yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[General Topics] vijay555:
ZeBoxx, I was sleeping and had a bit of an Explorers moment and dreamt of a solution to a problem I don't think you even had :)

If you guys want to use greyscale colours, these would normally be in the registry in the range 0-255 (ish?).

However, VJBaseHue automatically adds 255 to the number you specify to give you normal Hues represented in the range 0-255.

Anyway, ignore that technical stuff. If you want greyscale themes, use negative values, eg

VJBaseHue -100

V
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
haha... yeah, didn't run into that because my bw.link uses the value 0. 0+255 is still a greyscale value :)

You made your program too smart, vijay ;)

Btw... I added a WM5 version of the colors wiki:

http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=WindowsMobile5Colors

I'm still missing a bunch of colors, and I'm not certain of a lot of others.
[General Topics] vijay555:
Don't know whether you're joking or not! However, the wiki info seems very interesting!

If you need to add modify any others keys etc, drop me a line to see if VJBaseHue can be improved.

V
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
Nah.. all the other values are more a case of setting them to something obnoxious (I've set them all to magenta) and then, while working with the device, hope to spot some magenta - then use divide-and-conquer to find out which value it is.

Though I suppose an application could help with that by making it easy to switch a registry color value between two colors.

I'm curious, really, how many of these are already in programs like Tweaks2K2 (I read it doesn't actually have all that many color tweaks). But being able to specify with some arbitrarity would help hunt things down a good bit.

However, right now, I'd suggest not to waste your time on it, unless you really want to - the process described above should work.

And if anybody else knows of a color tweak number and what it corresponds to which isn't listed in the first table of the wiki page - well, it's a wiki - please add! or respond here :)
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
Just to note... the mystery value 19 which got queried at boot-up, but I couldn't spot anywhere, is no longer a mystery - it's in the phone SIM card's PIN entry screen - the color for the text on the buttons there.

Might be on some other dialogs, but...

I also went through every program and control panel applet and whatnot on my device - other than the PIN screen... no magenta. So maybe that's the extent of it as far as base software goes - I suspect that if an application uses a color, referencing it by system name, which would be mapped to a value, then that value may still not be in my list.
[General Topics] l6cum:
hello

the colour black, theoretically has the value 0, so i put 0 into the BaseHue entry in the registry and got gray. i then added 255 and still got grey and on 256 got red...

anyway so what is black?????

any thoughts

thanks
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
You can't get 'black' colors with the BaseHue value.

0 through 255 (in the actual registry, not when feeding them into VJ's little app) result greyscale values, as is everything inbetween. 256 = red, and so forth. See the wiki page/chart for details.

There are some elements for which you can specify a specific color (including black). Again, see the wiki for which elements you can change.

For many parts, however, you'll be SOL.
[General Topics] vijay555:
Some minor discussion on grey scales here also:

http://forum.gadget.sg/showthread.php?t=298&page=2

Remember, to get greyscale values with VJBaseHue, use negative numbers like

VJBaseHue -95

Still no black thoough!

V
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
Heya VJ,

Could you adjust your post there to report the correct color hue range ( 257 .. 496 - not 511 ) ?

I'll update my wiki page to clarify values 0 .. 255, I guess some people think it's 'black .. white' or so :)
[General Topics] vijay555:
ZeBoxx: I can, but my thinking was that you have to be aware of the basehue "offset" when you use the registry.

However, if a less experienced user just loads up an art program, they can read off a hue straight from the colour picker. They don't have to know about the offset to use VJBaseHue.

However, I've made a version that doesn't use the offset.

VJBaseHueZB.exe

ZB either stands for Zero Base or ZeBoxx :)

V
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
I think I prefer 'Zero Base' ;)

But what I meant was that the range isn't 256 .. 511 in that there aren't 256 values to pick from. The range is 257 .. 496; 242 values. So it actually isn't easy to read off of a colorpicker anyway (since they usually work in the range 0.0 .. 255.0 or 0.0 .. 360.0

Perhaps you could actually include an UI with a colorpicker ? ;)

I'll see if I get some time later tonight to create a chart for the greyscale values. I'm thinking that I'll extend my existing chart with a three-part gradient with the actual color values acquired for several elements when entering a value. Unfortunately, that means taking 512 screenshots and measuring them all :D

( that'll take a while ;( )
[General Topics] vijay555:
I see what you mean!

