Neil Banfield

New WB and SKS betas on OD (Impulse & SDC)

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New WB and SKS betas on OD (Impulse & SDC)

from WinCustomize Forums

I just thought I would let everyone know about the new betas and mention some of the new features.

You can now create animated please wait screens - see please wait section under Edit Explorer/IE shell parts.  You need to create animations in NWA format which can be done from the Tools->Animation compression menu item.  This only accepts images stacked vertically so you will need to create your animation as a vertical frame sequence first.

The NWA files can also be used for startmenu animation though old style TGA files will also continue to work but NWA files are much smaller.

Another new feature to SKS is the layers tab on most controls.  This allows you to use multiple layers for a given section.  These layers have their own tiling and margin settings and can be used to achieve effects which were very hard or simply not possible before.  You cannot use layers on window frames yet.  Layers do not require the user to have the WB beta as they will also work on WB 6.02 and higher.

We have a document about layers here : https://www.stardock.com/products/skinstudio/SKSLayers.pdf

skinning
55,813 views 79 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Does the latest SKS6 have the ability to do those things we still needed SKS5 to do?


Still don't see fonts for classic widgets, Hide start menu shadow is still just eye candy, it does nothing.
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Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Still don't see fonts for classic widgets, Hide start menu shadow is still just eye candy, it does nothing.


 :( 

Guess I'll hold off on updating. May try the update from SDC though ... I'd like to keep SKS5 until SKS6 has the capability to do it all.


I would use SKS6 exclusively if it could do everything SKS5 can do ...



Thanks for the feedback, guys ;)
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #28 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Nighttrain: You can loop once by setting the frame to loop back to as the last frame (well last frame-1 as it is 0 based)

Hide start menu shadow should work correctly.  There was a bug in the first SKS 6 release but that was resolved some time ago.

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Reply #29 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Neophil installed it from SDC and it didn't uninstall SKS5. Same version numbers but maybe the difference is using Impulse vs. SDC?


and/or maybe XP vs Vista ?  :NOTSURE: 
Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If anyone has found the SKS6 beta install is removing SKS5 then please let us know.  It is not intentional.
Reply #31 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I got them, also went to install Loginstudio for Vista, it crashes when I try to open it. :(
Reply #32 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If anyone has found the SKS6 beta install is removing SKS5 then please let us know. It is not intentional.


SKS6 uninstalled SKS5 when updating through Impulse this morning.

I could really use it back. :)
SKS 5.01 is available through Stardock Central. Is it safe to reinstall?

Also feedback...

I can't seem to be able to turn off the "Please Wait" text when using an animated image. (This is something I would use SKS5 for previously)

I also can't get the loop to play once. I am trying to understand your directions Neil but I am missing something.

While messing with frame rate settings. Screen.exe crashed and it took Explorer.exe with it. A reboot has everything working fine. I am hesitant to flirt with anymore settings now. If it happens again, I'll save the error info.
:)
Reply #33 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If anyone has found the SKS6 beta install is removing SKS5 then please let us know. It is not intentional.


That is good news. I'll wait to update until it is resolved.

Thanks for the info, Neil!
Reply #34 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I can't seem to be able to turn off the "Please Wait" text when using an animated image. (This is something I would use SKS5 for previously)


NT, in SKS6; XP Specific Sections>Please Wait Screen>Image>Code Editor tab, I added TextShiftY=900 and that moved the text off the screen so as to make it not visible. That value may need to be adjusted for various resolutions; I haven't had anyone test this skin I'm working on yet.

Not exactly elegant, but it worked ;)
Reply #35 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Love the concept of layers and I can see some uses for it even in its current blend mode.

Problem is,a good photoshopper rarely uses the normal setting for blending a layer.For instance,a good glass shine is screened...it gives a nice gradient...quite different from the same thing blended normally.

Another example is overlay or vivid blend modes...2 modes that look incredible inside PS,but unless merged properly before export look terrible as single layers.

Still,its great step forward...would have been awesome 1 or 2 years ago before the trend was aero glass,glass,glass.

Heres hoping textured WB's make a comeback.

Animated please wait sounds great. :) 
Reply #37 from Stardock Forums Top

I tried that Pictoratus. No go.

Maybe due to the new animation feature?

 

Reply #38 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I tried that Pictoratus. No go.


Maybe because of the new animation feature?





... I just responded to this in Impulse but my post is not showing here.  :NOTSURE: 




 :LOL:  ... and there it is!  :LOL: 
Reply #39 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The holy grail of layered skinning is going to be psd integration with layers,layerstyles(or at least blend modes)intact.

Xion player is half way there...it reads layers but they have to be premerged.(blend modes dont work)

A single image may have several layers,each blended differently...or a single layerstyle...but once merged to nothing...may look way different.

