PlaneShift
Fan Area => Fan Art => Topic started by: BaurakSered on October 28, 2005, 11:02:53 am
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Edit: This should be in the fan art forum. Could a mod move it please?
Ive started working on a new Skin for Planeshift. I wanted to do something for the community, and since the only thing I am mildly-decent at is photoshop, my choices were limited :D
This is the third revision of the info window that I\'ve made today. some things still don\'t line up quite right, but that is easily fixed... also, its some parts of it are a little too hard to read. I\'m sure I\'ll end up doing ~100 revisions on this one piece before I get it right, but the rest of the Skin should go fairly quickly once I achieve the look I want.
anyway, here it is side by side for reference:
(http://128.121.79.148/shot19.jpg)
the compressed version doesnt quite do it justice, but you get the idea.
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Hey that looks pretty cool, whenever you finish it, put the skin up for download and I will give it a try :D.
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Wow...I never knew people had so much time in their hands...Great skin though...
Even better than the one I got know...
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always good to see what you \'arty types\' are up too.
Originally posted by Shadeslayer
Even better than the one I got know...
first off ill asume that that know is a now, and then ill say, \"i cat say the same for i use the elves (VR) skin which still wins all, i tried stone for a bit but then i went back. nice new buttons by the way\"
also i would quickly add what i forgot... \"mouse is in there now too, and other things like tria icons\" \\o/
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Nice skin. When it is done and able to be downloaded I\'m gonna use it...
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Ok, so heres the most recent look:
(http://128.121.79.148/shot07.jpg)
and this shows you what the buttons look like when they\'re depressed(of course in-game only one button is active at a time):
(http://128.121.79.148/shot07a.jpg)
It still has some rough edges, but I think it\'s almost done
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Good work, that old skin really needed a makeover. And you made a great skin, truely fitting for planeshift too.
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The full defensive, and stop attack buttons need revising
For stop attack: That shield is just too big, maybe that spot should just have an X on the crystal, to show stop attack (or maybe some kind of stop sign...I don\'t know)
For full defensive, you shouldn\'t two shields in the icon, it should be just one, and for the defensive stance, it should be a half shield maybe...or, you could have two different shields for the icons, for one shield...Just make it a shield, for the full defensive shield, have an X going through it or something...I don\'t know, good job though :)
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I like what you\'ve done so far, but there are 2 things you might think about fixing.
1) Pull the target info up tighter to the spell power. There\'s tons of wasted space there.
2) You really shouldn\'t use pictures off of google. The silver/gold shield I recognize because I did a hand drawing of that same one for an art class. If I recall correctly, that is from some online armory place, and is likely copyrighted.
Other than those I think it really looks nice. Kudos.
:emerald:
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wow im impressed! usually i dont like peoples custom skins as well as the original but this one is quite awsome. I like how it matches the logo, obviously that was the point.
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Yeah, I was planning on revising the stop attack button. At one point along the way I had a Crystal with a red X on it, but I didnt like it too much, and I wanted to do something different. The current plan is to take the gold emblem off of the middle of the shield, and put a gold hand in its place(similar to the rock skin) that would act as the button.
the rest of the buttons I\'m rather fond of, so at least for now im keeping them. I might do an alternate set of buttons though, so those who dont like them would have the option to switch.
A couple of the other issues im looking at are:
Should I extend the border of the top panel to include \"EXP\"?
I like it how it is but somebody suggested that I change it, and now Im torn...
the Camera mode text is gray, just like the sword.... Any ideas?
The yellow border around the bottom panel is a little messy... This will be fixed soon.
well, I think thats all and then I\'ll be done with it. Any addition feedback is welcome.
*EDIT* Good eye falcon, However, I only used that picture as a model for the shield I made. 90% of it has been substantially altered, and/or completely redrawn by my own hand.
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Yep, definitely gonna use it.
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I can\'t even see the skin its so dark. *edit*Whoops, thought it was a player skin. XD
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Still cant get the Yellow outline to look just right, other than that, this is the finished product. Its going to take some time to finish the rest of the windows. I may decide to post some more updates later, but for now this is it.
(http://128.121.79.148/shot07b.jpg)
As always, feedback is welcome.
