[CharlesF]

NothingMuchHereToSay, on 30 September 2011 - 05:48 PM, said:

So... how exactly does a skin work?

Do you mean the UberSkin themes [skins] format documentation?

[NothingMuchHereToSay]

It's hard for me to explain, but I'll try..

When you apply the uberskin, how is it able to modify the icons and everything without actually touching the system files? How do the files included with the uberskin modify the entire windows GUI without changing the system files? Is there like a special type of command or script that changes the directory of the icons to where the uberskin files are?

[Drugwash]

Do some reading on hooking window/system messages, subclassing, injecting a dll and you might get a vague idea.

I hope Tihiy is safe and sound... We need his genial "magic".

[CharlesF]

Tihiy,

there's a bug with Revolutions Pack 9.7.2:
I use several icons made with a bmp file, I rename with 'ico' extension.

Normally, the background become transparent when it is displayed.

If 'Big icons' is ticked in RPConfig, it is fine.  Big_icons-RPConfig.png (1.8K)
Number of downloads: 3
But when I untick it, the background for all these icons appears!  Small_icons-RPConfig.png (1.48K)
Number of downloads: 2

Is there any workaround??

[loblo]

CharlesF, on 15 November 2011 - 12:09 PM, said:

Is there any workaround??

Of course, convert your false icons to real ones.

Greenfish Icon Editor will do the job nicely.

[Drugwash]

There are many picture editor/conversion applications out there: IcoFX, Imagine, etc. But beyond that, you have to understand that file extension does not define the file type, which is structurally different from type to type. You cannot change a file's extension and expect it to perform differently - unless a poorly written software only takes into account file extension and does not check its internal signature. Which is not the case with Tihiy's state of the art Revolutions Pack.

EDIT
And to dig a bit deeper into the problem at hand: a true icon file can contain multiple images with different sizes and color depth. Depending on contents, the operating system chooses the best image and displays it. In the process, when a suitable size is not found, the OS may have to resize the nearest matching image and as such, it may induce distortion, such as losing the alpha channel (an issue I've reported above recently) or changing background color.
Therefore, when creating an icon, make sure you create multiple sized and color depth images within the same icon. Usually 8bit + 32bit with sizes of 16x16, 32x32 and 48x48px, for a 9x system. Vista/7+ can use 256x256px PNG icons, but that is not a subject to discuss in a 9x topic.

This post has been edited by Drugwash: 15 November 2011 - 01:13 PM

[CharlesF]

loblo, on 15 November 2011 - 12:53 PM, said:

Of course, convert your false icons to real ones.

Yes I know and I am also using Greenfish Icon Editor Pro for that.
But I have so much of these bmp-icons...

Drugwash, on 15 November 2011 - 01:03 PM, said:

You cannot change a file's extension and expect it to perform differently

This 'feature' is built-in with Windows, you may even display a thumbnail of your bmp instead of the regular bitmap icon with a registry setting.

But the point here, is that it is behaving perfectly with 'Big icons' checked, and suddenly failing when it's unchecked.
I don't get this glitch with a true icon including only one size.

[Drugwash]

How much do you know about Windows GDI? If that MSDN wouldn't be blocked here (for an unknown reason)*, I'd give you a few links to LoadImage(), LoadIcon() (deprecated) and a few ImageList_*() functions so you could see what the OS is dealing with. Especially with LoadImage(), it requires the image type to be specified in the function call, otherwise it fails. Depending on the image load routines, the resizing operation may alter the original image as I already said above.
The "feature" you're talking about does nothing else than take a bitmap, create an icon that contains default system size images (16x16 and 32x32) and add it to the icon cache. Which does involve resizing.

If you wanna see or save icons from exe/dll/ocx/etc., try VersionInfo Lister from the link in my signature. If only to prove I know a few things and not just copy/paste info off Google...

EDIT:
* It turned out that particular MSDN link (LoadImage function) would stall in K-Meleon, but Firefox 9.0 beta opened it in a few seconds, on the same 98SE machine. This is getting very, very weird!

EDIT2:
Nevermind, it was just one of this browser's fluke; after closing and restarting K-Meleon, it opened the MSDN link without problems. Guess me and this system are getting old at the pretty same rate. *sigh*

This post has been edited by Drugwash: 15 November 2011 - 08:53 PM

[CharlesF]

You're right Drugwash, but it is a regression in relation to Windows 98 'plain vanilla'.
So, my only question was to Tihiy, if he is able to fix it.


EDIT: I tried your link.
It opens easily here in Opera 11, and Maxthon with IE6.

