EQInterface Forums - Quick question...

09-08-2003, 05:40 AM	#1
Andraax A Hill Giant Join Date: Aug 2002 Server: Antonius Byle Posts: 30	Quick question... Can I just skip some of the corner images when making my own windows borders, I realy don't see the use in splitting up the corners up into 2 different images... If the answer to this is yes, what part is best to skip? TopLeft or LeftTop, etc? I just realy want to make a clean simple window boarder. Thanks in advance, Andraax PS. Sample image for my simple boarders... DS.

09-08-2003, 07:52 AM	#2
Caleal Enhanced Imperial Golem Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 201	You can actually skip all of the corners if you are making a plain border. All you really need is the top, bottom, left and right. You will need to expirament a bit with the graphic you use, odd things happen to it when it gets stretched to fill in the border. If you want a border that is 2 pixles wide, use a 2x2 square for it and make sure all 4 pixles in the square are the exact same shade. Use that square as the graphic for the border. The game does some very odd looking things to it, when it stretches the graphic to fill in the border, if all the pixles are not the same shade/color. =) By looking at the pic of the sample in your post, it looks like you want a patern? Due to the way the border graphics get stretched, there is no simple way to get a patern to work. In my Caleal2 UI, I have a simple scrollwork patern for the side borders of various windows. Due to the scrollwork border, and the way my UI was designed to fit together, I had to create custom border templates for each individual window. You can find all the templates defined in the XML for the chat window. To get the patern to look proper, it needs to be very simple, and designed so that it can be broken into 3 parts, preferably that can overlap eachother without throwing the patern off. Its been about 7 months since I did mine, so I would have to think about it a bit to explain it. I still have nightmares about how much of a MASSIVE pain in the arse it was though. I defined everything in the chat window XML file and ended up with a file that is 44kb vs the 2kb of the default, >60% of that was for the custom border templates... I will leave you with a few tips that will come in very handy should you decide to try making a border with a patern. I found that, on the side borders, if you use 3 tall graphics, the middle piece will get stretched or shrunk to fit between the top and bottom pieces. If you shrink the window down short enough that it is shorter than the combined hight of the top and bottom pieces, the top piece will overlap the bottom piece. Trying to do a patern that works properly on the top and bottom of resizable windows is futile and only leads to insanity... Download my Caleal2 and Caleal1.4 UIs and see how I broke down the graphics for the borders in the templates, they are all in the EQUI_ChatWindow.xml file. Also log into the game and play with resizing chat windows in the Caleal2 UI. It should give you an idea of what the game does with the border graphics. To my knowledge, my Caleal2 UI is the only one in existance that has resizable custom borders, with a patern, that work properly, it does start to look wierd if you make the window very tall though... Not a brag, just an indication of how insain/stupid I am. =) Good luck... __________________ Caleal P`Terak BATTLE CLERIC of Innoruuk, ret Cazic-Thule server Shadowed Soul Last edited by Caleal : 09-08-2003 at 08:47 AM.

09-08-2003, 08:05 AM	#3
Andraax A Hill Giant Join Date: Aug 2002 Server: Antonius Byle Posts: 30	Actualy... I probably want corners else the dioganal resizing will not work for windows right? Anyway, my borders are 7 pixles high/wide unless there is a title window then it is alittle higher as shown in the pictude in my first post... I don't have to split all the elements up with a transparant pixle do I? /Andraax

09-08-2003, 08:46 AM

Caleal

Enhanced Imperial Golem

Join Date: Sep 2002

Posts: 201

Quote:

Originally posted by Andraax
Actualy... I probably want corners else the dioganal resizing will not work for windows right?

Anyway, my borders are 7 pixles high/wide unless there is a title window then it is alittle higher as shown in the pictude in my first post...

I don't have to split all the elements up with a transparant pixle do I?

/Andraax

Heh, keep in mind that the game doesn't tile the graphic to fill in the space. It stretches or shrinks it to fit. It would be impossible to get a repeating patern, like the one in your sample pic, to work properly on a resizable window.

09-08-2003, 08:53 AM	#5
Andraax A Hill Giant Join Date: Aug 2002 Server: Antonius Byle Posts: 30	It isn't a pattern realy... I'll try illustrate with letters... B=Black G=Grey X=LightGrey Top graphic (7px high, 1px wide): G B B B B G X TopLeft(7px by 7px): GGGGGGG GBBBBBB GBBBBBB GBBBBBB GBBBBBB GBBBGGG GBBBGXX GBBBGX Well you see the pattern, no use in going on Regards, Andraax

09-08-2003, 09:09 AM	#6
Caleal Enhanced Imperial Golem Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 201	Ahh, ok. that looks fairly simple to do. You will need to make the graphics forTopLeft, TopRight, BottomLeft, and BottomRight portions of the border template look exactly like you want the corners to look. You can then make the Top and Bottom out of the 7 pixel high by 1 pixel wide graphic. It will stretch the Top and Bottom graphic to fill in the space between the top and bottom left/right graphics. You can then skip defining graphics for the LeftTop, LeftBottom, RightTop, and RightBottom. You will just need Left and Right graphics that will stretch to fill in the hight. Make the Left and Right graphics 1 pixel tall and 7 wide. And no, you don't need to split things up with a transparrent pixel if you do your graphics to make the space for you. You don't have to define anything at all for the pieces you leave out. I did 0x0 nil stuff in mine in place of the things I skipped, but its not needed... After having done 2 sets of custom borders for my 2 UIs, and custom buff windows, I think I would rather pull my toenails out with rusty pliers than go through it again. =)