Desc.txt
From TrillWiki
NOTE: This article is for the main skin's desc.txt file. For the desc.txt files in various STIXE plugins, please see the appropriate page in Skin packs
This file controls how Trillian treats the skin in the skin preview window. It gives the description of your skin, location of the previews, etc. This is one of the two files that are required to have a specific name for a skin to work. (The other file is Trillian.xml.)
[edit] Format
This is the format for the main skin's desc.txt file.
- Skin Name
- Description
- Number of images in preview
- Image 1
- Time in milliseconds
- Image 2
- Time in milliseconds
- ...(etc)...
- Trillian version
- Configuration
- Skin Name
- This can be anything you like. However, it's customary to include a version number in this name so a user can easily see what version of the skin they are using. It's also useful to name your skin directory the same as your skin's name here (without the version) so they can find it on their drive easily.
- Description
- The description must all be contained in one line. NOTE The buffer for this is 256 characters. Any skin with a longer description will not show up in the command line /skinchooser mode of launching Trillian.
- Number of images in preview
- This allows you to make an animated preview using multiple images. (For a good example of the use of this, see the Giger skin.)
- Image 1
- The image should be 320x240. The /skinchooser method of choosing a skin loads up before Trillian loads up the libraries for GIF / PNG / JPG support, therefore the preview MUST be a BMP file*. Repeat this line and the following line for multiple images in the preview. This is relative to the directory the desc.txt is in.
- Time in milliseconds
- This is the delay time until the next image is displayed. This value is still needed even if you only have one image. (1000 milliseconds == 1 second)
- Trillian version
- The basic rule is to multiply the Trillian version by 1000. This was added in 0.70, so 0.6x skins do not have this line. If this is less than 3000 Trillian 3.x will overlay a warning on the preview saying the skin is out of date. If this line is not found, the skin will not be displayed in Trillian .7x and above.
- Configuration
- This specifies what happens when the user clicks the [Advanced] button in skin preferences. This line was introduced with Trillian 2.0. If the value of this is STIXE, it will bring up the internal skinpack selector (emoticons, sounds, interfaces). Skins that use other configuration utilities can put a link to the config file here. This is relative to the directory the desc.txt is in. Skins that use The Configurator should put ..\configurator.lnk here.
[edit] Example
So, for example, a normal STIXE-based skin with a single preview image might have the following desc.txt:
- My Wonderful Skin
- This is the best skin in the world because I made it
- 1
- preview.bmp
- 1000
- 3000
- stixe
[edit] Speculation
Scott's Blog post for 2006.05.09 shows a screenshot of the new login screen. It uses the user pictures, which seems to indicate that the PNG engine is loaded by that point. Since /skinchooser comes after the login screen, this implies that the desc.txt might be able to support PNG previews for Trillian Astra
