Cubik Desktop

Hi I'm about to release a new app called Cubik Desktop.

It's inspired in Beryl's cube desktop feature.

Download pre-beta version here:

[s]http://www.matiasmoreno.com.ar/cubikdesktop/#download

Found the newest version! (from server backup) posting a mirror:

http://matias.securityconsultant.com.ar/Cu...-11-07-beta.zip

Stuff:

Ok, it's not as stable as Yod'm :-)

Expect lots of bugs.

Requires OpenGL.

May work in Windows 98/ME/NT/2000, but didn't test yet.

Tips:

Please, please, extract everything to some folder, don't just run the program from inside the .zip file.

To show the cube, hold down Control + Alt + left mouse button.

Then spin the cube (by moving the mouse) to desired desktop.

Then release the left mouse button.

(you may release Control and Alt keys at any time).

The .dll must be in same folder as executable.

You can put background.bmp file (in same folder as executable) to be used as a 360º background.

You can put a top.bmp and bottom.bmp file (same thing as before) to be used as top and bottom of cube.

Screenshot:

More stuff:

I would like also to leave some greetings and regards to people pertaining WinExposé (my discontinued project) such as Kaishi, all the translators and everyone else who tested the app.

#479311

Too bad you don't continue WinExposé but CD looks fine, too... will check it out.

#479322

wow, very cool! thank you!

#479325

Yes this is quite awesome thenk you,

by the way in case you're interested the windows didn't work with the cube for me, they just floated above the cube as it spun. (Oh and I suppose you havn't added widescreen support, but it if you did, it didn't work)

Thanks a bunch for this app! The spinning desktop is always one of those really cool beryl things that I wish I could do in my Windows XP machine.

#479327

hey welcome back Matonga

#479341

Note to self: Don't test beta software while working on my own. hehe

Great to see you still working mate! Still using and loving WinExpose. Just tried out your new project and it's true to say it is pre-beta. But it show promise and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this as it progresses.

Some things I noticed while using it. The video seemed to scramble while switching. On the initial switching, Firefox remained in the foreground while the cube rotated in the background. On release of the cube, the desktop needed to be refreshed, the taskbar was jumbled, windows were pushed off screen after closing, during closing the video displayed scrambled.

That being said, the animation was smooth and was quick to respond. It's a shame really that it didn't work 100% because I would love to see something like this available to Windows users which follows the same spirit of its Linux counterpart (open source / open software).

Good luck and I hope to try it out again with more success in the future.

Edit: Wow! I just noticed in screenshot where you've actually been able to get the windows to wrap around the corners! Now I'm really looking forward to the next, more stable, version.

#479369

bug report: windows remain on top of the screen thou the cube is being spun. objectbar stays due to always on top.

overall it is fast... great!

keep up the good work.

when window is off screen, it is not shown on the other side of the cube.. it shows a cut off version of the window.

#479381

@Bob Bobbio:

By "wide-screen didn't work", you mean the screen appears stretched? I noticed this and did a quick fix... check newest version and tell me if it now works.

Regards.

@ultimatsz:

Check newest version and tell me if windows still remain on top of the screen.

Don't know about objectbar, but I'm actually hiding the start bar else it appears over the cube ^-^

About cut off version of windows: now it partially works... however it will remain as a known bug, as it is too complicated to make the window appear fully.

Indeed you may have noticed there are no live-previews (as opposed to WinExposé). Live previews and window 'un-cutt-off' are very cpu expensive, the more windows in screen, the more expensive it is.

Hope you understand.

Regards.

#479477

Yes, that was it, widescreen works well now,

the only thing I noticed that was not working was that RK Launcher and Object Bar don't show up on the cube.

Great work!! Thanks for this.

#479519

needsupdatingnu3.th.jpg

The new version seems to be a lot more stable! I have noticed a few things that will probably need some attention. The included screenshot above illustrates this. When 'cubing', the screenshots of each desktop need to be updated before displaying. If a window is moved on to another desktop, or moved between desktops, and then moved again, when you 'cube', it still shows it on the old desktop. Er...I hope that made sense. :S

Also, I noticed it doesn't like AllSnap at all. When I tried 'cubing' the desktop with AllSnap running, I got a flicker on the screen showing the cube moving over top the current desktop.

I kind of like the taskbar retaining all the open windows but it would be nice that when I clicked on the taskbar, it would switch to the desktop that has the open window.

Either way, this is coming along great and already it's really smooth and responsive. I've tried things like this in the past and always got rid of them because either they just fast enough or they hinder instead of help performance. I can definitely say though that this is seriously changing my mind.

A few feature suggestions if that's okay? I would love to be able to assign names for each desktop and perhaps even dedicate applications for each desktop. So say, I could assign Firefox to my Internet desktop and when I started it up it was start up on the Internet desktop. This would save me from having to move each window I open to its particular desktop. (Maybe by hooking into the running process and assigning it to the assigned desktop?)

Also, with this idea it would be nice to get some text description of the desktop your on. And perhaps a visual ala Gnome's virtual desktop manager which would run in the taskbar.

I'm sure it'll happen in the future but is there any chance we'll be able to move windows while cubing? One would think it would be too hard to detect the hotkeys and determine when the cursor hits the edge of the screen to begin the cube effect.

Great stuff, and I'll most definitely be using this as I do WinExpose on a daily basis!

Edit: It appears the flickering occurs even without AllSnap running. It seems to happen most of the time when I have windows open or if I try to cube the desktop too fast. I wish I could upload a video of what is happening to better explain but I hope you get the general gist of the problem. It's as if the desktop remains and the cube window flickers above it.

#479547

The link is gone, but it looks impressive. Hope to get to test it soon!

#488770

Kill me... I can't find any of the .zip (neither the source... code...)

#488776

Oh god no! Hope you find it soon matonga, it looked like it took a lot of work to get it to work.

#488811

link dead any other?

#488829

@ gaurav: Link's dead here, too.

@ matonga: Can you please upload it on a mirror like www.zshare.net ? Would be really cool

#488831