Should I change the offset to +257?

Building in a colorpicker is a great idea. I'll try to look into how to go about it.

V
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
if you want to control only the color hues, normally, yes :)

If you want to appease people who work with colorpickers, you may want to include a calculation to go from the colorwheel degree to the appropriate value ?

BaseHue = cInt(257 + (239 / 360) * input_value)

( I *think* )

Edit: 239, I guess - man I can't do math today ;)
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
256 screenshots later... there's no value in the 0 .. 255 range that gets you black. The darkest you can get is with value 160 (in BaseHue registry or with "VJBaseHueZB.exe" - add subtract 255 to get the value for "VJBaseHue.exe")

256 more to go for the colors... *yawn*
[General Topics] vijay555:
ZeBoxx: is it entirely necessary to screenshot every colour!? The last .png you posted was big enough. You must be looking at an enormous number of screenshots...

I wonder why the lum and sat is fixed? Perhaps you could try adding keys like BaseLum etc to see if they have any effect. It's a longshot though!

V
[General Topics] zohaer21:
how can i get black theme color???
[General Topics] Nadavi:
Working great on my O2 Atom.

Black And White Theme :D :D :D
[General Topics] vijay555:
zohaer21: three posts up

ZeBoxx is still working on it AFAIK...

assasins: what settings are you using? Can you post a screenshot?

V
[General Topics] Nadavi:
using these:

VJBaseHue.exe 0

p.s which program to take screenshots will work on WM05? tell me i'll picture it.. :?
[General Topics] vijay555:
assasins: try a program called Magic SS

V
[General Topics] Nadavi:
Sure.

Here is my Screen o2 Today Screen.

, Thanks for VIjay555 (the Screen capture SW)...

:)
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
yeah, as far as I know, there's -no- way to get black specifically on the items that derive from the BaseHue *unless* there is an override - e.g. like number '34' which, if present, overrides the BaseHue-derived value for the 'Today Screen items background highlight color'.

So please stop asking for black :) If somebody finds it, they will post about it.
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
For those who want some bits to be black - try using Wisbar Advance and similar. They allow you to 'skin' the top and bottom bars, so you can make them any color you want. Check out:

http://www.zombienexus.net/portal/GL_Display.asp?SEC=3&EntryID=437

I'm not a fan of bar replacements as they're often quite bloatware-ish and incompatible with other products that may use taskbar/tray/etc. through normal functions. But if you find it useful - then the above is recommended )
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
To get the correct values? absolutely :)

It will get only slightly bigger (I want to incorporate the gradient and fix a few typos :x)

513 - not that many. Don't worry, I won't post a giant PNG with all screencaps (though I could!). Give me a bit more credit - you'll see :)

Tried: BaseLum, BaseLuminance, BaseVal, BaseValue, BaseSat, BaseSaturation - they did nothing. I didn't expect them to, though - during bootup, no such key values are queried; BaseHue is.
[General Topics] vijay555:
At least you tried.

Oh, I do, don't worry. Just amused myself at the thought of a million x million pix screengrab. I think I was just daydreaming about this. I'm still in the office after an early start. Daydreaming is mandatory :(

V
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
I've updated the page:

http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=WindowsMobile5Colors

I've updated the ZIP file there as well. It includes the new chart as well as an 'interactive' explorer. Basically if you move your mouse over the gradient of measured values, it'll change a screenshot preview to a close match of what it would look like on your device ( beats downloading 512 screenshots? :D ) The interactive bit should work on IE and FireFox (both tested), and on any other browsers supporting the stuff I'm using.

If you've made any local mirrors - please update them %)
[General Topics] vijay555:
Beautiful! Bravo so to speak!

I'll mirror and link on my webpage.

edit: Guys, you must play with ZeBoxx's interactive color guide. Check it out here!

V
[General Topics] buzz_lightyear:
!WOW!

@ZeBoxx & Vijay

Unbelievable work... fantastic! so much work and research done... great...

@vijay

...now tell me, who is pulling incredible rabbits out of incredible hats??

