[release] Itunes 4 For Windows Media Player 9

[DarkVageta]

all i have to say is SOME PEOPLE are never Happy !! :rant:

Great Skin i use Wmp now all the tiime !! (Y)

[Unbeliever]

@ЀVÌ£ Ïñ Ðì§gû燎

if u can do it any better ur free to try!

as from today i`m going to start asking mods to ban all the pple that don`t read the threads (they keep asking SAME questions that have allready been replyed!) or bother the programmers and skinners. If iTunes 4 skin is using TOO much of ur resources ur free not to use it. Stevie`s gone through hell to give us this fantastic skin and if he said he`s not going to change it or improve it anymore STOP BOTHERING HIM! Ur free to try to outdo him! :rant: :rant: :rant:

Pain in the as$ over and out! :rant:

[Stevie BM]

With regards to the play count, that's my bad - I thought you were referring to the playlist info at the bottom of the window.

And now, for a slight rant. I apologize to all of you who apreciate (sp?) my skin and have supported me in it's development, but I have to say this...

On "lite" versions and memory usage

As for making a "lite" version, if someone wants to break open the .wmz and do it, I'm happy for them to. I, however, am not willing to break open what has taken me months to build because you're worried about your virtual memory.

If I were making this from scratch, creating custom controls and managing memory myself, then I'd be happy to take a look at ways to cut down resources. As it stands, however, I have no say in resource management for my skin. Other than removing something like the ability to resize, or removing the brushed metal, or in fact not having it as an iTunes clone at all, there is absolutely no way this skin will be any more "lite".

On lines between playlist columns

It can't be done with Windows Media Player skins.

On comparisons to other skins

No offence to the other iTunes skins or anything, but comparing this to them is, frankly, an insult to me. The reason none of the other iTunes skins take up so much virtual memory is because they don't have anywhere near the same levels of functionality this provides. If you can suggest a way to add the resizable transparencies which retains the iTunes look, then I'm all ears. Likewise with any of the other intensive features. In my 3 months working on this, drawing from nearly 15 years of coding for various platforms, and about 6 months work with the WMP skinning engine, let alone the discussions I had with staff on the Windows Media team from Microsoft (the guys who made WMP), Binary, the guys from MS, nor myself could come up with a better way of doing what this skin does.

On comparisons to nAmp

Everyone is comparing this to things like nAmp, but what people happily neglect is the fact that this is a skin. nAmp has the advantage that it's been built from the ground up to do things the way it does things. My skin, however, is built on someone else's framework, using someone else's technologies. To whit, I am constrained in things I can do in the WMP engine. I'd love to be able to do some of the things that nAmp does...

On the other hand, though, does nAmp have the same level of media management that WMP provides? I think not. No offence to the nAmp guys, but it's not a "big boy" in the world of media players, and likely never will be - it's a clone, and always will be. WMP, however, has a full, paid development team who work on it, and it has a massive budget backing it. Which, do you think, is going to have a fuller feature set.

On fonts

I have said on many occassions (sp?) in this thread that I have no idea about fonts. I don't do typefacing. I don't do graphic design. I don't do fonts. I've provided, with this latest release, two versions of the skin, both of which use fonts which I have included. How hard is it to install a font? I managed it. Okay, so your playlist background doesn't match. There are plenty of posts in here on how to change the damn' thing yourself. As for changing the icon font being something that people don't normally do, talk to Microsoft. Ask them why they didn't let skinners change the font in the playlist object. Ask them why it's linked to your icon font.

On the subject of things people don't normally do, I don't normally do skinning. This is my first ever attempt at skinning anything. I think the fact that I got it this far is pretty impressive in itself.

On certain Aqua-Softians

There are a lot of great members in this community. There are those who contribute, who push the envelope, who are very supportive of others. There are lots of people like this. There are, however, like with any community, the leechers and moaners. Whilst constructive criticism is and has been good for the development of this, there's got to be a point where it stops. Just because you don't agree with a particular aspect of a design of a skin/app/whatever, doesn't mean it's not correct.

What I'm trying to intimate is if you don't like my damn' skin, don't use it. I've put blood sweat and tears into this. I've worked my arse off. I've lost sleep. I've thought about this skin for the last three months of my life.

If you think you can do better, then prove it. Put your money where your mouth is. I'm frankly sick and tired of people who whinge and moan, and think that the fact that they're using what I've made should be thanks enough. If a developer solves a problem for you, they do it out of the kindness of their heart. Thank them.

Finally...

If you've got a problem and it hasn't been answered elsewhere in the thread (the previous posts don't disappear - read them), then I'll do what I can to help. If you're polite. If, however, you're impolite, or ask questions which are just plain stupid, I think I'm quite within my remit to ignore you.

