Vista Skinning starts to reach its prime

[Frogboy Administrators]

Take a close look at the new Winter Wonderland visual style for WindowBlinds on Windows Vista:

If you load it up into a program where you can really zoom in then you can appreciate the detail that skins on Windows Vista are starting to achieve.

I don't think on Windows XP that the skins ever integrated in quite as well as they're doing on Vista. See the navigation controls and the search field and the button bar and so forth.

I think 2008 will be there year that skinning on Windows Vista really makes it to prime time.

[philosoraptor]

Take a close look at the new Winter Wonderland visual style for WindowBlinds on Windows Vista:

If you load it up into a program where you can really zoom in then you can appreciate the detail that skins on Windows Vista are starting to achieve.

I don't think on Windows XP that the skins ever integrated in quite as well as they're doing on Vista. See the navigation controls and the search field and the button bar and so forth.

I think 2008 will be there year that skinning on Windows Vista really makes it to prime time.

If you take a look at Wincustomize, they were making VERY impressive themes for XP for quite a while.

[onscreen]

If you take a look at Wincustomize, they were making VERY impressive themes for XP for quite a while.

What Frogboy is trying to emphasize on the skin integration into the OS. If you compare the skins made for Vista and XP, the difference is some graphical elements in XP cannot be skinned compare to Vista. Namely the searchbar, the address bar, the navigation buttons etc..

Impressive or not, whats important is the a complete skin without the use of forced overwriting.

[.Markus]

However impressive these new WindowsBlinds 5 features are, they are nothing without a wider assortment of available skins..

Perhaps 2008 will be that year :)

[Frogboy Administrators]

It's not the quality of the skins I'm talking about here but like onscreen says is that the integration is much more seamless into the OS.

Markus - we're talking about WindowBlinds 6 skins. There's thousands of WindowBlinds 5 skins but 6 just came out and peopel are still learning how to skin Vista.

[Allan]

when they make them *.msstyle / *.theme I'll be happy. I don't want to use WindowsBlinds for any reason.

[.Markus]

It's not the quality of the skins I'm talking about here but like onscreen says is that the integration is much more seamless into the OS.

Markus - we're talking about WindowBlinds 6 skins. There's thousands of WindowBlinds 5 skins but 6 just came out and peopel are still learning how to skin Vista.

Haha it's far too late here, actually meant version 6! ;)

[Linkinfamous]

That's actually rather impressive. I mean, I don't care for the theme, but what it's capable of doing is quite impressive.

The only thing I want to know, I haven't bothered to look into it:

Are you capable of chaniging the routine used for the blurring effect, and replacing it with something else? Is it just a pixel shader you can swap out?

[Frogboy Administrators]

when they make them *.msstyle / *.theme I'll be happy. I don't want to use WindowsBlinds for any reason.

Why?

Do you stick with Windows Media Player for all your music needs? MS Paint for your graphics needs?

That's actually rather impressive. I mean, I don't care for the theme, but what it's capable of doing is quite impressive.

The only thing I want to know, I haven't bothered to look into it:

Are you capable of chaniging the routine used for the blurring effect, and replacing it with something else? Is it just a pixel shader you can swap out?

Right now you get just the blur effect. What other types of effects would you want?

[Linkinfamous]

Right now you get just the blur effect. What other types of effects would you want?

Well, I don't know. Maybe like a polycrystal effect, like looking at something through cracked glass, you know? I haven't given it much thought, but if it was something that could be exposed somehow, I'm sure people would come up with some cool things.

[Cryingcure]

Why?

Do you stick with Windows Media Player for all your music needs? MS Paint for your graphics needs?

Why not?

Is there a law saying he has to use Windowblinds for themes? No

Not everyone cares to have all the effects that themes for Windowblinds offer.

One little piece of criticism against a product of yours and you get angry. Windowblinds 6 was in beta for a while before going final correct? People had plenty of time to learn how to make themes specifically for it or plain Vista and Vista has been done for a little over a year now. Saying people need time to learn hwo to skin Vista is a bad excuse IMO.