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I really don\'t like how the HP, Mana, Stamina, etc. text falls outside of the graphics. It doesn\'t look integrated enough. You also have some \"%\" signs going outside the border. I wouldn\'t call this finished just yet, though you have indeed done a good job ;)
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I agree with Karyuu... But I like it very much! ^^
(oh and nice siggy karyuu xD)
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I personally like it a lot. :) The Hp, mana, stamina and experiance bar being seperate from the rest really appeals to me. I also like the sword with the camera angle...nice touch......
;) However I do agree with ArcaneFalcon, there is to much wasted space between the target information and the spell power.
/me looks forward to using it when it is ready to download
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Great work! There is of course plenty that needs worked on as Karyuu said, but looking good. :D
when you get it finished and packaged into a zip for general use as a skin, let me know. If PS won\'t host it, we will on our guild site.
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Originally posted by Karyuu
I really don\'t like how the HP, Mana, Stamina, etc. text falls outside of the graphics. It doesn\'t look integrated enough.
I like it that way, so at least for now I don?t plan on changing it. Maybe if enough people don?t like it I could make a change.
You also have some \"%\" signs going outside the border. I wouldn\'t call this finished just yet, though you have indeed done a good job ;)
Karyuu,
Unfortunately the % signs go all the way to the edge of the useable space, and even then they get cut off, so it\'s not possible to make them fit. You would need to change the font size used by the game, which I?m not interested in doing for a couple of reasons:
Primarily because it cannot be done as a part of the skin file, meaning that everyone who wanted to use the skin would have to make the font size changes themselves, unless I distribute the modified XML file with the skin file, even then you would have to put the XML file in the correct place which would be overwritten the next time you update anyway. The real solution to this is to have the dev team change the size of the percentage numbers(they get cut-off on all skins) Maybe they could make it display only whole numbers (i.e. 100% instead of 100.0%)
Originally posted by zorbels
However I do agree with ArcaneFalcon, there is to much wasted space between the target information and the spell power.
I agree. I think it does look like a lot of empty space, and as I see it there are three solutions:
1. Move the spell power bar closer to the monster bar and cut out the extra space. This of course would mean modifying the inner-workings of the game. Maybe as simple as modifying some XML files, maybe more difficult? In any case, I am not prepared to do this. If somebody(maybe a dev) can do it and send me the files then I would be more than willing to fit the skin to the new layout. Until then I can only work with what I have.
2. Put something in the empty space. This would be the simplest way to get rid of the space, but I have two concerns about it first, I?m afraid it could end up making things too cluttered, and second, I\'m not sure what to put there. If you have any ideas, I?d be happy to hear them
3. Do nothing Not really a solution, but it works
Thanks for all your feedback. I appreciate all of it.
Thanks Induane. I\'ve been wondering where I could host it, and I will certainly accept your offer. (unless it gets distributed with the game *nudge* *nudge* )
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It is in my humble opinion that a gui skin without a complete re-edit of all of the xml is hardly a new gui skin at all. The default gui has *SO* much wasted space I can hardly stand to use it (no offense Djagg, it looks nice, I just don\'t like the layout). If I were to make a new gui skin... *cough* ...I (or someone...) would completely redo *all* of the xml files so that I can design my ui how *I* want it. Don\'t submit to the current xml cage. Once you decide to do it, it really opens up tons of possibilities.
Bottom line, I think it\'s in your best interest to edit the xml. Anyone who has gotten through grade school and has half a brain should be able to follow a well written readme.
Edit: If you don\'t know xml then just take 4 seconds to look at one of the files. It\'s fairly easy (and very similar to html). Moving the target info, and everything beneath it, up is simply a matter of changing the y pixel location for each element. If you can highlight a number and type a new one, you can move anything anywhere you want it (or wherever we tell you we want it X().
:emerald:
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ArcaneFalcon,
You\'re starting to convince me......
/me tries to fight it
I guess I have to confess that I do know HTML and I could edit the XML files, it\'s just such a daunting task to re-skin everything when its already in place, not to mention re-skinning and re-arranging everything.
/me thinks about it....
Ok, I\'ve decided to give it a shot. After all, if something\'s worth doing, its worth doing right... right?
