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WALTER: A themer`s guide White Tie

1. reset command layout or front etc Found Optionally by convention at Optionally by convention below the the top of the rtconfig file Standard Statements Usage One use per theme simple Can be interactive contextual and Global re defined for individual layouts Hierarchy Overrides any ReaperTheme Overrides any Standard Statement settings if applicable settings if applicable Listed in http www reaper fm sdk advtheme plus some new ones in this document http www reaper fm sdk walter walter php elements In this document Standard Statements will be highlighted in green a standard statement and WALTER Statements will be highlighted in yellow a WALTER statement e Editing the default theme WALTER strongly recommend that you do not start learning WALTER by trying to edit an existing theme with complex WALTER and the default theme has some very complex WALTER recommend this because so many people who have struggled with learning WALTER and given up have started this way It doesn t work Learn how to WALTER simple things yourself from scratch to get an understanding of the basics Complex WALTER will then be much much more decipherable Once but not before you have learned the basics of WALTER recommend you look at as much WALTER as you can for every theme you can find all the great WALTER people are writing is by far the best learning resource available to you Ig
2. REAPER WALTER A themer s guide White Tie Version 14 July 2012 INTO ila AA 3 Pato NE DANS 5 s iii rica 5 Where s WALTER 02am a KALAN base wanda ceded ae eed ewes 5 ESE OS aiii KIN aa La dane een ina 6 COMMENTS aa nn A Goede hee he ene NATE RAE de oe Kan 7 AA APA 7 Remove Everything maa naina NGA KANG KG cren 8 Showa single button paaa GG Ka a NANG ENNA ANA EGG 9 The 8 number values 0 ccc e eee cee eee teen ence eee e nen eneneeennes 9 A 11 Polish Nota nienean a AINA NA E a dele 11 Conditions sieaa n NGA EEEE a 11 Nesting KAG nG AA APAPAP 12 ELLE AA a eo 13 SUMMING sio ta eda ee ee 14 Multiplication AA AA AA APA PA A 15 Edge Attachment cece ccc eee ene ETNEA EENET 16 Proportional Stretching aaa aanak kanak ence tent ene eneneenes 17 Scalar Valles ocacion ede be ta vente aden dedeuneadeatens 18 Scalar Values A Practical Example cece cece ence cece ener cnn 19 Other Comparison Operators 00 cece saaan naaawa naaa aaa aaa 20 Always COMPArISONS Nama o need meee Readme ts 21 Inheriting previously declared values With 0 0 eee cece cece ee een eens 22 La 22 Part3 Special Elements 23 a AA 23 The Extended Mixer 00 c cece eee cence ene n eee nee aaa aaa 24 TCP Parameter knobs 0 0 cece aaa Aa en en TEENAA 24 Text Elements 10 2 0 cc cece cece cece NGANGA GAGANA 25 Volume Control vecindad nA eed han KAG grab 26 Pan COMO AA
3. could just as easily have called it blah blah or whatever set tcp solo rhs tcp solo x tcp solo w I m inventing this coordinate list for my own purposes so it doesn t matter that I ve made it one entry long I ve set it to be an addition of two single entry coordinate lists one containing the solo s x position note could have left that x out since its position index one but I chose not to for clarity and the other containing the solo s width That will give me the unstretched location of the right edge of the solo button Now use it to define the mute button red square set tcp mute tcp solo rhs tcp solo tcp solo tcp solo tcp solo rs 0 tcp solo rs 0 Notice that is a single 8 number coordinate list Almost everything is defined by the solo button and could write vast lines of complex WALTER for the solo button the mute button would pick it all up and sit next to it happily and consistently Lets go through the 8 numbers 1 x position is the right hand edge of the solo which we calculated in the previous statement y position is the same as the y position of the solo want the height to be the same as the solo so grab that want the width to be the same as the solo so grab that too left edge attachment want this left edge to stick to the right edge of the solo button The solo button may or may not be stretching its right edge as the panel resizes grab its right edge attachment va
4. set tcp fx button border 0 0 20 20 O O O 0 set tcp phase button border 20 0 20 20 0 0 0 0 set tcp mute button border 40 0 20 20 0 00 0 set tcp solo button border 60 0 20 20 000 0 So far so good it all looks the same but we haven t had to type 3 as often That s not very exciting so lets make out new button border variable change depending on the TCP s height condition set button border h gt 40 12 120000 0 0 330000 0 0 Here s what we get e Optional Syntax Simplification 330000 0 0 If we don t provide all eight numbers WALTER will treat the missing values as being zero Which in this case is the correct number for the third value onwards so we don t need to write them and can rewrite that statement as set button border h gt 40 12 12 3 3 WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 E Multiplication If summing is making sense to you lets move on to multiplication It s much the same set output vall val2 If we look at that old statement set tcp solo button border 60 0 20 20 00 0 0 we ll notice some 20s in there and a 60 this is the button that skips 3 other buttons since that is the size of the button and also therefore the amount we need to offset each button in the line so they don t overlap We can make those 20s a multiplied value 20 20 20 20000 0 30110000 Lets do that with a variable set button size 20 20 20 20 Notice I ve left the last
5. set trans set trans pause 251 2 24 24 bxfac 0 bxfac 0 set trans set trans set trans set trans set trans set trans EndLayout size 500 60 size minmax 340 60 1024 60 size dockedheight 60 sel 420 3 76 531010 bpm tap w lt 490 0 330 3 38 20 1 0 1 0 bpm edit w lt 420 0 370 3 46 20 1 0 1 0 curtimesig w lt 420 0 370 25 46 30 101 0 0 4 status 5 3 195 25 O O bxfac 0 rate 203 30 48 30 bxfac 0 bxfac 0 rate fader 5 30 195 25 O O bxfac 0 play 203 2 24 24 bxfac 0 bxfac 0 stop 227 2 24 24 bxfac 0 bxfac 0 rec 274 2 24 24 bxfac 0 bxfac 0 repeat 298 2 24 24 bxfac 0 bxfac 0 rew 251 30 24 24 bxfac 0 bxfac 0 fwd 274 30 24 24 bxfac 0 bxfac 0 automode 298 30 24 24 bxfac 0 bxfac 0 GlobalLayout name WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 E Appendix 4 midi note colormap png lt 128 pixels 128 levels 5 This isn t WALTER related but I m including it here for your convenience The Midi Note Colormap is a fixed size image used to determine the colour of notes in the MIDI editor Notes can have a vertical colour change e g gradient or shading that changes depending on the notes velocity or channel or pitch and the selected unselected state in each case Here s how to build one 1 Decide on a gradient for your unselected note at velocity 0 and its border Note ME Border 5 Set the colours as you would like them to change over those 128
6. till the last frame representing the highest value Align your knob stack image as a stack ora strip however you like REAPER will figure out what you meant from the aspect ratio From here onwards will be describing the creation of a stack the same methods apply for a strip but the axes are flipped WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Many people use the free Knobman program to generate their knob stacks hear good things so do check into it REAPER needs to know what size each frame is so it can divide your total image size into the correct number of frames Without further information REAPER will assume that your frames are square and simply divide by the overall image width since we re talking about a stack not a strip to set the number of frames If your frames are indeed square then congratulations you are finished Name your image as one of the knob stack images from the sdk page and when you then WALTER that element to use a knob the knob stack will be used Set your WALTER size to be the same as your frame size if you want it pixel perfect Note that the standard knob large or knob small knob image will also be drawn underneath it so your knob stack need only include the bit that actually changes and with a little yellow line magic any non animated shadows etc can be drawn once on the underlying standard image e Using non square frames If your knob doesn t fit exactly into a squ
7. Ala Aa ala ens 21 A ca NG AA AA 13 AA AA 21 A alpha ada raise o NGA 23 32 AND aiid cate a Se ALAN NGA 13 21 C Aia a AE 6 Colour 23 38 41 Comments 2005 7 Conditions 11 D BS a KN A ak 26 default layouts txt 21 46 51 dualpan 28 31 E Edge attachment 9 16 envcp type 46 envelope 2 0005 46 Extended Mixer extmixer 24 fadSP sii ana doe Fw Se aad PG ha 26 fadermode 005 26 folderdepth 6 24 25 26 28 46 folderstate 21 24 25 26 28 46 FONE as or Bee GANG we A Gi 25 GONE aci ar a ded tw 22 AA at at ote 21 h height 12 46 IMages lt lt ne 37 A a ha ma 26 knobstack 28 Label ici GNG dada 25 Layout NAN key of nanan 23 24 36 Margins 34 35 maxfolderdepth 46 mcp maxfolderdepth 46 IMEPISIZO tetas ek PABORAN 39 Meters 28 30 midi note colormap 51 mix4match 3 mono pan 2 2 eee eee 28 Multiplication 15 Nesting oo 12 Operators 20 overlays 2 2 2 eee eee 37 Pan Controls 27 parameter knobs 24 Pink Line Crush 43 PinkLines 26 31 41 46 Power of Pink 37 42 REAPER preferences 32 reaper version 46
8. SCAN GNG wie ae ANAND 46 CE ee Sle owe ANG 46 rtconfigtxt 5 Scalar x5 da ky GAY WA 18 SAK ais vuln ANG Rae ee Be 3 23 25 stereo balance 28 stereo pan 28 Stretching 10 17 Summing 0 oo 14 SWS S amp M Theme Helper 44 TAD iras 40 tcp folderindent 34 tcp_margin 34 35 TCP minimum size 35 TCP Parameter knobs fxparm 24 TEPSIZE a Nana DUDA ars 8 35 39 WO bas anced aba ee ook KAG PANGGA 25 theme refresh 43 toosmallimages 35 trackneh sss she dw woe aos ES 46 trackpanmode 27 46 trans center 46 WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 trans docked 46 trans_fla9S oo 46 TTANSpOlt o 46 TANS SIZE ia Cot dae bees 39 Variables 13 voltext flags 26 Volume ooo 26 VUmeters 28 30 WHO ook Naa hh ksa es BG 21 width control 28 w width 12 46 Yellow Lines 27 29 30 42 Zero and Nonzero 21 Zorder a 22 WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 by White Tie with the invaluable assistance of Bernstraw and Our Fearless Leader
9. afraid its almost certainly not that easy you re going to need to understand how the theme works before you can change it But the good news is that WALTER is simpler than it looks and maybe you ll enjoy learning it Or if the change really is that simple ask someone else to do it for you Tip ask nicely WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Seriously Read the sdk http www reaper fm sdk walter walter php and http www reaper fm sdk walter images php and http www reaper fm sdk advtheme WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Part 1 E Where s WALTER e R d S S WALTER functionality is built in to REAPER and the WALTER code is part ofthe theme you are using within its rtconfig txt file Themes live in the ColorThemes folder in your REAPER path DO NOT go searching for Covering the essentials of finding WALTER starting to edit the folder by name using your OS search function you will likely have more than one of removing elements and placing simple static elements them The ColorThemes folder you want is the one in your REAPER path to the interface Find your REAPER path by choosing in REAPER options gt Show REAPER resource path in explorer finder If the theme is unpacked you will find a ReaperTheme file and a folder containing its resources The folder will probably have the same name but you can find out for sure by opening the ReaperTheme fi
10. all of its edges are anchored to the top left With this you could now move forward and create similar simple settings for all the other elements of the TCP and build your dream static TCP layout WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 E Polish Notation Before we get into the details some maths Yes know I m sorry but stick with me its Part 2 important and not actually that difficu STOP DOODLING FADERS AND PAY ATTENTION THIS IS FOR YOUR BENEFIT NOT MINE cough excuse me Seriously just read this bit so that if you get stuck later you ll know to come back and read it again WALTER uses a prefix method of expression called Polish Notation This is very very useful NN once you get used to it though if its new to you it may seem challenging at first It works A static theme with the elements sitting quietly where like this you left them is fine But REAPER s interface allows the users to resize panels to taste and a good theme should a a estion true answer false answer adjust itself to suit the space available a WALTER allows elements to change their visibility size So the question is asked and if its true the first answer is used If its false then the first and position relative to the panel and each other based answer is skipped and we move to the next answer Often in WALTER you will be providing on the panel size and other variables the answers if this do that and as you get i
11. element in a single statement with all possible contingencies covered However sometimes it makes sense to define using muliple state ments The important thing to note is that the lower statement if it is meaningful takes precedence Observe this solo button which changes based on height set tcp solo h lt 50 one two Its going to change from values one to values two when the panel height goes above 50px Now let us imagine we want it to change based on width as well at each height Easy set tcp solo h lt 50 w lt 100 one three w lt 100 two four That s still manageable fair enough We can spoil that Now imagine we want to change them all when the track is record armed Deep breath here we go set tcp solo recarm h lt 50 w lt 100 five six w lt 100 seven eight h lt 50 w lt 100 one three w lt 100 two four please excuse the line wrap that s all one WALTER statement At this point you might decide to go to multiple statements so the recarm activity takes place in the second statement set tcp solo h lt 50 w lt 100 one three w lt 100 two four set tcp solo recarm h lt 50 w lt 100 five six w lt 100 seven eight If the track is record armed here s what WALTER is thinking WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Starting on the first statement OK I m doing the tcp solo I ll go through these height and width questions and act accordingly and I m finished wit
12. elements You will have done things like put one button behind another and a label in front of them both You will not be doing that with the meters Everything that exists inside the Meter area that being the area that you WALTER for the meter is in front of all of the other elements and you cannot front other elements over that sacred rectangle This is because the meters are redrawn at a higher rate than the rest of the interface so the area where the redraw goes on is special An exception to this rule is the location based backgrounds such as meter bg tcp png if you have used the yellow lines to push part of them outside the meter area Those parts that are outside the meter area are no longer special so you can indeed front standard elements over them but it will only work over the parts that are outside WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 TCP Folder Margins This section contains green highlighted Standard State ments see Standard Statements and WALTER Statements on page 5 Once you have a well WALTER d panel you will want to The TCP visually represents the folder hierarchy of your users project by indenting the control how and when that panel appears and how it contents of each panel for each level of the hierarchy responds to things like track hierarchy Then you can create alternative panels for the user to choose from using layouts Part4 etcp folderindent In its most ba
13. follows red green blue alpha Or for double value elements like tcp volume color where the first set of numbers define the knob line colour and the second set define the fader zero line colour red green blue alpha red green blue alpha As usual you only need to provide as many numbers as you actuallly want to change So an element might support a double block of four numbers but if you only want to change the foreground colour but leave its alpha and anything to do with the background unchanged its fine to just provide the first three numbers If you ve set a background colour that the sdk says is valid but you don t see anything its probably being overridden by a background image Also note that for some elements the alpha value is just a placeholder at the moment alpha transparency is not implemented for all elements WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 E The Extended Mixer The Extended Mixer is the section of the MCP and MCP master where the Sends Insert Effects and Parameter Knobs live WALTER has no direct control over what happens within the extended mixer but has control over the area the extended mixer appears in which can either be automatic or defined by you like any other WALTER element The first statement you ll want to make will be the mode you want the extmixer to use set mcp extmixer mode 0 extmixer modes 0 Automatic placement above the MCP panel Uses the full Panel wi
