INTERACT FORUM

More => Old Versions => Media Center 12 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: Marty3d on August 09, 2006, 07:33:53 pm

Title: Turning off transparent menus
Post by: Marty3d on August 09, 2006, 07:33:53 pm
I thought it would be cool with the transparent menus, but I actually find them annoying and making the menu items distracted by the background (especially the "text-over-text" effect).

I understand that some users find this cool, but please please pretty please make this optional!

Thanks!
Title: Re: Turning off transparent menus
Post by: Doof on August 10, 2006, 11:18:49 am
It is optional.

You just have to navigate to the skin's folder (C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\MegaSkins\Noire), open up the main.xml file in notepad, scroll down to the <MENU> section, and edit the "<Data Alpha="230" />" tag to say (I believe) "<Data Alpha="255" />".

Then it's just a simple matter of saving the main.xml file, and either closing and restarting MC, or choosing a different skin, and choosing Noire again.

You may also want to rename the Noire folder to something else so that the next time you install a new build of MC, it doesn't overwrite the skin, or you'll have to do all of this again.

Oh, if only there were a tool... built in to MC, ideally, that could make such changes like this on the fly... you know... something that could change the Effects on Skins without having to manually edit an xml file...
Title: Re: Turning off transparent menus
Post by: Marty3d on August 10, 2006, 01:49:31 pm
Well, yes...there's always the option to edit skin files....but hey, I'm programming and scripting for work, not keen on doing that on my spare time...then I just want to keep things simple ;)
Title: Re: Turning off transparent menus
Post by: RobOK on August 11, 2006, 01:37:05 pm
It is optional.

You just have to navigate to the skin's folder (C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\MegaSkins\Noire), open up the main.xml file in notepad, scroll down to the <MENU> section, and edit the "<Data Alpha="230" />" tag to say (I believe) "<Data Alpha="255" />".


Thanks, I did this and it did the trick!!  I like the skin but not translucent.  To me that makes it harder to read.

Is there a way to make the cursor bar that moves up and down the list of playlists and things in the tree a darker blue?  On my monitor it is very faint light blue, and I would like it slightly more noticeable.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Turning off transparent menus
Post by: glynor on September 25, 2006, 12:47:38 pm
It is optional.

You just have to navigate to the skin's folder (C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\MegaSkins\Noire), open up the main.xml file in notepad, scroll down to the <MENU> section, and edit the "<Data Alpha="230" />" tag to say (I believe) "<Data Alpha="255" />".

I've done this (because the transparent menus don't show up in VNC connections).  If anyone wants to grab a copy, rather than doing it yourself, you can grab it here:

http://users.adelphia.net/~edandjenn/mc/SolidNoire.mjp
Title: Re: Turning off transparent menus
Post by: RobOK on September 26, 2006, 08:30:38 pm
THANK YOU!  THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Now I can use this skin with G-Force !
Title: Re: Turning off transparent menus
Post by: dcwebman on November 15, 2006, 08:42:29 am
glynor, with the latest alpha backgrounds, the solidnoire is not solid anymore and the new main.xml doesn't have a Data Alpha tag anymore.

Do you by any chance have an update?
Title: Re: Turning off transparent menus
Post by: glynor on November 15, 2006, 08:49:18 am
I did notice, and no I don't.  We'll have to wait and see what happens.

Personally, I liked the old method better.  The transparent menus were "really" transparent, and looked cool.  They didn't work in certain situations, but it was easy to disable.
Title: Re: Turning off transparent menus
Post by: benn600 on November 15, 2006, 04:10:24 pm
Let's stop complaining and thank the developers for making MC have some of the new features in Vista.  It really puts Vista to some shame.  Hey, do you think you could add the transparent glass around the edge of MC?  I would really like to have that!  All the interface improvements just make it an even nicer program!