It seems that I can't switch between Sc1 and Sc2 forums. 1 click away from a 404 error.

Quote

A Staredit Network error has occured:
GET variable value invalid. Problem v = 22setfilter=sc1
Please contact administration with all the details.

I got the same error.

Can't see SC2 forums in Carbonite.

They're the same icons as Epic and Turtle, though, hence my confusion.

Awesome. I forced myself to deal with the over-stretched skins over time, but now I feel a lot more comfortable again. Out of all the forums I browse, SEN was probably the least attractive. I can now take that back with this skin.

Glad to see Merrel is positive, as always. In any case, the icons I suggested earlier aren't just for Carbonite. IMO, they both look better than the current. They're deeper colors, rather than the high-contrast of the older ones. For example:

vs.

The first is my .png, while the second is the old .gif. The size isn't much of a difference, if that's a problem (doubtful it is though). It's more subdued, because the .gif only has 256 of a maximum 1024 (both are 32x32), while the .png can use 4 layers, providing for better blending and smoother colors. Same goes for the SCI icons:

vs.

Although this time, it's slightly smaller, I can remake one without the shadow and still resizing to 32x32, making the rest of the wraith look larger. It looks like the old one has misshapen wings and bottom...fin, I guess that's what you'd call it. Also, especially by the jet exhaust, it looks like too much detail was added. Furthermore, the right side looks cut off (open the image if you don't believe me), and, again with the bit depth. The attempt at creating a shadow on the old wraith is admirable, but since it's a .gif it won't fade properly on all backgrounds.

defending my design:
Corbo's wraith icon lacked details (it looks pretty much like yours as far as I can remember) so Devo contacted me if I'd be willing to remake it.
To achieve that I repositioned the shadow and cut off 1-2 pixels from the upper cannon. Enough to keep the general shape intact, but make the whole fighter appear bigger. with my version you can actually see the thin trails focusing the exhaust stream and you can recognize the fin (the wing going downwards from the exhaust) as what it is. There's also a visible cockpit.

I have no idea what you're talking about colors. It's a png with 24 bit color depth + 8 bit alpha channel.

Misshapen Wings? As far as I can tell "my wings" have the same shape as "your wings" and they both have the shape of the original. Admittedly the inner left wing is a bit too dark. I can easily fix that if someone wants to up it to SEN.
Compare the details. Pretty accurate imo.

Made it blue to make the active state more visible.

---

About the SC2 icon, well didn't put much effort into it. Devo asked me for a quick fix, (black border one for every skin except turtle) which I did and he upped it:


I didn't like it very much so I remade it using the style of the release version SC2 icon.
(looks better on green, but still lacks a clear border)

I tried to imitate Corbos glow (you can see the first try when you use Turtle), but I couldn't get it right at first and then I got into an argument (about smth. else) with Devo and then he left SEN so I lost interest because I had noone uploading my work. However if someone would upload the icon to SEN I'd be willing to finish it.

Meh, I wasn't attacking your design, at least not in my mind. I just thought that a lower amount of contrast looks better

If you look between the two icons, the wing angles, for whatever reason, look different. And I think I used a different original, that might have some say in detail/angle difference, but I doubt it. It might just be my imagination. That glow on the SCII icon looks better than the current, too. Devlin can upload stuffs, I remember back when I bitched about the 11^th frame on until he fixed it.

The background image has a ~10px-tall transparent space at the top. Someone (either you or the previous designer of Carbonite) tried to move the nav submenus down 10px using padding and found that for that to work, they'd need transparent space at the top of the menu. This screws up tiling, leading to the transparent gap in the middle of the menu. (And it's not Chrome-exclusive BTW, the tiling also breaks on Firefox but you've probably just had the window scrolled so you can barely tell because there's solid grey behind the menu.)

To fix it, edit the background image (http://www.staredit.net/skins/3/layout/dropdown.png) so that there's no transparent space at the top (crop it), then change the padding-top to margin-top on #nav1, #nav2, #nav3, #nav4, #nav5.

If you look very carefully near the top of the submenus, you'll see that their black borders are borked for the same reason. It looks like this:

│▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│
├──────────┤
│          │

...where the shaded part is the part outside the menu (where the transparent background space is).

EDIT:
You broke the URLs.

URLs on Carbonite: http://www.staredit.net/topic/12658/last/&skin=setfilter=sc2
Proper URL: http://www.staredit.net/topic/12658/last/?setfilter=sc2

The skin.php file doesn't use fully-resolved URLs, it uses a blob of PHP variables mashed together. Find that blob and re-mash it.

EDIT2: In topics, if a posted date is too long (e.x. "Yesterday, 9:09 am"), it'll wrap oddly. To fix this while keeping it centered, remove the widths from the two SPANs in H1.centered. Note that I've only tested this for Firefox using Firebug. HAHAHA, DISREGARD THAT. The date is centered exactly between the username and post number, but it is not positioned at the center of that entire horizontal bar of space, if you know what I mean.

