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[Awesome Donkey]

These are forks of the current Modern Cards: Grey Edition and Dark skins that better fit the Windows 11 aesthetic and are the successor to the old Modern Cards: Acrylic series of skins I released a few years back. My other/older/Linux skins can be found in this topic.

Some notes about these skins:

• Because glass (transparency) in skins only works on Windows, these skins are Windows-only. They likely won't look correctly on Mac or Linux.
• These skins come in three varieties, Modern Cards: Mica Light, Modern Cards: Mica Dark and Modern Cards: Mica Dusk
• These skins have a semi-transparency inspired by the Mica (and MicaAlt) material. Worth noting it doesn't exactly match the Windows 11 amount of transparency, noise and gaussian blur used in the Mica material itself (if you know how to replicate this in an image, please contact me!) but it tries to come as close as possible.
• These skins support Windows 11's rounded corners when Media Center is windowed if using Media Center 34.0.19 and newer.
• These skins have been synced against the current changes made to the Modern Cards skins by EnglishTiger in MC34, so special thanks to ET for all that hard work!
• There are a few other main.xml tweaks made, including to the system button positioning to eliminate the empty pixel line on the edge between the edge of the frame and the edge of the close button (to exactly mimic what happens in Windows 11).
• Unlike the old Acrylic skins I released, these skins do support scaling, YAY!

NOTES: Modern Cards: Mica Dusk is a fusion of the dark skin's main frame with the light skin's inner lists and a white search bar. Also for best results I recommend using the Segoe UI fonts or the Segoe UI Variable fonts in Media Center's settings when using these skins, to help better fit the Windows 11 aesthetic.

Download: https://www.mediafire.com/file/z764n5vrskemeu9/ModernCardsMicaSeriesv1.01.zip/file

How To Install (Windows):

Drop the folders into C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 34\Skins\Standard View if using the 64-bit version of Media Center. If using the 32-bit version of Media Center the path would be C:\Program Files (x86)\J River\Media Center 34\Skins\Standard View. If you're using another version of Media Center (e.g. Media Center 33) just substitute 34 for the version of Media Center you're using in the paths above.

Here's some screenshots!

Modern Cards: Mica Light




Modern Cards: Mica Dark




Modern Cards: Mica Dusk




Changelog:

1.01: Started adding version numbers for updates. Synced with the changes ET made in the upstream ModernCards Grey/Dark skins (hopefully addresses the things marko mentioned, let me know if not!) so thanks to both of them!


Enjoy!

P.S. Yes, I do intend on doing updates to the Linux skins. There's been changes the last few years I need to adapt to and update for.

[Awesome Donkey]

Did a minor update with some main.xml changes suggested by ET, and fixed the minimize/maximize buttons for the Dusk skin, while uploading the screenshots to an alternate site.

[bytestar]

I love your skins, the mica update is just beautiful. 😍

Thank you

[marko]

Morning AD.... Finally got around to having a look at these...

I won't really use the dusk or light variants, so didn't do a deep dive into those. "Dark" may, or may not need attention, depending on your intentions...

Here's what I found:
The InPlaceFindToolbar is not being used, so MC pulls the white one from default skin items, which just looks wrong to me? I added to main.xml here, looks better.
The list group header is not being used. The required image is there, just not used. I think this one can come down to personal preference. Mine is to use it, so I added it to the main.xml here
The skin uses greyscale icons in the tree and action window, but then uses full colour icons in the options tree. Options.png is referenced in the <ART> section, but the file is not included in the skin folder. I added one here, and it's a better fit, to my mind at least. If you agree, I've attached mine here if you want it.
There's something not quite right with FrameTopBorder (the black border is too thick) but I've not had time to figure that out yet

The stock "Modern Cards: Dark" skin also has all of the above issues. And should probably be fixed? For a more professional look, feel and new user experience, default skins should really be as close to perfect as possible.

[bob]

On a Mac 4k retina I get an odd top region.

[Awesome Donkey]

On a Mac 4k retina I get an odd top region.

That one's probably because glass/transparency isn't supported outside of Windows. Wish it did work on macOS though, I think transparency on Mac would look great too! But because of that these skins are Windows-only.

