TuneNet

The idea to feature a fully skinnable interface on TuneNet came after releasing the miniature docky based skinnable system I wrote back in 2005. FuZion set about with some graphical ideas and thanks to some pointers from other developers on producing irregular shaped windows I put together a basic skinnable system. On top of this I added window resizing, datatype image reading, custom alpha blend draw routines and a "flakey" custom playlist gadget.
 
It was at this point that I realised that this wasn't going to cut it, FuZion was coming up with ideas that were proving very difficult to reproduce in the confines of the simple system I had written. Anyway, it was enough to get a demo system together for BB4, an Amiga Show in Peterborough, England, UK in 2006.
 
We had some positive feedback to our demo, but not much more was done to improve on it. A lot of time passed, another version of TuneNet minus the skinnable system was released, and eventually I sat down and had a re-think on how the system could be improved.
 
The basic text files used to describe the skins were awkward to use, so I opted for a readable XML structure, something which FuZion should take the credit for as he suggested it at the very start of the project. That made a big difference, and suddenly skins could be built and converted very quickly. I then added image clipping, custom ARGB bit-mapped fonts, basic dynamic layout grouping facilities, visual scopes, animation, sliders and other features.
 
So here we are on the verge of the first skinnable alpha release of TuneNet and although much has been done I've still got a long way to go! So if you like pre-release/preview software you'll be able to sample it for yourself in a few days time.
 

Whilst developing the skinnable system I experimented and tested several converted skins from other systems, below are some of those skins running on TuneNet:
...Switchable miniature Skins can be supported also.	ANR Skin   An excellent Aminet Radio skin, rendered here after an almost direct translation from it's "skindescription" file to TuneNet's XML format.
DMS Skin from Curty   One of Curty's first converted skins after receiving a TuneNet Beta, from WinAmp I believe?
Aye, TuneNet!   Another Converted Skin by Curty This skin is stretchable and shows the built in playlist feature
WinAmp forever!   An Original WinAmp Skin, converted by Curty
	ANR Skin Another excellent Aminet Radio skin It demos the irregular shaped window.