14. fulfilled by you the themer Go and talk to the users they are a nice bunch and you can bring them joy Many users are putting REAPER to all manner of exciting and possibly unenvisaged uses Perhaps they are using a 4 screen or a touch screen or perhaps they only need a small subset of the controls Maybe they could benefit from some WALTER If you have an interface related feature request for REAPER perhaps you could figure out a way to do it now yourself with WALTER But if not perhaps you might see a way that a small WALTER feature request would get you there while opening up lots of other possibilities too A WALTER Warning for Mix amp Match themers If you have been making mix amp match themes using elements from other themes that s great some of the best themes have been made that way And have you been giving credit to the original theme creators You have Excellent Please carry on but be aware that you may now need to be selective about where you source your images if a theme has extensive WALTER and its images set up to match things may well look really really bad if you try to use those images in a theme without the appropriate WALTER for the element or no WALTER at all e Doing a quick edit on a theme without learning WALTER Perhaps you re hoping there s a bit in this document where walk you through how to make a 5 minute simple edit to a theme you like but didn t make Well wish there were but I m
15. high If allow it to stretch in between those values ugliness results e The Pink Line Crush Technique Doing this offers considerable flexibility to the user of your theme because you can set Combined use of some basic WALTER and the pink lines can even be used to switch off the stretching behaviour and instead tell REAPER to crop off part of an image in response to variables such as changing panel size aka the Pink Line Crush technique which is used a lot in the Default V4 theme This allows us for example to set up a button image so that it appears in two forms the full size image for when panel space is plentiful and a condensed image that has a section of the button removed containing secondary importance information for when panel space is restricted your WALTER so that as they reduce the panel size of the image they can be given access to the same number of buttons but in reduced form This is a more pleasing compromise situation than you removing the button entirely because there is no longer sufficient panel space to show the image in its complete full size glory Here s some example WALTER of how that button could be used Its very simple the only important thing is that the button is either 31px or 16px high no other sizes or stretching are set so the in between ugliness is never seen set mcp io h lt 50 0 O 39 16 000 0 0 O 39 31000 0 E Theme Refresh Action As you create and edit
16. lt 330 0 64 3 20 20 25 0 25 0 2 24 20 20 0 O O 0 other buttons set tcp folder w lt 230 0 98 3 20 20101 0 set tcp io w lt 230 0 118 3 20 20101 0 set tcp env w lt 230 0 138 3 20 20101 0 set tcp fx w lt 230 0 158 3 2020101 0 set tcp fxbyp w lt 230 0 178 3 14 20101 0 set tcp phase w lt 230 0 192 3 20 20101 0 set tcp mute w lt 100 0 212 3 20 20 1 0 1 0 set tcp solo w lt 100 0 232 3 20 20101 0 E Comments The first thing to notice is the comments which are only there to let us know what s what and are ignored by WALTER Comments start with a semi colon I am a comment so WALTER ignores me Use as many comments as you like so you can find your way around your code Comments have a second use which is to disable a line of code without the trouble of deleting it So if you take this correctly formatted statement which tells WALTER to draw the FX button set tcp fx w lt 230 0 158 3 20 20101 0 and turn it into a comment set tcp fx w lt 230 0 158 3 20 20101 0 The whole statement has been commented out WALTER will ignore the statement and therefore find no instructions for how to draw the FX button Result the FX button will disappear TCP size All the location measurements that you put into the WALTER of a panel are always based on a reference sized panel The TCP size is the critical measurement that defines the dimensions x pixels y pixels of the TCP s ref
17. pad the text away from the edges and justify it We can use text margins to do this e Text Margins Here we use mcp label margin to push inwards from that bounding box and center justify the text set mcp label margin 2 121 0 5 0 5 For margin on text elements the first four coordinates represent left top right bottom margins respectively and the fifth and sixth coordinates are where supported the text s horizontal and vertical text justification 0O left 0 5 center 1 right This is most easily understood on text elements that have a background image Using the track name to experiment with this is ideal because if you give your track a custom colour and set Reaper custom colour only the track name you ll be able to actually see the text s bounding box since that is the bit that gets custom coloured Try it e Fonts Fonts their sizes and stylings are all chosen from the OS and the results are stored in the ReaperTheme file and the easiest way to change these assignments is with the theme editor in Options gt Preferences There are numerous font assigments you can make but sooner or later you will discover that the preset font assignments don t suit your design and will want some more control and you ll be pleased to hear we can override many of them with WALTER just look for any font entries in the WALTER sdk s element list Of course WALTER has no way to call up the OS font selector so this is done w
18. rect pan rowl w gt 500 w gt 650 90 3 67 20 65 0 1 0 90 3 2 20 75 0 1 0 0 set tcp pan w lt 230 0 h lt 49 pan rowl 131 24 51 20 0 75 0 1 0 vol fader rect vol rowl w gt 330 w gt 500 85 3 5 20 0 25 0 75 0 85 3 7 20 0 25 0 1 0 0 rect vol rowl w gt 650 85 3 5 20 0 25 O 65 0 vol rowl WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 2 E Show a single button E The 8 number values OK lets bring back a single button the solo button Its the last statement in the code After the set tcp solo you ll have noticed the 8 numbers within brackets Here s what we re going to change it back from a comment into a functioning statement by removing they do its semicolon and space I m also going to simplify its code Replace the statement with this position edge attachment set tcp solo 10 3 20 20 0 O 0 0 here it is a b e f g h 10 3 20 20 0 O 0 O c d size Have a quick play and notice that the button works and that as you stretch the TCP in either direction the button doesn t move or change in any way a x axis position Measured in pixels inwards from the left edge of the TCP to the left edge of the element OK lets get to the meat of what we re seeing b y axis position Measured in pixels downwards from the top edge of the TCP to the top edge of the element x size measured in pixels e g for a button this would be the width of the button y size measured in pixels e g for a butto
19. set set set set set set 0 set 0 set set set set set master mcp size 122 231 master mcp mute 79 2 20 20 0 0 0 0 master mcp solo 99 2 20 20 0 0 0 0 master mcp menubutton mcp docked 0 000000 0 3 2 20 20000 0 master mcp label mcp docked 3 2 73 20 0 0 O 0 25 2 51 2000 0 0 master mcp meter mcp panflip 26 25 68 166 0 0 O 1 26 60 68 165 0 0 O 1 master mcp volume mcp panflip 3 25 20 166 0 O O 1 3 60 20 165 00 0 1 master mcp pan mcp panflip 2 193 116 200101 2 24 116 20000 0 master mcp volume label mcp panflip 0 214 58 13 01 01 0 445813000 master mcp pan label mcp panflip 62 214 47 13 010 1 62 44 47 13000 master mcp mono mcp panflip 99 25 20 20 0 O O 0 99 60 20 20 O O O 0 master mcp io mcp panflip 99 45 20 20 0 0 O 0 99 80 20 20 O 0 O 0 master mcp env mcp panflip 99 65 20 20 0 0 O 0 99 100 20 20 0 O O 0 master mcp fx mcp panflip 99 85 20 20 0 O O 0 99 120 20 20 00 0 0 master mcp fxbyp mcp panflip 99 105 20 12 0 O O 0 99 140 20 12 0 0 O 0 EndLayout master mcp w walter Layout Default EnvCP w Walter clear envcp set envcp size 300 100 set envcp margin folderdepth lt 1 16 0 O 0 folderdepth 0 22 0 O 0 set envcp hide 273 1 20 201 01 0 set envcp bypass 253 1 20 20 1 01 0 show fx buttons when wide these are ignored if not fx or hide when not wide set envcp learn w gt 222 233 1 20 20 1 0 1 0 0 set envcp mod w gt 222 213 1 20 201 01 0 0
20. the lit frame beneath it e RMS Meters on the MCP Master The RMS meter on the MCP master uses its own strip image meter strip v rms which is formatted the same as the standard vertical meter strip It has its own image for its clip area meter clip v rms and in addition an image for the RMS good area that is drawn between the strip and the clip indicator meter clip v rms2 The strips are auto populated into the meter area that you WALTER as before though there is a second div statement that you can use to finesse the appearance of the RMS strips set master mcp meter vu rmsdiv x y x First value is the division between RMS and normal channels y Second value adjusts the RMS area size when the user has set rms peak mode WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 e The Other Indicators These are little detail elements that provide extra information to your user about the status of the track replacing the text you will get if you don t proide them They are not per se meter elements but they appear within the meter as explanation for those moments when the user looks at the meter expecting to see activity but there is none e meter mute track is muted meter automute track master has been automatically muted due to excessive level to protect your speakers hearing feelings from the clipping meter unsolo one or more other tracks is solo d but not this one meter solodim one or more other t
21. this the whole drawn area will act as the knob even though in the mind of your user it isn t In many cases this will seem very odd but if you ve already mastered the use of yellow lines on other images you can use the same techniques with your knob stack to define an active area that actually responds as being the knob itself with the outside area being an inactive border of shadow or other non interactive element You need to have a functioning pink line if you want REAPER to obey the yellow lines Place your yellow lines over the pink within the 1px border you made in the top left of the first frame and in the bottom right of the last frame The area bounded by yellow will be your inactive border Save and test depending on its design your knob may now behave in a more as expected way You can download and inspect the yellow line version of the test knob HERE Note that when WALTERing your yellow lined knob the area you define as your size should be the active area NOT the total frame size E Meters Most WALTER extends and controls the standard elements but with the meters a whole new solution is available exclusively via WALTER Familiarise yourself with the Meters section of the sdk images page where the cast of image components are listed http www reaper fm sdk walter images php e Meter Backgrounds The background bg images sit at the back of the meter The meter area you define in WALTER is th
22. three pan modes This means you can yellow line a background for your pan area that is appropriate for the mode by using a different pan form for each of the modes for example set mcp pan trackpanmode lt 4 big knob trackpanmode 6 small knob fader Get your backgrounds looking correct for each mode and then drop in the width knob and text elements to suit with similar mode WALTER E Knob Stacks A basic REAPER knob is a static image of a knob over which the code line is drawn to display position The advantage of these knobs is they have a low memory footprint and essentially infinite resolution However if you wish you can use a knob stack which is a frame by frame animation of discrete positions of the knob for far greater design freedom Use enough frames to ensure that the knob movement feels smooth in use but no more or you ll just be bloating your users systems Note that the term knob is used here but you can really draw whatever you like The defining principles are that any part of the knob controls its movement unlike a fader where you must click the fader itself and that it responds using REAPER s knob behaviour where dragging the mouse up right increases value dragging down left decreases it nta gt N lt gt ae Y sf TE Your first frame will be the lowest value of the knob You can then continue adding frames below if you re making a stack or to the right if you re making a strip
23. to use the available space while maintaining their relative sizes This is where it can get very tricky if you ve not planned your sizes relative to tcp size You need to do that or you will cry cry cry Lets take an element and stretch it a bit Comment out back to a blank TCP and then bring back the big meter with these settings set tcp meter 3 3 126 66 0 0 0 5 1 Here I ve set the meter size to be half what it was before in the x axis and told it to have a right edge attachment value of 0 5 So its going to fill half the panel and its always going to fill half the panel no matter how wide it is We have this nice gap lets put something in it and what could be more attractive than a ridiculously oversized and therefore unfairly overfiltered solo button mmm lets do it set tcp solo 129 3 126 66 0 5 01 1 This button will fill the other half of the panel and again always fill it e Lets go through the numbers 1 129is the 3px border plus the width of the meter measured at the tcp size We re scooting along that far because that s where the meter is 2 3 is the border 3 126isthe width of the button i e remaining width of the panel measured at the tcp size less a 3px border for the right edge 4 ay axis value we re not changing that so 66 as before 5 The clever bit a 0 5 because we want the left edge of the button to 0 5 attach to the WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 right edge of the p
24. walter Layout Default MCP w WALTER clear mcp set mcp size 71 214 set mcp trackidx 3 2 24 18 0 0 0 0 set mcp mute 30 2 20 20 0 0 0 0 set mcp solo 50 2 20 20 0 0 0 0 WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 set set set set set set set set set set set set set set set mcp volume mcp panflip 3 42 20 132 0 0 O 1 3 60 20 1320001 pan mcp panflip 3 176 65 20 01 0 1 3 24 65 20 0 0 O 0 volume label mcp panflip 0 197 38 13 O 1 O 1 O 44 38 13 000 0 pan label mcp panflip 39 197 29 13 0101 39 44 29 13 00 0 0 mcp mcp mcp mcp mcp mcp phase mcp panflip 50 42 20 20 0 0 O 0 50 60 20 20000 0 mcp mcp mcp mcp mcp mcp mcp recmode mcp panflip 50 156 20 20 O 1 O 1 50 174 20 2001 01 mcp meter mcp panflip 25 42 22 132 0 0 O 1 25 60 22 132 00 0 1 label mcp panflip 3 23 63 150 O O 0 3 196 65 15 01 01 folder mcp panflip 3 2 20 20 0 0 0 0 3 2 20 20000 0 io mcp panflip 50 62 20 20 0 O O 0 50 80 20 20000 0 env mcp panflip 50 82 20 20 0 0 O 0 50 100 20 20 O O 0 0 fx mcp panflip 50 102 20 20 0 O O 0 50 120 20 2000 O 0 fxbyp mcp panflip 50 122 20 12 0 O O 0 50 140 20 12 0 0 0 0 recarm mcp panflip 50 116 20 20 01 0 1 50 134 20 20 01 01 recmon mcp panflip 50 136 20 20 01 0 1 50 154 20 20 01 01 EndLayout Default MCP w WALTER Layout Default Master MCP w WALTER clear master mcp set set set
25. whims A great big slug of a theme should not be necessary Notice that you can use the same image subfolder for any numer of different layouts each layout does not need its own dedicated subfolder e If you re using overlays remember they belong to a parent image If you don t know what overlays are you need to read the Power of Pink document In that you will have read that overlay images belong to a parent image So mcp_io_ol png exists relative to its parent mcp_io png When working with layout folders this relation ship is maintained and therefore if you have an overlay image in a layout subfolder you need to provide the parent image in that same subfolder If you don t REAPER will look for the parent image not find it and so use the root folder s image and its overlay if it has one and if it doesn t it will use none WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 E Start with simple WALTER If your goal is to edit someone else s WALTER you ll need an understanding broadly similar to that of the person who wrote it This is a terrible way to start learning WALTER and will most likely prolong your impression that its much more complex than it actually is possibly to the degree that you just give up Personally also much more difficult to edit WALTER part 5 than to write it in the first place i Start with a blank panel WALTER a single static button Now make it move or stretch as Kamchatka
