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Aero Glass for Win8 RC4


bigmuscle

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AERO GLASS for WIN8 BETA 2

* do not generate occlusion rectangles for glass windows

--> WS_EX_LAYERED bit is not set anymore

--> works for compatible udwm.dll (6.2.9200.16420) only, in other case it will fallback to the layered windows

* render blur effect only if DWM is attempting to draw glass

--> fixes rendering blur effect on solid-color surfaces

--> works for compatible dwmcore.dll (6.2.9200.16433) only

* blur resources sizes are set according to render target size and not the primary monitor resolution

* removed support for Direct2D mode

--> Direct3D mode is supported now only, because it would be hard to maintain two different blur implementations

--> Direct3D mode is more native, it uses internal DWM pixel shaders and respects DWM colorization settings

* added option to render blur completely NATIVELY

--> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM:UseNativeBlur (DWORD values 0x0 (default) / 0x1)

--> works for compatible dwmcore.dll (6.2.9200.16433) only and it probably becomes unusable with future Windows updates

--> very glitchy, because I returned only a very small portion of the removed code

--> it is just a preview to compare visual and performance differences

--> do not report bugs when you enable this feature

* fixed DwmpGetColorizationParameters function which resulted in invalid stack in some cases

* use correct Gaussian weights from Win8 RP

* do not render frame color until the window is fully opened (Win7 behaviour)

* reimplemented the colorization algorithm for transparent windows

--> works for compatible shell32.dll (6.2.9200.16496) only when injected into explorer.exe

Features marked as "works for compatible DLL only" may work for different versions too but only if it contains expected function on the same address. These features won't probably work under 32-bit version because I was not able to read the addresses yet. It can be read in debug.log whether the certain feature is enable or failed due to assembly mismatch.

https://developer.berlios.de/project/showfiles.php?group_id=13124

Edited by bigmuscle
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Came right up and works on both 1600x1200 monitors for me.

I don't notice anything wrong. Works just as it did with my modified PNG file, and all seems well polished (I was using Direct3D mode before). Seems instantaneous here.

Well done!

Anything in particular you'd like tested?

-Noel

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Hello.

Thank you for this awesome work.

Now a "problem": just tried the 0.8 version, and, even if I try to choose a different window colour, or to modify transparency I have no results, only a completely transparent windows, no blur, nothing. Is this a problem? I'm runnig Windows 8 x64... What should I do? Thank you.

EDIT: I also have problems deleting the old version (0.7). Windows said it was opened in another process, so I tried renaming it in ".dll.bak", I tried to delete it, but nothing worked. Same message. Is this the error? I don't know how to delete the old version, it could be the problem...

Edited by blak24
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I also have problems deleting the old version (0.7).

Remove the DWMGlass.dll path from the AppInit_DLLs registry key, reboot, then you will be able to overwrite or delete the old version.

-Noel

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I finally managed to capture one of the glitches (had my host system capture the screen on time intervals while running the beta software in a VM).

It looks as though it's a remnant of the drop shadow around the edge of a window over the top of the window whose title bar is blurred by Aero Glass for Win8. In this case I moved the control panel from upper-right to lower-left over the Registry Editor window.

Note that this doesn't always happen. I can often drag a window over another and this will be fine. It goes away if I move the mouse over the caption buttons of the window in which the glitch is showing.

post-376593-0-27504600-1366067875_thumb.

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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AERO GLASS for WIN8 BETA 2

Man it looks beautiful with native blur. :w00t:

That it is my friend! BIG MUSCLE! I love you, mate! Thanks for all the wonderful work, the time and effort, taking time to respond on this forum and being patient with all the complainers. I don't mind the popup, even if you plan to sell this, I will continue to give support in any way I can. Cheers for the achievement and I look forward to the next release!

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I finally managed to capture one of the glitches

It's still there, but looks a bit different with the UseNativeBlur DWORD set to 1.

post-376593-0-01935200-1366069087_thumb.

It's almost as if some part of the setup is dredging up the light color defined in the unblurred Windows 8 theme rendition.

Interestingly, the Magnifier doesn't see the blurred title bars with v0.8 BETA 2, but rather sees them as completely transparent.

post-376593-0-04695400-1366069555_thumb.

-Noel

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Man it looks beautiful with native blur. :w00t:

How does it look different to you? Not seeing a significant difference between UseNativeBlur 0 or 1 here.

UseNativeBlur 0 vs.1:

post-376593-0-77736300-1366070569_thumb.

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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Hi there.

I'm still in Win7 here, so the app doesn't apply to me yet, but I'm posting for a little rant, and a question.

I love the blur since Vista, and have always hated the glass stripes over it. As a programmer, I was waiting for a version of Windows that'd allow to enable *just the blur* & not the stripes. I know that in Win7 it's possible through the registry or the undocumented DwmSetColorizationParameters, alas not per-window.

So I was hoping that in Win8 it'd be improved.. NOT REMOVED! I thought that the whole "aero is gone" was a joke, it actually mostly was, except for the blur, sadly. I don't even understand, because blur goes well with a flat look. & it's not even just eye candy, it helps roughly knowing what's behind windows when you focus enough, while still keeping things readable.

Thanks

I always removed the window stripes by modifying the .uxtheme file
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Thanks for this update. Applied it (disable glass, reboot, replace dll, enable glass, restart dwm), but there's no blur for me :}

noblur.png

noblurreguser.png

noblurreglocal.png

I may have done something wrong, but basically I used settings from v0.7

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Right, for me, in v0.8, I get no blur by default. Just complete transparency.

I get blur when I enable Native Blur. However, Native Blur is more prone to artefacts (yes I know you mentioned it would be buggier :) )

I know that now you are colourising the window borders in the same way as in Windows 7, however, I think this comes through slower. I like my borders with a charcoal glass shade, so until the blur occurs, I have a flash of black window borders for approximately a half second. The border colourisation in Windows 7 was always the same type of silvery white, so its less noticeable in Windows 7, but because user can recolour the window borders in Windows 8, the flash of non glass borders can be more distinct. Also, the borders become solid when clicking the X to close windows.

(I've only used for a few minutes, so I'll assess things more later.)

Edit: The border thing only happens in Native Blur, and is as before when that is disabled. There is just a lack of blur when its disabled, but I assume its something to do with customised values.

Edited by drakenabarion
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Man it looks beautiful with native blur. :w00t:

How does it look different to you? Not seeing a significant difference between UseNativeBlur 0 or 1 here.

UseNativeBlur 0 vs.1:

post-376593-0-77736300-1366070569_thumb.

-Noel

Same here I am not noticing anything diffrent.

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