Simplicity Winamp Skin

[axialix]

Here's two new skins I hope you will enjoy. If you've used either clearONE or the beta, everything should be self-explanatory, but just in case I'd keep the tooltips on your first time around. These skins are both minimal in filesize and appearance. I took every step I could to keep the loadtime to a minimum while still retaining lots of options and features. I made them mostly for the people who loved the original clearONEbeta, but I hope the rest of you will dig them too. :)

Download Here

[moogoat]

Awesome! I've stuck with ClearONE for a long time now, but I think these ones are even better! :D

[[DGS]]

Can someone explain what do i do with the Simplicity.zip that i downloaded?

edit: nevermind, i put it in the skins folder and worked!

[axialix]

Thanks moogoat. I hope my skills are improving. :)

DGS, for some reason, Internet Explorer changes the filename from .wal to .zip, but no matter, just place the file in your Winamp\Skins directory and reload winamp.

[mofo916]

lovely skin! i loved clearone and i will like this one, too. good job!

[Herby]

Amazing skin,.. I love the clear version, great work! :woot:

It takes a long time to load the first time -> first time only, when you restart Winamp or load the skin for a second time, it has a normal loading time (for a Modern skin).

[axialix]

Yes, the first time you run the skin (as a .wal file), Winamp has to extract the contents to a Temp folder. That's probably why you noticed the difference. A good tip if you want all your skins loading quickly is to open the .wal files with winzip and extract the contents to Winamp\Skins\SKINNAME.

[Hawk999]

Wow!! I am mucho impressed. You are getting better and better. Loads of config options is what I like. :)

I especially like how you can enlarge the coverart in the normal mode.

The great thing is, in normal mode the skin will adapt its form to the bigger cover display.

It reminds me of the famous saying of Chicago architect Louis Sullivan 'form follows function".

Btw I would love to have a white and blue colour theme. :-)

[dividebyzero]

Oh man!!! If loving your skins are wrong, I dont wanna be right!

Ax, seriously, thanks - you rock!

[axialix]

Thanks for the thoughtful comments Hawk. If you'd like more color themes, you can use the Color Editor in my sig to make more. It's really easy and I'll include them in a future version if you post them here. Love your title btw. :D

:) dbz, I'm sure you'll have some suggestions for improvement, so lay them on me.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Sometimes I wish I could find Winamp usable, as some of these skins truly are beautiful.

[hotdog666al]

is it supposed to have a transparent background?

Because I can't seem to enable alpha blending :| ??!

Edit: Sussed. I'm as blind as a bat.

Very nice skin! ClearONE is much nicer though ;)

Edited April 13, 2006 by hotdog963al

[WitCh-Fire]

Sweet. Favorite new skin :D

Love the Album art thats builtin. No Need for other plugins :D(Y)

[dividebyzero]

Me again,

I've noticed a small bug/interface problem with the simplicity skin, namely, the notifier.

Due to the nature of the notifier, it could pop up over anything. This is a problem if it pops up over something that could obsure it's own text, like, a similar coloured background, or text from another window. Would it be possible to have the text over a bezel, similar to the title bar in the notifier? It does detract a bit from the aesthetics, but it would become far more useful.

Anyway, just to let you know, this one just feels more responsive, and fluid than clearone. If I click on something, it happens straight away, no lag. I've also noticed that memory usage stays constant during playback and only spikes during notifier activity... CPU usage is also way down and runs at around 1-2% and also only hits about 8% during notifier activity. This is simply amazing!

@ njlouch - Usability is a major issue for applications that use freeform skinning engines. Most skins are either to flashy in their design that the interface suffers, others go for the plain look to make the skin more usable. CleanONE, and to a greater extent, Simplicity are two skins that strike a very good balance between looks and usability - I urge you to give this one a try.

[axialix]

Yes njlouch, please give this one a try. But why do you find Winamp so unusable, which media player do you prefer?

Yep, I tried to combine the notifier and coverart into one window. It was a real challenge getting it to size right, but it finally worked. Only bad thing is the album art doesn't look too hot at any size other than autosize. The smooth option helps some, but it's not great. It's a limitation of winamp that it doesn't resize images well. Sure wish they would fix it...

dbz, clearONE has a lot of .onEnterArea events, namely the glows and button mouseovers. This increases CPU usage and memory to some extent (but it sure looks nice). You're right, it's hard to strike a balance between looking good and running well. Sometimes all you can do is compromise.

Edited April 13, 2006 by axialix

[Sky Juice]

The great thing is, in normal mode the skin will adapt its form to the bigger cover display.

It reminds me of the famous saying of Chicago architect Louis Sullivan 'form follows function".

And it all started with C1 beta...it's nice to see all these skins by you evolving around that particuliar concept. After playing around with your new skin, i found the buttons in the config window to be kinda unresponsive. Is it just me?

Other than that issue, this would be my default modern skin for now! (c'mon classic skins r good too!) :p

[Bhav]

Great job axialix!

[Herby]

Yes, the first time you run the skin (as a .wal file), Winamp has to extract the contents to a Temp folder. That's probably why you noticed the difference. A good tip if you want all your skins loading quickly is to open the .wal files with winzip and extract the contents to Winamp\Skins\SKINNAME.

I always extract the skins (I've checked both Temp folders and they are empty), it's just the first time, after that it's loading normally. :)

[axialix]

I've noticed no problems with responsiveness in the CF window, must just be you Sky Juice. It usually is. :p

[cheazles]

Was a bit skeptical at first from the screen shots but seriously, awesome awesome work.

[mycroft]

This skin looks great!

I've got one question - how do you get the album art to show in the main Winamp window like you have in your screenshot of Simplicity Clear? Is it possible to do this with ID3v2 tags?

-m

[axialix]

Are you sure you have your album art setup correctly? Check the link in my sig to be sure. Though sorry, Winamp cannot yet read from ID3 tags, but I'm told it is on the horizon.

[zmysta]

you're probably getting tired of hearing this by now, but really nice work axialix! :)

[axialix]

Not at all zmysta. :) I just like to hear that people like my work. Keeps me motivated to make better skins.

[XaSeRz]

great theme :woot: