HyPeR wrote: (...) What am i doing wrong?
You're doing nothing wrong!
You now have the SwitchBlade's orange skin installed... and you can't switch it on the control panel because the path you're using goes only for one specific folder now.
To change that skin you have to edit it like SwitchBlade done to make his matrix skin. It's all in his tutorial. 😉
I've done my Riddick skin, so if you need help shoot!
a little bit of confusion here...
in the tutorial its written...
The zip file download for this tutorial contains all the files you will need to install a new skin. The actual process of installing the skin is copying a skinpath.txt file to c:\system\data\skinconfig. Very important, do not edit this file in Notepad or Documents on the smartphone as you will corrupt it and the skin will not work, causing your phone to revert to the default skin. Once you�ve copied the skinpath.txt file, place the contents of the Skins folder (from the tutorial zip file) into c:\System\Skins\ while preserving the rest of the directory structure The files in C:\system\skins\0x101F8EDB\ contain all the data about our new skin that Series 80 needs
Now i copied the skinpath.txt in the zipped tutorial file & replaced the existing skinpath.txt. The new one points to the C drive insted of the Z drive.... correct?
The C drive does not have the SKINS folder, which i copied from the zipped folder into c:\system\ ..... correct?
My Question. After putting the new skins & changing the skinpath.txt. HOW DO I ACTIVATE THIS MATRIX THEME???...... do i SIMPLY restart?
My Current theme is BLUE.... I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND HOW TO ACTIVATE THE NEW THEME. once this is done..then i'll get cracking into making the themes... tahts a matter of editing picstures only...not that diff, but time consuming.. 😊
in the normal mode..when u go to DISPLAY in control panel & choose another colour pallette, at the background the phone must be performing the same instructions in pre-described series...is'nt that right? which means one can create a SIS file that does tha same as well...right? or manybe a small programs that just runs these instructions automatically.... hmmm.... Dos Batch file maybe?
The matrix theme isn't supplied as i never found all the parts to make it workable. And rather than receive loads of complaints from people of "I can't read this bit" or "the colours aren't right on that bit" I decided not to release until there is a more complete list of the colours. The screenshot you posted before showed that the skin you installed was installed correctly.
HyPeR wrote:
My Question. After putting the new skins & changing the skinpath.txt. HOW DO I ACTIVATE THIS MATRIX THEME???...... do i SIMPLY restart?
My Current theme is BLUE.... I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND HOW TO ACTIVATE THE NEW THEME. once this is done..then i'll get cracking into making the themes... tahts a matter of editing picstures only...not that diff, but time consuming.. 😊
The Matrix theme from SwitchBlade isn't available in the tutorial... yet, as mentioned.
But the good news is that my Riddick skin is available in:
http://www.9500communicator.com/forum//forum/thread/1018/#post5615#post5615
Try to be nice with on the critique... it's my first one!
I give some tips about how to install SwitchBlade's Skin and how to change it to my own Riddick skin. The first part you already did. Try the second. 😃
I'm just not able to make my skin look right (see attachment)... :con?
The problem I'm having is with the 800x200 pixel source background, as mentioned in the tutorial. If I keep this size, the right side panel will not align correctly with the 463x194 background picture. So I've been messing around with a bunch of different sizes here and there, and ended up changing the source background size to 755x200 which did indeed solve the alignment with the right side panel, BUT then it won't fit with the left side panel... Aaargh 😡
Any ideas?
Thanks.
You forgot to chop the left hand side off of your background when making your wallpaper.
I did shop of the 92 pixels though...
looks more like you may have mistyped and did 29 by mistake.
EDIT correction, closer inspection shows you only removed 36 pixels 😊
No, I really did shop off 92 pixels from my source background (755x200). If I use the 800x200 background, as you suggest in the tutorial, the problem remains, except that the alignment becomes all wrong on the right side of the screen...
I've checked it, and can provide screenshot proof if need be mate, there is a 36 pixel difference between the left hand start of your left hand section and the left hand start of your wallpaper. Try the chopping it off again 😉
Right:
There's a breakdown of the areas you cut your image. The final 45 pixels are marked as lost as you don't use these if you follow the exact cutting sections. If you are working with certain patterns or colours you may want to be selective of where in your image you cut hence I recommended an 800 pixel width base. If with a photo or a continuous image you use the recommended sizes and cut in the right places there should be no problem putting your image together.
I know I must be missing something obvious here, but I DID shop off the 92 pixels (I've checked and rechecked again and again) - if I try to shop off any more the image size won't be 643x194 anymore... The strange thing is that no matter what, the background ending up covering the entire screen (640x200) will become a cut down version of the origianl source background - no matter if the source is 755 or 800x200... I've attached the source so you can see for yourself. 😉
I can see your problem, the very left hand side of the image needs to be the starting point, if you start further in from the side, you need to cut 92 pixels after that point. Yes the image will *not* show like that on Desk, this is because Desk uses a CBA width of 85 pixels, in other applications though the CBA can be up to 200 pixels wide, hence you need the image to extend the full 200 pixels otherwise in some apps the image will not display properly and may cause stability problems with the 9500.
