Grimholm

Unfortunately I've the same problem as Nixx: Crash on Startup (WindowsApplication1 has noticed a problem ...).

I've deactivated many, many unnecessary services on my machine. Is there service, which has to be activated in order to run the program?

D.H1cks

Well, its been quite a while since I have done anything with the skin viewer. But now I have some more free time, so its time to start playing again.

Some news first:

1. I may have figured out why some people cannot run the program. Grimholm let me know that it was working for him until he re-installed Windows. At first it looked like an issue with .Net maybe not being updated properly. So, I re-installed Windows myself. It would not work for me either, until I installed the latest DirectX runtime update.

So, if anyone who cannot get the program to start, try downloading this:

DirectX June 2007 Update

Anyone who tries this, please send me a PM and let me know if it worked for you or not.

2. Bad news: there will not be a new version of the LOTRO Skin Viewer.

3. Good news: I am now working on a LOTRO Skin Editor. This will be a much more useful tool for UI developers. Some feature I plan to have:

• Change the resolution of the window, to see how the UI looks on different resolutions
• Change individual ArtAssets on the fly, to see how different images look
• An editor for laying out the Letterboxbottom
• A function to automatically create/update the XML file for the skin

I am still quite early in the development, and have no idea when I will release the first beta. But I will let you all know.

Grimholm

Whoaaa, I was completely wrong with my investigations concerning more recent .NET 2.0-Versions. It's working with the DirectX-Update Thank you

D.H1cks

Its good to hear. And I thank you for starting me down the right path. You may not have had it exactly right, but you were close enough.

Grimholm

Argh, but now I receive a "Error Loading default Images"-Message followed by a "Could not find 'Path\thame\yuk.tga'"-message when I try to open a skin

P.S.: Copying a random "yuk.tga" into the theme-folder helps a bit.

D.H1cks

Strange. It should only be looking for yuk.tga in the same folder as the program. So far I cannot replicate the same error.

Khanon

I downloaded the package last night... I have the latest DX (june 2007) installed.

I get a nice series of errors as others have listed here. The second error, after "could not load image" pops up, says that it is, indeed, looking for yuk.tga in the folder where I'm trying to load the skindefinition.xml file from... as an example, it said: Could not find file C:\Documents and Settings\Khanon\MyDocuments\The Lord of the Rings Online\ui\skins\Shae Test\yuk.tga

Then it proceeds to say first that it "failed loading file", then "could not load sprites", then "could not close drawing properly", then exits.

Eedit: I tried Grimholm's sorta-fix. I got the initial "Could not load image" error, then it loaded the skin...but it didn't load the skin properly. Can it not handle the changes that you can now make to positioning the items in the main toolbar from anything but default? I ask, because it's not running the right resolution (1280x1024) and it improperly placed and improperly displays the main toolbar. For a reference, you can see what my toolbar looks like (atm) here.

I'm just now getting into ui skinning, and AncientWolf has been a great inspiration to getitng me going on it, so I've taken the latest Fenir Wood ui and have copied a set of the ui files from the movable toolbar files and am modding it for myself.

maximoz

It helps when you are already using custom UI since all the UI will appear on the drop-down list located on the right hand side of the icon menu (the one with the "Open", "L", "P", etc).

From here you just select the one to load

And yup, i also notice custom positioning and sizing isn't working correctly too

D.H1cks

Ah, interesting error. It works fine using the drop down list, but not the File->Open menu selection. I am trying to figure out what is causing the problem.

Nope, it does not. And I do not plan on updating this app to do so. However, the Skin Editor I am working on will support it. And depending on how long it takes before the scaling comes into effect, maybe that too.

Khanon

Ahhh... Okay. Well it's the old Load and Exit route for me for now. Hopefully, your revamp will make things easier, but I can do it the "old skool" way, too. hehe

AstroCat

Latest version 3.4 =

"Could not read XML data"
"Object reference not set to an instance of an object"
"Could not initialize the program. Exitting now."

Any ideas?

Thanks.

D.H1cks

Looks like an XML file you are using is not correctly formatted.

For example. I can re-create the error by removing the </opt> line from the file.

One way to test an XML file, is to try and open it in Internet Explorer. If there is a problem with the formatting, then it will display a message about the error. My example above had the following message:

The problem is, finding which one is not formatted properly.

Edit: I have updated the program to point to the skin that is causing the problem.

AstroCat

I know the problem. My Docs folder is not on my C: partition. Can we have a way to tell the program where our Docs folder is located?

Thanks.

D.H1cks

I just moved my My Documents folder to a different location and it still worked for me. Not sure why it does not work for you.

The program uses a built-in Windows function to determine where your My Documents folder is located, so it should not matter where it is located.

If it was trying to find the skins somewhere else, it should give an error like:
"Could not find a part of the path: E:\My Docs\Lord of the Rings Online\....."

Did version 3.3 work for you?

AstroCat

Got it working with version 3.5 and a little messing around. Thanks.