how do i add skins

hey how do i make and add skins to my program like winamp

Right Click the WinAmp Icon on the right (Lightning Icon), Options, Skin Browser...

No how do i make it where people can add skins to my program

No how do i make it where people can add skins to my program

you have to first make the form transparent. then make a picturebox and make it transparent. then set the .bmp that you will be wanting to use as your "skin" inside your picturebox. BTW: to save on system resources, make sure to resize your form to the size of the picturebox (which should be the size of the .bmp). that's the really simplified version. i hope that helps get you started. happy programming!!

michael

here is the .bas file code. you can do your form how you want to with the picturebox and whatnot. (don't forget to call these functions and include the form/picturebox in the parameters.)

Code:

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Declare Function DeleteObject Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Declare Function GetPixel Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hdc As Long, ByVal X As Long, ByVal Y As Long) As Long
Declare Function CreateRectRgn Lib "gdi32" (ByVal X1 As Long, ByVal Y1 As Long, ByVal X2 As Long, ByVal Y2 As Long) As Long
Declare Function SetWindowRgn Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal hRgn As Long, ByVal bRedraw As Long) As Long
Declare Function CombineRgn Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hDestRgn As Long, ByVal hSrcRgn1 As Long, ByVal hSrcRgn2 As Long, ByVal nCombineMode As Long) As Long


Sub FormLoad(frm As Form)

    Dim maskcolor As Long      'declare variable for the transparent color
   
    'set transparent color as great pink
    maskcolor = RGB(255, 0, 255)
   
    'perform function to make windows transparent
    TransBack 0, 0, frm.Width / 15, frm.Height / 15, maskcolor, frm.hdc, frm.hwnd

End Sub

Sub PicLoad(pic As PictureBox)

    Dim maskcolor As Long      'declare variable for the transparent color
   
    'set transparent color as great pink
    maskcolor = RGB(255, 0, 255)
   
    'perform function to make pictures transparent
    TransBack 0, 0, pic.Width / 15, pic.Height / 15, maskcolor, pic.hdc, pic.hwnd

End Sub

Private Sub TransBack(ByVal xstart As Long, ByVal ystart As Long, ByVal xend As Long, ByVal yend As Long, ByVal bgcolor As Long, ByVal thdc As Long, ByVal thWnd As Long)
   
    'declare region variables
    Dim rgn2 As Long, rgn3 As Long, rgn4 As Long
   
    'declare substitute variables for the function parameters
    Dim Top As Long, Left As Long, Right As Long, Bottom As Long, temptop As Long
   
    'create some region buffers
    rgn = CreateRectRgn(0, 0, 0, 0)
    rgn2 = CreateRectRgn(0, 0, 0, 0)
    rgn3 = CreateRectRgn(0, 0, 0, 0)
   
    'this loop picks out the transparent colors,
    'there MUST be three loops or Windows has a hard
    'time handling the complex regions

    Left = xstart
    Right = (xend - xstart) + 1: Bottom = (yend - ystart) + 1
   
    Do While Left < Right  'go through and scan left to right
        Top = ystart
        Do While Top < Bottom  'go through and scan top to botom
            If GetPixel(thdc, Left, Top) <> bgcolor Then
                temptop = Top
                Do While GetPixel(thdc, Left, Top + 1) <> bgcolor
                    Top = Top + 1
                    If Top = Bottom Then Exit Do
                Loop
                rgn4 = CreateRectRgn(Left, temptop, Left + 1, Top + 1)
                CombineRgn rgn3, rgn2, rgn2, 5
                CombineRgn rgn2, rgn4, rgn3, 2
                DeleteObject rgn4
            End If
            Top = Top + 1
        Loop
        CombineRgn rgn3, rgn, rgn, 5
        CombineRgn rgn, rgn2, rgn3, 2
        DoEvents
        Left = Left + 1
    Loop

    DeleteObject rgn2
    SetWindowRgn thWnd, rgn, True
   
End Sub

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