26. 0 0 0 Squash the width of the TCP so its nice and thin less than 230px wide You ll see you get your standard button at its standard size Note at this point that if you mess with the height of the TCP making it really small the button doesn t change e Here s what WALTER is thinking Is the TCP width less than 230px Yes it is OK doing the first thing come to 10 3 20 20 0 0 0 0 and stopping there I m finished with this statement Now expand the size of the TCP so its width is more than 230px but make its height really small less than 40px You ll see that you get a tiny button Here s what WALTER is thinking Is the TCP width less than 230px NO it isn t OK skipping the first thing come to and going to the next thing The next thing is itself another question Is the TCP height less than 40px Yes it is OK doing the first thing come to 10 3 10 10 0 0 0 0 and stopping there I m finished with this statement And finally keep that wide TCP setting but increase the height to over 40px and you ll see the really big button This time WALTER has had to go all the way to the end of the line Is the TCP width less than 230px NO it isn t OK skipping the first thing come to and going to the next thing The next thing is itself another question Is the TCP height less than 40px NO it isn t OK skipping the first thing come to and again going to the next thing 10 3 40 400000 e Making that a bit neat
27. 0 O is the most simple setting left and right edges are attached to the left edge of the panel top and bottom edges are attached to the top of the panel No stretching This is equivalent to standard GUI practice of everything hanging off the top left corner of the panel staying where it is as the panel resizes Lets move along to the opposite end of the scale Left element edge to Left panel edge Top element edge to Top panel edge IN Bantam 25 Right element edge to Right panel edge Bottom element edge to Bottom panel edge Here every element edge is going to stick to its adjacent panel edge so as the panel resizes we re going to see a LOT of stretching Lets try that in the silliest way possible Comment out back to a blank TCP and find the Its a monster As you can see its going to fill that space no matter what the user does set tcp meter statement Replace it with this Now lets move on and attach all four edges to the bottom right set tcp meter 3 3 252 66001 1 WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Left element edge to Right panel edge Top element edge to Bottom panel edge Right element edge to Right panel edge Bottom element edge to Bottom panel edge To see this in action first comment out the big meter the set tcp meter statement and bring back the solo button statement and change its settings to this set tcp solo 235 49 20 20111 1 As you resize the TCP by moving the bottom a
28. 27 Part4 DUSA 28 Meter naaa esto ci laman a 30 Arrangement 34 TCP Folder Mardi viaria prod Ye hina dios 34 TEPMINIMUNSIZO sora A a has 35 Ea e AA AA AA AA TA 35 MCP Minimum Height cece cee cece KAG nr TaN IAr ONENE TINAA 36 LAYOUIS iii a ad eae nhs AA 36 Layouts and IMAGES aasa Crta it Erns ENTA EEEE ETAri Ea 37 MU EE E E E 38 Start with simple WALTER cece cece eee e eect cnet naar 38 Know some basic theming casas antak ahaha e eee ee een eeneeeenes 38 Experiment 8 Diss ct ccc cece cee cece cece cence ences ene kawawa wawa 39 Working in ugly colour blocks cee cece ence kaaa kaaa 39 Have a plan and a well chosen panel size 2w wawa 39 Formatting for readability aaa aaa kaanak ann 40 Single Statement or Multiple Statement aasawa 40 Pink Lines Yellow Lines WALTER c ccc cece cece eee ceeeeeeeeeeeees 41 Theme Refresh Action saaan AGA 43 SWS S amp M Theme Helper 42 waaa cece cece cnet cnc 44 Appendices 0 0 aa 45 Appendix 1 Common 4 numbers cheat sheet cceeccceecceeeeceeanees 45 Appendix 2 Predefined Variables nee ccnee cece nres aaaaan 46 Appendix 3 default layouts txt 1 0 00 cece ccc cece cence nee c een eee cnn 46 Appendix 4 midi note colormap png 0 ccc eee cc ne eee c nee ceneneenanees 51 APA PAA AA PA 54 E Intro
29. 30 label small 26 3 68 15001 0 set tcp size 258 72 set tcp label h gt 49 label 2row w lt 330 label 2row 26 3 38 15 0 O 25 0 recarm button E Remove Everything set top recarm h lt 49 w lt 330 0 64 3 20 20 25 0 25 0 2 24 20 20 00 0 0 To simplify matters we re going to remove every statement from our TCP so we have a Other buttons clean slate to start with Starting with the statement below tcp size comment out all the statements that aren t already comments set tcp folder w lt 230 0 98 3 20 20101 0 set tcp io w lt 230 0 118 3 2020101 0 clear tcp set tcp env w lt 230 0 138 3 20 20 1 0 1 0 set tcp size 258 72 set tcp fx w lt 230 0 158 3 20 20 1 0 1 0 set tcp trackidx 1 3 20 16 000 0 set tcp fxbyp w lt 230 0 178 3 14 20101 0 set tcp foldercomp 2 3 20 20 00 0 0 set tcp phase w230 0 192 3 20 201 01 0 set tcp mute w100 0 212 3 20 20101 0 meter recmon recmode row set tcp solo w lt 100 0 232 3 20 20101 0 set tcp meter h gt 66 66 46 188 20 0 0 1 0 0 set tcp recmon h gt 66 24 47 20 20 0 0 0 0 0 set tcp recmode h gt 66 44 47 20 20 0 0 0 0 0 vol pan labels rect vollabel rowl w gt 650 23 7 36 13 1 01 0 0 rect panlabel rowl w gt 650 62 7 30 13 1 01 0 0 set tcp volume label h lt 49 vollabel rowl w lt 230 0 185 28 36 13 101 0 set tcp pan label h lt 49 panlabel rowl w lt 230 0 225 28 30 13 101 0 pan fader
30. ER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 their row heights This is done with a second entry that is allowed on their font statements set mcp fxlist font x y Experiment with different values of y to see just how powerful this is e Detailed volume text readout formatting The volume readout on the MCP TCP and their Masters can be formatted with extra detail that allows you to show or hide parts of the text readout to make best use of the space available voltext flags xy There are four possible settings you can make tcp voltext flags mcp voltext flags tcp master voltext flags e mcp master voltext flags an Note the characters in the _voltext_flags names not characters because these are base rtconfig settings they are not WALTER And because they are not WALTER you can t change them with variables or layouts The values are x text change formatting y optional intelligent character limiting REAPER will add and remove decimals to use the number of characters you set here so a small display can show for example both 127 1 and 0 001 The x text change formatting is achieved by declaring a single flag that is the sum of all the text identifiers for the combination of changes you want to make The identifiers are Identifier Text Change 1 do NOT show the cB legend 2 do NOT show the value with sub dB precision 4 do NOT show the symbol when the value is positive 8 always sho
31. LTER here EndLayout Now when you define an element within your layout REAPER will look in the folder awesome images to see if the image for that element is there If it finds it it will use that image if not it will use your default image from the root folder Although you need to define your element within the layout so that the alternate image is used you don t actually need to re enter all the WALTER if you don t want to change anything other than the image Just direct the element to use the WALTER you have already entered in your default like this set tcp solo tcp solo This also means that if you edit your default WALTER for that statement you don t need to remember to make the same edits within the alternate layouts Now two very important things about using subfolder images e Don t be silly and go mad with the resources Your REAPER theme does not exist so you can steal lots of your users resources with an endless array of images In fact with careful WALTER it is actually possible to make themes that are far more resource efficient than themes from V3 and earlier You may decide you want to do different background images for each and every layout perhaps so you can drop in little design details and just make new images for everything that appears at a different size rather than using the stretch capabilities you have the power to do all this but think twice before you do service your users not your own
32. ainder of the image uniformly which will probably look pretty awful So take care and make sure you set up the an element s image and its WALTER as a partnership For a more detailed explanation of pink lines read the Power of Pink document http stash reaper fm 4191 WT Power of Pink pdf e Yellow Lines If you have pre V4 theming experience you may have used the yellow lines facility on media item backgrounds where we used them to indicate which part of the image was the actual active area and which was border and or shadow that fell outside the active area This facility has been radically extended in V4 so that the yellow lines can be used on background images single state images not 3 state buttons to allow us to place graphic outside the boundaries of the active element in a very similar way to the technique we used to use with overlay hacking Imagine you have a background and in the image you have done some shading at the edges The part of your image that is the actual background is the inside bit not the exterior shading and we can use the yellow lines to make it behave accordingly Just like the pink lines the yellow lines are placed in a 1 pixel border that you add to the outside of the image Again this border is never drawn and the yellow lines extend from the top left and bottom right corners The yellow must be continuous lines of RGB 255 255 O at full opacity Just as with the pink you should take care to
33. all Elements can be made whatever size you like Make your bitmap button at the size that your design needs it to be and pop that into WALTER Elements other than the background panels themselves can be placed wherever you like within their panel When the user resizes the panel you can dictate how the elements will move stretch or disappear to make best use of the available space And if you have mastered the use of REAPER pink line stretch controls within your images you can combine this control of when and how the stretching occurs to make very flexible interface elements Panels can have numerous forms known as layouts which for the TCP and MCP the user can choose between for all tracks or on a track by track basis Each layout can have have its own images and WALTER Targeted workflow streamlining is yours for the giving Make sure you have seen studied and gasped in quiet awe at the full sdk information for WALTER which you will find here http www reaper fm sdk walter walter php If at any time you find a mismatch between this document and that one trust that one e Why Learn WALTER If the easy answer of It ll let you make things look really groovy isn t persuasive perhaps you need to look deeper at all the possibilities WALTER presents for REAPER s interface beyond shallow visual niceties Numerous user feature requests that would previously have required the attentions of the programming team can now be
34. alls under the pointer and they are able to judge relative levels from track to track for things like meters and faders However REAPER will by default always try to make use of any available space so varying levels of folder hierarchy will result in varying positions of left attached elements We can change that with WALTER tcp folderindent 13 set tcp margin folderdepth 1 13 0 0 0 set tcp margin maxfolderdepth 1 13 0 0 0 Line 1 For each hierarchy level all the panel elements are going to get pushed right by 13 pixels and that is the space that will be filled with the folder indent images Line 2 We ve got our folder indent images from statement 1 now statement 2 undoes the bit we didn t want all the element movement by pushing all the panel elements to the left by 13 pixels for each hierarchy level folderdepth multiplied by 13 Line 3 sums with Line 2 and now moves all the panel elements on each track no matter what its folder hierarchy level all the way right by enough to get clear of any and all folder indent images that being 13 pixels multiplied by the maximum folder hierarchy depth for the whole project E TCP Minimum Size Recall that one of the first things we looked at was tcp size set tcp size 258 72 and that its values were of crucial importance to you the themer but made no noticeable effect to the users of your theme Well if we wish we can complicate that by also setting a minimum size fo
35. anel so it does the proportional stretching 6 ay axis value we re not changing that so 0 as before The right edge is 1 because we want it to attach itself to the right edge of the panel 8 ay axis value we re not changing that so 1 as before N Here it is and stretched IN Bantam 25 Note that the gap to the bottom and right of the solo image are the padding gap we used to putin to get the button to line up with the track name I ve put a red rectangle over it all so you can see take a moment to celebrate that thanks to WALTER we won t be doing things like that any more e Edge Atachment what s really happening If you really want to know how your attachment numbers are affecting the reresulting position here is the calculation that is taking place in this case for the left edge left left pos width basewidth left edge attachment If that doesn t make complete sense to you don t worry E Scalar Values So far we ve mostly been dealing with coordinate lists which are a set a values inside square brackets that have a meaning based on their position When write 10 33 10 10 00 O 0 you know that the 33 value is the y position When we ve been doing maths we ve done it with each coordinate in one list being added multiplied by its counterpart coordinate in the other list x position to x postion y position to y position and so forth And that s been useful We ve also be
36. are you ll find that using square frames will be inefficient with empty space just padding it out Not a problem set your frame dimensions to perfectly enclose your knob and then directly instruct REAPER what the frame size is This is done with a pink line You ll find life easiest at this point if you already have an understanding of the basic use of pink lines on backgrounds and so forth See Pink Lines Yellow Lines WALTER on page 41 and the power of pink document Complete your stack at the dimensions you like then add a 1pixel border all the way around it Draw a continuous 1pixel wide pink line RGB 255 0 255 at full opacity from the top left hand pixel downwards till its level with the bottom of the first frame thereby defining the frame size And you re done The process is illustrated below with a very low frame number just for convenience knob stack First is the stack itself have indicated the individual frames which are 38x39 pixels each add the empty 1px border all the way around the outside indicated blue add my pink line in the top left down to be level with the bottom of the first frame And that s it you can download and inspect the full frame number version HERE WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 e Making an inactive border You ll notice in the example knob stack that there is an area where the knob never actually is its just where the shadow goes In situations like
37. ayouts txt you will see this at the beginning of the TCP section Lets put everything below that down to where the TCP Master section starts clear master tcp into our rtconfig clear tcp set tcp size 258 72 set tcp trackidx 1 3 20 16 000 0 set tcp foldercomp 2 3 20 20 0 0 0 0 meter recmon recmode row set tcp meter h gt 66 66 46 188 20 0 0 1 0 0 set tcp recmon h gt 66 24 47 20 20 0 0 O 0 0 WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 PE set tcp recmode h gt 66 44 47 20 20 O O O 0 0 vol pan labels rect vollabel rowl w gt 650 23 7 3613101 0 0 rect panlabel rowl w gt 650 62 7 3013101 0 0 set tcp volume label h lt 49 vollabel rowl w230 0 185 28 36131 0 1 0 set tcp pan label h lt 49 panlabel rowl w lt 230 0 225 28 30 13 1 01 0 pan fader rect pan rowl w gt 500 w gt 650 90 3 67 20 65 0 1 0 90 3 2 20 75 01 0 0 set tcp pan w lt 230 0 h lt 49 pan rowl 131 24 51 20 0 75 0 1 0 vol fader rect vol rowl w gt 330 w gt 500 85 3 5 20 0 25 0 75 0 85 3 7 20 0 25 01 0 0 rect vol rowl w gt 650 85 3 5 20 0 25 O 65 0 vol rowl set tcp volume h lt 49 vol rowl w230 22 24 233 20 0 0 1 0 22 24 109 20 0 0 0 75 0 track name label rect label small w lt 100 26 3 226 15 O O1 0 26 3 18215001 0 rect label 2row w230 label small 26 3 68 15 0 0 1 0 set tcp label h gt 49 label 2row w lt 330 label 2row 26 3 38 15 0 0 25 0 recarm button set tcp recarm h lt 49 w