BTW: My wife is going to hate you :)
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Ok, I\'ve decided to give it a shot. After all, if something\'s worth doing, its worth doing right... right?
It\'s so so true...
but
BTW: My wife is going to hate you
is even more true... unless she is into the game also :))
Look forward to the skin... it looks very promising so far.
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/me returns from a succesful attempt and editing the XML files
Wow, that was too easy, looks very nice too :D
I never imagined that you could change ALL of the settings.
/me goes back to work
Ok, so here\'s what it looks like after XML changes.
(http://128.121.79.148/shot07c.jpg)
I fixed the percentages so they should fit now, I got rid of the empty space, and I turned the camera mode text black so that I dont have to darken the blade of the sword in able to see it.
You may notice that I have removed the gold outlines. This is only temporary, because I decided to completely rework them from scratch. Other that that this is the final revision.
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If I were you I would not settle with the way the hp/stamina labels are conflicting with the crystal background. The part that says \"hp\" is barely visible.
Other than that, it\'s quite nice. Although I don\'t see very much difference from the original xml layout, which could probably be altered and tweaked to perfection in itself.
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oh, right, if you notice in the earlier ones there was a shadow behind the text. I must have forgotten to put it back in after moving things around.
The XML changes were not drastic ones, mostly just tweaking the size and positions of everything to make things fit into less space, and give the skin a cleaner look.
Here\'s a list of what was changed:
Window shorter by 32 pixels
All gray text made white
text size changed from 8 to 6 for the percentages of: HP, Mana, Exp, Spell Power, and Target HP
Width of the \"stamina\" label was extended 8 pixels (the \"a :\" at the end of the word used to get cut off)
Physical stamina % moved up 3 pixels
mental stamina % moved down 1 pixel
Progression points counter moved to the left 10 pixels
Spell power percent moved 3 pixels to the left
Target name label moved left 1 pixel and up 22 pixels
Target hp bar and percentage moved up 22 pixels
Camera label, Camera mode, FPS label, FPS, and Clock moved up 32 pixels
Camera mode text changed from white to black
BTW, if anybody knows of an easier way to make the XML changes Id love to hear it. Right now I am using the trial and error method. make an adjustment , load planeshift, close planeshift, make an adjustment , load planeshift, close planeshift, repeat, repeat, repeat. Its very tedious.
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I\'m so glad you decided to edit the xml. :D
If I were you I would not settle with the way the hp/stamina labels are conflicting with the crystal background. The part that says \"hp\" is barely visible.
I\'d agree. The drop shadow may help considerably, but I\'d try a few things to see if I couldn\'t fix it even better.
BTW, if anybody knows of an easier way to make the XML changes Id love to hear it. Right now I am using the trial and error method. make an adjustment , load planeshift, close planeshift, make an adjustment , load planeshift, close planeshift, repeat, repeat, repeat. Its very tedious.
Which is why I have asked for ages for a way to refresh the gui in-game. Alas, this is the only way for now.
:emerald:
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Heres a new shot with the text box, which im almost finished with:
(http://128.121.79.148/shot25.jpg)
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Great revisions on your chatbox BaurakSered. I commend you! But I think you are shooting yourself in the foot in certain ways. Your scroll image has both light areas and dark areas within it and you can only use one color for your text. That means whatever color you decide to make it, the text will be always be hard to read on a portion of the scroll. Even by making the text green you have not solved the problem. Because the green has a certain value (a lightness or darkness) and that value is close to the value of the background scroll, it makes it hard to read. The only solution is to either make the whole scroll darker and use light colored text, or make the whole scroll lighter and use dark text. You don\'t want to be struggling reading this stuff IG. Your eyes will hate you for it after a long stint of PS.
That said, I do love the scroll edges and the general shape. Very detailed and believable. I think it\'s a good idea and fits with the theme quite well too.
Keep up the good work.
Consensus
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I agree with most to say you did a pretty good job ^^
Now that you edited the XML file, you can probably easily fix the issue pointed by Karyuu : \"text falls outside the graphics\"
Here is my idea : Why not moving Hp, Mana, Stamina, and Exp to the middle of their bar ?
