[pininolopo]

Hi!

Thanks for your reply...
Anyway, congratulations! You're the first guy to get the real reflection. I will wait for future releases...
Please add more and more options for customize and be sure Winstep will the best!

[Björn]

Considering reflective icon I guess that it just mirrors the icons automatically. You have no mirror issues in the dock at all, like windows reflecting in leoard. Just like manually mirrored icons, you just save the work.
Otherwise not so bad UI.

[JcRabbit]

Yes, only the icons are mirrored automatically, and that is 90% of the full effect's impact in relation to Leopard (or, in other words, what really matters).

Altough it can be done, reflecting the environment around the dock in real time would potentially result in a heavy hit on performance (which 'just' mirroring the icons does not) for very little return.

Quote

You're the first guy to get the real reflection.

Thanks!

[Phoshi]

I'm sure that vista's DWM could do it with almost no performance hit.


Thanks, microsoft, for not releasing any APIs that can do anything useful. (Apart from exposé clones <_<)

[JcRabbit]

Probably.

But then, if you also wanted to make it work on XP and 2000, some heavy blitting would have to be done in real time in order to emulate the work of the DWM in Vista...

[Phoshi]

Eh, they'd just have to make do

Like switcher, the expose clone, doesn't even bother attempting XP compatibiltiy, because there's other stuff out there. Same with the DockWM. (Feel free to take the name, anyone who makes it, just send me a copy ;>)

I honestly can't see why MS won't release the APIs. If anything, the ability to add compiz-style effects for free, and stable-y would be a huge selling point to graphics junkies.
Stardock aren't hurrying up with windowFX vista, either...

[JcRabbit]

Hi guys!

Bringing back this thread to say that Winstep Xtreme 8.9 has just been released.

The NeXuS component of Winstep Xtreme is still the only dock for Windows that features live icon reflections - and they've just gotten better!

You can watch a demo video and learn more about all the new exciting features such as the animated fluid reflection effect and new mouseover effects, etc, by clicking HERE.

Better still, you can now purchase the Basic version of Winstep Xtreme for only $28.45 (full version costs $39.90, but look how many applications you get for that price: NextSTART, WorkShelf, NeXuS, Desktop Modules, the new Winstep Start Menu Organizer Pro and Fontbrowser).

Winstep Xtreme is shareware and has a 30 day trial period, so go get it now!

[KAWSquared]

Wow, way to **** everyone over by making it payware. Thanks for that one.

[JcRabbit]

It always amazes me how some people expect others to work for free when they themselves do not (or their parents are still supporting them).

Winstep Xtreme is what puts food in my table. Should I and my family starve to death because you think the world owes you something, KAWSquared? :slant:

[KAWSquared]

Yes, yes they should.

[alpha2zulu]

JcRabbit, don't bother.
This application looks good enough for me to get on Windows just to test it, though. Congrats on getting the reflections down and thanks again for listening to people's feedback.

And KAWS, you don't have to buy it if you don't want to. Or can't. Whichever.

[Phoshi]

lmao kaws

plus, what with this new MacXDock, your dock is no longer the only one with reflections <_<

[JcRabbit]

Hehe Phoshi, that really caught me by surprise as I had never heard of MacXDock. Had to Google for it only to find it mentioned in a single page right here in the Aqua-Soft Forums. It's still a baby!

On the other hand, Winstep Xtreme is a fully matured product with many thousands of man hours behind it; with NeXuS being but a single component of the whole Winstep Xtreme suite of applications.

But that still doesn't make you wrong, so guess from now own I will have to say that NeXuS is still the only dock with icon reflections among the established docks out there (RocketDock, ObjectDock, RkLauncher, etc...).

[Church Punk]

wow KAWSquared, your posts are always as constructive as possible. Negative comments like yours just give aqua-soft such an unfriendly air, sad...

anyways, i wanted to ask why couldnt you sell the applications alone?

I dont need the whole bunch of apps you offer in your bundle. Why not you put a price to the essentials and put some others free, just to catch others attention. I bet people will be willing to pay afair amount if they really need the app.

[JcRabbit]

Before Winstep Xtreme, the components were indeed being sold individually. The issue is that Winstep Xtreme is much more than the individual sum of the parts, as all its components were made from the ground up to work together.

For instance, change a theme in NextSTART (the menu and task manager component) and the theme in WorkShelf and NeXuS changes as well. There are many examples like that where the different applications communicate with each other to achieve a consistent user interface and behavior.

The thing is, you are NOT forced to use ALL the components in Winstep Xtreme. If you don't like NextSTART, don't run it. Same for WorkShelf and all the other components.

As for selling the applications individually, well, do the math:

NextSTART was being sold for $24.95
WorkShelf (plus NeXuS) was being sold for $29.95
The new Winstep Start Menu Organizer Pro version sells for $19.95

That's a total of $74.85 worth of applications that are being sold for ONLY $28.45 (i.e. you save MORE than $45) if you buy Winstep Xtreme Basic (which does not include the Pro version of the Organizer) or $39.90 if you buy the full Winstep Xtreme version. That is GREAT value for money.

I mean, the price of Xtreme Basic alone is LESS than what WorkShelf used to cost stand alone.

So, if you were going to buy a single component, for THOSE prices you might as well buy the whole thing. And, as it usually happens, the rest of the applications will end up growing on you!

I know of users who bought Winstep Xtreme for WorkShelf alone and ended up finding that NextSTART is now their favorite component.

[Phoshi]

Yeah, it's a new little app, but it's coming along well :3

I've actually been trying out shell replacements over the last few days, and while the best I found (litestep) was nice, winstep did seem nicer

The silly little dock icon that won't go away is really a bit of a dealbreaker, though (plus I'm kinda broke

[JcRabbit]

You can change the silly little dock icon by placing a 'nxcontrol.png' image in the dock's theme folder.

For now it's a skinner's choice, but it seems that, due to popular request, I will have to make that a user choice for the next version as well (i.e. give the user a way to quickly change the control icon for all docks regardless of the theme).

As for you being broke, well, there's nothing I can do about that, but... send me an email to the Winstep support address and I'm sure we can come up with some kind of a deal.

[Phoshi]

Hehe

I don't see why you can't hide it, though? Admittedly skinning is a good second best, but when I'm going through my minimalist phases (which happen often enough I have minimalist themes for almost everything right now <_<), an extra dock icon is a source of great and completely irrational pain

[JcRabbit]

Well, for several reasons:

1 - That's the control icon, the icon you right click to get an extensive context menu controling all the aspects of that dock.

2 - For those who do not like auto-hidding docks, double clicking the control icon is a way to manually hide a dock into a screen edge.

3 - Another feature unique to NeXuS is that you can collapse floating docks (i.e. docks not attached to a screen edge) by double clicking the control icon. When you do that, the dock collapses so only the control icon is visible. Double click it again and the dock expands to normal size.

4 - Branding issues, i.e.; anybody seeing a screenshot of Winstep Xtreme immediately knows what he is seeing because of that 'NeXuS' icon. This is made more important due to the skinnable nature of Winstep Xtreme.

[Zephi]

Donationware would get you more money in the long run. Think about that.