formal WPS (theme)

[eekhoornstaartlolly]

Hello everyone.
(I'm asm still new to this opensource rockbox stuff, so forgive me if I use some wrong terms or arguments)

I really started to appreciate rockbox lately and I found some good themes. I modified those and am using those (my modify skills aren't that big XD).

Though I'm still looking for a good formal theme which looks simple and professional ( as formal as the original ipod firmware was, though pls don't let it look like it). You may be wondering why I am asking this. Well I'm asking this because most of the themes look kinda scratchy...what a word, scratchy..., and I'd just like to have a simple wps or just a theme which doesn't need to display to many options, just enough, which still looks professional. I am new to this and am learning the implemantation when i got some spare time.
I found Rocker theme which is a nice them on it's own. And I'd like to know if there maybe are people who have such themes but not supported or uploaded yet.

Also, I'd have anpther small question. the menu, there are the icosn of the battery, volume, time.... it looks kinda small. any idea how I can chance such things easely and maybe a step by step guide to change those things, as it is really hard to keep searching those abbreviations in the pdf file and learn what they are to see if I need to change that. Still I am doing my best.

ofcourse this is alot to ask, but simple replies and help would be much appreciated.

[MarcGuay]

Also, I'd have anpther small question. the menu, there are the icosn of the battery, volume, time.... it looks kinda small. any idea how I can chance such things easely.

This sounds like the "status bar" and it currently has two settings, ON and OFF.

And for the themes, chances are if you can't find any you like by searching the internet (there are other sites which host themes as well), you're out of luck.  it may help to mention what player you have, though.  Also, in case you haven't discovered them already, there are a few very helpful pages on how to make your own WPSes and detailed descriptions of the tags in the wiki.

[ryran]

It sounds to me like the default cabbiev2 theme would be just what you're looking for...

[ZincAlloy]

I think he's got an ipod video...

[eekhoornstaartlolly]

yep, got an ipod video.

I had the cabbiev2 for a while, and I liked the WPS, so i keeped that one. It's fine for what it is and I keeped the WPS with minor changes.
also got pen&paper, it's just a nice theme XD.
I'll see what i can do to make my own, the learning goes slowly but it goes.

ain't here by chance a way to enlarge the statusbar? can I do it myself or are there already versions of rockbox in which it is implemented as i see in some themes that the statusbar is different but you need to have the version of rockbox of the maker of that theme.

also, when I change the font everything changes place in the WPS I understand that, so I just need to change it in the WPS file (remove whitelines etc...) no?

really excited of making a new one, will upload it as soon as it is fully functional.

btw: another small question. I just discoverd the album art, downloaded it. and I like it XD. though what is it exactly in rockbox? as far as I read, it shows your album cover on the WPS, but you'll need a WPS that supports AA? I know this may sound very confusing, and it may have been asked couple of times before me. but I gtg, ned to catch glass, when i'm back i'm gonna look for it myself anyway, just haven't had enough time to find out.

thanks again

[ryran]

statusbar: No there's not currently a way to resize the statusbar. You could of course disable the statusbar in the WPS and create something like it at the top of the screen.

album art: Cabbiev2 supports covers with a resolution of 120x120. See http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/AlbumArt for the details of what you need to do.

[eekhoornstaartlolly]

Well Mr. Kit, you're right on the same spot as where I am.

from the last post i made untill now I have been nothing but learning the WPS structures and learning to make changes to simple WPS. for example, I learnt to modify the iCatcher WPS, because I liked it, very simple. I did some easy excercises, by making it all blue so i have now a blue iCatcher WPS. This may sound easy, for you experienced guys, but it's a good start to learn it. luckely I found the simulator else I'd still be busy, because of the always disconnecting and connecting the ipod to see if changes are done succesfully. I ain't gonna use the theme, am just going to learn to change some existing ones. I actually came to check the forum to ask a question about sopme colorchanges (but i'll do that later).

I use pen & paper for quite a while now, and I think I'm gonna stick to it as I really like it, very simple and it has a nice retro look to which fits for my ipod.
I'm planning to or modify "Rocker" or the ordinary "iCatcher" as the last one has a nice WPS already and the background etc is still blank so easely to be filled in.

