Making iTunes Controls in a Pre-Made Skin?

[K_Wall_24]

Okay, I know it's probably not the best way to do this, but I saw the organiC2 skin, thought it looked cool, and set it up like so:

Now, I'd like to make a change to this skin. I'd like to make it so that there's two extra cells, one with album art and rating, and the other with player controls(taken from iTunes Player 2) and name, like this:

Note that the song time is displayed in the cell at the far right that has a ring around "00:00", which is a premade module in the skin.

So, is there somebody who can help me make this? Or at least point me in the right direction? I've downloaded the NowPlaying plugin, and I'm trying to dissect that and make what I'd like, but I don't know the most efficient ways to do this. I'm new to rainmeter, and this probably isn't very simple.

I will say I've already added/changed a module in this skin, as you can initially only measure C: and D;(at the far left), but I added a cell and changed it to P:(my portable hard drive). It was fairly simple but I know a bit more about how the skin works now.

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks guys.

[MerlinTheRed]

You're going to have a lot of trouble getting the album art into that hexagonal shape. This kind of clipping isn't supported by Rainmeter, so you'll need to do some nasty workarounds.

[K_Wall_24]

You're going to have a lot of trouble getting the album art into that hexagonal shape. This kind of clipping isn't supported by Rainmeter, so you'll need to do some nasty workarounds.

Good to know, so we'll just make it a large thumbnail within the cell instead of clipping it that way. Don't think it looks that good anyway.

I've been working on getting the Artist/Title/Controls cell to work, and there's one part I can't figure out. I can't get the "play" button to change to a "pause" button and back again. Right now, they just overlay each other, and that's currently the only problem I need help with. I'm posting a link to a zipped folder with the theme. The important stuff is C_32 and Controls.ini in the different resources sub-folders.

As for the other cell, it seems as though it should be fairly straight-forward, especially if I/we can figure out how to make the play/pause to display one or the other, not both.

[MerlinTheRed]

I've been fiddling around with showing/hiding play/pause buttons before, too. Then I've found that using only one image meter and switching the image that is being displayed via !SetOption works far better. Your play and pause images should have the same size though, otherwise you'll need to change the meter's position and size too.

Just out of interest: Are you using the NowPlaying Plugin? It's very comfortable to use and supports far more players than the iTunes Plugin.

[K_Wall_24]

I've been fiddling around with showing/hiding play/pause buttons before, too. Then I've found that using only one image meter and switching the image that is being displayed via !SetOption works far better. Your play and pause images should have the same size though, otherwise you'll need to change the meter's position and size too.

Just out of interest: Are you using the NowPlaying Plugin? It's very comfortable to use and supports far more players than the iTunes Plugin.

I believe I am using the NowPlaying plugin. I use iTunes anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

Would you be able to help with the !SetOption? Here's the display code:

Code: Select all

[play]
meter=image
imagename=#@#images\Play.png
w=(50*#scale#)
h=(50*#scale#)
x=(278*#scale#)
y=(370*#scale#)
imagetint=#g_color#,#g_alpha#
antialias=1
[pause]
meter=image
imagename=#@#images\Pause.png
w=(50*#scale#)
h=(50*#scale#)
x=(278*#scale#)
y=(370*#scale#)
imagetint=#g_color#,#g_alpha#
antialias=1

I'm just not sure how to do this. Any help is appreciated.

[MerlinTheRed]

Somewhere you have a measure that determines the current player state. This one needs some IfActions to set the image accordingly. You'll also merge the play and pause icons into one meter.

Code: Select all

[MeasureState]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=NowPlaying
PlayerName=iTunes
PlayerType=State
IfEqualValue=1
IfEqualAction=[!SetOption "PlayPause" ImageName "#@#Images\pause.png"][!Update]
IfAboveValue=1
IfAboveAction=[!SetOption "PlayPause" ImageName "#@#Images\play.png"][!Update]
IfBelowValue=1
IfBelowAction=[!SetOption "PlayPause" ImageName "#@#Images\play.png"][!Update]

[PlayPause]
meter=image
imagename=#@#images\Play.png
w=(50*#scale#)
h=(50*#scale#)
x=(278*#scale#)
y=(370*#scale#)
imagetint=#g_color#,#g_alpha#
antialias=1

[K_Wall_24]

Somewhere you have a measure that determines the current player state. This one needs some IfActions to set the image accordingly. You'll also merge the play and pause icons into one meter.

Code: Select all

[MeasureState]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=NowPlaying
PlayerName=iTunes
PlayerType=State
IfEqualValue=1
IfEqualAction=[!SetOption "PlayPause" ImageName "#@#Images\pause.png"][!Update]
IfAboveValue=1
IfAboveAction=[!SetOption "PlayPause" ImageName "#@#Images\play.png"][!Update]
IfBelowValue=1
IfBelowAction=[!SetOption "PlayPause" ImageName "#@#Images\play.png"][!Update]

[PlayPause]
meter=image
imagename=#@#images\Play.png
w=(50*#scale#)
h=(50*#scale#)
x=(278*#scale#)
y=(370*#scale#)
imagetint=#g_color#,#g_alpha#
antialias=1

That works great! Thank you very much for your help.

[K_Wall_24]

So I'm trying to make the artwork cell, and I just need a bit of help with the rating stars. I can click on the first one, but I can't click on the others. I have a feeling it's something to do with the scaling method, but I don't have a clue on how to fix it. Uploaded skin folder here.

[Kaelri]

[SetRating2], [SetRating3], etc. do not have the same Y value as [SetRating1]. Try changing

Code: Select all

Y=115

to

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Y=r