FG Theme

[CarlPalmer]

I found a couple links related to themes


https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?36035-Art-Asset-List-for-5e-Themes
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?38080-FG-Themes


I have a fairly decent understanding of XML and CSS, and those concepts should make it doable to make a custom theme. (see way too optimistic about available free time)

The Art Asset List for 5e Themes is an amazingly good start and reference. Thanks Nickademus

My question is where is the default theme for FG stored? I would like to make a copy of it and use it as a reference/starting point. I am guessing that there is a complete set of all resources in that file, where as some of the themes I have downloaded don't seem to have everything included.

[damned]

Hey CarlPalmer all the included rulesets are layered on CoreRPG.
Some art elements might be in the primary ruleset or in CoreRPG.
The default themes are not loaded as themes - they are loaded as part of the ruleset so the files are not all in one spot.

[ll00ll00ll00ll]

I don’t know where it was on the forum (I think it was Damned who suggested it) but it was recommended to first simplify the windows... basically rename the links to all use a single window art resource. If I had it to do over, I would have started off by doing this first.

You will need access to the resources in the CoreRPG and 5e rulesets, though it mostly all comes from the CoreRPG ruleset if my memory serves correctly. The other thing that I had to learn, painfully, slowly, and with great embarrassment is how to properly use the merge rules... be sure to try merging first!

[damned]

In most of my themes I reduce the number of Window Frame Graphics and reuse them. Zeus does most of the official FG themes and does a wonderful job with all those different windows but I find it very challenging to have so many different windows.

[CarlPalmer]

Hey CarlPalmer all the included rulesets are layered on CoreRPG.
Some art elements might be in the primary ruleset or in CoreRPG.
The default themes are not loaded as themes - they are loaded as part of the ruleset so the files are not all in one spot.

::facepalm:: ouch, but it does give me a place start

[CarlPalmer]

@11001100110011
All good advice, thanks!

[ll00ll00ll00ll]

@11001100110011
All good advice, thanks!

Also, any file ending with .lua needs to be avoided at all costs. There is nothing in there but slow creeping dread, when you're about to open one of those, just imagine someone in a movie theater shouting "DON'T GO IN THERE!"... good luck! Can't wait to see what you develop.

[CarlPalmer]

Since I don't know much about no a the software is developed, how close you are on unity, and how the new version will handle UI assets, but.....

Maybe Zeus has a fully complete sample people can use as a template!? No one wants to try to code all the xml from scratch. ::cringe:: it may spur more people to try their hand. I think I have plenty to work with, thanks guys

[CarlPalmer]

Also, any file ending with .lua needs to be avoided at all costs. There is nothing in there but slow creeping dread, when you're about to open one of those, just imagine someone in a movie theater shouting "DON'T GO IN THERE!"... good luck! Can't wait to see what you develop.

You and me borh, and there is 0 rear of me being in the same room with lua, much less touching it, I promise. I am learning 2 other languages for work, and they make my head hurt fine.

[damned]

Since I don't know much about no a the software is developed, how close you are on unity, and how the new version will handle UI assets, but.....

Maybe Zeus has a fully complete sample people can use as a template!? No one wants to try to code all the xml from scratch. ::cringe:: it may spur more people to try their hand. I think I have plenty to work with, thanks guys

Look at the themes that ship with the product.
Theme_Wood
Theme_Dungeon
Theme_Simple_Brown
Theme_Simple_Grey

ll00ll00ll00ll did the majority of the work on those last two.

[CarlPalmer]

On trust that those are where I am going to start. Hard to beat a template!

[CarlPalmer]

A little preview of the desktop.

23793

This is a very large file designed to cover 2x2560x1440 monitors.

I plan to export this in a variety of resolutions for 1 and 2 monitors with the corresponding xml. Dual monitor resolutions will have the summoning stone centered for both monitors.

Now on to the hard stuff.

[damned]

Unfortunately CarlPalmer thats not really how it works.
The GM loads the extension and everyone gets the same thing.
So your graphical layout needs to be dynamic enough to support what ever resolution is thrown at it.
Hence 9 slices.

[CarlPalmer]

Oh crap, that is right. See, getting enough sleep IS actually important, or you start making stuff up in your head.

Will that change with the new Unity version?

Why don't players get to load the desktop/theme that makes them happy?

As a programmer, I get it, that sometimes it is easier to say screw that then try to implement a feature with everything else going on in development, but shouldn't players be able to customize their desktop to make them happy? Besides, loading local assets has to be less intensive and faster then reloading the assets every time you connect.

Just thinking out loud.

[Moon Wizard]

The problem is that the GM can load all sorts of extensions to customize gameplay and the environment; and themes are just one type. They all interact with each other, and can modify behavior. Plus, not all extensions work with each other.

It would be a support nightmare to allow player extensions. Not to mention, that players could then load extensions to see information they shouldn’t or cheat in other ways.

In this way, the GM gameplay environment is verified to work,l and to be limited to he features that the GM wants to allow.

Regards,
JPG

[CarlPalmer]

Valid point, but why do themes have to be extensions? Could they not be a separate class of obect, say themes that only modify appearance.

[LordEntrails]

Valid point, but why do themes have to be extensions? Could they not be a separate class of obect, say themes that only modify appearance.
Because that is how they were designed many years ago *G* An extension is anything that modifiers or overwrites the xml and lua files of a ruleset. The graphics and windows defined in a ruleset that we think of as a Theme are no more than entities defined in a ruleset.

Since the elements that make up a theme are not segregated from those that change die roles, attributes, mechanics, etc, there is not a way (currently) to segregate a functional extension from a theme extension.

[damned]

The GUI and the DATA are very closely tied together.
There may well be better ways to do it - if you were starting from scratch today with all the knowledge accumulated over the last dozen years or so - but unpicking it today would be so difficult timewise as to be called impossible...

[CarlPalmer]

Fair enough, I can see that. I get how that works.