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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > GUI Customization > a 'blank' theme to speed up GUI responsiveness?

a 'blank' theme to speed up GUI responsiveness?
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mugget
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Jun 21, 2004, 02:37 AM
 
hi,

i was just wondering, if i created a blank theme, one that didn't have any eye candy, that was just composed of as few resources as possible, say plain white all the way... would that speed up the responisveness of OS X at all?

i've been wondering that, just had to ask. anyway, i might make something like that and test it out.
     
wigglywoo
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Jun 21, 2004, 03:07 AM
 
yeah, like apples OS 8-9 black & white alternative to platinum?
     
iNeusch
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Jun 21, 2004, 03:15 AM
 
I wonder if you would feel any difference
     
SwarmyCurve
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Jun 21, 2004, 03:23 AM
 
That would hardly be worth it from what I understand.

If you really want some speed (a small gain at least on app launch times), I would not use ShapeShifter and instead stick with Apple Aqua.
     
wibs
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Jun 21, 2004, 07:21 AM
 
Originally posted by SwarmyCurve:
That would hardly be worth it from what I understand.

If you really want some speed (a small gain at least on app launch times), I would not use ShapeShifter and instead stick with Apple Aqua.
yeah, agreed. I don't notice any slowdown with SS, but I can't imagine that it running would actually speed things up. As for the theme elements, for the most part I think they're irrelevant unless you have all kinds of transparencies forcing shadow draws. Anything you might be able to glean out of a flat colors in opaque elements would probably be so tiny that it would be irrelevant.
DigitalRamen sucks.
     
Dragon T
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Jun 21, 2004, 07:24 AM
 
you would probably also have to replace all patterns with 1x1 pxls in size.
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smeger
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Jun 21, 2004, 07:55 AM
 
Originally posted by Dragon T:
you would probably also have to replace all patterns with 1x1 pxls in size.
This would probably make the only real difference. 1x1 pixel PPATs using only 1 color. Although actually, using 8x8 solid color PPATs would probably be better.
Geekspiff - generating spiffdiddlee software since before you began paying attention.
     
mac15
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Jun 21, 2004, 08:42 AM
 
No need really, SS caches everything well anyways so you won't even notice the difference
     
Twister
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Jun 21, 2004, 10:31 AM
 
I always wondered this too. Especially since i'm on a G4 450!
     
ARENA
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Jun 21, 2004, 10:56 AM
 
Originally posted by wigglywoo:
yeah, like apples OS 8-9 black & white alternative to platinum?
I'm not particularily interested in speed gains from a gui mod, but having such black and white theme would be awesome, i loved that one in the Mac OS Classic days.
     
foobars
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Jun 21, 2004, 11:01 AM
 
The answer is yes and no.

- Less colors will not speed anything up
- Less TRANSAPRENCY will (especially for menus)
- SS likely causes a slowdown, but its probally negligable
- Making 1x1 ppats would not speed anything up either, infact this would probally slow things down as the graphics subsystem would have to tile a whole lot more!
     
FB Eye
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Jun 21, 2004, 12:05 PM
 
Using ShadowKiller is the fastest and easiest way to speed things up, especially with older G4's...

Unsanity's ShadowKiller
     
Synotic
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Jun 21, 2004, 12:19 PM
 
Originally posted by foobars:
Making 1x1 ppats would not speed anything up either, infact this would probally slow things down as the graphics subsystem would have to tile a whole lot more!
Ding ding ding! Now this is the right answer Replacing any of your patterns that are tiled over a large area with 1 pixel tiles is only going to slow things down.

I tried this quite a while ago.. (10.0, 10.1 days)... so it may not be as drastic as before, but you might give this a shot... Edit the menu background to be a solid color and 1x1 pixels. Try to select menus, last time I tried there was a -very- noticeable hang. Resizing the pattern up to 64x64 was much more responsive

So basically you want to find a balance... larger images will take longer to load... but smaller images will take longer to tile. Also how large of an area the pattern will generally tile. You don't want to make a tile much bigger than a space it will occupy... any excess in size is only wasted processor.

Anyways... all of these changes are pretty minute, so it doesn't really matter for the most part (although using 1x1 patterns can show a noticeable slowdown). If you -really- want to create a speedier theme, you could try removing all the transparency from the theme... including in buttons and all that. I even think that within the theme, there is a distinction between transparent and non-transparent elements, however I'm not sure if ThemePark will let you toggle that. If it does, then you might also be able to squeeze a tiny bit of speed from the OS not trying to load an image as transparent, when it's not. But I really have no idea

You could also try turning off shadows... if none of these tips work, you can always login with >console.
     
Twister
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Jun 21, 2004, 01:52 PM
 
Originally posted by FB Eye:
Using ShadowKiller is the fastest and easiest way to speed things up, especially with older G4's...

Unsanity's ShadowKiller
Is that built into window shade X?
     
foobars
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Jun 21, 2004, 02:34 PM
 
Originally posted by Twister:
Is that built into window shade X?
Yes
     
Rosyna
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Jun 21, 2004, 02:37 PM
 
Originally posted by Twister:
Is that built into window shade X?
ShadowKiller is off or on. WSX lets you set how they actually look.
     
mugget  (op)
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Jun 21, 2004, 09:58 PM
 
okay, i guess there wouldn't be much of a differnece, at least noticeable (for me & my PB). if i really get bored i might try it... just not with a 1x1 px tile.

and if i was to use one color, wouldn't a black color be better? i've heard that darker colors use less power on notebooks at least... would a light or dark color make any differnece to the file size of the tile?
     
fireside
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Jun 21, 2004, 10:10 PM
 
you're sig is too big mugget
     
speedraycer
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Aug 30, 2004, 08:31 PM
 
Originally posted by Twister:
Is that built into window shade X?
Would the shadowkiller speed increase be noticeable on a G4 TiBook 800? I never notive the shadows anymore and removing them wouldn't be a problem. I like to have as responsive a system as possible.
     
   
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