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foad · Nov 19, 2003, 12:15 PM

I am for the most part digging ShapeShifter but it as brought up a concern for me.

I am running Panther. I installed ShapeShifter. Now everyone is saying that SS has no hit on performace but that might not be totally true. In my setup I have it so I get the login box whenever I wake from sleep or come back from the screensaver. With SS enabled it takes a few second for that dialog box to come up now. With SS disabled that is not the case. It comes up almost instantly.

I don't know what this means for the rest of the system and how SS affects performance there. I have submitted this to Unsanity but I just thought I would mention here for the rest of you guys.

King Bob On The Cob · Nov 19, 2003, 07:16 PM

First rule of complaints.
Always give system specs when filing a problem.

foad · Nov 19, 2003, 11:04 PM

Sorry...was kinda in a rush. Here are my system specs.

15" AlBook
1.25 ghz G4
1GB RAM
80GB HD
Panther 10.3.1

smeger · Nov 20, 2003, 01:18 AM

I can't think of any reason for this to occur. Is it 100% repeatable?

wil · Nov 20, 2003, 02:02 AM

I have yet to submit these two bugs, but I wanted to ask about them here first.

1. I cannot get the finder to retain my theme change after log out. I'm probably doing something WAY wrong. basically, the initial application of a theme works beautifully. I believe I can even log out/in with everything working, but once I change the theme, no matter what order or how I try, the finder starts up in Aqua but my menulings and all other apps use the theme! Sometimes quitting the finder works, sometimes it doesn't.

2. For the life of me, I cannot find a simple way to return to Aqua. So, I turn ShapeShifter off (in the ShapeShifter prefpane) and then logout. That works fine but seems wrong.

Dual 1.25 G4 Mirrored Door, 1.25Gb RAM, 80Gb HD, 60 Gb HD, Panther.

smeger · Nov 20, 2003, 02:55 AM

Originally posted by wil:
I have yet to submit these two bugs, but I wanted to ask about them here first.

1. I cannot get the finder to retain my theme change after log out. I'm probably doing something WAY wrong. basically, the initial application of a theme works beautifully. I believe I can even log out/in with everything working, but once I change the theme, no matter what order or how I try, the finder starts up in Aqua but my menulings and all other apps use the theme! Sometimes quitting the finder works, sometimes it doesn't.

2. For the life of me, I cannot find a simple way to return to Aqua. So, I turn ShapeShifter off (in the ShapeShifter prefpane) and then logout. That works fine but seems wrong.

Dual 1.25 G4 Mirrored Door, 1.25Gb RAM, 80Gb HD, 60 Gb HD, Panther.

1. You don't have the Finder in ShapeShifter's exclude list, do you? Check /Applications/Utilties/Console and see if SS is reporting anything. You can email 'em to me, no need to pollute the discussion.

2. Your technique is the correct one. And, no, it doesn't seem right.

We need to fix this.

foad · Nov 20, 2003, 03:10 AM

Originally posted by smeger:
I can't think of any reason for this to occur. Is it 100% repeatable?

Yup. It is repeatable over and over again.

If I have ShapeShifter enabled, start the screensaver and when I move my mouse cursor to get out of the screensaver, it takes several seconds and a beach ball, for the login dialog to come up.

If I disable SS, start the screensaver, move my mouse to get out of the screensaver, the login box comes up almost instantly.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

Anubis IV · Nov 20, 2003, 04:42 AM

Yeah, I actually just made an account here solely to respond to this thread and say that I too have had that problem ever since I installed SS.

800MHz TiPB
512 MB RAM
40GB HD
OS 10.3.0

Anyway, whenever the screensaver starts up and I move the mouse or hit a key to end it, it now takes about 5 seconds before the login window reappears. I haven't tried disabling SS to confirm that it is indeed the problem, but the problem began within a few hours after I installed SS.

Lew · Nov 20, 2003, 04:55 AM

I've had to disable SS as it was causing redraw problems with Safari. Scrolling the page would cause the page to redraw in chunks, seemingly related to the banner ads at the top of the page here at MacNN (the size of the block that re-drew after the rest of the page was the same as the size of the banner ad, and it only seemed to happen if it was an animated ad).

