Sense 2.5 and wallpaper rendering with HDwall - HD2 General

Hey all - anyone notice that even after HDwall tool is used for wallpapers, that your wallpaper is actually still somehow in very bad quality?
there's actually no difference between using HDwall and actually just pasting your wallpaper into the phone.
The only difference is that the top and bottom bar now uses your image with a registry edit.
Since I like to see fine lines and definitions on an image instead of fuzziness I was wondering where the image is translated and cached.
you can check the differences if you save a high quality image into 480x800 and then use it as a wallpaper with sense and then also choose the same wallpaper for the lock option.
you'll notice that wm6.5's proper wallpaper will show the image sharply, while it's dulled out in the skinned sense.
I found the registry keys that display the image, but I don't know if this is a limitation with sense and it's ability to render the image onto the background or is it just a shot of the image stored elsewhere. I would like to know though so I can do some registry changes to get that going.

You must have some problem, HDWall background should look perfectly good. Works fine here. Did you apply co0kie's hqwallpaper patch?

kilrah said:
You must have some problem, HDWall background should look perfectly good. Works fine here. Did you apply co0kie's hqwallpaper patch?
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I applied the patch and the image will not come up with the image associated -- I ran the hdwall cab that was created without the patch, and I got a background.

Related

Question about Today Backgrounds

I've recently been playing around with my today backgrounds, however, they are never as clear as the original picture.
I used someones .cab theme with a new background and the image was very clear, but when I just change the standard themes background to a different image, it loses it's clarity.
Whats up with this and is there a way to fix it?
Also, how do I get .exe programs to load on my unit. The only files I can get to install are cab files.
Thanks
Is the image the correct resolution?
If not, it will stretch or shrink it, and that's a quick and dirty operation on the today screen rather than being done with something like photoshop where it would calculate the pixel mapping of the resized image to give better quality.
actually..
I believe what he is talking about occurs only when selecting an individual image as the background wallpaper and it appears with what looks like a somewhat transparent "white haze". I have not figured out what causes this, and the only way to "fix" it would be to use a theme generator with the image you want as the background. If done this way, the image looks fine. This has nothing to do with aspect ratio distortion.

TF3D - Use gradient_background.qtc from o2 for other Themes

Hi there, im thinking about the issue that you cant use a background for all tabs in TF3D, so i am trying to find a solution for that.
We need to find out where in TF3D the XML definition of background tiling is, so we could deactivate that, and replace the manila background tile with a normal wallpaper.
What do you think?
Rotkaeqpchen said:
Hi there, im thinking about the issue that you cant use a background for all tabs in TF3D, so i am trying to find a solution for that.
We need to find out where in TF3D the XML definition of background tiling is, so we could deactivate that, and replace the manila background tile with a normal wallpaper.
What do you think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be great, one of the most annoying things of TF3D is the background only works on the Today screen. I guess another option would be to find the graphic file within the manilla files that contains the default one. I have seen a couple themes where they have changed that default image, I think it was the Orange one.
added to thread subscriptions, maybe we can do this and it will be so much better!
Thanks, look at the Vodafone theme for example, there is a blank white background. Can we customize the original files like this just with a wallpaper?
I found out that there is a 2bd5bb26_manila (Background image only on O2 theme) in the o2 theme.
When we could use this manila file for other themes too, we would have solved the theme problem!
there's one thing i don't really understand here.
in the o2 default blue theme, the gradient background (for all the tabs) is saved as an image of the width of 1 pixel. i tried to substitute it with another, wider image, but it didn't work.
in the htc black theme, on the other hand, there's no direct image for the background, instead, only the tiles are coded somewhere as image files.
how does it work then, i mean how does manila know how the background is encoded, whether it's a 1px-wide image that needs to be stretched or a tile that fits onto the background "floor" or whatever else on other themes?
if we could find the place where it's encoded what (and how) manila uses for the background, then i guess we could play with it a little more
This is what i have found about the background question in TF3D...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2558844&postcount=180
I haven't had any more time on it .. but I think we have to wait until we can change the mania/GLES files...
I hope this can be done

MaxTTM issue...

Okay, I've used MaxTTm before and never had issues with it before, but for some reason, I'm getting a strange error. I'm trying to change the top taskbar to a solid or wallpapered background, and it gives the error (Error, an unexpected error has occurred in MaxTTM) could not find file \Windows\HomeBackground.img
So, I tried different versions of MaxTTM and got the same result. Other parts of the program function properly, it's just when I change the top taskbar image and bottom softbar. Could it be the rom I'm using (Josh's Perfect Black 1.7)??? Maybe I could just copy someone else's homebackground.img file into my windows directory and that would work? Any suggestions?
Try setting a wallpaper in the standard manila settings first. homebackground.img is just a renamed jpeg file that is made from whatever wallpaper you chose, so if it's missing it's probably because you haven't set one yet. This is a standard wallpaper, not HDWall or manila files, just a jpeg set in the settings>personalize tab. Can't guarantee that's the fix but it's worth a try...
millski said:
Try setting a wallpaper in the standard manila settings first. homebackground.img is just a renamed jpeg file that is made from whatever wallpaper you chose, so if it's missing it's probably because you haven't set one yet. This is a standard wallpaper, not HDWall or manila files, just a jpeg set in the settings>personalize tab. Can't guarantee that's the fix but it's worth a try...
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Click to collapse
millski, that worked perfectly. I've been using my own cab creator to make my own backgrounds, and I guess since I was using that, I didn't have a homebackground.img. I just set a new one, and now MaxTTM works perfectly. Thanks a million man. It's been driving me nuts all morning...

