[Mike the Knife]

So I'm using Watercolor Olive and it's really nice and all, but the replacement of the brushed metal look for apps like Safari and VLC just don't work so well (especially with VLC... I mean, the VLC brushed UI is terrible to begin with and the buttons get all pixelated with the watercolor replacement; not really Carbon's fault or anything).

Is there anyway I can just restore the files so that all brushed metal apps will stay in their original aqua form, without restoring aqua in it's entirety? Thanks!

[mrbiiggy2]

While I know this isn't what you want, it's the best way. Run aquafix, install watercolor without brushed replacement.. Any brushed apps you launch in the future will be brushed.. Simplest method.

[joltguy]

I did this same thing for Carbon's awesome Strawberry Watercolor theme. Here's how I got my metal back:

1. Launch ThemePark .
2. Open the "Olive_Extras.rsrc" file in ~/Library/Themes/Watercolor.dtla (you may want to make a backup copy of this file first)
3. Also open the "Aqua_Extras.rsrc" file from the same folder
4. In each window, click on the "pxm#" item from the toolbar. The resources to look for are #4450 (Metal Window Gradient) and #4460 (Metal Window Texture).
5. Select resource 4450 in both windows.
6. Individually drag each of the components (Opaque, Transparent, Mask) from the "Aqua_Extras" and drop them into "Olive_Extras".
7. Repeat steps 5-6 for resource 4460.
8. Save the changes and re-apply the Olive theme using ThemeChanger.

This worked okay for me. It should work for you too, but you're doing it at your own risk. Note that this will leave the square Watercolor widgets on your brushed metal ui. If you want the round aqua controls back, you'll have to locate the appropriate resources and run through the above process for them as well.

Hope this helps!

[mdc]

http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/metallifizer/ download that, install that and then choose all the apps that you want to have metal and all the apps you want sans metal

[CarbonG4]

joltguy has the correct solution for those looking to replace the matching solid "plastics" with the standard brushed-metal texture in their favorite flavor of Watercolor.

I themed the brushed metal applications because I personally don't like the brushed texture, but obviously there will always be differing opinions on this depending on who you ask. The reason I don't offer versions of Watercolor that have the standard Aqua brushed-metal texture is that my theme files would get insanely large. For example, the Watercolor.dlta as it is already contains 5 Extras.rsrc files, each at ~3.5MB each, now if I added copies of all four color variants of Watercolor with the standard brushed-metal texture I'd be up to 9 Extras.rsrc files (8 Watercolor and 1 Aqua Restore) and a massively large theme file.

But, I am hoping the new Xscheme format may allow this to become a more feasible option for future releases of my themes because I realize people are very divided and stand very strong one way or the other in terms of brushed-metal. I haven't looked into the new format as of yet, I would like the new version of Duality to be out and about for a while to make it sure it works well and safely before I decide if I'm going to adopt the new format or not.

//Carbon

[Mike the Knife]

What makes me mad is how Apple has slowly been dividing its apps into half-Aqua half-brushed-metal. It just doesn't make sense...

I hailed Aqua for its consistency and now I just don't know what they're trying to go for anymore.

Anyway, jolt, thanks, your solution worked and everything is looking how I want it to. And kudos to you, Carbon... great theme!

[CarbonG4]

Mike the Knife
What makes me mad is how Apple has slowly been dividing its apps into half-Aqua half-brushed-metal. It just doesn't make sense...

I agree, this is getting to a point where it's just absolutely ridiculous. The actual Aqua resource files are butchered to death as is, and the whole random mixing-in of Brushed-metal apps for no apparent reason is making OS X look really sloppy. Apple needs to admit their UI development team into AA for a while and get them back on track with redesigning the Extras.rsrc file from the ground up when they're all sober again.

On top of that, you have the rumors of an all-brushed OS X when 10.3 is released. This would be absurd. Hopefully it's just an off-the-wall rumor as it sounds like it is.

//Carbon

[Mike the Knife]

If this were the case (all-brushed OS X 10.3), I'm assuming Apple will be adding some sort of theming system of its own, that way users could switch between Aqua and Brushed completely.

I mean, Apple has built quite a name for the Aqua GUI, I doubt they'd get rid of it just like that, you know?

Only time will tell, I suppose.

[wagmedia]

Originally posted by CarbonG4:
I agree, this is getting to a point where it's just absolutely ridiculous. The actual Aqua resource files are butchered to death as is, and the whole random mixing-in of Brushed-metal apps for no apparent reason is making OS X look really sloppy. Apple needs to admit their UI development team into AA for a while and get them back on track with redesigning the Extras.rsrc file from the ground up when they're all sober again.

On top of that, you have the rumors of an all-brushed OS X when 10.3 is released. This would be absurd. Hopefully it's just an off-the-wall rumor as it sounds like it is.

//Carbon

No doubt. Maybe the rumors are right, but they haven't been fully explained. My theory is that if they release brushed-metal system wide, they wouldn't get rid of Aqua. Brushed metal would be an option like graphite is. Basically, it would be a theme. But, they won't add in sytem wide theming capabilities for blokes like us. Apple always shows us the way, but then takes the rug out from us.