Classic Shell: Forum

Hi. I started to edit the classic skin7 theme and got it to look like this: http://i.imgur.com/U1sRRP2.png. I've been trying to get the frosted glass effect like in the taskbar.

I should note that the bg color & scrollbar are adapted from the OS theme. I'd like to keep the scroll bar and only change the bg to white with opacity/blur effect.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

Not sure what I'm looking at in the picture. I don't know what a classic skin7 theme is?

Is it a 7style menu with entries deleted in second column, with altered slices to cut off second column,
or is it full alpha transparency at zero, in second column?

Taskbar blur works differently than menu blur.

If you want to make second column with blur (fullglass), even without a glass mask, glass color will show at a low level.
Turning csm Glass opacity setting to 0 can help reduce glass color further.
It would require modification of 32 bit menu bitmap to make your desired rgb brightness/alpha transparency
Could start out with your grey menu color rgb at 45 up to white 255/ transparency could try middle of the road 128 alpha


It would require this text below as well:

Main_opacity=glass
Main2_opacity=fullglass



If you made the scrollbar already - great.
If not, it can probably be done, but the width will automatically stretch to make regular size scroll size.
You could make the stretching part as dark menu color on left of white area.
It would end up with dead space on left between text and white skinny thumb bar.

I could be wrong on a lot of what I just said.

That's about all I can say. Goodnight.

Hmm.
I guess you changed small icon size to 24?

Hey, thanks for the reply!

It's the default classic skin for 7style menu. I removed the 2nd column and tweaked the icon size through the settings panel.

> It would require modification of 32 bit menu bitmap to make your desired rgb brightness/alpha transparency

I believe this is what I need. Because I already placed this: Main_opacity=glass & Main2_opacity=fullglass --- but it had no effect on the skin.

> Could start out with your grey menu color rgb at 45 up to white 255/ transparency could try middle of the road 128 alpha

Where do I tweak this?

Edit: I attached a mockup. So basically just mimic the glass effect on the taskbar as the startmenu background.

After logging off last night,
I played around with Win 8, 7 style skin.
I partially modded some parts to see how a scrollbar could work,
put second column as 128 alpha and dark grey brightness.
I put your picture behind menu to see what it looked like on Win 10.
(Win7 os has smaller blur radius)
I set small icons at 24 size.
Here is the screenshot.

It would be nice if you had a real screenshot, or your working on, skin file.

Ok, I understand you want the left column as blured frosty.
Frankly I don't even beleive it if you got it working with a programs tree on left, without a second column.
How would one shutdown system through menu?


I've been wrong before on stuff.
I remember when a coworker said passenger jet planes fly 5 miles above earth, until I looked it up.
Boy was I wrong. It always looked like a mile or less.
Anywhere from 8 to 11 miles high!


If it's the left you want frosty blur, I would not modify the menu bitmap below 64 alpha,
because from past experience, transparent parts of scroll don't work properly.
Hmm, if what you are using is really "Classic Skin.skin7", there are no menu bitmaps!

I have to go. Will get back to this site in evening. Bye.

Thanks! The frosty blur is not only for the sidebar but for the whole menu. I didn't need the 2nd column bec I have the shutdown button moved to the system tray like in linux.

That sidebar is perfect but instead of dark grey, can it be white? or offwhite?

Okay so I played with the Tenified theme and tried to make it white. I attached the edited skin theme. Roadbumps are making it more transparent like in your screenshot. Also the fullglass opacity isn't applied to submenus. And the hover colors/opacity being inconsistent.

Thanks so much for your help.

I looked at your new mockup picture. Looks very nice.
It will be hard to duplicate that.
The whites are still close to white. Very transparent.
Unless you are on Win7 using a faint dark text glow in a theme,and heavy fonts,
it's going to be hard to see white text on, near white backgrounds.




Ok. I just see you have picked another skin to modify more easily.
In that skin, instead of the bitmaps having different alpha value, it's the bitmap mask.
The bitmap masks would need to go to an image editor to adjust alpha values, and put back again.
Looks like at standard 191 alpha.
Hey, maybe black text is better on that menu?

This is where it starts to get more complicated. To have transparency, many bitmaps need to be 32 bit alpha bitmaps.
Like selectors, program tree background changed to different alpha/color text value.
The reason the submenu selector looks very see through, is because it is not a real 32 bit bitmap.
It is only 24 bit with that text color.
If you want semi transparent scroll bar, most of those parts too, and the search bitmap box.
Probably a few more that I forgot.

