[RELEASE] Longhorn Percept

[savourymonkey]

http://www.deviantart.com/view/26944194/

Now available. Click to download.

Firefox, Thunderbird, iTunes skins to follow 16/1/06.

Criticism welcome.

UPDATE: VER 1.2:

Update can be found here: http://www.deviantart.com/view/26944194/

No more text problems, I hope, and plenty more substyles: try Longhorn Percept Glass Taskbar, it's the prettiest.

Full GUI Kit beginning of Feb.

Edited January 18, 2006 by savourymonkey

[Cadish]

Really nice!!

-Cadish

[Steven P. Administrators]

This looks great :)

[Sane404]

Woah, looks great from the previews. Too bad I don't have WinBlinds :'(

[icecream]

looks very nice but...

- menubar not good readable (black characters on darkgrey background)

- windowcaptionbar is too big and too transparent, even in opaque mode.

- don't really like the white border on the lower side of the window, the darkgrey one on the upper side looks good.

- the taskbar buttons don't change when you push them and they look unfinished compared to the glossy "ok", "cancel", "apply" buttons.

- the color of the quicklaunch buttons is blue and doesn't really fit in the theme.

[danielkoch]

amazing skin! thanks for release!

[savourymonkey]

Sorry, thethin task bar version will be updated this evening. The other taskbar versions have superior buttons. This was an oversight. As for the caption bars, I know they're not everyone's taste, but I like them big.

In my scheme, and in tests, the text on the menubar should show up as light grey, not black. If you could post a screenshot of the menubar and text, I'll also update this for this evening.

The white border on the lower windowborder is to give a sense of unity whilst in explorer. I'm aware that it doesn't also look great in ie or friefox, depending on what site you looking at, but it's a compromise, and I think it's moderately more attractive with it than without it. If other people dislike, I'll include a substyle in the update that doesn't have it.

Post that menu shot soon, and I'll update it along with the taskbar problems as soon as I have a chance, definately by tonight. Thankyou for your comments and their clarity.

My menu looks like this:

Edited December 28, 2005 by savourymonkey

[KitCh]

Wow :blink:

Amazing work :cool:

[Bhav]

wow looks great (Y)

[alex1986]

looks nice , thx

[acedriver]

added as +fav :D

[Tuco]

This is an excellent style but the shellstyle really doesn't go with it, it needs a horizontal preview pane instead of the one on the left ( or at least the option )

[Morgan]

Pretty darn sexy! Nice work!

[savourymonkey]

Thanks to icecream, menu colour is adjusted. Sorry, I don't use windows menus as I have them hidden. I realised what you meant, and the problem is fixed. Thin taskbar version also has tasks altered to fit in with the theme. Quicklaunch buttons are fixed.

I don't think it suits shellstyles to be honest, but I only didn't include one because it takes less than a minute to import your favourite via skinstudio. Just choose one you like from any vs, and open the theme in skinstudio, then go to tools>windowblinds>import shellstyle file, then just select the file and close skinstudio.

Ver 1.1 Download link is the same. Find it in first post.

[zachacham]

Great job!

But I noticed 2 things that killed my eyes (watch the attached screen shot):

[jimkraz]

Very nice mate, appretiate all the hard work, Jim.

[Tuco]

I've just tried to import a shellstyle & i get an error message saying theme contains a number of errors, thus stopping me from saving the edited theme.

[savourymonkey]

You do not need to save after importing a shellstyle. The errors onl occur in skinstudio as I used notepad to make this theme. Just import and then close.

As for the menu issue in the screenshot above, menus should appear black with a soft grey scanlne. I cannot reporduce your error, but if anyone finds the same, I will try to fix this problem. I like the blue highlights, and they are only there on mouseover, but I know others don't so I will update with a substyle where the blue is replaced.

[Nighthawk-F117]

Wow, looking much better, I even had my comment posted there. :D

Good to see a person who can take constructive criticism and then advance on it.

Keep up the good work.

[iomega]

safe..nice work!!!

[freedom77]

This is a Great style!!

although it does feel unfinished in parts, i don't really like the gigantic title bar when its maximised, an like other people said the taskbar buttons could use some work, maybe make the taskbar more like this: http://pcweb.mycom.co.jp/photo/articles/20...images/001l.jpg

Thanks for your hard work though :p

[Tuco]

So you can, thanks for the tip !

[jahamus]

Thanks for the great skin!

Although...I did have the same problem that zachacham had.

[savourymonkey]

I can't understand the menu. Here, when I open any menu, it appears black, and so the text, being white, is the correct readable colour. Do you still have white menus when right-clicking on the desktop? I'm trying to replicate the problem but can't.

As for the maximized titlebars, you're quite right, they're not ideal. As far as I can tell however, they have to be the same height as the active titlebar, otherwise the buttons are lost outside the screen edge. I will try to find a workaround before the update, and this might be possible because now a few far more talented people are looking into it to see what they can do. In the meantime, I partially agree about the taskbar. I'm working on a new aero substyle that will have a more vista-like glass effect and different caption buttons. My feeling is that the current taskbar matches the current titlebars, and to make it look too glossy and reflective would jar with the rest of the aesthetic, but I will include a 'shinier' taskbar in the vista substyle in the update.

I'll relaunch the style tomorrow with the new substyle, and in the meantime I'd be happy to here from anyone who can offer any assistance on the menu issue. It's not a problem that my testers or housemates have had, and it's not one that I can duplicate so I really don't know how to fix it. They seem to work fine here.

[jemaho]

For that menu problem you might want to check your "favorite" image in skin studio, that's where the problem sits, the favorite menu is using an apart image for itself, meaning that if it doesn't follow the rest of your menu you got that type of problem.

Anyway, good job, was planning to send you might bug report for the skin but you beat me here by releasing it...