How ?

[parisienne17]

After digging a bit in the forum sections, I think I already know the answer but...Anyway...

Is there a way to easily make a modern skin ?

I'm trying to update the one I'm using by looking inside others (mine has black text white playlist/media library backgrounds but as my eyesight has badly worsen this last year, I'd prefer the opposite) but it is a tedious process and as I'm no coder, the xml structure plus understanding the skin base concept out of the box, from outside is... Challenging.

So, as I'm a graphic designer and have all the needed tools, is there any graphical interfaced skin editor to design a basic skin (I don't intend to use animations and such), one that will output the xml file ?

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

is there any graphical interfaced skin editor to design a basic skin [...], one that will output the xml file ?

The good news is there is. The bad news is that you won't like it. All it can output is a small skin with the size and shape of the Winamp Classic skin.

You had better learn the basics of Modern skinning at FrisbeeMonkey.com. It is really not that difficult. All you need is determination, patience and concentration.

Another option is that you show the graphics and if some coder likes it then you and the coder could work in collaboration.

[parisienne17]

unfortunately for the link you gave me to a tutorial from frisbeemonkey, white on light green is REALLY ergonomic for someone with an eyesight condition...

[ariszlo]

If you are using Firefox then you can override the colors of a web page with system colors. Go to Preferences, Colors, check "Use system colors" and select Always.

[parisienne17]

thanks for the info.
I do hope that for future winamp if it ever will be released that coders wil implement a graphical skinning app and most of all the ability for the player to 'house' visualisations as did the good old Sonique or QCD.

I didn't notice that in my skins I had one "Modern"...I'll have to look in it too.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

I'm trying to update the one I'm using by looking inside others (mine has black text white playlist/media library backgrounds but as my eyesight has badly worsen this last year, I'd prefer the opposite)

If all you want is change some colors, it is very easy.

To change the text color in the playlist editor and the media library to white, open the xml file with a text editor (Notepad will do) that contains the tag whose id is "wasabi.list.text" and change the value to "255,255,255" (the rgb code for white) like this:

PHP Code:

<color id="wasabi.list.text" value="255,255,255"/> 


To change the background color in the playlist editor and the media library to black, change the value of "wasabi.list.background" to "0,0,0" like this:

PHP Code:

<color id="wasabi.list.background" value="0,0,0"/> 


If you are using a very old skin then you should look for "studio.list.text" and "studio.list.background" instead.

[parisienne17]

thanks for the info.
I do hope that for future winamp if it ever will be released that coders wil implement a graphical skinning app and most of all the ability for the player to 'house' visualisations as did the good old Sonique or QCD.

I didn't notice that in my skins I had one "Modern"...I'll have to look in it too.

[parisienne17]

thanks again for the tip about studio and wasabii entries !

going thru all xml files I ended in some using these terms but what was disturbing were the number of unusefull entries in the xml studio colors and the use of them for multiple needs (i.e scrollbar background AND selection bar in popup). I couldn't neither find the parameter dor the selection abr and it's text color in playlist.

I also managed to change the scrollbars (a png file), saddly it is aso used for the bottom buttons of media library with no wau to modifiy the text color on them, so there must be some balance here.
I also managed to modify the borders of the playlist & media library and their thickness (only for playlist (I couldn't any parameter for media library).

The most irritating is some modification I've done in the main window, the player.
I've added an entry to put 2 icons for playlist and media l ibrary but hey are not showing : they're here because they show their tootips and do what they should (open up relative windows) but they'renot visible.... I don't know why.

(see my desktop and windows cursor on the area with the tooltip showing)
[IMG][/IMG]

[ariszlo]

All your issues can be fixed, including the scrollbars and the media library buttons but let's proceed with one issue at a time.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

I've added an entry to put 2 icons for playlist and media l ibrary but hey are not showing : they're here because they show their tootips and do what they should (open up relative windows) but they'renot visible.... I don't know why.