38. cmode recarm 0 set tcp recmon recarm 0 set tcp fxparm 4 46 250 24001 1 EndLayout Layout Vertical Meters thinner set tcp margin recarm tcp margin 0 0 4 0 set tcp meter recarm 253 2 8 66101 1 set tcp recmode recarm 0 set tcp recmon recarm 0 set tcp fxparm 4 46 250 24001 1 EndLayout Layout No folder indent set tcp margin tcp margin 22 0 0 0 folderdepth EndLayout Layout All folder indent set tcp margin tcp margin 22 0 0 0 folderdepth set tcp margin tcp margin 22 0 O 0 maxfolderdepth EndLayout EndLayout default tcp w walter Layout Default Master TCP w WALTER clear master tcp set master set master set master set master set master set master set master set master set master set master set master set master set master set master set master EndLayout tcp size 258 70 tcp meter 66 3 188 20 0 0 1 0 tcp volume w gt 230 0 26 131 20 0 0 0 75 0 0 26 255 20001 0 tcp pan w230 0 131 26 51 20 0 75 0 1 0 tcp label 3 3 63 20 0 0 0 0 tcp io w138 0 118 47 20 20101 0 tcp env w lt 118 0 138 47 20 201 01 0 tcp fx 158 47 20 201 01 0 tcp fxbyp 178 47 14 20101 0 tcp mono 192 47 20 201 01 0 tcp mute 212 47 20 201 01 0 tcp solo 232 47 20 201 01 0 tcp volume label w lt 230 0 185 31 3613101 0 tcp pan label w lt 230 0 225 31 30 13101 0 tcp fxparm 4 78 250 10 0011 default master tcp w
39. dth and REAPER automatic show hide logic depending on height This is the mode you will be used to from pre V4 1 Full manual WALTERing of the position size and edge attachment Mode 0 Mode 1 Above the MCP Anywhere within t panel with the MCP panel automatic resizing with WALTER d logic resizing logic a extmixer filled with a panel filled with mcp extmixbg png mcp bg png e If you choose mode 0 you are now finished with the extmixer REAPER will take care of everything If you choose mode 1 you need to now provide a new statement where you manually declare the WALTER set mcp extmixer position 73 65 70 225 0 0 0 1 Theareais then automatically populated by REAPER with the fx list fx parameter and send blocks as the user creates them The width of these elements is taken from the width of the area you defined and their height is taken from the row height of their text for more see Modifying Extended Mixer element heights using the font statements on page 25 e Force hiding the Extended Mixer If for example your MCP panel is very narrow you may find that REAPER doesn t populate it with controls in any meaningful way and that you d rather just hide the whole thing No problem just put it in mode 1 and tell it not to draw set mcp extmixer mode 1 set mcp extmixer position 0 TCP Parameter knobs The TCP track control panel parameter knobs appear in an automatically populated area withi
40. duction WALTER is a powerful enhancement of REAPER s theming facilities and the means by which advanced editing can be performed on some sections of REAPER s interface By mastering the use of WALTER you will have far more freedom and power over not only how your theme looks but also how REAPER interacts with the user and their workflow while they are using your theme Carefully used WALTER will also allow you to minimise the load your theme places on the user s computer by wise and selective use of your graphic resources WALTER is entirely optional REAPER has the same default behaviours it always has WALTER simply overrides these when instructed to Old themes will still work and you can still make new themes without using WALTER Do not be frightened of WALTER even if you were to do something really really stupid the worst thing that would happen is that you would break your own theme WALTER can currently be used to affect the following areas The transport bar The TCP track control panel tracks and Master track The TCP EnvCPs envelope control panels The MCP mixer control panel tracks and Master track The possibilities for creative interface design are truly exciting here s a brief overview of some of the basics that you can do with REAPER buttons faders text almost all the interface elements Elements can be removed Entirely or selectively If you decide your theme isn t going to have a phase button its your c
41. e area that REAPER automatically populates with all the meter elements and this is the area your bg image will cover There are two sets of background images you can choose to use whichever one makes sense in your design or you can use both 1 Location Backgrounds meter_bg_tcp meter_bg_mcp meter_bg_mcp_master If you provide these images REAPER will use the appropriate bg for its named panel So whether your meter is horiontal or vertical the TCP will always use meter_bg_tcp if you have provided it Note that with these backgrounds you can use yellow lines to push the bg outside the WALTER d area for example to create a border For more on yellow lines see Pink Lines Yellow Lines WALTER on page 41 2 Aspect Backgrounds meter_bg_v meter_bg_h The meter that is shown at any time is determined by its aspect so a tall thin meter will appear as a vertical meter while a short wide meter will appear as a horizontal meter If you provide these background images the corresponding background image for the current aspect of the meter will be used Note that these images are drawn over the location backgrounds z ordered in front and do not support yellow lines You might use both sets of backgrounds if your design requires you to have a panel specific detail in a yellow line border area of the meter but also need the area behind the meter strips and in the divisions to change when you WALTER an aspect change from horizontal t
42. e for the panel which will be the outer dimensions of the mockup and all the locations for your elements which will be measured from the top left corner of the mockup Tr Track Name 1 center AA 319px Next and this is the important bit you make a copy of that plan for when things have changed Ifyou decide that when the height is low some buttons will disappear and other buttons will move into their place do that on the plan Move those buttons But the overall size of the mockup stays the same because it is the reference size WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 For example in a low height MCP situation you ll end up with your mockup having the top edge attached elements pushed to the top bottom edge attached elements pushed to the bottom and full stretching elements like faders running across a big gap Your mockup will no longer look like what you see in REAPER that big mockup gap will not be there in REAPER because that is the bit that has been squashed out So measuring things from REAPER won t be very helpful only the mockup will allow accurate measurement You re glad you have it now right E Formatting for readability When you are writing your WALTER there are some things you can do to make it all a bit less visually confusing e WALTER ignores tabs and empty lines so you shouldn t You can make good use of your tab and return keys to make your WALTER more readable particularly
43. e input selector box x First value is the colour of the fill with alpha y Second value is the colour of the border with alpha e Meter Overlays The meters can optionally have an overlay image which is a semi transparent image that is placed over all the other elements of the meter These can use pink lines and are your WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 means for all manner of glass glow mask effects you may wish to use The overlay image that is chosen in each circumstance is chosen by REAPER in the same way as the choice of meter background image so make sure you have read and understood their instructions see Meter Backgrounds on page 30 and perhaps experimented with them Note that all these overlays are special meter elements not standard ol overlays so they ignore the use overlays rtconfig switch 1 Location Overlays meter ol mcp meter ol tcp meter ol mcp master REAPER will draw one of these images if provided according to the same criteria as its use of the location backgrounds and like them can also use yellow lines to extend outside the meter area 2 Aspect Overlays meter ol v meter ol h REAPER will draw one of these images if provided according to the same criteria as its use of the aspect backgrounds They are limited to the meter area e Meters and z order with non meter elements No doubt you will have enjoyed using the front command to tweak the z order of
44. e not supported Leave out the strip images if you want to set colours in ReaperTheme code which also allows your users to change them in the theme editor When REAPER auto populates your meter strips it needs to divide the area you have defined by the number of track channels the user has set and place a border between each strip This could result in a non integer number of pixels so REAPER needs to do some tweaking to fit the strips to the space Use WALTER to indicate how you d prefer this to be done and REAPER will attempt to follow your preference when it can set panel name gt meter vu div x y x First value is the division you prefer between channels in pixels y Second value is the flag for the channel spacing logic you want used in situations where REAPER needs to finesse the widths of the divisions and or strips to make things fit Flag Channel Spacing Logic 0 Put all make up space in the middle of the meter 1 Center the channels 1 Even sizes amp divisions may result in an offset 2 Uneven sizes will stretch some channels to fill gaps e Clip Indicators The clip indicators will use images if you provide them They are auto populated into the meter taking a proportion of the meter width height that is decided by REAPER The images which can use pink lines should be formatted like this meter_clip_h unlit frame on the left with the lit frame on the right meter clip v unlit frame on top with
45. ecomes very small Yes these people really do exist though how they manage to get the correct shoe on the correct foot will alas remain a mystery mcp min height 230 mcp min height is used to set this height in pixels If your extended mixer is in mode 0 the height is shared with the extended mixer Because it is not WALTER you cannot set a different mcp_min_height for each Layout which if you think about it makes sense to a degree because MCP layouts need to coexist What s a layout you re wondering Glad you asked E Layouts Multiple layouts can be defined for the TCP TCP Master MCP and MCP Master A layout can completely redefine the entire WALTER for a panel or just tweak one element its up to you When you set an element within a layout the layout is automatically added as an entry to the global and per track layout menus that contain that element So for example if you add a set mcp solo statement the layout becomes available in the MCP layout submenus If you then add a set tcp mute statement the layout also becomes available in the TCP layout submenus Layouts should be used as alterations of your default WALTER So define your defaults first then add a layout underneath like this Layout Layout Name insert WALTER here EndLayout Now any WALTER you put in the middle will override your default WALTER when the user chooses that layout Position size edge attachment margins colour you name
46. ed so you can change or arrange your WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 design depending on what pan mode the user has chosen The flags for trackpanmode are Flag Selected pan mode 1 2 0r3 Default stereo balance mono pan 4or5 Stereo pan pan amp width 6 Dual Pan Pan Left 8 Pan Right So we can use that variable within our WALTER however we choose Here use it to make the solo button appear only if the Stereo Pan mode is chosen set tcp solo trackpanmode 5 10 10 10 10 0 0 O 0 0 though of course most of the time you ll be using it to make changes in the pan control elements such as tcp pan e Hiding the redundant Width control If you only WALTER the default single pan control REAPER will help you out by squeezing two controls into the space of one when the user asks for them and you probably won t like how that looks You can override this behaviour by manually declaring and then hiding the width control when it is redundant because the default mode is chosen set tcp width trackpanmode gt 4 6 86 18 18 0 0 0 0 0 In dual pan mode the pan control acts as the Pan L control put it on the left if its a knob and the width control acts as the Pan R control Have another look at the section on Colours on page 23 to find out how to set the zero line colour and knob line colour e Trick Combined arts There are three forms these controls can take big knob small knob fader and
47. en a track is not in a folder So if you wanted to make a button double in size when a track is in a folder you could do this set mcp solo folderstate 0 0 10 10 O O 0 0020200000 which is the same as set mcp solo folderstate 0 0 20 20 O O 0 001010000 0 e AND The AND operator is 8t it can be used to effect change when two operands are the same For example set fish w300 1 0 set chips h lt 100 1 0 set tcp solo fish 0 amp chips 0 0 0 40 40 0 O O 0 001010000 0 Will use the smaller button size when width is less than 300 and height is less than 100 If either width or height are above those values the big button will be used Note that the AND operator is bitwise meaning the AND is performed on corresponding bits So the above still works if the values are changed to set fish w300 21 0 set chips h lt 100 31 0 set tcp solo fish 0 amp chips 0 0 0 10 10 0 O 0 0 0 0 20 20000 0 because 21 and 31 have a match in corresponding bits the 1 Again please please remember that the operands the things you are comparing must be either a constant value or a scalar value Shall say it again E Always Comparisons As explained if you do not provide sufficient information for WALTER to know what do in in all circumstances Reaper will fall back to its defaults If you inspect some of the secondary layouts of the default layouts txt see Appendix 3 default_layou
48. en using w and h the width and height of a panel to do some comparisons Those are scalar values scalar meaning they could be represented on a scale they are a single value see Appendix 2 Predefined Variables on page 46 for other such scalar values that REAPER passes to WALTER Now we re going to look at breaking the barrier between the two data types by extracting scalar values from coordinate lists or putting them into coordinate lists Let me start by trying to convince you why you should bother with any of this consider this solo button set tcp solo h lt 10 10 40 10 10 h lt 20 10 50 10 10 10 60 10 10 and suppose we want to hide the mute button if the solo has a y position of over 49 Well its pretty simple walter so we could just type it in without much hardship based on the same conditions that are determining the solo s width set tcp solo h lt 10 10 40 10 10 h lt 20 10 50 10 10 10 60 10 10 set tcp mute h lt 10 0 h lt 20 10 62 10 10 That s going to get it done and as long as we remember that if we edit the solo button s WALTER we ll need to edit the mute as well But what if the solo WALTER was really really complex We could still do it but we d need to mirror that solo complexity on the mute statement even though the mute s behaviour is actually very simple What we want is to cut straight to the point and grab the solo button s y value and use it in a comparison if the tcp solo s y positio
49. er That statement is all very good and will function perfectly as far as WALTER is concerned Its slight downside is the squishy human being bit that would be us particularly when this statement becomes one in a huge list of lines of code since the n lt a0 is in the middle of the line Imagine you wanted to go through and change these critical panel sizes at which the changes happen it would be handy to have them all in the same place Not a problem Since the ns4o is the false reply to the first question w230 lets reword WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 the first question so h lt 40 becomes the true reply by changing it from w lt 230 to w gt 230 set tcp solo w gt 230 h lt 40 10 3 10 10 0 0 O 0 10 3 40 40 0 O O 0 10 3 20 20 0 O 0 0 Notice that the first question if yes asks the second question If no it skips the second question and both its answers heading for the final reply And it looks a bit nicer e Multiple Nesting First let me take a moment to introduce this wonderful chap which means don t draw it 0 as we ve seen if you don t give WALTER any values it won t draw the element but sometimes its useful to directly state don t draw it for example if an answer needs to be given so WALTER has something to skip when looking for a later answer It can also make it easier to come back to your statement later and read what s going on Use it OK onwards lets recap on ho
