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Post by Moongaze on Jun 19, 2007 4:18:41 GMT -5
Each stage, I pretty much design the layout of the addon on paper, and then I open up Photoshop and make the layout again, so I can see how large it might be, the color scheme, and how it might look in WOW. I decided to share my concept design for the Stage 4 Button Settings window, so people can get an idea of what I will be adding. So, here's the window you'll see when editing one of the 10 main buttons: Since these can become menu buttons, they get extra options. If you don't have any button click assigned as a menu, the menu options will be grayed out. If you have the stance checkbox marked, you'll be able to edit your buttons per stance. Otherwise, the stances you have will be grayed out, and you'll only focus on your primary actions. To edit a button's actions per stance, simply click on the stance icon you want to modify and you'll be able to edit those clicks. Note, this would be the stance list of a druid. If you are any other class, you'll only have the icons visible for your stances for that class. The next image is of the sub menu buttons. Since these don't have menu functionality, I removed a lot of data from the window, so we don't over do things: That's the idea for stage 4. I decided not to assign speeches on a per-button basis, but rather, on a per-spell basis in the Speech tab (no pictures of that yet, but I'm working on it). It's my hope to push out part of Stage 4 by the end of this month, before I head back to California for 5 weeks. I'll be trying to get some programming and game playing in while I'm visiting my family, but I can't make any promises. I might need to push out 2-3 parts for Stage 4, like I did for Stage 2. If that's the case, I should get the button settings window done for part 1, any skinning junk for part 2, and the speech data for part 3. Sooo ... that's the plan.
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Post by lothaer on Jun 19, 2007 5:58:34 GMT -5
wow stage 4 looks to be kick ass WOOOOT!
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wolftusk
Very Talkative Beta Tester
Posts: 140
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Post by wolftusk on Jun 19, 2007 7:00:10 GMT -5
Each stage, I pretty much design the layout of the addon on paper, and then I open up Photoshop and make the layout again, so I can see how large it might be, the color scheme, and how it might look in WOW. I decided to share my concept design for the Stage 4 Button Settings window, so people can get an idea of what I will be adding. So, here's the window you'll see when editing one of the 10 main buttons: Since these can become menu buttons, they get extra options. If you don't have any button click assigned as a menu, the menu options will be grayed out. If you have the stance checkbox marked, you'll be able to edit your buttons per stance. Otherwise, the stances you have will be grayed out, and you'll only focus on your primary actions. To edit a button's actions per stance, simply click on the stance icon you want to modify and you'll be able to edit those clicks. Note, this would be the stance list of a druid. If you are any other class, you'll only have the icons visible for your stances for that class. The next image is of the sub menu buttons. Since these don't have menu functionality, I removed a lot of data from the window, so we don't over do things: That's the idea for stage 4. I decided not to assign speeches on a per-button basis, but rather, on a per-spell basis in the Speech tab (no pictures of that yet, but I'm working on it). It's my hope to push out part of Stage 4 by the end of this month, before I head back to California for 5 weeks. I'll be trying to get some programming and game playing in while I'm visiting my family, but I can't make any promises. I might need to push out 2-3 parts for Stage 4, like I did for Stage 2. If that's the case, I should get the button settings window done for part 1, any skinning junk for part 2, and the speech data for part 3. Sooo ... that's the plan. This stuff is looking great so far Moongaze, stage 4 is already looking very promising. I was just wondering if you've put any thought into taking advantaged of an addon like CyCircled for your skinning needs. I figure this could save some time on the whole skinning process of the addon, but this is without knowing the underlying code.
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Post by lothaer on Jun 19, 2007 8:12:23 GMT -5
Cycircled is a Ace mod if Moon was gonna use that to handle the skinning process which would mean more code to handle also he'd have to add support for Ace and when Cycircled OR Ace is updated then he will have to update LS to work, thats the problem when adding support for other mods is that when they update u have to update.
