Guest Laser_iCE Posted March 27, 2006 Report Posted March 27, 2006 (edited) Hey guys, I recently set an image as my wallpaper, and it came out very pixelated... I'm sure this is related to optimization, as well as the wallpaper being saved as a seperate image elsewhere (much like Windows XP does, when duplicating the image as a bitmap), and so where could I find this image? I either want a registry hack or a manually edit the image, so that I can have it as sharp as the digital camera picture... I've tried the 3 main methods (through settings\today, holding stylus on filename in explorer and opening the picture in pics/vids and setting as today background), and they all end up the same... Please, someone, shed some light ;) Laser_iCE EDIT: Please see 3rd/4th post of this thread ;) Edited March 27, 2006 by Laser_iCE
Guest Pigo Posted March 27, 2006 Report Posted March 27, 2006 (edited) Should be in the windows folder and renamed to tdywater.gif by the way.... did you resize the picture? 320 x 240 for portrait mode and if you want a landscape mode aswell it should be 320 x 294 Pigo Edited March 27, 2006 by Pigo
Guest Laser_iCE Posted March 27, 2006 Report Posted March 27, 2006 (edited) Hey mate, thanks for the speedy response ;) I couldn't find "tdywater.gif" in "\Windows" so I'm going to do a quick search for it now ;) Also, I didn't resize it... I simply selected the area that I wanted to be set as the background :( Will edit this post if I find it! Thanks! Laser_iCE EDIT: So after trying some variations of searches (tdywater, today, wallpaper, wall, etc.), nothing :) I'll keep trying :) EDIT #2: I decided to search for "water", which was flooded with my Age of Empires files... However, at the bottom, pointed towards two files; "stwater_240_320.gif" and "stwater_320_240.gif" Clearly separate for landscape and potrait ... Going to try and edit one and see if I can have two separate backgrounds! Edited March 27, 2006 by Laser_iCE
Guest Laser_iCE Posted March 27, 2006 Report Posted March 27, 2006 It works!! You can have two separate backgrounds!! Not sure what benefits this may have, but I personally think that this is some pretty big news... Enjoy!
Guest Pigo Posted March 27, 2006 Report Posted March 27, 2006 That's true.... I know that... but that's only if you have the standard theme installed... I can't seem to find a way to have 2 backgrounds in a new theme. I thought you made your own theme. my bad :oops: Pigo
Guest Laser_iCE Posted March 28, 2006 Report Posted March 28, 2006 Pigo, I'm not using the default theme ;) You just need to set your own image as the background for the current theme you're using ;)
Guest Pigo Posted March 28, 2006 Report Posted March 28, 2006 I meant when you want to use the 2 different backgrounds when switching between portrait and landscape. if you save a picture as your background. it automaticly saves that image as the background in both portrait and landscape. Pigo
Guest Laser_iCE Posted March 29, 2006 Report Posted March 29, 2006 Not quite sure I understand what you're saying... But yeah, I think I get what you mean... Yes, there are two separate images for portrait/landscape, which surprised me... I figured that it simply zoomed in on one larger image for portrait... But, clearly not. I just think it's neat that you can have an entirely different image for portrait and landscape mode ;)
Guest Pigo Posted March 29, 2006 Report Posted March 29, 2006 So do I.... but you'd have to replace the original microsoft images. I'll have to try this later... haven't done it yet. Pigo
Guest Laser_iCE Posted March 29, 2006 Report Posted March 29, 2006 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH. I get what you're saying now! Okay, what you need to do, is set your own picture that you want as the background ;) That way, you can copy it to your computer, edit it in Fireworks or Paintshop or whatever your imaging client is, create another layer on top of the previous one and set transparency so you can line it up ;) That is what I originally did, anyway, so I could get a hi-res background... But then I realised you had to do it twice, which led me to finding out that I could invert one image and leave the other one normal, and so it was really weird, swapping over into landscape and seeing an inverted image of what I was just using in portrait.
Guest Pigo Posted March 30, 2006 Report Posted March 30, 2006 I don't think I get what you did with your background... could you post some screenshots or something like that. Pigo
Guest daftveggie Posted March 30, 2006 Report Posted March 30, 2006 the two files st_water(etc).jpg are the background images. when you select a new background the OS overwrites them with the new ones, all you have to do (Laser_iCE nice find!) is manually alter those files to get different backgrounds. Just go into the windows directory and look at them!