50. erence panel Its entirely up to you to decide what it will be and from the user s perspective it probably won t matter what you put here because they can stretch it as they like However for you it is VERY important because you will be scaling element sizes positions based on this reference size For example if you want an element to sit at 100 pixels in from the right edge of the TCP because we measure distances from the top left of the panel you ll need to look at your reference size lets say you set that at 300 x100 to work out that the x location of your button needs to be 200 If you then set the element s edge attachment to stick to the right edge of the panel as it resizes we ll cover that later that element will always appear 100px from the right edge no matter how wide the user stretches the panel WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Just like tcp size the MCP and transport bar have their reference sizes mcp size and trans set tcp volume h lt 49 vol rowl w230 22 24 233 20 0 0 1 0 22 24 109 20 0 0 0 75 size which are just as important Moreover because the MCP panels do not stretch hori 0 ontally the second width value you set will be the fixed width of the panel See Have a plan and a well chosen panel size on page 39 track name label rect label small w100 26 3 226 15 001 0 26 3 18215001 0 For now lets just remember that tcp size is important and leave it as it is rect label 2row w lt 2
51. experimentation Play with location size stretching relative positioning inherited variables any aspect of WALTER that you feel you re not understanding fully Doing it this way frees you from confusion caused by any transparent borders stretched element distortion contrast loss or indistinct image edges so you really are just seeing the raw element rectangle that WALTER is drawing Get your clever WALTER trick right this way and then replace your ugly blocks with the real images A good proportion of WALTER problems people have asked me about would be clear to them without anyone s help if they had worked their WALTER in ugly colour blocks first Trust me and try it E Have a plan and a well chosen panel size You will recall the talk of tcp size and its importance This reference size has equivalent definitions on the the other panels mcp size trans size and choosing this size well and having a good reason for the numbers you choose is critical for maintaining clarity under standing and predictability as you write your WALTER If you ignore any of the the other bits of advice I ve given fine but don t ignore this one Have A Plan The easiest way to plan your panel is to do a graphic mockup of how your panel should look at a size where all the elements are visible Make sure everything fits and that you haven t missed out any elements you might decide to add later From the mockup you can then measure your reference siz
52. f your statement you are telling WALTER that you are now providing the values of that element and that it should ignore the defaults and prepare to overwrite any previous statements where you may have set it However if you are happy with most of the result but want to change for example the width and bottom edge attachment then you can put in a placeholder value which tells WALTER to inherit some of the previously declared values set mcp meter 60 0 This is particularly useful when you want to make a simple conditional alteration to some values that are the result of a giant complex line of WALTER by setting the statement a second time and judiciously using the placeholder within it For more on multi statement WALTER strategy see Single Statement or Multiple Statement on page 40 E Z order There may be times when you want to make elements overlap each other particularly when you start playing with yellow lines see Pink Lines Yellow Lines WALTER on page 41 and it is likely you will run into trouble with REAPER s default z order where the element you want in front of another element is actually being drawn behind it This is solved using the front command front mcp width label mcp pan label mcp recmon The elements you list in your front statement will be drawn in front of any and all other elements except the meters and the first element you list will be drawn in front of the second e
53. four Os off since they are redundant We can now roll that into the tcp solo statement set tcp solo button border button size 3011000 0 Just for clarity lets read that as WALTER does First thing it sees is that we re setting the tcp solo Next it sees that we re going to do a sum so it looks for the first value to sum and finds the variable button border Then it looks for the second value to sum and finds that it is itself a calculation this time a multiplication The first value it sees to be multiplied is the variable button size the second value is the 3 01100 0 0 We ve already got the border size enlarging when the TCP height goes above 40px lets puta similar conditional on our new button size variable so the buttons get ugly big at the same time set button size h gt 40 30 30 30 30 20 20 20 20 So repeat the solo button s strategy for the other three buttons and the whole section for these four buttons should look like this set button border h gt 40 12 12 3 3 set button size h gt 40 30 30 30 30 20 20 20 20 set tcp fx button border button size 0011000 0 set tcp phase button border button size 1011000 0 set tcp mute button border button size 201100 0 0 set tcp solo button border button size 301100 0 0 Here it is Notice that we could now do a couple of easy things to make big changes easily Me could easily change all our button s sizes We could move an
54. h ls ts rs bs Maybe typing bs makes you laugh too much no need to apologise its your call Use the numbers instead 01234567 SO ll co tcp solo 0 ll A o tcp solo 3 ll m tcp solo 5 WALTER doesn t care you can even mix methods up if you have a penchant for confusing yourself e Putting a Scalar Value inside a Coordinate List So far we have used scalar values in conditions for things like comparisons But you can also simply drop a scalar value directly into a coordinate list like this set tcp mute tcp solo y 12 20 40 O 1 0 1 Provided that you ve already declared tcp solo elsewhere its y position value whatever it might be at any given height width etc will be used as the x position value for the mute Which would probably be a bit awful but you can do it if you want to There is also a simplification to this rule in that you don t need to declare the scalar value s index if it is the same index position where you are using it Let me explain using the handy example of where you want to elements to have the same edge attachment set tcp solo 8 12 20 40 01 0 1 set tcp mute 8 32 20 40 tcp solo ls tcp solo ts tcp solo rs tcp solo bs in this example all four of those scalar values are in the same place as the index Is ts etc they are referencing On such occasions you can leave the index out and just write it like this set tcp mute 8 32 20 40 tcp solo tcp solo tcp
55. h this statement Second statement Oh its tcp solo again let me see if its valid Its a question Is the track armed Yes it is I ll go through these height and width questions and act accordingly and since this second statement was valid I ll use its result instead of the first statements result Now the clever bit what happens if the track is NOT record armed We ve taken advantage of the WALTER rule that if there is no answer do nothing Here s what WALTER is thinking Starting on the first statement OK I m doing the tcp solo I ll go through these height and width questions and act accordingly and I m finished with this statement Second statement Oh its tcp solo again let me see if its valid Its a question Is the track armed No it isn t And there isn t a no answer to the recarm question on this statement so the statement isn t valid I m going to ignore the entire second statement and use the first statements result The choice to go single statement or multiple statement is yours each method has its own advantages and disadvantages in term of human reading clarity but either way is fine for WALTER e Second Statement amendment Imagine we had set our TCP solo on one statement and we were happy with it All we want is to move it 20px to the right when the track is record armed We could do this set tcp solo recarm 20 big line of stuff big line of stuff which is tiresome because if we needed
56. if you re making a long sprawling rtconfig filled with lots of layouts Because they have no function within WALTER this is all for the benefit of your future self Here s the first row stuff set tcp trackidx one set tcp trackidx margin two set tcp ttrackidx font three set tcp ttrackidx color four set tcp label five set tcp label color six e Split statement into multiple lines with backslash You can use backslash at the end of a statement line to tell WALTER that you re not finished and will be continuing that statement on the following line At the penalty of making a busy rtconfig into quite the scroll fest this can yield huge rewards in the human readability of complex nested statements Consider the following example its a single statement of tcp solo By using multiple lines its much easier to decipher at a later date we start with a recarm question The two answers both start with a height question and for each of their answers there is a width question its quite the rats nest But if you are looking for the settings for a record armed track who s height is greater than 50px and width is less than 100px its easy to jump to the correct answer which is three set tcp solo recarm h lt 50 w lt 100 one two w lt 100 three four h lt 50 w lt 100 five six w lt 100 seven eight AAA E Single Statement or Multiple Statement Its very pleasing to get all your WALTER for an
57. it If you can WALTER it you can change it with a layout You can organise your WALTER so that your layouts are laid out by section or you can define your entire default WALTER first and then put your layouts underneath It really doesn t matter as long as you define you defaults first So set default MCP stuff Layout my awesome layout set layout s MCP stuff EndLayout set default TCP stuff Layout my awesome layout set layout s TCP stuff EndLayout 1s the same as set default MCP stuff set default TCP stuff Layout my awesome layout set layout s MCP stuff set layout s TCP stuff EndLayout WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Remember that layouts are an alteration of the default layout so any element that you do not define in your layout will just stay how it is in your default So for example a layout that just contains a single WALTER statement telling the mcp mute to be one pixel smaller than it is in your default will look and behave exactly like your default but with a 1px smaller mute button On the other hand you could go as far as to redefine every single element in your new layout The choice is yours E Layouts and Images When you define a layout you can also tell it to use its own images by pointing to a subfolder within your theme folder where you have placed some alternate images Like this Layout my awesome layout awesome_images some WA
58. ithin the Reap erTheme theme editor where you will find eight WALTER font entries These are provided so you can set your font settings there and then link to them from within WALTER or you can link to use the font selected in the Track title font or Volume pan label font entries set tcp trackidx font x the possible values for x are Identifier Font entry used 1 8 WALTER font entries 1 8 0 Track title font entry 1 Volume pan label font entry Note that since they are full WALTER statements you can flip between your font entries based on layers and conditionals for example changing between a number of settings of the same font at different sizes its not just about using a multitude of fonts at once Remember that your users will need to have any fonts you select installed on their system You can of course direct them to download and install the required fonts but suggest you don t have too high an expectation that many of them will actually do so plan accordingly e Modifying Extended Mixer element heights using the font statements The extended mixer is auto populated so you don t have any direct control about the vertical size of elements within it including the individual fx list fx parameter or send blocks However those three elements take their size from the row height of their text fields one for the fxlists and sends two for the fx parameters and you can WALTER each of WALT
59. its the big solo button We can actually embrace that by making big solo button mean to WALTER those values set big solo button 10 3 40 40 0 0 0 0 We have set a variable Now whenever we would have previously written out those values we can just write the variable name set tcp solo w gt 230 h lt 40 10 3 10 10 00 O 0 big solo button It makes a lot of sense to name your variables something meaningful it will make your code so much easier to read when you come back to it But you don t have to you can name things whatever you like To avoid confusing your variables with the predefined ones and as a matter of etiquette don t use characters in your variable names so instead of naming it my variable name it something else perhaps my variable Let us imagine it would amuse me to take our huge multiple nested tcp solo statement from earlier and make it more compact and readable while simultaneously patronising all the Swedes on the theme team Can we achieve both these goals Yes we can set bjorn 10 3 10 10 0 0 O 0 set benny 10 3 40 40 0 0 0 0 set frida 0 set agnetha 10 3 20 20 0 0 O 0 WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 set tcp solo w gt 230 h lt 40 bjorn benny h lt 40 frida agnetha Mission accomplished But we don t have to stop there because when we set a variable it can itself be a statement and contain variables itself If we make this statement set abba w gt 230 h
60. keep that colour pure There is one desperately important rule to always keep in mind when using WALTER on images with yellow lines WALTER sets the size and location of the active area So the parts you set within yellow lines are NOT included they extend outside the prescribed area that you WALTER WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 e Combined Yellow Lines and Pink Lines mr Here s the mcp io png image that is Pink Line Crushed with WALTER The white area is a 15px high chunk that have set up my pink lines to say is allowable for stretching If I crush that section to Opx high its gone If tell WALTER to draw the element at 31px high these are the parts of the image that will be drawn its the full thing Yellow lines and pink lines can coexist in the same 1px border on background _bg images indeed if you have Yellow lines you must also have at least 1px of pink line extending beyond the yellow Yellow lines are implicity Pink Lines as well since the yellow area never stretches so from a graphic point of view you can think of that as being the pink lines running underneath the yellow lines if you like But when for example the panel height is low I can tell WALTER to draw the element 15px shorter as 16px high and the entire stretch area is crushed to nothing BAD This does mean must be rigorous with my WALTER to ensure that the element is only ever drawn at exactly 31px or 16px
61. le in a text editor and looking for the ui_img statement Inside the theme s resources folder you will find the rtconfig txt file If the theme has a ReaperThemeZip extension you ll need to unpack it A ReaperThemeZip file is nothing more than a standard Zip file with its extension changed you could even tell your OS to treat it as such that you can unpack in the usual way e Standard Statements and WALTER Statements An rtconfig file contains two different types of statement Standard Statements and WALTER Statements If you have done pre V4 theming it may help you to regard the difference as historical because all the old rtconfig statements that you are used to like use_overlays and tcp_vol_zeroline etc are standard statements which is correct but there are also some useful new standard statements to weave in with your WALTER Most themes that you might pick apart follow the convention of putting most or all of the standard statements at the top of the file with the WALTER below This is not strictly speaking necessary but is advisable because of their most crucial property no matter where they are in your rtconfig Standard Statements are global Set them once and you re done for your entire theme WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Standard Element WALTER Element Which Statement is a single simple Statement starts with a WALTER entry without a starting command such as set clear
