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Pocketamp:Clear 3
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1999.03.20

created by Gary Calpo

gary@pinoyware.com
http://www.pinoyware.com



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BACKGROUND (for those who care):
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Pocketamp started out as an exercise in using the REGION.TXT transparency capability of recent versions of Winamp.  In time, graphics were shifted and unnecessary elements were chopped off in order to give the skin as low a screen footprint as possible while still displaying all pertinent information.  Covering only 75-85% the area of old regular skins, the name Pocketamp arose.

Enter Christmas break 1998-1999... I got really bored, and took Pocketamp one giant step forward by editting the REGION.TXT like nobody else before (at least to my own knowledge).  No, I did not spend my vacation guess-and-testing with REGION.TXT--instead, I spent about half an hour writing a quick program in Visual Basic to generate the bulk of the 'transparent' region code.  Another problem was the display font.  With 6 pixels, either the top or bottom line would be lost making most text unreadable.  I solved that problem by compressing the text into 5 pixels.  With the hard parts out of the way, it was just a matter of fine-tuning to make the display look.. well slick.  

Pocketamp:Clear was released to the general public February 13, 1999.  Instantly, the skin shot into the Winamp.com "best skins" collection-- only the 9th skin of hundreds to be awarded the honor.  Countless e-mails poured in expressing appreciation and interest in more such skins.  

In light of all the appreciation, there was alot left to be desired from Pocketamp:Clear...   The playlist and equalizers were, for the most part, just as plain as the original ones.  Depending on the brightness of the computer screen, you could easily pick out large imperfections in the skin; it looked 'just fine' at darker brightnesses, however.   So, I went back to work...

Pocketamp:Clear 2 addressed nearly every issue that was brought in the first version.   The overall skin color was finally pitch-black -- no more annoying greys.. even at full-brightness!  The equalizer skin was trimmed down and given a smooth facelift.  And the playlist skin...well, it was remade almost from the ground up.  About the only remnants of the old skin are the small playback-control buttons.  Oh, and you may like the changes I made to the windowshade :)

The third time, as they say, is a charm.  I boosted the text brightness a notch, leading to better visibility.  Unfortunately, there's not that much I can do to boost the legibility of the text.  I smoothed out the interface of the main window and replaced the little text with fairly logical icons.  The equalizer has been almost totally redone--better matching the color-scheme of the main player.  The playlist also received a nice refresh, also toning down the color scheme, and making the interface a little more consistent with the rest of the skin.



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FAQS:
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1 Q.  Hi, Can I have the program that you used to make the transparency?
  A.  Sorry, it was deleted.  Besides, it was totally un-user-friendly, and you would still need a thorough understanding of how region.txt works.  The program was not a total-solution -- it just sped up the task of generating the dozen lines that make up the "transparent" region.

2 Q.  What did you use to make the actual graphics of the skin?
  A.  I used PaintShop Pro (www.jasc.com) for the main skin graphics.  I pulled out icons for the playlist editor graphics using Microangelo.




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SHAMELESS PLUGS:
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- Um, come see my spiffy homepage at http://www.pinoyware.com

- Manage, catalog, playlist, and publish your MP3 collection with ShufflePlay
  http://www.pinoyware.com/shuffleplay

- Wondering where yesterday's 1 gig went?  Find it with Drive Doppler
  http://www.pinoyware.com/doppler

- Track your Windows swapfile usage for smarter swapfile tuning and ram purchasing
  http://www.pinoyware.com/swapmon
