Windows 7 skin?

[nohitter151]

http://mogelfar.deviantart.com/art/Glassy-WMP-skin-36417348 This one is beautiful...

There's no reason why something like that couldn't be made with the current theme engine.

[gege]

I've begun work on a skin for MM4, it looks like this so far:
...
I'm not sure if that's the type of thing you're looking for or not, but suggestions (and mockups of said suggestions) would be welcomed.

So, MM will finally look like a native aero application! That's great news.
Though I have some concerns regarding the overuse of glass. If misused, glass can make an interface look worse, instead of better.
As an example of a very balanced use of glass we can take Paint.NET 3.5 UI. I love the way it uses glass in thumbnail area. The subtle gradient used as toolbar background is also very good.


Using a completely glassed toolbar like you did, on the other hand, has two problems IMO:
1) The icons look weird
2) Is not a common practice

The Player area is a different case: I think it CAN be completely glassed, just like WPM11 used to be in Vista:


So, as an example, I used 7on icons + Paint.NET toolbar background to make a mockup of what I think would be better in your skin


Your player area is fine, IMO. I just didn't like the appearance of those tabbed options. I know where your inspiration came from, but I think the tab metaphor didn't work here. Maybe simple buttons would be better, so I also changed those in my mockup...

Finally, you know how much respect I have for your work, so please take this as a good criticism. My intention here is just to help you building better and better skins.

BTW, are we going to see a glassed version of Vitreous? (Hint, hint...)

[nohitter151]

Thx gege, great feedback as always. I don't want to give out the wrong idea, the screenshot you see posted is from the very first MM4 pre-alpha and things are still very buggy/sloppy (really I got the build just to test some things with the new theme engine). Some of the later builds have already fixed the toolbar issue (no more aero there) and have a few other nice surprises (I won't spoil them for you now ). But again the skin suggestions are much appreciated.

[rovingcowboy]

some hints or lessons of what to do for the mm4 skins would be nice to know.

what is new any new engine from petcbr? any new codes to add in to the old engine mskn files
or do they use mskn files what about the old skins they going to work in it.? i hope so.

what about all the border troubles people were having they been fixed in mm 4 skins?

you opened the door and said you are able to make an mm 4 skin so let the rest of us in on the stuff.

[nohitter151]

you opened the door and said you are able to make an mm 4 skin so let the rest of us in on the stuff.

Everything's basically the same as in MM3, no big changes in terms of making the skin. If you don't have Vista or Win7 to work with, nothing's going to be all that different for you, so I wouldn't worry about it RC.

[rovingcowboy]

thanks i went back and read all the thread.

i do have win 7 its on my sisters laptop. but i would like to update or make some new skins using the new engine so i would be working on this xp pro system and would have to know what the code is to add for the new features.

but it looks like all the new stuff will be a new skin that we will have to add in to the old msz file with the old skin files
so monkey could pick which one it needed. is that correct.?

oh and guy's i did not know about this thread when i sent you the email and pm's.

[rovingcowboy]

There are a lot of skins out there, but a lot of them are, to be honest, crap.

I'm not sure why none of the skinners who've replied so far haven't taken offense but as a long-time user of MM and one who likes a ton of the skins currently available, I take offense. Despite this assertion to the contrary: personally, I think you owe some people an apology.

thanks vyper i too seen what you saw. but i also seen that there could be some systems out there that certian colors show up on in very different shades then what the skin was made in. i know this also because it has been going on with me here on these 4 systems and each getting different colors on their different monitors. but the ones on the crt monitors are all very close to the same. it is only the flat screens that if they have the wrong drivers for their monitors or they are out dated the color really throws a curveball to the skins and makes the colors very bad.

also there are lots of skinners out there that tried it and found it more then they wanted to do, so they only did one or two skins with very little features added on the old mm 3.0 skinning engine, and never updated to the newer one.
so that too can cause a bad looking skin on some systems because a feature that should be there is not there.

but skinning is not one thing that can be done fast by everyone so they stopped.

some people have jobs are in school. not all are out of work and sit on their ... all day like me that has time to make them. but then i'm getting rocks thrown at me from my family for not going out for a job so i might not be doing it much for mm 4 but rather just let newbies do them.

[Dreadlau]

Hello

I just changed my OS from XP to win7 a few days ago.

And I'm wondering about the new skin-engine.
Does the alpha of MM4 support features like:

-Maximizing the window by drag and dropping the title-bar to the top of the screen.

-Making the window occupy half of the screen by drag and dropping the title-bar to the side.

-Making the other windows disappear from the desktop by shaking the MM window. ( IIRC this feature is called aero-shake. )


BTW, I noticed that I can only resize the MM window by the bottom, the left and the right side. But not by the top.
Seems like a bug to me. So I thought I'll mention it.

[nohitter151]

@Dreadlau: Yes, yes, yes, and that bug will be fixed in MM4. It will behave like other windows do in Win7 (and vista).

[Dreadlau]

Thx for the quick answer Nohitter.

That's good news

[spacekris]

There are a lot of skins out there, but a lot of them are, to be honest, crap.

I'm not sure why none of the skinners who've replied so far haven't taken offense but as a long-time user of MM and one who likes a ton of the skins currently available, I take offense. Despite this assertion to the contrary:

Please don't take this offensively any of you who make skins for MediaMonkey, this is not my intention.

That remark was completely uncalled for. These skinners spend hours upon hours working on their skins and to have someone come along and say "they're crap but don't take that offensively and oh, by the way, can someone please make me a skin I might like" is rude and insulting.

Personally, I think you owe some people an apology.

since when one has to apologize for for disliking something? tuxflux just did express his feeling in a POLITE manner. and he did also say why. this is called constructive criticism. and i feel exactly the same way as tuxflux since years with the skins (also with the default one!), see thread here.

@nohitter: PLEASE, include a balance & the bitrate to be shown, as i beg for since years > viewtopic.php?f=7&t=28082&start=23 .btw how will the default skin look like or will this be the new default?

[nohitter151]

@Spacekris: I suppose you mean what will the "Skinless" version look like. I have no idea.

[votrexflame]

Looking forward to the release

[Dreadlau]

BTW, I noticed that I can only resize the MM window by the bottom, the left and the right side. But not by the top.
Seems like a bug to me. So I thought I'll mention it.

Still not working.
Do you know if this is tracked in mantis?

[nohitter151]

BTW, I noticed that I can only resize the MM window by the bottom, the left and the right side. But not by the top.
Seems like a bug to me. So I thought I'll mention it.

Still not working.
Do you know if this is tracked in mantis?

http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=5429