62. lement which will be drawn in front of the third element and so on The meters however are special Don t bother trying to front over them because they aren t in the same image composition stack they refresh at a higher rate to better follow the audio so are always in front of everything else WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 E Colours REAPER theming isn t just about images there are also those important code colours for Part 3 elements that REAPER draws itself such as background areas indicator lines and text You set these as we always have in the reapertheme but now you can also use WALTER to override those colours as and when you may wish to WALTER allows you far finer control of exactly which elements receive the colour rather then many elements sharing a single colour and you can also change elements colours dynamically with conditions and layouts The majority of elements are the rectangle based images The full rundown of which colours WALTER can define is in the sdk As you look through we ve seen so far But WALTER also has control over other the sdk you ll notice that there are some elements with a color ending which need to be elements that have extended or unique functionality either a single or double depending on the element block of four numbers defining the RGB value of the colour and its alpha transparency The number are in the 0 255 range and should be laid out as
63. levels when the Midi Editor is set to Color Velocity note that both the note and its border can change colour 2 Make the gradient 64px high the border 1px high placed directly underneath as velocity changes soft hard 3 Now add below that the same elements but for selected note at velocity 0 and its border the 16 midi channels for when the Midi Editor is set to Color Channel 6 Make 17 new versions of the elements each just 1px wide These are mute followed by 4 Take all of that and make the whole lot 128px wide representing the 128 levels of velocity at each velocity level a single pixel column is used to provide the colour information of the note WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Finished Your final image should be 157 x 130 px Save it without transparency as midi note colourmap png 7 Put these to the right of the velocity elements 8 Do 12 more 1px versions this time for the 12 notes when the Midi Editor is set to Color Pitch and put these to the left of the other elements WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Symbols KAPE 21 EMP AA AE AA 21 AN ANA ER 21 sobs wala No ATA an God 22 LF de kabanalan Ph AG dye ee 18 Pe We a Ap Aue BAN oases Aue bv Ae Asean aude 15 Niece ge ay ae site AL ts aaa 40 SP Gide a a a SAE da Spas Bove AU Hae 14 Sigua Alvan TS AO 11 A E 20 SS te eee eee ae AA 20 Sd Go aoe A ee AA 13 PAPA AA tees 20 VO aa anag ROR a
64. lt 40 bjorn benny h lt 40 frida agnetha then we can change the last statement to set tcp solo abba E Summing Doing your layout as straight defined values will get you a long way but sooner or later you ll be wanting to do some calculations In some of the previous examples I ve been putting a 3px border in various places but lets imagine wanted to change that border based on a conditional e g make it bigger as more space becomes available as the panel grows Hopefully you can think of a way to do that I d type in all my values for all of my buttons at various values of h and w But we d be looking at some big code just to enact something that is conceptually very simple and any tweaks would become a desperately laborious task So we want to be a bit smarter Lets bring in some buttons set tcp fx 3 3 20 20 0 0 0 0 set tcp phase 23 3 20 20 0 0 0 0 set tcp mute 43 3 20 20 0 O 0 0 set tcp solo 63 3 20 20000 0 Look at all those 3s What we can do is sum those 3s in the statement instead of putting them in as values The syntax for summing is set output vall val2 The numbers will be added by location so what we do is this set tcp fx 3 3000000 0 0 2020000 0 so a 3 in the location fields is getting added on This isn t the only place we re going to want to add on those 3s so lets define it as a variable set button border 3 300000 0 now we have set that let s put it into all four buttons
65. lue to find out 6 top edge nothing special zero it 7 right edge attachment this mute button itself doesn t stretch so its right edge wants to do the same thing as its left edge so grab the solo s right edge attachment again 8 bottom edge yeah fine zero 9 3 YN e Profit Now the mute button is behaving as want it could now add more buttons using the same values offset by width each time and thereby put together a whole group of controls that are all consistently placed relative to the solo s right edge and no matter how complex my solo WALTER might get it would all remain easily editable E Other Comparison Operators So far we have been using x and 5 in our comparisons and in day to day WALTER writing they will most likely be your most common operators But there are others and you will find them to be extremely useful gt lt Greater than or equal to less than or equal to Equal to WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Not equal to Use these exactly as you have been using c and 5 Just remember that the operands the things you are comparing must be either a constant value or a scalar value see Scalar Values on page 18 e Zero and Nonzero There are specific operators for a value being zero or nonzero is Zero is not zero when they are placed in front of the operand value For example the scalar value fold erstate returns a value of zero wh
66. mp M Show theme helper selected track When you select a track and press your new button you will get a readout of the current height and width of that track s panels on both the TCP and MCP Hurrah The display will not update as you resize the panels but just hit the button or a shortcut again and it will refresh with the new sizes WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 E Appendix 1 Common 4 numbers cheat sheet Appendices Here be stuff WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 E Appendix 2 Predefined Variables w width of parent pixels h height of parent pixels reaper_version REAPER version example 414 folderstate folder state of track if applicable 0 for normal 1 for folder n for last track in folder s folderdepth positive if in a folder how many folders deep maxfolderdepth highest folder depth of any visible TCP track mcp maxfolderdepth highest folder depth of any visible MCP track recarm nonzero if track record armed trackpanmode 6 if the user has chosen dual pan mode and 4 or 5 for stereo pan 1 3 for single pan balance tcp_iconsize size of track panel icon column if any tracknch number of track channels 2 64 mcp_iconsize size of mixer icon row if any mcp_wantextmix flags indicating which extended mixer settings are desired amp 1 for inserts amp 2 for sends amp 4 for fx parms tcp_fxparms number of fx parameter knobs the user has assigned for
67. n this would be the height of the button e left edge attachment a 1 here would attach the left edge of the element to the RIGHT edge of the TCP 0 attaches the left edge of the element to the LEFT edge of the TCP f top edge attachment a 1 here would attach the top edge of the element to the BOTTOM edge of the TCP 0 attaches the top edge of the element to the top edge of the TCP g right edge attachment a 1 here would attach the right edge of the element to the RIGHT edge of the TCP 0 attaches the right edge of the element to the LEFT edge of the TCP h bottom edge attachment a 1 here would attach the bottom edge of the element to the BOTTOM edge of the TCP 0 attaches the bottom edge of the element to the top edge of the TCP an WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 ce The behaviours of the edge attachment values are tricky and take some getting used to Things get even more complicated when you put numbers between 0 and 1 here e g 0 5 which tell the element to semi attach and stretch as the TCP is stretched This will be covered in more detail later for now leave them all as zeroes and we ll work with the position and size values so lets go back to our TCP solo button and its values set tcp solo 10 3 20 2000 0 0 This says draw the top left corner of the solo button 10 pixels in from the left edge of the TCP and 3 pixels down from the top Its size is 20 pixels x 20 pixels and
68. n is over 49 hide the mute Well we can do it like this set tcp mute tcp solo y gt 49 0 10 62 10 10 WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 Now no matter how fancy we get with the solo the mute will always follow that simple rule What we ve done is extracted a scalar value from the coordinate list to use in a comparison in the same way we ve previously been using scalar values like height Lets take a closer look at this bit tcp solo y 549 What that is saying to WALTER is Look at the result of the tcp solo statement I ve previously declared For the current conditions height width whatever what is the y position value OK is that greater than 49px As you can probably tell this is a significant win not only because you don t have to do so much typing now but also when you come back to your WALTER at a later date you ll have a much easier time figuring out what s going on e How to grab each coordinate We ve just taken the y position and used it as a scalar value by the use of y The curly brackets designate that its a scalar value and the y says to use the y position value Here s the full list x y wh ls ts rs bs So for example if we ve made the coordinate list set tcp solo 8 12 20 40 01 01 then tcp solo x 8 tcp solo h 40 tcp solo ts 1 Alternatively for no particular reason other than you might prefer it you can use the coordinate list position index instead of x y w
69. n the TCP panel that you manually WALTER set tcp fxparm 179 36 176 26 0 0 5 1 0 5 You will likely find that setting a huge area for as many parameter knobs as could possibly fit looks very messy and overpowering For this reason a predefined variable tcp fxparms is available so you can adjust your WALTER based on how many Parameter knobs the user has actually created if any set tcp recinput tcp fxparms gt 0 0 10 60 200 12 0 0 1 0 Its up to you to decide whether to always show at least one knob so the user can click an empty knob to create a new parameter knob or to hide the area until the user has created the knob another way e g in the FX window or on the MCP WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 ATCP Parameter knob is a fixed size element Each knob including its text areas is 70x24 pixels E Text Elements This section contains green highlighted Standard State ments see Standard Statements and WALTER Statements on page 5 The text elements that you can format with WALTER can be recognised by ending label in the UI Elements section of the sdk For example if we define the MCP label set mcp label 0 19 73 18 0 0 0 0 then that will place the background image mcp namebg png according to those values The text that goes over it your MCP track name will sit inside an invisible text box with those same coordinates But that s unlikely to be ideal you ll probably want to
70. nd right edges of the TCP panel you ll see your solo button happily sticking to those edges Lets have a look at the measurement numbers I ve used here because they should clarify the comments made before in TCP size on page 7 The most important thing to realise is that we are still measuring location from the top left corner even though the button is in the bottom right and these measurements are made relative to the TCP panel s set tcp size values measured if it was at this size The tcp size is 258x72 wanted a 3px border and the button is 20px square so my numbers were x axis 258 3 the border 20 width of the button 235 y axis 72 3 the border 20 height of the button 49 To conclude you should now be able to stretch in either axis or attach to either corner by using a combination of these settings we have looked at Try out 1 0 1 0 and 00 1 0 Then if its making sense here s an experiment try putting 1 1 0 0 in for the giant meter Resize the TCP till you can see it as you will notice this isn t a setting you re ever likely to use Make sure you understand why it s doing that E Proportional Stretching We ve done no stretching e g 0000 and full stretching e g 001 1 now lets stretch things a little bit This is extremely useful because you can for example make 2 elements occupy a shared area which they proportionally fill so as the panel size is increased they will both grow
71. ng that anyone knows the full range of neat things that can be done with WALTER Its gloriously open ended and therefore a tool for creativity and innovation I m not going to extend this document into a step by step guide tutorial for achieving each and every result you might wish for because 1 have a thousand theme ideas of my own want to go and work on 2 Such a document would be almost infinitely long 3 That would divert you from the point you won t get far with WALTER by learning how to do things You need to learn how WALTER works It is then that you can be creative with it know its tempting to be goal oriented and ask as many questions as you need to achieve the results you want in the theme you are working on And that s fair But please try to experiment instead WALTER is simpler than it looks The answers you seek can all be found by experimentation and if you ve seen a theme where someones is doing what you want take it apart and see how it works Dissecting someone else s WALTER isn t always easy but its the greatest resource available E Working in ugly colour blocks STRONGLY recommend you do your experimentation with blocks of bold ugly colours Make a button or other element that is a bright red square with no borders and another that is bright green Maybe make them 50 opacity so you can see when they overlap Make an empty panel with WALTER and drop these two in and you have a perfect test bed for
72. nimum sizes and therefore cropping is occurring These images are automatically stretched to fill the entire cropping edge E TCP Heights This section contains green highlighted Standard State ments see Standard Statements and WALTER Statements on page 5 The tcp heights gives you control over the height your TCP track takes in various circum stances tcp heightsabcd The four values are a Supercollapsed the height of any track that is inside a folder when the foldercomp WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 button has been pressed twice b Collapsed the height of any track that is inside a folder when the foldercomp button has been pressed once c Small one size above minimum size when doing cntrl shift up d Recarm height of a record armed track recommend that you follow the convention of these settings ascending in size to avoid unexpected behaviour when using the TCP s cntrl mousewheel resizing functionality For the recarm height to be functional you and your users must have always show full track control panel on armed tracks ticked in Options gt Preferences gt Audio gt Recording E MCP Minimum Height You can set a minimum height below which the MCP will not stretch for example if your layout doesn t make sense below a certain level This can also solve the problem for users who get upset that if they stretch the MCP very small the MCP b
73. nore it at your peril Find the ColorThemes folder in your REAPER path as described above and unpack the Default 4 0 ReaperThemeZip You will have a new theme available called Default_4 0_ unpacked and you can edit its WALTER by finding its rtconfig txt file within the Default 4 0 unpacked folder e Old themes and other themes with no WALTER If there s no WALTER code in the rtconfig txt file of a theme REAPER will layout almost exactly as it used to in the past because there is some default WALTER that is used You can find the file here Windows C Program Files REAPER4 InstallData Data default_layouts txt OSX REAPER app Contents Plugins default_layouts txt recommend that you do not edit this file because not only is this WALTER used in every theme that doesn t override it it also provides backup data for any statements you leave unchanged You might however find copying some of the contents into your own WALTER to be a useful place to start and I ve included it all in Appendix 3 default_layouts txt on page 46 E First steps Make a new theme or open an existing theme that has no WALTER The first thing we need to do is tell WALTER to override the standard layout In this tutorial we will be working on the TCP so we need the command to clear the TCP elements clear tcp From there onwards WALTER will be in charge of the TCP element layout If you look at the defaults example code in default_l
