Cool Bar Effects

[kanine]

I would like to jazz up the various bars I have in my skins, but am a bit of a design novice.

The sort of Bar I find appealing is like the one attached, found on DA. But I wouldn't know how to incorporate into a skin.

What is the best place to go for a gallery of Rainmeter friendly designs?

If there isn't any where else perhaps we could start a collection in this thread of bar concepts and associated skin configs that can be reused.

[Seahorse]

This is easily done using images for bar meters, there are many examples in the forum and over at DA, Wincustomise etc.

The main gotcha is the image dimensions must match the H= & W= of your meter exactly. i.e. you can't stretch the image using Rainmeter for bar meters (you can stretch them in an image meter for instance).

Using an example from one of mine:

Code: Select all

[MeterCore1MaxBar]
Meter=Bar
MeasureName=MeasureCore1MaxTemp
BarOrientation=Horizontal
X=r
Y=r
W=191
H=14
Flip=0
BarImage=#@#Images\BarRed.png
DynamicVariables=1

the meter bar is defined as 191x14, so the image (BarRed.png) I use has those same dimensions.

[kanine]

I've just put together a few images that others may find useful. Early days but I'll keep hunting out and experimenting with GIMP/Photoshop to create some glass effects.

All are 183 wide, height is in the filename.

[jsmorley]

I've just put together a few images that others may find useful. Early days but I'll keep hunting out and experimenting with GIMP/Photoshop to create some glass effects.

All are 183 wide, height is in the filename.

Keep in mind that the way a Bar meter works is that it "exposes" the portion of the image matching the percentage of the whole that the measure driving the bar currently reflects. So I caution that using a bar image with a rounded end (the end on the right in any case) may not give you exactly the effect you want. You won't see the "rounded" nature of the end until the bar is full.

There are ways around this, but it isn't terribly simple. You would need to have two images. The bar image with a rounded left end but a flat right end, then a tiny image that is just the rounded right end of the bar. You would dynamically position this image at the end of the bar with the X parameter, based on some math using the value of the measure driving the bar and the width of the bar meter.

[kanine]

So I caution that using a bar image with a rounded end (the end on the right in any case) may not give you exactly the effect you want

Yeah I noticed that, in this case I'm OK with it, but in future I'd like to make a backdrop for the bar similar to my original post. I guess most of it comes down to some design skill, which I'm a bit lacking...

[jsmorley]

Yeah I noticed that, in this case I'm OK with it, but in future I'd like to make a backdrop for the bar similar to my original post. I guess most of it comes down to some design skill, which I'm a bit lacking...

Yeah, a good background or foreground image that the bar image can "live in" is key to getting cool effects with an image-based Bar meter.

[kanine]

a good background or foreground image that the bar image can "live in" is key to getting cool effects with an image-based Bar meter.

This simple backdrop I put together helped a lot.