                          FunkyFX Skins
                          -------------

FunkyFX v1.00 supported skins, but only in a severely limited way. About 2
hours after releasing v1.00 my friend Chris prompted me to revise the skin
format, for what was to be FunkyFX v1.01. I started this job thinking that
I could have the revised version ready by the next morning.
 2 months later, and it's ready. Possibly the worst estimation of a release
date in history (but I blame Chris).

Anyway, after 2 months work, the skin support better be pretty good, right?
Right. I can quite confidently say that FunkyFX has the most advanced skinning
engine out there (players and plugins alike). Here's why:

Support for resizable, rectangular (or non-rectangular windows).
Support for transparent layers (e.g. for overlaid graphics etc).
Support for animations and "active" elements (e.g. buttons, and bits that
 move when you hold the mouse over them - like Sonique, only customizable)
Support for scrolly text, (transparent) progress meters and buttons
 (for remote-control of Winamp).
Support for DigiDeck and YAmp skins (Soritong and K-Jofol skins coming soon!)

It's very fast (all the core routines are in super-fast assembly).
It's very flexible (designers can add as little or as much detail as they'd like).
It's very easy to create skins for it (well, it will be next week when 
 I release the Skin Editor - see below).
It's very fast (did I mention that?)

At the moment, the only skins available for FunkyFX are the ones I've been using
while writing the plugin. Some of these were done by me, some were done by
my friend Chris. Almost all of them are based on original Winamp 2 skins by
other designers (and without their consent - I hope they don't mind). 
 
Needless to say, there isn't much variety yet. But when you get bored of looking
at the existing skins, you can create your own, and send them to me to put on the
site. If you're creating new Winamp 2 skins, it's very easy to add a FunkyFX skin
(and the end users will appreciate it too..)


Matching Winamp and FunkyFX skins
---------------------------------

If you put a FunkyFX skin file (.ffs) (and all its bitmaps) in the same directory
as a Winamp skin,  the plugin will automatically change to the matching skin when
you select it in Winamp. You'll need to turn on "Check for Winamp Skin Changes" in 
"Properties->Display" (enabled by default) for it to work though.


Multiple Skins
--------------

Some skins have multiple designs contained within one file (e.g. some of the 
Alpha skins work with this). Press the 's' key after clicking on the plugin window
to cycle through them.


Problems?
---------

The skin engine doesn't correctly load certain bitmaps. If this happens, load the
bitmap in something like paint, and save it again as a 24bit RGB bitmap. Hopefully
it'll now work.


The Skin Editor
---------------

When I was designing the skin format, I initially decided to make it very simple
to create skins by hand. I soon realised that to make the skin format as flexible
as possible, it was going to be a pain to create the .ffs files by hand.

So I started working on a skin editor.

The skin editor lets you create the skin by loading in components piece by piece.
The editor shows you what the skin looks like throughout the whole process, so
you can make small adjustments easily.

But it's not finished yet.

It will be though - soon enough (now that FunkyFX v2.00b is out, I'm hoping to
get the skin editor ready for release next week.) In the meantime, take a look
at the skins already available and think how you could improve them.

Now that v2.00b of the plugin has been released, any skin designers who'd like
to help test the skin editor should email me for a copy. The skin editor works,
it's just imcomplete (and it hasn't gone through any usability testing..)


Future Plans
------------

GIF support (for transpancy, animation and smaller file sizes).
Easier to create buttons
kbps, frequency and mono/stereo indicators.
Playlist and Eq support (new Winamp v2.05 functions make this possible).
Soritong and K-Jofol support.


Contacts
--------

The official FunkyFX skin page is at http://www.javigate.com/FunkyFX/skins.html

I can be reached at paulh@javigate.com

Anyone wanting a preview copy of the skin editor should email me and I'll send
them a copy.


--
Paul Holden