A few months ago we were discussing the upcoming release of WindowFX2 from Stardock, which was to utilize the graphics 3D hardware to render cool animations and transitions on your Windows. WindowFX2 is now out, there is a demo, and a very cool video where you can see the new, very cool transitions in action.We tried the full version of WindowFX2 and it includes a number of additional goodies, like advanced transparency usage, true alpha blending shadows, integration with WindowBlinds, Animations, ability to apply light sources to different coordinates on the desktop and more. We spoted out a few bugs (in some cases the restored window would render off-screen or with the smallest application body size allowed), but performance is pretty good if you own a GeForce (especially with Detonator 40 drivers), ATi Radeon, Matrox Gxxx, while there is special support for older graphics cards (by trading speed for eye candy).
Stardock’s WindowFX 2 Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Does this app offer anything of value besides eye candy (and slowing down my machine) ?
Depends how you see things Darius. This is a technical feat, therefore, it is cool, and osnews readers like cool things. If you don’t want to use it on every day basis, think of it is as cool demo, as it what it can be done with UIs and 3D acceleration in the future. Definately OSNews.
To show Mac users that their Genie effect is nothing….? 🙂
Not really. BTW, the demo doesn’t really slow down my machine when doing stuff liek web browsing, ICQ, Photoshop and so on. Well, that’s the first 5 minutes of usage…. 🙂 But no, nothing extra but useless eye candy.
could anyone convert that wmv file to an mpeg or divx? I’m sure im not the only one missing out.
>> could anyone convert that wmv file to an mpeg or divx?
No need too. All you need is Windows Media Player. But of course that means installing Windows and/or Windows Media Player
I could see the wmv just fine under FreeBSD using mplayer (cd /usr/ports/graphics/mplayer; make install distclean)
Relly cool demo by the way. Don’t they have some kind of virtual desktop thingy and other stuff that makes the windows UI usable for everyday work also? What I really miss when I switch to windows is the ability to map any key sequence to do things like switch desktop, move window to desktop, start programs, move focus between programs and so on. I just wish someone would port FVWM2 to windows.. That would make my day!
There are at least 4-5 shareware windows apps that support virtual workspaces. There is also the PowerToy from Microsoft.com that supports workspaces but it is not as advanced as some of the shareware offerings. Make a search on google, I am sure you will find some of them.
doesn’t ms have some plans regarding desktop hardware acceleration? by the way, exactly what hardware does this need? a geforce2 at least or radeon? or will my lowly savage4 do?
We have said that in the past, that Microsoft is preparing 3D hardware acceleration for the 2D desktop for Longhorn, in 2005.
Also, if you had click on the “read more” above, you would read exactly what the hardware requirements are.
This shows me that all those windows effect stuff in Mac OS X is pretty cheap.
(Before the discussion comes up again: 3D accelerated desktop != running around in 3D environments.)
Is this a medicine for Windows users, so they can believe they having a nice and slick OS (Pshychopharmaca).
I have to say this to all the StartDuck, or other skinning application users, its still Windows! =)
Its like AIDS, you can slow the progress down, but not cure it!
/Konrad
Windows users always become very happy when some firm (usually MS itself) inspires (especially) from Apple and implements ideas for Windows. Windows will probably stay soulless, cold OS, (unlike Amiga OS or OS X), but still for some people, it is better to be in false warmth rather than to be in cold.
Useless for me since it is for Windows, but I liked the product though. Nice rip.
> inspires (especially) from Apple and implements ideas
> for Windows. Windows will probably stay soulless, cold
> OS, (unlike Amiga OS or OS X)
Personally, I am very glad that MacOS and Windows are today much more AmigaOS-like. However, I don’t like monopolistic companies for presenting new features (for their products) as if they are the ones who are mainly innovating, sadly this seems to be the nature of the current “hype” market.
If there existed an OS today which supported all the features I wanted to use, while still being modular, customizable, efficient and offering a fair competitive market, I would *happily* use this OS regardless of the developing company.
Currently you can see some monopolistic companies trying get the market under even tighter control, and trying push platform tied standards as innovation. IMO very bad for a competitive market.
does it can use voodoo’s 3d acceleration?
Windows is a cold, soul-less OS? Software can have a soul? Yikes, does that mean I should be using Enlightenment?
BTW, MS, Apple and Be all developed OS’s so they could make money. MS is the most successful. Success != lack of “soul”.
Jason, I believe he is thinking with the right side of his brain, and you with the left.
By the way, I don’t think this would be a reason to run Enlightenment, since Buddhism says that there is no soul (anatma).