Guest Laser_iCE Posted March 30, 2006 Report Posted March 30, 2006 Thanks daftveggie ;) This phone keeps amazing me every day ;) Yes, so, select one of your personal images to become the Today Screen background. You will notice that this image becomes pixelated and blocky, and the reason for this is that to save space on files (it makes each background image [portrait/landscape] around 10kb), it saves the JPEG at 66% quality), and what I thought would be to increase speed -- however, I've noticed no latency whatsoever. Once you've selected your own personal image, in the Windows directory on your phone will be the two files, "stwater_240_320.gif/jpg" and "stwater_320_240.gif/jpg". These are your portrait and landscape files, respectively. Now, all you need to do, is copy and paste the files across to your personal computer and edit them using whatever program it is that you would like to use! Personally, I use Fireworks. If you like, I can record it to show you the difference ... Laser_iCE
Guest Pigo Posted March 30, 2006 Report Posted March 30, 2006 Daft veggie... Ik now this but I didn't get what he did to his files. it overrides the ordinary background. but the original microsoft backgrounds don't change when you do that. like laser-ice says... you have to manually replace them. and Laser ice... if you take another look at the 2 background images you'll see that they are 320 x 320 & 240 x 240 ..... and not 240 x 320 & 320 x 240 That's why I don't really understand what you did. And yes this phone IS amazing hahaha Pigo
Guest daftveggie Posted March 30, 2006 Report Posted March 30, 2006 (edited) Pigo I think they're actually stwater_240_320.jpg and stwater_320_240.jpg dimensions of 240x268 and 320x188 respectivly# but you are right about the default theme thing, the files don't exist unless you set a picture as the background They are on mine at least Edited March 30, 2006 by daftveggie
Guest Laser_iCE Posted March 31, 2006 Report Posted March 31, 2006 daftveggie, correct indeed ;) The filenames are simply there for reference to the orientation of the screen and it's size. Well, another day, time to find something new ;)
Guest Pigo Posted March 31, 2006 Report Posted March 31, 2006 That's weird... I only have Default_stwater.gif & Default_stwater_240_240.gif and they have the dimensions 320x320 & 240x240 so I don't get it. what's the difference between your wizard and mine? I do have stwater.gif.. but that's the menu image from my theme. and that about it. one more thing. I do have bkgnd_land.bmp & bfgnd_port.bmp.. they do have the dimensions 240x268 and 320x188. but these images are white or transparent. Pigo
Guest daftveggie Posted March 31, 2006 Report Posted March 31, 2006 They are the .gifs for the standard background i think The .jpgs only appear whilever you have a photo set as a background, only then can you alter them and put them back on the machine if you change the theme to a default one, it deleted the files! I don't have the menu stwater.gif but I'm going to look harder ;) lots of potential for customisation!
Guest Laser_iCE Posted March 31, 2006 Report Posted March 31, 2006 Yeah, I've been trying to find the menu image, however, I have a feeling that it is only there when you are using a theme that uses a separate image for the menu itself ;)
Guest Pigo Posted April 3, 2006 Report Posted April 3, 2006 Daftveggie.... now I totally get the picture. I'll have to fidle with it a bit... I'll let you know what I find. and yes the menu image is only there if a theme is installed with a sepparate image for the menu. Pigo
Guest zombiefly Posted April 6, 2006 Report Posted April 6, 2006 (edited) :shock: quad post! Edited April 6, 2006 by zombiefly
Guest zombiefly Posted April 6, 2006 Report Posted April 6, 2006 (edited) :shock: quad post! Edited April 6, 2006 by zombiefly
Guest zombiefly Posted April 6, 2006 Report Posted April 6, 2006 (edited) :shock: quad post! Edited April 6, 2006 by zombiefly
Guest zombiefly Posted April 6, 2006 Report Posted April 6, 2006 i've been messing round with the wallpapers. It seems that without actually creating a compiled theme (.tsk), the wallpaper doesnt like shifting between portrait and landscape . based on the info above, when you manually set a wallpaper in the today screen settings, it copies the selected image and overwrites the stwater_240_320.xxx and stwater_320_240.xxx files in the windows directory. (i.e. if you have a file called boobs.jpg and you set it to be the wallpaper, 2 files will appear in the windows directory, stwater_320_240.jpg and stwater_240_320.jpg. So, to get any wallpaper working in either landscape or portrait, here's what i did: 1. open the desired image on your pc in some editing software. 2. create a folder on your local pc using the name of the image, i.e. boobs. 3. resize the image to 240x320, save the image to your boobs folder as stwater_240_320.jpg 4. resize the image to 320x240, save the image to your boobs folder as stwater_320_240.jpg repeat steps 2-4 for as many images as you have. 5. Move the folders containing your images to the my docs folder on the device. 6. In the today screen settings, select any image to be the wallpaper, it doesnt matter at this stage which image you choose. 7. Using file manager/resco explorer etc on the device, browse to the my docs folder then into the boobs (or other image folder). copy the 2 files (stwater_etc) into the windows folder, overwriting the 2 files in there. 8. slide out the keyboard, the wallpaper should change to your chosen wallpaper. The method above is a bit naff, but it works. I've discovered the following registry settings which looks like they might be useful.... [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SECURITY/APPINSTALL/TSKAllowed] ^^ under this hive there appears to be a list of allowed wallpaper files, all starting with stwater (gif/png/jpg/bmp). I wonder what happens if you delete this key, would it allow any wallpapers to be used? would the "set as wallpaper" process create 2 resized copies of any wallpaper?... [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Color\ThemeGen] ^^ under this hive there appears to be transparency settings etc. Does anyone have any more info on these settings?... there must be an easier way to create and use a dual format wallpaper image for both portrait and landscape?! :shock:
Guest Laser_iCE Posted April 6, 2006 Report Posted April 6, 2006 Wow, 4 replies... Anyway, zombiefly, this is exactly what I was talking about. The method that you spoke of was just a long and winding way of saying what I had already said ;)
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now