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cavalierex
cavalierex
Join Date 08/2001
0

'Atmosphere' -- Just like 'Natural Desktop'

Soon enough, they'll say we copied the Mac

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October 26, 2006 12:19:33 PM from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Download Squad alerted me to the finalists for the Mac 'My Dream App' contest finalists.  First place went to 'Atmosphere':

1st Place: Cameron Westland - ATMOSPHERE. "A virtual window to the outdoors for your desktop. View a virtual representation of your area's weather when too busy to go outside." [http://mydreamapp.com/contestants/view/cameronwestland/]



Hmmm... Sounds just like Stardock's 'Natural Desktop' to me! [http://www.naturaldesktop.com]

(I hope Mac enthusiasts don't start claiming that Stardock copied them.)

It has a nice layout, though, with an ObjectBar2.0-like sidebar for configuration/options.  See the screenshots.

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cavalierex
ZubaZ
Join Date 11/2001
+917
Reply #1 October 26, 2006 12:55:14 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
The biggest difference is that the Mac app puts the weather on the whole desktop. ND only animates the little window.
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cavalierex
GreenReaper
Join Date 05/2001
+32
Reply #2 October 26, 2006 5:46:42 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
It doesn't do anything yet, though. It's an idea. A good one, to be sure.

We've been looking at this kind of thing as well, but for XP we've had to settle with wallpapers. Full-screen animation can get very expensive, but it is getting relatively less so over time. Who knows what may be possible in the future?

DirectX 10-class equipment is going to be very powerful and I am sure we shall see some innovative applications from it.
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cavalierex
CerebroJD
Join Date 01/2003
+9
Reply #3 October 27, 2006 5:43:23 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
We've been looking at this kind of thing as well, but for XP we've had to settle with wallpapers. Full-screen animation can get very expensive, but it is getting relatively less so over time. Who knows what may be possible in the future?


We have discussed this off and on in the Under The Skin podcast. I've long thought that Natural Desktop should become more DesktopX-generated weather effects, and less static wallpaper use. However, as stated, the performance hit even with a few snowflakes proves to be too much to outweigh the visual benefits. I'm looking forward to taking advantage of Vista's video-card rendering of the desktop, as this will likely offer a significant improvement in DesktopX's ability to animate stuff. Maybe. I'm not totally up-to-speed on how all that will interact, but I'm hoping it works better.
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