Strange 'bug' -- Problem with MSSTYLES or Paint.net?

[K-Johnson]

Hi,

I downloaded the new Paint.NET v3.5 Beta 1 (http://www.dotpdn.com/downloads/pdn.html).

The new interface looks great on default Windows 7 Aero theme.


But on all the custom themes I tried (including mine pictured below), the menu area looks like crap! 


Why is this occurring on custom themes only?  Even starting a default Aero theme in VSB and testing it screws the area up.  Restarting Paint.net does nothing.

[sweatyfish]

I don't have any clue as to why that's happening, I just wanted to say "Paint.NET FTW!"

[K-Johnson]

Paint.net is a solid app!
And lots of people use it...
And it looks horrible with all the custom themes I've tried (not the theme, but the app menu area renders poorly)...

So I think it is of importance that we figure this out as it works with the default theme, y'know? 
Has to be something that's triggering this.  Missing image?  Composite property where it should/shouldn't be?

Who knows... 

[sweatyfish]

It can't be VSB because I've made a small edit to the default Aero with Restorator, and am getting the same problem (eliminates VSB compiling issue). Only thing different between the two styles are the names, so that makes me believe Paint is looking in memory for Aero, but can only find the custom named ver. making it resort to using that washed out gray ?

[K-Johnson]

It can't be VSB because I've made a small edit to the default Aero with Restorator, and am getting the same problem (eliminates VSB compiling issue). Only thing different between the two styles are the names, so that makes me believe Paint is looking in memory for Aero, but can only find the custom named ver. making it resort to using that washed out gray ?

Well at least you eliminated that reasoning.  Your reasoning sounds good.
Here's another reason I can think of.  I think VSB renumbers image resources?  Maybe it is looking for a specific image resource by number/address but since VSB renumbers it all it might be looking at the wrong image?  Hmm...

[sweatyfish]

It can't be because of renumbering caused by VSB because Restorator doesn't rename or renumber anything and I get the same problem.

I just figured it out. I renamed my custom style to Aero.msstyle, replaced the original in the Aero folder, and Paint showed up correctly.

I'm going to dig further and see if it's the actual naming of the style causing the problem, or something in the .theme file named wrong.

Edit: It has to be because the style is not named Aero.msstyle, no matter how I edit the .theme file as close to the original, it still showed up wrong.

Maybe the development lead of Paint.NET can fix this to look in memory for a *.msstyle instead of specifically Aero.msstyle

[Panda X]

It's because PDN isn't made for custom themes.

[AndreasV]

Most probably a bug in Paint.net which is probably checking for the current theme name being "Aero" instead of checking if DWM rendering is enabled. Best thing to do would be to submit a bug to Paint.net

[K-Johnson]

Thank you, I submitted the bug here:  http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=31717

Two others reported it in another thread so I think he is now aware of it.

[sweatyfish]

I've also submitted through the Help menu in Paint, there is a "Send feedback or bug report..." option

[K-Johnson]

Awesome.  Thanks also for finding out why this occurs, Sweatyfish

[sweatyfish]

I've read through the thread here http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=31684

A few times, he says that he isn't going to fix the problem

I never said it was impossible. I'm just not doing it. It would take an entire evening (at least) to find all sorts of weird themes to test with and to figure out how to get uxtheme.dll to render it into a bitmap with the right alpha composition. And even then there'd still be alignment or alpha blending issues with various themes, or themes that are authored incompletely or incorrectly that cause crashes or worse. And to top it all off, not many users would benefit from all this.

No. XP will either have Luna or Classic buttons depending on your theme. These button's images are hard coded into the resources DLL. If you want the best looking themed UI, you will simply need to upgrade to Windows 7 with Aero and glass.

But, one of the latest post says he may just do built in themes

Glass dialog footers are probably going to have to go, for compatibility reasons. There are just too many cases where the text does not render correctly, and I cannot afford the time to completely render the buttons myself.

I think I'm going to have to add an option to let you select the theme. I don't want to get into the business of saying, "Oh you don't get the spiffy look because ______", where ______ is any number of reasons that are technically legitimate but that would be 1) misinterpreted to be political ("omg they're paying you to make it not work on xp lolzzz"), and 2) constantly reported to me as "a bug".

But I don't know if he is speaking of themes for the buttons/dialogs or the entire interface. I wouldn't mind if the themes were built in as long as there is one that looks the way it is now. Right now, it almost looks like an official MS application that came with 7.

And the new icons are slick, too.

[Panda X]

Fixed in Beta 2.

[sweatyfish]

I missed Beta 2, but I installed Beta 3 on my fresh install with custom style, and Paint.NET looks GREAT 

[AlbinoAsian]

thats great news, even though I haven't got it installed its great when a developer continues to keep his product up with the times! =D