Theme background question

[AlexP]

I'm not an expert by any means but I just accomplished what you say isn't possible in the sim a few moments ago.  I have my buttons onscreen with the default backdrop showing underneath.  This is NOT the one applied with the theme.

I'd appreciate seeing the WPS code that achieves this, could you post it?

[Yotto]

What are you hoping to see if you make the background invisible? The insides of the iPod or something?

Sounds like an idea for a theme though!

I'm thinking of buying one of those do-it-yourself battery changing kits (Though even after nearly 2 years of almost daily use, my battery is still pretty good) and if I do, I'm snapping a picture of the guts and may try to use them as a background.

[melancholydm]

is it really impossible? Lets say you dont set a bg.bmp in the wps code and just layout the icons with coding, wouldnt you be able to use a backdrop as a background?

[AlexP]

There are two separate backgrounds - the WPS background and the rest of rockbox.  You can set the background in the WPS by specifying it in the xxx.wps file, which is where the filename bg.bmp is commonly used, but you can call it anything.  If you do not specify a background in your xxx.wps file, you will not have background in the WPS.  The 'global' background cannot be seen on the WPS.  It isn't a question of seeing it through other icons, it just isn't drawn.

The way of using the same background for both is to specify the same image for both, once for the WPS in your xxx.WPS file, and again for the rest of rockbox.

This is why I would like to see blueskip's code, as what he is suggesting can't be done (if it can I'll buy then eat my newly acquired hat).  I suspect he has set it as the background which achieves the same effect in the end, but is different.

[blueskip]

I'm almost done.  I have one tiny spot of pink showing and I can't get it to show transparent.

Photoshop tells me the color is R=255,G=0,B=255 but it still is pink in Rockbox.  ??  Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong to get this to show transparent.  Do I need to edit it in something else ... gimp ...mspaint?  

Everything else is working.  I can see my default backdrop when the music is playing and if I change the default backdrop it changes in the player as well.  I used the blackglass theme and modified it so it looks very similar when playing.    

[AlexP]

Everything else is working.  I can see my default backdrop when the music is playing and if I change the default backdrop it changes in the player as well.  I used the blackglass theme and modified it so it looks very similar when playing.    

You mean if you change the backdrop in the menu screen, then your WPS bakground automatically changes too?

I would really love to see the WPS code

[blueskip]

here is the code although almost all of it was created by Chris Banes so I can't possibly take credit for anything other than figuring out how to make this work differently.

%x|a|bmp.bmp|0|179|
%P|pb.bmp|
%xl|b|volume0.bmp|230|200|
%xl|c|volume1.bmp|230|200|
%xl|d|volume2.bmp|230|200|
%xl|e|volume3.bmp|230|200|
%xl|f|volume4.bmp|230|200|
%xl|g|volume5.bmp|230|200|
%xl|h|volume6.bmp|230|200|
%xl|i|volume7.bmp|230|200|
%xl|j|volume8.bmp|230|200|
%xl|k|volume9.bmp|230|200|
%xl|l|volume10.bmp|230|200|
%xl|m|stop.bmp|65|190|
%xl|n|play.bmp|65|190|
%xl|o|pause.bmp|65|190|
%xl|p|rw.bmp|14|200|
%xl|B|ff.bmp|107|200|
%xl|C|rpt_on1.bmp|167|200|
%xl|D|rpt_on.bmp|167|206|
%xl|E|rpt_on_ab.bmp|167|200|
%xl|F|rpt_on_sh.bmp|167|200|
%xl|G|rpt_off.bmp|167|208|
%xl|H|shf_off.bmp|193|200|
%xl|I|shf_on.bmp|193|200|
%xl|J|b0.bmp|252|7|
%xl|K|b1.bmp|252|7|
%xl|L|b2.bmp|252|7|
%xl|M|b3.bmp|252|7|
%xl|N|b4.bmp|252|7|
%xl|O|b5.bmp|252|7|
%xl|P|r1.bmp|281|7|
%xl|Q|r2.bmp|281|7|
%xl|R|h.bmp|301|7|
%xl|S|stat.bmp|243|0|
%wd
%s%al  %?ia<%ia  |%?d2<%d2|(root)>>
%s%al  %?id<%id  |%?d1<%d1|(root)>>
%pb|4|6|306|
%al  %?it<%it  |%fn>
%al   Time : %pc [%pt]
%al   Track : %?in<%in|unknown> (%pp/%pe)
%al   Codec : %fc (%?fb<%fbkbps| >)

%al   %cl:%cM %cp

I added two new bitmaps and did away with the original backdrop bmp.  I cant figure out how to insert the images here.  But I moved the background of the battery, lock and disk to the top.   I cut the entire lower portion of the original backdrop and placed it on the bottom that is bmp.bmp above.  Stat.bmp is the white background from the original.  I'll see if I can open in a sim and post a screenshot soon.  

For anyone wanting to use this immediately the fast forward and rewind buttons still do not work correctly.  I need to look and see what I did wrong.  I did a couple of things wrong before I figured out how this works.  Since the mistakes don't seem to affect the way this works I left them.  I particularly wanted this for a large font such as Nimbus 19 so the lack of information onscreen is for that reason.  I would really prefer a font of about 17 or 18 but I haven't been able to find any and haven't had time to convert one yet.

Update: fastforward and rewind icons fixed.  They now highlight when used.  I included a screenshot.  It doesn't show the battery, lock and disk because it's from the sim.  The sim crashes with .dll problems repeatedly when I use it, but the battery icon..etc. show correctly on the ipod.  

[MarcGuay]

You mean if you change the backdrop in the menu screen, then your WPS bakground automatically changes too?

Just did a test on the sim and indeed, it's true.  If you don't set a new background in the .wps file it sticks with the menu backdrop.  The world is full of surprises.

[AlexP]

Looks like I need to buy a hat to eat then

[MarcGuay]

[blueskip]

I'll eat that hat.    I just got lucky.  (making it work)

I've been playing with this theme based on this approach since my last post.  I made numerous changes such as moving the progress bar to the bottom.  I cropped the bottom panel slightly to make the progress bar look like it belongs there.  etc..

Now I just need a font that is about a 17 or 18 and I'll be done.  I can't figure out how to rezize fonts though.  That's a little tougher than I thought.

[Yotto]

Ah, someone beat me to it. However, I found something a bit more practical:

http://www.foundationtv.co.uk/f-tips/illeatmyhat.html

[melancholydm]

wow then this is great news... further customization that everybody else didnt think possible.... does this mean you simply just placed the icons by using code or did you put pink everywhere?

[blueskip]

When I first was experimenting I was using photoshop.  Bitmaps using pink with photoshop will NOT work.  I switched to MS paint and haven't had any problems using transparencies since.

HOWEVER, that is not how I did it (using pink I mean).  I used %x|a|filename|distance from left|distance from top| as the first line

The I called the image for display using %xda

This placed the background for my button icons.  

All of this may work using the pink in paintshop.  (255-0255) I don't know.  I haven't tried that.  But I have been experimenting with this color making changes to the overall theme.  It seems to work one everything else and I would think it would probably work just as well as what I did on any other background.  But I don't know without trying.  What I do know is that the less that is loaded the better off you are so loading a 320x240 image covered in pink will bog the overall performance if you are intending to look at the default background when it's not shown.

I'm working on a complete make over to this theme.  I like the media player look, but I want some changes to clear up more screen space.

Update:  Theme posted.  Listed as Clearview at the bottom. Uses Nimbus 14 font by default.

http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WpsIpod5g