Dark Mode: How do I add alternate graphics to 9-patch objects?

Hi,

I have a LOT of 9-patch objects in my game and menus. I am now looking to add a "Dark Mode", mostly with 'outlines' of those objects/sprites. For usual Sprites, it is easy to have new Animation or Frames where I can edit the graphics (for dark theme), but how do I do this with my 9-patch objects??

What's the best approach? (apart from adding a new 9-patch object, which I want to avoid due to already hundreds of events associated with these objects, usually backgrounds)

I wish 9-patch too had "Animations" or "frames".

Please help!

Thanks!

I recently encountered this exact problem and agree it would be nice if 9-patches had animations/frames.

I ended up swapping most of them out for either HTML buttons or text inputs where you have full control via CSS - might work for you too?

EDIT - just realised that I also made some of my 9-patches plain white so you can easily set their colour.

You can do something like this.

But yeah, 9-patch animations would be great in general.