Photoshop CAN seperate these individual parts of the layer style into seperate layers.

If those pieces could make a single image blended correctly...you would have something special.Glass buttons or frames that really reacted to whatever was beneath them.Droooooooooooooool! :HOT: 
Reply #40 from WinCustomize Forums Top
So, I reinstalled SKS5 because SKS 6 won't save wba files properly. When you save as a wba it leaves any old uis files in the folder and when you go to install the skin, it reads as another skin (the original file used as a template). SKS5 wraps the skins fine.

But now after reinstalling sks5 , the new animated please wait feature doesn't work any more. I lost the abilty to import/ selct an image. SKS keeps crashing with a "outside Parameters" warning. I have to shut down via task manager.

I think I may have lost the skin I was working on trying to get SKS 6 to save. I certainly lost alot of work on another skin because windowblinds read the file as the old and rewrote over my work. I don't believe I am doing anything wrong.  X-( 

I'll let yo others experiment with the new features from now on. The road is too bumpy. :)



Reply #41 from WinCustomize Forums Top
This is what happens everytime I try to access the animation (section 38) section..




EDIT.. I went back to the original file and the animation is present and working fine. The newly saved file was not saved properly. My head hurts. SKS5 isn't saving files properly now. grrrr
Reply #42 from WinCustomize Forums Top
cant believe we FINALLY have animated please wait....been dying to see this for ages...awsome update indeed....... im very impressed!!
Reply #43 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I was able to save 1 skin but I lost some work on another. I know its my fault for not backing up. :)

When renaming a file using SK5, the coding for the animated please wait screen does not get copied.

Using SKS6 Old uis files are not deleted from the file. I can delete them manually to avoid conflicting uis files when installing to WB.

Clean skin feature does not delete the back png images stored in the skin file. This seems important as alot of people will release skins with alot of extra junk in the file.

When renaming a file, some text settings go back to default settings and I have to redo all the settings. Normally everything resets to the 1st font in my list ( I am assuming this as Clock text is the first one in my list and the text settings change back to clock.

Been a frustrating night and then 4 hours making some buttons that suck.  :p 



Reply #44 from WinCustomize Forums Top

As previously mentioned, using SKS5 can seriously damage a WB6 skin.  If you want to rename a skin you should use the features built into SKS6 rather than SKS5 as it should do it without damaging anything.

There should be no temp png files stored in the WB skin folder.  Any made by SKS6 are put in the temppng folder off the skin folder and the make WBA option in SKS6 will not include files in that folder.

Reply #45 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Neil a lot are still in the older ways of doing things. Not used to the new ways with SKS6.
I've had to move several WB's to new files started with SKS6 to fix a lot of problems with just about everything from fonts to just the way an image is presented.[which where started with SKS5]
So I've got to totally agree with you. SKS5 only does so much and SKS6 does it better in a different way. Thanks for the new stuff and glad to see you working on a weekend! You never give up. Question? Is there a reason behind you working weekends? Maybe a target you are looking into?

Reply #46 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If anyone has found the SKS6 beta install is removing SKS5 then please let us know.  It is not intentional.


Just installed SKS6.10a[b].032 It says there is a older version that must be uninstalled before you can install the update. It then uninstalls SKS5. My Impulse has been doing this all the time there is a update for SKS6. I have always gone back to SDC and reinstalled SKS5. But today for some reason SDC kept timing out and would not reinstall SKS5. Had to reinstall from a backup.
Reply #47 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If you want to rename a skin you should use the features built into SKS6 rather than SKS5 as it should do it without damaging anything.


It doesn't work very well for me Neil. As previously mentioned... older overwritten uis files remain in the folder (renaming skin and creating wba package) and confuse WB when installing. The temp png folder remains with images inside also.

I got my SKS5 back now. I am pleased. :)

Reply #48 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It's been said before but I'll say it again: there really is a great relationship with Stardock and the users (if the users will take advantage of it).  Stardock and the community surrounding it rock.
Reply #49 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hide start menu shadow should work correctly.


Hey Neil, just uninstalled SKS6, rebooted, ran CCleaner, rebooted, reinstall latest beta, created new skin, whipped up some quick pp images for start menu, enabled hide menu shadow, saved then applied skin, shadow is there, when check code tab there is nothing there for hide shadow. Even when add HideShadows=1 to code for top bottom places progs and more prog back, still have shadow. Installed SKS5, opened skin, it did show hide shadow enabled had to toggle to disabled and back to enabled to save skin, shadow now gone. After everything in SKS6 I had applied the skin several times, applied other skins then back to test skin, only SKS5 would get rid of shadow.
Reply #50 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I wont be updating then until the bugs are sorted out... :NOTSURE: 

nt sounds like he went to hell and back..... :SNIFF!: