General introduction to the ATVO Theme Editor
General introduction to the ATVO Theme Editor
The ATVO Theme Editor can be used to design your own themes for ATVO from the ground up. The Theme Editor is a visual editor that immediately shows you how your theme will look while you're designing it. You can design the layout and style of visible elements on your overlay (called 'widgets'), add data bindings to display data from the sim, design theme controls such as buttons to show/hide widgets, and much more. When your theme is finished, it can be exported to be opened by ATVO and used for broadcasting.
Theme contents
Themes include different types of content, often called content items or theme items. The most common items include:
Widget, SubWidget, Label hierarchy
The widgets (visible overlay elements) in an ATVO theme have an important hierarchy. Each parent Widget can host one or more SubWidgets. In turn, each SubWidget can host one or more Labels. A Label can only be placed in a SubWidget, and a SubWidget can only exist in a Widget.
SubWidgets and Labels are in many ways similar to the top-level Widgets, as they can define their own backgrounds, borders, fonts, etc. However, their layout or position is relative to their parent item.
This hierarchy exists to support the data binding system and the ticker functionality, both of which are explained later.
Labels
Labels are the only items in your theme that can display text, either in the form of static text or dynamic data coming from the sim or another source.
Tickers
Widgets can enable ticker functionality in the properties under the Ticker category. Tickers are used to show lists of data, such as the list of drivers (live race standings, championship standings, grid) or a list of laptimes. Tickers can be configured as scrolling (the entire list is shown at once and scrolls to one side before repeating), paging (a limited number of items are shown, and are replaced by the next set after a specific time), or static (a limited number of items which do not change).
Tickers work by defining a template SubWidget. The template is copied for each item in the list. To enable ticker functionality, your Widget must have at least one SubWidget. The desired template SubWidget must be selected as the Template property for the ticker to work.
Actions
To control your theme during a broadcast, you define actions that execute specific tasks. Any control item in your theme (such as a button, timer, trigger, etc) can define a list of one or more actions which are to be executed. The control item determines when the actions are executed (for example, a button executes its actions when it is clicked, while a timer executes its actions when its time has expired after it was started).
Actions are grouped under related tasks, and each group can have multiple effects. For example, hiding or showing widgets can be done via the action group 'Change Widget Visibility'. The desired effect can then be to 'Show', 'Hide' or 'Toggle' your widget.
Other action types include playing media, changing data bindings, starting/stopping timers, controlling tickers, etc.
Most actions must specify a target which is typically a theme item on which the action must be applied. For example, a 'Change Widget Visibility' action with the 'Show' effect (showing a widget) must select the target widget to show.
The ATVO Theme Editor can be used to design your own themes for ATVO from the ground up. The Theme Editor is a visual editor that immediately shows you how your theme will look while you're designing it. You can design the layout and style of visible elements on your overlay (called 'widgets'), add data bindings to display data from the sim, design theme controls such as buttons to show/hide widgets, and much more. When your theme is finished, it can be exported to be opened by ATVO and used for broadcasting.
Theme contents
Themes include different types of content, often called content items or theme items. The most common items include:
- Widgets. Widgets are visible overlay elements that your viewers can see in the broadcast. Widgets can show images, text, data, or even videos. When configured in a special way, widgets can also act as tickers which repeat a template element once for each driver in a scrolling or paging fashion.
- Images. Images are items in your theme, but they are not visible by default. Images can be made visible by selecting them as the background of a widget.
- Buttons. Buttons are placed on your control screen and can be used to control your theme by executing 'actions', for example hiding or showing widgets, starting timers or playing media.
- Triggers. Triggers can execute actions similar to buttons, except they are triggered automatically by some condition. Data Triggers trigger when some specific data condition is true, while Event Triggers trigger on certain events from the sim, such as the race start or someone setting a new fastest lap.
- Timers. Timers can execute actions similar to buttons, except the actions are executed after a configurable delay. A timer can be started with another action, and once the delay has expired, the timer will execute its own actions. Timers are useful for example to automatically hide a widget after some time has passed.
Widget, SubWidget, Label hierarchy
The widgets (visible overlay elements) in an ATVO theme have an important hierarchy. Each parent Widget can host one or more SubWidgets. In turn, each SubWidget can host one or more Labels. A Label can only be placed in a SubWidget, and a SubWidget can only exist in a Widget.
SubWidgets and Labels are in many ways similar to the top-level Widgets, as they can define their own backgrounds, borders, fonts, etc. However, their layout or position is relative to their parent item.
This hierarchy exists to support the data binding system and the ticker functionality, both of which are explained later.
Labels
Labels are the only items in your theme that can display text, either in the form of static text or dynamic data coming from the sim or another source.
Tickers
Widgets can enable ticker functionality in the properties under the Ticker category. Tickers are used to show lists of data, such as the list of drivers (live race standings, championship standings, grid) or a list of laptimes. Tickers can be configured as scrolling (the entire list is shown at once and scrolls to one side before repeating), paging (a limited number of items are shown, and are replaced by the next set after a specific time), or static (a limited number of items which do not change).
Tickers work by defining a template SubWidget. The template is copied for each item in the list. To enable ticker functionality, your Widget must have at least one SubWidget. The desired template SubWidget must be selected as the Template property for the ticker to work.
Actions
To control your theme during a broadcast, you define actions that execute specific tasks. Any control item in your theme (such as a button, timer, trigger, etc) can define a list of one or more actions which are to be executed. The control item determines when the actions are executed (for example, a button executes its actions when it is clicked, while a timer executes its actions when its time has expired after it was started).
Actions are grouped under related tasks, and each group can have multiple effects. For example, hiding or showing widgets can be done via the action group 'Change Widget Visibility'. The desired effect can then be to 'Show', 'Hide' or 'Toggle' your widget.
Other action types include playing media, changing data bindings, starting/stopping timers, controlling tickers, etc.
Most actions must specify a target which is typically a theme item on which the action must be applied. For example, a 'Change Widget Visibility' action with the 'Show' effect (showing a widget) must select the target widget to show.
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