How did you do it? Did you add togglebutton tags to player-normal-group.xml? If so, could you paste the tags here, please?

Originally Posted by parisienne17

(see my desktop and windows cursor on the area with the tooltip showing)

Unfortunately, ImgBB scales down larger images making your screenshot practically unusable.

[parisienne17]

As a matter of fact, I've added to player.normal.group

<groupdef id="player.normal.group.display" w="374" h="120">

<!-- PLAYLIST BUTTON -->
<button
id="playlistButton"
image="playlistButton"
hoverImage="playlistButtonHover"
action="TOGGLE" param="guidl"
x="16" y="20"
rectrgn="1"
tooltip="Playlist"
/>

</groupdef>

with, defined in player.normal

<include file="player-normal-group.xml" />
<layout id="normal" w="374" h="120" desktopalpha="1" droptarget="pldr">
<group id="player.normal.group.base" x="0" y="0" />
<group id="player.normal.group.display" x="0" y="0" />
<group id="vis1" x="40" y="60"/>
<group id="DrawerGroup" x="0" y="0" />
</layout>

and in player.elements

<!-- Playlist -->
<bitmap id="player.normal.button.playlist_normal" file="player/PL.png" />
<bitmap id="player.normal.button.playlist_hover" file="player/PL.png" />
<bitmap id="player.normal.button.playlist_down" file="player/PL.png" />

[parisienne17]

Here's a screenshot with windows cursor where is the missing icon/button and the .PNG on the left

[ariszlo]

The value of the image parameter of the playlist button should match the id of the bitmap you want to use with it.

So you should change these lines:

<bitmap id="player.normal.button.playlist_normal" file="player/PL.png" />
<bitmap id="player.normal.button.playlist_hover" file="player/PL.png" />
<bitmap id="player.normal.button.playlist_down" file="player/PL.png" />

to this:

PHP Code:

<bitmap id="playlistButton" file="player/PL.png" /> 


If you use the same png for both the image and hoverImage parameters then you only need one bitmap id (and you don't need the hoverImage parameter).

[parisienne17]

Hi,
I used the same image just for testing.

But I don't understand... I've updated the labels to mimic what was used for the (already) existing controls and I've put the section in the same groupdef used for the other buttons (play, pause, etc...)... And it stil doesn't show when it performs (I'm able to toggle the playlist)

In player-normal.group.xml

<!--close-->
<button
id="close"
action="CLOSE"
alpha="200"
x="349" y="5"
image="player.normal.button.close_normal"
hoverimage="player.normal.button.close_hover"
downimage="player.normal.button.close_down"
tooltip="Close"
/>

<!--playlist-->
<button
id="playlist"
image="player.normal.button.playlist_normal"
hoverImage="player.normal.button.playlist_hover"
downimage="player.normal.button.playlist_down"
alpha="255"
action="TOGGLE" param="guidl"
x="4" y="20"
rectrgn="1"
tooltip="Playlist"
/>

in player-elements.xml

<!-- Close -->
<bitmap id="player.normal.button.close_normal" file="player/closeButton.png" />
<bitmap id="player.normal.button.close_hover" file="player/closeButtonHover.png" />
<bitmap id="player.normal.button.close_down" file="player/closeButton.png" />

<!-- playlist -->
<bitmap id="player.normal.button.playlist_normal" file="player/PL.png"/>
<bitmap id="player.normal.button.playlist_hover" file="player/PL.png"/>
<bitmap id="player.normal.button.playlist_down" file="player/PL.png"/>

[ariszlo]

Your PL button shows up fine for me. Are your PL button definitions between the <elements> and </elements> tags?

If you put them before <elements> or after </elements> then Winamp will ignore them.

