Old 04-28-2019, 07:05 AM   #1
Coachz
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Default Theme Independence Coming ?

Now that the new version 6 Reaper theme is starting to be introduced I have a couple of questions about creating Reaper themes in general. I have used the new script that appears to be designed to allow an average user easier customization of the theme and I think that's a great idea.

It's all too easy to start saying what we like and don't like about the new theme but to me, I think there is a much bigger question and that is.....

Is Reaper 6 going to make it easier for end users who code to develop their own themes from scratch ?

If so, what will be different and where do I start learning about it?

If all Reaper coders are easily able to develop themes then it won't matter what the new theme has because they will be easily customizable to suit everyone's needs.

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Old 04-28-2019, 07:24 AM   #2
Lokasenna
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Based on WT's Default V6 alpha, not much is changing under the hood for themes. WALTER is still WALTER, though with a couple of new commands for letting scripts tweak things.
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Old 04-28-2019, 07:31 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lokasenna View Post
Based on WT's Default V6 alpha, not much is changing under the hood for themes. WALTER is still WALTER, though with a couple of new commands for letting scripts tweak things.
Thanks Lokasenna. I have not tried making a theme but just making some changes seemed very confusing. So how complicated is theming? Is it well documented? I code so that's no problem. I realize the artistic component is another important skill.
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Old 04-28-2019, 07:44 AM   #4
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The documentation is decent, though you have to cross-reference two or three different sources to get "all" of it.

At the end of the day it's just another programming language, albeit one that does everything in Reverse Polish Notation so it's a little weird for most of us to get into.

The hardest part about making your own theme is that so many of the values in the theme code are dependent on your images' dimensions, so you can't just copy/paste code from another theme and expect it to work.
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Old 04-28-2019, 07:50 AM   #5
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Great information, thanks. At the moment I'm extremely happy with my version 5 customized theme but if it wasn't too hard I would definitely change the theme to be more of a real Hardware look. Imperial blew me away on the mixer panel but I only used TCP and I'm not even sure what my ideal TCP would look like.
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Old 04-28-2019, 03:43 PM   #6
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If you keep every image's dimensions exactly the same, most of it can be directly replaced. Some parts, like the track panels and items, get blended with colors in Reaper depending on their transparency so they might take a bit of messing around, and anywhere that multiple images are combined or overlaid you'd have to make sure they stay lined up.
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Old 04-28-2019, 09:44 PM   #7
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Quote:
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At the end of the day it's just another programming language, albeit one that does everything in Reverse Polish Notation so it's a little weird for most of us to get into.
In other words, it's Forth.

/me shudders in horror...

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Old 04-29-2019, 06:11 AM   #8
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Since it seems that vector powered themes stay in dreams, I'm personally curious how v6 will cope with HighDPI and big screens. Will themers have to prepare multiple versions of gfx for various scales? TBH it's a lot of work more to be done. If it is mandatory to make theme working for all scales, then I doubt it will succeed.
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Old 04-29-2019, 06:15 AM   #9
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Will themers have to prepare multiple versions of gfx for various scales?
Yes, that's how it works right now in currently work-in-progress HiDPI support.
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Old 04-29-2019, 06:23 AM   #10
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it was quick
So have more questions:

1. will be possible to set any scale, or only those prepared by themer? I mean, if a theme will provide 100, 150 and 200 scales, will it be possible to run Reaper with 125% scale? I can imagine, in such case the closest higher scale might be chosen and scaled down on the fly (or on theme load). I know I know: quality loss: but it's better than nothing.

2. What about positions of items? Will replacing assets by higher resolution ones be enough? Or preparing different layouts for different scales will be needed? I'm asking in the context of currently (in v5) not scalable ping/yellow marked areas which makes almost impossible to use the layout for different scales.
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