The stock "Modern Cards: Dark" skin also has all of the above issues. And should probably be fixed? For a more professional look, feel and new user experience, default skins should really be as close to perfect as possible.

I remember you mentioning those a week or so ago. My stance on this one is I'd probably wait for to be fixed in the upstream Dark Edition skin first before pulling any of those fixes into the Mica version. I do agree though, the default skins should come as close to being perfect as possible.

[EnglishTiger]

AD - I've got a couple of PrtScn images that will amuse/entertain you

The 1st one is Mica Dark on a PC running under Windows 11 for Arm. Or is it because it's from Windows 11 for Arm running on my M4 Mac Mini, which is probably why it's opaque
The 2nd one is Mica Dusk on the Mac Mini and it's even funkier than the one bob posted, the same funky effect happens with Mica Dark but it appears not to happen with Mica Light.

[Awesome Donkey]

Not going to lie, seeing Windows 11 running on an M4 Mac looks pretty nice. I assume that's Parallels?

It's a little funny to see that happen in the Dark/Dusk skins and not the Light skin. I suspect it could be because of the Column/Rows/Cells parts used for MainFrame_TopBorder.png in those two but I haven't tested that yet.

[EnglishTiger]

AD - Yes I am using Parallels from this source - https://www.ashampoo.com/en-us/parallels-desktop 

You could well be right about the parameters for the manipulation of the top border being different in Modern Cards Black and ModernCards Grey or White potentially contributing to that funky effect in both Mica Dark and Dusk. One of the things I discovered when I tried to derive a skin from ModernCards Dark was that simply adding a Border around the Playerbar Display panel caused tears to appear in some really odd parts of the player bar on the mac.

Since the top and bottom borders are the same size in all 3 Modern Cards Skins tomorrow I'm going to see if I replace the instruction set in a version of ModernCards Dark with set  from ModernCards Grey.

Just to prove that Mica Light doesn't suffer from that Funky Effect the attached image shows what Mica Light looks like under Windows 11 for Arm, on the left, and under Sequoia 15.4.1, on the right.

A word of caution - that is not a compound image-  thanks to switching Windows 11 for Arm into Coherence Mode MC 34.0.19 for Windows and MC 33.0.71 really are on the same desktop and both of then are happily working their way through their respective playlists and for the last 2 hours I've not been aware of anything happening in either of them that could indicate any form of cross platform interference.

[EnglishTiger]

It's a little funny to see that happen in the Dark/Dusk skins and not the Light skin. I suspect it could be because of the Column/Rows/Cells parts used for MainFrame_TopBorder.png in those two but I haven't tested that yet.

AD - You got the guess right I created test versions of Mica Dark, Dusk & Light and copied the Main Frame TopBar line from Mica Light to Dark and Dusk.
I could spot any visual difference between my versions and yours on the Win PC but on the Mac Mini there was non of that Funkiness on the TopBar for Dark or Dusk but there was some on the BottomBar.

So I went back into the test versions and removed any image manipulation instructions from the BottomBar line in all 3.
Once again I could not spot any visual diffrenece between my versions and yours and when I checked them on the Mac-Mini there was no Funkiness in either the Top or Bottom bars.

In all 3 skins this is the TopBorder Line I used

Code: [Select]

<Entry Name="TopBorder" Bitmap="MainFrame_TopBorder.png"/>
and this is the one for the BottomBorder

Code: [Select]

<Entry Name="BottomBorder" Bitmap="MainFrame_BottomBorder.png"/>
However as the attached images reveal on the Mac all 4 Mainframe Borders in the Modified Dark and Dusk test versions are far lighter than the Windows Versions.
N.B. This time the Mac Version is on the left and the Windows 11 for Arm Version is on the right. To be able to change the skin for the Mac instance of MC I was having to click on the MC Window on the right and then move the mouse over to left and then Apple Hijacked MenuBar to change the skin.

P.S. I think that bit of funkines in the RightBorder alongside the ViewHeader may be down to the RighBorder, unlike the LeftBorder, having this -  Rows="24,?-Flex" - in the line/instruction

[Awesome Donkey]

Okay, an update, with a version number (1.01) now! It adds changes ET made to the upstream ModernCards Grey/Dark skins. Hopefully those address the issues marko pointed out (don't have time to check at the moment, let me know if not!).