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[OLD] Experimental builds


bigmuscle

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Sure, you'll want to look carefully in the .png file I posted

 

Specifically, you'll need to alter the graphics for the top and bottom "frames" to be rounded "ends" (as though the system is making a very narrow window horizontally, so that the left and right corners actually touch, with 1 pixel that gets repeated no matter how wide they really get).

 

The active and inactive window graphics are paired top to bottom at these locations:

 

Top:  (0, 458), (15,472) (noting that rectangle coordinates for the right and bottom are one pixel beyond the edge by convention)

 

Bottom:  (0, 502), (15, 518)

 

There are also left and right edge graphics that can be found at:

 

Left:  (0, 34), (8, 42)

 

Right: (0, 25), (8, 50)

 

The specific graphics file I started with was my prior "SquareCorners" graphic, which in turn I had some months ago derived from one that Big Muscle posted with the product itself (IIRC, a Win 8 preview graphic).

 

You have to imagine compositing these graphics on a background you want to see through, so they need to be at least partially transparent.  There are also quirks with the way Windows cuts off the edges of the graphics when rendering, so it looks like there's a much bigger outer edge stroke (dark in this case) than is actually put on screen.

 

I chose a fairly simple layout, where there's no "inner" line of pixels, but just border color next to the application's client area, then a light thin line (single pixel) then a dark outer edge.  The drop shadow resources composite out beyond the edge, and I already had them in order from my prior SquareCorners work.

 

I used Photoshop, which helps you visualize transparency by showing through a checkerboard pattern.  I defined a key that executes an action that writes the current graphic as a .png to the C:\AeroGlass folder on my test virtual machine.  I also used a text editor to alter the .layout file and write it to the proper location, right next to the .png.  So the process was:  Tweak a bit on the graphic, write it to the VM, use Big Muscle's Aero Glass GUI to cause the new theme atlas to be loaded, and view the results.  Occasionally I would capture the screen and magnify it back in Photoshop so I could see exactly what was happening.

 

The .layout file contains numbers that somehow map the pixels in the .png file to the resources that are being replaced.  I still don't know the meanings of the numbers; I futzed about until trial and error made my results look right.  Entries numbered 1 and 47 are those that affect the top and bottom frames (courtesy comments Big Muscle originally put in the file).

 

After a while I gained an intuition about what the various changes would do, and rendered rounded rectangles with Photoshop that I then rasterized and began hand editing.

 

I helps to have a lot of monitors to do this kind of iterative work.

 

The Windows Photo Viewer is a good application to test with since it builds a non-trivial bottom frame.

 

-Noel

Edited by NoelC
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OK, I've been trying to create a rounded corners theme atlas, and I'm most of the way there.  I've got the bottoms all done.

 

Trying to do the tops is throwing me for a loop.

 

Does ANYONE understand what the numbers mean in the .layout file?  If so, can you explain them to me?

 

I'm particularly dense or something, but I'm not finding it possible to derive what they mean by experimentation.

 

Plus I'm finding that changing things for one resource is affecting another one unexpectedly.

 

-Noel

I too would love to know what the numbers represent.  For example: Does line item 47 represent the same thing across different layout files?, or is it the same across different builds of the OS? etc...   I've managed to fumble around and customize the clsharp layout and png files using notepad and photoshop and have managed to change frame shadow, open/close-min/max-button glyph's, etc...but it was a very slow process of changing one line item at a time with the layout file then changing a single row of pixels (png) and restarting aeroglass. Slow and steady but not without a very high number of screw ups along the way.  

Edited by dna-systems
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> restarting aeroglass

 

You can re-load the atlas by just typing a space after the name then deleting it again in the Aero Glass GUI.  That's probably a bit less disruptive than restarting.

 

-Noel

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Thanks.  I finally figured out enough of it by trial and observation.

 

Happy to say I am putting the polishing touches on a rounded corners theme atlas that works with a .layout file (and has borders; sorry).  When I've tested it a bit more I'll post the .png/.png.layout files in the theme atlas thread.

 

-Noel

Please post a link here when you've completed it--it will really help from having to search for it.  Thanks again for all your effort!

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True, for the reason that the .layout file is not yet interpreted properly by Big Muscle's software.  I imagine that if he chooses to support the next Windows 10 release he'll make that right.

 

-Noel

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On 10/03/2016 at 10:29 AM, ralcool said:

Just as soon as he chooses to support the last one......

Perhaps we have a terminology problem here, but I find no problems with support for what I consider "the last one" - build 10586.164. 

Microsoft changed uDWM.dll to version 10.0.10586.122, but the automatic symbols download took care of that compatibility.

People shouldn't expect compatibility between a program that has to derive undocumented interfaces and a pre-release operating system that literally has only been built from the latest development sources a week or two ago.  I advise, if you're running pre-release builds, to just go into the Task Manager and Disable the Aero Glass entry, so aerohost.exe doesn't even try to run.

-Noel

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When Microsoft release a cumulative update, why people call that a "new build" or "the last one build"?, is just a simple patch for "build 10586", a "real" new build is, for example, 14271 or "the last one" 14279, that is a complete new build, not the cumulative updates from Microsoft. that is what i think. sorry for my english.

Edited by carlitosoo555
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The link is already right up in post 392.

 

Thanks--guess I didn't see that.  It works fine except I get a light to medium blue tone that I can't seem to adjust.  The square corners gives me a clear tone that I prefer.  Any idea how I can get the clear tone back?  Thanks much for help!

Edited by genecooper
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