Different background quality in lockscreen and home screen

Could anyone pls try the following?
Set as background for both lockscreen and homescreen the same picture with a gradient: you can use the circular gradient that the phone has already stored.
in the lockscreen the gradient is very visible while in the homescreen it's very smooth.
weird...
Can you take any screenshots?
The background in the lock screen is actually of higher resolution than the sense one. This is because sense does something awkward to images. It crops a smaller part and then stretches it to fit the whole home screen.
The lockscreen seems to recompress the images indeed. A perfect image once set as lockscreen appears like an awfully blocky JPG. I guess it doesn't use the image as is but makes a badly compressed copy.
I use S2U2 now, that sort of solves the problem
kilrah said:
The lockscreen seems to recompress the images indeed. A perfect image once set as lockscreen appears like an awfully blocky JPG. I guess it doesn't use the image as is but makes a badly compressed copy.
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From my experience, it's the other way round.
The image you see on the lockscreen is the Windows Today background, and that's just a centered view of the image you select. It doesn't do any cropping or resizing whatsoever.
For the OP - try HDWall. It allows you to have high quality images for wallpaper, as well as having the wallpaper work on all tabs. It's in the themes and apps forum. If you do use it, you'll need to install the HQ patch in the first post the first time you use it, or the backgrounds don't look right. Using HDWall, I struggle to see the difference between the manila background and the start menu/lock screen.
Hope this helps
here are the screeshots
The images I tried were exactly 480x800 as I made them on purpose. When viewing them on the device (with HTC Album or Resco photo manager), they look perfectly good, but on the lockscreen they're awful.
Sense indeed applies some kind of "grainy" post-processing, but I don't mind it, in Sense the background is not very apparent, I actually just use a default WP.
But anyway, some screenshots:
Sense rendering:
Lockscreen:
S2U2:
See how the lockscreen one appears hugely blocky? OK the original pic I used wasn't perfect for a start, but you can clearly see the difference between S2U2 that just displays the image as is and the recompression the lockscreen does.
As far as I can see, the HDWall works only with wallpaperss in a cab file.
Is there an other way to have HQ Wallpapers in a "normal way"?
Im using the Theme Maker from Max as well but there seems no HQ option to be included.
tomylee
kilrah said:
The images I tried were exactly 480x800 as I made them on purpose. When viewing them on the device (with HTC Album or Resco photo manager), they look perfectly good, but on the lockscreen they're awful.
Sense indeed applies some kind of "grainy" post-processing, but I don't mind it, in Sense the background is not very apparent, I actually just use a default WP.
But anyway, some screenshots:
Sense rendering:
Lockscreen:
S2U2:
See how the lockscreen one appears hugely blocky? OK the original pic I used wasn't perfect for a start, but you can clearly see the difference between S2U2 that just displays the image as is and the recompression the lockscreen does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I c u'r using s2u2: is it working fine on the HD2? any issue?
Perfectly fine.
kilrah said:
Lockscreen:
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Any fix or workaround for this yet (other than using S2U2)?
SaintNULL said:
Any fix or workaround for this yet (other than using S2U2)?
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Click to collapse
Looking for the exact same thing....
Any update??

Applied wallpaper is blurry... Why?

(First, I'm trying to avoid HDwalls)
It has always bugged me that when you apply a wallpaper under Settings, that the wallpaper isn't as clear as if you were to view them in the "Picture" tab. In fact, the applied wallpaper is some what blurred at a lower quality.
Has anyone noticed this? Or is it just me because I can point out something you were not able to see.
try it yourself with some sharp jagged text as wallpaper. Then apply it to the lock screen as well.
You'll notice that the wallpaper on home screen is not as crisp and clear as the one on the lock screen.
Anyone know why?
you are right, I did notice this.
has it got something to do with the phone trying to squish the image into the right ratio instead of just cropping the image too fit?
not sure maybe some other members can offer their help?
See, you didn't even notice youself. And i think most people dont realize this as well.
Anyone got a fix?
rebump. rebump
Sense resizes the image to something smaller than 480x800 and then stretches it again (for some silly reason). It's a long-known problem - since the phone was first released. It's also one of the reasons that HDWall came about. The only alternative to HDWall I know is to install Co0kie's Home Tab. You can set wallpaper with that and it retains the original quality (as well as having a LOT of extra wallpaper options).
Try resizing or cropping the image to 480x800 then setting it as a background, that way the phone won't need to resize it for you.....
conantroutman said:
Try resizing or cropping the image to 480x800 then setting it as a background, that way the phone won't need to resize it for you.....
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It still does it. The default way of setting wallpaper in Sense is just crap.
johncmolyneux said:
It still does it. The default way of setting wallpaper in Sense is just crap.
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Click to collapse
Really? That is truly retarted.... thanks for the heads up!
johncmolyneux said:
The only alternative to HDWall I know is to install Co0kie's Home Tab. You can set wallpaper with that and it retains the original quality (as well as having a LOT of extra wallpaper options).
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Click to collapse
cookies wall doesnt work. never did.
home tab>menu>home wallpaper> etc...
that path doesnt work.
unless there is some other way...
resizing images dont work either.
I just also want to mention that Cookies Home tab 1.8 does improve the quality of the wallpaper over normal Sense BUT they are still reduced in quality and resolution somewhat so are still not full quality.
So for me - HDwalls is what i use - though i sometimes have trouble getting it to work properly.
Use SPB Mobile Shell. You will get mega sharp wallpapers (custom of course) and far better functionality than standard sense.

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