Classic Shell: Forum

Experiment
Part 3 of 3 BlackenLite Trans Edge revB
Update. Now revB "Center user name" option is on permanently.

Made for Win8.1. Works on Win7, just be prepared for lots of system color adjusting though.
Tried with CSM 4.1.0
Not compatible with most older versions of CSM. Will only partially work.
After downloading file, paste in skins folder. Usually C:\Program Files\Classic Shell\Skins
Exit CSM, restart CSM, and go to "Start Menu Style" tab.
Pick Classic or Classic two columns.
Pick "BlackenLite Trans Edge" in Skin tab.

Now it's my turn to release a semi transparent skin.
Slightly different with juniper7 oddballness.
It has Godzilla glass. Very thin and unbreakable.
Just watch out for its teeth. See below for more info.


Incentive
- A color tinted water bottle at work.

My favorites
-The glass button, with less black surround line.
The reflection shine is a little lower in height than BlackenLite 1 of 3.

- I'd call it a love/hate marriage with "White & Hazy.
Looks terrible with icons and garbage on desktop.
Love it if I disable "Show desktop icons" view, and have a nice backgound picture.
The goofy- Everything too big and silly looking for "Small icons" menu.

- Wishy washy sometimes. See tech info for fix.

Problems

-1.Godzilla teeth. The rounded menu corners use Alpha transparency, to smoothen out some jaggedness,
and give a clear view on menu.
I decided at end to put in option for third party Aero glass blur feature. Not a great idea.
If Aero glass third party is installed in Win8.1, enabled in CSM settings and turned on in skin settings,
there should not be any problem. It will be very mild though, as bitmaps were made for Fullalpha. Did not make highly transparent.
Problem is, if Aero not installed, but turned on, you will see Godzilla rows of black teeth, one set at each menu corner:(
They can be white as well, depending on the settings. Same problem in Win7, if system transparency is disabled.
More a design fault of mine, for not chunkifying the corner pixels.
Apparently a fullglass (Aero capable) skin, without Aero will tell transparency levels to get darker in a non linear way. This improves the look and usability of inner menu, but exaggerates the blending pixel darkness.
If I cut out the black and white pixels, the problem goes away, but will look chunky.
I would have to make a whole complete set of modified menu bitmaps, just for that option. I decided no change. Sorry.

-2. Menu shadow needs to be disabled in CSM, or line artifact appears in corner. Windows appears to draw system shadow like a bitmap picture in a folder- a rectangle.

-3.Possible sticky or missing radio skin option button dots in CSM settings. When skin is used first time, dots may not show, or show too many selected. I'm sure half problem is my bad script writing. I confuse program and self:)

Some technical.
Boosted the intensity of the menu color masks,
to be somewhat compatible with Win7 anemic and wild system "Color intensity" and "Brightness" settings.
But this made it too wishy washy sometimes in Win8.1. To make it look closer to original intent in Win8.1,
turn on "Overide glass color" in CSM settings. Leave color as default, (right click).
Set "Menu glass intensity" to 75, set "Menu color blending" to 50, click "OK" to save.
My desktop resolution is 1920 x 1080.
Did not like uneven way of compressing and stretching of black button reflection shine.
So made submenu black selectors not compress on default settings,
and the main selectors will stretch the middle, instead of whole button.
I don't know if this works properly on other resolutions?
Put a little gradient on bottom of black selector button, only on alpha layer.
This gives glow when color mask turned on, and turns black, when off.
Did opposite for the menu black edge, to give menu some variety.
The tiny gradient is only on the regular color layer.
It only shows up if there is some brightness on desktop, behind menu. It disappears if background is black, or saturated with color mask.

For the 2 column all black menus, I found the middle part too bright, and distracting.
Darkened it somewhat.
The thick separators could not be same transparency as edge, as they sit on top of menu,
with its transparency.
OK. Well they can be 100% percent transparent, and brighter, but only if a pure rectangle.
Did not work well, so I used squished black selector button instead.
Feel free to change and use anything. Bye.

ps Ivo or the persons who made the "Smoked Glass" skin, my hat is off to you. It's still the best, most beautiful.


One last thing HAPPY NEW YEAR

Black transparent version is VERY nice!

Haughtiness, which job! It is all that I have to say!
color transparent version is VERY nice!

Nice looking skin, juniper7. Here are the settings I use:

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Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and did Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Very Nice. Lovin it. =3

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"A book is a mirror. If an ass peers into it, it doesn't expect an apostle to peer out." - E.M. Forster