Pismo 500
384MB RAM
10.3.1

Anubis IV · Nov 20, 2003, 05:03 AM

Come to think of it, I did just start noticing some redraw problems with Safari in the last hour or two, but I hadn't yet attributed them to anything specific.

milhouse · Nov 20, 2003, 05:08 AM

Originally posted by Mimizuku no Lew:
I've had to disable SS as it was causing redraw problems with Safari. Scrolling the page would cause the page to redraw in chunks, seemingly related to the banner ads at the top of the page here at MacNN (the size of the block that re-drew after the rest of the page was the same as the size of the banner ad, and it only seemed to happen if it was an animated ad).

Pismo 500
384MB RAM
10.3.1

I've got SS running on Panther now and the themes are beautiful.

I did notice some redraw artifacts when scrolling as well.
As long as it stays fairly minor it's not a real problem for me.
Unsanity has been pretty good about "updating" apps for improvements and "fixes" such as this.

cheers

Lew · Nov 20, 2003, 05:31 AM

Originally posted by milhouse:
I've got SS running on Panther now and the themes are beautiful.

I did notice some redraw artifacts when scrolling as well.
As long as it stays fairly minor it's not a real problem for me.
Unsanity has been pretty good about "updating" apps for improvements and "fixes" such as this.

cheers

Agreed. I've been constantly impressed with Unsanity's apps and have registered WindowshadeX, FruitMenu and MightyMouse. I can't wait to try the first bugfix version of SS. Once it's had enough bugs ironed out of it I'll probably register that as well (I hope they get a working Panther version of FruitMenu out soon, too).

rhythmicmoose · Nov 20, 2003, 09:51 AM

I have also noticed Safari redraw issues and a slow password box popup.

I think it may affect the password security box in general, not just in the screensaver. I went to install something yesterday and the password box seemed to take a bit long coming up. It definitely takes longer than it used to after waking the machine from sleep.

12" PowerBook G4 - 867
640 MB RAM
Mac OS X 10.3.1
Aluminum Alloy 1.1

smeger · Nov 20, 2003, 10:20 AM

Originally posted by rhythmicmoose:
I have also noticed Safari redraw issues and a slow password box popup.

I think it may affect the password security box in general, not just in the screensaver. I went to install something yesterday and the password box seemed to take a bit long coming up. It definitely takes longer than it used to after waking the machine from sleep.

12" PowerBook G4 - 867
640 MB RAM
Mac OS X 10.3.1
Aluminum Alloy 1.1

Ahh, I think you may have figured it out. If you have ShapeShifter set to relaunch the Finder and Dock after applying a theme, it also relaunches the security daemon. If that isn't getting relaunched properly (which would be the bug), it requires a noticable pause before it displays instead of popping up instantly.

Oddly enough, it's amazingly difficult to reliably quit and relaunch programs from other programs on OS X, so that's probably what's happening, and goes along with other reports that the dock is sometimes not being relaunched properly.

Good work! Bug filed.

dws · Nov 20, 2003, 10:36 AM

I've also experienced problems with Safari... Chunkiness when quickly scrolling down a content-filled page (especially with lots of complicated CSS), etc.

Taking a hint from above, I looked in Console and discovered that I'm experiencing issues with the ShapeShifterCacheManager. While they don't make SS crash (nothing I've done so far has), there do seem to be issues...

Over the coming days, I'll run tests to see exactly what circumstances create the minor hiccups; and send the bug reports in.

More than anything, I think that I'm simply asking my aging computer to do far too much (all of this on-the-fly redrawing must take significant resources)! It would be interesting to see if people with the latest and greatest hardware are experiencing the same kinds of issues.

Dale Sorel · Nov 20, 2003, 11:54 AM

Here's a bug to be squashed

TheSpaz · Nov 20, 2003, 12:23 PM

I feel a performance hit. Well... how about when you're scrolling in Safari or even moving the window around... it doesn't stay completely under your mouse. There's a delay as it follows the cursor. When I turn off SS the Safari window moves fast again and scrolling is much faster too. But, I didn't notice any slow down on menus and other stuff...

