Functional Themes

[FraustTheSnowman]

Hello...if this is the wrong place to post this feel free to smack me and point me in the right direction.

I'm essentially pretty new to FG, and trying to learn all I can before I start running games. A topic I've seen discussed a little is modifying themes, with my assumption being themes are the background for when you have the program up and running. What I'm curious about, is if people have found a functionality in modifying the themes. Aesthetics are neat, but the existing themes suit me just fine in that regard. If there's something that can be done to improve game play though, I'd love to hear about it.

Things I've thought of, knowing very little about the practicality of any of them...
Campaign setting map, either an over land map for games that take are expected to span geographic distances, or a city map for games expected to stay mostly in one spot.
Portraits of the PCs and predominant NPCs to keep their basic appearance in the player's minds.
Commonly used tables and charts, sorta like what you would have on the inside of a GM screen in a face to face game.

Assuming there are solid ideas for functional use, how hard is it to switch out the theme? Would it be practical to run a Pathfinder AP and have a different theme for each book?

[Trenloe]

Things I've thought of, knowing very little about the practicality of any of them...
Campaign setting map, either an over land map for games that take are expected to span geographic distances, or a city map for games expected to stay mostly in one spot.
Portraits of the PCs and predominant NPCs to keep their basic appearance in the player's minds.
Commonly used tables and charts, sorta like what you would have on the inside of a GM screen in a face to face game.
Is the idea to one of these on the desktop background?

If so, you can switch out the graphic of the desktop.png file (found in graphics\frames in the ruleset\extension). The issue here is that this graphics file is not just a single image, it has a number of components of the desktop all in the one graphics file - the coordinates within the image determine what that part of the image will be used for.

Some info on swapping out the desktop.png file here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?18182-Change-the-theme-in-FG&highlight=desktop.png

More info the desktop.png graphics file here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?19316-Desktop-Graphic-Help

[damned]

Is the idea to one of these on the desktop background?

If so, you can switch out the graphic of the desktop.png file (found in graphics\frames in the ruleset\extension). The issue here is that this graphics file is not just a single image, it has a number of components of the desktop all in the one graphics file - the coordinates within the image determine what that part of the image will be used for.

Some info on swapping out the desktop.png file here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?18182-Change-the-theme-in-FG&highlight=desktop.png

More info the desktop.png graphics file here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?19316-Desktop-Graphic-Help

Although it is perfectly acceptable and works just fine to only specify the background image and not to specify the right

here is an example:

files:
extension.xml
logo.png
graphics\graphics_frames.xml
graphics\frames\scifi2048.jpg

note - traditionally this uses a PNG file because the DECAL usually has some transparency. if you dont need teh transparency and you want to use a higher resolution graphic - use a JPG image as it will typically be MUCH smaller and will improve load times.
maximum image size is 2048x2048. if you use a decal and a right rect these must also be within the 2048x2048 dimensions. desktops larger than your middle rect will tile the middle rect.
the code for decal and right is:
<right rect="0,1080,600,1680" />
<decal rect="0,1080,302,90" />

please let me know if anything is unclear.

extension.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>

<!--
Please see the license.html file included with this distribution for
attribution and copyright information.
-->

<root version="3.0" release="3">
<properties>
<name>FG Con SciFi Theme</name>
<version>3</version>

<author>Damned</author>
<description>FG Con SciFi Theme</description>

<ruleset>
<name>CoreRPG</name>
</ruleset>
<ruleset>
<name>Numenera</name>
</ruleset>
</properties>

<base>
<includefile source="graphics/graphics_frames.xml" />
</base>
</root>

graphics_frames.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>

<!--
Please see the license.html file included with this distribution for
attribution and copyright information.
-->

<root>
<!-- Desktop background -->
<framedef name="desktop">
<bitmap file="graphics/frames/scifi2048.jpg" />
<middle rect="0,0,2048,1080" />
</framedef>

</root>


Here is a sample of some desktop themes Ive put together for FG Con...

https://www.fg-con.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/newthemes20140820.jpg