VLC Skin Editor // Current release: 0.8.5

[3breadt]

From today on the development builds include the slider background generator. The official release of 0.7.0 is approaching

[bomboy02]

i cant see my theme.xml file in the skins folder. when i open up the skin editor i can see and open it from there, but when i go to skins in win explorer it's not there.

[3breadt]

Sure that you're looking in the right folder? The skin editor can only see files your system can see, too.

[bomboy02]

yeah they are both in the same file (C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\skins). i just restarted my computer and still WE still is not seeing the file even though i have it open in vlc skin editer pic

[3breadt]

I don't use Vista, but according to what I see in the screenshot, either Vista's explorer hides these files or you are looking in the wrong folder. when you click inside the addressbar of the explorer does it really say C:/... ?

I have no idea how to fix that :/ seems to be a problem of vista.

[bomboy02]

i found it! apparently vista creates a folder inside the current user folder (C:\Users\[Name]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\...\skins), as a way to prevent unsigned apps from changing things in the program files folder. pic (i like visual aids :])

[3breadt]

Stupid Vista doesn't trust this nice program. Now I'll go and sue Microsoft for confusing users

[3breadt]

After some time of inactivity the Skin Editor I'll now invest some more work into it in the next weeks and months. I apologize for any bugs and hope you find the software still useful. Any support on your side is kindly appreciated, especially in helping to expand and complete the online help system. Please contact me via email for further info.

BTW: New development build has been uploaded

[3breadt]

Version 0.7 has been released finally.
Changelog:

Code: Select all

-Preview can be saved as image - Improved SubBitmap editing - Resources/windows/layouts can be duplicated easily - XML output is now indented - Slider backgrounds can be generated in a wizard - Improved preview of skin (can be zoomed now) - Improved cross platform behaviour - Improved online help - Automatic update - Some (critical) bugs were fixed

Now available for download. Enjoy!

Please leave your comments on how you like it.

[CloudStalker]

Glad to see aLtgLasS is still developing this, CloudStalker may need to use it soon.

[fiskpotet]

Hello! I really want to try the skin editor! really really really! but saddly, it makes two days now that download doesn't work...i'll forget my ideas! Is there anybody there who could send it to me by some way? Thanks in advance!

[3breadt]

Hello! I really want to try the skin editor! really really really! but saddly, it makes two days now that download doesn't work...i'll forget my ideas! Is there anybody there who could send it to me by some way? Thanks in advance!

That must be a problem with your provider, because me and many others can reach the download server w/o problems. But I've already heard of some others that cannot either access the server, but not concerning the skineditor.
Thanks for telling me that the download doesn't work. Here is a mirror:
http://altglass.al.funpic.de/VLC/skineditor/

I'll add it also to the download page.

[3breadt]

Hello everybody.
I'm about to finish version 0.8. which brings amongs others these changes:

• Performance improvements
• Multi-language support
• Remembering of windows' last positions&sizes
• New parsing system for all valid skin files
• Bug-fixes

The download links for the development version are in the first post of the thread.
To all experienced users: Please download and try the development version and report any bugs here.

The final version will be released soon after some bug testing has been done and some more translations might have been finished.

[B-4]

I've discovered a bug (?) in the skin-editor, 0.8.0 dev release. It doesn't seem to same the id's for panels correctly. After saving and closing a skin, the xml shows the following:

Code: Select all

<Panel width="360" height="256"><!-- id="playlist_panel" -->

When reopening the skin-editor, id's arn't recognized and show as 'Unnamed Panel #17' or something similar and are then saved as:

Code: Select all

<Panel width="360" height="256"><!-- id="Unnamed Panel #17" -->

Now, if you change the xml to:

Code: Select all

<Panel width="360" height="256" id="playlist_panel">

and then open it in the skin-editor, id's are recognized correctly. But after editing and resaving, the id's are mangled again!

There's also a small text-bug in the checkbox settings window. In the 'State #2' it reads 'Image when hovered' where it should read 'Action'.

Still, all in all a very handy tool. looking forward to the 1.0 release.

[3breadt]

Thanks for the reports!
I'll fix these problems.

[B-4]

You're welcome. This tool has become very handy in making my first skin. I know xml, but the preview makes it a lot easier and faster to work.
I have another two problems to report by the way.
First it also seems it doesn't save the id's for anchors too.
And second is a weird problem in the preview. I made a simple image as an example. But when nesting a panel inside another panel, the elements in the second panel are offset along their x-axis.

The green panel is nested in the red panel and the blue element is nested in the green panel, to clarify. The first situation is the expected one, but what is see is the second situation. If I want to place the blue element in the green panel, I have to give it a negative value for it's x-offset equal to the (positive) x-offset of the green panel. In this case x = -20.
Hope this is clear enough. If not I'll make some screencaps.

[3breadt]

The IDs for Anchors, Panels and Groups weren't saved formerly because it wasn't allowed in the XML, but in 1.0 it will be so it will be enabled for 0.8
There was a typo in the code for the setting of nested panels, I fixed that now. You can check out the new development build. Can be found under the old links, I just updated the files.

[skin rodent]

All my skins that I made was using a VLC skin Editor. And its very good maybe I suggest that add some movements to the window. Just Like animations.

[B-4]

I've found another little bug. When you add a Slider to the Playtree element and save, the value-property of the Slider gets set to time. I don't know if this also borks the skin itself, as I just change it to none in the xml before testing the skin in vlc. Omitting the value-property seems to work just fine too.
The only request I'd have now is the ability to move various elements into (or out of) a panel element. If you want to move say an image into a panel now, you have to edit the xml and reopen the skin in the editor.

[3breadt]

Ok thanks for the hint, I've fixed that.
I'll have a look about implementing drag and drop of items in and out of panels.

[3breadt]

Ok I've finished an implementation of drag and drop support of the items in the items window. Now you can move items from one panel to the other.
Please check if you find any bugs with that.

I uploaded the new version, links in the first post.

It includes also further translations. People with Slovak or Russian operating system language please check whether the characters are displayed correctly when you chose Russian or Slovakian as language.

[B-4]

great, thanks!
I've downloaded it and will give it a go later.

[3breadt]

0.8.0 has been officially released. Enjoy!
//EDIT:
There is a bug in the font loading process. when you open the skin the fonts will not be directly loaded. you have to open the settings for each font and press ok, then they are loaded and also displayed. A bugfix will be released soon

[B-4]

lol, yeah the fonts, I wanted to tell you about that. I also have the strange problem that the font position in the editor displays approx 2 pixels higher than in VLC itself. However, since I've made my own font file, there's a (big) change I got the metrics wrong. I'll have a deeper look into that tonight.
There's also a little problem with anchors, the editor doesn't save points at all.
Other than that, works like a charm. Good work!

[3breadt]

Well the fonts probably won't ever look the same in VLC and in the Editor as VLC uses libfreetype to render them and the Editor uses Java's built-in AWT Font support.
//EDIT:0.8.1 has been released with fixes for both the font and the anchor bugs.