Jump to content

[OLD] Experimental builds


bigmuscle

Recommended Posts

On 3/11/2016 at 1:01 PM, bigmuscle said:

I advise to read the message in the dialog box.

Sure. I took your advice - I read it a few hundred times. I'm running your aero glass on 14279 and it works fine. Even the flickering I complained about has been almost gone a build or two ago. However, the symbols for the rs branch have not been released and probably won't be until a more or less final build.

Well, it's a big deal to click cancel every time I restart the Windows, but would be nice to have it done automatically. Maybe you could come with a version that doesn't require the symbols, or a switch that allows to turn off the debug mode...

Link to comment
Share on other sites


It doesn't work fine.  There are visual glitches all over it, and the theme atlas layout process doesn't work at all, so one of the most important features is unavailable.  Instead of this...

Good.png.09a66f0d400c723fb9831ee2a58a68e

...you see stuff like this...

Bad.png.a1075f8f9414bab19c2416c730f08953

The more appropriate phrase is "barely hanging together".  If symbols actually ARE loaded, it tends to just lock up.

Seems to be a case of "Big Muscle did his best at building a self-adjusting hook, but just couldn't anticipate all of what Microsoft would do next".  I suggest not trying to use it at all with pre-release builds, or at best just accept the incompatibility notice (and don't allow symbols to load).

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, iweksler said:

Sure. I took your advice - I read it a few hundred times. I'm running your aero glass on 14279 and it works fine. Even the flickering I complained about has been almost gone a build or two ago. However, the symbols for the rs branch have not been released and probably won't be until a more or less final build.

Well, it's a big deal to click cancel every time I restart the Windows, but would be nice to have it done automatically. Maybe you could come with a version that doesn't require the symbols, or a switch that allows to turn off the debug mode...

Ah, sorry, my mistake. I could not know that you use OS version that was never said to be supported.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, bigmuscle said:

Ah, sorry, my mistake. I could not know that you use OS version that was never said to be supported.

I am well aware that it is not supported and have no complaints. It's just my inborn curiosity that pushes me to such adventures. But for now it works quite satisfactorily...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 13/03/2016 at 0:54 PM, NoelC said:

It doesn't work fine.  There are visual glitches all over it, and the theme atlas layout process doesn't work at all, so one of the most important features is unavailable.  Instead of this...

Like i said before, the theme "clsharp_v4.4" works fine, only in modern apps doesn't work at all, i don't use many modern apps so, i don't care:

Sin título.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I forgot to clarify that the theme  "clsharp_v4.4"  works in build 14279 only without the .layout file, if you put the .layout file in C:\Aeroglass, the theme not work properly, at least in my case, and for the inactive titlebars i use WinaeroTweaker, this is how it looks the inactive titlebars before and after to use WinaeroTweaker:

Sin título (3).jpg

Sin título22.jpg

Edited by carlitosoo555
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/14/2016 at 10:19 AM, carlitosoo555 said:

Like i said before, the theme "clsharp_v4.4" works fine, only in modern apps doesn't work at all, i don't use many modern apps so, i don't care

 

17 hours ago, carlitosoo555 said:

I forgot to clarify that the theme  "clsharp_v4.4"  works in build 14279 only without the .layout file, if you put the .layout file in C:\Aeroglass, the theme not work properly, at least in my case

I left modified .layout files here
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/170233-aero-glass-themeatlas/?page=19#comment-1119838
Try them and see if it works though I'm not entirely sure if they work on the newer preview builds (I know that the files currently work up to 10586.164 as its my current OS)

EDIT: I'm a utter id***, didn't notice that .layout files are currently not working in the preview builds

Edited by Shining Escuridao
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2016-03-03 at 8:02 PM, Shining Escuridao said:

Not NoelC but I found a method on how to manually download symbols that someone posted here a while back

Just follow the instructions here http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/174355-aero-glass-for-win81-14/page-4#entry1107168

I can see that you were referring to my script. It has been updated by now, the script now automatically downloads symbol files and moves them to Aero Glass installation directory. However, manual changing of directories may still be required depending on where you install your programs. If Aero Glass is installed in other location rather than C:\AeroGlass\ then you should adjust lines containing this text: C:\AeroGlass\symbols; if Windows Software Development Kit is installed in other directory than C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\ then you shall make required changes to lines containing this text: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64\symchk.exe. If you have 32-bit Windows instead of 64-bit then more adjustments to the latter text will be required.

