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Stardock Object Dock BETA is out...........

darincm

By darincm
in ObjectDock

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bill

bill

Posted
Posted

OMG. THIS IS AWESOME!

I LIKE EVERYTHING!

Now that i stopped drooling, just perfect, Jeff.

The mag effect needs some improvement (to look like yz, which is VERY accurate), but what do i have to say, I cant to better :)

Awesome Awesome Awesome.

Edit---

Resource use is high :blink:

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VideoMann

VideoMann

Posted
Posted

Initial impression:

ObjectDock comes loaded with more Mac-like "behaviours" than Mobydock or Y's dock but :

1. like the other 2 docks it does not seem to have pop-up menus.

2. The magnification is slow-sluggish whether you use GDI+Engine or the supposedly speedier Custom Engine. I have a relatively fast computer 2GHz-P4- 540MB of RAMBUS, GeForce 3 Titanium (no Athlon here) and the dock is noticeably slow.

3. The magnification effect is also not as pronounced as the other docks and in my case when you load it up with many icons 30+icons the magnification gets severe hicups as it transitions from a smaller icon to a bigger one.

4. When many icons are loaded the edge icons may become inaccessible.

All in all Y's dock behaves much, much better and faster. From a functional use I would rank the docks as follow:

#1 Y's dock

#2 Mobydock

#3 Objectdock

If Mac-like behavior is your priority:

#1 Objectdock

#2 Y's dock

#3 Mobydock

Although Mobydock seems to be the "odd-man-out" on balance it may be a better dock than Objectdock. Any of these docks could easily become the predominant choice for users given a couple of upgrades but today for me Y's dock remains the best.

The future for dock choices seems to be very exciting for users.

-----------------------------------

If you experience similar behavior or not with Objectdock please post.

Note that I'm running 800x600 screen size and a load of 35 icons, if you use 1600x1200 you probably need to load close to 70icons to experience the same. I experience sluggishness even with 5-6 default icons.

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drastik

drastik

Posted
Posted

very nice application!

the good stuff:

  • bouncing icons

  • working taskbar replacement

  • running apps thumbnails

  • smooth magnification effect

  • better icon deleting animation, looks more authentic than y'z dock's

  • *.ico support

  • clock

  • working recycle bin!

the bad stuff:

  • not as configurable (in my opinion) as y'z dock

  • dock's bg is not authentic, as is y'z and moby's

  • no menus, but neither does any of the other docks :P

  • the taskbar section should be on the right, not the left, of the dock, right?

  • magnification anim could be slightly faster

  • no menu when seperator is right clicked, y'z simulates the real dock's menu almost exactly.

  • overlaps windows!

  • cant be put anywhere else (left, bottom, top, right)!!!

anyway, really good for an alpha (in the about window, the version number says: v0.50 ALPHA, and not BETA). for now, im gonna stick to y'z dock, seeing as how its more functional than objectdock. anywa, id like to see many more updates for this. keep on it jeff, thanks!

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TheRaginAsian

TheRaginAsian

Posted
Posted

I'm Really liking what Stardock has done. I mean sure, theres stuff it doesnt do, but its kinda funny actually. If you took Y'z Dock, MobyDock, and ObjectDock none of us here would be complaining about ANYTHING. Well, there would be a few that nitpick, but o well. Only real thing thats annoying about ObjectDock that I have found is that it eats a couple more Megs of Ram than Y'z. But of course your ram usage will depend a lot on the amount of Icons you have. It still runs nice and smooth though. I most likely dont have a problem though because i dont run a lot of apps, these Docks should consider themselfs lucky that they have even graced my startup folder, that pretty much how picky I am.

O yeah, and one more thing. How come I can only have a seperator in ObjectDock when i have half open programs and the other half shortcuts? If anyone knows how to get a seperator squeezed in there I would greatly appriciate the knowledge. Well, thats My 2 cents for ya.

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Renegade Robot Cop

Renegade Robot Cop

Posted
Posted

Do you guys find this new dock really slows down windows explorer (in XP. Not sure about any other versions of windows?) For example I was looking through a folder where I keep all my png files to find an icon to put in the dock. I have the folder in thumbnail view and when I scroll up and down it gets really slow and chunky. If I close the dock its nice and smooth. Moby and y's dock give me the same effect only it happens with internet explorer.

