Fading/Changing Background

This is probably the one impossible thing to do without quartz but is it possible to replicate os x's background switching feature?

#337485

I don't believe it is possible. At least, not smoothly. You could probably get a gif and animate a fade into a different image, but it would be choppy if it was big (think: 800x600).. so yeah.

I'd suggest checking out http://www.greggman.com/nostalgic/ . It is a beautiful slideshow screensaver for Windows. (i know you didnt ask for a screensaver but hey.) cya

#337488

I think you have to distinguish between what is "possible" and what is "architecturally possible in Windows." Is it technically possible? Of course it is! It's not that much graphical data and the effect is pretty trivial (i.e., no one's asking for 3D rendering or anything of that sort.) Is it possible in Windows? It's tough, because, well, Microsoft didn't exactly design the graphical components of XP to be readily changeable, so the method(s) available for changing the background is/are generally just setting the background to a picture in a one time shot -- not actually dynamically changing the raw data contents of the picture to achieve the seamless look that is desired. So, theoretically, of course... if backgrounds could be flash movies (i.e., without having to load in ridiculous IE/activex/who-knows-what-else libraries), a 4 year old could make a fading background changer. But, Microsoft wasn't exactly free-spirited in designing its graphical framework for XP, so you probably either need someone with a good working knowledge of the internals of XP with respect to the wallpaper, or, likely, wait until Vista, which hopefully doesn't suck.

#337496

well i just made a animated gif in flash that was 1280x1024 and it animated fadeing transitions just fine, though it takes up allot of cpu to load it. i was thinking though. maybe a large widget that displayes pictuers and transitions them would work?

#337497