN_BOTTOM, and adding HEIGHT_ZOOMEDTITLE 0) in the new version too without any change in appearance. Whether or not you make your skin for the new version has no influence on our opinion on your skin
