[tetrinext] TINT UI and Theme Standard draft -- part 2: theme standard

[Jared Johnson <solomon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

okay, i finished dinner. i was going to get fast food, but then i found out that
I have enough money in my bank account to MAYBE cover the checks i've written,
so it was ramen noodles tonight, mmmmm.

a few notes.  most of this was written right after my first post, so if you've
posted anything about the first post, you'll probably end up posting the same
thing about this one.  also, i am pretty sure this will have major problems and
defeciencies.  that's OKAY, let's just fix them and get the thing onto the page
asap =)  on with the show.



Theme Standard



Introduction

TINT is designed to allow for modification of nearly every aspects of its
appearance and interaction; thus, themes designed for TINT can range from very 
simple
changes to the default to complex themes changing and adding to a great number
of aspects.  We will talk about Resources, Elements, and Events, and Conditions
-- what they are and how they are used.



Resources

Resources are the content that theme authors may use in their themes. 
Resources will include the following:

-Graphics.  Graphical resources include pictures in various image formats
(which will be determined later) as well as color settings.  Many elements can 
be set
to use either images, colors, or to be transparent.  Also, it is at the option
of the theme author whether to have the image that an element is set to be
scaled, tiled, or centered onto the element that it is set to.

-Sounds.  Sounds in TINT can also be stored in various file formats not yet
determined.  They are pretty much self explanatory, aren't they =)

-Screen Hacks.  Screen hacks are made possible by SDL.  These can be used to
create a plethora of fun, effective, or annoying screen effects.  For more
information, take a look at the screen hacks on the SDL page.

-Configuration.  This includes things like size and location of panels, and
anything else that isn't really content, just a setting.



Elements

Elements in TINT are the aspects of TINT which can be assigned resources. 
These include just about everything graphical; the blocks, the field 
backgrounds,
the pane borders, the menu elements, etc. -- an element can be re-assigned a
resource during gameplay, via events and conditions, described below.  If the
resource is not bound to any event or condition, it is assumed to be "always 
on".



Events

In order to allow theme authors to do just about whatever they want, TINT will
make use of many events that can be used as "triggers" when bount to a resource
change defined by the theme author.  An event in TINT will basically be any
action that the user takes in the program or any change that takes place in the
game, which is associated with a name and added to the theme standard.  
Examples of
an event can be anything from the user placing his mouse over a menu item, to a
user moving or rotating a piece, to a level advancement, to the exit of the
program.  Other examples will be outlined further in this document.  A theme 
author
has complete control over what he wishes to bind to an event, which means that
he can do some very pretty as well as some very ugly things.  For instance, the
theme author can create an SDL screen on the player's background around the
player's piece which creates a "rippling water" effect, and associate one of 
these
for each of the left, right, up, and down piece movements -- creating a very 
nice
effect.  On the other hand, the theme author can associate each piece movement
with a complete change in skins, a strobe light effect, and the playing of a
star-spangled-banner midi file.  This would probably not be a very nice effect 
;)



Conditions

Conditions are just that, conditions.  Conditions include things like being
in-game, being in a particular level, having a particular mode set, whatever. 
Theme authors can use conditions about the same way that they use events.  They
again have complete control over what they do with this.  You get the picture.


Example

Let's say the standard has defined gameplay-pane, entire-window, player-blocks,
player-background, opponent-blocks, and opponent-background  as elements; it
has defined game-start, jump-to-level2, jump-to-level3, game-end-won, and
game-end-lost as events; it has defined in-game-level1, in-game-level2, and
in-game-level3 as conditions.

The theme author makes a set of pixmaps for players' and opponents' blocks and
backgrounds in each of the three levels. as well as for out-of-game.  here is an
example of a config file (with syntax that is completely off the top of my
head) that a theme author could use:

#no condition or event set, so always-on
#(except when a condition or even overrules us, of course ;)
(gameplay-pane=screenhack:smoke)
(sound:tintsound.midi)
(playerblocks=graphic:player-blocks-outofgame.png)
(playerbackground=graphic:player-fieldbg-outofgame.png)
(opponentblocks=graphic:opponent-blocks-outofgame.png)
(opponentbackground=graphic:opponent-fieldbg-outofgame.png)

#here comes an event!
[gamestart]
(entire-window=screenhack:really_cool_screen_hack_gamestart)
(sound:gamestart.wav)

#and then a condiation
[in-game-level1]
(playerblocks=graphic:player-blocks-level1.png)
(playerbackground=graphic:player-fieldbg-level1.png)
(opponentblocks=graphic:opponent-blocks-level1.png)
(opponentbackground=graphic:opponent-fieldbg-level1.png)
(sound:level1.midi)

#now you get the idea, let's do some more
[jump-to-level2]
(entire-window=screenhack:screen_hack_jumpto2)
(sound:nifty_sound_jumpto2.wav)

[in-game-level2]
(playerblocks=graphic:player-blocks-level2.png)
(playerbackground=graphic:player-fieldbg-level2.png)
(opponentblocks=graphic:opponent-blocks-level2.png)
(opponentbackground=graphic:opponent-fieldbg-level2.png)
(sound:level2music.midi)

[jump-to-level3]
(entire-window=screenhack:level3extremelycoolhack)
(sound:oohlevel3bigdeal.wav)

[in-game-level3]
(playblocks=graphic:player-blocks-level3.png)
(playerbackground=graphic:player-fieldbg-level3.png)
(opponentblocks=graphic:opponent-blocks-level3.png)
(opponentbackground=graphic:opponent-fieldbg-level3.png)
(sound:level3isabigdeal.mp3)

[game-end-won]
(sound:woohoo.wav)
(gameplay-pane=screenhack:cool_fireworks_hack)

[game-end-lost]
(sound:darnit.wav)
(gameplay-pane=screenhack:cool_shattering_glass_hack)

okee

signing off.

-- 
Jared Johnson
solomon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wilner's Observation:
        All conversations with a potato should be conducted in private.

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