@zohaer21

would you mind to be at least a little bit polite??? these guys are working ****ing hard on it and you just came and write ****ing big, red letters: "where t.f. is the f. black!?"

why don't you find it yourself??

buzz
[General Topics] vijay555:
Buzz: we've missed you around here... hope things are well.

This is all ZeBoxx's efforts, I hope I just "brought it to the masses".

But I have something quite fun to talk about soon, something you might already have an idea about... Hopefully by this weekend I'll have some news :wink:

V
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
aaaargh! quit doing that in all your threads, vijay ;)

I wish I had more time for the wiki stuff... heck, I wish I had more time to play with my Wizard :(

back to work :|
[General Topics] buzz_lightyear:
Hi ZeBoxx,

would you mind, if i put that Color Selector to buzzdev.net as well??

Such a GREAT work!!!

THANX

buzz
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
Nope, go right ahead :)
[General Topics] zohaer21:
sorry if i offended ppl here..

the only reason the post was in the big red was that it gets noticed...

how many times have a one line asnwer/request been accidently NOT seen and the person has to re-ask and re-ask till some one notices it to answer it

i guess i was misunderstood... no harm done to my side and hope none of you take offence either!

great work guys! as always
[General Topics] RyanZA:
Has anybody worked out how to get dark blue yet? Nice bright blues are possible, and dark greys.. but dark blues? Thanks. :)
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
Other than for the specific items listed in the first table on that page, you can't set particular colors (short of it being in one of the BLOBs). So if you want a -dark blue- start bar / bottom bar (soft keys bar), you'll need to use a skinning application such as Wisbar Advance,
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
With many thanks to "martinlbb" who was able to provide a Theme which changed several more colors...

You can now all have your da*n black bars :P

Two catches: 1. You need to install this via a CAB. No biggy, but it does mean you can't easily experiment by changing via the registry (it's not instantaneous - the part of the registry in question doesn't get auto-polled). 2. You lose the nice gradienting.

The two keys you need to add are;

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Theme.tsk::Color_SoftkeyFlatCenter = 00 00 00 00

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Theme.tsk::Color_TitleFlatCenter = 00 00 00 00

You need to replace Theme.tsk with the name of your theme file. You need to create this key as a subkey of HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\

Then create the BINARY values and set the values to 00 00 00 00. Wait a while (registry needs to be written out), soft reset - voila.. black bars.

If that looks like it's annoying it is.. so just incorporate it in your theme's .INF file before building the cab.

Again, thanks for "martinlbb" for providing the theme that used this, which got the ball rolling. Info on other values has been added to the WiKi - probably a bunch missing, but without real world usage examples, it'll be near-impossible to figure out :) ( I found one extra value with a registry spy, no others yet )
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
Attached is a silly example 'theme' - it doesn't actually set anything except for those two values, so it's for demonstration purposes only (the default background and such will be loaded).
[General Topics] dale.hickey:
Hey ppl wisbar advance 2 for wm5 is out, works a treat on my wizard not super speedy but much worse than the usual themes look here

h??p://www.iphone-forum.org/showthread.php?t=91779
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
Yeah.. if you want to skin everything, and like Wisbar's functionality - use Wisbar, I really can't recommend anything else, even the above stuff :)

But if you're not keen on Wisbar... etc. :)
[General Topics] wytey:
thanks zeboxx + vijay :)

decided to go back to a simpler life, ditched WisBar Adv 2 for pocketplus (just for the task management), sure... it doesn't look as fancy now, but with the less overhead, it is running a touch quicker, also boots up quciker too :)

the problem now is.... what colour to have :? spose I could change colour whenever I feel like it, to suit my mood :lol:
[General Topics] vijay555:
Wytey, on the Universal, skipping the big Dialer skin that's installed from the extended rom makes a big difference to overall speed I found. It's not as pretty, but it's much faster.

What colour? Check out ZeBoxx's interactive colour picker and take your "pick"! Available in his zip or on my website.

V
[General Topics] wytey:
I use the default dialer by default :) eye candy isn't my thing now, I've taken and sent the screenshots of when it looked really nice to my mates who still use the normal today screen to get them to change... oh the irony lol :D

Throughout today I've used 4 random numbers :D

used to want a black theme, but now, I'm after a dark blue theme :) the o2 original theme is great :) Just trying to find a colour that compliments it well :)

Maybe you should make an option that runs in the background and changes colour every hour... to suit people like me who can't decide :D
[General Topics] vijay555:
I can write a time changing thingamejig but little busy right now. Send me a PM in a few days if you don't hear from me. But someone else please jump in...

