Re: Themes

[Robert Rendell <rob@universe.serc.rmit.edu.au>]

Ronen Tzur wrote:
} Dan LaPine <dlapine@ncsa.uiuc.edu> wrote:
} > Since we have a buzz of activity again...
} >
} > How are themes implemented? I did some of the original graphics and I had
} > an idea for a new and different theme, but I'm not sure how to add the
} > work to the tree.
}
} If memory serves, the following things make up a theme.
} 
} (a) A directory.  And you should have plenty of subdirectories under it!

Have a look in the directory xarchon-0.50/data/archon for an example of how
the default theme is done.

} (b) A file at "top" of the theme directory tree, which translates
} "classic" actor/weapon names into names that fit your theme
<snip>
} I also don't remember how that "translation" file is called, but it's at
} the top level so you shouldn't have such a hard time finding it.

It's called NAMES.

If you look at the default theme's NAMES file, you'll see that for each
creature, there's the name of a directory to find the sprites in, as Ronen
says.  There's an implicit prefix for each directory name, depending on
what type of thing it being named (for example, "actors/light/").  You can
see the structure as it exists in the default theme.

} (c) You should introduce the new theme in the theme.c source file.
} Shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to do it.

You specify the name (the name of the directory you created in the 'data'
directory'), a description, and the author(s).

This is something that could do with changing - the themes could be loaded
from a top-level file in the data directory, to allow new themes to be
introduced without recompiling.  In any case, if you do a new theme, I or
someone else on the list would happily make the changes to accommodate it
in the source :)
							Have fun,
							 Rob R.
							  \((/
							  ~oo~
							  /))\