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Elesarr
Jittery Beta Tester
Arcane Dawn of Khadgar - Guild Leader
Posts: 312
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Post by Elesarr on Jun 19, 2007 10:24:45 GMT -5
Moon uses LunarSkin How strange ... I thought I posted pictures of the buttons as well. I must be imagining things ... ;D Anyway, here's a sample of how the buttons will look (taken from the code I'm using for LunarSkin), with the traditional "World of Warcraft" skin. It's essentially the same circle that goes around the mini-map buttons ... but it will still give you an idea on how they will look: Here's another sample. This image is actually to show how the technique I use to make my buttons round differs from most mods. Most mods, like Serenity, Totemis, Necrosis, Cryolosis, and more ... have pre-made buttons for all their circle icons. While this is great for making sure the icons look EXACTLY the way you want them to, you need to make an icon for each spell or item, and that is a pain. Most of these mods actually borrow from another mod that already did it (I.e., Serenity takes a lot of item icons from Necrosis). The other way of making real-time circle buttons is a method that cyCircled uses, which can be seen on all the buttons on the right in this picture: The original icon that was used is in the top-left corner. The icons on the top-right are the finished icons, in-game, that cyCircled would make. You'll notice that the art shrinks a lot so that it can fit in the circle, and the circle itself (or other shaped button) is usually THICK, so it can help hide the square edges under it (as represented by the bottom-right buttons, with some of the thickness removed). As an example, my skinning technique is displayed on the bottom-left icon. You'll notice that the border is quite thin, and there are no square edges popping out. It's a nifty trick, and will ensure that ALL icons for ALL items and spells will be able to be skinned, with this circle or any other circle I come up with. As for other shapes ... I guess I can do that too, with some tweaking =) and yes great looking stuff for Stage 4 Moon! ;D Ele
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Post by lothaer on Jun 19, 2007 10:59:33 GMT -5
request: LunarSkin, not exactly what it sounds, what im requesting is custom skins for LunarSphere like with Necrosis, there was someone who made different looking skins, are there any plans for custom download skins?
Id do them my self but im not very "Artistic", maybe one of out other posters knows how to make cool graphics... too bad u cant use .gif pics it be cool to have a white pulse going around the spheres ...*..... etc.
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Post by Moongaze on Jun 19, 2007 19:11:45 GMT -5
I was just wondering if you've put any thought into taking advantaged of an addon like CyCircled for your skinning needs. I figure this could save some time on the whole skinning process of the addon, but this is without knowing the underlying code. The skinning of LunarSphere is so deeply rooted into the button module code, using CyCircled wouldn't be necessary. The only thing that would put a damper on the skinning would be making the skins ... and honestly, those are pretty easy for me. I could also jack the art from CyCircled if need be by adding an option: "Use CyCircled Textures" that would populate my skin list with whatever CyCircled also has. When the skinning tab is finished for LunarSphere, you'll find a plethora of options for the buttons. Skin images, skin colors, adding shines, making it a square button, and some other stuff. When LunarSphere is finished, I'll release LunarSkin which will skin the default UI buttons to the same skin type that LunarSphere uses. I'm sure people will still use Bongos and other action bar addons, but if they decide to dump those and use LS for their action bar needs, LunarSkin will at least let them change the default UI, something CyCircled doesn't do (that I'm aware of, I could be wrong) request: LunarSkin, not exactly what it sounds, what im requesting is custom skins for LunarSphere like with Necrosis, there was someone who made different looking skins, are there any plans for custom download skins? The skinning tab will support custom skins in the future. I'll basically have a "guideline" .TGA (or .PNG) file for people to use that will have an area marked that their art should NOT enter (ie., the area where the spell icon would go). That way, they can create small or thick button skins. People would just copy the .TGA (or converted .BLP) file into the LunarSphere button skin folder, start up WOW, and in the skinning tab hit the "Add Custom Art" button and type the name of the button's art file. LS will find it and track it for use from then on (only need to add it once, similar to DiscordArt I guess). Being that I've added animated graphics in my games, the animated sphere and button art wouldn't be hard. The only issue that might come up is the chance that your FPS may drop 1-4 frames. ;D I might add animated skins in the future (I plan on animated sphere art at some point, with 4-16 frames of animation changing every .1 second for 10 frames a second smoothness, lol). *sigh* All the stuff I want to add in the future ... it's a pretty big list. At least people can rest assured that after LunarSphere goes public, I'll keep adding new features.
