Problem with transparent Colors in VSB

[sunbeam2000]

hey guys and especially Panda or Andreas,

i have a problem with some MSSTYLE part, it's the Explorer/CommandModule/1 in and the Shell/Previewpane/1/1.

and i don't know if VSB has a importing problem or if its a problem of msstyle itself.

these are the parts, where to put a shinelayer over the Command-Bar and the Previewpane (even standard Vista Aero uses it, in 7 its used to generate the whole Shellstyle graphics.)
it's a very interesting section for making nice shellstyles (LHF M7 makes it's bottom curve this way and i've found quite interesting effects for my Themes),

my goal is to overlay a Aurora shine layer over these Panes, while the colors of the panes are rendered via gradients in Shellstyle.
(it reduces heavily the file-amount from 3 MB to less than 400kB of the shellstyle.dll)

but everytime i take a transparent white or lightgrey graphic in this section, the graphic gets some ugly stepping effect.
but with darker colors it works quite nice.

i even tried to make transparent dark background under the aura-layer , the stepping effect isn't that strong, but the pane darkens too much.

you can test it my last Theme Pack on dA, where the 4075 substyle works with Aurora layer over gradient rendered shellstyles.
i hope someone can help me to import light colored tranparent images here

[ka-la]

Have you tried importing while holding SHIFT down?

[sunbeam2000]

Yes, that destroys the Graphic completely, because the light parts become opaque then.

i've tried a lot, even converting the graphics with AlphaChannel to 32Bit etc...

the strange thing is, that when i take special grey tone, the graphic becomes light (like the small frame in the 2nd preview), but an aurora layer has a variety of light tones and they become reduced and stepping effects..

[ka-la]

I Wish I could know, BUT this is very interesting, I´ll keep my eyes on that topic.

[K-Johnson]

I have noticed this, too, but mine occurred in the taskbar/placeslist buttons when I put a transparent white gradient for the shine.  Holding Shift also turned the transparent gradient into a solid white color, which is not what I wanted.  Even if you put truesize the ugly stepping and banding still occurs so its not caused by stretching.

I notice that the banding disappears when the gradient has a solid color merged underneath it.
But when the gradient graphic image has a transparent background, the ugly stepping occurs.

I'd like to know if Ave could provide a fix here, or explain why this occurs

[Panda X]

If you hold shift it imports as-is which causes it to look bad, however if you imported it then exported it then you have to use shift. I think what's happening here is the dark color is making the fix noticable by being darker than it should.

[sunbeam2000]

i guess, it's really a VSB problem, because is still a difference, if i import a  selfmade Aero-Graphic for Start-Menu in VSB or replace them afterwards in restorator.

when i import, the stepping effect in the start-menu graphis appears..

i had to build the start menu in VSB and then replacing the graphics again in restorator to get them smooth.

[K-Johnson]

i guess, it's really a VSB problem, because is still a difference, if i import a  selfmade Aero-Graphic for Start-Menu in VSB or replace them afterwards in restorator.

when i import, the stepping effect in the start-menu graphis appears..

i had to build the start menu in VSB and then replacing the graphics again in restorator to get them smooth.

I was assuming that this was a problem with the MSSTYLES, but you pretty much proved that it has to do with VSB and how it deals with alpha channeling.
I thank you for mentioning Restorator.  I guess I'll have to go that route for some of the transparent graphics.  I never liked the stepping and banding effect I got in VSB.

Is this something Ave can fix?

[Panda X]

I was assuming that this was a problem with the MSSTYLES, but you pretty much proved that it has to do with VSB and how it deals with alpha channeling.
I thank you for mentioning Restorator.  I guess I'll have to go that route for some of the transparent graphics.  I never liked the stepping and banding effect I got in VSB.

Is this something Ave can fix?

It fixes alpha channel as the msstyles renders differently. Holding shift overrides it.

[K-Johnson]

It fixes alpha channel as the msstyles renders differently. Holding shift overrides it.

But importing the transparent gradient graphics through Restorator keeps the graphics as-is and doesn't introduce any banding/stepping.

[sunbeam2000]

in startmenu graphics it is still a difference if i SHIFT-import a graphic or replace them afterwards.

For example Programslist and Placeslist imported via shift-hold, then replacing only the placeslist, it looks better and clearer and you can see a difference..

[Panda X]

Can you give me 3 screens (Import, Import w/ alpha override(shift+import), and restorator)?

[sunbeam2000]

here it is..

Placeslistmenu taken from an older VS, where the graphics content a lighter color scheme, so it is more visible (which is similar to my problem with lighter Aurora in previewpane)

as you can see, the stepping effect appears in VSB but not in restorator (where exactly the same pic is replaced again)

[iJesse]

Man, that is a huge difference!!!