[Island Dog]

Is there a law saying he has to use Windowblinds for themes? No

No law that I'm aware of. However, if someone has a valid criticism or reason they don't like WB I would like to hear about it. The point of this thread was to show how WindowBlinds can do things that you are not going to find in .msstyles.

Windowblinds 6 was in beta for a while before going final correct?

WindowBlinds 6 was in beta for a while, but SkinStudio 6 (which actually creates the skins) was made available not too long ago. Creating a high-quality skin takes longer than a few days, and although we have seen some fantastic skins already, it's going to take time for others to pick it up.

[Steve Gosselin]

I think 2008 will be there year that skinning on Windows Vista really makes it to prime time.

Exactly! :woot:

[-Hiroshi-]

Oh FFS, accept that not everyone uses Windowblinds and get over it. Push your product, but don't force it on people, and certainly don't pop a gasket when someone criticizes your product. In all honesty, I'd use Windowblinds if it wasn't so buggy, the skins didn't look terrible, and the thing as a whole didn't feel like it was shodded together at the last minute.

[Draconian Guppy]

Oh FFS, accept that not everyone uses Windowblinds and get over it. Push your product, but don't force it on people, and certainly don't pop a gasket when someone criticizes your product. In all honesty, I'd use Windowblinds if it wasn't so buggy, the skins didn't look terrible, and the thing as a whole didn't feel like it was shodded together at the last minute.

+1 IMO .msstyles are the way to go, installing something extra is just memory usage for no reason IMO.

On topic. The skin IS nice. But I wouldn't call installing an additional program to get that skin working "seemless integration".

[Randolph]

I agree with the above post. (Y)

[Boifido]

Wow, I have been out of the skinning scene for quite some time due to the lack of skins for Vista, but this is amazing. I love the ability to skin the whole interface, making a more complete look. I think once vista matures, it will become a great operating system for all.

[briangw]

+1 IMO .msstyles are the way to go, installing something extra is just memory usage for no reason IMO.

On topic. The skin IS nice. But I wouldn't call installing an additional program to get that skin working "seemless integration".

And Vista doesn't already use said memory? C'mon, time to upgrade from the 512 ya got to 4 GB. It's cheaper these days! :rolleyes:

[DigitalE]

And WindowBlinds actually uses very little memory.

[Ji@nBing]

I think the tech behind WB is great, but the skins are terrible. WB themers need to get out of the year 2001 and start making more elegant and streamlined themes. The msstyles community learned this many years ago; I don't know why WB themers continue to make themes that are so gaudy.

Hopefully next year will see a change in WB design and we'll see some nice, usable skins.

[andy_rose]

I think the tech behind WB is great, but the skins are terrible. WB themers need to get out of the year 2001 and start making more elegant and streamlined themes. The msstyles community learned this many years ago; I don't know why WB themers continue to make themes that are so gaudy.

Hopefully next year will see a change in WB design and we'll see some nice, usable skins.

Agree 100%

WB itself is very nice running on Vista and is NO memory hog as some says it is. However, the skins that are, and have always been available is terrible and bulky. Only vStyler is making useable skins ATM..

[martin10018]

Agree 100%

WB itself is very nice running on Vista and is NO memory hog as some says it is. However, the skins that are, and have always been available is terrible and bulky. Only vStyler is making useable skins ATM..

I also agree 100%. Although I own OD I seldomly use WB 6 since usable AND good looking skins are very hard to find.

[Tuco]

How long before we can import vista msstyles into windowblinds ?

[Wannes]

Even though I don't use WB ( or Windows for that matter) I'll still keep an eye on the scene. There were some nice themes back in the days with the GUI Olympics and I'd love to see even better themes.

[Denis W. Veteran]

^^ whenever Skinstudio 6 is finalized. Until then try to snatch a copy of Skinstudio 5 free and use that to convert msstyles.

Right now you get just the blur effect. What other types of effects would you want?

Instead of additional blur effects, will it eventually be possible to skin the client glass areas used in apps such as Photo Gallery and Media Player, as well as Flip? Right now Windowblinds skins sets the glass to a frosted white. If skinning the client glass areas for Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer is possible, why not other glass areas?