Description: Hi, I've been wondering for a while now if it is possible to hack Mosfet's Liquid to map a texture as opposed to horizontal stripes (Think he refers to it as stipples) on the window area.
The reason I ask is I (personally) would love to have the OS X style brushed metal look as opposed to the stipples.
The brushed metal skin can be made repetitive quite easily. I like that look very much, so I cut out small segments from different wallpapers and was experimenting with it in Konqueror backgrounds. (Copied the .png files to /usr/share/apps/konqueror/tiles)
here is a screenshot of Konqueror with this (its too smooth imho, so you might want to use a more 'noisy' brushed metal theme).
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/215362/brushed.jpg
This is the tile I used (it is actually a .png file, I had to rename it for upload).
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/215362/light_metal.jpg
and here a smaller one:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/215362/light_metal_small.jpg
Anyhow, the point is, you can make it much much smaller I believe.
a feature like this would be great and i think this is really missing in QT yet. but i guess i would prefer other drawing in the window-backgrounds, not like this.. 'cause i don't want my PC turn into an apple, though, maybe some colored background like winxp's (internet/file) Explorer.
and i also don't really like the stripes-background from liquid so much.
I agree..
Would be good if that could be supported.
Hopefully mosfet could include an option in the next version to do this in Liquid.
Who knows :D
Regards
Miles.
I think it's simply a long patten bar with lighter color in the middle and darker on sides (probably 1600 pixels long), and the backgound alignment is set to middle.
Well, the only person who would really know is a mac os x'er...
I doubt that it wil be done that way. I *think* is gonna be a done the way were talking about above...
I suppose if we ignored the gradient, it would still look cool with just a tiled effect..
Regards
Miles.
I think the brushed theme came with apple's hardware accelerated gui support for osx.
This way it will probably profit from gpu's pixel shaders - so (with software pixel shading) this will pretty much result in some kind of "low performance liquid"!
Just my 2 cents
I think it may be hard to code this..
Look at the brushed metal, it isn`t a repeating tile, it`s rendered for the whole surface of this app... lighter in the middle... darker on the edges..
I think there would be a whole recode of the QT-surface engine necessary..
Greetings
Elias P.
Yeah, I did notice that... and valid comment
I've done a lot of programming myself, but not QT stuff or anything GUI based on linux.
Would it not be possible to render a buffer with the effect, then copy the buffer to whatever QT uses?
The other idea of tileing it would still look pretty nice, although not as good a fully rendered window.
Thanks for giving your comments btw.
Regards
Miles.
ah! One thought... I just relooked at the pic...
I could be wrong, but it looks like a set pattern no matter what the window width, but with a gradient colour fade... now if you map the texture, and then just apply a fade thru it..that should be pretty easy..wouldnt it?
It's frustrating not having done anything with QT etc... cos I havent really got much time to start trying this out... ideas/theory yes, programming of QT knowledge and time...no
What you think?
Yes, it's possible. Tile a pixmap of the brushed aluminum, then overlay the effect. You should look at KImageEffect for some clues.
But beware, this theme will either take up a LOT of memory caching lots of large pixmaps, or a LOT of time rendering them. Expect it to be a memory hog or on the sluggish side.
the marble style that ships with kde can do it, but I see no preformance loss. Ok, it doenst do the gradiant colouring... but.. it still does the mapping of the marble effect.
In fairness, by no means is it like liquid... but it does the same effect as what what im sujesting... am I right on this one?
Cheers
Miles.
It's the gradient that's the problem. It means that it will be a very wide pixmap. You should be able to get away with just one such pixmap, but there will be a separate one for each window, since each will have a different width.
If a fixed number of pixels from the left / right edges where faded... like on the screenshot, say the equivilant distrance from the edge of the green button to the left edge of the window.. and the same distance applied on the righthand side.
Or, just forget the fade even...
I dont suppose you fancy trying to get it working in Liquid do you ;-) ? hehe
Regards
Miles
Ratings & Comments
14 Comments
thats still pretty cool... If someone would hack liquid and add that, it would still look good! Thanks for uploading them dude Regards Miles
The brushed metal skin can be made repetitive quite easily. I like that look very much, so I cut out small segments from different wallpapers and was experimenting with it in Konqueror backgrounds. (Copied the .png files to /usr/share/apps/konqueror/tiles) here is a screenshot of Konqueror with this (its too smooth imho, so you might want to use a more 'noisy' brushed metal theme). http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/215362/brushed.jpg This is the tile I used (it is actually a .png file, I had to rename it for upload). http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/215362/light_metal.jpg and here a smaller one: http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/215362/light_metal_small.jpg Anyhow, the point is, you can make it much much smaller I believe.
a feature like this would be great and i think this is really missing in QT yet. but i guess i would prefer other drawing in the window-backgrounds, not like this.. 'cause i don't want my PC turn into an apple, though, maybe some colored background like winxp's (internet/file) Explorer. and i also don't really like the stripes-background from liquid so much.
I agree.. Would be good if that could be supported. Hopefully mosfet could include an option in the next version to do this in Liquid. Who knows :D Regards Miles.
I think it's simply a long patten bar with lighter color in the middle and darker on sides (probably 1600 pixels long), and the backgound alignment is set to middle.
Well, the only person who would really know is a mac os x'er... I doubt that it wil be done that way. I *think* is gonna be a done the way were talking about above... I suppose if we ignored the gradient, it would still look cool with just a tiled effect.. Regards Miles.
I think the brushed theme came with apple's hardware accelerated gui support for osx. This way it will probably profit from gpu's pixel shaders - so (with software pixel shading) this will pretty much result in some kind of "low performance liquid"! Just my 2 cents
I think it may be hard to code this.. Look at the brushed metal, it isn`t a repeating tile, it`s rendered for the whole surface of this app... lighter in the middle... darker on the edges.. I think there would be a whole recode of the QT-surface engine necessary.. Greetings Elias P.
Yeah, I did notice that... and valid comment I've done a lot of programming myself, but not QT stuff or anything GUI based on linux. Would it not be possible to render a buffer with the effect, then copy the buffer to whatever QT uses? The other idea of tileing it would still look pretty nice, although not as good a fully rendered window. Thanks for giving your comments btw. Regards Miles.
ah! One thought... I just relooked at the pic... I could be wrong, but it looks like a set pattern no matter what the window width, but with a gradient colour fade... now if you map the texture, and then just apply a fade thru it..that should be pretty easy..wouldnt it? It's frustrating not having done anything with QT etc... cos I havent really got much time to start trying this out... ideas/theory yes, programming of QT knowledge and time...no What you think?
Yes, it's possible. Tile a pixmap of the brushed aluminum, then overlay the effect. You should look at KImageEffect for some clues. But beware, this theme will either take up a LOT of memory caching lots of large pixmaps, or a LOT of time rendering them. Expect it to be a memory hog or on the sluggish side.
the marble style that ships with kde can do it, but I see no preformance loss. Ok, it doenst do the gradiant colouring... but.. it still does the mapping of the marble effect. In fairness, by no means is it like liquid... but it does the same effect as what what im sujesting... am I right on this one? Cheers Miles.
It's the gradient that's the problem. It means that it will be a very wide pixmap. You should be able to get away with just one such pixmap, but there will be a separate one for each window, since each will have a different width.
If a fixed number of pixels from the left / right edges where faded... like on the screenshot, say the equivilant distrance from the edge of the green button to the left edge of the window.. and the same distance applied on the righthand side. Or, just forget the fade even... I dont suppose you fancy trying to get it working in Liquid do you ;-) ? hehe Regards Miles