(But Enlightenment is still my favorite wm, it’s a shame that the development seems stuck.)
Jason, success is a relative term. For me, Windows is not successful at all. You know, some people like stylish things. Windows for me is not even a kitch. In my opinion, it is incredibly cold and soulless OS. I feel some kind of anxiety and warmth inside my rib cage still when I start my good old A1200.
In short, if you paint shit with golden sparkles, it is still a shit.
I think I understand what you mean by “soulless”, and I believe it is a design decision. To make the thing look “serious” and “corporative”. You know, the same reason we have those stupid beige cases.
I don’t like Windows because it hides everything and it deals with me like if I were an idiot (for example, it crashes, then says “on the next time, turn off by pressing the ‘start’ button” (“bad boy!”)). I’m glad I don’t have to use it anymore.
How the hell am I going to see a WMV under BeOS? I have not booted my gaming-only Win98SE partition in over a week now and I’m not about to start today.
To hell with the clunky Linux, weird *BSD, monopolistic and ugly Windows, outdated-looking IRIX, PPC hogging Mac OS and others! I love my BeOS
I knew that there would be some macheads looking to ruin the discussion.
> Windows users always become very happy when some firm (usually MS itself) inspires
> (especially) from Apple and implements ideas for Windows.
So we should never benefit from advances that other people make?
> Windows will probably stay soulless, cold OS, (unlike Amiga OS or OS X)
Operating systems have souls?
> Jason, I believe he is thinking with the right side of his brain, and you with the left.
They should say what they mean, not what sounds cool. If I have to throw up, and someone is blocking the sink, I say that I have to throw up. I do not say, “Oh…I just have this wonderful fountain of life coming up from inside of me.”
> Jason, success is a relative term.
Ah, relativism. Companies with astronomical profits are not successful unless they give me what I want.
> You know, some people like stylish things. Windows for me is not even a kitch.
I would rather have a computer that runs faster and does more than a computer at which I look stylish sitting.
> In my opinion, it is incredibly cold and soulless OS. I feel some kind of anxiety and warmth
> inside my rib cage still when I start my good old A1200.
Me too. I have found that the best remedy for heartburn is to eat slowly and chew thoroughly.
> In short, if you paint shit with golden sparkles, it is still a shit.
Windows is not…what you said.
> I think I understand what you mean by “soulless”, and I believe it is a design decision.
> To make the thing look “serious” and “corporative”. You know, the same reason we have those
> stupid beige cases.
Hmm…no. I will give you a clue: it has something to do with spending money on eye candy. Corporations do not like paying a big premium on their computers just so that their employees can look stylish sitting at their desks.
Too bad your beloved BeOS can’t play movies then… both my Linux and Windows OSes play WMVs.
But wait! Of course you can sit in BeOS and write down all URLs to movies, games, flash anims, java-stuff, GL gfx etc and then go all through it when you boot another OS.
How convenient
PS. I love BeOS, but it’s just not usable today.
WindowFX 2 does not run well on nVidia based cards. It has to use the slower (and uglier) compatibility mode (the same mode Eugenia mentioned isfor older cards). ATI and Matrox cards are fully supported and the window transition effects look better and run more smoothly on them.
Go read the WindowFX group on nntp://news.stardock.com.
Just to tie up a few comments:
If you have a card older than two years old (or a strictly budget graphics system), it is likely to suck, at least with the min/max transition effects. This includes NVIDIA TNT cards, the Rage 128 series, all the Voodoos, and most integrated graphics. That was a design decision – WFX was made to use the power of newer cards.
This is not a utility. This is cool stuff. If you don’t like cool stuff, this is not for you. About the most useful thing it can do is restrict the size of maximised windows (oh, and I find making toolwindows transparent is quite useful for things like Paint Shop Pro).
To Konrad: Yes, it is still Windows. So what? Some people like it, some people just have to put up with it. Either way, things like WindowFX, WindowBlinds and the rest of Stardock’s Object Desktop help by making it just a bit nicer.
For those who responded with a ‘but does it actually do anything’, you might like to look into Litestep, the GNU Windows Shell replacement. Plenty of eye-candy possible, but also good solid support for hotkeys, multiple desktops, programmable menus, etc. And very very extensible too – many third-party modules out there (including some 3D stuff, I believe).
I’ve used Windowblinds, it’s nice, but these days when I have to use Windows, I find Litestep makes it bearable for me.
I think shellfront.org is as good a starting place as any.
