Recommended Posts

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

post-110624-1144908388_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/452153-simplicity-winamp-skin/
Share on other sites

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.

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. :-)

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.

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.

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 by axialix

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

post-96212-1144917840_thumb.jpg

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. :)

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • My father still uses a programme written in dbase3. Still manages to work with a little help from dosbox. 
    • Microsoft hides these secret Windows 11 performance boost settings available on every PC by Sayan Sen Windows enthusiasts often look for ways to extract as much performance out of their systems as possible, and it's often the case that they try and do so while trying to minimize the heat and power consumption. This is especially relevant in the case of mobile Windows PCs since laptops and notebooks tend to get hot and management of that heat and power is harder in such a form factor. As such users often turn to techniques like under-volting which can be used to squeeze out the maximum capabilities of a chip while also maintaining lowered power levels. There are official apps from AMD and Intel with the likes of Ryzen Master and XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility). While these are quite handy, most enthusiasts probably prefer to dig into the BIOS and play around with settings there like Curve Optimizer on Ryzen, which lets users set various frequency-voltage scaling values. These are essentially called P-States. If you are not familiar with them, Processor Power Management is done through Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) P-states and C-states. While P-states or performance pwoer states handle CPU voltage-frequency scaling, C-states deal with CPU sleep states so that some of the CPU functions, which are not necessary at that moment, can be disabled. The P-states and C-states work together to make the processor run more efficiently. It helps the OS and apps determine which cores can be parked and which should be boosted. Of course not every user is an enthusiast or knows the technicalities and integrities of how things like overclocking or undervolting work. Thankfully for them Windows itself offers something pretty cool, though it is hidden by default on all systems. By default, Windows only has two P-States, "Minimum Processor State" and "Maximum Processor State." However, this can be changed with a Registry trick to expand the options under a secret "Processor performance boost mode" dropdown. This essentially enables the HWP or hardware P-States available on a device, and these are not controlled just by the OS itself as the underlying hardware gets involved too. In total there are five Processor Performance Boost Mode profiles that control how Windows requests and allows CPU turbo/boost behavior under the different power policies. They are: Disabled: In this mode, processor boosting is effectively turned off. The CPU will avoid entering turbo or boost frequencies and instead operate closer to its base frequency ceiling. This can significantly reduce power consumption and heat output, but at the cost of reduced burst performance and responsiveness in short workloads. Enabled: This is the standard behavior where boost functionality is allowed under normal conditions. The processor can opportunistically increase frequency when workload demands it, balancing performance gains with power and thermal constraints as managed by the system. Aggressive: Aggressive mode favors performance more heavily, allowing the CPU to enter higher boost states more readily and sustain them longer. This should in theory improve responsiveness under bursty or heavy workloads but increases power draw and thermal output compared to the default enabled behavior. Efficient Enabled: This mode still allows boosting, but with a stronger bias toward energy efficiency. The system attempts to use boost more selectively, avoiding unnecessary frequency spikes when the performance gain is marginal. Efficient Aggressive: This is a hybrid approach where boost is still performance-responsive, but the system continuously weighs efficiency more heavily than in Aggressive mode. It aims to deliver noticeable performance improvements while reducing wasted power in less demanding scenarios. Here's how to enable the Processor performance boost mode: Open Registry Editor: Press Win+R, type regedit, and click OK. Go to: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\be337238-0d82-4146-a960-4f3749d470c7 (where HKLM stands for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_) Modify the value of Attributes from 1 to 2 (you can find modify option by right-clicking) After that, exit Registry, you should now be able to see the new "Processor performance boost mode" dropdown menu: As you can see there are now five new P-States or CPPC states or power profile available that help define the boost mode processor setting on your PC. Wrapping it up here's a quick run-down of the settings as defined by Microsoft itself. Setting Description Disabled The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is disabled. Collaborative Processor Performance Control (CPPC) behaviour is disabled. Enabled The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is enabled. CPPC behaviour is Efficient Enabled. Aggressive The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is enabled. CPPC behaviour is Aggressive. Efficient Enabled The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is Efficient. CPPC behaviour is Efficient Enabled. Efficient Aggressive The corresponding P-state-based behaviour is Efficient. CPPC behaviour is Aggressive. Aggressive At Guaranteed Windows calculates the desired extra performance above the guaranteed performance level, and asks the processor to deliver that specific performance level. Efficient Aggressive At Guaranteed Windows always asks the processor to deliver the highest possible performance above the guaranteed performance level. In the next part we shall be comparing these settings to explore how much of a benefit or regression they can provide in terms of performance and power efficiency. If you decide to change the values on your system and are experiencing problems like crashes or an overheating PC, make sure to revert the steps back to the original state.
    • I think he means you haven't reviewed previous UFC games. Of course it doesn't matter... Every time you just report on something that involves the President even if just simply what happened you guys usually get accused of being anti-Trump. We live in fun times.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      rolfus earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Leroy Jethro Gibbs earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Conversation Starter
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • One Month Later
      AndreaB earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      agatameier earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      518
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      198
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      147
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      93
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      78
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!