[rgoer]

In a few of the recent theme-oriented threads, a fella going by Dazzla has posted some screenshots of a theme he created for XP called "chosenOS" -- nearly every time he posted those screen shots, the response has been "hot damn, that is beautiful." He expressed interest in porting this theme to OS X, seeing as he bought a new iMac; I got in touch with him and started doing the port. I just wanted to show you guys how much was done... I'm pretty pleased so far. A few compromises have been made and some pretty sketchy workarounds were thrown together in some places, but it seems to be coming along. Hopefully it will be finished soon.



[ 04-23-2002: Message edited by: rgoer ]

[ 05-03-2002: Message edited by: rgoer ]

[CarbonG4]

Very nice, I'll be looking forward to it.

Keep up the great work.
Later
-Carbon

[Patrick_Bateman]

Ooooh...That looks VERY nice!

You're doing a great job! Keep it up.

[dazzla]

That is a sweet job. I'll get all the original bitmaps off of my Laptop and stuff it up, I'm having a few problems with the laptop at the moment but i'll get them as soon as I can.

[wil]

This is really nice. Keep at it, I'll certainly count your theme among the few that I use!

[rgoer]

You can either click here or on the thumb to view a full-scale shot of new progress. There's still a bit of Izawa's AlumiteX in some places... but it's on its way.

[Patrick_Bateman]

That theme is bad ass man!
When do you think you'll have it out?

[rgoer]

Originally posted by Patrick_Bateman:
<STRONG>When do you think you'll have it out?</STRONG>

If I keep working at this rate (read: if I keep dodging my school and work obligations to mess around with this theme), I should be able to get it out this weekend. However, that will most likely include just Extras.rsrc and maybe Finder.rsrc... I haven't gotten around to any part of an iconset or skinning other applications (iTunes, iMovie, et cetera). Glad you like it so far, though.

[Patrick_Bateman]

This weekend....Oooh, so exciting! Thank you.

[KidRed]

I'm not very vocal about themes, I've tried a few and got burned a few times. I currently use Duality and unlined aqua variant because i'm not a big themer guy.

That said, damn, that is one sweet looking theme and I would definately grab that in a minute. My only request if not already implemented is opaque menus. The transparencies really slow down the UI and the unlined aqua I use has opaque menus and is so much faster.


Looking forward, very eager to check this theme out when completed. Keep up the nice work

[macvillage.net]

That looks great.

[rgoer]

Originally posted by KidRed:
<STRONG>My only request if not already implemented is opaque menus.</STRONG>

I hear you, brother. The box I'm using to create this theme is an old workhorse of a Yosemite B&W G3 400. Its 3 year old Rage128 and puny 192 MB of ram (which, at the time of purchase, was way more than I could imagine ever needing) make a real go of dealing with all the Aqua transparency, but I'll be damned if we don't just slow to a crawl sometimes. Rest assured, there isn't much transparency in this theme.

[edit]By the way, if you check out the newer screenshot (a few posts up), you can see the opaque menus in action. Without fancy transparency to flaunt, they needed some oomph, so they sport a nice, subtly classy horizontal gradient (I just hope you never need to view a menu with items wider than 2400 pixels, or things will get ugly!)[/edit]

[ 04-18-2002: Message edited by: rgoer ]

[KidRed]

Originally posted by rgoer:
<STRONG>

I hear you, brother. The box I'm using to create this theme is an old workhorse of a Yosemite B&W G3 400. Its 3 year old Rage128 and puny 192 MB of ram (which, at the time of purchase, was way more than I could imagine ever needing) make a real go of dealing with all the Aqua transparency, but I'll be damned if we don't just slow to a crawl sometimes. Rest assured, there isn't much transparency in this theme.