Leonardo wrote:
> I think I understand what you mean by “soulless”, and I
> believe it is a design decision. To make the thing
> look “serious” and “corporative”. You know, the same
> reason we have those stupid beige cases.
That’s one factor, but with regard to Amigas I believe it are many moret. For instance Amigas also offer a very responsive and intuitive user environment.
Let me give some little examples: While moving the mouse you will always see your mouse pointer moving. On windows the mouse pointer sometimes freezes completely.
On Amiga when you click a button you will always immediately get feedback that the OS received your request, with Windows for example often nothing happens when the OS is busy and the feedback is often very much delayed.
Such details IMO does give Amigas a certain unique “feeling”.
Well, from the excitement, I was expecting some sort of bump-mapping on the title bars or similar to the menus in populous 3. but no, its so groovy, it can shade the title bar. wow. Its uninstalled now.
This shows me that all those windows effect stuff in Mac OS X is pretty cheap.
I am not a fan of eye candy, but the shrinking and geenie effects in MacOS X atleast show the window being minimized to the dock. The effects I witnessed in the video are cool looking, but I wish they would have “jello’d” to the taskbar atleast.
Just my 2c.
-= mouth =-
Am I the only one missing the point of a 30-day demo where almost everything is disabled?
“So we should never benefit from advances that other people make?”
The sentence “Windows users always become very happy when some firm (usually MS itself) inspires (especially) from Apple and implements ideas for Windows.” does not imply Windows users should never benefit from advances that other people make of course. My answer to your question is yes, you can benefit, if you prefer false warmth to cold.
“Operating systems have souls?”
For some, including me, yes.
“Ah, relativism. Companies with astronomical profits are not successful unless they give me what I want.”
Again, success is a relative term. Astronomical profits may not indicate success for some people. For me, Windows is definately not successful.
“I would rather have a computer that runs faster and does more than a computer at which I look stylish sitting.”
I don’t. As I said, some people like stylish things.
“In short, if you paint shit with golden sparkles, it is still a shit…..
Windows is not…what you said.”
For me, it is. For you, it may not be. We are not talking about tautology here.
>does it can use voodoo’s 3d acceleration?
I have a voodoo5 here and it does not support alpha blending, I don’t think it is using the Voodoo accelerated at all. I had to revert back to the “legacy card support” option on the program to get my Voodoo5 to render it in a good speed.
Let me give some little examples: While moving the mouse you will always see your mouse pointer moving. On windows the mouse pointer sometimes freezes completely.
On what version of Windows? I haven’t seen my mouse pointer freeze in a couple of years, even with near complete system lockups, unless the system lost the connection to the mouse (in which case plugging the mouse back in does wonders).
As far as wmv format being used for the demos, I guess they expect people that want to use their product to be using the operating system the product requires. That’s kind of like most videos demonstrating Mac software being in mov format. Sure, it’s a pain in the ass if you just want to see what’s available on the platform, but they do know that it’s well supported for those that will actually be able to use the software.
> On what version of Windows? I haven’t seen my mouse
> pointer freeze in a couple of years
Yes, the Windows versions of the last couple of years have become more AmigaOS-like and luckily (see my earlier statement). But this was already the case on all Amiga models, i.e. equiped with a 7 Mhz CPUs and 256KB of *total* RAM. This is one of many factors why AmigaOS feels so responsive, even while running on ancient hardware.
It seems that stardock.com is down.
Anyone has a mirror of the demo? ( WindowFX20_pub.exe )
The Transition effects are the most obnoxious of the bunch. Are there any in the full version that animate min/max from the taskbar or open/close from the icon? Just twirling in from beyond doesn’t do it for me.
I like the drop shadows. Too bad the demo only enables them on the WindowFX window itself.
I found a bug in window transparency while dragging. If you drag a window partially off screen, some of the transparency remains and smears the window image. I’ve also noticed the entire desktop refreshing a few times when I close the WFX prefs window. Kinda annoying.
Eh. Might be worth $20. More like $5 or $10
PS: After spell checking this post, I’ve decided that window fade in/out is also annoying (ie: every time it found a spelling error the dialog faded in/out)
Yes, the Windows versions of the last couple of years have become more AmigaOS-like and luckily (see my earlier statement). But this was already the case on all Amiga models, i.e. equiped with a 7 Mhz CPUs and 256KB of *total* RAM. This is one of many factors why AmigaOS feels so responsive, even while running on ancient hardware.
