Themes
Color themes and custom skin choices will appear on this page. You can choose from Red or Blue default color themes by clicking Use this theme. Reload the game interface (/loadui) or restart the game to use the selected theme. You can also download more themes from the Updates page.
If you want the utility to use the colors from your selected theme, choose "Game theme colors" from the dropdown on the Settings page.
Style colorsThe array of colored boxes on each theme tile represent the colors in the eq2ui_ColorStyles.xml file included with each color theme or custom skin. They give you a good idea of the overall color scheme for that selection. A limited number of in-game elements use these colors. They include character "paperdoll" backgrounds and some menu tree selections.
If you want to experiment with a different color for one of these elements in your current theme, click the associated box and choose a different color. The ColorStyle file being used by the game (and by the utility if you made that choice on the Settings page) will use the new color the next time you log in. The experimental choice will remain permanently until you choose a different theme. ColorStyle changes can be made to any of the custom themes and skins. Default Red and Blue themes cannot be changed.
Creating a new theme
If you are handy with image editing, you can apply your talents by recoloring the default skin, or creating an all-new skin for use in game.
Theme filesThe following files are used in DarqUI themes. Their default versions are located in the EverQuest II\UI\Default\images folder. Your theme can make changes to some or all of the files:
Viewing and editingDDS files can be viewed with programs such as IrfanView, and edited in an image editing program such as Photoshop using a DDS plugin extension. The xml color style file can be viewed and edited with Notepad or any other text editor.
Theme folderIn order for your theme to be recognized in the DarqUI window utility, the folder must be named Theme_xxx where xxx is a unique identifying string. You can use existing DarqUI theme folder names as examples.
Style fileThe eq2ui_ColorStyles.xml file contains color values used for tinting certain UI elements in game, such as menu choices and character "paperdoll" background colors. These colors are also used to recolor the DarqUI utility window when selected as the utility theme. The colors are in #000000 RGB format. Again, use the existing themes as examples.
There are two additional fields in the style file that display information on the theme's tile in the utility:
ThemeName="Your Theme Title"
Description="A sentence or two describing the theme. Make sure it's not too long to fit on the tile."