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Mirage

A package of skins with a "theme" or by a single author
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balala
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 16109
Joined: October 11th, 2010, 6:27 pm
Location: Gheorgheni, Romania

Mirage

Post by balala »

Version 1.3 available here.

Version 1.2 available here.

Version 1.1 available here.

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Mirage is my brand new skin suite. I worked very long with it, trying to make it to work flawlessly, with no errors. Hoping I succeeded, but it definitely uses a lot of resources and probably won't run properly on slower computers. However here it is:

The elements of this suite:
  • AudioVolume - controls the volume and can mute / unmute the computer
  • Battery - see the charging level and use of your battery (if there is any)
  • BrokenDesktop - randomly simulates the broke of your desktop
  • Calendar - month calendar, where you can set up reminders or holidays for different days. On the appropriate date the skin will show a notification. The reminder can be set for specific date or for specific day of year (repeating every year on the appropriate date), with a click to the appropriate day. Holidays can be set right clicking the day
  • Clock\Classic - Classic clock
  • Clock\Digital - Digital clock
  • CoreTemp - Shows the temperature, load and speed of each core, using the Core Temp application (which must run in background)
  • CoverVisualizer - A visualizer which dynamically reveals the cover of the currently played music (if you are using a supported media player app)
  • Disks - Shows the drives present on your system, offering suplimentar information about each, on click
  • Games\15Puzzle, Games\2048, Games\EggHunt, Games\StickHero, Games\Sudoku and Games\TicTacToe - Games
  • Gmail - Gmail notifier, for up to five different accounts (can play sound or read the number of new emails)
  • Launcher - Launcher for programs, websites and skins of the Mirage suite
  • MediaPlayer - Controls the supported media players
  • MultiSearch - Search the web, images, YouTube, facebook, people and groups on facebook
  • Mute - Mute / unmute the skins of current suite. Can automatically mute the skins when full screen programs are running (watching movies or playing games)
  • OpticalDriveTray - controls the optical drive (CD / DVD / BD) (if you still are using one)
  • Power - Shows the uptime and control the shutdown of the computer
  • Process - Shows the running / loaded processes, after CPU or memory usage
  • RainForum - Shows the last 10 posts on the current forum
  • RotatingGlobe - Rotating Earth, on four colors and two sizes
  • RSS - News reader, which can indicate the unread articles
  • Settings - A setting tool for the whole suite. You can use it to set the suite up as you want (very complex and large skin, can create problems on slower machines)
  • Slideshow - Slideshow of images, with 12 animation effects
  • SunMoon - Calculates (not downloads) the Sun / Moon rise / set, the length of day and some other related information as well
  • Timer - A tool to shutdown / sleep / hibernate / restart, etc the computer when different events occur (at certain moment, after a preset time, or when the currently running download ends), plus a stopwatch.
  • Weather - Weather for the set up location
  • Wireless - Shows the current wireless network (a subvariant: WiFis - shows all available networks. Can switch to any of them, if it's accessible)
When installing Mirage, two addons and 10 plugins are installed as well:
  • Addons:
    • NirCmd - used by four skins: Disks, OpticalDriveTray, Power and Timer.
    • identify (element of ImageMagick) - used by Slideshow
  • Plugins:
    • ConfigActive - used by all skins
    • CursorColor - used by Settings
    • HotKey - used by 15Puzzle, 2048 and Sudoku
    • ImageSize - used by CoverVisualizer, 15Puzzle and Slideshow
    • IsFullScreen - used by Mute
    • Mouse - used by Volume, Launcher, MediaPlayer and Settings
    • OpticalDriveStatus - used by OpticalDriveTray
    • Speech - used by Gmail and Settings
    • UDisk - used by Disks
    • WavLength - used by Mirage and Settings
---------------

When installing the suite, after an introduction skin (Mirage.ini), the Settings is loaded. There are 12 tabs, to customize everything. The tabs are the followings:
  • General - you can choose the desired language (right now only English, Romanian and Hungarian are available, but translators are sought - see below), as well as some settings related to the background of the skins and some additional general settings.
  • Clock&Date - set the time and date format.
  • Calendar - settings related to the Calendar skin. You can set the first day of the week (Sunday or Monday)and the colors of the event marking on the Calendar skin (you can set up events on Calendar).
  • Weather - First you should set your location. The easiest way for this is to click the Detect button. Usually the skin will automatically detect your location, however there might be issues. If not detected correctly, enter manually the information (weather code, name of city and country, geographical coordinates, time zone and so on).
  • Optical drive, also includes the settings related to the Rotating Globe - There is a skin which shows the status of your optical drive, if there is any. You can set here the drive letter of it (chossing from a dropdown menu) and also the color, size and rotation of the animated globe.
  • Media player - choose the used media player application and the format of the Cover Visualizer (a visualizer animating the cover of the currently played music).
  • Slideshow - set the folder of the images you'd like to see in the Slideshow skin, the desired animation (including random animations), times and so on.
  • Gmail - there might be set up to five Gmail accounts, adding the usernames and the appropriate passwords. You also can manage and test the accounts.
  • Launcher - set the applications and websites available into the Launcher skin. If the Broken Desktop skin is enabled (down on this tab), sometimes randomly your desktop will broken (activating the appropriate skin).
  • Games - settings related to the available games.
  • Timer&System - set up the sounds played by the Timer skin and customize the System skin.
  • RSS&CoreTemp - set up the source of the RSS skin (you can choose a preset source from a dropdown menu, or enter manually the desired URL) and customize the CoreTemp skin (which obviously requires Core Temp to run).
(Later when using the skins of the suite, if anytime needed you can load the Settings through the Settings button, shown up on each skin when you're hovering the mouse over them.)
When clicking OK or Apply the Launcher skin is loaded, asking you to load either the Mirage layout, or manually the desired skins, one by one.

