Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Will it work with desktopX?
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
you can just use an animated .gif file
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
.gif is a simple way to construct animated wallpaper,
but this way has some limitations,
For example
It's impossible to implement real 3D scene or complicated 2d animation(Beizer)with .gif
It's impossible to reuse existed screensaver and flash with .gif

Do you agree with me?
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It seems Moderndesktop can work with Object and Widgets in DesktopX well.


ooh, now I'll go take a look when I get home.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well, I gave it a shot, after rebooting to a clean system. Can't say that I'm here to give a glowing review.

The included Dolphin animation looked decent, though it used way too much CPU to be anything more than a novelty. Plus it was way too big.

The included Beizer animation looked good and used very little CPU. It's not something I'd want as a wallpaper, though.

The included Fireworks animation, which I was really looking forward to, looked awful. It looked way over-zoomed and over-compressed. I don't remember the CPU hit on it.

I tried many different screen savers, and they either didn't do anything at all, or they looked horrible (way, way, WAY over-zoomed). And they all but disabled my computer with the CPU hit, despite the animation being virtually non-existent (if at all). In fact, even my mouse would only work in spurts.

Twice I had to kill this program from the Task Manager, because its windows wouldn't respond to my mouse clicks.

Explorer crashed twice.

I have a pretty decent system, with an Athlon 3000+, 1 GB of RAM, and an ATI 9550 with 256K. I would imagine my 1600x1200x32b screen was the source of at least some of my problems.

But still, I run all my screen savers at that res, including intensive stuff like SereneScreen Marine Aquarium, and have no problems whatsoever. And that's with a ton of stuff loaded on my system and working in the background. Again, I rebooted to a clean system before trying this out.

I like the concept, but it looks like it has a long ways to go, at least for me.

I'd also strongly recommend more subtle animations, such as a space scene with twinkling stars. I mean, assuming anyone can even use that Dolphin animation, is that something anyone really wants on their desktop? Maybe if it was a lot smaller, like the DX fish widgets (which use almost no CPU).

Sorry, but that's my honest opinion. I'd love to hear the experiences of others.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
You can place flash objects on your desktop using Windows active desktop. I've made several from flash animations I have found on Deviantart. Didn't keep them long, though, they are more annoying than helpful.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hello, Tarkus:
Thank you for your review.
It seems lots of work need to be done to improve Moderndesktop.

It's very strange that Dolphin animation uses too much CPU.
The Dolphin animation is shifted in DirectX SDK and run very well in some poor computers. For example Celeron 1.7G ,256M RAM , an very old ATI video card. The usage is less than 4%. I will try to find the reason.

Because only preview-enabled screensaver can work with Moderndesktop well.
It means if a screensaver can't run in preview status well, it will make Moderndesktop unstable. Maybe it's a good idea to provide a Moderndesktop-compatible
screensaver list in my website.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
When I said the Dolphin animation uses too much CPU, I was talking ~20%, not the 100% that the screen savers were using. But that's still way too much for eye candy.

Also, many of the screen savers I tried were preview-enabled, but they still didn't work, or they all but took down my system trying to work.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yes! you are right.
Not all preview-enable screensavers can work with Moderndesktop well.
Some screensavers can be previewed well in small window, but not in large window.
In fact all the screensavers included in Windows work with Moderndesktop very well(but they are ugly).
So I think the issue is caused by screensaver side. I will provide a Moderndesktop-compatible screensaver list in my website.

For Dolphin animation, it's a strange thing, I don't know why and will try to find a computer like yours to verify this bug and resolve it.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Guys....it's a very old thread....2 years ago there was no Vista Ultimate....