GlobalSchemes (or "GS" for short) are a way for any compatible Litestep theme to use a set of colors (scheme) to color itself.
Similarly, any GS can color any compatible theme.

Basically, GS is a list of evars a theme can use instead of actually specifying colors.

Most of the GS evars are named similar to settings for xPaintClass (or "xPC" for short)
This is because xPC has the biggest, most organised list of features for Litestep that any module can easily support.
All relevant color settings from xPC have similar names in GS eg;

xPC:

GS:

To see exactly what color settings are supported, open the GSDefault.rc file in your texteditor (located in C:\Litestep\GlobalSchemes\ by default)

If your just wanting to make a GS scheme, start straight away, learning as you go about xPC and LS in general.
You don't need to know much in the begining, just how to use a texteditor!

But, you will need to know Litestep fairly well before you jump into making GS compatible themes.

If you are totally new to Litestep, I strongly suggest you read the links here :)

Schemes are the easiest part of GS.

Look into GSDefault.rc for all the possible settings you can use.
GSDefault.rc will be the place where all possible GS settings are defined (so I dont have to update any docs, I am lazy!)

You should easily find xPaintclass documentation that explains the GS settings.

xPaintclass Documentation

For example you find "GSGradientType" in GSDefault.rc.
Looking at the xDocs you find:

Or maybe you find "GSColors" in GSDefault.rc.
Looking at the xDocs you find::

So a simple scheme could look like this:

But it is highly recommended and encouraged to include basic information into your scheme.
Here is one of my favourite schemes information for example:

This info can be used in any util or scheme changer.
Its also nice to know who made what a when, and also how to contact them.

Its important to note that schemes dont have images and basically use the xPC ".multicolor" texture painting mode range of settings.
Schemes are required to have colors/hue's for theme images, so remember to set them!

At first I wanted GS to be, well, like a Visual Style, with images being stretched/tiled with borders etc, but I think this would be very difficult, atleast for me by myself to manage.
So I decided to ditch images, and just use colors, which is alot easier!
Now with the widespread dissemination of xPC we have lots of neat options to "colorize" images,
this is great for GS because now we can leave the difficult imaging up to the themer (that knows what he wants and where and what size etc)
and the schemers can colorize them!

BUT!

This gives rise to inconsistency, well, atleast I can imagine it will, because its conceivable that some images will
look bad with some schemes, and good with others!

For example what if 1 themes images are twice as dark as anothers etc

So I currently have no answer to this, I feel the themer/schemer communities will sort out some kind of "average" contrast/brightness range or something.

Until then, Good Luck! :D

GSDefault Commandments:
1. Never Edit GSDefault.rc, there is no need, your better off making a scheme.
2. Do not add something to your scheme unless its in GSDefault, so no making up settings.
3. Always test your scheme on some random GS compat theme, you might have missed something.

Thats about it I think :) Happy scheming!

*GS compat themes should use every scheme evar and always use them appropriately*

"Appropriately" is the hard part! XD

GS themes will need an info.rc located in the theme folder ("$ThemeDir$info.rc")
Inside info.rc needs to be this evar:

This lets the system know to load a GS for the theme to use.

GS themes use the scheme evars.
You can use them alot of different ways (I made a "style.rc" file for all the scheme related stuff in my themes)
Whats really important is that your theme uses them appropriatly.

GS evars are just like xPaintclass evars, so if you know xPC, it should be easy to know what to do.
Here are a few simple examples:

GSDefault.rc has GSFont in it, so this obviously is the font setting.
In your theme you must specify all your elements to have the font "$GSFont$",
So say you have a label called "PunkLabel", then in your theme you'll need:

And maybe also you are using xTaskbar, this is where xPC comes in handy, you can just do this:
That makes all "xTaskbarNormalFont*" settings use any "GSFont*" settings that are available, simple! ;)

Its important to note that schemes dont have images and basically use the xPC ".multicolor" texture painting mode range of settings.
Schemes are required to have colors/hue's for theme images, so remember to use those

Some modules wont have good compatability with the evars, either they use a different format or whatever.
My advice: use the xModules, they are a good replacement for most of the basic modules, and if they arent you can
always build it with xLabel :D

GS Forum - Discuss GS

OTS3/GS Wiki - Help with GS development

xPaintclass - Learn about xPC

Wiki - Learn about Litestep

ls-themes - Download/Upload themes, view/submit screenshots and discuss litestep

ls-u - Discuss litestep and discuss xModule/xPaintclass development

ls.net - Download/Upload themes, view/submit screenshots and discuss litestep

NBI-Studio - Download/Upload themes, view/submit screenshots and discuss litestep

themes.ls-u - Download/Upload themes

Feel free to mail me for some friendly help.