[edit]By the way, if you check out the newer screenshot (a few posts up), you can see the opaque menus in action. Without fancy transparency to flaunt, they needed some oomph, so they sport a nice, subtly classy horizontal gradient (I just hope you never need to view a menu with items wider than 2400 pixels, or things will get ugly!)[/edit]

[ 04-18-2002: Message edited by: rgoer ]</STRONG>

Ok man, now you just need to hurry up and finish this theme! LOL, those screens look nice, menus too. So stop coming here and posting when you could be working on that hot theme. &lt;whip crack&gt; back to work &lt;crack&gt;

[goMac]

I'm running a B/W G3/400, with IDE Controller Card, 40 GB hard drive, 1024 MB of RAM, 16x DVD, and I'm telling you, its still no good enough.

:goes back to drooling over any G4 machine at the apple store:

Originally posted by rgoer:
<STRONG>

I hear you, brother. The box I'm using to create this theme is an old workhorse of a Yosemite B&W G3 400. Its 3 year old Rage128 and puny 192 MB of ram (which, at the time of purchase, was way more than I could imagine ever needing) make a real go of dealing with all the Aqua transparency, but I'll be damned if we don't just slow to a crawl sometimes. Rest assured, there isn't much transparency in this theme.

[edit]By the way, if you check out the newer screenshot (a few posts up), you can see the opaque menus in action. Without fancy transparency to flaunt, they needed some oomph, so they sport a nice, subtly classy horizontal gradient (I just hope you never need to view a menu with items wider than 2400 pixels, or things will get ugly!)[/edit]

[ 04-18-2002: Message edited by: rgoer ]</STRONG>

[Rickster]

Wow, that's about the first theme I've seen that'd be worth the trouble of installing. I'm not too wild about the [APPLE] menu thing, and I'd prefer if the minimize and zoom window icons were a little less Windows-themed. But very cool.

[zazou]

very nice.

* would like to see the 'active widgets boarder area' about 10% darker. It gets lost in the rest of the neutrality. Maybe as part of the Graphite theme and the current as the Aqua.

* colored widget boxes + a few choice elements (dark blue, yellow a'la Bebox, red, etc) as alternate themes would rule! I would be happy to do them when the theme is finish, with your permission.

* also don' like the [apple] in the menu bar.

* i happen to like transparent menu's :-)

Can't wait!

Zaz

"hello, my name is zaz, and when there are X themeaholics, i will be one."

don't do transparent menus, that larger screenshot is BAD ASS and i love everything about it. except the apple menu. lose that.

i've been using iridum quicksilver for months but looks like i've found a new favorite...

[rgoer]

Originally posted by Rickster:
<STRONG>...I'm not too wild about the [APPLE] menu thing, and I'd prefer if the minimize and zoom window icons were a little less Windows-themed...</STRONG>

Yeah, in retrospect, I'm not too sure what I was thinking with that [APPLE] menu. How does this: suit your fancy? As for widgets that are less Windows-themed... I'll think about it

Originally posted by zazou:
<STRONG>...would like to see the 'active widgets boarder area' about 10% darker. It gets lost in the rest of the neutrality...</STRONG>

If it's not too much trouble, could you mark up one of the screenshots to explain exactly which area you are talking about? I'd be happy to oblige, I'm just not sure what it is exactly that you want darker.

[zazou]

[quote]Originally posted by rgoer:
<STRONG>

Originally posted by zazou:
...would like to see the 'active widgets boarder area' about 10% darker. It gets lost in the rest of the neutrality...

If it's not too much trouble, could you mark up one of the screenshots to explain exactly which area you are talking about? I'd be happy to oblige, I'm just not sure what it is exactly that you want darker.</STRONG>

I thought i might loose you there. sorry

'active widgets boarder area' =

i would like to see it about 10% darker grey surrounding close/min/max buttons

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: zazou ]

[gthyb]

personally, i thought the [APPLE] button was sweet. maybe include it as the graphite version.