Or maybe you could move the xx% to the middle and the words to the right of the bar.
And I am just wondering why there is a % where there is a bar that says pretty much the same thing. I would say the human mind is smart enough to understand the meaning of the bar, isn\'t it? ^^
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Originally posted by Consensus
Great revisions on your chatbox BaurakSered. I commend you! But I think you are shooting yourself in the foot in certain ways. Your scroll image has both light areas and dark areas within it and you can only use one color for your text. That means whatever color you decide to make it, the text will be always be hard to read on a portion of the scroll. Even by making the text green you have not solved the problem. Because the green has a certain value (a lightness or darkness) and that value is close to the value of the background scroll, it makes it hard to read. The only solution is to either make the whole scroll darker and use light colored text, or make the whole scroll lighter and use dark text. You don\'t want to be struggling reading this stuff IG. Your eyes will hate you for it after a long stint of PS.
That said, I do love the scroll edges and the general shape. Very detailed and believable. I think it\'s a good idea and fits with the theme quite well too.
Keep up the good work.
Consensus
I know *exactly* what you mean. YOu can imagine how dissapointed I was when I finished the scroll and placed it in-game. The scroll looked beautifull, but you couldnt see any of the text :0 so i tried darkening it(as seen above) but to no avail....
Anyway, right now the plan is to go back to the photoshop source and make the lighting less dramatic so that the overall picture will be less \"contrasty\" that should solve the problem. The other option would be to put a gray box behind the text(like all game makers do) but I dont like that solution, so its a last resort.
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Scrolls aren\'t your only option - how about an ornate piece of wood to match the one you use for the stats? You could then \"chisel out\" areas for text to scroll through in. If its dark enough any text should show up fine.
(http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/281/chatbg6qz.png)
Thats the best I could do in 4 minutes - lol - but thats what I was kinda thinking - ad your flare for style, and some borders tthat match the other parts of your gui and I think it\'ll look nice. (this pic is obvioulsy bad - I only made it for an example of what I meant)
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my original intentions were to make it out of wood, but then I started working and I wasnt liking it. I wanted something that would look more natural. Something that doesnt scream \"LOOK AT ME IM A CHAT BOX!\" and thats when I started with the idea of the scroll. A scroll is meant to have text on it so it seemed right, and I like the way it looks so far. So i\'m not ready to give up on it quite yet.
Next object in the lineup is the Shortcuts menu. So far I\'m planning on making it match the infowindow(along with the rest of the skin) unless anybody else has a great idea?
Im already full of ideas for the next GUI, so the wooden chatbox might make a comeback afterall :)
Edit*
OK, here\'s the final chat box I solved the visibility issues and added the indicator that shows what chanel you\'re on
(http://128.121.79.148/shot26.jpg)
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This is looking really good! How much of the gui are you planning on revising?
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I plan on doing the whole thing. Most of it should be pretty simple from here, with a few exceptions. Unfortunately I havent had much time to work on it for a couple days, I Hope I can get the Shortcut menu and the main menu done tomorrow.
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yup things are just looking better and better.. as soon as your done (as I said before) ill be using it :).
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With the way it\'s turning out, you might want to submit it to become officially implemented. :) Either way, I\'ll definitely be using it also. Kudos to you, good man.
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Well done mate...just one suggestion though. If you happen to be in a light place, it might get hard to read the text that has no background (PP,FPS and time). Maybe you might want to have a black transparent background? (If you think i know what I\'m talking about i don\'t...ignore me if you think its a stupid idea ;) )
Anywho, i\'ll be joining the group anyway and be using it... if you let us download it!
PS. Please let us download it :P
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I was sleeping last night for the first time in way too long, and had alot of odd dreams - I had one that I was using your gui ingame, but the top buttons were done too. I woke up and wrote down the stupid stuff because I\'m dumb like that sometimes. Anyways I ended up writing this down
Top buttons = crystals like blue glass crystals with symbols behind them. Highlighted = brighter and selected = grayscaled.
probabily sounds lame.. but it might work if you want to try that - if not I\'ll take a stab at it and send you my results.
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Here\'s what I have so-far for the Toolbar and the Shorcut menu.
Any thoughts?
