Falagard Visual Skin / Scheme Editor

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tamakazura
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Re: Falagard Visual Skin / Scheme Editor

Postby tamakazura » Mon Aug 09, 2010 21:22

This is going to make me a very happy woman. Because right now, the process is,

0) x=1
1) open up xml,
2) open up gimp.
3) Tweak.
4) Load the Layout Editor.
5) Sacrifice a chicken over the keyboard to prevent the layout editor from choking on a comment or carriage return in my xml.
6)Add Window
7) Look at window.
8.) Close Layout Editor.
9) If looks good, go to game and look.
10) While x > 0 Goto 1
It might be nice if this could be built into the layout editor.

I also agree with the person who said that charging for it would be a bad idea. Better to make a stripped down version for free if you are offering a full version for money. Editing the looknfeel files by hand is evil, and the user experience with it is frustrating enough to drive off learners.

At the very least, what would improve user experience with the xml like 75% is some really detailed commenting in taharezlook. Why use dimoperations? What are guidelines for creating bitmaps? What are the different imagerysections in the frame for? Why does taharezlook specifically add a "middle" tile to the right side of the titlebar while tiling the rest over an area?
But extensive commenting might pose a problem because...
It would also be great if the layout editor and the editor for this were to use tinyxml instead of expatxml. Tinyxml is a lot more forgiving of things like "<xml blah" not being on the first line, and having comments in the first few lines. (Expat thinks these are unknown tokens for some reason)

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CrazyEddie
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Re: Falagard Visual Skin / Scheme Editor

Postby CrazyEddie » Tue Aug 10, 2010 08:49

Thanks for your thoughts. I like the "skin development" algorithm :lol: But yeah, it's not an ideal process to have to run through.

I agree that hand editing the XML is a really horrible experience. There was a stage when I considered it easy, though more recent experiences convinced me otherwise.

A fully integrated editor, comprising imageset, looknfeel skin and layout editing would be a really nice thing indeed. The current direction I was heading in with this editor would prevent that, although there was some discussion yesterday which has caused me to re-evaluate some decisions, and so such a tool may yet come into existence.

Generally progress on this tool is very slow, there's many reasons for that. Some things will be announced soon so that everybody will have an idea of where the project is at, where it is heading and what you can expect over the coming months :)

CE.

Magmatwister
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Re: Falagard Visual Skin / Scheme Editor

Postby Magmatwister » Wed Oct 13, 2010 20:25

Yes I would appreciate this =] Considering I plan to use CEGUI for all further GUI for my game, yes I wouldn't mind paying a small fee to make the process of skinning much easier :D (Though I have yet to try it, I'm not sure if I will like the xml way of doing it) How much are we talking in price though?

jarwulf
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Re: Falagard Visual Skin / Scheme Editor

Postby jarwulf » Sat Dec 18, 2010 00:24

This would be a massive help for making image buttons...

It took me a while to confirm that the layout editor didn't do skinning and I assume other noobs will get hung up the same way or be turned off by the xml hacking.

jarwulf
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Re: Falagard Visual Skin / Scheme Editor

Postby jarwulf » Sat Dec 18, 2010 19:31

In regards to payment. If you believe CEGUI isn't popular enough I don't see how charging for any extension is going to solve the problem. If CEGUI enjoys a surge in use its because many people see the skin editor as a necessary component of a GUI library (or better advertising or some other reason) not because they had to pay for it (which will probably depress use). I'm not saying you can't eventually find a way to monetize the situation but usually things get popular first than people start charging for something and I'm not just saying that because I enjoy freeloading off CEGUI.

On the other hand if a small fee significantly speeds up the arrival of the editor I might consider it.

Jamarr
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Re: Falagard Visual Skin / Scheme Editor

Postby Jamarr » Mon Dec 20, 2010 18:40

If somebody helps you by replying to your thread, upvote him/her as a thanks! Make sure to include your CEGUI.log and everything you tried when posting! And remember that we are not magicians!


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