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myrioi

myrioi

Posted
Posted

VideoMann: I've found this to be the fastest of all the docks when using the custom engine and comparable to Y's when using the GDI. I find that while there is an image quality sacrafice when using the custom engine, but the dock really moves fluidly.

Still I am sticking with MobyDock untill, processes can show up on the right side (Duckie says this is coming next release). Also I'm not sure how i feel about the the the implementation of the screen capture thumbnails for the inimized processes.

BTW, I'm running a 1.6ghz P4 VIAO with a Mobility 7500 and 512mb of RAM.

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JMB1984

JMB1984

Posted
Posted

myrioi:

yep, you'll bea able to move the taskbar over to the right in the next release.

question though, care to elaborate on the statement about not liking the implimentation of screen capture of thumbnails for minimized windows? Just a note, you can turn those off in the dock's options if you like.

Glad the dock works good for you, hope the next release will get you using it full-time ;)

-Jeff

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myrioi

myrioi

Posted
Posted

I like the implementation that moby used for the thumbnails in his dock, where there is a constant thumbnail of the program (regardless of the window being maximized). In objectdock you just get an icon when the window is maximized. I'd at least like the option of having the thumbnail at all times.

I will confess, that this preference is likely more due to habit as I've been using mobydock since day one and have just gotten used to it's implementation.

(Of course if the thumbnail disappeared from the dock when the window was maximized i'd be happy too.)

BTW, Great work on the dock Jeff.

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JMB1984

JMB1984

Posted
Posted

Honestly I'm really confused. We both use the same type of drawing, just I in ObjectDock I know for a fact do *less of it* ;x Wondering what could be causing issues for those of you who are having problems. I'm very confused as to how Yz and Moby could be running faster, on every computer I've tried them on ObjectDock has been much faster... actually I haven't found a configuration yet that makes Yz run without skipping like crazy! Curious, what system setup do you have over there? Perhaps if this is looked into a little more I could find what's holding OD back for you...

Thanks ;)

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VideoMann

VideoMann

Posted
Posted

I'm kind of perplexed why Objectdock runs considerably slower. I turned every background application off and it has made no difference. Even with a small number of icons Objecdock runs slow for me.

The biggest turn-off for me are:

1. Too slow

2. The dock cannot accommodate a large number of icons without shrinking to nothing or having convulsions.

3. Icons at the edges like mobydock may not be accessible while in Y's dock they always are no matter how many icons you place in the dock

4. The icons in Objectdock seem jagged on transition.

I don't expect everybody to have the same experience since some of these things depend on hardware settings (it cannot be simply other apps since I switched everything off).

Pentium4 2 GHz

GeForce3Ti - 200MHz (detonator driver not willing to switch)

DX8

WindowsXP Pro

ASUS motherboard

512MB RAMBUS

no desktop improvement application - no Aqua enhanced applications - My desktop is standard WindowsXP (Silver)

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ߣ@¢kvî©_><

ߣ@¢kvî©_><

Posted
Posted

Well in my notebook object bar runs well with custom engine....

i like it... but there are some things i'd like to see...

-Task bar at the right side(i know it'll be done)

-The option to be able to put the trash icon in the taskbar as well as the clock... ahhh.. the heck.. to be free to place any icon wherever we want...

-The option to see thumbnails when windows are minimized(yes is already done) but... when the windows are maximized it shows the icon.. it would be great to have te option that when we maximize the window.. the thumbnail disapears but without showing any icon after... it just disapear and the dock gets shorter giving us more free space in the dock...

-Give the ability to shrink the when the cursor is reaching the end of a side.. (just as Y'z Dock does) in that way the last icon will always be reachable...

-To be able to access icons and dock options menu by a popup menu... instead of a dialog windows that apears when you right click.. in that way an emty trash command could be done by a little popup menu that apears when you rightclick...

That's all i can think about for now....

Ah.. btw.. i noted that when the icons gets their bigger state... the mouse poiter is offset... so it seem that it gets bigger when you are not pointing at it...

And about speed.... well Y'z dock is still the fastest dock on mi pc... and in my opinion has the more acurrate zooming FX...

Jeff... i wouldn't like you to think i don't like this dock.. in fact i love it... i can surely say that was built with so much dedication...

and i'm just giving my opinions....

Hope this helps without bothering anybody.... :)

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