Skinning Windows Live Messenger has never been an easy task. Most people struggle to understand what is going on when you make and skin and do not know where to start. I created open live to try and help those new skinners out and to give experienced skinners something to save them a bit of time.
Open Live is a special version of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 that has been edited to make a skinners life a lot easier. The key features of open live are as follows:
* No MSNRLE images, all images are normal png, jpg, bmp, ico and gif.
* Easy one line edits for things such as text colors and spacing of buttons.
* All images are named and labeled to show what they do and are also in organized folders
* Comes with guide images and source images for animations and those tricky images
* Comes with pre-made and pre-translated options and about windows.
and MUCH MORE!
Open Live will be sure to make the skinning process a much quicker task than what it is now.
TERMS OF USE
This skin is not intended for commercial use since it is based upon Microsoft's design and contains mostly their resources. Although this skin is free to edit and redistribute, the only this I ask for in return is that you leave the small credit that gives thanks to the translation team and the "based on open live" line in the about window.
Thanks for the support!
For Windows Live Messenger 8.5 ONLY. Requires Messenger Plus! Live 4.60 to use.
Skin options panel available in (future updates may add support for more languages):
English
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Italian
Open Live Download
Official Open Live support will be at here on this website, with an update to the site happening eventually which will host Open Live content and a tutorials database.
Stay tuned for some skin news in the next few days.
Willz.
Anyway this month will be a very interesting month indeed. First off will be the release of Open Live, which will be an open source skin that everyone will be able to use to make their skins. It makes making skins so much easier than what it is at the moment.
The next project will be something that I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy. While I won't spill any details on it just yet, I can tell you this: It's shaped and its awesome. It will be a pretty major release so expect it sometime in mid-May.
Now I have been getting requests to update the website a bit (e.g add a couple new color scheme and a light alternative), and don't worry I have heard these requests. The website will be getting an update sometime (I am not sure when to be honest) but rest assured it will be soon. I want to have another update to the site rolled out before the Messenger Plus! skinning contest begins. It's just a bit tough having to do several things at once thats all
.Anyway stay tuned for the release of Open Live and possibly some news on this new skin coming this month.
Until then.
Willz.
For reference past winners include: Ev0, Deep Blue and Windows Aero Messenger.
Anyway start nominating those skins. I will start voting as soon as there is enough for a competition
Willz
Windows Aero Messenger is possibly the most complete skin I have made to date. The skin comes from a really strong background featuring two of the most popular vista skins in existence. The amount of customization in this skin is pretty crazy with users being able to pick out the look of nearly every part of the skin.
There are literally thousands of combinations available.
Anyway thats about all I will say, except if you haven't tried this skin then you should. Whether or not you like vista, this is the sort of skin you have to check out as there was a large amount of effort put into it.
LINK
Nominees:
Windows Aero Messenger by Willz:
LINK
Facebook by Coolzee:
LINK
Apple Live Messesnger by mynetx and Bumba:
LINK
Zero-G by Willz and em3kay
LINK
Voting will close on the 1st of May 2008.
Willz.
Skinning will never be a simple concept, but I have tried my hardest to make it as easy to edit as possible. Every single file has a resource number and then a description of what the image does in its file name. On top of that all resources are divided into their own folders (i.e. Scrollbar resources are in the Scrollbar directory).
On top of that SkinInfo.xml is full of comments so that will help as well.
Anyway here is an update list of features:
-----------------
Working Features
-----------------
+ All Multi-layered MSNRLE images have been broken up into individual PNG images.
+ Minimize, Maximize and Close button spacing can be adjusted globally via Skininfo.xml
+ Modified push buttons are now in place which are easier to edit
+ Push button text is controlled via skininfo.xml
+ Modified scroll bars are now in place which support transparency
+ Scrollbar border is now controlled via Skininfo.xml
+ Window border is now controlled by the one image
+ Basic shaped window structure is included but disabled
+ Basic fixed size window structure is in place but disabled
+ Tabbed Chat color controls are in (includes both methods)
+ Dashboard and Headers are now divided into layers, background, gloss and border
+ Resources are universal, msgvsta is non-existent.
+ Disabled images have been removed from 4006, are now their own resources.
+ MSNRLE has been completely removed, all resources are now PNG, BMP, JPG, GIF or ICO.
+ Window backgrounds are divided into 3 types, contact list, chat window and other. To make the contact list have a different background to the chat window simply make the new image and change what file it is pointing to in SkinInfo.
+ Display Picture Sizing options are now in place
+ Contact list background color controlled via SkinInfo.xml
+ Skin includes guide images to Animation images (PNG and GIF).
I don't think I'll mention anything else on this project until release day now. I think you guys get the idea
Willz.
The project is pretty time consuming and the only thing I am finding annoying is adding in documentation in the xml and files themselves, but I guess that was going to be a given
Anyway here is a list of things which are now up and working in Open Live:
-----------------
Working Features
-----------------
+ All Multi-layered MSNRLE images have been broken up into individual PNG images.
