Editing the UI

Ok, A while ago I used to be able to edit the UI so that it wouldnt fade meaning every thing I had open would stay dark and not go transparent... by going into the seondlife file, to the app_settings... then down to colors_base then to DefaultBackgroundColor 62 62 62 100 ..... then by changing the 100 to 255 they ui would no longer fade out on me, I really liked this because I cant stand the UI fading on me ... it causes me headaches .... if anyone has figured out how to keep the UI from fading please reply

On a windows install, the color files are in C:\Program Files\SecondLife\app_settings .

The old colors.ini file and the colors_base.ini file are still there, but I think they are now using the colors.xml and colors_base.xml file.

The colors_base.xml file has the defaults and should not be tampered with.

You find the part of the UI you want to change the colors of and copy it into the colors.xml file, then change the values as desired.

Example: from the colors_base.xml file

<!-- Notify boxes are the slide-down notifications at the -->
<!-- top-right of the screen. -->
<NotifyBoxColor value="58, 147, 242, 255"/>
<NotifyTextColor value="0, 0, 0, 255"/>
<OpaqueBackgroundColor value="62, 62, 62, 255"/>
<GroupNotifyBoxColor value="70, 170, 255, 255"/>

paste that into the colors.xml file and change it to

<!-- Notify boxes are the slide-down notifications at the -->
<!-- top-right of the screen. -->
<NotifyBoxColor value="58, 147, 242, 128"/>
<NotifyTextColor value="0, 0, 0, 128"/>
<OpaqueBackgroundColor value="62, 62, 62, 128"/>
<GroupNotifyBoxColor value="70, 170, 255, 128"/>

I think that will change the notify box colors to half transparent.

So I think the procedure is much the same but now uses the files with the xml extension.

There's a section in there that might be the current version of the section you are remembering:

<!-- The drop shadow behind windows and menus. -->
<!-- The button one is baked into the graphic. -->
<ColorDropShadow value="0, 0, 0, 200"/>
<DefaultBackgroundColor value="62, 62, 62, 100"/>
<DefaultHighlightDark value="26, 26, 26, 255"/>
<DefaultHighlightLight value="115, 132, 155, 255"/>
<DefaultShadowDark value="26, 26, 26, 255"/>
<DefaultShadowLight value="0, 0, 0, 255"/>


There is also a folder with editable UI stuff at:

C:\Program Files\SecondLife\skins\xui\en-us

again, on a default windows install.

There's all sorts of files like panel_preferences_chat.xml in there that can be tinkered with.


-----

With this as my colors.xml file, the panels stay opaque:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<settings version = "101">
<!-- The drop shadow behind windows and menus. -->
<!-- The button one is baked into the graphic. -->
<ColorDropShadow value="0, 0, 0, 200"/>
<DefaultBackgroundColor value="62, 62, 62, 255"/>
<DefaultHighlightDark value="26, 26, 26, 255"/>
<DefaultHighlightLight value="115, 132, 155, 255"/>
<DefaultShadowDark value="26, 26, 26, 255"/>
<DefaultShadowLight value="0, 0, 0, 255"/>
</settings>

That change is from 100 to 255 in the line:
DefaultBackgroundColor value="62, 62, 62, 255"

Ok I see what you are talking about .... But it looks like ... How do I change these? When I open the .xml file it wouldnt let me change anything

If you double click the xml files, your browser might fire up and there you cannot edit anything, yes. You need to load the files into the plain text editor of your choice, notepad for example.

Ok but if I copy them into a notecard, how will the xml change?

No, not a notecard in SL..

in Windows:
Start->Run->notepad

in Notepad:
File->Open->the XML file (might have to select All Files in some dropdown box in the file open dialog)

Edit the XML file

File->Save

Done.

You might really want to make a backup of the files before you change them.. if you don't know how to open and edit a text file, chances are you get confused with the XML tags inside the file, and if you get those wrong, SL might not like it much.

I use the popular programmer's editor SciTE, in which these files come up syntax colored, which makes them a lot easier to look at.