Who do I contact? WinMedia annoyances...

Tuesday, December 2, 2003 by CerebroJD | Discussion: Skinning

How to I contact to get alpha-blended transparency in WMP? I have to totally hack apart the edges of my newest skin because I made it in photoshop and had to take apart all the blending. That is a bit of a long process and it still doesnt look good. All it really needs to do it fully support png's. The rest of the skin supports png just not the main background image, which is what I need to be antialiased around the edges. I want microsoft to work on this for the next release of WMP, but I have no idea how to present this idea to them. I cant see any reason why the background image can not support blended transparency! Can anyone help with contact information?

MarkMcQ
Reply #1 Tuesday, December 2, 2003 1:45 PM
presumably [email protected]
Worth a shot anyway
Koasati
Reply #2 Tuesday, December 2, 2003 5:25 PM
I cant see any reason why the background image can not support blended transparency!

Probably for the same reason we can't have TGA support for WindowBlinds frames...........





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CerebroJD
Reply #3 Tuesday, December 2, 2003 7:45 PM
And that would be.........?
Koasati
Reply #4 Tuesday, December 2, 2003 10:08 PM
I don't remember what was said, but I do remember the developers saying there was a reason why it can't be done.



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CerebroJD
Reply #5 Tuesday, December 2, 2003 11:44 PM
Oh ok. Oh well, I'll try emailing microsoft in the next week or so, just to see what they say.
MarkMcQ
Reply #6 Wednesday, December 3, 2003 1:31 PM
I think the WB reason is that it would munch up a fair bit of memory.
Styl-X Design
Reply #7 Wednesday, December 3, 2003 6:53 PM
what about 'its created by microsoft'

winamp supports .png...
CerebroJD
Reply #8 Thursday, December 4, 2003 12:38 AM
'its created by microsoft'




I'll have to check out winAmp!
Styl-X Design
Reply #9 Thursday, December 4, 2003 12:22 PM
CerebroJD,

Note that I mean winamp V.3 (probably 5 is using it too)

Skinning winamp is a lot more work, the avarage skin contains 11 .xml script files.
CerebroJD
Reply #10 Thursday, December 4, 2003 2:16 PM
Eleven?!

I dont even know xml. At least, I dont think I do.
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #11 Friday, December 5, 2003 1:58 AM
those aliased edges are a drag ruins some perfectly good WMP skins.I'm trying a new technique that may get rid of the problem but its a little odd.Will let you know if it works.
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #12 Friday, December 5, 2003 1:58 AM
And untill SS can handle winamp I'm not touuching it.Looks way hard.
kongit
Reply #13 Friday, December 5, 2003 2:03 AM
winamp 2 was decently easy to skin, but i am amazed by some of the winamp3 skins.

On windowblinds is it possible to use a mask on the background image?
Styl-X Design
Reply #14 Friday, December 5, 2003 12:12 PM
Winamp supports some great tricks and don't worry, XML ins't hard, its just a lot of code

Styl-X Design hates code...
Pacific
Reply #15 Friday, December 19, 2003 1:13 AM
hey Cerebro... i think u already know XML, u use it for WMP skining...!!!

& btw Skin factory commmented on my skin saying that they r working with (or maybe trying to) MS to implement true alpha transperancy in wmp skining...
Pacific
Reply #16 Friday, December 19, 2003 1:19 AM
the main reason for it not being implemented is that eats up CPU time bigtime...
whenever i turn on alpha blending in WinAMP 3/5 the CPU useage atleast doubles... >
so maybe they should make it an option on the users part to turn on/off alpha blending just like WinAMP 3/5...
TheSkinsFactory
Reply #17 Sunday, December 21, 2003 12:40 PM
Actually i'm the best chance you have for full alpha to be implented. I have pursued this for well over a year now and believe me i whisper into the right ears. It's going to happen, we're just pushing to have it happen sooner than later. Just be patient like we are. No one in the world wants it more than TSF. No one. We're planning on re-releasing almost our entire portfolio once it's implented.
TheSkinsFactory
Reply #18 Sunday, December 21, 2003 12:41 PM
er... implemented
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #19 Sunday, December 21, 2003 5:26 PM
CerebroJD
Reply #20 Monday, December 22, 2003 10:32 PM
Sweet! TSF, thanks for your efforts! It would be pretty great, but an option to turn tansparency on and off would be good too.



XML, u use it for WMP skining


Awesome!

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