From a8c9924456e5335c964e4e55b2dde1963c88726f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: tpearson Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:24:36 +0000 Subject: Added KDE3 version of Knights git-svn-id: svn://anonsvn.kde.org/home/kde/branches/trinity/applications/knights@1091568 283d02a7-25f6-0310-bc7c-ecb5cbfe19da --- CreatingThemes | 176 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 176 insertions(+) create mode 100644 CreatingThemes (limited to 'CreatingThemes') diff --git a/CreatingThemes b/CreatingThemes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f19cc9a --- /dev/null +++ b/CreatingThemes @@ -0,0 +1,176 @@ +==================== + Creating Themes +==================== + +This document is your guide to creating themes for the Knights chess +interface. + +----------------------- +1. Anatomy of a Theme: +----------------------- + +A theme is a collection of images, sounds, and settings which create a +unique representation of a chess environment. Typically, this theme is in the +form of a gzipped tarball. + +There are three types of themes for Knights: Chessboard themes, Chessmen +themes, and Audio themes. + +------------------------ +2. Tarball Information: +------------------------ + +Themes must be stored in tarballs. Knights will use any type of tarball that +KDE supports. A good test is to try loading it in Konqueror using a +tar://mytarball URL. Generaly speaking, using the standard gzipped tarball +( with a '.tar.gz' extension ) will be fine. + +The first two letters of your filename must be 'KB', 'KC', or 'KS' depending on +the type of theme it is. KB tells Knights that it is a Chessboard theme, +and KC represents Chessmen themes. KS is a sound theme. This is +case-sensitive. + +Between the prefix and the extension comes your theme's name. Write it exactly +how you want it displayed in Knights, except use underscores instead of spaces. +So if you want your theme to be called "My Uber Chessmen" within Knights, you'd +have the following filename: KCMy_Uber_Chessmen.tar.gz + +As a general rule, you should remove write and execute permissions on the +files, and either remove Owner/Group attributes, or make them something +harmless ( like nobody:users ) + +--------------------------- +3. theme.conf Information: +--------------------------- + +Every theme must contain a text file called 'theme.conf'. Here's a +sample theme.conf file: + +################################ +# A Sample theme.conf file +################################ +[General] +Type=Board +Name=Default +Version=1.0 +Author=Troy Corbin Jr. +AuthorEmail=tcorbin@users.sourceforge.net +AuthorWWW=http://knights.sourceforge.net +Notes=This is the default chessboard for Knights. It was made with the Gimp. + +[2DWhite] +King=white.king.png +Queen=white.queen.png +Bishop=white.bishop.png +Knight=white.knight.png +Rook=white.rook.png +Pawn=white.pawn.png + +[2DBlack] +King=black.king.png +Queen=black.queen.png +Bishop=black.bishop.png +Knight=black.knight.png +Rook=black.rook.png +Pawn=black.pawn.png + +[2DBoard] +Light=square.light.png +Dark=square.dark.png +Motion=square.motion.png +Select=square.select.png +Danger=square.danger.png + +[Coordinates] +TextColor=255,255,255 +ShadowColor=0,0,0 + +[Audio] +Select=select.wav +Move=move.wav +Check=check.wav +MatchOver=matchover.wav +Challenge=notify.wav +Tell=tell.wav +Notification=notify.wav +DrawOffer=draw.wav +Say=tell.wav +Promote=promote.wav +################################ + +Nothing too tough to figure out. 'Type' must be one of the following: + +- Board +- Chessmen +- Audio +- 3DBoard ( For future use ) +- 3DChessmen ( For future use ) + +'Name' is your theme's name and 'Version' is the version of your theme. Author, +AuthorEmail, and AuthorWWW should be self explanitory. Notes are any comments +you want to add. + +The '2DWhite' and '2DBlack' sections are required in Chessman themes. Each line +specifies the file to be used for each different piece type. + +'2DBoard' and 'Coordinates' are required in Chessboard themes. 'Light' and +'Dark' specify the file to be used for each color square on the board. 'Motion' +is the highlight used to indicate that a piece moved, 'Select' is the selection +highlight, and 'Danger' indicates an attacked piece. The 'Coordinates' are +standard 8bit RGB colors. These are the colors that Knights will use for board +coordinates. Try to use colors that contrast with the board itself. + +New in Knights 0.5.6 are Chessboard borders. They are not required, but they +can greatly enhance the appearance of your chessboard. If you'd like to use one +then under '2DBoard' add the following lines: + +HaveBorder=true +Border=border.png +BorderLightOn=light_on.png +BorderLightOff=light_off.png + +----------------------- +4. Pixmap Information: +----------------------- + +Your pixmaps can be in any format that Qt supports, as long as it supports an +alpha channel. For this reason you are strongly encouraged to stick with PNG +images. Note that there are a few exceptions to this in Chessboard themes. The +'Light', 'Dark', and 'Border' pixmaps constitute the lowest layer of graphics, +and so they will never be transparent. Therefore, for these items you can use +non-transparent file types ( like JPEG ). + +Knights will scale your pixmaps to the current theme size. This means you can +supply any sized images you want and Knights will make it work. However, when +Knights has to enlarge a pixmap, the resulting image tends to be of poor +quality. To keep this from happening to your themes, you should make all your +pixmaps 144 pixels by 144 pixels. This ensures that your images will never be +enlarged, and it's not so large that it's wasteful. + +Borders are an exception to the size rule. The 'Border' itself needs to be 9 +times the size of your other images. So if you use the recommended 144 pixel +image size, the 'Border' needs to be 1296 pixels. Likewise, the 'BorderLightOn' +and 'BorderLightOff' images need to be half the size of your other images. So +a regular size image of 144 pixels required that the lights be 72 pixels. + +---------------------- +5. Audio Information: +---------------------- + +Like pixmaps, you can supply your audio using any file format that aRts +supports. I recommend you stick with .wav and .ogg, although the last time +I checked aRts' Ogg Vorbis support was flaky with short sounds. Also, for +very short sounds, .wav files are actually smaller. It's best to try both +and see which works best with your paticular sounds. + +---------------------- +6. Copyrights: +---------------------- + +If you're planning to share your themes with the Knights Project, you must be +the copyright owner on all the material contained in the theme. As much as I'd +love to see the heads of Neo and Agent Smith flying around the board, I don't +want to recieve any nasty letters from Warner Brothers. + +Your material must also be released under a GNU or similar license. If you're +in doubt, contact us and we'll work it out. -- cgit v1.2.1