Hi.
Welcome to the the panel creators’ club, an addictive hobby!
Since you are asking for it, I suggest you to add some small improvements on the graphic parts of your panel, that seems to be done with Skinman (but the tricks can be applied with any graphic editors).
My main advice is to add some shadows to your dials and buttons to add a sense of depth to your panel. This will greatly improve the quality look.
In Skinman, add the "Drop shadow" effect for your button, set an offset value of your choice (try 2 to 4 for the buttons, 8 to 16 for the dials) and a shadow density value of around 60.
This will create an offset shadow that extends at 45degrees to the bottom right. Save each button and dial separately including its shadow. For the rotating dial, the shadow image itself has to be separated from the dial image, or else the shadow will rotate in the dial_add().
For the buttons, I suggest you create two graphic versions: one with a shadow offset of 2 (button pressed) and one with an offset of say 4 or 5 (button released).
If you use both images in your button_add() function instead of nil for the released state, the animation effect of a button depressed will be automatically added. You can also add the +1 pixel shift in X/Y for the depressed state of your buttons that you already implemented and which is good, add the "reduced length" of the shadow when the button is depressed and it will be perfect!
And this simple shadow effect will trick your brain into thinking that the buttons and dials are sticking out of the panel!
Second, I suggest you add a "backplate" to your panel.
IRL the panel itself is mounted on a metallic plate that serves as a mounting background (backplate), so it is a good idea to add a rectangular plate behind the whole panel, roughly with the same color but slightly darker. The front panel itself having a certain thickness (hence a 3 to 4 offset drop shadow), it will protrude above the backplate.
Also IRL the 4 mounting screws are called Dzus and are protruding slightly from the panel (around 0,75mm) so a shadow for each Dzus is recommended.
Each screw is hand mounted so it is very likely that the slot of each screw will be in a different orientation. I suggest you rotate them at random to add some realistic feel to your Dzus.
Lastly, since you seem to be already familiar with the boolean operations in Skinman, I suggest you add for each button/dial a slightly larger than the button/dial itself (+1 pixel wide) hole in your panel for each of your buttons, so they appear to be protruding "through" the panel holes.
Then add a black rectangular rectangle in between the backplate and the frontplate, so the "hole" effect is complete.
The frontplate (ucp_background.png in your case) will have no longer the buttons in it, but mere holes with a black background as IRL.
Here's a quick and dirty example in Skinman.
A bit of an extra work, but "Devil is in the details"
, and the overall graphic look of your panels will be greatly improved by these little tricks.
Keep up the good work!
Jacques
Challenger_CL650_-_Radar_Control_Panel.siff