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A trick to translucency of MacOS menubar and Hyperspaces
I read that you have problem to get the background image from Hyperspaces go "under" the menubar like translucency of standard desktop background images in MacOS.
The consequence is indeed that the transparency effect of the menubar let the user see
its "old" background image (from the MacOS preferences) and not Hyperspaces ones.
Another drawback of displaying Hyperspaces background "above" is that some third-party
tools changing the Desktop background become invisible (some of them: Wallsaver displaying the Screensaver as desktop background, or DockArt showing the currently playing iTunes album cover as desktop background).
To avoid this second drawback, Hyperspaces currently proposes a user preference to manually stop drawing its Desktop backgrounds. But it's a pity.
To address both problems (menubar transparency and "real background" invisibility)
I discovered a while ago a very small program, that was a prototype, but seems to give
an answer: SpaceSation v0.3 is likely to change background from space to space by changing the standard desktop background from the preferences. see http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/f...
Maybe this would make Hyperspaces nice animation effect impossible, but this would solve
the two other problems?
As a conclusion, and that's my idea (hoping this is reasonable): maybe taking this into account could lead to some solutions?
1- propose a preference switch in Hyperspaces between
"Change standard background / Use superposed background".
2- or even better: merge the two solutions to have all the advantages.
(a) Hyperspaces would change the standard background to solve the transparency effect with the menubar (and would restore the standard background when quitting).
(b) Hyperspaces would (also) draw a superposed window to display the nice transition effect when changing space. (That feature could remain a user switch as currently).
(c) But after the transition effect, Hyperspaces would close its superposed window to let only see the standard background (changed to the same image) and therefore compatible with every other tools transforming the background.
Tricky, but possible?
The consequence is indeed that the transparency effect of the menubar let the user see
its "old" background image (from the MacOS preferences) and not Hyperspaces ones.
Another drawback of displaying Hyperspaces background "above" is that some third-party
tools changing the Desktop background become invisible (some of them: Wallsaver displaying the Screensaver as desktop background, or DockArt showing the currently playing iTunes album cover as desktop background).
To avoid this second drawback, Hyperspaces currently proposes a user preference to manually stop drawing its Desktop backgrounds. But it's a pity.
To address both problems (menubar transparency and "real background" invisibility)
I discovered a while ago a very small program, that was a prototype, but seems to give
an answer: SpaceSation v0.3 is likely to change background from space to space by changing the standard desktop background from the preferences. see http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/f...
Maybe this would make Hyperspaces nice animation effect impossible, but this would solve
the two other problems?
As a conclusion, and that's my idea (hoping this is reasonable): maybe taking this into account could lead to some solutions?
1- propose a preference switch in Hyperspaces between
"Change standard background / Use superposed background".
2- or even better: merge the two solutions to have all the advantages.
(a) Hyperspaces would change the standard background to solve the transparency effect with the menubar (and would restore the standard background when quitting).
(b) Hyperspaces would (also) draw a superposed window to display the nice transition effect when changing space. (That feature could remain a user switch as currently).
(c) But after the transition effect, Hyperspaces would close its superposed window to let only see the standard background (changed to the same image) and therefore compatible with every other tools transforming the background.
Tricky, but possible?
I’m excited
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Inappropriate?I think the main disadvantage of changing the system's desktop background is that it's really slow - somewhere in the order of a couple of seconds.
I'll definitely take some time to look into this this weekend.
I’m confident
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Inappropriate?Yes, I can imagine.
Nevertheless the above mentioned SpaceStation v0.3 was not so long to change backgrounds? Maybe I didn't guess correctly its underlying method.
On the other hand, this "long" time would be another reason to combine both approaches as imagined above?
1) Current Hyperspaces approach with a window "above" the desktop.
2) Meanwhile, and not as quickly, the standard desktop would be updated and after this you could remove Hyperspaces window?
So easy when we write, but certainly so difficult to implement! ;-)1 Comment
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This is one of the best points
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http://getsatisfaction.com/thecocoabo...
I've added this as a feature to the latest beta - I'd love if you could try it out. Please read the release notes before downloading/installing.
You'll need to go to the advanced preferences and ensure that 'Set the system desktop picture when changing spaces' is checked. -
Inappropriate?Iit makes sense - I'll look into it for the next round of updates. And yes, it's not as easy as it sounds :)
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Inappropriate?I love this idea! I noticed another small visual glitch with the current method: You can still see the very rightmost row of pixels from the original desktop image.
Also, it doesn't play nice with Desktoptopia, which makes me sad. I would like to be able to have Desktoptopia change the first space as normal, and then have the other spaces have contextual backgrounds. Maybe at least have an option to turn off background handling on specific spaces?
I'm loving HyperSpaces so far! I got it from MacHeist today.
I’m happy
1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
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Excellent! I'm glad you're enjoying Hyperspaces :)
Want to file a separate request for Desktoptopia integration? I'll look at this in a future release.
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