+ Minimize, Maximize and Close button spacing can be adjusted globally via Skininfo.xml
+ Modified push buttons are now in place which are easier to edit
+ Push button text is controlled via skininfo.xml
+ Modified scroll bars are now in place which support transparency
+ Scrollbar border is now controlled via Skininfo.xml
+ Window border is now controlled by the one image
+ Basic shaped window structure is included but disabled
+ Basic fixed size window structure is in place but disabled
+ Tabbed Chat color controls are in (includes both methods)
This is small sample of what is to come, there is still a lot of work left in this skin. But from what has been achieved already, I can see that this skin will make things a lot easier for people.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Willz.
The skin features a clean white design with Mach 5 branding around the skin. The skin features skin options similar to those that were used in Iron Man so there is plenty to play with. There are also a few new options that I have added since people have been asking for them.
The Speed Racer skin allows you to hide the email notification button and the entire word wheel (search for contact bar). Might not seem major, but at least the options are there now for those that want it.
Anyway I'll end the post with an official screen shot. Be sure to check out the release thread for comments and more in depth screen shots.
Official Thread
DOWNLOAD
The main aim of Open Live is to restore Windows Live Messenger back to a state much like MSN Messenger (not look wise, but structure-wise). The project will remove all dependency of MSNRLE and will mean that everything will be controlled via normal images.
Additionally the skin will feature pre-made and pre-translated options to save a bit of time for users. One of the key things to Open Live will be the restructured UIFile system where skinners will now be able to change the colors of text via SkinInfo.xml, rather than having to go in and edit every single UIFile.
While the skin is easier to work with, do not think that all the work has been done for you. The skin does not feature any advanced user settings like you see in my skins and it does not have any new graphics to in it.
The project has no launch date as of yet and I can tell you now it will take a while due to the amount of documentation that has to be put in (not to mention translation).
I will provide status updates whenever possible, so stay tuned.
Willz
This post is purely speculation based on the findings that have occurred in the past few days. It is by no means "fact" and should only be treated as speculation and opinion and nothing more.
One of the things that is on the minds of people in the messenger community at the moment is that status of the upcoming Windows Live Messenger 9. Windows Live Messenger 9 was first released/leaked back in November 2007. We are now approaching 4 months since that first occurred and there is no word of a new build coming anytime soon.
Now whilst I highly discourage people from using Windows Live Messenger 9 (excluding official testers of course), it is hard to ignore the demand there has been for skins to support 9. I have decided to create an open source skin that would remove traces of the MSNRLE file type which is causing new skinners headaches.
I was going to start development on the skin, but then I realized that there was no way to convert any of the MSNRLE's in Windows Live Messenger 9 back to png format. So I got my hands on a bare bones converter (don't ask how) just so I could get the images converted to png so that I knew exactly what was going on in Windows Live Messenger 9.
Upon extracting the resources of Windows Live Messenger 9 I noticed something odd. The Windows Vista resource group (known as msgvsta) had several resources which did not have normal counterparts (images that load when XP is used).
For those unfamiliar as to how msgvsta works I will give a brief run down. All of Messengers image resources are contained within msgsres.dll, this is what skinners in the old days would have to edit to create their skins. Later on in the life of Windows Live Messenger, a secondary resource file was introduced. This file is called msgrvsta.thm and contains different variations of images in msgsres.dll.
The purpose of the msgvsta group is to load different resources when a user is running the Windows Vista operating system. As of Windows Live Messenger 8.5, the only resources in this group were the frame buttons and a few icons relating to shared folders. In Windows Live Messenger 9, there are several new resources in this group but none of the images have counterparts in msgsres.dll.
Upon further inspection, these resources are not used at all in any of the layout and style code. When I converted these images to png to see what they were, it left me thinking for hours as to what this could possibly mean. So this is were the speculation comes in.
In the msgvsta group there are images which appear to make up an alternate contact list dashboard. While the images may look the same there is one significant difference: The main image has an alpha channel. The image below is resource number 20861 within msgrvsta.thm. This is the one I talking about, please ignore the bad image size as the converter is not 100% and will spit out certain RLE's in the 100x100px size. If you save it and open it in an image editor you will see that it indeed has an alpha channel.
Why would an alternate dashboard be needed and furthermore why use alpha for the main background when it is not supported? What's stranger still is these images also have 4006 group sub images which are used when disabled or inactive.
Other images in this group include alternate window borders and several mouse overs which are seen within the Windows Vista operating system, i.e explorer and start menu mouse overs. There are some images in the group which I have no idea what their purpose is and like the others they are not used or exist within the normal msgsres.dll group, but it does make you think:
Could this be the beginning of a special theme just for Windows Vista?
It's quite possible as it would explain the delay in the beta's progression. One thing I will note is that just because these resources do exist does not mean that they will be used anytime soon, in fact there is no clear way as to how these resources are used. Like the disclaimer says, this is merely speculation and should only be treated as speculation so do not get your hopes up.
But one things for sure, Windows Live Messenger 9 is something that we have to keep an eye on closely.
Willz
Disclaimer
This post is purely speculation based on the findings that have occurred in the past few days. It is by no means "fact" and should only be treated as speculation and opinion and nothing more.