Many people helped me developing this suite. I hope I don't miss someone. If I do, please let me know. So many thanks to: All these help were incredibly valuable. Thanks again to all.

------------------------------

Translation - If you'd like to get the suite working in your language, you have to translate it. There is one single file you have to translate, the Mirage\@Resources\Messages1.inc. Save this file with the next available number (right now as Language4.inc) and open it. Translate all variables. Note that:
  • LanguageCode is the code of the language which you are translating into.
  • DecimalSep and ThousandsSep are the symbols used as decimal and thousand separator (usually dot and comma).
  • Let the Index variable as 2.
  • Translate the other strings, one by one. Take care, there are 739 (!!!) of them.
Download on DeviantArt:
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eclectic-tech
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 5382
Joined: April 12th, 2012, 9:40 pm
Location: Cedar Point, Ohio, USA
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Re: Mirage

Post by eclectic-tech »

Lots of hard work went into this suite! Nice design balala! :thumbup:

I do have an issue with the RotatingGlobe skin; it distorts after about 20-30 cycles using either size version; it may have something to do with the PNG images (18000X150 pixels) or (36000X300 pixels) used for the Bitmap meter.

I can get it to work by using 120 separate images and an image meter rather than a bitmap meter. :D

If you are not seeing this, then it may just be that my system can't handle that image. :o
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krakoukas
Posts: 71
Joined: December 11th, 2018, 5:56 pm
Location: France
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Re: Mirage

Post by krakoukas »

Great work Balala, some very useful tools. I love the HDD auto-detection !

Another issue with globe
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pul53dr1v3r
Posts: 442
Joined: July 30th, 2014, 10:30 am

Re: Mirage

Post by pul53dr1v3r »

eclectic-tech wrote: November 21st, 2019, 4:20 am
krakoukas wrote: November 21st, 2019, 10:31 am
You need to turn off the "Use hardware acceleration" option in Rainmeter. It should work fine then, but some of the other skins could be a bit slower in that case.
User avatar
eclectic-tech
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 5382
Joined: April 12th, 2012, 9:40 pm
Location: Cedar Point, Ohio, USA
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Re: Mirage

Post by eclectic-tech »

Pul53dr1v3r wrote: November 21st, 2019, 11:34 am You need to turn off the "Use hardware acceleration" option in Rainmeter. It should work fine then, but some of the other skins could be a bit slower in that case.
Thanks plu53dr1v3r, turning off the acceleration did fix. I am going to stick with my alternate version and leave the acceleration "on". :D
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balala
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 16109
Joined: October 11th, 2010, 6:27 pm
Location: Gheorgheni, Romania

Re: Mirage

Post by balala »

Yes, hardware acceleration doesn't work nor for me. It never did in fact, never could use it, although my video card is up to date (as far as I can tell). I get the same issue as described by both, eclectic-tech and krakoukas.
I turned on the hardware acceleration just for testing purposes, but I disabled it quickly.
Other issues?
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eclectic-tech
Rainmeter Sage
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Joined: April 12th, 2012, 9:40 pm
Location: Cedar Point, Ohio, USA
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Re: Mirage

Post by eclectic-tech »

balala wrote: November 21st, 2019, 3:23 pm Yes, hardware acceleration doesn't work nor for me. It never did in fact, never could use it, although my video card is up to date (as far as I can tell). I get the same issue as described by both, eclectic-tech and krakoukas.
I turned on the hardware acceleration just for testing purposes, but I disabled it quickly.
Other issues?
No, I have tried most skins without issues.

I did just notice that running the Globe skin for an extended period locked up Rainmeter one time.
Of course I was running my version, that uses 120 separate images for each version (Large/Small) and had Hardware Acceleration "active"...

I will keep testing and let you know if I can duplicate the issue, and if it is related to Hardware Acceleration.
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balala
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 16109
Joined: October 11th, 2010, 6:27 pm
Location: Gheorgheni, Romania

Re: Mirage

Post by balala »

eclectic-tech wrote: November 21st, 2019, 10:13 pm I did just notice that running the Globe skin for an extended period locked up Rainmeter one time.
Of course I was running my version, that uses 120 separate images for each version (Large/Small) and had Hardware Acceleration "active"...
No, this doesn't happen to me, even if I leave the Globe running for a longer period. I'm using the original version of it, wrote with the bitmap, not with image meters, but it does run for any length of time. So, no problems here. But I'm not using hardware acceleration, I simply can't because as said, it doesn't work for me, although my video card us up to date.
How are you using the globe, with continuous rotation or not? Also could you please disable hardware acceleration and try again. I suppose that's why it doesn't run for longer period.
Thanks for feedback.
Gregory2001
Posts: 81
Joined: May 28th, 2010, 2:29 pm

Re: Mirage

Post by Gregory2001 »

I can't seem to download this. Can you help? Thanks.
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jsmorley
Developer
Posts: 22628
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: Mirage

Post by jsmorley »

Gregory2001 wrote: February 4th, 2020, 2:27 pm I can't seem to download this. Can you help? Thanks.
https://www.deviantart.com/balazslaci/art/Mirage-1-0-820805646


1.png

Note that you must have and be logged into a free account on deviantART in order to download from there.
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