This post has been edited by CharlesF: 16 November 2011 - 01:23 PM

[sparky4]

I am reporting a bug on the skinning feature of the more recent revolution pack 9 on Windows me.

my image shows the bug in action.....


p.s. Revolution pack 9.7 and KernelEx 4.5.2 are amazing!

keep it up! ^^ Tihiy!

Attached File(s)

•  bug.PNG (82.44K)
  Number of downloads: 49

This post has been edited by sparky4: 08 December 2011 - 02:55 PM

[UltimateSilence]

Tihiy, first, thank you so much for creating this! I love using Luna on Windows 98 SE (I've never used XP...)

I do have a question, though. Is there a way you could include Royale Noir?

[CharlesF]

UltimateSilence, on 22 December 2011 - 11:22 PM, said:

Is there a way you could include Royale Noir?

Here's a thread with a few more beautiful skins: RP9 Themes megathread!

If you do not find your happiness, you will have to make it yourself!

This post has been edited by CharlesF: 26 December 2011 - 02:14 PM

[Gelosea]

Not wanting to be a buzzkill here but I've noticed that my theme is being used in this application without my approval. No one has contacted me about decompiling my theme to be re-distributed with this app. Could anyone clarify this situation for me please?

[dencorso]

Elaborate, please: is it being redistributed in the latest RP9 package, or is it featured on the Themes Megathread?

[CharlesF]

@dencorso: this theme is included in the plain http://tihiy.net/files/RP9.exe, as a folder: ...\Resources\Themes\Watercolor EB

@Gelosea : This program is made by Tihiy. Did you tried to PM him?

[Gelosea]

Yeah, I've tried PM-ing him. But I'm getting an error when I send the PM.

And yes, it's being distributed in the setup for the application.

This post has been edited by Gelosea: 04 January 2012 - 02:41 PM

[dencorso]

What error exactly? Can you PM me the message you're getting?
BTW, Tihiy remains active in these forums, although he hasn't posted for almos one year, now.
I'm confident he'll reply to your post in soon.
However, he may be on a vacation right now, because his last log in was Dec 14 2011.

[Drugwash]

Most likely Tihiy's inbox is either full or disabled.

Gelosea, for what it's worth, you should know that you're credited in the theme pack's ini files (Author=Gelosea), credits which appear in a tooltip when hovering the respective theme in Revolutions Pack's Control Panel RPConfig -> Themes.
From my point of view, this is nothing but a regrettable overlook of distribution requirements. But, of course, Tihiy is the one that best knows facts

[fixed a minor typo]

This post has been edited by Drugwash: 05 January 2012 - 03:46 AM

[Gelosea]

^I figured as much because someone on deviantART mentioned this pack. I didn't plan on being an a** an having the theme removed from the pack. It's too long ago since the theme has been released so requesting it to be removed would be lame. Just want to know why Tihi didn't request any permissions because normally I don't allow my themes to be re-distributed like this.

@dencorso: The error I'm getting is "The member Tihiy cannot receive any new messages"

[dencorso]

Uhh... It means Drugwash is right, his PM box is full.
Well, that's not surprising, since he all but disappeared for a whole year, and people must have got nervous.

That said, I'm sure Tihiy didn't mean to pilfer your theme in any way. He probably didn't read well deviantART's license, and so must have taken for granted that it would suffice to give you credit, as he did. He ought to have asked your permission, of course, that's for sure. But, in any case, Tihiy never did anything that wasn't given to the community for free, and his RP9 is part of what helps keep Win 9x/ME alive. I wasn't aware that your theme was inside the pack because I don't care for skining, so I use RP9 just to fix the resources issue and to give me the ability to lock the taskbar and to use his great <Crtl>-<Alt>-<Del> handler. My Win 98SE has the Classic appearance. We're a shrinking very small community of Win 9x/ME afficionados, and without RP9, those of us who like skinning wouldn't have access to it, and to all the other features I just mentioned above. So, I'd like to reason with you in the following direction: by posting your theme at deviantART, you were permitting people to use the theme for their personal machines, not to redistribute it. But it wouldn't be usable in an effective way for 9x/ME, because of the great differences between it and XP. By porting it to RP9, Tihiy effectively gave the opportunity to our small community to be able to use your beautiful theme. I have no means of knowing when (and, in fact, whether) Tihiy will be back, though I firmly believe he'll be back soon. However, due to MSFN's rules, in view of your posts, I'd have to take down altogether the RP9 package, because it contains non-redistributable material, and this would be a great loss to the community, probably contributing to accelerate its shrinking rate. So, in order to prevent this, and since you're the owner of the rights over your theme, I hereby ask you if you'd be so kind as to agree to authorize redistribution in this way, at least temporarily, that is, until Tihiy comes back and contacts you. I'm confident that all members of MSFN's 9x/ME community join me in this request to you. I'm really sorry things weren't done properly from the start.