Possible to make nUI skin using Fireworks?

[SoulTrain0217]

Fireworks 4 (old old macromedia program, since before Adobe bought the company) is my web graphics weapon of choice, since it has a LOT of niftyness (native PNG output, slicing/Web optimization, and oodles of effects) but doesn't come with the huuuuge workflows and toolboxes that you get with Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop.

I suppose one could adapt the tutorials that exist.... which I'll try to do... but what would be really nice would be a template file indicating what goes where. Or can I use an existing nUI skin to determine this? I've read that the file size is specific as well as the grid one uses to slice it... but I'm assuming the art elements all get arranged a specific way.

Thanks!

[spiel2001]

You can grab one of the existing skins and just hack it up to replace the images it refers to with the ones you want to use.

[SoulTrain0217]

Indeed. I've got the workflow figured out, thanks! Now it's just a matter of getting the 'look' right.

[spiel2001]

Just keep in mind that the addon part of custom skins is changing with nUI6, though the art itself will still work.

[SoulTrain0217]

Originally Posted by spiel2001 Just keep in mind that the addon part of custom skins is changing with nUI6, though the art itself will still work.

So that'll mean a new .LUA and .TOC file, correct?

[spiel2001]

Until I get nUI6+ out, yes. I plan on making nUI6+ capable of creating the dashboard and console layout for you without having to write a mod for it.

[bwhansen]

Originally Posted by spiel2001 Until I get nUI6+ out, yes. I plan on making nUI6+ capable of creating the dashboard and console layout for you without having to write a mod for it.

Would that include different colors as well?

I always liked the invisible skin when it worked.

[spiel2001]

Yes.

But folks need to keep in mind that while the screen area with the dashboard and viewport may be smaller, you are actually seeing *more* of the game than you would without it.

I'll show you here... look at the first image, which is the normal world view (with the UI hidden) and then compare it to the second image (which has the nUI viewport and the UI also hidden. Notice that the top and the bottom of the field are identical... but look how much more to the left and the right you see in the nUI view than the normal view. The third image shows the field with UI displayed... note that nUI's user interface barely covers any of the field of view.

So... point being made here is that while a transparent skin lets you see through the UI, it actually doesn't help you see more the the game.

[bwhansen]

I see the differences in the pics, but I'd be lying if I said it makes sense how that works.

It all looks good.

[spiel2001]

The answer is fairly straight foward... the player's view of the world has a fixed height. No matter how big or small the window into the world is, Blizz will always fill it with the same vertical information. So, when I push the bottom edge of the world view up to make room for the nUI dashboard, you still see the same amount of vertical space in the world (ie: in that image set I posted, the top of the tree is still at the top of the wndow, and the bottom edge is the same too). But, the aspect ratio of the window changed... it is now wider, relative to the height than it was before I moved the bottom edge up. So, Blizz fills that extra width with more of the world that you couldn't see before. So, even though nUI makes the view port smaller than it is in the default UI, nUI actually shows you *more* of the world than the default UI. If you turn the viewport off so you can use a transparent skin, you actually lose that extra information about the world. That is of particular value in PvP and battlegrounds.

[Digital_Utopia]

Originally Posted by spiel2001 The answer is fairly straight foward... the player's view of the world has a fixed height. No matter how big or small the window into the world is, Blizz will always fill it with the same vertical information. So, when I push the bottom edge of the world view up to make room for the nUI dashboard, you still see the same amount of vertical space in the world (ie: in that image set I posted, the top of the tree is still at the top of the wndow, and the bottom edge is the same too). But, the aspect ratio of the window changed... it is now wider, relative to the height than it was before I moved the bottom edge up. So, Blizz fills that extra width with more of the world that you couldn't see before. So, even though nUI makes the view port smaller than it is in the default UI, nUI actually shows you *more* of the world than the default UI. If you turn the viewport off so you can use a transparent skin, you actually lose that extra information about the world. That is of particular value in PvP and battlegrounds.

Basically, because the vertical field of view is static, the horizontal field of view grows inversely to the pixel height of the WorldFrame. Not only does reducing the height of that frame provide a benefit wherever that increased peripheral vision can come in handy, it also can make for some nice panoramic-style shots like below

[SDPhantom]

Also note that WoW doesn't accept PNG files directly, they have to either be BLP or TGA. I use an old Macromedia version of Fireworks too, Fireworks 2004 MX, which is version 7 and probably the last one Macromedia made before being acquired by Adobe. As it doesn't support exporting to TGA and BLP is a proprietary format, I have to use an external program to make another conversion. First, I export as a 32-bit PNG and from there, it's your choice on what to go with. I import it into GIMP, which is a free image editor on its own and export to 32-bit TGA from there. Another option is to use a program hosted here, BLPConverter, which takes the 32-bit PNG and converts it to a BLP for you.

Usual rules for creating texture images still apply, such as, each dimension separately must be a power of 2 up to 1024.

[bwhansen]

Originally Posted by spiel2001 The answer is fairly straight foward...

Thanks for the explanation, it made sense.

Was this active for NUI 5 as well?

[spiel2001]

Yes... just less obvious.