I am running an iBook (white combo drive model) with 32MB of VRAM and Maxed out 640MB of RAM.

cxddesign · Nov 20, 2003, 12:32 PM

running 10.3.1 server on both my machines, and SS works beautifully on both, only complain is that the login screen doesn't change in appearance, but i guess thats a trade off with the stability of not replacing system files, eh oh well

good job guys, keep the themes coming

smeger · Nov 20, 2003, 01:43 PM

Originally posted by dws:
Taking a hint from above, I looked in Console and discovered that I'm experiencing issues with the ShapeShifterCacheManager. While they don't make SS crash (nothing I've done so far has), there do seem to be issues...

Please copy/paste the console messages and email them to me.

Dale - I'm aware of the issue with 3rd party menu extras. You can stop telling me about it every 30 seconds.

Dale Sorel · Nov 20, 2003, 02:48 PM

Originally posted by smeger:
You can stop telling me about it every 30 seconds.

Sorry

barbarian · Nov 20, 2003, 02:58 PM

My SS problem with Safari is that pressing the space bar to scroll the page seems to be disabled when SS is on. Weird.

badidea · Nov 20, 2003, 04:41 PM

This also seems to be a bug with SS, or this normal with themes from the "Nippon-Connection"??:

Weird text

smeger · Nov 20, 2003, 05:51 PM

Originally posted by badidea:
This also seems to be a bug with SS, or this normal with themes from the "Nippon-Connection"??:

Weird text

Whoah - haven't seen that before!

I'm guessing that you're running on a non-English system. Can you PM or email me with your operating system and, if non-english, your localization language? Thanks.

Azzgunther · Nov 20, 2003, 06:10 PM

I'm just curious if anybody has had problems with their computers since installing Shapeshifter?

Just to be sure you don't misunderstand, I'm not blaming Shapeshifter. However, I had my first kernel panic in 4 months AND can't use any users on my primary hard drive (the screen won't turn on, so I don't know what icon it's displaying). All this happened less than 12 hours after installing Shapeshifter, so it's one of my primary suspects.

If I didn't have an emergency OSX installation on my second drive, I'd not be able to use this computer at all right now (at least not without a re-installation). Discwarrior did nothing.

Dual-1.42ghz
ATI Radeon 9000
OS 10.2.8
English languages
Running BBX Mercury theme through S.S.

Any ideas? Anybody else have similar problems?

Spliff · Nov 20, 2003, 09:08 PM

Yeah, I've got Safari redraw issues here as well. Also, my system (iMac 600 w/ 512 MB and OS X 10.3.1) is more sluggish with ShapeShifter enabled.

wil · Nov 20, 2003, 09:25 PM

Originally posted by smeger:
1. You don't have the Finder in ShapeShifter's exclude list, do you? Check /Applications/Utilties/Console and see if SS is reporting anything. You can email 'em to me, no need to pollute the discussion.

The problem lies with MenuCracker. Disabling any menu items that use MenuCracker fixes the wierdness.

unlinear · Nov 20, 2003, 10:24 PM

I'll second the safari redraws. I want to register SS, dammit. I just need to be sure that it'll run flawlessly.

Only happens while scrolling, and it's gone if i keep rolling my wheel on my mouse - however, for this screenshot, well, i stopped scrolling and this was what i saw.

Bobby · Nov 20, 2003, 10:43 PM

Originally posted by wil:
I have yet to submit these two bugs, but I wanted to ask about them here first.

1. I cannot get the finder to retain my theme change after log out. I'm probably doing something WAY wrong. basically, the initial application of a theme works beautifully. I believe I can even log out/in with everything working, but once I change the theme, no matter what order or how I try, the finder starts up in Aqua but my menulings and all other apps use the theme! Sometimes quitting the finder works, sometimes it doesn't.