Note. Quote your tags using PHP Code if you do not want the forum motor to replace guid:⁠pl with guidl:

PHP Code:

    <!--playlist-->
    <button
        id="playlist"
        image="player.normal.button.playlist_normal"
        hoverImage="player.normal.button.playlist_hover"
        downimage="player.normal.button.playlist_down"
        alpha="255"
        action="TOGGLE" param="guid:pl"
        x="4" y="20"
        rectrgn="1"
        tooltip="Playlist"
    /> 


[parisienne17]

in player-elements the playlist section is between elements tags.

As you have the skin, in player-normal-group, there are 4 groupdef, whatever the one i use it's a no show. I give up ! ;.)

[ariszlo]

All your codes are okay, so there must be some other reason why it does not show up. Incidentally, you might have put it in the wrong folder. It should be in the skin's player folder. Or your png might be corrupted. What happens if you put the attached PL.png in the skin's player folder?

[parisienne17]

I think I got it, somehow... A position issue : I think the song info (song title/artist name) is overlapping, blinding the icon.

As tweaking someone's else work is more time consuming, I went back and started from scratch (where I exprerienced the same overlaping issue).


As we're talking, maybe you have the answer to these questions :
- Is there a way to modify the way the song ticker works, rather than it bouncing back and forth from left to right, I'd like it to scroll in one direction then re enter from the other side.

- is there a way to 'house' parts of the player, like playlist/media library/vilualisation, inside the main window ? Something like implemented in this skin https://winaero.com/downloads/winamp/222250.zip

- One last, is there a maki decompiler allowing me to look inside scripts ?

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Is there a way to modify the way the song ticker works, rather than it bouncing back and forth from left to right, I'd like it to scroll in one direction then re enter from the other side.

Yes, there is. The Big Bento skin has an option of classic songticker scrolling. Find it in Options > Songticker. Winamp Modern also has that option. Find it in Options > Winamp Modern > Songticker.

To see how they do it, get the Winamp Skin Development Pack and you will have the maki sources for Big Bento and Winamp Modern.

Another skin that has an option of one-direction scrolling is Winamp Single GUI. It has it in Options > Winamp 5 Single GUI > Songticker.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

is there a way to 'house' parts of the player, like playlist/media library/vilualisation, inside the main window ?

Yes. Check out iron2000's Ashen Player and Classix Player in his Winamp Modern gallery.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Something like implemented in this skin https://winaero.com/downloads/winamp/222250.zip

It says,

403 Forbidden

[parisienne17]

Well, I've found my answers in the azenis skin.

My 1st project is on the way, I've to find the issue for the anim volume seeker not showing on the left then with final resizing and polishing it should be time to swith to the next one after azenis code reading.

Thank you for your help.
[IMG][/IMG]

[ariszlo]

Looks very good.

If I were you, I would make the buttons bigger because they look very small on a screen with a 1920x1080 resolution.

[parisienne17]

The 403 forbidden is new, I went to the page not long ago.

It's a page for MFD skin https://winaero.com/mfd_update_v1_1-winamp-skin/

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

The 403 forbidden is new, I went to the page not long ago.

You can download it if you go to Winaero but not by clicking on the link in your post here.

[parisienne17]

unfortunately I'm using chrome and even in dark mode (with or without dark reader) it's displayed light green with light font color. Too bad for me!

Do you happen to know the tag for album name ? I've tried AlbumTitle but it shows the whole info (album, artist, number and song info)and the same with AlbumName.

And I couldn't find any 'database' covering the whole avaiiable tags

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

unfortunately for the link you gave me to a tutorial from frisbeemonkey, white on light green is REALLY ergonomic for someone with an eyesight condition...

Originally Posted by parisienne17

unfortunately I'm using chrome and even in dark mode (with or without dark reader) it's displayed light green with light font color. Too bad for me!

Dark Reader does not change the color of the background image, only the text color. Color Changer does. It takes some time to configure it but then you will be able to access many more web pages than you can now with Dark Reader.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Do you happen to know the tag for album name ? I've tried AlbumTitle but it shows the whole info (album, artist, number and song info)and the same with AlbumName.