the question I wanted to ask is: I made a new theme, the iCatcher_blue (I can't stop telling that's it just a very simple learning expermient). i changed the WPS in a nice blue color and wanted to keep the backgrounds etc as it was, as I was gonna change that later. when i copied everything, and pout it in the icatcher_blue file. (backdrops, WPS... all had there icatcher_bleu files), I decided to keep everything and only use the blue WPS, so it actually was just icatcher but with a blue WPS.
well, when I did this, the background color of the iCatcher_blue was yellow, which can't be as the iCatcher (normal) has a white background adn i just made a new document and copied all the info from the normal icatcher file to that file and only changed the path of the WPS (in the themes file). even when i typed in a different number in the color part, it stayed yellow. I tried to change the foreground color, and by changing that number I managed to do that, so i do am in the right file. how come the color of that doesn't change? (all this has been done with archos simulator) also the iconset won't change it stays on 'viewer'

btw Mr Kit, plz keep in touch with me about some nice themes, i can still really use them. and already many thanks for the suggestions

[Llorean]

First: Please read our forum guidelines. Words like "plz" and "btw" are discouraged in favour of real words. With the exception of technical terms, where automatic translation is unlikely anyway, we ask that you use whole, real words for our non-English or machine-assisted readers.

As far as the background, I'm not sure but I think iCatcher uses a background image rather than simply a color, which would explain why setting the color does nothing. As well, are you sure it's really blue? When the human eye sees a lot of one color, it can make other colors look slightly different. For example, it could still be white, but the colors you've changed the rest of the WPS to could cause a contrast and make it look yellow to your eye. I don't know what you're seeing, so I don't know how yellow it appears, but you can always take a screen dump of each WPS (the original and your variant) and then compare the actual pixel color values.

[eekhoornstaartlolly]

 
sorry for the abraviations. I forgot about the fact that there are alot of non-english people (and I'm dutch myself). It won't happen again.

Well, it's really blue. REALLY blue,  .


It is really simple, but it took me lots of work (I just changed the colors of the pics though) as it made me learn alot about the structure of rockbox themes.

I tried to clear the background, but nothing helped and it stayed yellow. it actually ain't such a big problem as I could just goning to make a backdrop of my own anyway. but if someone knows the answer, let me know. also when i start the simulator it makes a dumpfile of the screen (the yellow one) next to the .rockbox directory, in the archos directory. this could be because it is a simulator?

[robin0800]

The yellow isn't realy yellow its orange and I would bet its the default colour for the default theme, that I think maybe is even hard coded these days.
Something breaking the WPS that your editing will cause Cabbiev2 the default theme to display.

[ZincAlloy]

no. it will cause the old default theme to display and no, it's not the default color.

[Chronon]

Clearing the backdrop is not the same as setting the background color.  Did you do both?

[eekhoornstaartlolly]

I though white was the default color...

I cleared the backdrop, but first I tried to change the color of that orange screen (sorry if I said it was yellow :S didn't know it was such a big deal...) in the themes directory (the small text file). there were 6 zero's after the name 'background color:' or something like it. followed by the 'foreground color: FFF000'. I filled in alot of numbers to see what the result was, it stayed orange. I did the same with the foreground and filled in for example 'FFF700' and that turned greyish, so it should work. I now that it may have been because I haven't tried enough, but I went from 000000 to 999999 (with leaps ofcourse), and it stayed orange.

I will try and change the background color in the simulator itself tomorrow (or on the ipod) to see if that has effect.


----------------------- am not allowed to double post, therefore the following edit (ten minutes after original post)

I just made a new theme text file, seemed that it was a misstyping. when I tested it I have forgotten to remove a number.
am really embarrased about this. I understand that you guys think that I made up the problem to get posts.... so if you like to kick me or something, i don't blame you..... pfff, am just so embarrased . my sincere apologies.

eitherway, when I don't get deleted, I'll let you know the progres i made with the WPS and the theme in general.
first thing I'll be looking into is the statusbar....a bit of anoyingly small, so i'll see what I can do to change it bu some alternate icons, such as one of the WPS battery icons and volume icons which i saw.

[Chronon]

Unless I'm missing something, I think you are overreacting a bit.   

Post count doesn't really count for anything here anyway. 

[eekhoornstaartlolly]

yeah, I know but some forums are very strict about this kinda stuff and before you know it you're out. I'm not really a forum guy, and the most posts I have on a forum is like 100.

though i think that I'll be sticking around for a while because that theme is gonna take a long time to build.

so back to the point .

I am now working on a way to swap the rockbox image (when you start up your ipod)
I found a nice program on rockbox called LogoSwapper. though on the wiki where you can download it, there are no constructions how to use it.
You need to select a rockbox binary file, and I really don't know what it is (and I don't ahev a clue even when looking to the example).
i thought you had to select the image that rockbox already uses, but I can't find it in the .rockbox directory. some people talk about the apps file, though i haven't seen any app file. I know the program ain't supported, but I really want the rockbox screen splasher to be changed.