2. For the life of me, I cannot find a simple way to return to Aqua. So, I turn ShapeShifter off (in the ShapeShifter prefpane) and then logout. That works fine but seems wrong.

Dual 1.25 G4 Mirrored Door, 1.25Gb RAM, 80Gb HD, 60 Gb HD, Panther.

I can't account for the finder not having the skin after quiting it and having it relaunch. But occasionally I will notice that one of my apps doesn't have the theme applied. I believe this is because the theme doesn't start being applied until it's loaded. So if an app launches before SS has fully loaded the theme, it would take on the default Aqua. This is symiler to if you uncheck SS activation and some apps still show the theme. If you quit an app and re-launch it, it will be back to aqua at that point. Logging out & in simply forces all apps to quit and reload...

Bobby · Nov 20, 2003, 10:45 PM

I'm having Safari redraw issues as well... I actually kind of didn't notice it at first, because my work PC has a major IE redraw problem, and it occurred to me not all that long ago that the redraw I was experiencing in safari wasn't happening a couple days ago...

smeger · Nov 21, 2003, 01:42 AM

Okay, I'm on to the Safari redraw issue. It's caused by the same design compromise that causes fuzzy menu extras and reduced window resizing performance.

I'm sorta regretting that design compromise right now, but it was always meant to be a temporary band-aide. I guess it'll be more temporary than I'd planned.

smeger · Nov 21, 2003, 01:42 AM

Originally posted by wil:
The problem lies with MenuCracker. Disabling any menu items that use MenuCracker fixes the wierdness.

Can you give me some examples of menu items that use MenuCracker?

d4nth3m4n · Nov 21, 2003, 01:48 AM

im having the same safari redraw issues, but here is the kicker- i uninstalled SS. i wanted to save my 15 days to when omega and some other themes hit.

i not 100% sure, but i think i was having safari issues before ss even came out. i was of the mind it was a 10.3.1 issue, not a shape shifter one.

EDIT- just scrolled up in the thread. i get NOTHING like what unlinear gets... thats nuts. wow.

Dan.

unlinear · Nov 21, 2003, 09:36 AM

Originally posted by d4nth3m4n:

EDIT- just scrolled up in the thread. i get NOTHING like what unlinear gets... thats nuts. wow.

Dan.

It's when scrolling with a wheel mouse. you don't really see THIS unless you stop scrolling at the right moment and the distortion stays. its not nearly as frustrating as it looks - but enough to slightly taint my SS experience =)

wil · Nov 21, 2003, 10:28 AM

Originally posted by smeger:
Can you give me some examples of menu items that use MenuCracker?

Spy, Mondrian, MenuMeters, GeekTool, noSleep, ClassicSpy, ASM, iAddressX, Massinova, etc.

probably all earlier versions, i haven't looked to see if the ones I'm using have been updated

Lord Sith · Nov 21, 2003, 02:47 PM

Originally posted by wil:
Spy, Mondrian, MenuMeters, GeekTool, noSleep, ClassicSpy, ASM, iAddressX, Massinova, etc.

probably all earlier versions, i haven't looked to see if the ones I'm using have been updated

Using PTHClock/Pasteboard, Synergy, F10, Konfabulator, WeatherManX and Volumes Menu.

All of these apps are suffering from the fuzzy/blurry problem on my end. Excluding these apps in "SS" will remedy the problem (as we all know) just as this was the fix with Metallifizer.

MenuCracker? Never heard of it.

King Bob On The Cob · Nov 22, 2003, 06:24 PM

Use Unsanity's Menu Extra Enabler product and find/double click on the .menu does the trick too.

benign · Nov 23, 2003, 09:51 AM

Originally posted by Lord Sith:
Using PTHClock/Pasteboard, Synergy, F10, Konfabulator, WeatherManX and Volumes Menu.

All of these apps are suffering from the fuzzy/blurry problem on my end. Excluding these apps in "SS" will remedy the problem (as we all know) just as this was the fix with Metallifizer.

MenuCracker? Never heard of it.

Pain in the 'GUI'y ass.