[Adam Betts]

Originally posted by rgoer:
<STRONG>Yeah, in retrospect, I'm not too sure what I was thinking with that [APPLE] menu. How does this sound? </STRONG>

It looks better but could you decrease the bevel size? Or make it look like one of the widgets but in Apple shape?

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: Adam Betts ]

[KidRed]

Originally posted by zazou:
<STRONG>

If it's not too much trouble, could you mark up one of the screenshots to explain exactly which area you are talking about? I'd be happy to oblige, I'm just not sure what it is exactly that you want darker.</STRONG>

I thought i might loose you there. sorry

'active widgets boarder area' =

i would like to see it about 10% darker grey surrounding close/min/max buttons

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: zazou ][/QB]

I was about to disagree with you until I saw the same embossing done around the window mode button (far right).

rgoer- To do what he's asking, just make the embossing box around the open/close widgets the same darkness as the one around the window mode button (far right).

[zazou]

'active widgets boarder area' currently is:



%10 darker is effectively this:


[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: zazou ]

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: zazou ]

[rgoer]

Originally posted by KidRed:
<STRONG>...just make the embossing box around the open/close widgets the same darkness as the one around the window mode button...</STRONG>

Ha... they are already the same darkness; the lefthand "widget-box" area is darker, though, so it creates an optical illusion. All the same, I darkened the "bevel" rectangle around the close/minimize/zoom widgets. I hope this is what you guys were asking for.

&lt;-- This is the old way.

&lt;-- Does this look like what you want?

[edit]Wow, that's subtle. Sorry, I didn't realize it was this un-noticeable. Still, you can tell that it is darker than before, right? And it doesn't get lost quite so easily in the other greys any more, does it? I don't know...[/edit]

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: rgoer ]

Another vote for this cool theme. However, I agree with Rickster, it's great except for the windows-esque widgets. They aren't bad, but I think that something more original would be cooler, like the ones in underling. Although if my memory serves me correctly, aren't those technically NEXT widgets that MS stole? When I get home later maybe i'll try to come up with an idea, maybe you could include it as an option.

Definetally a colored box around the widgets would also be cool.
Jim B.

[rgoer]

Alright, fellas (and ladies?)... this time with feeling.

&lt;-- the old way (I kind of liked the subtlety).

&lt;-- an intermediate level of definition, still kind of half assed.

&lt;-- I hope this is what you are looking for... I think it feels kind of overbearing like this.

[Patrick_Bateman]

Originally posted by gthyb:
<STRONG>personally, i thought the [APPLE] button was sweet. maybe include it as the graphite version.</STRONG>

I agree. Why have the apple logo all the time? I like the [APPLE]...nice and simple...different. Including it as a graphite version would be great. Satisfy everyone...

[mrtew]

I can't see any of the pictures of this theme! Did you take them all down? I wanna see what everyone thinks is so great!

[x user]

Yep, it seems his servers down or something. Anyway, I can't wait to see this theme.

[dazzla]

Here's the windowsXP version that I made for people unable to see the screenshots of the OS X version.

I've also got a few of the bitmaps from my laptop if you still need them, although it looks like you've done an amazing job anyway.

Catch me on IM Roger:

MSN: dazzlauk
AIM: JangoFettUK
ICQ: 144013320
Yahoo: [email protected]

[ 04-20-2002: Message edited by: dazzla ]

does anyone have a link to where I could download the desktops

[Patrick_Bateman]

I really like that wallpaper, very elegant...would like a link too.

[rgoer]

Hey, sorry about the image hiccup. I go down to the beach for one lousy night, and my dyndns account gets all screwy. Of course. Oh well, it's fixed now; the images should come be returning to normal presently.

[zazou]

i guess i have confused you! i do that alot!

I mean the whole box around the widgets should be 10% darker, not just the bevel



everything inside the red is what i meant to be darker

a colored box would be something like:



(that is a crappy render, only intended for illustration)

Zaz

[KidRed]

Originally posted by zazou:
<STRONG>i guess i have confused you! i do that alot!