EDIT3: Browser, version, OS. I can't figure it out from your YouTube vid as it's "private" and apparently we have to be YouTube friends with you to see it.

EDIT4: For the record, the current SC1 icon is pretty nice but I do think that the pixel-red-Wraith provided by Aristo is more recognizable.

EDIT5: As a remake of the original Carb, this is very nice. Offering my own opinions on the design itself, though... It seems inconsistent -- a haphazard jumble of rounded and straight corners, bevels and flat surfaces, etc.. And in a lot of areas (such as the entire breadcrumb menu area), the text is way too small given the thickness of its container.

Also, OH GOD, OH GOD THE TABLES!!

TL;DR: Fairly good job on the aesthetics though there are inconsistencies, and I should close the View Source window before my eyes bleed.

Post has been edited 6 time(s), last time on Oct 17 2010, 3:07 am by DavidJCobb.

The look of Carbonite is actually untouched (other than replacing the marine in the header), so those are issues that were unfortunately there when I started porting it.

I'll look into fixing the background image of the menu when I have time. Same goes for the links, which I just copied from the Epic code, so not sure how that happened.

I actually have a .png with the original header saved somewhere, so if you wanna replace the marine with the...whatever the original was, just ask me for it.

I have it as well. I changed it because I didn't like the old marine.

Quote from DavidJCobb

Quote from DevliN

They're the same icons as Epic and Turtle, though, hence my confusion.

You broke the URLs.

URLs on Carbonite: http://www.staredit.net/topic/12658/last/&skin=setfilter=sc2
Proper URL: http://www.staredit.net/topic/12658/last/?setfilter=sc2

The skin.php file doesn't use fully-resolved URLs, it uses a blob of PHP variables mashed together. Find that blob and re-mash it.

It still bugs. "setfilter=sc#" is not the same as "?setfilter=sc#". Please re-fix

The following is what it looks like on the skin.php file:


It's the same code for Turtle, Epic, and Maplantis, unless someone changed them recently.

"setfilter=sc2" needs to be "?setfilter=sc2". Just do it, please. It's still currently borking when trying to swap between the forums anyways.

Then how does it work for Epic and Turtle when they are "setfilter=sc#" and not "?setfilter=sc#"?

EDIT:
I still have no idea where the "blob" is that DJC is talking about (or rather what the link's blob is referring to). I'll ask Devourer about it the next time I see him on MSN or AIM.
Or to rephrase that, I have no idea what {$spec} is calling back to and where it's from. I can't find it in any of the js, css, or php files associated with the skin.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 20 2010, 4:28 am by DevliN.

Blob = a bunch of things mashed together, like, say, {$phpVariables}.

Depending on the meaning of {$spec}, you may need to place the "?" before it. No clue why you'd look in JS or CSS files -- PHP can't normally read variables from them, and most servers (including SEN's) do not process PHP in JS/CSS files, so you wouldn't find anything.

I know what you meant by blob, I just didn't phrase it properly. And I included the JS and CSS files to emphasize that I couldn't find it anywhere (including the two php files) in the skin folder. Either way it is fixed now, so all is well.

EDIT:
The reason why I couldn't find {$spec} is because it didn't exist on Carbonite yet, hence why there was no ?. Good times.

And EDIT2:
I made the changes you suggested, DJC. There is no gap anymore, though it does still drop a few pixels on Chrome.

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Oct 20 2010, 2:24 pm by DevliN.

Now the "Site" tab disappears almost immediately after mousing to select something. If you go fast, you can make it to the dropdown's stable area, but if you go off or aren't quick enough, it disappears.

On chrome.

Fixed.

EDIT:
DJC, I added margin-top: 10px and it makes it disappear as soon as your mouse is off the "Site" link. I removed that and now the menu is 9px too high, but functions. You may wanna take another look at it.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 20 2010, 10:32 pm by DevliN.

Give display:block;padding-bottom:10px to all a.navlinkX (where X is 1 through 5). Tested with Firebug in Firefox, works.

Basically, those changes take the text of a top-level menu item's link (e.x. "Site") (a.navlinkX) and expand their "hitboxes" horizontally to fill the "hitboxes" of their containers (div#navX_wrap). They then add 10px bottom padding to these texts' "hitboxes"; this stretches their containers' "hitboxes" and pushes the submenus 10px downward.

You'll find that the clickable area of each top-level menu item has expanded downward but not upward, filling the gap between the top-level menu item text and the submenu's top edge. (So the empty spaces below "Site", "Forums", etc., are clickable, but not the spaces above them.) To make this expansion vertically symmetric (so that the space both below and above "Site" is clickable), apply the following changes as well:

• Apply padding-top:10px to a.navlinkX
  
• Change #nav_wrap>div's top to -14px
  

(Also only tested in Firefox via Firebug.)