V
[General Topics] wytey:
:lol: I was joking, but it'll be a laugh :)

rather you worked on VJsh.... forgot the name :| or whatever you are currently on, as something like this is trivial :)

talking of which... looking mighty impressive :) shame I had to go back to qvga... constant pestering that the text and icons were too small were too much :lol: considering a second universal... too keep her quiet :D
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
since this thread *is* going off-topic anyway... ;x

is there any kind of proper 'scheduler' app for the PPC (WM5) that can perform certain tasks, or run certain applications, at a given time / with a given interval?

Rather.. which would people recommend - as I know there's a few out there (be darned if I can find them *now*)
[General Topics] Diggia:
Hi ZeBoxx and thanks for you help with theme colours

I've seen in Vijay site, this

image that's your Color Schemes gif

Then i suppose in WM 5 there are only 12 colours supported for the soft-keys and command bar, if you exclude your "black trick"

Do you confirm this ?

Thanks :wink:
[General Topics] vijay555:
Diggia my friend, ZeBoxx also let me host this:

http://www.vijay555.com/vj/Releases/VJBaseHue/Colors/colors.html

on my website.

It's posted in this thread I think.

You can see that you can choose from hundreds(?) of colours for the basehue.

V
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
Yeah, there's 240 different hues you can pick from :)

vijay - that chart's been updated, btw - check the wiki ;)

Back on-topic.. there's only 12 (13, count the center one!) pictures because I didn't want to include 240 pictures :P

On the other hand, the interactive one is of course neat, but only shows a single screen. The chart gives something of an indication of how various screens look, and it works better when printed/whatever :)
[General Topics] vijay555:
I saw the new picks ZeBoxx. But I love the interactive picker, and the "new" development :wink:

I think it gives the best idea for colour picking... but seeing it in use is helpful in the screenshots.

V
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
haha.. yeah, need to work on that again.. *eyes clock... 0.46am*

Mainly meant that you should update your local copy - if you could, please ;> You know you'll be the first to know if I've got further things finished :)
[General Topics] Diggia:
Thanks Vijay and ZeBoxx for your replies

Then no 12 colours only, good news for me !

The interactive picker is really cool and useful, perfect creation !

Now i'm testing the ZeBoxx blackbars.tsk and i have some questions about it.

If for you is not a problem i can post my questions.

So i can create many themes for me and for you (if you like)

Ps: Vijay, when you have time and if you want visit us in our forum :wink:
[General Topics] vijay555:
I've updated the .png on my website.

Diggia: Glad you're enjoying the programs! I will pop over to your forums soon, but I get embarrassed becaues the boys tell me off about all the programs I haven't updated :(

I'm trying hard not to develop anything new right now, just tidying up old programs!

Diggia: it's a good idea to look in the wiki about basehue. ZeBoxx (and others!) have put a lot of info in there if you want to edit more things.

V
[General Topics] Diggia:
Don't worry, when you have time just come to visit us

One of the Admin was really happy you come inside the forum :wink:

At the moment I opened the blackbars.tsk with CabManager and I added stwater.gif and tdywater.gif

This is the result:

Obviously you see the colours of the precedent theme because in blackbars.tsk there isn't the key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Color

So i would like ask you if is possible to add, with WinCe CabManager, these two keys

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Theme.tsk::Color_SoftkeyFlatCenter = 00 00 00 00

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Theme.tsk::Color_TitleFlatCenter = 00 00 00 00

in a theme previously created

See this screenshot for an example:

I hope you have understood me :oops:
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
Sure, that's absolutely possible :)

In your screenshot, in the top section "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\", you will need to create a new Key (not value, but Key - like a folder), which has the same name as your theme's .tsk file. So if your .tsk file is called "myTheme.tsk", you need to add a key called "myTheme.tsk". You would then end up with "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\myTheme.tsk\"

Then add these two binary values:

Color_SoftkeyFlatCenter = 00 00 00 00

Color_TitleFlatCenter = 00 00 00 00

Then compile the cab, rename to "myTheme.tsk", and assign. Should do the trick :)
[General Topics] zohaer21:
this is good stuff now..
[General Topics] Diggia:
Thanks ZeBoxx, now I try and keep you update !