74. nto complex statements you ll want to do things like make an answer be a question itself and the beauty of Polish Notation is that the second question will have all its answers next to it Look at this actually incorrectly formatted statement questionl question2 true answer2 false answer2 false answerl OK Now those brackets may make sense to you but in Polish Notation they are not necessary and in WALTER they are not permitted Take them out and the statement still makes sense and it will be correctly formatted questionl question2 true answer2 false answer2 false answerl This may seem very odd to you at the moment but don t worry for now We ll move on once you start using it as you write your first statements it will start to make sense E Conditions We can define all new values for each element based on conditions The simplest of these are height and width comparisons For example set tcp solo w lt 230 10 3 20 20 0 0 0 0 Lets examine that statement WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 set tcp solo w230 10 3 20 20 0 0 O 0 We re setting Question is the Answer If yes the tcp solo width of the TCP these are its less than 230 values pixels This obviously begs the question of what happens if the answer is no the width of the TCP is MORE than 230 pixels If a condition is false it will skip the first answer and continue along the line In this case if it skips the first answer then it reache
75. o vertical But in practice you may find you only need to provide the location backgrounds which is both fine and efficient e Strips The most fundamental element of the meter is a strip image which determines the colour of each and every meter strip There is an image to be used on a vertical aspect meter meter strip v and one fora horizontal aspect meter meter strip h Each image has eight colums rows so you can determine the colour of each meter strip in various conditions WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 TOSHM ON TV abcdefgh a b c d e f g Unlit The background of the strip Lit Will be swiped over to indicate signal Clipped Unlit The background of the strip when the channel has clipped Clipped Lit Will be swiped over to indicate signal when the channel has clipped Armed Unlit The background of the strip when the channel is armed Armed Lit Will be swiped over to indicate signal when the channel is armed Armed amp Clipped Unlit The background of the strip when the channel is armed and has clipped h Armed amp Clipped Lit Will be swiped over to indicate signal when the channel is armed and has clipped For a stereo track the strip will be used twice but if the track has 8 channels there will be eight of them and its going to undergo some heavy automatic transformations as REAPER squashes it to fit all those meter strips in so keep your image simple Pink lines ar
76. o be a square set tcp volume 0 0 30 41 will display a knob since w lt W_max AND h lt H_max You can also understand the paradoxal fact that a smaller size can display a fader a bigger a knob set tcp volume 0 0 40 41 will display a knob since W_max lt w lt h lt H_max set tcp volume 0 0 31 30 will display a fader since none of the requirements are met Awesome work that man l Il stick to the fadermode though think e Large Knob or Small Knob Settle down Reaper will resize your knob image to fit the area you assign it with WALTER which will probably look a bit nasty so you ll no doubt want to set the WALTER size to fit the image size Thankfully there are two images for example on the mcp volume they are mcp_vol_knob_large png and mcp_vol_knob_small png and REAPER will choose which one to use based on the draw size you set in your WALTER The small knob image if the size is 28px or less set tcp volume x x 28 28 x x x x The large knob image if the size is 29px or more set tcp volume x x 29 29 x x x x e Finessing the knob size and the length of the pointer line The pointer line is a code line drawn at a length that REAPER deems to be approriate to the size of the knob Once you ve mastered the use of yellow lines you can make the knob visually appear to be a different size to the user since the size you WALTER and therefore choose which image is used is merely the active area of the image tha
77. olor unlit top a b set lt panel name gt meter scale color unlit bottom c d set lt panel name gt meter scale color lit top e f set lt panel name gt meter scale color lit bottom g h a Colour and alpha of the top of the gradient when unlit b Colour and alpha of the top of the gradient s shadow when unlit c Colour and alpha of the bottom of the gradient when unlit d Colour and alpha of the bottom of the gradient s shadow when unlit e Colour and alpha of the top of the gradient when lit f Colour and alpha of the top of the gradient s shadow when lit g Colour and alpha of the bottom of the gradient when lit h Colour and alpha of the bottom of the gradient s shadow when lit You probably would have figured all that out yourself just from the names in the SDK Because the MCP Master has RMS meters it also has an RMS readout which you can use WALTER to colour independently as follows set master mcp meter rmsreadout color 255 255 255 150 If the meter is big enough to fit it and the user has ticked Show track input when record armed in the REAPER preferences Options gt Preferences gt Appearance gt VU Meters Faders then an input selector will be drawn over the meter Two WALTER settings are available set lt panel name gt meter inputlabel color 255 255 255 150 sets the colour of the input selector text with alpha set lt panel name gt meter inputlabelbox color x y sets the colour of th
78. ou are using it on one of the few images that doesn t support pink lines and the pink lines extend from the top left and bottom right corners If its a single image that means the corners of the entire image If its a 3 state image normal mouse over mouse down it also means the corners of the entire image top left of the normal state bottom right of the mouse down state The lines may be of different lengths for each edge if you wish or of no practical length So for example a single pixel pink dot in the top left corner would represent a non stretching border of zero from top edge and the left edge The pink must be continuous lines of RGB 255 0 255 at full opacity If any pixel is 255 0 254 for example it won t work correctly or at all If you are working in a multi layer editor put your pink on the top layer so that no other element accidentally overlaps them in any way thereby sullying the purity of your pink WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 H He Don t stretch these bits Mark that in a 1pixel border around the image will not be drawn On a 3 state image put the bottom right pink lines at the bottom right of the whole image Note that if you make your pink lines for example 10px long each on one axis and then at any time set your WALTER so the element is less than 20px on that axis you have reduced the image beyond the limitations you have set for it and REAPER will just stretch the rem
79. r the tcp in that statement You don t need to set a minimum size because by now you ll know how to show and hide elements depending on width and height variables so you could for example just progressively hide more and more of your elements as the TCP s width is reduced until they are all hidden as the width approaches zero Good for you that s a lot of WALTER to write but its simple WALTER and its offering a lot of flexibility to your users Nice But if your design becomes somewhat meaningless at very low width or height or perhaps your panel background image has details that stop making sense when stretched that small then the minimum size values are going to be your friends Simply add them as minimum width then minimum height after the size values set tcp size 258 72 100 25 What would happen with that statement is this as the user reduced the width of the TCP below 100px the stretching and repositioning behaviour would stop and all your WALTER would behave as if the width remained at 100px Reaper would instead crop the entire panel along from the right hand edge So if the user set the width at 90px then the right hand 10px of your panel including all the buttons faders and other elements would be cropped off e The toosmall Images You may optionally provide toosmall images to be placed along the inside of the horizontal and vertical cropping edges which will appear whenever the size is below your defined mi
80. racks is solo d but not this one and dim has been activated meter foldermute track is in a folder and its folder parent has been muted These images can use pink lines though the current implementation means that they will never stretch so the pink lines are superfluous Take care to size your images so they fit on the smallest meter you will be using e Meter Code Colours REAPER draws text and code lines over the meters if there is room and you have fine WALTER control over the colour and transparency of each of them which you can set for each of tcp master tcp mcp and master mcp Let s look at the readout text which shows the peak value reached Because this lies over the clip image more or less you have control over its colour and shadow both in its normal and clipped states set panel name gt meter readout color x y x First value is the colour of the text with alpha y Second value is the colour of the text s shadow with alpha The scale division lines and their little text labels and treated as one element and you can apply a gradient across that whole element by assigning colour and alpha for each end of the gradient They are named top gt bottom to describe the vertical gradient applied to a vertical meter if your meter is horizontal then the gradient will be too using the bottom values for the left and the top values for the right of the gradient set lt panel name gt meter scale c
81. row3 size is 180 320 or 0 if trans flags amp 1 set mcp recarm 1 0 177 20 20 0 1 0 0 1 0 set row2adj trans flags amp 4 0 44 0 EndLayout set trans rew rowlpos 5 1 24 24 set trans play rowlpos 29 1 24 24 Layout Compact recording mixer vertical label set trans pause rowlpos 53 1 24 24 clear mcp set trans stop rowlpos 77 1 24 24 set mcp size 40 240 set trans fwd rowlpos 101 1 24 24 set mcp label 3 57 14 156 000 1 set trans rec rowlpos 125 1 24 24 set mcp solo 1 1 20 20 set trans repeat rowlpos 149 1 24 24 set mcp trackidx 0 21 16 16 set mcp folder 0 37 20 20 set trans automode rowlpos 175 1 24 24 set mcp recarm 1 1 217 20 20 01 01 set mcp meter 1 20 1 18 238 000 1 set trans status rowlpos 209 3 190 21 EndLayout set trans status width Layout Compact recording mixer clear mcp set trans bpm tap row2pos 8 55 33 17 set mcp size 40 240 set trans bpm edit row2pos 43 55 55 17 set mcp label 2 2 35 14 set mcp solo 1 18 20 20 set trans curtimesig trans flags amp 4 row2pos 100 55 40 17 0 set mcp trackidx 0 38 16 16 set mcp folder 0 54 20 20 set mcp recarm 1 217 20 20 01 01 set trans sel row2adj row2pos 143 55 248 17 set mcp meter 20 20 18 217 0 0 0 1 EndLayout set trans rate row3pos 8 30 74 17 set trans rate fader row3pos 84 27 441 23 Layout Compact recording mixer smaller clear mcp EndLayout set mcp size 32 240
82. s the end of the line and so doesn t know what to do So just as when we commented out statements it does nothing and the button disappears However we can still bring it back by giving it another go in a second statement set tcp solo w lt 230 10 3 20 20 0 0 0 0 set tcp solo w gt 230 10 3 40 40 0 0 0 0 So if the width is say 400px its going to fail the first question and WALTER will do nothing and move onwards In the second statement it gets asked a new question to which the answer is yes and so those values are used In this case the button is drawn in the same place but 40px big However we could be more efficient there by doing the same thing but it all in one statement set tcp solo w230 10 3 20 20 0 0 O 0 10 3 40 4000 0 0 As you can see it starts out the same as the first statement Again in WALTER if a condition is false it will skip the first answer and continue along the line This time the line doesn t end it supplies some further values the big 40px button values WALTER likes this and will use those values for the false condition E Nesting Conditions In the same way that the width of the TCP can be used in a comparison height can as well Just use an h instead of a w Lets use that and the above to do something more complex Put this as the tcp solo statement in your rtconfig txt and try it in REAPER set tcp solo w lt 230 10 3 20 20 0 0 O 0 h lt 40 10 3 10 10 0 0 O 0 10 3 40 400
83. set envcp label 4 1 245 20001 0 set altlabelpos 28 1 152 20 0 O 93 0 used when singlerow set envcp label h lt 47 w262 altlabelpos envcp type 4 w222 altlabelpos set envcp label envcp type 4 w222 0 0 40 0 shrink label by 40px room for fx buttons if wide and fx set envcp arm 4 25 20 20 0 0 O 0 set altarmpos 4 1 20 20 0 O 0 0 set envcp arm h lt 47 w262 altarmpos envcp type 4 w gt 222 altarmpos 0 0 set envcp fader 0 45 296 20 0 01 0 third row position set envcp fader h lt 47 0 h lt 70 w222 28 25 205 20 0 O 93 0 0 set envcp value 28 25 268 20 0 0 1 0 set envcp value h lt 70 w gt 222 237 25 89 20 93 0 1 0 set envcp value envcp type 4 h lt 47 w lt 222 0 184 1 67 21 93 0 1 0 set envcp value envcp type 4 h lt 47 w lt 262 0 144 1 67 21 93 0 1 0 EndLayout Layout Default Transport w WALTER clear trans todo finish implementing default transport logic here pain set trans size 543 84 set trans size minmax 219 28 2048 84 set trans size dockedheight w lt 300 84 20 todo rules rows lt 50 1 row lt 75 WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 set rowlpos 0 0 0 0 clear mcp set row2pos 0 0 0 0 set mcp size 20 202 set row3pos 0 0 0 0 set mcp trackidx 0 0 20 16 0 0 0 0 set mcp label 0 20 20 80 0 0 O 0 5 rowl size is 360 494 set mcp solo 0 100 20 20 0 0 5 0 0 5 row2 size is 348 392 set mcp meter 1 0 120 20 60 0 0 5 0 1 0
84. set mcp solo 1 1 18 18 set mcp trackidx 0 19 16 16 some standalone tests set mcp folder 0 36 18 18 set mcp label 1 37 17 180 0 0 0 1 Layout Compact vertmix set mcp recarm 1 1 219 18 18 010 1 WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 set mcp meter 1 18 18 12 219 O 00 1 EndLayout Layout Thin mixer clear mcp set mcp size 20 240 set mcp trackidx 0 0 20 20 set mcp folder 0 20 20 20 set mcp mute 0 40 20 20 set mcp solo 0 60 20 20 set mcp fx 0 80 20 20 set mcp fxbyp 0 100 20 12 set mcp io 0 115 20 20 set mcp recarm 0 135 20 20 set mcp recmode 0 155 20 20 set mcp recmon 0 175 20 20 rect meter volhide 0 195 20 45000 1 rect meter volshow 0 225 20 15 0 0 5 0 1 set mcp meter h gt 400 meter volshow meter volhide set mcp volume h gt 400 0 195 20 30 0 0 O 0 5 0 EndLayout Layout Transport w o pause slightly override the defaults note that the default logic for positioning will still be used as long as no comparison combinators are used set trans automode 156 1 24 24 set trans repeat trans rec set trans rec trans fwd set trans fwd trans stop set trans stop trans pause set trans pause 0 set trans status 185 3 215 21 EndLayout Layout Transport Chunky Test a transport test clear trans set trans set trans set trans set trans set trans set trans set trans def bxfac set trans set trans set trans
85. sic form this indenting is a horizontal offset that is overlaid with the three folder images folder start png folder indent png folder end png WALTER can be used to overide the default offset if you want to make your indents a different size tcp folderindent 20 Note that tcp folderindent offsets the contents of the panel not the panel itself If you want to fake the appearance that the panel bg image has been offset do so using the folder indent image etcp margin Because the folderindent is tied to the indent images and also quite inflexible if you have a more sophisticated hierarchy indication in mind you will be glad to know that you can if you wish also use the much more powerful tcp margin tcp margin 15 Thetcp margin is simply added to whatever position the folderindent results in So in the above example a track would receive as many multiples of 20 pixels as it is levels deep in the folder hierarchy plus a single additional offset of 15 pixels Not very interesting However it really comes into its own when combined with some variables for example the folderdepth and maxfolderdepth predefined variables see Appendix 2 Predefined Variables on page 46 WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 e Example line em up with tcp margin Lining up elements in the TCP has some nice micro workflow advantages for you users so when the run their mouse up and down the TCP its always the same button that f
