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Topic:
The Great Pronto Design Contest - question & answer thread
This thread has 73 replies. Displaying posts 46 through 60.
Post 46 made on Thursday April 5, 2007 at 20:04
Lowpro
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One thing to keep in mind regarding the Simulator (and editor) is that they don't display text placed on buttons and panels exactly as they will be seen in the remote. In my XCF for instance I have some text on buttons which in the editor I've had to position to far to the left or right, so that once downloaded to the remote they show where I want. It can be an even bigger problem with text panels as once downloaded to the remote the text on a given panel takes up less space within that text panel than it does in the Simulator (and editor). The largest dispartity can be seen with text panels containing multiple lines of text. Due to this, placement of text panels in the Simulator (and editor) need to be offset to a great degree at times, so that the placement is correct once downloading to the remote. Due to these quirks I routinely download pages I'm working on to the remote via a new file to make sure the textual elements of the pages are showing up where I want them to prior to saving my working XCF and downloading to the remote. In the Simulator (and editor) textual elements of my XCF can look off here and there, but are perfectly placed once downloaded to the remote. While I'm not submitting a XCF for the contest I just thought I'd mention these things. Would be worth people downloading contest entries to the remote when needed for a more discerning look at a given XCF.

On a related note, the problems I've described above make it a royal pain to post screenshots of ones XCF like the ones I've posted here. For each of those screenshots I had to make adjustments to the text on certain buttons and panels, including repositioning certain text panels just for the sake of taking the screenshot. A real pain.

Last edited by Lowpro on April 9, 2007 07:27.
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Post 47 made on Saturday April 7, 2007 at 09:41
8's&Aces
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Lowpro,

Excellent info to take into consideration for those who will want to judge by downloading to a remote. I personally don't have one to test with so I've been worried about little quirks like that and how it will affect someones opinion about the fit and finish aspect.

Rich
Post 48 made on Sunday April 8, 2007 at 13:31
sWORDs
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373
When will the designs be available for judging? Hours, days, weeks or months after closure? And how long will the judging period be?
Post 49 made on Tuesday April 10, 2007 at 12:04
Skippy67
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April 2007
5
On April 8, 2007 at 13:31, sWORDs said...
When will the designs be available for judging? Hours,
days, weeks or months after closure? And how long will
the judging period be?

Anything? Can't wait for the entries to be online...
Phil
Post 50 made on Friday April 13, 2007 at 09:58
gbk33
Long Time Member
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157
Will we get to see a preview of the entries before the winners are announced?
May the pronto be with you
Post 51 made on Monday April 16, 2007 at 17:43
max viegas
Long Time Member
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105
Daniel,

Do you have an estimated time on when the entries XCF files will be posted for judging? I am sure there are alot of people dying to see what others have come up with...

I know I have been checking back here alot to see if they have been made available yet...
Post 52 made on Tuesday April 17, 2007 at 04:17
stephenlion
Long Time Member
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14
also waiting for a date to get to see the designs !!! Checking every day....
Post 53 made on Tuesday April 17, 2007 at 08:49
jacket_fan
Long Time Member
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63
I would also like see the design efforts. What is the plan for review and judging?
Post 54 made on Tuesday April 17, 2007 at 10:04
8's&Aces
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166
Yes, we will get to see them. This contest is like the last one where we are the ones who will judge and vote to determine the winners.

I imagine that creating the area on the web site to house all the entries is much like doing a design for a remote. Get all the graphics together, create a look for how it will all be laid out and how navigation will work, then test heavily to find all the bugs and see what won't work, make changes and test again.

I have a feeling that the screen shots are taking a lot of time. The reason is that Pronto Professional does not create a pict file of just the remote screen just by pressing "print screen" like PPENG does. Instead, you would have to paste what is on the clipboard into a graphics editing program and crop out the rest of what was on the moniter when you took the screen shot, (the program in the background, toolbars etc). That means that EVERY screen shot may have to be cropped and then saved in a single file format to make migration to the web server more streamlined.

I am also waiting as fast as I can and would love daily updates from Daniel, but I also realize that the more time he spends talking to us is less time getting the entries ready to be judged.

Rich

This is all just a guess of course because we havn't gotten any updates.
Post 55 made on Tuesday April 17, 2007 at 14:52
gbk33
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157
Thanks for the update. Sorry to be so impatient. Go luck Daniel!
May the pronto be with you
OP | Post 56 made on Tuesday April 17, 2007 at 23:38
Daniel Tonks
Wrangler of Remotes
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October 1998
28,779
The main issue is early last week I did something to my back and was basically unable to do *anything*... even now it's hard to sit in a chair for long.

I'm having to totally rewrite the voting program as well as get everything together for the screenshots - the main problem is that I don't really want to use the simulator's image in any form, since it isn't full resolution and is rather crudely scaled down.
Post 57 made on Wednesday April 18, 2007 at 02:37
gwstudios
Senior Member
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Hi Daniel,

Sorry to hear about your back. Two of my good freinds have gone in for disc removal surgery in the last week.

I know what you are talking about with the emulator screen captures, I tried that a few times and no matter what I did, they just came out pretty bad looking. I was able to make full resolution screen shots by using the system page as the basis.

What I did was cut and paste all the buttons from a source page I wanted to use for a screenshot to the system page. It's the only page that doesnt have those lines that are overlayed on top making the graphics look strange. I then used the "prt sc" to capture and used Paint Shop to cut out the 640 x 480 pixel area for each shot. You have to first set the zoom to 100% so they are full size.

It was a little bit of work but the shots are accurate because they have the fonts and text that is actually used in ProntoEdit. If you need any help with this let me know.
Post 58 made on Wednesday April 18, 2007 at 09:30
8's&Aces
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166
Back problems are not fun at all, I've been there a few times. Once took me 45 min. to crawl out of bed and 10 feet to the bathroom one morning. Hope all is well.

With reguards to the screen shots, I'd be happy to re-send mine a different way if it will help. Just tell me how you want them. gwstudios' method is simple enough.

Rich
OP | Post 59 made on Wednesday April 18, 2007 at 18:53
Daniel Tonks
Wrangler of Remotes
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28,779
Actually, that's not a bad idea... if anyone who hasn't can send over full resolution screens via gwstudios' method (640x480, BMP or PNG) then that would be greatly appreciated.
Post 60 made on Wednesday April 18, 2007 at 22:30
Peter Fullerton
Long Time Member
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November 2003
80
On their way ...
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