What happened to these skins?

[D2sX9ek8w3]

Hi,
I made some skin designs for my own use, and was also enthused about sharing them. I did not have the latest installs when I made the skins, so I just downloaded the v4.41 Chrous and the v3.41 Phaser Win x64 VST3 installers.

Unfortunately, when I updated the plugins the skin layouts were displayed as a jumble.

I have attached a screen shot of the v4.3 Chorus and v3.3 Phaser with the skins working well, and another screen shot with the v3.41 Phaser update displayed as mess. The latest Chrous install does a similar thing.
It was disappointing to think that the skin would become useless after an update. I can run the older versions, but the experience cases me to think that sharing the skins will cause trouble for many users.

I wonder if you can provide some hints as to what might have caused such a drastic change in the layouts?

Thank you!

[D2sX9ek8w3]

I think I figured it out. A few of the newer include files have 0.5 image scaling parameters added, and some of the image files have been oubled in pixel dimension, which I guess was done to prevent the interface from blurring at 200%.

Unfortunately, I had just replaced most of the png files with SVG files and changed the tags in the includes so my skin could double in size and still look crisp and clean in the older versions.

The good news is that I can export the svgs at any size and get good results. the bad news is that I am not keen to go back through all the includes to figure out what and where I have to make updates, so it's going to be while before I regain the enthusiasm.

Thank you!

[D2sX9ek8w3]

I compared the text files and made some notes:

default.xml = no changes
mapping.inc = no changes
includes.inc = no changes
theme.inc = some changes at the bottom primarily with addition of image scaling attributes
buttons.inc = no changes
decorations.inc = no changes
knobs.inc = lots of differences primarily with addition of image scaling attributes most of the changes

describe knobs that are not actually used in the skin.
round_meter.inc = no changes
settings_buttons.inc = several changes about mouse actions
switches.inc = two added tags
toolbar.inc = many misc changes
tpl.image_opacity_box.inc = added height and width values


There are not many changes to the actual image files:

knobs are twice as large
settings buttons image have been replaced with a single image

[Blue Cat Audio]

Very nice skins! The only file you should update is tpl.image_opacity_box.inc.

What happened is that we made some changes in the way the width and height attributes work (and this file used to use a hack with negative values that do not work anymore).

Regarding image sizes, I don't think you have to upscale them if it's svgs. They should be scaled up or down properly (without artifacts) by the KUIML engine: that's the advantage of using svgs.

[D2sX9ek8w3]

...The only file you should update is tpl.image_opacity_box.inc...

Hi,
Thank you very much for the helpful information. After posting the previous messages I hacked away and tried to integrate the changes I noted above into the includes I had already edited with the unique paths to the new image file names I had employed. Things were getting messy and I was ready to give up.

I saw your post this morning, grabbed some back up folders I had set aside and followed your instructions, and it all worked great just as you had suggested.

I have challenges with vision, so I really appreciate it when I can convert the GUIs to a brightly shaded simplistic appearance. Thank you!!!

I have uploaded some screenshots showing the latest install versions using the skins. The Chrous GUI uses the SVGs I mentioned, and the Phaser uses some PNGs I had made previously. I will update the Phaser with the SVGs now that my enthusiasm has been renewed.

I do have one follow-up question. With the Phaser, in both versions 3.3, and 3.41 the group boxes seem to be cut off along the bottom edge when I use the zoom feature. Everything looks correct at 100% or below, but at 110% and above the bottoms of the "boxes" get cut cut off. The default Darblue skin works fine so I expect that the problem is occurring in my theme files. Would you have any suggestions?

Once I get this figured out I hope to make a similar skin for the Flanger and then offer the 3 pack of skins for anyone interested in them.

Thank you.

[D2sX9ek8w3]

Hi,
Thanks again. I figured out the answer to my follow up question. It seems as if there is some over lapping, so I adjusted my graphic to provide more clearance at the bottom and now everything looks correct. I think the issue occurred because I have increased the size of the fonts from 11 to 14.

I updated the Phaser skin with all the SVGs I have made. I want to update the tool bar buttons on both skins with SVGs although it doesn't seem to matter because even at 200% the images are small enough to appear sharp.

Then I will work on the Flanger, when I get some free time.

Thank you!

[Blue Cat Audio]

Nice!