Problem boils down to this, I'd like Milkdrop to run in Desktop mode, which replaces the desktop background with a Milkdrop animation, but since Jdesk paints an "invisible" window the size of the workarea this "invisible" window covers up Milkdrop. Incidentally Clickonic does the same thing when you set (group)Width and (group)Height, it paints an opaque box with that size that covers up Milkdrop.

I can live without desktop icons, but jdesk poses a problem. Taking it of the theme altogether not only makes windows maximize under the taskbar, but right clicking the desktop doesn't bring up the popup menu.

So what I did was create a label the size of the workarea that will execute !Popup on MouseRightClick. By setting Alphatransparency to 0 Milkdrop even shows up no problem. BUT, setting Alphatransparency to 0 means the label refuses to respond to clicks, as if it doesn't exist at all. Setting it to 1 fixes this problem, but slows Milkdrop down by about 30% due to the added transparency calculations. Plus I still have the window maximizing problem.

Can I get the best of both worlds somehow? A completely transparent label that will respond to mouseclicks? Is there some trick to getting jdesk to stop covering up Milkdrop?

Also having a second problem. I'm using the sandwich theme, and for some reason text in the Popup menus becomes transparent when it's floating over an application window. Here's a screenshot of what I mean:

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg273/gogogo65/popupproblem.jpg

Any ideas?

Don't confuse jdesk and clickonic as being the same thing. One creates a desktop, the other icons.

Have you tried xDesk for the desktop module?

You could try a label overlay with the 's' flag.

Interesting picture... wonder if the font color of the popup is set to ff00ff?

Thanks for the quick answer xcal

Yeah Clickonic creates icons, but it also creates a bounding area inside which the icons sit, and this bounding area is blocking Milkdrop. It shows up as a black rectangle with the dimensions set in (name)Width and (name)Height.

xDesk has the same problem, covers up Milkdrop. So does the original Desktop module that used to be core for LS.

Overlaylabel is also acting strange. When the parent label's transparency is set to 1 or higher the overlaylabel reacts to clicks, when it's set to 0 it doesn't. Setting it to 1 slows everything down, including moving or resizing windows.

The font problem really has me baffled. It happens with any font I set it to, and any font color, but only in this theme. Here's the config for the xPopup font:


From the comments on the theme it looks like I'm the only one having this problem, though I get it even on a clean install of the theme. If I turn on FontSmoothing it works, but looks like crap. No idea...

Poked around some more, the font issue has something to do with xPopupAlphaMap, commenting this line out fixes the text issue but breaks the transparency around the outside of the popup menu (pink shows up).

So when you disable Clickonic and xDesk what happens? Because your explanation seems to have changed.

When I disable Clickonic and xDesk Milkdrop shows up on the background like it should. But without xDesk, or some other workarea module, windows maximize under the taskbar and right clicking on the desktop won't bring up the main popup menu.

By creating a label the size of the workarea that responds to MouseRightClick with !Popup I can fix the popup problem, but setting this label's Alphatransparency to 0 makes it unresponsive to mouse clicks. Setting it to 1 makes it responsive again, but slows down window resizing, moving and the Milkdrop animations because of the extra transparency calculations for a label that big. Here's a couple screenshots:

Milkdrop working like it should, with xDesk and Clickonic disabled:
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg273/gogogo65/working.png

Clickonic enabled,the bounding area for the icons covers up Milkdrop:
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg273/gogogo65/notworking.png

The same thing happens with xDesk enabled, with the black area being the size of the WorkArea.

The code snippits were for a seperate problem with fonts, I've fixed that for now by turning off xPopupAlphaMap and shadows for the outside of the popup.

Have you tried jDesk or Desktop2 for your desktop module?

Yeah, they have the same problem. I guess they all work on the same principle, open a window the size of the work area. That window uses the same static background as your wallpaper settings, so it looks invisible, until you get something dynamic behind it like a Milkdrop animation.

Got a SS of it with jDesk? Btw...I just set BSPlayer for desktop mode and had no issue with the desktop icons. It may be something with how Milkdrop/Winamp handles the desktop functionality.

SS of jdesk will look just like the one with Clickonic (minus the icons ofc), except the black area is the size of whatever you set WorkArea to. With the workarea set to what it normally is (0 21 0 -21) the black area covers the whole visible screen, so Milkdrop doesn't show up at all. (I have my desktop set to straight black atm for testing, normally the wallpaper shows up on jdesk and would be covering Milkdrop too)

BSPlayer in desktop mode works for me too.

After some reading and digging through the xLabel source I found out why mouse clicks aren't registering on a transparent label. It's a problem with the Windows API itself, when a window has its transparency set to 0 it automatically ignores mouse clicks. Sigh.

Ok...so if you have confirmed on your own that other applications work fine in desktop mode, why do you think that this is a LiteStep problem?

I'm not surprised by the issue you are seeing, I would expect it in fact. However, when you say "the black area is the size of whatever you set WorkArea to". Is that in regards to jDesk? I would be very surprised if jDesk only painted the work area, and not the full screen.

My bad jugg, the black area being different sizes was a property of Clickonic not jdesk. You're right, jdesk covers the whole screen no matter what the work area is set to, and so do the other desktop modules.

DeViLbOi, I didn't want to imply that this is Litestep's fault, or a problem with Litestep, it's just a problem I've had involving Litestep, so I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone's come across the same thing.

I was talking to jugg the other day about it. Does not sound like your issue be fixed for a while. I would contact the WinAmp devs as they now own Milkdrop and see if they are willing to help out. My understanding from jugg is that it has to do with how they are forcing windows to make an active wallpaper instead of drawing their own window to display the output.