Are you making your skin for Win7, or Win 10?

I'm trying to change my test skin to blurred left column. Not working too well on Win 10.
If I make it frosty white, cant see white text. If I put in light smokey grey, text is starting to be readable, but now looks dull grey.
Adjusting this stuff is really up to the person and the operating system. The blur on Win 7 is more transparency with less blur radius.
Win 7 also does not have as much residual glass color.
I'll try a little more tonight to see if I can do anything more.
Tomorrow night I'll upload the partially complete skin, for you to take parts out. Like the scrollbar parts and reuse.
I did increase brightness from 42/255 to 150/255. My taste or rather low contrast eyes are different than yours.

Here is picture of it. I have color masks turned off, with small icons.
CSM settings have 24 sized small icons. Glass opacity at 0. I never did anything with the submenus.
Never used the a menu like this. I got scared of no 2nd column. I had to put a few links in.
It's odd having a search column so narrow.

Hi crvst

I decided to abandon what I made so far, because if what you really want is near white,
then the best skin is Ivo's Windows 8 skin7.
It is stuck on transparency 181/255. What I did was make everything same color,
and put in your thin scrollbar. That scrollbar created speedbumps, hurdles, and moats filled with sewage.
I had to put an option in case someone wants to use skin without menu glass, like on Windows 8.
Make sure to set button correctly, or you will see scrollbar's unmentionables.

Settings on Windows 10
So either put CSM "Glass opacity" setting at 50, or 0. In my opinion 0 is better.
Turn on "Overide glass color" option, and set up a white color like 220

If you are on Windows 7 there are other menu glass settings to use.

If you want to edit the skin bitmaps to lower transparency, everything has to match,
like scrollbar parts, and programs background. The thin scroll bar creates the biggest challenges.

Anyway I think I'm done. It's not going to look like the picture above.
Will look more frosty foggy. I still have the old partial finished skins,
if somebody wants to continue further with it. I put them in zip.

Notes
I don't have any knowledge of how to make area on left side of scrollbar thinner.
I left the borders the way they are. Is not that hard to edit the bitmaps and selectors to make flat.

Omg they look great. I really like the first one. Thank you so much for making the scrollbar. It was the right call to grey it up a bit because when I was playing with tenified the menu doesn't work with white backgrounds. I chose to use Smoky instead and decided to add a color tint to match my wallpaper. I'm very happy with the transparency so it was fine. I did try to edit the bmps of the scroll/bar search but after a couple of trial and errors I retreated to using the original version.

I edited Smoky's search bar to white (+bmp) and another one to match the glass opacity accent color. It won't work with white accents tho.

The settings I used was a purple tint with a +25 glass opacity. I actually liked it more than just white.

I attached screenshots, my settings, edited skins & start button if anyone wants to replicate them.

Thank you again!

I'm glad you are happy.
I'm wish I had completed the smokey one more for you.

To get same menu color for submenu, instead of white,
is you could copy all the submenu section text of the Win8full skin, and paste over
the submenu section in your skin.
Just the new button and separators might not work or show different ones.
OoH! Just remembered I never set up the the main separator. It is not showing.
Once included, you could add masks for the separators to match what you did to the separator in the search bitmap.


Edit:
For people who don't have your air balloon wallpaper,
I made two frosty taskbars for the Smokey variations,
when they have auto accent color set in Windows 10.

Are you using a different font, or is Clearsharp adjusted?
Your text looks better than Segoe UI



Edit:
I see now.
Font smoothing is set on standard, which makes it sharper, but faint in the search box.

I did what you said and here's the one with frosted submenu. OMG looks soo good, makes me want to use a 2nd column but I want to keep it minimal for now.

About the font rendering: I'm using a custom mactype config with Ubuntu as sytem wide font. And yes, Standard setting for font smoothing.

Yep, getting better all the time.

Just needs the text below for the slices dimensions

Main_separator_slices_X=8,6,8

I accidently deleted it at some point

and put the below text under the [DISABLE_MASK]

Submenu_bitmap_mask=0
Submenu_selection_mask=0
Submenu_split_selection_mask=0


One last request.
Since it's your skin now, can you delete my "About this skin" text, and change to your own.
I had just grabbed any skin to test with. Not relevant anymore.

Thanx

And done. Thank you so much !