Themes and Palettes discussion

[fitzsteve]

Wow, thanks for all the hard work

Loving the new themes, will need to try some of these out ASAP

Steve.

[Bloodwych]

Rebel and Cammy are really the ones who made us all aware of what can be done with 16 colours - so a big thanks to them. Also PixelOz for allowing his Regenerating Nostalgia wallpaper to be used after being dithered. You can see it in all its proper glory here:

http://pixeloz.deviantart.com/art/Re...er-3-198324927

I added the themes just to make people aware of what is possible with a few small changes - also show how cool outlined fonts, copper effects and borderless icons are.

I'm sure most will want to create a wallpaper and look for themselves, as many already have (including me, I slapped together the Retro one above). This just gives them a few different starting points and choices to work from.

The default standard ClassicWB look is still available too of course.

[Retrofan]

Great!
So all this options are now in all the CWB packs? Is there a way to update mine with the new add-ons or shall I install all again?

[mfilos]

Awesome and thorough information and screenies Bloodwych my friend!!!

Your packs are full of win. Thanks once more

[fitzsteve]

@Bloodwych,

I notice you normally sticky and lock these posts - its ok with me if you want to move our posts to a general discussion thread and lock this one

[Bloodwych]

Thanks to you all for your support.

Originally Posted by Retrofan

Great!
So all this options are now in all the CWB packs? Is there a way to update mine with the new add-ons or shall I install all again?

You can always just copy over files manually. I stopped doing update packs as they were too complicated. People would customize Workbench themselves and I'd end up breaking things (it was attempted in the past)!

Worth updating? It depends - you can see the changes in the Update thread, nothing major - if you're happy with your Theme, have already added Cyberbugfix (OS3.5/9) and everything is working as you want it, then I wouldn't bother updating. These packs are just starting points and newer isn't better if you've spent time configuring a pack for yourself.

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

@Bloodwych,

I notice you normally sticky and lock these posts - its ok with me if you want to move our posts to a general discussion thread and lock this one

No problem, I can always sticky and edit a thread to look like the others in the future. I thought I'd leave this open for a while to see what people think.


I know Novacoder offered to provide some wallpapers, and I can add more themes pretty easily or perhaps make them separate addon packs. That Dino wallpaper you made Retrofan looked fantastic in 16 colours!

As mentioned in the main update thread, mfilos also gave me the incentive to include PixelOz's wallpaper after mapping it to 16 colours and showing what it looked like. Originally, I was just going to include the Retro theme with my own amateurish wallpaper.

[mr_a500]

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

Rebel and Cammy are really the ones who made us all aware of what can be done with 16 colours - so a big thanks to them.

I tried to make you aware in 2006 - and offered to help you with a 16-colour ClassicWB pack. You said:

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

To be honest, the ClassicWB isn't made to look "good".

[prowler]

Originally Posted by mr_a500

I tried to make you aware in 2006 - and offered to help you with a 16-colour ClassicWB pack. You said:

My guess is that because, since then, ClassicWB has both diversified and become more highly tuned, it is now thought to be worth making it look good too.

Unfortunately, it was just bad timing on your part, mr_a500.

[Bloodwych]

Fair comment mr a500, noted that you suggested something back then. I bet you would have offered some great advice and still can today. I've seen your Workbench shots in other threads - awesome work. As Prowler said, a lot can change in four years and timing on answers is a big thing.

I still refuse to add, birdie, skins, visual prefs custom buttons, start menus type things, window animations etc - the packs aren't meant to look good by going away from the Classic base look and feel. I still want the packs to be like a Classic Workbench, which I think they are, so in a way that statement still holds true. There is a lot more fluff that can be added than an optimized wallpaper and palette and changing a few Scalos/NewIcon/Copper Demon settings. And even a year ago, I didn't have any intention of adding wallpapers or Themes, as I saw that as the users job and mine to provide a base install. I still do, but decided to offer some shortcuts.

I guess the new accelerators that came out for ECS machines and Rebel's and Cammy's recent work made me change my mind that 16 colour optimization was an important thing to add for users. Many seemed to doing it lately so I thought ok, I'll add it as an install option to save others a little work. I know many others including yourself mr a500 have produced optimized palettes in 16 (or more) colours with fantastic results, but the momentum of Rebel and Cammy's recent work is what seems to motivate everyone recently.

There are probably a few people that have suggested things to me over the years and I've completely forgotten them then gone on and added it at a later date. I guess I should keep better notes! But yeah, people have every right to defend their input if overlooked.

[Bloodwych]

BTW, can anyone name all the games in the Retro wallpaper?

[killergorilla]

Yes.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

Yes.

Go on then

[killergorilla]

I never said it was me who could name them all

I nominate Cody.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

I still refuse to add, birdie, skins, visual prefs custom buttons, start menus type things, window animations etc - the packs aren't meant to look good by going away from the Classic base look and feel. I still want the packs to be like a Classic Workbench, which I think they are, so in a way that statement still holds true. There is a lot more fluff that can be added than an optimized wallpaper and palette and changing a few Scalos/NewIcon/Copper Demon settings. And even a year ago, I didn't have any intention of adding wallpapers or Themes, as I saw that as the users job and mine to provide a base install. I still do, but decided to offer some shortcuts.

As these packs are used by users on real Amiga's they need to tread a fine line between looking good and performance (also consider that the more 'tweaks' you do the less stable the system will be to a certain degree).

Anyway fine work Bloodwych, can't wait to get the 3.9 version up and running on my new 030 1200

[fitzsteve]

@NovaCoder,

Did you notice I was using the latest version of ADV SP in the Vid I made for ScummVM?

With the Regen theme

[NovaCoder]

Yep and looking good

[Bloodwych]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

As these packs are used by users on real Amiga's they need to tread a fine line between looking good and performance (also consider that the more 'tweaks' you do the less stable the system will be to a certain degree).

I agree - the default Classic look and setup shown on the main webpage is always going to be the main focus. I also only want to add what I consider essential patches and enable/disable options, hence the lack of eye candy extras such as Birdie skins, Menubar replacements, widgets and Startmenu thingies.

The optimized 16 screenmodes and Themes actually help performance on some packs due to less colours (eg ADVSP), but of course you lose some Fastram for the wallpaper due to the uncompressed IFF image.

Apart from that, these themes don't really change much apart from offer a few different starting points and show users what's possible.