Creating a properly tiling desktop background (w/screenshots)

[tiilikainen]

Hi,

First of all, thanks for the wonderful tutorial content you've put up. I'm attempting to construct a rule set of my own and am going through the guide and learning a lot.

Like some other previous posters, I have also had problems with creating an image that tiles correctly.

I'm using a stock 4E (patched up to the latest revision as of 10/12) rule set with the following code as the desktop framedef:



<framedef name="desktop">
<bitmap file="graphics/frames/desktop.png" />
<middle rect="0,0,512,512" />
<right rect="512,0,97,512" />
<decal rect="612,0,512,512" />
</framedef>

Here is the screen capture of the image I'm attempting to get to work (I'm using GIMP):

https://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x165/tiilikainen/bg_img_help1.png

Here is a screen capture of what it looks like when I start up FG (DM mode):

https://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x165/tiilikainen/bg_img_help2.png

As you can see, the right bar isn't lining up with the middle area correctly. Could someone please help me out?

If you want me to PM you the original image file, let me know.

Thanks in advance.

[tiilikainen]

So I think I figured out at least why it's happening when I enlarged the DM window horizontally:

https://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x165/tiilikainen/bg_img_help3.png

It lines up.

I guess the tiling engine starts drawing copies of the image from the top-left corner of the frame, pasting further copies below and right as it needs to in order to completely fill the frame. Is there anyway to get it to start from the top-right corner, getting it to tile left and down?

Or is there some other way to fix this problem that has to do with changing the image/region dimensions?

Thanks again.

[StuartW]

I don't think there is an easy answer for the more general request (tiling from right to left) but you might be able to achieve what you want by excluding the righthand section of the desktop frame so it tiles all the way to the right edge of the screen, then creating a translucent black frame for your right hand button bar.

Hope that helps,

Stuart

[gmkieran]

better yet, is there a way to get it to stretch the image, instead of tiling? for some reason the watermark (dragon in a circle) in the right half of the desktop file doesn't have to tile, but the left does?!!!

[Moon Wizard]

The frame object does not scale any part of the frame image. Every section tiles as needed to fill the requested space, except the decal and corners which are presented as is.

Corners - No tiling
Top/Bottom Edges - Horizontal Tiling
Left/Right Edges - Vertical Tiling
Middle - Horizontal and Vertical Tiling
Decal - No tiling

Cheers,
JPG

[gmkieran]

thanks, JPG! I figured that out from another thread after I posted here. I think I've been able to re-design my desktop images to work within the parameters provided. Cheers!

gmkieran