Bring the cool stuff (back)!

Well yeah, there's also the options under "Visuals" where you can set the Texture quality, Vsync & Anti-Aliasing.

Besides all that I don't think BumpTop is meant to be used on low-end computers. If you don't have a (descent) graphics card, you can hardly run any 3D application anyway.

And sure, it shouldn't consume much system recourses but that's what they said about Windows Vista too, huh? ;-)

A number of features such as gesture menu was revolutionary but it is missing from the beta.

If all you do is give a desktop enhancement it will not be successful, you need to pan in the original things such as gestures (more then there now), crumple, etc.

Agreed. I remember seeing the video when it was first released, and was really excited about alot of the features only to see that most of them were scrapped along the way.

There were alot of good ideas there, and I think adding those back would make Bumptop truly amazing.

Yeah, i'd really like to see the crumple feature again, along with solid squares, imo, looks kind of weird scrolling though the icons and its seethough, and not even all the way seethough, one side seems to allways have a gray tone..

Allso, the stack widgets, especially the one that zooms the icon when the mouse is over it..

The problem is that the list of features is REALLY not representative of what should be a priority. Sure, crumple is cool, but in no way should it be on the whole top of the list, above optimization, above undo/redo, etc, etc.

Anahkiasen,

You can look at it two ways. One way is what us the current users will want the other one is what will make the company successful so that they can keep developing their product and have money to pay the rent.

Unfortunately the glitz will get them more customers. People saw the video and the few major parts of the video that attracted all of us here are missing. What will the reaction be from the general non-technical people when they saw those feathers and now they are no longer there? I can almost guarantee that a number of potential customers will walk away because they see no reason to buy the product. They will download the free version and either stay with it, or just play with it and forget it.

The important stuff is important but unfortunately it will not bring more customers, which will mean that they will have the $$$ to keep developing this. I say put in the glitz and then work on the things that is not in the video. The reaction at the show and the subsequent video is what brought attention to the product and the product needs to have all those options so that the excitement builds and the company can make $$$, then they can develop the other stuff.

One thing I hate about bumpTop is that I cant have my old shortcut icons (fast launch) setup in a way that if i love some files i want to work on and by accident drag them in a sliding behavior, they will "crash" on my "should never move" icons and make a mess out of it.

Maybe add an option to add weight so I could put 9999 or better yet, add a "imovable" class to the icon physics where they would essencially have infinite mass and all other stuff would just bump back after "crashing" into them.

Important to not make them immune to colisions tho, cause then there would be icons behind those imovable icons making us have to move the imovables first and sort out the mess again.

Other than that, I miss a label on stacks, maybe make the file names of stuff in the stack wrap around the stack itself, but outside, or make them fade away as a list in the bottom or something.

Also, when u double click a stack, it shows that square pane, but, its behavior is flawed at best, it keeps tending to the top of the screen while it should actually "zoom"/"hover" out of the middle of the stack itself.

And the lasso tool should have an undo, if I lasso something and pass the mouse in the middle while going from bottom to top, going back from top to bottom should undo the effect. :

Bottom -> UP = Stack
Up -> Bottom = un-stack

But make it work in 360degrees, so that i can use up-bottom stack and bottom-up un-stack, and even sideways.

And what about, if we enter a stack (by hovering center) and then we do a full 360degree re-lasso, it would convert the stack to a folder? Then, we could lasso + stack + folderize in just one step.

I'm sure the additional features don't work out for everyone but there should at least be an option to choose if you want them available for you.

Just e few minutes of setup could customize BumpTop to your personal needs. Besides, more functions makes more combinations possible, therefore there would be more unique BumpTops. We all have different real workspaces after all ;-)

Another thing, if I see the promised functions from the first promo vid, I'll definitely buy it!

I think Justin Ho explanation posted here is not enough...
When I first installed bumptop after 2 years of waiting for an invite code I was so dissapointed that I can't find the right words to describe that. When I first saw the TED video on youtube I was picking my yaw from the froor thinking 'OMG finally answer to my prayers'.
Having that experience in mind I installed bumptop and my faith in humanity was gone - I felt like being scammed. All the cool functions were gone and basicly what bumptop became is a 3d icon bumping program.
Guys, what were you doing for the past 2 or 3 years? Optimizing bumptop till all it's functions were gone? Should we wait another 2 or 3 years till you figure out that those functions were the reason why people became interested in bumptop and started beta testing for you in the first place??

I love the way people are sharing ideas in this topic.

Lifemare made some very good points there. I surely agree that the professionalism with BT has nowhere else been seen due to its simplicity, reliability and functionality. Adding more could give less.

But...

You can twist and turn it any way you like, a 3rd party desktop enhancement will always be less functional than the original thing.
People check these things out because they're looking for something new and refreshing. They can find all that in BT but people always want more. It's simply in our nature. Giving them (us) optional eye-candy could only be an addition to BT's greatness, right? Considering installer size, usability and all the other stuff mentioned above. Perhaps some features can come in the form of plug-ins. Heck, how about charging $5 if you wanna crumple ur crap? :P

BumpTop is the only visual improvement that lasts so long on my desktop. All that cube spinning made me dizzy, all the crashing annoyed me, all the incompatibility got me frustrated. Now, BT provides a stable alternative to the dull Windows Desktop that make my friends go "That's a cool desktop, dude!"!

They've got a great community going on here. Brilliant minds sharing wonderful ideas. I don't believe it gets any better.

i mostly miss the crumple and bookshelves....

Stick a pile to the wall for bookshelves

I would love bookshelves too.