Aqua-Soft Forums

New Y'z Dock Backgrounds by me

I whipped together a couple new backgrounds for Y'z Dock. I realized that the image being used for the Default background was bigger than it needed to be. I shrunk it and noticed a considerable performance boost in using the dock. My animation is smoother than ever (almost perfect).

After that, I decided to try to make a more Jaguar-like background for it. I grabbed a Jaguar screenshot and worked off of that:

http://www.macosxrumors.com/images/070702/desktop.jpg

I first tried making true-to-Jaguar gradient background, but failed... I don't think Y'z Dock is quite capable of this, due to it's background-tiling nature. It made the Dock run like crap :)

So I decided to make the next best thing... since the background of that screen is blue, the dock appeared blue and I thought looked good... so I tinted the Default Y'z Dock background to a similar blue color.

Finally, I also fixed the borders of both my Blue version and the Default background a bit, making them look more 3Dish, like the real one.

Anyway, I've zipped together my Blue background, my new, faster Default background, and the failed Gradient background for you to play with.

You can grab em here:

http://distant.webpicturebook.com/newdockb...backgrounds.zip

If you get an error saying that it couldn't get the file, use the bottom link on the page to download it.

Enjoy.

#628

didnt really help..

infact, i checked the sizes both in perspective and kb in the 0.1.1 version of the dock, and they have the same images.

i think i noticed something, maybe some change, but it went off right after any change i did to the dock (resizing, draggin etc.), same thing that happens when i set it for a higher priority.

THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR TIME.

hope you can still find my mistakes and help out a poor addict to get satisfied :D

GOKU

#631

Thanks very much Ricky, that really helped the dock performance on my machine, and it looks great!

Ken

#632

Glad to see it helped one person... Goku, I'm not sure why it didnt help you :) I was even able to lower the dock down to Normal priority and have it still run very well. What do you mean you checked the sizes?

#647

how does it affect dock speed?

also, the dock color is white in the zip file.. wasnt it supposed to be blue?

#666

Originally posted by ricky@Nov 13 2002, 04:27 PM

Glad to see it helped one person... Goku, I'm not sure why it didnt help you :)  I was even able to lower the dock down to Normal priority and have it still run very well.  What do you mean you checked the sizes?

well i opend your zip file and made 3 folders for it.

every bm.png, sp.png and bm.ini went into each of those dirs.

K,

when opend the 0.2 dock, i noticed a somewhat change in one of the backgrounds, and i thought im going to scream out loud !

but then everything came back to normal everytime i touched the dock.

i was also talking about the sizes in KBs of the images, and their size in width and length was identical to the ones 0.2 have.

so... i still see no reason why 0.2 with the same bg images of 0.1.1 runs choppier...:(

so, what do u think?

thank you.

#673

Goku - I'm still not quite sure what you just said. The width and height of my new images (which should have unzipped to three separate folders, to be put into your "backgrounds" subdirectory for the doc) is smaller than the width and height of the previous ones. The file size does not matter.

Taha - Make sure you unzip the zip keeping the directory structure preserved. It should unzip to three separate folders, each with a bg.png, sep.png, and bg.ini.

Once the three folders are placed into the "backgrounds" directory, they should be able to be used in Y'z Dock. You should have the new options of Blue and Gradient (though this one is for testing only) and my Default can replace your Default... or you can rename it to whatever you want.

I have abandoned the 0.1.1 release of Y'z Dock alltogether, so I have no idea how my backgrounds work with that. I am using the current release.

Hope this helps.

p.s. Later tonight, I'm going to try using a few different file formats and such to try to make everything work even faster. Maybe I'll get better results. I'll keep everyone posted. In the meantime, do my new backgrounds help make anyone else's Dock run faster?

#681

i have a question

why dont you prepare them in folders ZIPPED? in that way i wont have to guess which one goes where...

and regarding the width and length, i was comparing the default bgs of 0.2 to the 0.1 ones, and they are the same width and length. so thats what bugs me, cause in 0.1.1 it works just smooth and with the smae bg in 0.2 it should work as smooth.

Now with what you say i really hope it works ;) -

PLEASE update your zip file with prepared folders, so it will be easy to drag n drop.

Take care,

AGAIN,

THANK YOU!

GOKU.

#700

you're right! the file size does matter. Its much faster with a smaller file.

I have made a modded version of the dock too (jaguar). You have one little bug in your version, look at the top and bottom of the seperator. I was planning to post my dock but I need to host the file somewhere, so till then....

#705

I don't know how you're unzipping it, but when I unzip it, it does break down into the proper folders. I have retained the directory structure in the zip... Use WinZip or some such program to unzip it and make sure you tell it to Use folder names when unzipping.

No, I don't understand why 0.1.1 runs faster than 0.2 for you. 0.2 actually runs faster for me. These backgrounds have nothing to do with that though :)

#707

yeah, I dont understand why 0.2 runs slower for some ppl...

It is much much much faster on my computer. Heck, its perfect!

#708

Ricky, thanks my friend i appreciate it, but it didnt make the dock faster.

its nothing related to the background at all being modest.

there is no cosmetic reason for the slaggish performance yz 0.2 - in MY 1.8ghz 512rd g4mx440 pc (and similar specs).

- to all:

I think its something in a waaaay lower-level that causes that slow down in higher specs pcs. there is no way in the world i will have my yz 0.2 with barely 4 icons, the "faster" smaller background image ricky made, and in the size of like a title bar and a 1% zooming effect, and try to make a cosmetic change in order to make it work smoother, while my 0.1.1 has exaclty freakn 24 icons and can run the highest zooming effect with 2 movie players and 2 docks in the other positions, and a mobydock just for the heck of it (w00t - im not exggerating) and it will run like i have 2gigs ram on a dual 1.25ghz G4 mac.

Disclaimer I do NOT complain! I LOVE THAT DOCK, and I USE IT as a default (0.1.1)!:D I KNOW yz will take care of that!:D so far yz is my choice, so please, no quotes i said anything bad about it. it just happens to one group of ppl, and 'luckily' im one of them:(.

#721

Gotcha. Mine certainly doesn't run perfectly (my roommate has a mac and after using his real dock mine seems really crappy :P) but it's good enough for me. I did see an improvement with my backgrounds. Sorry you didn't :)

#732