(http://128.121.79.148/shot28.jpg)
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I see my groffel in that pic :D
Great skin. Give us linkage >:|
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Thumbs way way up for the shortcut menu :) I\'m not to sure about the main toolbar, however. In the active/open buttons, that white background glow doesn\'t quite work. One other thing that irks me a little is the Camera text - I think you\'re just using too narrow of a graphic for it, and having a black line of text among all the white is a little odd.
You also have this really lovely wooden texture for everything besides the chat window, which is of a much lighter tone, so I would personally change it around some.
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:) I threw in the white glow very last-minute because I had only done the inactive versions of the buttons, so actually those 3 are the only buttons with the white glow. The rest are still the regular old green when active. I just didnt want the screenshot to look weird :P so thats going to change. What I might do is make the gold circle turn silver when active or something to that effect.
Oh, yeah, Induane... I\'m going to try doing some crystal buttons like you said, maybe to give people another choice if they want it... Depends on how they turn out though.
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I..... think I love you 8o
When do you think it\'ll be finished?
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Well, I finished the Shortcut menu and the toolbar today, but I didnt get a chance to upload the new screenshot before coming to work :(
there are only 2-3 things left that should require special attention... the Inventory and Skill windows, and the popup buttons. The rest I could probably do in two days or so. So, by way of a rough estimate I would say 5-6 days. but 5 days is a long time when I only have 1-2 days in a week that I can work on it. so, in short, I have no idea when it will be done. Hopefully sooner than later.
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it is amazing. just amazing... would like to see the HP, MA, ST and XP wording made smaller so they don\'t hang over the crystal... and the Prog points could be moved to under the crystal buttons... but it is amazing.
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and as dargonfire999 said:
Originally posted by dragonfire999
I see my groffel in that pic :D
Great skin. Give us linkage >:|
Dylia smiles \"Please oh please!!!\"
Dylia excitely waits checking every
few hours ;)
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Ok, the buttons are done. they are normally gold, when highlighted they are all silver, and when active they are gold with a silver ring.
(http://128.121.79.148/shot27.jpg)
im looking into getting it hosted right now, so that people can start using it if they want, then i will update it as more things are finished
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Excellent change! :)
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Theres no doubt in my mind why that would\'nt be the best skin yet...
Respect :)
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i agree that has to be the best skin yet...it reminds me off the elf skin that PS offers. :D i cant wait to use it :D
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Ok, I\'ve uploaded it, but I dont have the bandwidth to let everyone download it, so if you can host the files PM me and Ill send you the link to get them. There are 4 files and its a total of about 12MB
bauraksered.zip - has to be placed in the planeshift/art/skins directory, and can be selected as a skin in the configuration tool
chat.xml and infowindow.xml - have to be placed in the planeshift/data/gui directory
and
prefs.xml - goes in the planeshift/data directory
You may want to backup your original xml files, and remember that when you run the updater you will loose the edited xml\'s so you should either make them read-only or just keep a copy and replace them each time you update.
so far only the toolbar, shortcuts, info, and chat are done, but like I said I will update when I implement more stuff.
Also, if anybody wants the source photoshop files for tweaking or customizing let me know and I\'ll see what I can do.
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I love the gold... and even it is
not finished .... wow!
Dylia jumps at the pm button ;)
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I think the HP window is too loaded with graphics and colours.. somehow to my eye it does not exactly match (crystals) with round menu icons. If you put crystals on one panel, you should put them everywhere.
Chat window scroll is nice, but i think it could still be darker.
I do not know, i i can suggest it he, but i also think that HP, mana an so on levels do not need numbers at all, because everythink is visible from the bars already. I suppose it concerns developers more...
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It looks like we have a host :D
Dylia should have the files soon, so we\'re just waiting for a link. Thanks Dylia!
Any other hosts would be appreciated as well.
Rhasa,
Thanks for the feedback.
I do plan to make an alternate toobar using crystals for buttons. The reason I havent used them everywhere is that im afraid things might get a little too colorfull :P but obviosly everybody has diferent tastes. Good thing PS is so customizable eh?
Also, the numbers could be removed easily and the bars expanded to fill the space. If you dont think you can edit the XML just let me know and ill make one.