:wink:
[General Topics] KChauJen:
Thanks so much for all of your researchs and knowledges.

The size of theme will be reduced about a half by:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\UseStartImage = 1 (DWord)

The theme needs only 0stwater.gif

Hope this tip will be a little useful for the WM5's theme.

KCJ
[General Topics] Diggia:
Sorry KChauJen, I don't find that key in my registry :(

Why the theme needs of one image only ?

Thanks in advance

@ZeBoxx and Vijay

This is my creation after ZeBoxx suggested me useful explanation:

Just one question, if I send this theme to a friend of mine, he also needs to modify the two keys in his Pocket PC ?

Thanks again, you're my masters !
[General Topics] vijay555:
Wow, that's a great theme! Post it here!

You should be able to save the registry keys in the .tsk file, so your friend won't need to make them, they'll be made automatically I think.

V
[General Topics] KChauJen:
This key must be created by us and when it has the value of 1, then the system will use the stwater.gif as the same of tdwater.gif,

Sorry for missing this part!!!

KCJ
[General Topics] ZeBoxx:
dang, that's one heck of a dark theme ;) I'll try and keep things on my basic editor updated as well... darn FireFox vs IE box models *shakes fist at borders - and w3c for being ambiguous*
[General Topics] ualvoyager:
Stupid question here....just how does one change the value using vj's program? I tap on the VJBaseHue icon out of the folder and get a message box that states "Please specify a number to set as the base hue!" ok, where do I specify this number????? Please advise, I want to play around with the colors.....

Thanks!!!

voyager
[General Topics] vijay555:
ualvoyager: if you've downloaded it from my website, and installed to default directories, you should have around 12 examples in a folder in your start menu. Have a look at the properties for those shortcuts as an example.

Have a quick read over here to get a bit more detail.

http://vijay555support.host4phpbb.com/viewtopic.php?t=30

V
[General Topics] ualvoyager:
Hi Vijay,

I'm very sorry to sound so ignorant but I jsut don't get it. I see the 12 examples in the folder you mentioned but waht I want to do is to use the interactive color chart to select my own color and then somehow get that put in the device. I tapped on the one icon (outof the example folder) and the dialog box opens asking for a value to be entered. Where do I input that value????

Or- are we limited to only the 12 example color schemes in the folder?

Thanks Vijay!

voyager
[General Topics] vijay555:
ualvoyager: you use the interactive chart to pick a VJBaseHue colour.

Then, install GSFinder or Resco explorer or an equivalent file explorer.

Navigate to \program files\vijay555\vjbasehue

(I'm doing this from memory, so basically find vjbasehue.exe)

Click VJBaseHue.exe

Choose Copy from the Edit menu (or your equivalent).

Create a shortcut, again, normally on an edit menu etc.

Now click and hold down on the shortcut and you should get a menu.

Choose properties (or your equivalent in your program).

Choose the shortcut tab.

There should be some text indicating the shortcut target

eg "\program files\vijay555\vjbasehue\vjbasehue.exe"

Now, just stick your selected colour on the end, eg

"\program files\vijay555\vjbasehue\vjbasehue.exe" 187

Close/ok the dialogs. Double click that shortcut and you should have purple softkeys etc.

Again, this is from memory, but shout out if you can't get it to work.

V

OT: I'm finally leaving the office!! I'll have to see if I can get some coding done tonight :)
[General Topics] ualvoyager:
Thanks Vijay....I'll give it a try....

Any chance you can recode your program to include all of this into a dialog box that the user can just add the value to, tap ok and voila!!

Thanks again for your help!!!

voyager
[General Topics] ualvoyager:
Hi Vijay.....OK, got it to work....a little confusing, but I got it to work....

Next problem....Only the Top and Bottom bars adapt the new colors, not the rest of the themed elements...ie, the scroll bars, highlight bars, the faint gradient background on certain default programs. Is this the way it's supposed to be? I was under the impression that these items (and maybe more) were all grouped under the color theme. Can you shed some light?

Thanks!!!

voyager