I mean the whole box around the widgets should be 10% darker, not just the bevel



everything inside the red is what i meant to be darker

a colored box would be something like:



(that is a crappy render, only intended for illustration)

Zaz</STRONG>

No, I think that would be too distracting.

I like the middle one-

&lt;-- an intermediate level of definition, still kind of half assed.

[mpmchugh]

Originally posted by rgoer:
<STRONG>Alright, fellas (and ladies?)... this time with feeling.

&lt;-- the old way (I kind of liked the subtlety).
</STRONG>

I say keep it the way you originally had it. Subtlety is best! I don't need a theme hitting me over the head everytime I look at it. Aqua does that already.

I would make one small suggestion to make it less windows-ish and even simpler. Just make the three symbols the same as aqua's rollovers: x - +

&lt;-- like this

&lt;-- or this

-mpm

[ 04-21-2002: Message edited by: mpmchugh ]

[ 04-21-2002: Message edited by: mpmchugh ]

[ 04-21-2002: Message edited by: mpmchugh ]

[KidRed]

Well? The weekend is almost over, where is it???

[CarbonG4]

Originally posted by mpmchugh:
I would make one small suggestion to make it less windows-ish and even simpler. Just make the three symbols the same as aqua's rollovers: x - +

&lt;-- like this

I would also like to see a version like this, perhaps after you finish the current one. The wider variety would appeal to more people.

The theme still looks great regardless.

Later
-Carbon

[KidRed]

Originally posted by mpmchugh:
<STRONG>


I say keep it the way you originally had it. Subtlety is best! I don't need a theme hitting me over the head everytime I look at it. Aqua does that already.

I would make one small suggestion to make it less windows-ish and even simpler. Just make the three symbols the same as aqua's rollovers: x - +

&lt;-- like this

-mpm


[ 04-21-2002: Message edited by: mpmchugh ]</STRONG>

I'll put a vote for this version as well.

[rgoer]

Originally posted by KidRed:
<STRONG>Well? The weekend is almost over, where is it???</STRONG>

Sorry... probably won't get done tonight, but it will be done real soon. Maybe tonight. I don't know... that's pretty doubtful. Sorry

[KidRed]

Originally posted by rgoer:
<STRONG>

Sorry... probably won't get done tonight, but it will be done real soon. Maybe tonight. I don't know... that's pretty doubtful. Sorry </STRONG>

Hehe, just rassing ya, eager to check it out

[Macanoid]

any news yet? ;-)

[KidRed]

I second that question.

[Patrick_Bateman]

I third that...

[UNTeMac]

and a fourth...

Motion to put it to a floor vote, those in favor?

[rgoer]

Again, I'm really sorry for the delay; this is taking a little longer than I'd hoped. I think it's safe to say that I'm done with the better part of 70% of the theme... if all goes according to plan, I'll release version 1.0 tomorrow afternoon or evening. In any case, here's a newer screenshot showing how far this has come. And yes, adjusting the "bevel box" of the tabs (take a look at the System Preferences area of the screenshot) is on my list of things to do. If text-only hyperlinks aren't your style, the new screenshot is reachable by clicking on the following thumbnail image as well.



[ 04-23-2002: Message edited by: rgoer ]

[zazou]

very nice.

my only criticism at this point is teh default background (as in pref window). I'd like to see it closer in shading to the contextual menu lists (as in pop-up menus from the dock). Maybe a greyscale value of 85% to the white).

Nice Job!

what happened to that sweet menu selection graphics you had before in this shot: http://rlc.dyndns.org/~roger/images/osxchosen.gif

the two lines on the top and bottom of the selected item was one of my favorite parts of the entire theme. why did you take them out?

[wil]

wow! nice theme. and so quickly realized!

[hew]

Are you planning to keep the apple menu that way? I kind of liked the old way you had it [Apple].