SSGTroyer

How do I change the background colour and/or transparency for the panels? Seems it would be a "global" thing, but I can't find a reference.

And if it's a one- or two-line reference, would the entire .xml need to be included in the skin, or would just that line do?

radestock

Depends which panel you are wanting to change tbh. Give me an idea on exactly what you want to do and I'll tell you what's what. :thup:

SSGTroyer

Most all of the white ones in the default skin ... team squad, tree, news, competition, etc... I was hoping it was a one-off, but if I gotta change 'em all, I will ...

radestock

Ah right - well they have nothing to do with xml - it's not a code. They are graphics files and you'll need to physically change them all.

SSGTroyer

You're kidding?

No, you're probably not.

You mean those screens are actually built one pixel at a time (for the most part)? sheesh ...

We are talking about the box_blahblah and paper_blahblah files, right? Are they any other prefixes I should know about?

radestock

It's not one pixel at a time. FM uses a scaling method. Say for a button with a fixed height and variable width there will be three graphic files:

button_left, button_middle and button_right. The right and left graphics stay a fixed size and the middle graphic repeats to fill the gap between the two (different width buttons etc). For fixed width graphics with variable height it works the same just with:

thing_top, thing_middle and thing_bottom

For stuff like buttons there are 'over' and 'clicked' states too - pretty obvious what they mean.

Graphics where stuff is variable both horzintally and vertically (like boxes) consist of 9 images:

top_left, top_middle, top_right
middle_left, middle_middle, middle_right
bottom_left, bottom_middle, bottom_right

Imagine a basic square. The corner graphics are fixed and the middle graphics repeat vertically and horizontally to fill in any gap between them. This is the kind of thing you'll probably be interested in.

box and paper are the ones you really need to change for the main panels but it's how pretty much every graphic in the game works.

SSGTroyer

Okay. Got it. Thanks.

Now, on to the Program and it's time to write some scripts ...