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i like the stop attack button..i will definately try to get this when it is ready
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:D What wonderful detail you have put into this skin since I last seen it. I am very impressed and look forward to using the skin. I am in love with the chat box ........ just perfect.
/me bows with respect
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holy crap dude, definitely using it when it\'s out
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Get the files here:
128.121.79.148/upload
*Dont forget you need all 4 files or it wont work right* *and you have to select the bauraksered skin from the planeshift setup utility*
I should have enough bandwidth to let people Download for a while. I\'ll take the files down when I reach my limit. Get it while its hot :P
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*spots a new skin*
*drools over the prospect of something new for ps-mc*
\"Okay, just sign here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.. and we can host it on our high bandwidth thingy over at ps-mc.com. The source for all things planeshift mod-y\"
On a more serious note, with your permission I could mirror the file at ps-mc.com giving it exposure to... uh. Me. And anyone else that bothers to look. :( Part of the reason nobody looks at ps-mc.com is because nobody knows it\'s there.. and nobody knows it\'s there because we never get any new content... vicious cycle, y\'see. But our server is fast.
josePhoenix
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Yes please.
It would be great if you can host them. Like I said I have limited bandwidth so I can only leave them up for a short while.
Dont forget to post the link here :) and thanks :D
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Ta da!!!!!! ;)
(http://img462.imageshack.us/img462/6607/shot032xd.jpg)
Dylia bows to Baurak
\"Thank you so much Baurak!!!!!!\" :D
Dylia struts around feeling very in style
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hmm, i did everything you said to do a few posts back but it didnt seem to work...
(http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/7085/skinedup8wg.jpg)
well at least the font size came back to normal for my shortcut... :P
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Dont forget to select the new skin in the planeshift setup program.
1. Run Planeshift setup
2. Click the \"skins\" button
(http://128.121.79.148/setup01.jpg)
3. Select \'bauraksered\' from the drop-down menu
(http://128.121.79.148/setup02.jpg)
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we may be able to host this on our guilds server - I\'ll talk to Lishom and see what he says, but we are already hosting our guilds skin so this should be fine. Also, I think there is a way to make the modified xml\'s part of the skin and have them mounted via vfs - I\'ll look into it but I\'m almost positive this can be done - I modified vfs in the files of our guilds skin to allow it to skin parts of the gui that wern\'t normally skinned in any skin, I\'d think i could do the same for an xml file.
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hey can devs make it so this comes standard and when i tried it my psclient will crash, im on a mac if that has anythin to do with it
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ok, heres the inventory window so far... I like it but im thinking it may be leaning too far towards the dark side. What do you think?
(http://128.121.79.148/shot30.jpg)
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nah its perfect, not to dark at all. Since most items are lighter then black I\'m sure it would fit in nicely :P
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Downloading it.... hold on...
I can only download bauraksered.zip and the other files won\'t download :(
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Oh, thanks for pointing that out sesmi, I hadnt thought about it, but because the files are xml format your webbrowser is opening them instead of downloading them. All you have to do is right click and choose \"save target as\"
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Hmm Im having troubles too.. the inventory window is just the default one. My other windows show up just not that one i believe.
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I have the same thing Valbrandr, he has\'nt updated it yet ;)
Btw it now works nicely...stupid me unziped the bauraksered.zip :P
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inventory window isnt done yet so it isnt downloadable.
I probably wont update the download until I have the rest of the skin done. that way I wont have to upload the new .zip file every time I update something. and then everybody can just download the whole thing one time.
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I can wait till we can see all the windows :D
Look forward to seeing the rest ;)
Dylia keeps dancing around the plaza with excitement
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I\'d say great job Baurak! Love this new skin...great ideas! Now just to test it out...
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hey it works now, my mac is working great with ure skin i love it nice job
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Umm.... my inventory window looks the same as my old one?
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The only thing that I would like to see is the \'chat screen\' also in wood grain.
Cheers.
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Originally posted by BaurakSered
inventory window isnt done yet so it isnt downloadable.
I probably wont update the download until I have the rest of the skin done. that way I wont have to upload the new .zip file every time I update something. and then everybody can just download the whole thing one time.
:D