You can do it with MAKI.

1. Copy this into your xml file:

PHP Code:

<text
  id="AlbumTitle"
  x="65" y="10" w="200" h="18" align="center"
  fontsize="18" color="255,255,255"
/>
<script id="albumtitle" file="scripts/albumtitle.maki"/> 


2. Change the values of x, y, etc. in the text tag but do not change its id. It will not work if you change it.

3. Extract albumtitle.maki from albumtitle.zip and copy it into your skin's scripts folder.

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Is there a way to modify the way the song ticker works, rather than it bouncing back and forth from left to right, I'd like it to scroll in one direction then re enter from the other side.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

Do you happen to know the tag for album name ? I've tried AlbumTitle but it shows the whole info (album, artist, number and song info)and the same with AlbumName.

Just for clarity, album name is not a tag but a string. An xml tag begins with < and ends with >.

What you need is Skin Consortium's Text Objects.

1. Extract Xui.zip into your skin's folder so that you have a Xui folder in it.
2. Add this line before the first include tag in skin.xml:

PHP Code:

<include file="Xui/SC Text Objects/SC Text Objects.xml"/> 


3. Open the xml file which has the SongTitle and ArtistName tags.
4. Remove the SongTitle and ArtistName tags. If you have added an AlbumTitle tag, remove it too.
5. Remove these tags, too:

PHP Code:

<script id="songticker.script" file="scripts/songticker.maki"/>
<script id="albumtitle" file="scripts/albumtitle.maki"/> 


6. Add these three tags:

PHP Code:

<SC:OneDirectionText mytext="%artist%" x="87" y="18" w="200" h="20"
  font="Arial" fontsize="18" align="center" valign="top"
  rightclickaction="trackmenu" dblclickaction="trackinfo"
/>
<SC:OneDirectionText mytext="%title%" x="87" y="31" w="200" h="20"
  font="Arial" fontsize="18" align="center" valign="top"
  rightclickaction="trackmenu" dblclickaction="trackinfo"
/>
<SC:OneDirectionText mytext="%album%" x="87" y="44" w="200" h="20"
  font="Arial" fontsize="18" align="center" valign="top"
/> 


Do not change SC:OneDirectionText or the mytext parameters. You can change all other parameters (x, y, w, etc.)

[parisienne17]

I've tried your suggestion with firefox (I had to tweak dark reader & dark night mode), it went well. Time to read ! ;.)

[parisienne17]

thank you for that script : it did exactly what I needed.

Unfortunately, there is always new issues... I'm using Play2Pause script. With the buttons (png) that was in the skin where I took the script, all is OK but as soon as I change the png the scripts doesn't work anymore.

IS there some picture size related coding in this one ?

[parisienne17]

sorry fot the previous post, I might have been too long on the skin today, I began to mess things up as I found my error. So it's working fine (but couldn't find how to edit a post...)

Time to go to sleep now ;.)

[parisienne17]

Hi,

When I was working on my skin, time consuming (and failing) show/hide covert art import from ichange skin https://www.deviantart.com/takanory/...-x240-30153738
[IMG][/IMG]

put me on another approach : cannibalize the skin. Not a nice behavior ;.) ... Anyway... I was in the trimming process (ugly colors, unusefull objects, graphics and so on).

Then... Booomm.. Another puzzling thing (and this is the 2nd time it happened with this skin) : the covert art button didn't worked anymore... It did yesterday, this morning and suddendly it doesn't. I removed it, deleted it from skins folder, put a fesh unzipped one and it still doesn't work...

So, i think I"m done with this $§@#µ*& whole winamp mess as it is soooo stupid way of creating a software with so much limitations for the fanbase to work thru it.

I'll keep my half way skin as it is or use whatever handy I'll find.


Thank you again for your time and help.


