Hacking DarkFlower

[Phil :: CSF]

### DarkFlower by philcsf ###

### INFORMATION ###

Second version of this highly customisable Acekard RPG & AK2 skin.

Usage: Extract folder into AK's \ui\ directory, enable via system settings menu on the card.

### CUSTOMISATION ###

There are only two things you need to do in order to modify this skin into anything you want:

1) Change the wallpaper. Layered .PSD files are provided in the \psd\ folder so that this can be done. I'd advise that the lightness of the bottom screen's wallpaper should be around -20 in lightness, via 'Image >> Adjustments >> Hue/ Saturation' in Adobe Photoshop. Remember, save all you bitmaps as 16-bit, otherwise they won't work.

2) Edit two colour codes in the uisettings.ini and custom.ini files. In the original files, these colours are 0x7baa for the text colour and 0x7aaa for the selection colour. Both colours should be from the wallpaper you are using, and should be rather light (the selection colours should be very slightly darker than the text colour). http://www.dragonminded.com/ndsdev/rgb15.exe is a colour picker to get the #XXXX hex values you need, although you can do it the long way...

- Select a colour you want, get the RGB values (A nice lime green would be R166, G255, B39)
- Get the values, and divide them each by 8 so that instead of being on a scale of 0-255 it would be on a scale of 0-31. Round it to the nearest whole number 31 or less (Our new values would be 21, 31, 5)
- Reverse them (5, 31, 21)
- Convert these decimal numbers into 5-bit binary strings (00101, 11111, 10101)
- Add the alpha channel bit on the front of the strings (I use 0), and string them all together for one long string (0001011111110101)
- Convert this binary string into hexadecimal (17F5, so use 0x17F5 in uisettings.ini)

Once you have the colour codes you want, just use the replace function on any text editor to replace '7baa' and '7aaa' with your own colours, and there you go!

If you want a little more optional customisation, change the colour of the grey text in the file \calendar\clock_numbers.bmp to fit better with the upper wallpaper.

Enjoy!

Download Link (new version)
Megaupload Mirror

### OTHER VERSIONS ###

Here's a few different skins I've made myself based on the DarkFlower template... just click the images to download them. If you want one making, send me an image via email and I'll see what I can come up with ^^;





Megaupload Mirrors:
DarkAnime, DarkFLCL, DarkWinter, DarkLagann, DarkForest, DarkNova, DarkGundam, DarkJordan

 

[NeSchn]

I like it, when I get my AceKard 2 ill have toput this on there.

 

[Mach9]

Thanks for this! I took your photoshop files and made a pretty decent Fate/Stay Night skin




If you ever change the bar and text colors, please keep posting your psd files. THANKS!

 

[Chedderknight]

i wish there was site with all the acekard skins compiled

 

[Mach9]

They're all on the Acekard website in the forums. You have to register to download though.

Acekard skins

 

[Phil :: CSF]

I've modified it a little bit to allow for better customisation... grab the new version in the first post.

 

[mach-9]

Thanks for making the orange one and the nice guide to further customize! lets take over the acekard skinning scene!

 

[Bri]

This tool might help with choosing colors. It's an RGB15 color picker by the author of DSOrganize:

http://www.dragonminded.com/ndsdev/rgb15.exe

-Bri

 

[Phil :: CSF]

Awesome, that's just the tool I need. Thanks Bri ^^

 

[Bri]

You're welcome! I thought that might come in handy for you! BTW, the formula is:

(((b/8)

 

[nerdyman]

oh hello, just thought i drop by to say what a great work you did! really, really helped me with making my own skins! here's something i made based on your tutorial and your template

Not the greatest but eh, it feels good to share

anyway, looking forward to any further updates by you! kudos

http://www.mediafire.com/?yydbm9glrx1

 

[Phil :: CSF]

Sorry about the lack of more skins - my broken hinge finally crushed my ribbon cable, so now all the colours on the top screen have a blue and pink tint... not ideal when you're designing skins and need to work with colours. I'm getting a new screen at some time during the weekend, so I'll get back into the swing of things then ^^;

 

[nloding]

Those are gorgeous, especially the Winter one. I've been looking at getting an RPG -- this could almost sell me on it

 

[Chedderknight]

awesome as always, could you possiblely create one with The World Ends With Youtheme?

 

[priv8dan]

any possibility to make that clock smaller? that big clock is driving me up the wall...

 

[Phil :: CSF]

any possibility to make that clock smaller? that big clock is driving me up the wall...

It's coded into the firmware, unfortunately... I believe the guy making the custom fw on the Ak forum is planning to implement a small er clock in the future at some point, though.

 

[Normmatt]

I already changed the hard coded sizes for the clock numbers and the calendar numbers to use teh width and height of the actual images thus un-hard coded them, those changes have been in svn for atleast a week or two now, just we haven't released a new version yet, but you can still compile your own firmware and do it that way.

 

[Phil :: CSF]

Awesome, I'll have to check it out when I buy a new DS... mine seems beyond repair now =[

 

[priv8dan]

Hi Normmatt, I know you're a very well respected open source coder for the RPG. I would like to know if you can teach me some of the basics, at least a few codes, and how to compile it as an NDS file for the RPG or AK2. Thank you.

 

[icethegreat]

nice theme, thanks for the submission!