Rant over

[Three Drives]

What's up StevieBM, I hope you slept well!

There's a couple of things I need to know about your app, because the beta of the TDK4 theme has just gone out to betatesters, and when it is released I want it to (in terms of fontage) work harmoniously with your wonderful iTunes4.

We spoke about it before but I want to be sure, as this is important.

For the record:

Is it true that both versions of the skin that you included in your .zip, iTunes and iTunesALT, are identical, pixel perfect copies of the same thing.

Apart from the fact that iTunes uses (what could be called) a mislabelled version of the

"Lucida Grande.pfm" font which can cause conflicts for some,

and iTunesALT uses the name WMPiTunes for the exact same font (comparing version numbers), so that conflicts do not arise?

[chiashing]

Just wanted to say a word of encouragement and thank you for the skin. Your hard work really shows in the quality of the skin. Thanks again.

[Stevie BM]

Originally posted by Three Drives@Sep 20 2003, 05:48 PM

What's up StevieBM, I hope you slept well!

There's a couple of things I need to know about your app, because the beta of the TDK4 theme has just gone out to betatesters, and when it is released I want it to (in terms of fontage) work harmoniously with your wonderful iTunes4.

We spoke about it before but I want to be sure, as this is important.

For the record:

Is it true that both versions of the skin that you included in your .zip, iTunes and iTunesALT, are identical, pixel perfect copies of the same thing.

Apart from the fact that iTunes uses a mislabelled version of the

"Lucida Grande.pfm" font which can cause conflicts for some,

and iTunesALT uses the name WMPiTunes for the exact same font (comparing version numbers), so that conflicts do not arise?

Correct, Three Drives. That's exactly the case.

[JoLeLuv]

Stevie

You deserve the appreciation and support. After all, it's a major break through :smartass:

Thank you so much.

[smeggy]

Take heart Stevie,

despite what has been said, I think we can safely say that your skin is by far the most ambitious ever undertaken for WMP and you have done a masterful job on it. I, and many others are overjoyed with it. WMP has never looked so good and the functionality has surpassed every other skin out there by a very large margin.

Congrats :who's your daddy: :boob shake:

[Darth Maul]

Originally posted by Stevie BM@Sep 20 2003, 06:12 AM

The "[Number] days"  text is something I coded... There's about 100 lines devoted to different ways of displaying it.

If you've edited the .wms or .js files in any way, you may have broken this.

There's a very good reason this has taken me 3 months to get working as well as it does...

If it doesn't work with a completely unmodified version of the skin, then I'll look into it.

I said, in ALL versions pf the skin (moded by me or not) not show. :cry:

See a version not modified.

[titoudoc]

Hi steevy, after using your skin for a long time, she's pretty...precious...

but I've found something you've miss, it's only happens when playing an mp3Cd...

look WMP wil organize the playlist automaticaly with the repertory on the CD...and you've forgot to skin the "dot" and "plus" signs...

here is a screenshot to explain you

hope you can fix it

[Darth Maul]

titoudoc,

Here also this happens.

But, the your skin also does not show the "days", "hour" and "minutes" too... as mine.

[ЀVÌ£ Ïñ Ðì§gû燎]

I must say that was one hell of a rant. Im surprised that WMP doesnt allow the font of the playlist to be changed n that its connected to the system icon font. Seems like they want to integrate everything into the OS. I think if u wud have mentioned this before n if skinners were able to change the font in the playlist, the thread wud have been half of what its now lol. Seeing that u coudlnt do anything abt the playlist font, I apologise for being rude, but i really wasnt happy with the idea of changing the system icon font just for the skin n seeing that many other ppl had the prob of getting the fonts to match n fit with the bg.

As for VM, what can i say, i just wanted the skin to be perfect n i mean perfect from all aspects for me and the community. I am no doubt still gonna use this skin n its all due to this skin that quite a few ppl have switched to WMP again.

Im ending this post holding out a hand for friendship n forgiveness for being rude n if I hurt you in any way.

Apologies,

ЀVÌ£ Ïñ Ðì§gû燎

P.S. Im not really a devil :shy:

[GameBoyzGB]

I have to disagree with the claims that some of the guys are making around here. Stevie BM's iTunes skin is NOT the best WMP skin. It's the 2nd best... The best WMP skin IMO is the T3-Skynet version. Totally awesome gif animations integrated into the skin.

But I DO AGREE that Stevie's skin is THE BEST iTunes SKIN for WMP. Congratulations Stevie! You've done a fantastic job on this. You have made most of us happy. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Now I'm looking forward to your surprise app.

Cheers mate.

[DarkVageta]

Originally posted by GameBoyzGB@Sep 20 2003, 07:36 PM

I have to disagree with the claims that some of the guys are making around here. Stevie BM's iTunes skin is NOT the best WMP skin. It's the 2nd best... The best WMP skin IMO is the T3-Skynet version. Totally awesome gif animations integrated into the skin.