I'm sorry to bother you with lame requests

[parisienne17]

unbelievable : ichange skin with it's showhide cover button (code) that didn't work for nearly 2 days is working this morning!

Also, the playlist not reflecting changes immediatly after media library updates, even upon closing and reopening works today...

I might have some tricky spirits leaving in my appartment.

Besides uninstall, do you happen to know if there's a reset config command for winamp ?

[parisienne17]

Well... I was too fast... "a few hours later".. I look at the player and the cover is..GONE and the button isn't doing anything again.

"I'm loosing my latin" as we say in france !

[parisienne17]

Well...

1/ flawless skin
2/ Trying to modify it (and failed)
3/ Undo changes
|
|=> the show/hide cover doesn't work anymore.

4/ Close winamp, open it, no change.
5/ Replace the skin with a fresh unzipped version => no change.

I just don't get it !

[ariszlo]

If nothing else helps, you can delete studio.xnf. It is the file that remembers window positions, the selected color theme, etc. In Windows 10, it is in AppData\Roaming\Winamp. AppData is a hidden folder in your home directory. To make hidden folders visible you should check that option in the View tab of the file manager.

Once you have deleted studio.xnf, hide the hidden files again because tampering with them might break your system settings.

[parisienne17]

using a "working window" of this #&@§%, one more attempt to transpose it in my skin.

In player-elements, with related grphics in player folder

code:


<bitmap id="cover.btn" file="player/Normal-cover.png" x="0" y="0" w="18" h="20" />

<bitmap id="cover.btn.hover" file="player/Normal-cover.png" x="0" y="20" w="18" h="20" />

<bitmap id="cover.btn.pressed" file="player/Normal-cover.png" x="0" y="40" w="18" h="20" />

<bitmap id="trans1pxl" file="player/Background.png" x="0" y="0" w="1" h="1"/>

In player-normal, outside container/layout parts, with related scripts in scripts folder

code:


<!-- Coverart Definition -->

<groupdef id="cover" xuitag="cover">

<layer id="cover.image.a" x="0" y="0" w="0" h="0" relatw="1" relath="1" image="trans1pxl" ghost="1" />

<layer id="cover.image.b" x="0" y="0" w="0" h="0" relatw="1" relath="1" image="" ghost="1" />

<script id="cover.script" file="scripts/cover.maki"></script>

<script id="showhidecover.script" file="scripts/showhidecover.maki"></script>

</groupdef>

and inside container/layout part

code:


<button id="coverbtn"	  x="8" y="15"  w="18" h="20" image="cover.btn" hoverImage="cover.btn.hover" downimage="cover.btn.pressed"  tooltip="coverart on/off"/>

Cover isn't displayed, button shows up but cliking it doesn't do anything...

What's wrong ?

[ariszlo]

Since I know practically nothing about the skin you last showed (it no longer looks like LeaR_Lite), I can only guess.

Perhaps, changing all instances of iChange_x240 in showhidecover.m to the first word found between the <name> and </name> tags in your skin's skin.xml file might fix it.

After you have replaced all instances of iChange_x240, save the edited showhidecover.m file, compile it, and copy the compiled showhidecover.maki into your skin's scripts folder overwriting the original.

Read this post about how you can compile makis. Start reading at

To compile maki you need the MAKI Compiler.

[parisienne17]

I've not changed that much, I'd say tweak it here and there but the disturbing thing is that on and off working state in https://www.deviantart.com/takanory/...-x240-30153738... For whatever I'm doing it suddendly works or stops.

My windows 7 is more than 10 years old so sometimes it..'burps' ;.) like sometimes explorer crashing when hovering quick launch toolbar or recently the unability to resume hibernation but what's going on in winamp's private memory space only concerns winamp right ? So what's going on ?

Thank you for the script, I'll have a try at it this afternoon (at least it prooved that I have to put things in main_container & normal_layout)

[ariszlo]

Do you really want to toggle cover art on and off? If you never want to turn it off then there is a much simpler way to add cover art to your main window.

