Color mask in Windowblinds?

from WinCustomize Forums
OK, for the first time, I am trying to get one of my skin color customisable. I have added a mask on just about every image of my skin, but now my problem is with the text and the system colors...
I saw that there is something called "Colours Mask". But the value has to be between 0 and 255. How does it work? 0 is to leave the original color intact and 255 is to apply the color completly, I think. Only problem is that the in-between doesn't seem to work. Wether I enter 30, 100, 200 or 255, the color is applied 100%. Maybe I'm just not getting it. Anybody can help, please?
3,450 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
i dont actually know the answer, but i dont intend to let my total and complete ignorance of creating skins stand in my way

i beleive the NoOS skin supports this, and from looking at its bits, there are mask copies of lots (all?) the bitmaps, but there is no sign of any "Colours Mask" entry in the uis file.

since the percentage blend is set in window blinds, i would guess that this value is used at runtime when colour changing is enabled.

this fits with my memory of how this feature was described when it was introduced, which was that the skin files on disk were not effected, and they were only re-coloured in memory and then applied.

i would suggest playing around with NoOS, and comparing its construction with your skin.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hum... will take a look at it. Thanks.
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Where is that NoOS skin? I made a search for it with no results. Can you give me the URL please?
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Forget it, I just got it. Two words: "No OS". Thanks.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
OK. I looked at it, and the Windows colors are not affected by the colors, only the images where Renato chose to have a mask change color. I want to be able to have everything change color when a custom color is chosen by the user. I guess it's a bug. It proabably will be fixed in a future version of WB.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
strange, i cannot find it when searching either. it did come from here, and was the no.1 download for a while as i remember.

from the uis file:
SkinName=NoOS
SkinAuthor=treetog
AuthorsURL=http://www.integration-worx.com
[email protected]

however, i cannot see the NoOS skin at this site. if you want i can zip it up from my machine, and email it to you. the zip is 125k

any preferences for email account?
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
posting delay
i see what you mean. if you can find a way of forcing the colour blend in the uis file, what about packing up several skins into one pack?

the idea is that they would share the graphics, and only the uis files would differ, and then only in the colours section.

of course, i dont know if you can force blend, and this is rather a crude brute force solution, but still it may be worth considering.

as for change colour being more global, definetly a stardock quesiton there. any comments anyone?
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
As I said, if I set up a "Colours Mask" section in the UIS, then the colors are indeed changed, but only either 0% (if I set 0 as a value) or 100% (if I set anything else but 0). But the documentation says any value between 0 and 255 is accepted.
I have emailed support at Stardock. I'll let oyou know when/if I get a solution to my problem.