Extension: 5E Theme - FG Pro

[ll00ll00ll00ll]

Here is a theme that I've developed for 5E. It's called fg Pro. Please take a look and let me know what you think. If you notice any bugs / problems let me know and I'll do my best to fix them.

The idea behind this was to greatly simplify the User Interface. I have always loved how FG works, but have found the User Interface to be crowded and distracting. This is my first stab at a theme. If you have any pointers for how I could have achieved this easier / better I'd love to hear it.

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At the time of this typing, the extension is at v0.1.0
- I'll keep updating this post as changes happen.

2016/12/18 : v0.1.1 : Fixed some buttons on the Manage Characters screen
2016/12/19 : v0.1.2 : Housekeeping (removed unnecessary files and code, cutting the total file size by half)
2017/02/12 : v2.0.0 : Thanks to Dulux-Oz, this is now compatible with his extensions, and the coding is greatly simplified (so different, it's now at v2.0.0). * This appears to be compatible with the 3.2.3 update (If you discover otherwise, please post in this thread)
2017/02/25 : v2.1 : Fixed an issue with the weapons and equipment sub-windows. I’m sure that is the last problem that will ever be found with this extension (he said knowingly) - Thanks to Lord Gwydion and Rob2EE for the continuing feedback
2017/07/15 : v2.2 : Fixed magnifying glass icon

2018/01/14 : THIS EXTENSION IS NOW OPEN SOURCE AND FOR THE TIME BEING I WILL NOT BE DIRECTLY SUPPORTING THIS EXTENSION, PLEASE SEE HERE FOR UP TO DATE INFORMATION (THANKS FOR ALL OF THE SUPPORT). I WILL STILL DO MY BEST TO TRY TO ANSWER / AID IN ANY WAY I CAN.

[LindseyFan]

Whoa that looks good! When I get back to my machine, I am so downloading it.

[Zacchaeus]

Can you say how the interface is simplified? It seems to be the same interface only in gray.

A lot of work has clearly gone into this but it's not to my personal taste; the text is more difficult (for me) to read. I'd need more contrast between the background colour and the text colour and I like the 3d buttons rather than flat ones.

I'll ask Trenloe to sticky this in the extensions thread so that it gets more exposure and doesn't get lost.

[kp9911]

This is some good stuff right here.

Do you have a tutorial on how to do this, I'd want to try my hand at this.

[ll00ll00ll00ll]

Thanks, I hope you enjoy it.

[ll00ll00ll00ll]

Can you say how the interface is simplified? It seems to be the same interface only in gray.

A lot of work has clearly gone into this but it's not to my personal taste; the text is more difficult (for me) to read. I'd need more contrast between the background colour and the text colour and I like the 3d buttons rather than flat ones.

I'll ask Trenloe to sticky this in the extensions thread so that it gets more exposure and doesn't get lost.

This is absolutely not going to be for everyone. I took my design / visual cues from programs like Adobe Illustrator / Apple Aperture / Autocad, etc. It's not perfect, and there are a lot of elements that I couldn't change to my satisfaction, but for now this is the best I can do. It's not that I didn't like the interface that comes pre-packaged (or the Wizards 5E theme). It's that there are a lot of conflicting design elements that ended up very distracting for me. Basically I would find myself trying to line up different windows (because I'm anal and I like everything very ordered) and finding I couldn't because one looked like it was made out of leather, and the other had elaborate corner filigrees. Or in the case of the Wizards theme, the dragon heads and all of the protruding window titles. Don't get me wrong, it was the leather theme and the Wizards theme that brought me to Fantasy Grounds in the first place, but I found that USING it was different than LOOKING at it.

There was much more I would have liked to do to the interface, but I either don't have access to it, or I have absolutely no idea how to achieve it. So I stuck with what I could achieve without having to learn any programming. Honestly, this was just a fun exercise for me, kind of like a giant rubics cube.

[ll00ll00ll00ll]

This is some good stuff right here.

Do you have a tutorial on how to do this, I'd want to try my hand at this.

No tutorial, I can say that the best way to actually learn how to do this is not going to come from me! What I did would look like a blind drunk man stumbling around in the darkness, with legos all over the floor...

The first thing I did was to create a duplicate of the 5E and CoreRPG rulesets. I then took an existing extension that someone else had created and duplicated that, then I went through that file folder and figured out the elements that needed to be there, and how the linking worked. Then I just went into the graphics folders of the CoreRPG and 5E rulesets and started poking around. Once I found the .png of the element I wanted to change, I added it to my new extension folder using the same file structure / naming from where it came, then I changed it, then saw what happened. Once I knew the name of the .png element I was changing, I could use my text editor (in this case TextWrangler... I"m on a mac. I think Notepad++ would the the Windows Equivalent) to search for wherever that file name showed up, then I would go and edit that and see what happened. One of the things that caught me over and over again was remembering to add the .xml files to the "includefile" section of the extension.xml. (once you get into this a bit more, you will see what I'm talking about).

This took me a LOOOONGGG time to make, probably something on the order of 60-80 hours. Now having done it, I think I could do it faster, since I have a better understanding of where files are located, and how the positioning system works. And now that I've ordered all of the XML files in a way that makes more sense to me.

I'm happy to give you any specific information you may be looking for, but I can assure you that there are MUCH MUCH more qualified people on this forum than me...

[kp9911]

I'm not jumping into this asap since I'm busy with finishing off the parser and there is tons of stuff to do?!!

[ll00ll00ll00ll]

No matter how hard I try, I always miss something. I just found a couple of missed buttons on the Manage Characters screen, they should be all fixed now.

[ll00ll00ll00ll]

Another minor update, but worth the time, I removed the extra graphic elements that weren't being used, and edited the xml, cutting the extension file in total size by about half. I also modified how the sidebar buttons are rendered so that the using the "time of day" menu works properly without revealing my original poor workmanship on the buttons.

If anyone has any input / constructive criticism I'd love to hear it. I'm also interested in trying out some other color combinations, so if you have any ideas, post them here.