1. The quick solution

Just create a nocover image and add a tag like this before the </layout> tag of player-normal.xml:

PHP Code:

<AlbumArt id="albumart" x="10" y="10" w="64" h="64" notfoundImage="nocover" ghost="1"/> 


The no cover image can be as simple as a fully transparent png of the size of the AlbumArt layer.

2. The everything-in-groups solution

If you do not like to have both group tags and a non-group AlbumArt tag in player-normal.xml then you can define a group containing the AlbumArt tag in player-normal-group.xml like this:

PHP Code:

<groupdef id="albumartgroup" w="74" h="74">
  <AlbumArt id="albumart" x="10" y="10" w="64" h="64" notfoundImage="nocover" ghost="1"/>
</groupdef> 


And then add this group tag before the </layout> tag of player-normal.xml:

PHP Code:

<group id="albumartgroup" x="0" y="0"/> 


[ariszlo]

Read this post only if you really want to toggle cover art on and off. If you want to display it all the time then read my previous post instead.

First of all, toggling cover art on and off can be done slightly simpler than as it is done in the iChange_x240 skin. The solution I am presenting here will only work if you remove whatever you have imported from iChange_x240.

1. Create an albumart group in player-normal-group.xml like this, using your own x, y, w and h parameters:

PHP Code:

<groupdef id="albumartgroup" w="94" h="74">
  <button id="albumartbutton" x="78" y="10" image="coverbutton" tooltip="albumart on/off"/>
  <AlbumArt id="albumart" x="10" y="10" w="64" h="64" notfoundImage="nocover" ghost="1"/>
  <script id="albumartshowhide" file="scripts/albumartshowhide.maki" />
</groupdef> 


2. Add this tag before the </layout> tag in player-normal.xml:

PHP Code:

<group id="albumartgroup" x="0" y="0"/> 


3. Copy albumartshowhide.maki into your skin's scripts folder.

[parisienne17]

Wonderful !

It took me a bit of time as I didn't had any player-normal-group, only player and player-elements.

My idea is a versatile player with/without cover, song titles/track/artist/album, visualisation and maybe equalizer opening in the same window as I'd like to mimic my old favorite player Sonique
[IMG][/IMG]

as it offered me the best using experience. I had a nice collection of viusalisations with an unique one cycling thru the user pre difinded with effects and timing.. It was so great that a wrong configuration gave me an endless overlapping visualisations.

Just a glimpse :
https://streamable.com/l15iks


The bad side is a 20 ish player with an too ooold sound engine leading me to use QCD then excavating winamp.


I assume the showhode script could be used for the song text lines using the same groupdef ? But I have no idea of how invocating the visualisation part : I've began to look into azenis...

[ariszlo]

Originally Posted by parisienne17

It took me a bit of time as I didn't had any player-normal-group, only player and player-elements.

I guessed that you had no longer based your skin on LeaR_Lite but since you told me practically nothing about the skin you were working on, I could not guess what xml files you had.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

My idea is a versatile player with/without cover, song titles/track/artist/album, visualisation and maybe equalizer opening in the same window as I'd like to mimic my old favorite player Sonique

Yes, Sonique was a great player.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

I assume the showhode script could be used for the song text lines using the same groupdef ?

Probably it would. Try and see.

Originally Posted by parisienne17

But I have no idea of how invocating the visualisation part

There are several types of visualizations in Winamp. The simplest type is what you get with the vis object, then you can use animated layers as in the attached gif and there are the visualizations that run in their own containers of which the two most used are AVS and Milkdrop2. Adding a vis object is easy, the other two options are more difficult. Adding animated layers requires both graphic skills and knowledge of coding, and I have never tried embedding AVS or Milkdrop2 in the main window.

Here is a short video about starting Milkdrop2 and switching it to desktop mode.