Alpha Themes

[couslev]

Hey all,

I just found GameEx a few days ago when looking for a simple front end, and I was flabbergasted by it's versatility. Needless to say I registered it, and started creating a 16:9 custom theme.

I started with the Dark Gloss theme, and armed with GIMP I started replacing all the color keyed images with true alpha PNGs. I ran into an issue after I created all the various buttons on the top bar. The bar I created has a bit of overall transparency with a sharp alpha gradient at the bottom end. When running the theme in GameEx, it appears that multiple images are being alpha blended together where there are state images. For example, MediaControl.png and MediaControlStop.png seem to be both rendered at all times, perhaps the only difference is the active state is rendered on top? This causes the whole region to be brighter than say TopBarMiddle.png, which only has a single layer, because of the additive blending.

This makes it near impossible to manage a quasi-transparent bar at the top because the sections are of differing brightness, and they also transition to visible (like when the mouse first enters the top bar region) at different speeds because the layered regions are brighter by default.

Any chance we can see a fix that will ONLY render the active state region?

As I said I *just* picked up GameEx and haven't had a lot of time to look for threads about theme design, so I may be way off base with this? Maybe I just need to use a different theme as a starting point or something?

I appreciate any and all feedback!

EDIT: This only happens in a Version 4 theme, BTW. If I change to Version 3, the top bar appears just as I expected. I will assume Version 4 themes are a WIP, and work under the confines of Version 3 for now.

[Tom Speirs]

Hi and welcome.

I am aware of this issue and there is not much that can be done about it in the current release. Sorry.

Cheers.

Tom.

[couslev]

Wow, quick response. Thanks.

If its a known issue, I can certainly wait for the next release. I'll just use opaque images in the top bar until then.

One question unrelated to alpha blending... is there any way to make the snap image in an emulator game list not stretch to fit the element? I have an array of snaps that are 460 x 215. They look great when shown underneath the console logo on the emulator list, but when shown on the actual game list for that console they are distorted. Is the only way to fix this to change the image element dimensions in the theme for this particular emulator?

[Adultery]

Can't you just change the size of the image box in the theme editor for that particular emulator?

[couslev]

Is the only way to fix this to change the image element dimensions in the theme for this particular emulator?

Can't you just change the size of the image box in the theme editor for that particular emulator?

lol, yes I expected this would work as well. Unfortunately, if I select a specific template in the Theme Editor (like for one emulator in particular) and edit the image box size, it changes the image size for everything (it saves in the theme.ini under the [Layout] section). When I select a specific emulator type from the Object List in the theme editor and then resize the image, it doesn't save at all. I just want to change the size of this image for one particular emulator.

Do I have to manually add a [<emulator name>] section to the theme.ini? Is the theme editor somewhat broken for version 4 themes?

[couslev]

Hmm... interesting. After changing the image box size in the theme editor globally (it saved under [Layout] as previously described), I expected the snaps would look perfect for this emulator (since the snaps are the exact dimensions of the image box). Strangely enough the snaps are still distorted, but just smaller. It appears that GameEx is forcing the snap into a 4:3 aspect ratio, then centers it in the image box. Is this correct? Is there some setting I can change to make GameEx not force the snap into a particular aspect ratio like this?

[Adultery]

Interesting. I actually built my snap collection after I put GameEx together so I didn't know this wasn't possible. As far as stretching goes, as I recall GameEx is kinda picky with image sizing. When I made my first theme it was a lot of trial and error to get the box to display my images just the way I wanted them. The problem is likely more in the image box than the way GameEx renders it. Admittedly it's been quite a while since I did any themeing so someone more experienced in this area may want to take this one.

[couslev]

Are there even any attributes of the image box I can modify in a Version 3 theme? In the theme.ini, there is

Image=15,165,385,180

but this appears to be entirely ignored in a Version 3 theme, and in a Version 4 theme like I said, although the image box is located and scaled appropriately, it seems the snap in this element is scaled to 4:3 then placed in this box. You'll have to excuse my ignorance, is there any central documentation for editing themes?

[Draco1962]

When it comes to editing and creating themes, you are looking at the central documentation in the forums. There is a brief tutorial I believe through the gameex.com site, but most of the knowledge is within the membership of the forum and trial & error.

[Tom Speirs]

I just wanted to mention this but tentativly Ben and I are looking at completley overhauling the skinning to bring it up to par with other software and the rest of GameEx. I cant say when or if this will happen for sure but just wanted to mention it.

[fRequEnCy]

I just wanted to mention this but tentativly Ben and I are looking at completley overhauling the skinning to bring it up to par with other software and the rest of GameEx. I cant say when or if this will happen for sure but just wanted to mention it.

Thanks for mentioning Tom!

[Draco1962]

Keep me in mind if you need someone to break, er, uh, beta test!

[Adultery]

Isn't the skinning already complicated enough? J/K.

[Tom Speirs]

Keep me in mind if you need someone to break, er, uh, beta test!

Will do

[Tom Speirs]

Isn't the skinning already complicated enough? J/K.

Might not necesarrily be an issue, its going to be a rewrite rather than addition.

[couslev]

Sounds great, I'm looking forward to future versions of GameEx.

I just finished up a v3 theme that I'll upload and post details to the User Content pinned thread this evening. Although a bit confining and having some strange requirements for image sizes (especially for the top bar) there is still a lot you can accomplish when alpha is enabled. I was studying up on the v4 design (mostly by dissecting Draco's Sins of a Solar Empire theme) and I'm pretty excited to try my hand at exploiting the versatility of the layout and the foreground implementation.

I think after understanding and working around the idiosyncrasies of each version I can definitely appreciate that there is a ton that can be done to change the look and feel of GameEx, especially in v4. I'm definitely curious to see what you guys have cooked up for the rewrite.

Tom, while I have you on the thread is the original issue I mentioned going to be fixed in a near release? In a v4 theme it should be pretty simple to only draw one layer of the bar at a time (since the images don't overlap like they do in v3 themes). I guess its not a huge deal, but I bleeding love alpha blending, and would really like to see the theme's background show through the top bar to some degree... Aero style. If not, I'll abandon any ideas for an alpha bar in my next v4 theme.

[Draco1962]

I loaded the top bar middle, right, etc. into GIMP (the open source poor man's free Photoshop) and set the transparency to 100% and then resaved them in the theme. Since they are now 100% transparent, not an issue.

[couslev]

lol, nice. So the "bar" that appears at the top of your Sins of a Solar Empire theme is actually part of your foreground image? Pretty cool idea. I like how the scroller for the song goes behind it. Top notch! Does GameEx still make clicking sounds when you mouse over where the bar elements SHOULD appear (like the back button and help button) and let you click where they should be?

I wanted to take this opportunity to pull a discussion that got started in my Steam integration thread out of there and into here, especially since Mr. Speirs is viewing this thread. =)

One big question I have about lists in GameEx themes is how the start list makes the selected item grow in a v3 theme, but selected items on any other list don't grow. In a v4 theme no selected list item ever grows. Its a very cool effect and I strongly believe it should be enabled for all lists by default (in all theme versions), or better yet made into a theme option! Here a link to the last post I made that describes the issue:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=9624&view=findpost&p=71990

Please respond in this thread, as it was an off-topic discussion in the other thread. Thanks!