FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

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FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby akedrou » Wed Oct 07, 2009 8:51 pm

All right, a few people have asked me, so I figured it was worthwhile to make a separate topic here to address the incoming theme system. Right to it, then.

  1. Do I need to learn Python?
  2. Well. That depends on what you want to do. If you want to take advantage of every feature there is, then yea, you'll probably need to know Python - but if you just want to keep your theme working the way it does now, while you will probably want to know the very basics of Python (such as "spaces matter" and "capitalization matters" and perhaps "put strings in quotes" (and maybe find out what a string is, too)), you won't need to do much beyond that.

    Here's an example of a theme.ini file and a CustomTheme.py file that will do exactly the same thing:

    Code: Select all

    [theme]
    menu_x = 0.6
    menu_y = 0.4
    selected_color = #FFBF00
    loading_phrase = i-can't-use-underscores._Rock and roll?
    lobby_title_font = font
    is equal to

    Code: Select all

    from Theme import _
    from Theme import *
    class CustomTheme(Theme):
      menuX = 0.6
      menuY = 0.4
      selectedColor = Theme.hexToColor("#FFBF00")
      OR
      selectedColor = (1, .75, 0)
      loadingPhrase = ["I_can_use_underscores!", "Rock and roll?"]
      lobbyTitleFont = "font"

    That's it! Copy and paste the first three lines and the last line into your CustomTheme, and otherwise just enter the values as you did in theme.ini
  3. How will I know the names for the theme settings?
  4. How do you know them now? Some of them will stay the same after the change, and once they are finalized we'll be documenting all the features. If you want to get a head start on practicing, you can, but it requires you to do some digging through code - and remember, things may change and break your work! Check out Theme.py in the defaultDict for the names.
  5. Will my theme.ini still work?
  6. At least as of right now, the features that are not changed will continue to work as they did before. However, a lot of things are changing, so it may be worthwhile to look into upgrading your theme when the details are published.
  7. I edited my CustomTheme.py but nothing's changed!
  8. Check your theme folder for a CustomTheme.pyc - and if it's there, delete it. Whenever you edit a .py file, you should make sure there is no .pyc file in the same place.
  9. I want the advanced features! Can I get started now?
  10. No! Well, you can, but it is really quite likely that your advanced features will change in some significant way requiring you to restructure or rewrite your code. When it is ready, we'll hopefully have everything fully documented to explain it all for you. Patience!
  11. What about the rockmeter.ini?
  12. Well, the format of the new rockmeter.ini may change a bit as the theme changes wander over to the in-game part - but don't worry. We will be preserving a similar system. If you've created a rockmeter.ini, it will not have been in vain. Blazin's system is awesomely versatile, and in fact something resembling that may wander its way back out to the menus. We shall see.
  13. Any other advice?
  14. My only other advice would be to use something a bit more full-featured than Notepad. I use Notepad++ on Windows, but there are any number of equally useful (and free!) tools out there.
  15. Will you help me with my ______?
  16. NO. First of all, the code is not finalized. If we spend our time helping everyone, it will make it take that much longer to get to something final. Secondly, as the rules state - WE WILL NOT OFFER HELP ON PYTHON. If you can't get some custom render function to work right, post a comment in your theme's thread - and perhaps someone there can help you. DO NOT come to us.
I think that's it. As time goes on I will refine this, but I think that covers all the questions I've heard so far. Good luck!
Last edited by akedrou on Mon Jan 11, 2010 1:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby kristijan_mkd » Thu Oct 08, 2009 12:56 pm

Will you help me with my ______? :tongue2:
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby jalvarado » Thu Oct 08, 2009 2:48 pm

Seems pretty reasonable. Once this is done I might actually make a theme for fofix, that way I can put my artistic skills to use and finally get to start learning python.(which shouldn't be really hard being an object oriented programing language, thanks java and AC3).

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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby Nickman » Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:56 pm

As understanding Python is no biggy and making sweet gfx is the same.. I guess I HAVE to make a theme later on :tongue2: :laugh:
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby aduro » Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:22 pm

why were the locations of graphics changed / where do they need to be now?
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby akedrou » Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:49 pm

aduro wrote:why were the locations of graphics changed / where do they need to be now?

why: the game loads folders of images now, rather than demanding which individual files should be loaded - this gives themers access to ideas we had not thought of.
where: the 'default' locations are not set yet, but put setlist graphics in the "setlist" folder. songchoosepaper->list_bg
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby ADH » Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:13 pm

i noticed that the stlist type is not in the setlist settings anymore. was it moved to the "customtheme.py"???
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby death_au » Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:05 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong, but...
I think the song_list_display attribute of the theme.ini still works (for now), you just can't override a theme's defined setlist style anymore.
To my knowledge most people now use it this way anyway. I always had that setting to "by theme".
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby ADH » Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:36 pm

i had it set to "by theme" also... I just never thought about how that worked. Idk how i missed that it was a setting in the theme.ini. I looked at a few different ones and didn't see it so i was unsre. thanks for clearing that up. i'll try it :thumbup:
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby luisin612 » Mon Oct 12, 2009 2:36 am

excuse me if i am breaking the rules, bit where can i learn paython quick and easy??
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby death_au » Mon Oct 12, 2009 3:54 am

luisin612 wrote:excuse me if i am breaking the rules, bit where can i learn paython python quick and easy??

You can't.
However you can learn it properly. This may be a good starting point: http://docs.python.org/tutorial/
That being said, you don't need to know that much beyond what akedrou said:
akedrou wrote:(such as "spaces matter" and "capitalization matters" and perhaps "put strings in quotes" (and maybe find out what a string is, too))
Even when the new theme system is all completed and people are making tons of themes with it, 90% or more of those themes are probably just going to be positioning. There might be some people who make awesome theme rendering functions that other people can then copy and, again, change some positioning and graphics.
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby AussieJay » Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:58 am

Where can I download a Python editor? Is there a really good - free - editor? When I search Google I am presented with a million returns.

Can notepad be used for very simple editing? :wink:
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby death_au » Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:01 am

AussieJay wrote:Where can I download a Python editor? Is there a really good - free - editor? When I search Google I am presented with a million returns.

Can notepad be used for very simple editing? :wink:

Yes. Especially since theme coding will be very simple Python, any old text editor will work well.
Although I do heartily recommend Notepad++
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby acrox999 » Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:03 am

Graphical submenus are not working properly if we enable it to our themes via CustomTheme.py.
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Re: FoFiX 4.0 Theme System FAQ

Postby blazingamer » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:16 pm

AussieJay wrote:Where can I download a Python editor? Is there a really good - free - editor? When I search Google I am presented with a million returns.

Can notepad be used for very simple editing? :wink:


3 Top ones I recommend are SciTe, Python's IDLE, and Notepad ++

If you're using ubuntu, you're fine with just gEdit, that works flawlessly and is what I've been using since I made the switch to linux a year ago.

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