Theme Creation Direction - 16:9 is the New Standard

[KlopjerO]

3 hours ago, Avar said:

There's a way we can workaround existing themes to get them working but it's non-ideal relative to themes built for native w/o the workarounds we've been using.

I don't understand what you are saying. your saying that being able to build widescreen themes without having to squish art would be better ? I'd agree.

a handy feature for for hypertheme would be an option to choose a canvas size.. or perhaps a simple tick box stating [ ]  widescreen theme. I don't know, just thinking out loud.
that tickbox could translate to a new XML entry. that would give the new hyperspin build a signal that theme made is a workaround widescreen theme so it could adjust it's interpretation of the theme.

[Cauptain]

On 04/07/2017 at 10:27 PM, Avar said:

I can release further details to clarify: We are right now actively working on native support for additional resolutions and aspect ratios. While there is potentially a way for us to grandfather 16:9 conversion workarounds to a degree, this new support will make life a lot easier moving forward and I suspect people will ultimately prefer to make their themes in native.

When will this released? July, august, september?? Tip this.

 

Claudio

[Avar]

Can't sorry All I can say is that it's going really well and it'll be released when it's done.

[Retro Goonie]

@Avar Hey mate!

I finally bit the bullet and got hold of Adobe Flash. I followed your tutorial on YouTube and using dark13 "smooth" script, managed to convert a theme into flash and looking smooth! No jaggies! 

 

However I have encountered a problem!

In Hypertheme I had set certain artworks to appear using the "blur" animation.  After converting the artworks to flash, this "blur" effect has changed to more of a fade. It is still labeled as "blur" in the themes .xml but just doesn't behave the same anymore?!

I had a quick try at re-opening the theme within Hypertheme but after the conversion to flash, Hypertheme doesn't seem to be able to open the theme anymore?!

 

Any ideas? Has anything like this happened to you before?

[Avar]

Certain animations don't work with SWF unless they're converted to flash animations. I wouldn't sweat it as themes are changing dramatically soon.

[Krakerman]

@Avar when you say dramatically .... Does this mean no more use of Adobe Flash in themes? Just curious because I for one prefer using flash (probably one of a few that do).

[Bungles]

Dramatic Change! 

[Avar]

I think it'll be fine, at least for the next release. There's gonna be better options for that sort of thing coming but there should be enough of an overlap no one'll feel put out by the transition if we ever stop supporting it.

[ghostlost]

Add .gif support

It would be much easier to animate a theme.

[Suhrvivor]

3 minutes ago, ghostlost said:

Add .gif support

It would be much easier to animate a theme.

Thing is, the gif format has a lots of limitations; it only supports 256 colors per image and the transparency implementation is too simple (only two levels, either fully opaque or transparent, no middle ground).

[wesfranks]

Unfortunately no transparency for backgrounds in .gifs. Need swf or png for that.

[wesfranks]

<steps on suhrvivor> oops. Refresh, refresh, refresh.

[thatman84]

5 hours ago, Bungles said:

Dramatic Change! 

Cracking.

@Avar this is me with every slip of your tongue lol

[ghostlost]

1 hour ago, Suhrvivor said:

Thing is, the gif format has a lots of limitations; it only supports 256 colors per image and the transparency implementation is too simple (only two levels, either fully opaque or transparent, no middle ground).

1 hour ago, wesfranks said:

Unfortunately no transparency for backgrounds in .gifs. Need swf or png for that.

Anyway I find it interesting to add if possible.

The more formats we support, the more options we have to showcase the creativity we are trying to get there at the time of theme creation.

[FLYNN`S]

I wonder if in the new version we would be able to force aspect ratios, for instance stay in 16x9 natively but use 4x3 themes throughout with black bars to the left and right. 

[zillion23]

I got the resizing of the png files down but I was wondering if you could go more in depth on how to resize a swf file down to 75% to get a proper 16:9 ratio?

[thatman84]

2 hours ago, kmoney2315 said:

I got the resizing of the png files down but I was wondering if you could go more in depth on how to resize a swf file down to 75% to get a proper 16:9 ratio?

Someone with more skills will need to input but i think the display size is setup in the settings when you code/create swf stuff with after effects.

There are a bunch of swf conversion scripts by @dark13 in the artwork or theme creation forums. Have a search through there.

Also there has been talk that swf may be redundent soon. But soon is anyones guess. Could be years

[zillion23]

I know about the scripts and use them regularly but all those scripts are for converting png files to swf files. I would like to know the best way for converting a swf file in a existing theme into the proper ratio with 16:9 ratio like the scripts do for the png files.

[Bungles]

I was taught by my mum, never try and convert backwards. (Hence the reason lots of people plea to keep the media used handy... I think.)

Not sure if it will work out that well as you are going to expand something to shrink something.. to have it expand again. (My head hurts)

However if the scripts convert at a .533 on the x and .711 on the y.

You could reverse engineer the ratios perhaps.

So you set the X to be (** x 1.875) or 187% and the Y to (** x 1.406) or 140%

Unless my math is way off in which case back to schoool.

 

[Bungles]

Sorry.. I thought about it for a moment longer.. and yeah, Back to school for Bungles.

4:3 converted to 16:9 at a full screen level will result in loss of image or black lines or stretching (No way around this I don't think).

But for other images/other media the below should work.

If you have Adobe After Effects you should be able to do it the same way I do with my background videos.  (However not sure on quality loss at this stage.)

Method:

1. Start After Effects and create a 1024x768 composition.  (Settings below)

2. Import the swf you want to convert and drag it into the middle of your composition.
// Scale the image/import from 1080p to 1024*768 and apply 16:9 ratio correction. (Need to right click and goto Transform -> Scale then un-link the aspect ratios and set manually to the below)
                X = 53.33%
                Y = 71.11%

4. Arrange the Image to where you want in the theme. Then click file, export to Flash (Fxl Extention)

5. Open Fxl File in flash, and publish it again to swf action script 3.  (Settings below)

 

 

Might just work.. but might be quicker in some cases to just try and re-source the original png/vector arts.

[Roadrunner]

I don't have flash and don't know how to do scripts. I could however export all the artwork into ping files for each theme and upload it to the FTP server. If I do that could somebody help convert those to SWF files? Once that was done I could then put the themes together. 

If somebody could help with this, let me know, I have the entire 16x9 set of Pinballfx2 ready to go. 

[malarrya]

I am completely reworking my entire Dungeons & Dragons system and came here to look for any guidelines when creating a 16:9 (1080) theme. It looks as if I should wait to put a lot more effort into it until the release of this tool? Ideally, I'd like to have backgrounds in full HD with larger logos, smoother transitions, and larger artwork in general. I've already put about 2 months of work into it recreating the wheel art, genres, and databases and had just started shrinking everything 75% but really don't want to do that if at all possible. 

I'd really like to get rid of the whole bookshelf system background and have something that make the images either appear like 3-D books or have a default background that enhances the beauty of each image. Maybe I'll eventually post something on the artwork request boards to see if anyone is interested in collaborating on this.

I also may eventually do a D&D Video Games only system that encompasses everything D&D from the 80s until recently. This would include Arcade, Genesis, NES, PC, XBOX, etc., games. The artwork for that is already there. I just need to collect it into one cohesive unit.

I am soooo looking forward to Hyperspin in full HD.

Below are a few samples of what's in store:

 

 

[Bbk22]

 

[brudibru]

Très bon !! J'adore les thèmes cinématiques.

Du coup je suis le troisième abonné à ta chaine youtube mais je pense que le nombre de suiveurs va monter rapidement avec un travail de cette qualité.

[Bbk22]

Bridibru merci , beaucoup