Here's updates script itself.

How to Download Symbol Files for Aero Glass without Donation Key

Download and install Windows Software Development Kit, during installation check “Debugging Tools for Windows” only. Create a text document containing the text provided below and rename its extension to .BAT. Run the file.

rd /q /s C:\AeroGlass\symbols
c:
cd %windir%\system32
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64\symchk.exe" dwmcore.dll /s SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64\symchk.exe" udwm.dll /s SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64\symchk.exe" ApplicationFrame.dll /s SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
md C:\AeroGlass\symbols
xcopy C:\symbols\* C:\AeroGlass\symbols /s
rd /q /s C:\symbols

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, bigmuscle said:

I think that .layout files work correctly (in general) but you need to have correct layout file and I admit  that I didn't extract it yet.

Now you have me a little bit confused...

I thought that the layout file describes the graphics in the .png file, and that your software takes care of mapping the resources to the right places in the operating system data structures.

I modeled the graphics in my RoundedCorners.png file on the (Win 8 RP?) theme atlas you have been providing with your product.  Are you saying that even if you should update the Aero Glass DLLs that I'll need to update the .layout file again, similar to what you will do for the supplied theme atlas?

Seems like it would be better if your software would just read one theme atlas file format and translate it to the needs of whatever system it is being used on.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but many of the graphic elements in the theme atlas file are not used at all, right?

-Noel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, NoelC said:

Now you have me a little bit confused...

I thought that the layout file describes the graphics in the .png file, and that your software takes care of mapping the resources to the right places in the operating system data structures.

That's right and that is the intention of the layout file. However, you can never predict what Microsoft changes because the DWM part of theme styles is undocumented. So, for example, the frame top border can be ID 47 in Win8 but in Win11, the ID 47 can interpreted a Close button. It is just an example - the correct IDs can be checked e.g. in Windows Style Builder.

In other words, layout files still work but each ID must point to correct part of atlas file.

EDIT: here is the atlas extracted from build 14257. As you can see, a lot of part IDs have been offset by one: http://glass8.eu/themes/win10rs14257.7z

Edited by bigmuscle
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, I'm starting to understand a little better.  Perhaps, now seeing what you've extracted, I'll dabble with creating a .layout file for the pre-release version and my RoundedCorners theme atlas when I find a little more time.

I guess there can never be an assumption that there won't be a new graphic element used in a different place than ever before, but they DO seem to just change things for change's sake.  They're of course quite free to alter the mechanics of the display compositing any way they want - it's their product - but I wonder whether they spend some money to just make people like you tired.  It almost sounds like what DWM does should just be replaced entirely by a product like yours.  I know that's a LOT easier to say than to do!

I have read that Microsoft claims to be putting effort into trying to make display scaling better, but from what I can see they're not even coming close, still having basic problems like the borders on the edges of controls remaining only 1 pixel thick even at 200% scaling and beyond!  I see that in the .png file you posted there is still only one set of graphics for all the buttons.

I have recently gone through the effort to re-code all the control drawing logic for the on-screen controls my own products use, just because Microsoft's common control implementation is just so wrong.  As a result I can do stuff like 175% scaling with pixel-perfect results, and can even alter the UI colors. 

175.png

But that's effort I should not have to put in - controls have been around a long time! 

The idea with an OS is that it should be providing a platform for the easy implementation of functionality, not making it hard to make it do what you want and not making it necessary to do work to change software for every release as time goes on!  Microsoft has lost the plot entirely.

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...