Transparent WIndows

[DIatomaceous]

I realize this message probably belongs in AVS Discussion, but I think the general public should know about this awesome feature of winamp's AVS. If you don't understand any of what I'm saying, just reply back and someone will answer you I'm sure ;-)

I use Windows 98 se and this works really well..

Here are my steps for making "Transparent Windows" using Winamp's AVS Plugin.

WARNING!!!! THIS TECHNIQUE COULD EASILY RESULT IN EPILEPTIC SIEZURES!

1. Activate AVS (Advanced Visualization Studio) in Winamp
2. Check both "Overlay Mode" and "Set Desktop to Color" under Settings-Display in AVS Settings

--Background should now be AVS plugin--

3. Go to display properties (right click on desktop-properties) and select Appearance.
4. Click on the Background or choose "background" from the Item dropdown menu and click on the
down arrow next to color, then on other.
5. In this screen make sure the background (AVS) is still going where you see "Color/Solid" and
then click on "Add to Custom Colors"
6. Almost there... go back and select any item you wish (I recommend 3D buttons, window, both
window title bars, and of course the background) and for its color go to 'other' and choose the
custom color you made earlier.
7. You'll probably have to make your fonts white or some other bright color, because most
presets are dark in color. I also make mine bold for greater visibility.

PLAY WITH THIS! It is extremely fun to mess around with it to create more suble effects or more drastic ones. You can't have too much fun!

I've included a real photo of my desktop with this effect on- note the start menu and windows explorer--

ENJOY!!

-Diatomaceous

i was fooling with it earlier this week, and never woulda thought to make both the background and the other stuff the same color.

good call!

[Curi0us_George]

Blech. I did that once. It looks nifty as long as AVS is on, but once you turn it off everything is the same color. . . and ugly.

[s1138]

hehe thats sweet

[InvisableMan]

heh i foud that out a couple weeks ago when i started making 3d presets. it is cool

[mr_sax]

Originally posted by Curi0us_George
Blech. I did that once. It looks nifty as long as AVS is on, but once you turn it off everything is the same color. . . and ugly.

then again u could probably just set the color of the AVS to the same as the color you have set for 3d objects then it would do it when on and it wouldn't look bad when off

[Curi0us_George]

Yeah, but then you can't read your windows when it's on because the text is dark. I tried that, too. If you want to set your 3d objects as dark by default, it'll work, though, and work great.

Of course, I prefer to just leave it all alone, so I can see my nice background, which is much better looking than any preset.

around the same thing happens with Milkdrop too no?

[NeoRenegade]

Bleh. Overlay. Big deal. It's just how it works... using a certain colour. My ATI TV Tuner Wonder uses something like this for its overlay colour.

[mark e]

Cool

[DIatomaceous]

Just in response to some of the messages about it looking bad when winamp is off... I took off winamp shwoing up in the taskbar and system try, so it's almost invisible, and just keep it running all the time, whether a song is playing or not. Like this, I just have a very subtble preset that looks really cool even when no music is playing. Just thought I'd throw in my two cents. Also worth trying--

Just make your fonts this color, nothing else.. very cool effect there too..

Keep Tweaking!

-Diatomaceous

[n_ick2000]

It is cool to do that but if you want to restore your original settings, its a pain in the ass.

[Curi0us_George]

n_ick, just save the original scheme first. Then, just apply it when you are through with the overlay thing.