SwitchBlade wrote:Right:
There's a breakdown of the areas you cut your image. The final 45 pixels are marked as lost as you don't use these if you follow the exact cutting sections. If you are working with certain patterns or colours you may want to be selective of where in your image you cut hence I recommended an 800 pixel width base. If with a photo or a continuous image you use the recommended sizes and cut in the right places there should be no problem putting your image together.
Aha, thanks for the pic. What I did when I tried using 800x200 was that I made the CBAs from the very end of the right side, and not from the 555 pixels mark. I think I'll get it right now... 🙄
Thanks a lot, Hayden!
No problems, the tutorial is written always working from the left to avoid confusion. I can see where it can arise from now though.
Ok, finally got it sorted now. 😊 Turned out that I'd made my error in 'skinappview' - I had to resize my 800x200 background to 640x200 before I overlaid it with the with the bitmaps.
I only made this skin to get familiar with the process, I don't think I'll keep it as it makes the screen look a bit too 'busy'.
Of all these themes Matrix's the best. Switchblade please release it in whatever condition. Don't bother about complaints
Ok ok ok, to save the earbashing. You can get the matrix skin here. To install follow the instructions and install the files in the tutorial, then overwrite the contents of the 0x101F8ED8 with the contents of the zip file. Voila matrix skin.
Bugs: any (and I mean any) error, information or warning messages you get will be in the form of white text on a white background. I couldn't find where to change that background to black. The date text at the top of Desk is black, and I can't find where to change that either. Finally j2me apps you may find you are working with black text on a black backgrouns, again couldn't find where the text colour is changed.
I just made another skin that makes the screen look a bit less messy. I haven't bothered with all the smaller UI images and text/background colours yet, as I think it looks fine the way it is. But, Switch, how do you remove or change colour of that little box around the clock?
Thanks again for your help and the excellent tutorial.
Btw, the background file doesn't need to be 800x200, it's easier to use 755x200.
SwitchBlade wrote:Ok ok ok, to save the earbashing. You can get the matrix skin here. To install follow the instructions and install the files in the tutorial, then overwrite the contents of the 0x101F8ED8 with the contents of the zip file. Voila matrix skin.Bugs: any (and I mean any) error, information or warning messages you get will be in the form of white text on a white background. I couldn't find where to change that background to black. The date text at the top of Desk is black, and I can't find where to change that either. Finally j2me apps you may find you are working with black text on a black backgrouns, again couldn't find where the text colour is changed.
No, it didn't work. The orange one installs correctly after booting, however after copying the contents of 'matrix' and booting again, the default skin is restored; not even the orange one. In skinconfig folder the textfile goes missing on its own. Is there something that I'm mising or else?
finally got the 1st part of my theme in place...
i must tell u , this has been a very very very long procedure.....
anyways will now get cracking on a nice windows XP theme......
Lets see how that comes out.....
Here's a small windows theme.... but only the basic... i yet need to play around with font colours & other icons backgrounds...
Here a preview......
HyPeR wrote:Here's a small windows theme.... but only the basic... i yet need to play around with font colours & other icons backgrounds...Here a preview......
Nice theme Hyper. Its coming out good. Keep up the good work.
The background to the clock is listed in the colour list as: 0x101F87FD in the [extended_color_section], as I pointed out in the graphic selection that will always be a solid colour background, for which I have no idea.
As for the matrix theme, I pulled the wrong copy of the .skn file for it. Download again and it should work. The deletion of the skinpath.txt file is the devices way of defending itself against a bug in a theme damaging the ui and possibly the stability of the device.
SwitchBlade wrote:The background to the clock is listed in the colour list as: 0x101F87FD in the [extended_color_section], as I pointed out in the graphic selection that will always be a solid colour background, for which I have no idea.As for the matrix theme, I pulled the wrong copy of the .skn file for it. Download again and it should work. The deletion of the skinpath.txt file is the devices way of defending itself against a bug in a theme damaging the ui and possibly the stability of the device.
I though so! I tried 2 times and couldn't put your matrix skin.
I'll give it a shot now. 😉
RickyTec wrote:I though so! I tried 2 times and couldn't put your matrix skin.
I'll give it a shot now. 😉
Still doesn't work with me 😞
Spot the deliberate error. All the gfx are in C:\skins on my 9500 so that I can upload them to the phone quickly for test, forgot to change the path in the .skn file. Done now. Told you it shouldn't be released.
SwitchBlade wrote:Spot the deliberate error. All the gfx are in C:\skins on my 9500 so that I can upload them to the phone quickly for test, forgot to change the path in the .skn file. Done now. Told you it shouldn't be released.
Still doesn't work here. 😞
Switch,
I'm trying to edit the SKN file. Do I put
[red component] [blue component] [green component]