86. solo tcp solo E Scalar Values A Practical Example Here s an example of using what we ve just learnt to practical effect using just two buttons When you set one element to react to changes in another the savings are reasonable when you set many elements to react to changes in a single anchor object the savings can be very large So stick with me I m going to start with a blank TCP and make a solo button and a mute button For maximum clarity I m going to make these buttons as ugly squares of primary colour l m going to WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 make this solo button stretch move and generally jump through hoops want the mute button to be the same size as it and stick to its right edge like glue no matter what it does And want to do this with as little effort as possible Here s the code clear tcp set tcp size 100 72 set tcp solo h lt 50 10 10 10 10 0 0 O 0 40 40 20 20 00 1 0 set tcp solo rhs tcp solo x tcp solo w set tcp mute tcp solo rhs tcp solo tcp solo tcp solo tcp solo rs 0 tcp solo rs 0 and here s what we get Lets go through that First define the solo button yellow square It does all manner of silly things but nothing we haven t seen before set tcp solo h lt 50 10 10 10 10 0 0 O 0 40 40 20 20 001 0 Next want to calculate where the right hand edge of the solo button is I ve decided to set this to be called tcp_solo_rhs but
87. t is drawn Similarly you can change the length of the pointer line by telling REAPER that you are drawing a knob of the appropriate size for the length of line you desire but set up your image so that the visual size is in fact something different Alas An unfortunate side effect of this trick becomes apparent when the knob is automated REAPER draws a code colour overlay to indicate automation modes and it does this based on the size it thinks the knob is If you have fooled it so that you can change the pointer length or do an image swap REAPER still doesn t know that when it draws the overlay so the combination of knob and overlay may not look optimal am afraid that for now you must just choose whichever compromise offends you least and buckle in for some user complaints For more on yellow lines see Pink Lines Yellow Lines WALTER on page 41 E Pan controls There are two pan controls in REAPER and their behaviour is very similar to the volume control They will swap from fader to knob and from big knob to small in the same way If a fader is set it uses a non stretching panthumb image and coloured zero line If its a knob the same pointer techniques apply e Pan Modes The user can choose which track pan mode to use in their project on a per track basis or for the whole project so your theme should be tailored so it works well in all 3 modes The predefined WALTER variable trackpanmode can be us
88. the track Transport specific trans_flags trans_flags amp 1 is nonzero if transport centered trans_flags amp 2 is nonzero if user wants playspeed controls visible trans_flags amp 4 is nonzero if user wants current time signature visible trans_docked nonzero if docked transport trans_center nonzero if transport centered Envelope specific envcp_type 4 if FX envelope can display additional controls E Appendix 3 default_layouts txt In Documents and Settings lt name gt Application Data REAPER Data you will find default layouts txt This is the default WALTER that will be used if you do not provide WALTER of your own Moreover it is a useful guide to how the behaviours you have been used to in pre V4 Reaper can be achieved Reproduced here for your convenience e What is rect rect is sometimes used by Our Fearless Leader it is the same thing as set Layout Default TCP w WALTER clear tcp set tcp size 258 72 set tcp trackidx 1 3 20160 0 0 0 set tcp foldercomp 2 3 20 20 0 0 O 0 meter recmon recmode row set tcp meter h gt 66 66 46 188 20 0 0 1 0 0 set tcp recmon h gt 66 24 47 20 20 0 0 O 0 0 set tcp recmode h gt 66 44 47 20 20 0 0 O 0 0 vol pan labels these could be condensed into no rect lines but its harder to follow rect vollabel rowl w gt 650 23 7 36 13 101 0 0 rect panlabel rowl w gt 650 62 7 30 13 101 0 0 set tcp volume label h lt 49 vollabel ro
89. to Alaska with my entire army the panel size changes Congratulations you have learnt the majority of the WALTER you will use from now on E Know some basic theming If you ve not done any REAPER theming before Version 4 you re very fortunate because you are starting at a time where its likely that many of the design ideas you have will be possible Previously REAPER theming was mostly an exercise in knowing all the fixed limitations contradictions and constraints within the system and coming up with the best design you could that worked within them BUT The old theming system is still the core of a theme WALTER merely extends amends and overrides it So you still need to know a bit about it Take some time to pick apart a V3 theme and see what goes where and how elements are defined See how absent MCP images are inherited from their TCP equivalents Take note of some of the inconsistencies that are with us for example how some TCP images are named tcp_ png and others are named track_ png This is required knowledge because these quirks are required for pre V4 themes to be functional within V4 Once you have an understanding of how a basic theme works you are ready to start beating it with the WALTER hammer know you re going to ignore all this and just dive in but had to try WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 E Experiment amp Dissect Do not for one moment make the mistake of thinki
90. to edit our big line of stuff we d need to remember to do it twice So instead we can do it in two statements taking advantage of the fact that once we have defined out tcp solo on the first statement it becomes available for us to use as a value in any subsequent statements set tcp solo big line of stuff set tcp solo recarm 20 tcp solo E Pink Lines Yellow Lines WALTER To get the best out of WALTER s comprehensive stretching and positioning control you re going to need to know how to use these old V3 image details because they are now at the root of a great number of powerful and significant techniques e Pink Lines When you provide an image to REAPER and then use WALTER to instruct the element using that image to be a different size than the image s native pixel dimensions or to dynamically stretch or resize REAPER will stretch the image to fill the area Which is fine if your button image is a solid block of colour But if you have some rounded corners or a nice bit of shading at the edges they will get stretched too which is unlikely to look pleasant To solve this we can define four borders one running in from each edge of the image that are not to be stretched Reaper will then get all its stretching done using the part of the image that remains The pink lines are placed in a 1 pixel border that you add to the outside of the image This border is never drawn if you do ever see it you ve made a mistake or y
91. ts txt on page 46 you will see statements such as this set mcp meter 1 0 120 20 60 0 0 5 0 1 0 set mcp recarm 1 0 177 20 20 0 1 0 0 1 0 The 1 in those statements is an always comparison a question phrased to always return a yes answer 1 They are necessary in this case because those statements have a default logic that would not otherwise be overridden But wait hear you cry I put a clear xxx at the beginning of my WALTER doesn t that mean I ve cleared all the default logic No it doesn t It just means you ve cleared all the elements The default logic remains waiting to help you or trip you up once you add your own elements In most circumstances you would be providing your own logic e g putting in a w gt blah comparison somewhere in the statement and that would tell WALTER that you were taking charge of the logic thankyouverymuch But if your statement is very very simple and something unexpected is happening you may need to tell WALTER that yes you do really mean it to be that simple An always comparison will do that for you Just put one in and you ll be telling WALTER stop being clever clear the logic and always do this Examples of always comparisons use whichever one you like WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 and you can probably think of others E Inheriting previously declared values with The moment you put set at the front o
92. w our solo button is behaving We have a condition where if the width is greater than 230px it will make a change depending on the height But if the width is less than 230px the question about height never gets asked What if we want to set it so that it always changes based on height as well as width The question needs to get asked like this if the width is less than 230px and the height is less than 40 disappear the button We could do it in 2 statements and there s no shame in that set tcp solo w gt 230 h lt 40 10 3 10 10 0 0 O 0 10 3 404000 0 0 set tcp solo w lt 230 h lt 40 0 10 3 20 20000 0 But we can also nest both answers to the width question with their own height question set tcp solo w gt 230 h lt 40 10 3 10 10 0 0 O 0 10 3 40 40 0 0 O 0 h lt 40 0 10 3 20 20000 0 its such a big statement can t fit it in but it works well It may however displease you not least because its tiresome to read through and edit and sometimes you may find yourself putting the same values several times We can clear this up with an introduction to E Variables At their most basic variables are values which we define ourselves as handy placeholder names Later on we will be doing much cleverer things with variables but for now just consider this 10 3 40 40 0 0 0 0 It is the code for our big solo button and as long as we haven t forgotten whenever we see that code we re going to think ah
93. w the value with 2 digits of precision So decide which text changes you want and sum that s add up to you drummers the corresponding identifiers The resulting number is your flag For example mcp voltext flags 4 would mean that the volume readout text on the MCP panel would not show 15 0db when the fader was set to that value instead it would show 15 0dB Now a more complex one tcp master voltext flags 13 would mean that the volume readout text on the TCP Master panel would not show 415 0db when the fader was set to that value instead it would show 15 00 because 13 must mean 8 4 1 Note that if you set identifiers 2 and 8 at the same time you won t get any cake E Volume Control The volume fader is a non stretching faderthumb image that moves inside a WALTER defined volume area which has a code drawn zero line and can be filled with a vol_bg image It can be a knob instead if you like and then it uses either a static large or small blank knob image that is overlaid with a code pointer line Have another look at the section on Colours on page 23 to find out how to set the zero line colour and knob line colour Note that the faderthumb uses a different legacy method of pink line to define its active area For more on pink lines see Pink Lines Yellow Lines WALTER on page 41 and the power of pink document e Fader or Knob By default WALTER will change from sho
94. wing a fader to a knob automatically depending on the available space and the size of the faderthumb image You will likely find it most predictable to override the default behaviour by defining which one you want manually using fadermode for a fader WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 set mcp pan fadermode 1 for a knob set mcp pan fadermode 1 If you want to use the automatic behaviour you ll need to understand it and to understand it you ll need to be cleverer than me Thankfully Bernstraw is and he has unravelled the riddle of the faders as he explains here Bernstraw Explains I ve determined that behaviour empirically and it s actually pretty simple or at least very logical The max values are w_max 4 3 of the width of the horizontal thumb tcp_volthumb png h_max 4 3 of the height of the vertical thumb mcp_volthumb png or tcp_volthumb_vert png if present So by default WALTER will display a knob if w lt w_max AND h lt h_max or if W_max lt w lt h lt h_max wis higher than w_max but WALTER can t display a horizontal fader since w lt h or if h_max lt h lt w lt w_max his higher than h_max but WALTER can t display a vertical fader since h lt w Example width of tcp_volthumb png minus the pink lines of course 23 then w_max 30 66 height of mcp_volthumb png or tcp_volthumb_vert png 31 then h_max 41 33 You can see here that the size doesn t need t
95. wl w lt 230 0 185 28 36 13 1 0 1 0 set tcp pan label h lt 49 panlabel rowl w lt 230 0 225 28 30 13 1 01 0 pan fader rect pan rowl w gt 500 w gt 650 90 3 67 20 65 0 1 0 90 3 2 20 75 01 0 0 set tcp pan w lt 230 0 h lt 49 pan rowl 131 24 51 20 0 75 0 1 0 vol fader rect vol rowl w gt 330 w gt 500 85 3 5 20 0 25 0 75 0 85 3 7 20 0 25 0 1 0 0 rect vol rowl w gt 650 85 3 5 20 0 25 O 65 0 vol rowl WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 set tcp volume h lt 49 vol rowl w lt 230 22 24 233 20 0 0 1 0 22 24 109 20 0 0 0 75 0 track name label rect label small w lt 100 26 3 226 15 O 0 1 0 26 3 182 15001 0 rect label 2row w230 label small 26 3 68 15 0 0 1 0 set tcp label h gt 49 label 2row w lt 330 label 2row 26 3 38 15 0 0 25 0 recarm button set tcp recarm h lt 49 w lt 330 0 64 3 20 20 25 0 25 0 2 24 20 2000 0 0 other buttons set tcp folder w lt 230 0 98 3 20 20101 0 set tcp io w230 0 118 3 20 20 1 01 0 set tcp env w230 0 138 3 20 201 01 0 set tcp fx w230 0 158 3 20 20 1 O 1 0 set tcp fxbyp w230 0 178 3 14 201 01 0 set tcp phase w lt 230 0 192 3 20 20 1 0 1 0 set tcp mute w lt 100 0 212 3 20 201 01 0 set tcp solo w lt 100 0 232 3 20 201 01 0 set tcp fxparm 4 76 250 6 001 1 derive from our defaults here Layout Vertical Meters set tcp margin recarm tcp margin 0 0 20 0 set tcp meter recarm 260 2 16 66101 1 set tcp re
96. y of our buttons around based on their position relative to the top button by putting row column numbers in the position locations and that would continue to function if we changed the button size Overscaled buttons may look horrible but the skills you ve learned here are going to be extremely useful when we start working with things like folder depth margins WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 a Edge Attachment Here I ve taken the VU meter and made it the size of the entire panel from set tcp size 258 72 remember less a 3px border all the way round and given it 0 O 1 1 We ve got There s an awful lot that can be done with the simple 0 0 O O edge attachment setting we ve ourselves a huge meter and its going to stretch to keep every edge attached to its adjacent used so far you ll be able to replicate many of the features from other DAWs for example panel Fun Lets have a look But REAPER does a lot of stretching and while this may seem arduous for the designer it allows the user to do wonderful things like stretch out the TCP for higher resolution faders or meters at critical moments so think carefully before you decide to stick with static sizes 0 00 000 whos interests are you serving the user s or your own Be brave and dive in 0000 Left element edge to Left panel edge Top element edge to Top panel edge Right element edge to Left panel edge Bottom element edge to Top panel edge As we have seen 0 0
97. your WALTER its obviously very handy to keep checking it in REAPER But if you save the file in your text editor you don t have to use Notepad by the way its WALTER A themer s guide Version 14 July 2012 your choice as long as you don t mind being wrong your changes will not be reflected in REAPER until you ve told it to refresh the theme You can do this by changing to another theme and then back again or you can simplify that by making a custom action Options Switch to next color theme Options Switch to previous color theme Name it Theme Refresh assign it to a toolbar button somewhere handy like next to that S amp M Theme Helper button you ll be making and then when you ve saved a change in your text editor hit that button to see what you ve done E SWS S amp M Theme Helper Writing your WALTER can occasionally involve several cycles of make change 5 save 5 refresh theme gt take screenshot gt measure gt make change particularly when fine tuning the heights and widths at which you want arrangement changes to take place We should be very grateful therefore for the SWS S amp M theme helper part of the very wonderful SWS S amp M REAPER Extensions which can give you a readout of the current size of TCP and MCP panels saving you a great deal of time if you are a Windows user Download the SWS S amp M Extension from HERE and install Make a custom toolbar button and assign it to the action SWS S a

WALTER: A themer`s guide White Tie

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