- Do I need to learn Python? 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.
- How will I know the names for the theme settings? 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.
- Will my theme.ini still work? 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.
- I edited my CustomTheme.py but nothing's changed! 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.
- I want the advanced features! Can I get started now? 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!
- What about the rockmeter.ini? 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.
- Any other advice? 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.
- Will you help me with my ______? 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.
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
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