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Post by happyburger on Jun 19, 2007 21:28:59 GMT -5
lol that seems like a given...in fact sounds like u won't even have this finished by retirement btw releasing lunarskin would be fantastic
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Post by Moongaze on Jun 20, 2007 23:20:06 GMT -5
Here's some of the new buttons skins I've been making for Stage 4. These are all solid colored skins, so you can tint them any color you want I need something to do while I'm at work, and since I can't work on the programming part of my addon, at least I can make the skin art while I'm waiting around, hehe. I have a few more creations that I'm gonna do while at work tomorrow, and I'm also going to take care of some sphere skins as well. I also realized that the BLP program I was using needed to be updated BADLY, because apparently it would take any PNG file that had less than 256 colors in it and automatically convert the palette of the file to a junk palette, which would make my BLP files lose some of their color and fade it out. So, with the new BLP program I'm using, the button and sphere are will look a little more crisp
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Post by viserion on Jun 20, 2007 23:54:20 GMT -5
Looking good. I especially like the first two on the bottom row.
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Post by lothaer on Jun 21, 2007 3:20:15 GMT -5
wow i like the suriken looking one maybe warlocks would like a pentagram shaped one
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Post by Moongaze on Jun 21, 2007 5:58:33 GMT -5
I actually have a pentagram skin that is more, um, pentagramy, that I'll be making for the warlocks. I also have a square one that has VERY small blood drops coming off it (kinda hard to see, since the buttons are 32x32 in the game). I also have some gradient ones that start top-left as white and fade to black on the bottom-right, which would look kinda cool when the color is changed. I want to try and make one or two icons that each class can identify with, but I don't think I'll be able to =( Sooo ... lots and lots of skins to choose from instead. I think Stage 4 was to have about 10 skins to choose from, but it looks like I'll have 14 or 15 when I'm done. The final product will have a lot more, maybe 25. Of course, some of these are just variations of other one (such as the circle button WITH the square on top), so I cheat a little. But, it will still give people plenty of options.
I'll also have some colored ones too, although I don't know how well those will turn out.
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Post by happyburger on Jun 21, 2007 9:45:20 GMT -5
fantastic...i'm sure they will look great in game...i really like the idea of the gradient one...hope u push that to stuff like the shuriken... your really making me look forward to stage 4 lol...excitement over an addon....hrrrrm ...mental health is looking shakey
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Post by Moongaze on Jun 21, 2007 18:55:01 GMT -5
I can take every solid colored button skin and make a gradient fade version of it as well, effectively doubling the amount of skins I have, haha.
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Post by viserion on Jun 21, 2007 22:25:55 GMT -5
LOL the pentagram would go great with my warlock. I"d make a leaf theme(based on my Night Elf UI) if I was an artist but alas I stink at photoshop. I"m a coder not an artist
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Post by Moongaze on Jun 21, 2007 22:35:54 GMT -5
I'll see if I can make a simple leaf-looking button and sphere skin for the druids. I was thinking that druids needed something along that line... maybe I'll also include the Konaha Leaf design as well, for all those Naruto fans.
I'm cursed/blessed with being coder and an artist (as long as it's NOT character art, I'm fine)
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Post by cleolump on Jun 22, 2007 11:32:53 GMT -5
Awesome. I'm so excited for next Wednesday!
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Post by lothaer on Jun 22, 2007 14:09:49 GMT -5
wow Moon, Jack of all trades, Master of ALL lol.
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Post by Moongaze on Jun 22, 2007 16:24:47 GMT -5
Yeah, I eat spare computer parts for breakfast.
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Post by Moongaze on Jun 23, 2007 4:32:29 GMT -5
Okay, I decided to go a little overboard on the buttons skins for Stage 4. There was nothing to do at work, so I pretty much spent the entire time designing button skins. *sigh* Anyway! Here are the 36 different button looks that I'll be including in Stage 4. You'll notice that I took a lot of the same button structure and just added it to an existing button to create a hybrid. It was quick and dirty, but I was able to make a bunch of different styles. I have also included another image, this time I added a gradient color overlay to almost half of the buttons, so they can have that nice shiney look to them. I also colored the top-left a little, to show what a different button color used on a skin will look like. I'll probably convert the buttons that have more surface space into gradients, and the ones with little surface room will stay the normal flat-ish color. All, of couse, can be tinted ingame with the button skin color feature.
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