Part of that was simply that the Amiga was more closely tied to the OS from the start, allowing them to do quite a bit with what, today, seems like limited resources. Another part of it is that, as most should be able to realize, the mouse interface had some fairly nasty bugs up until Win2k. The easiest way to see this would be to run NT4 and open up task manager to the CPU monitor (or run a CPU monitor on 9x), then click and drag over an empty spot on the desktop. CPU usage should hit 99-100% when you’re not really doing anything except drawing lines on the screen to show selected area. I don’t know what they did to fix it or even why it was a problem in the first place, but 2k took care of it, and that’s probably related to the issues of the pointer freezing when the system was loaded down (and in 9x given that the system didn’t multitask nearly as well as NT anyway, I expect stupid things like that to happen).
Unfortunately, I’m not familiar enough with the Amiga to really know what they did to keep the mouse responsive, but I’m sure that it’s something that *shouldn’t* be hard to do (no excuse for the way older versions of Windows behaved in my book).
Eh. Might be worth $20. More like $5 or $10
Generally, I don’t think many of Stardock’s individual components are worth what they want for them. However, if you find that you like a couple of their products, I think it’s worth it to buy the full ObjectDesktop package. It just comes down to a large collection of cool little utilities, which seems pretty good for people that like to tweak their systems, even if those tweaks aren’t for optimal performance. Not to mention that some of their software provides a lot of those little things that Linux and Mac users like to complain about Windows not having, such as virtual desktops, windowshades, tear-off menus, customizable task bar, etc.
All of that being said, I find that most of their stuff isn’t really useful until you tweak it for your system and use. Many of the themes available for WindowBlinds, for instance, can really bog down a system when you get a lot of windows open on the screen (though last time I used WindowBlinds it was a fairly early version of the XP software, so it could be better now).
There are many valid points in this discussion to be made about WindowFX but one thing that really is frustrating is the tendancy of Mac users to think that MacOS is the source of all or even most innovation.
There are zero features in WindowFX that were inspired by MacOS. Zero. WindowFX 1 had transparent windows and menus and drop shadows and it came out BEFORE MacOS X.
The transition effects and other cool effects were inspired first seen from our OS/2 days in a program called NPS/WPS which did the same sorts of thing (only with wire frames since back then no card was capable of doing those sorts of things with a full window). That was back in 1992 mind you.
Stardock Object Desktop for OS/2 came out in 1995 and was doing extensive OS customizing from day 1 including skinning the GUI. Yet Mac users try to claim that WindowBlinds and WindowFX and DesktopX were somehow inspired/stolen from Apple ideas which they weren’t, we had developed and implemented them first.
That doesn’t make Apple any less innovative than it is. OS X, particularly Jaguar is a great OS. But it isn’t the source of all innovation.
As for the usefulness of WindowFX, I would be the first to say that it’s mostly eye candy (though being able to maximize a window to a certain size is quite handy). But WindowFX is just ONE part of Stardock Object Desktop (www.objectdesktop.com). Object Desktop has virtual desktops and zip utilities, disk space monitoring and reporting, end user access to COM objects, ability to extend the GUI with useful productive features, hot key support for virtually any function on the OS, etc.
It’s when you put all this together that the strength of Object Desktop comes into play.
Regarding WindowFX performance: If you have a Geforce card, make sure you get the Detonator 40 drivers. nVidia is working on optimizing them further. That video was done on a 1ghz dell machien with a Geforce 2 MMX with Detonator 4.
> I’m not familiar enough with the Amiga to really know
> what they did to keep the mouse responsive
The most important reason for this behaviour was the way multitasking is handled by AmigaOS. For instance, priorities are standardly given by the sheduler to user input responses. This gives a more responsive environment, but does not take any significant amount of resource which could impact other running tasks.
For instance on a 40 Mhz classic Amiga you could easily burn several CDs simultaniously, render an image and still have a fully responsive environment. If you hit stop/pause, the rendering or burning will immediately stop until you hit the continue button. Windows for instance often just rattles and rattles for quite some time.
> The sentence “Windows users always become very happy when some firm (usually MS itself)
> inspires (especially) from Apple and implements ideas for Windows.” does not imply Windows
> users should never benefit from advances that other people make of course.
Your post certainly put a bad connotation on it.
> My answer to your question is yes, you can benefit, if you prefer false warmth to cold.
I have never heard of false warmth before. What is it?
> For some, including me, yes.
Have you ever tried to make contact with your operating system’s soul?
> Again, success is a relative term. Astronomical profits may not indicate success for some people.
> For me, Windows is definately not successful.
So a company making astronomical profits is not successful?
