EDIT
A good point brought up by Philly0381, Would it be legal for Stradock to use the same method that Mac OSX uses to generate its dock. Example using transparent area's on the .bg to generate reflections of icons, and using 4 scurves or bg.png's to make the dock. I think this is a good topic to focus on and discus because ObjectDock is a commercial program.
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ObjectDock is by far the best dock program out there for Windows why? it has the best scroll over effects out of all of them (how well the image resizing during scroll over) and a nice interface.
However there are some things I would like the programs design team to think about and I bet a lot of people would like this idea too.
ObjectDock 2.0 should use the same dock generating system as a Mac OSX dock, using the same resources that are used by Mac to generate a dock based on size. Mac uses scurves that are picked based on the size of the dock the user has made (so a small fixed sized image is not being expaned belond its resolution) and uses transparency to tell where reflections should be placed. I think that ObjectDock 2.0 should use a similar system so that all the cool themes released for Mac docks on deviant art can be used without having to port them and re releasing them. Plus would have the added benefit of reflections being generated without having to Photoshop each icon, you could also include options for reflections like blur, water ripple, if this was done there would be absolutely no comparison of which company makes the better dock.
Another issue I would like to have fixed is indicators need to be layer behind icons, this allows better themes and different styles to happen, like a dock pictured here in one of Hotiron’s SS http://hotiron.deviantart.com/art/desolate-149923828
I hope that these changes can come into play I am sure a lot of people that use ObjectDock would love the ability to use all the themes released for Mac OSX docks found on deviant art, or here on iconpaper.org http://www.iconpaper.org/category/mac/docks/ So developers please take a look at this I know that this would be a big change to the program but a lot of people would love this including myself.
Because the fact is there are more better looking themes for Mac docks because creative people tend to use Mac because of the creative and highly customizable environment. I would like to see ObjectDock 2.0 take advantage of the free to use creative themes that are available through deviant art and other sites and stardock crate future ObjectDock themes in this manner. I can say there are more creative themes for Mac OSX dock cause take a look at themes http://gor0n.deviantart.com/art/Bloody-Docks-139946719 and here is an example of using the transparent areas for reflections http://kano89.deviantart.com/art/Real-Leopard-X-Dock-92442798 keep in mind if what I said here was done that these themes would be ready to use as is with adding a default .config file.
A quick review of what I would like to see in ObjectDock 2.0
1. Support for reflections generated by using Alpha transparence as a marker to where they should appear.
2. Add an option for even higher system recourses usage for smother transitions during scroll over.
3. Add options for various reflections like water, blurred, shadow.
4. Docks generated using a similar method to Mac OSX so that themes released on Deviantart can be used without conversion and loss of original form.
5. The ability to have a preset icon height so that the icons do not ride so low on the dock and each individual icon canvas size does not need to be lengthen vertically to make it ride higher on the dock.
Plus this would be a upgrade well worth buying. Because I have seen people say what more could Stardock add to ObjectDock more options but would that be worth the cost of an upgrade.
Here is an example of a port of mine called Fin dock it’s a personal port and NFR. And yes some of the icons are completely meaningless to the related programs but I like the work that was put into them.
