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Author Topic: Mxm Skinner V5.0  (Read 2002 times)

ravage73

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #15 on: October 28, 2003, 08:17:00 PM »

QUOTE (geniusalz @ Oct 28 2003, 11:16 PM)
MXM Skinner 5.0 has been released with a complete step-by-step tutorial on how to create MXM skins.

For more info, check out this thread in the Skinning Forum.

F***ING SWEET!!
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Luke

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #16 on: October 28, 2003, 09:59:00 PM »

Heh, no worries.. I just figured it could be stretched out or something... eitherway, my TV stretches what I'm working on just fine...

but now another question, I don't suppose it's possible to resize images within the skinner app??? I like to create 'boxes'... (png images of basically a frame)... Now I need at least 4 of them, all different sizes...
Is it possible to just create one resource, add it 4 times, and then use the skinner to stretch each copy into the appropriate size?? (instead of popping back to photoshop and calculating/tweaking 4 different images slightly)
The way it seems to work for me now, it just allows part of the image to be visible - doesn't stretch the image, just stretches the viewable portion...

still, sweet work.. makes it much easier!! ;-)
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geniusalz

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #17 on: October 28, 2003, 10:15:00 PM »

Skinner can't display stretched png images just yet.  However, they WILL show up stretched on the xbox.  So you don't need to make 4 pics; just resize them in skinner.

Guess I lied when I said full PNG support  ph34r.gif
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DBZRacer

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #18 on: October 29, 2003, 09:01:00 AM »

geniusalz, I tried the skinner out for the first time last night. I made (actually edited) my first layout that I wanted to use and just placed the Game list, thumbnail, preview vid, and background image using the skinner. Saved and loaded it into MXM and it worked fine.

I noticed I was off on the video preview vids so I decided to edit the skin, as well as add the rest of the elements I wanted like DriveEFree, DriveFFree, IP, and date/time. Now the same skin won't load up at all and freezes MXM... I'll give it another shot again later I guess but it happened a few times already.

And BTW, I tried to run the new  skin I made in an app instance of MXM but for some odd reason whenever I changed the App instance of MXM, it changed the default dash instance of MXM as well.  :blink:

Well thats my progress for the first day of skinning. I'll report back later when I have more progress.
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geniusalz

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #19 on: October 29, 2003, 01:17:00 PM »

Technically, a skin can't make MXM freeze.  

But if the xml structure is broken, it might cause nothing to show up.
Or WMV9 can cause freezing.

Let's see your mxm_skin.xml file.

You probably know this already, but to start MXM with the default skin, goto safe mode (hold start)

This post has been edited by geniusalz: Oct 29 2003, 09:19 PM
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Luke

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #20 on: October 29, 2003, 05:34:00 PM »

QUOTE (geniusalz @ Oct 29 2003, 08:15 AM)
Skinner can't display stretched png images just yet.  However, they WILL show up stretched on the xbox.  So you don't need to make 4 pics; just resize them in skinner.

Guess I lied when I said full PNG support  :ph34r:

Heh, well that's easy enough to fix.. There was no reason for my boxes to be png, so I switched 'em to jpg... Works great - and should generate a lot more skins for mxm!!!!


This post has been edited by Luke: Oct 30 2003, 01:40 AM
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BenJeremy

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #21 on: October 30, 2003, 04:46:00 PM »

I'm working on creating COM-based tools to perform both FontMaker functionality and Bundler functionality.

The Bundler replacement is almost done, as a full-fledged COM object, ready for VB users to play with. Once these tools are done, it should be nice for geniusalz to incorporate. If I have time, perhaps I'll make a font/text display control, so that it can be fully integrated into the skinning desing screen. wink.gif
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geniusalz

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #22 on: October 30, 2003, 06:11:00 PM »

Cool ... Just one thing; if you make a display control, make sure it is "lightweight"; i.e. draws using the container window's hDC.
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BenJeremy

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #23 on: October 30, 2003, 06:21:00 PM »

QUOTE (geniusalz @ Oct 30 2003, 11:04 PM)
Cool ... Just one thing; if you make a display control, make sure it is "lightweight"; i.e. draws using the container window's hDC.

