Next Gen ?... WMP 12

I have been messing around with WMP12 recently and i have had an idea id like to throw out to the forum for comment and conversation.

Windows Media Player 12 has a GUI , under that GUI it has key points that needs to be clicked to perform an action. You click a PNG and it plays ( as if by magic ) a song/ video / displays a photo. Do you think it would be possible to restructure the GUI's look , kinda like you do in a custom visual style ?

I dont mean actually move the trigger points , just lose the original GUI and super impose a new one on top of it. Ive worked out that you can turn down the opacity on the main window gradients ( LBG_BOTTOM_TRANSPARENCY & LBG_TOP_TRANSPARENCY) save it as the original PNG and its cool, it works.


Will i have to make my replacement PNG's exactly the same size as the originals Obviously keeping the same placement to allow the trigger points to work ? Can anyone actually work out the parameters by looking at the code.( its all Dutch to me )

Has anyone tried this before , either on 7 or vista ... did you win or fail ?

Yes i can hear you say try it and find out but i thought id make this post to see if any one has any advice on the subject ?

Would anyone be intrested in using a new design in WMP 12 ?

Anyone else care to chip in and see what we can/cant do with it ?

Here is a very rough idea what i have in mind , Yes its not done that well and the buttons are not a true representation of the original controls ( just some icons i found to try out ) Its just to illustrate what im getting at ( see screenshot)

Any views or comments please ?

Thanks.

I assume that the coordinates of the PNGs that you see in WMP12 and all other WMP versions are stored in the 256 category... So I'll run off that for this next bit. If you are thinking of moving buttons around, then read this. Otherwise, skip to below the first quote.

If you were planning on just changing the buttons' appearances, it would work...but if you were planning to move things to different spots of WMP, like you said, it would be hard. All that in the 256 category is hex code, you would need a hex editor to do it. But it would be hard.
Now, if you think, as the quote below says, the WSZ files in the 256 seem to be WinAmp skin files, but they're, as said, a different format, which possibly means that Microsoft possibly has a tool that they use exclusively to make the full-screen themes. Which also possibly means that they are adverse to us editing the placement of the main theme, and would probably keep any other ways to do it hidden.


Taken from Tech-Archive.net:

You cannot though individualise the actual skin used by WMP11 (the default
full mode skin). The skin's name is MAINAPPSKIN2.WSZ, you can extract it out
of the wmploc.dll file using a resource editor, but you cannot actually edit
it using a WYSIWYG editor, the extension alludes to the extension of skins
used by WinAmp, but in fact it's a totally different format, so the only way
to edit it is to use a Hex Editor, which is more complicated than editing
through a resource hacker.

So...yea...if you just plan on changing the colors, then it's all fine. But for placement, probably not.

Will i have to make my replacement PNG's exactly the same size as the originals Obviously keeping the same placement to allow the trigger points to work ?

Not necessarily, but the trigger points, which are in fact PNGs themselves (and their size can be edited) would only react to any mouseclicks within the trigger area. Lemme give an example.

Here is what you see:

Here is what the program sees:
What I mean by that is that the program is looking for the color red and sets that color to the pause function. If the user clicks anywhere in that red circle, the program will see that and run the pause function.


I would personally love to do this, but I don't know whether you plan on just the GUI appearance or the placement of the GUI.


Hope it helped!

Kinda knew you would answer this one bro ....

All im thinking is replace all the bottom PNG's( and some top ones , be rude not to) to something cool looking.

HEX ? ok just speak to me in Klingon , i may understand it better lol.

Kinda understand about trigger points , but your saying as long as a user clicks in the "red circle area" it wont matter if its square , triangle or sheep looking.

So like in my original screen shot , do you think that would work ? Its not like im replacing one for one PNG's.... be more like 4-5 PNG's for one new( my ) image and maybe some glow. Its not a simple hue /colour saturation swap is it ?

Could we use HEX to alter the main body ( top and bottom basic colour, maybe black ) and add some glass effect kinda glow as well ?

Thanks for the reply...Super Star

EDIT : The trigger points will always be in place .. i dont plan on deleting anything .....just make the originals ...errr
hide , be invisible ... pretend they not around ... you get my drift

XD!

HEX = hexadecimal...if you've ever used an advanced image program like GIMP or Photoshop, in the color chooser you'll see something like FF0000 for Red and 00FF00 for Green. That's hex. But it doesn't just pertain to colors, like in this case...

About the shape of the trigger points, correct. It can be any shape, and it will still work, so long as the user knows where to click...

About "Its not like im replacing one for one PNG's" and "Its not a simple hue /colour saturation swap is it ?", I don't understand what you mean...but I can try to give you the answer to the second...
The button can be anything you want it to be. It can be the same button with the hue changed, it can be the buttons in your screenshot, it could be a button with a little dog in it. So long as it's assigned to the resource of the PNG you're replacing. So....basically, what you did with the buttons in the Red and Green Wmploc.dll themes, but those red and green PNGs can be anything, but it's best to keep them the same size.

I'm not proficient at Hex, but I have a hex editor, and I might see if I can have a go at it. Don't expect any miracles though.

As for glass...I have no idea. At all.

And, lastly, for "hiding" the originals....Don't think that's possible, for what you're trying to do..think you have to completely replace the existing PNGs.

Yea....

Why keep the original PNG but hide it? Why not just replace it like you said at the bottom of your post? :P

There is also the somewhat easier and more flexible option of creating a skin and telling people to use it at fullscreen...but my expertise at skins isn't great at all...and then you have to code in XML...so...nevermind.

Ok open up WMP12 (png 1) and press PLAY, put your cursor over the play button and it will use a "mouse over" PNG that shows a glow around the play button (png 2) listen to a song , then stop it and it will show a new png to display PAUSE (png 3).

Just a side note, that PNG 3 is not the pause button. PNG 3 is actually what appears when you have clicked the play button, but have not released the mouse button yet.

I was thinking make some glassy Orbs and add the original player controls on top of the orbs to start with.

So..make some orbs...and then overwrite them with the originals? O_o?


My idea of what we would do is simply go in, figure out and make a list of what the things we need (excluding the PNGs from the older versions) are... and then make replacements to them, and then overwrite the cooresponding PNGs with the ones we just made. Is that the idea you're going for?

Those look like the trigger PNGs to me. Sounds like a great plan. It'll be tomorrow in my case. I would get started tonight but I have perfect ideas for those transparency scripts that are fresh in my mind...off to edit! :)

Awesome! Digging into it now. I'm betting I'll be going to sleep within the hour. I'll be back probably around 11AM your time. 'Till then, signing off. :)