After seeing the popularity of transparent themes in the past few months I thought it was time for me to put my own version of the concept together. Hopefully I can do it justice, and provide a high quality Master skin with my own take on it.
The basic concept is a stripped down, very transparent, very fast WB that is perfect for screenshotting and showcasing wallpapers
There will be zero bevels or gradients, all the buttons will be flat and designed to be more like a touch screen interface.
It will have a white text and black text start menu substyle for use with light or dark wallpapers.
Heres a small screeny of what I have after a couple of days, I'll try to expose more as I strip it down.
I hope everyone can get Naked soon
Tried it.. just made everything black on my firefox.. is there a trick?
The thread describes any caveats. Apparently, there are one or two firefox addons that can break it. And you have to be using the Firefox 3, 32 bit branch. 3.5 doesn't work yet I don't think, and it doesn't support the 64 bit Firefox.
Let me know what you find out as I have never had it not work just right out of the box.
See... with that last line you'll be waiting very long. I won't drop to that low a level - just to justify an opinion.(Last post from me in this thread.)
Well I'm currently using this style and from what I understand these extra steps are not neccessary for a WB to reach full transparency. Everything that is inside the window frames is completely made glass by WB alone, he only used the help of the native AERO engine to get a seamless flow between frame and inside while using the default AERO Stream.
Anyway I'm happy about your statement that you will try to make everything glassed, it always bothered me on most skins that I could set the frame and explorer bg to glass but the address and "command" bar where still opaque.
Keep up the awesome work!
Fine by me, had the first critique been anywhere near accurate I would have addressed it appropriately.
The commandbar will be trans... the address bar.. ive had issues with making it trans in past themes... but we'll see.
That's how it gets done
Best leave it in the CHAMP's hand
Kinda reminds me of the wb Solarion. Not the shape but of the tranparency.
Can't wait
looks great...thanks....
I too got the initial impression that it was another vista clone. Reminds me of Aero Frost. Looks nice, though.
Well Brysgirl, as I told Snowy, you'll see upon release, color aside, this will hold no resemblance to either.
I know this.. cos I made Aero Frost and have made 6 full Vista clones for Stardock also. Ive probably made more 'real' (not reused images, all from scratch, interpretations) Vista clones than anyone and I can assure you, short of being transparent, every element of this theme is and will be different than any Vista clone.
Thanks for your nice comment.
Stay tuned.
Will do. I'm sure it will be worth waiting for. You do good work.
While i am not into the full glass looking themes this does nothing to detract from the outstanding quality and talent that is a hallmark of all your work john. This theme will definately be a winner for those who like this look. Superb work mate
Thanks everyone...
Xp is naked...left laying on the bed feeling violated... Time to move on and strip Vista down!
Im so bad
Were you able to get the Glass Firefox working, amigo?
v's famous...someone has gotten a whiff of this thread and published. It's a rip!
No I couldn't, Ill try mess with it some more when I'm done.
Doc, you are correct.. Im ripping... ripping pixels off Vista as we speak.!
I don't even want to know what you did with the mouse.
Nice wb, stay tuned!
..widgyes..wip
For Vstyler and others, I solved the problem wherein setting the explorer backgrounds to 100% transparent (or 0% solid/opaque if you prefer) causes an empty explorer folder's background to go solid black.
Turns out that taking the slider all the way to the left gives WindowBlinds a headache, but all you have to do is click on the slider widget and hit the right arrow key on your keyboard once. It won't even cause the widget to move visibly (you can check your input by hitting hit a couple more times, to see it move a nudge).
This sets the background to a fraction of a percent solid, which, although NOT noticeable visibly, does stop WindowBlinds from getting a headache from the technique (probably by thwarting a divide by 0 error or something similar). So this simple tweak gives perfect results and no bug.
Now I am looking forward to the Naked WB release even more.
bilbo! Really great! Love that....looks really well done
v...keep rippinem!
Less is more. You hit the nail right on the head. This will be my skin upon release.
bilbo...wonderful
Excalpius - Thats good to know.... However.. Due to WB's limitations in some Vista sections I dont think im going to go for completely clear windows... for one.. Maxed windows dont support trans... so going from a completely trans window to a completely opaque one, for me.. is unnacceptable. Ill probably make the windows white, perhaps pinstriped and leave the window background settings to the per user. Folks can adjust that themselves like you said with WBcfg.
Another problem is the search box, using a translucent image there leads to having a box within the box and looks like pure hell. Its just not supported. You'll notice that other theme doesnt have a trans. search box in start menu.
In using the theme u referred to the search\url box was buggy as hell and not something I can feel good releasing to the public especially in a pay theme.
Next problem is the command bar.. it doesnt have an inactive state.. so there is no way to make the entire window look correct as one piece, active and inactive.
Another problem is the header bars.. they don't seem to want to play nice, when transparent.... for different states.
Lastly, as if the other stuff wasnt enough the Nav. pane and favs area on left will not support trans. so unless its hidden (and I assume most people dont hide it, I know I dont.) then it throws another wrench in the fully trans. window idea.
What I will try to do is make a full flass frame\toolbar and do the conventional thing elsewhere while still keeping it as minimal as i can.
Bilbo.. lookin good buddy
Edit, dont ask me why that paragraph up top is a link, i didn't intend it.
Man....this will make a great Winstep theme as well! Can't wait for the release V!
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