> I don’t. As I said, some people like stylish things.
*shrugs*
> For me, it is. For you, it may not be. We are not talking about tautology here.
Windows is not shit. Windows is a PC operating system. Are you trying to say that you do not like Windows?
> There are zero features in WindowFX that were inspired by MacOS. Zero. WindowFX 1 had
> transparent windows and menus and drop shadows and it came out BEFORE MacOS X.
Man, that MacOS X is such a rip. j/k 😉
I can’t believe you are flaming each other about the “soul” thing. That’s a metaphor, and actually, a simple one.
Hell, these are computer operating systems. They aren’t religions. How can someone spend time fighting because of a tool? Why not respect each others’ opinion?
I remember when we could discuss things like “BSD vs. GPL” in a mature, friendly way. Gratuitous hostility is increasing in Internet communities lately.I wonder if this has something to do with the world’s current state. Well, maybe not.
Was there an Amiga with only 256kb memory? I thought even the first A1000 had 512kb mem.
To comment on the “Amiga are friggin fast” thingie. I am a proud owner of two A500 with 1mb ram and one is equiped with 256mb hdd. Okay its still running AmigaOS1.3, but working in the CLI or SHELL is soooooo slow. I can type faster than my Amiga can respond to it – though multitasking is somewhat possible (to a certain degree).
I guess OS2.0 – 3.5 are far better, never used them.
my 2 € cents
florian lutz
btw, since so many amiga geeks are around here. I need an internal ide controller for my second amiga 500. If anyone knows where to get, please email me.
> I can’t believe you are flaming each other about the “soul” thing.
Flaming? I just wanted to see how far he would take it.
> Hell, these are computer operating systems. They aren’t religions.
Exactly my point, although I suspect that your motive for saying it differs from mine.
> How can someone spend time fighting because of a tool? Why not respect
> each others’ opinion?
I might respect his opinions if I could examine them to see whether or not they were correct. Telling me that something “has soul” gives me nothing to examine.
Croanon can more clearly express whatever he is trying to say some other way. Maybe he could say, “Apple’s developers have a lot more talent than Microsoft’s” or perhaps something a little less inclusive.
I want something that can be publicly debated and tested, not a wishy washy focus group session that produces nothing of intellectual value.
> I remember when we could discuss things like “BSD vs. GPL” in a mature,
> friendly way.
I do not participate in many software license discussions, but I have seen the hostility. I believe that it stems from ignorance and increasingly irresponsible media practices.
Do you know how many articles lied about Windows Product Activation? We are approaching the one year anniversary of many of these articles, and yet there is still a tremendous amount of FUD being spread by people who read those articles or heard it from a friend’s friend’s friend’s aunt’s nephew’s daughter.
Or look at the Red Hat “copyright issue” thread for example; people are now having a hissy fit about proprietary software that turns out to be nothing more than some copyrighted Red Hat-specific artwork. It really bothers me that some people start these lies simply because they dislike what someone else is doing.
I am not accusing anyone here of starting those types of lies. I hate the fact that they exist, and I would urge people to verify before posting information that could be detrimental to someone else even if you do not like that person. Ditto that for companies.
> Gratuitous hostility is increasing in Internet communities lately.
> I wonder if this has something to do with the world’s current state. Well,
> maybe not.
When all else fails, blame it on the video games. ;-D
> Was there an Amiga with only 256kb memory?
Yes the original A1000 only had 256KB in 1985, most people upgraded it to 512KB though.
> Okay its still running AmigaOS1.3, but working in the
> CLI or SHELL is soooooo slow.
Personally I don’t think the default settings for AmigaOS1.x are sooooo slow, however with AmigaOS 2.0 for instance, there’s an included preference utility with which you can set your keyboard speed. Probably you can find a similar utility on Aminet for OS1.3 http://www.aminet.net
> though multitasking is somewhat possible (to a certain
> degree).
Even your old A500 multitasks pretty well. But as most people know you can’t multitask between more programs than your current amount of memory supports. Alternatively upgrade your A500.
Try formatting a diskette while switching back and forth between DPaint and Workbench and you will notice that your entry-level Amiga at 7 Mhz is endless times better at multitasking than top-level PCs over a decade newer.
> I guess OS2.0 – 3.5 are far better, never used them.
Yes OS2.0 was a major leap forward. Note that most utitilies found on Aminet requires at least OS2.x to be run. Luckily upgrading your A500 to AmigaOS 3.1 is relatively simple. For newer versions you would need to do some serious upgrading.
I thought they were out of business.