Hacking R4 Card Skins?

[pman152]

What is the best tool/way to make R4/R4i/R4i 3DS skins?

As you know the UI on these Cards are absolute shit and you have to agree.
Is there a way to modify it more then just the background?

 

[Osmosis]

Ahhh... another one to join my army.


Guess what? There's a Acerkard Editor (google hunt it).

Guess what? Yeah, it sucks too.

Here's why:

It will always downgrade your .BMP image from 32-bit to 8-bit. Hence, it will always look like R4i crud.

Unless we recode the R4i itself to handle higher bitmaps or even .PNGs. Problem? Do you know how to code C and MIPS?

I don't... really want to. C isn't "hard", especially if you use an editor, but it's the source code.

Guess what? It's in Chinese. So yeah... We'd have to start from scratch.

Otherwise, you can skin away. It's just always gonna have that "ugh this is a POS" feel to it.

But there are plenty of skins and skin editors, etc.

BTW, nice Shiny. The deck really works well too...

 

[Urbanshadow]

It will always downgrade your .BMP image from 32-bit to 8-bit. Hence, it will always look like R4i crud.
Unless we recode the R4i itself to handle higher bitmaps or even .PNGs. Problem? Do you know how to code C and MIPS?
I don't... really want to. C isn't "hard", especially if you use an editor, but it's the source code.
Guess what? It's in Chinese. So yeah... We'd have to start from scratch.

That looks like a rant. Have you ever thought about the technical reasons of that decision? Maybe the guys who made that are not evil masterminds with a twisted desire of screwing with users theming dreams, perhaps it isn't possible to support an alpha layer in the card firmware or it isn't possible to draw 32bit depth colors in DS Mode (which makes sense). It doesn't matter if you know C and MIPS if can't be done.

 

[Osmosis]

And it begins... so yeah, just go hunt down some more skins. You can find some on their website.

 

[Urbanshadow]

And it begins... so yeah, just go hunt down some more skins. You can find some on their website.

Sorry but I don't get you. I don't know anything about the pixel formats used in those cards but it shouldn't be difficult to do. That's why surprises me not being done already, and makes me wonder if there is more reasoning behind that. That's all. You seem like you know better, but are refusing to explain anything. Ok by me, but I wont be able to help.

 

[pman152]

You both dont get what im tryna say - Its not about the Image Quality at all - Im on about the actual ability of what we can Skin. For example I want to reskin the complete card and make it a Flat/Modern theme.

 

[TheCyberQuake]

What is the best tool/way to make R4/R4i/R4i 3DS skins?

As you know the UI on these Cards are absolute shit and you have to agree.
Is there a way to modify it more then just the background?

It depends on the R4 card. Some of them can use r4wood (which in turn can use Acekard themes, which is probably the nicest UI for low-mid range cards), while others can't. If you can get the r4 to use r4wood kernel (some will use it by default) then that is your best bet right now. If not, you'll have to hope you can find some other kernel that is compatible with your card and looks nicer.
r4wood support is the main reason I swtiched from a r4i-sdhc card to a r4i Gold card.

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You both dont get what im tryna say - Its not about the Image Quality at all - Im on about the actual ability of what we can Skin. For example I want to reskin the complete card and make it a Flat/Modern theme.

You could probably achieve that with a Acekard/r4wood theme, though you would probably have to make it yourself.

 

[pman152]

It depends on the R4 card. Some of them can use r4wood (which in turn can use Acekard themes, which is probably the nicest UI for low-mid range cards), while others can't. If you can get the r4 to use r4wood kernel (some will use it by default) then that is your best bet right now. If not, you'll have to hope you can find some other kernel that is compatible with your card and looks nicer.
r4wood support is the main reason I swtiched from a r4i-sdhc card to a r4i Gold card.

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You could probably achieve that with a Acekard/r4wood theme, though you would probably have to make it yourself.

Yeah I plan on making it myself with Photoshop etc but I just need a good kernal for r4i-sdhc cards