Sure thing... I'll have to play around with a control and get something to you to test out.
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fastTOE

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #24 on: November 09, 2003, 12:51:00 PM »

alright, prepare yourself for what is probably a very dumb noob question, here goes:

i am making a skin with mxm5.0 (obviously if im posting here...) and under the configuration menu i set my menu boxes to the color i want them to be (white with red and black text) and then when im actually creating the skin and i go down and click on the create game list (mxm menu) button it only allows me to draw in black boxes,... i can change the color of the text but not the boxes themselves,.. wut am i doing wrong?
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geniusalz

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #25 on: November 09, 2003, 02:02:00 PM »

Menus don't have a box around them.  They are transparent.
If you want a box, you can draw one, then draw a menu over it.

I just put black there because it is the default screen color.

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fastTOE

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #26 on: November 09, 2003, 05:31:00 PM »

oh ok,... makes sense, thank you very much....

now i am still having a problem getting the skin to work, tho...

i read the mxm users guide on how to put a skin in the xml, and im trying to do it, but it just is not working for me,... i am editing the xml directly bc i dont have the .net 1.1 and i dont feel like waiting 2hrs to download it with my 56k..... anyways i made a subfolder with my skin as the only item in it as of now,... this is what it looks like

<submenu>
<sortfield>title</sortfield>
<description>needful things</description>
<title>skins</title>
<skinspath>c:mxmskins</skinspath>
<item>
<title>deathbloodandrobots</title>
<description>redbloodandblackdeath</description>
<dir>c:(backslash)mxmskins<dir>
<dir>c:(backslash)mxmskins(backslash)deathbloodandrobots</dir>
<dir>c:(backslash)mxmskins(backslash)deathbloodandrobots(backslash)media</dir>
<dir>c:mxmskins(backslash)deathbloodandrobots(backslash)mxm_skin.xml</dir>
<exe>c:(backslash)mxmskins(backslash)deathbloodandrobots(backslash)mxm_skin.xml</exe>
<xbeid>16974304</xbeid>
<verified>true</verified>
</item>
</submenu>


i am slightly confused, so i dont know if i need all of those dir's but i put them there just in case,.... any help on this would be appreciated,....

p.s. im begining to love this mxm thing,.... ive had evox for a long time now, and there is just so much more that you can do with mxm,... i just need to learn all over again, anyways... thanks in advance


edit: there is backslashes in my actual xml, but for somereason x-s takes them out....  i put them in as (backslash) sorry it looks all goofy now....
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geniusalz

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #27 on: November 09, 2003, 09:30:00 PM »

Whoa! You don't need to specify skins in your mxm.xml!
Look at this site on how to "install" skins (you only need to copy the folder over)
MXM Guide

All you need to do is specify a skinspath (Default, I think, is c:Skins)
And put your skin folder in there.
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fastTOE

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #28 on: November 10, 2003, 10:29:00 AM »

CODE
c:mxmskins

then in my cache_menu.xml i have:
CODE

c:mxm.xml
c:mxmskinsdeathbloodandrobotsMXM_Skin.xml
17085048
true



now the funny part is, about 1 out of every 15 times i start my xbox it loads up my created skin (deathbloodandrobots) but the other 14 times it does a bunch of color variations of this other skin that came with mxm i think its called simplicity remixed, im not sure

p.s. deathbloodandrobots is a skin i created in mxmskinner, but all credit goes to someone else on it, im not sure who but it was orignally a evo-x skin that i really liked and just stole the .jpgs from....


edit: also, is there a way to make images opaque? i.e. ICO-Media images transparent over your original skin sorta thing?
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geniusalz

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Mxm Skinner V5.0
« Reply #29 on: November 10, 2003, 06:41:00 PM »

QUOTE
<item>
<dir>c:mxm.xml</dir>
<exe>c:mxmskinsdeathbloodandrobotsMXM_Skin.xml</exe>
<xbeid>17085048</xbeid>
<verified>true</verified>
</item>



To select a skin:

Press Y (in mxm)
Go to configuration
Skins or something, and select a skin

By default mxm has it set to random, that's why you see random skins.

As for the transparency, not yet.  However, BJ is working on a way to set any image transparent.  Actually, working on a way to use a grayscale image as an alpha channel for another image.  If that makes sense. lol
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