But I DO AGREE that Stevie's skin is THE BEST iTunes SKIN for WMP. Congratulations Stevie! You've done a fantastic job on this. You have made most of us happy. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Now I'm looking forward to your surprise app.

Cheers mate.

WHO cares whos the best its sh## like this that makes people like Stevie and others STOP creating skin's programs for the board ! :rant: :rant:

all i now IMHO this skin Rocks i could care less HOW many others was made

Stevie to hell with all the unhappy people and the leechers who only joined to get the skin !

the skin rocks and i cant wait for any other work u may do !

[GillBates]

For those who need further information in their own undertaking of the playlist object in WMP skins:

Playlist Element @ MSDN

Good luck... I doubt anyone can do better than Stevie's skin :bow:

[Stevie BM]

Originally posted by GameBoyzGB@Sep 21 2003, 01:36 AM

I have to disagree with the claims that some of the guys are making around here. Stevie BM's iTunes skin is NOT the best WMP skin. It's the 2nd best... The best WMP skin IMO is the T3-Skynet version. Totally awesome gif animations integrated into the skin.

But I DO AGREE that Stevie's skin is THE BEST iTunes SKIN for WMP. Congratulations Stevie! You've done a fantastic job on this. You have made most of us happy. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Now I'm looking forward to your surprise app.

Cheers mate.

I think people meant that, in terms of functionality, mine is the most complete.

Regardless, I agree with you... Either that, or the Lollapalooza (sp?) one... Gotta love the cycling colours!

[quaff]

quick question, is there anyway to make it so each column of the playlists have a certain width(and fixed so you can't resize it)?

if so, how do i do it ?

[bubbabyte]

absolutly love the skin... i may seen like a dumbass. but how do i get album covers to show... they dont seem to show.. i have a big music note where the cover should be...

any ideas on what i'm doing wrong?

[titoudoc]

steevy have you seen the bug I've mention to you a little bit upper in the post (page 12) ?

Just to know...

[Stevie BM]

Originally posted by titoudoc@Sep 21 2003, 07:23 PM

steevy have you seen the bug I've mention to you a little bit upper in the post (page 12) ?

Just to know...

Sorry, I have seen it, but I've been a bit busy with a new Xbox game for the last 2 days...

I can't fix that problem - it's another WMP bug >. I have a feeling that's where the problem's stemming from.

[Darth Maul]

Originally posted by Stevie BM@Sep 21 2003, 04:23 PM

Sorry, I have seen it, but I've been a bit busy with a new Xbox game for the last 2 days...

I can't fix that problem - it's another WMP bug  >. I have a feeling that's where the problem's stemming from.

OK...

All tracks show the length in full mode.

But...thank you for replyng ... no problem! :cry:

[girkid16]

This is just an idea. But, let's see if it makes sense

Windows Media Player 9 has a skin called Corperate. Even thou it's a skin, it provides the menu tool bar with items such as "File" "View" "Play" and what not. Then my I have ObjectBar set to hide the menus on the program, put still provide them on ObjectBar. Maybe if this iTunes 4 skin has the same feature. Having that menu toolbar with the skin so that even thou it's a skin, we can still have the regular options and stuff. Hope that makes sense ;;

I think it would be a different situation for those without ObjectBar thou. But, just an idea and if you get time to it. Thanx man. It's freakin' awesome. Nice to have people say, "What's that? It looks awesome!" They're just jealous =D

[Stevie BM]

Originally posted by girkid16@Sep 21 2003, 08:52 PM

This is just an idea.  But, let's see if it makes sense

Windows Media Player 9 has a skin called Corperate.  Even thou it's a skin, it provides the menu tool bar with items such as "File"  "View"  "Play" and what not.  Then my I have ObjectBar set to hide the menus on the program, put still provide them on ObjectBar.  Maybe if this iTunes 4 skin has the same feature.  Having that menu toolbar with the skin so that even thou it's a skin, we can still have the regular options and stuff.  Hope that makes sense ;;

I think it would be a different situation for those without ObjectBar thou.  But, just an idea and if you get time to it.  Thanx man.  It's freakin' awesome.  Nice to have people say, "What's that?  It looks awesome!"  They're just jealous =D

I wouldn't do this for two reasons:

1) I don't use objectbar

2) It would mean that the skin had a title bar showing, which is just silly, and would look odd.

[girkid16]

Yeah, understandable. Thanx anyway man =D Still awesome

[titoudoc]

oh no, I was hoping you can fix it...

nevertheless, good work with your skin...

perhaps a good QuickTime Skin in prevision for now ?

and if I wonder If I can mad a milk version of your skin ?