strecthing vs tiling

from WinCustomize Forums
Here's my question. I have a skin I wish to upload and present to all the world. But I recently read an article about how strecthing everything in the skin will slow down an already slow machine. I don't want this to happen if someone should download my skin. The trouble is, when the guy made his arguement about tiling VS stretching he failed to mention the correct way to tile. I have no clue and I refuse to spend several days more trying to adjust everything to tile. So what is the trick to tiling? I use the smallest bit sizes I can when making buttons toolbars framesets etc etc, but trying to tile these objects is next to impossible for me. I'll upload the skin anyway and take my chances. Not everyone has a fast machine and I understand that but I've been making skins for four maybe five years and I never tile. If there is a formula to use, I'd like to have it. I tired to tile a frameset days ago, it's gonna stay strecthed. See ya, be safe and skin often.
windowblinds
3,991 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It's a combination of two things -

You set the tiling attribute in "Painting options/Draw method" for each individual graphic element image and there are more options than just Tile & Stretch. "What" gets tiled is everything "inside" the sizing margins set for that image (the portions of the image "outside" the sizing margins get stretched by design).

Some images are more suitable for tiling than others and sometimes the only way to know is to try setting the attribute, loading the skin & seeing how it looks. Single-color blocks, obviously, tile seemlessly, but anything not a single block of color will produce a repeating pattern when tiled. Sometimes that's a good thing or by design, but sometimes it looks wrong.

Having said all that, I doubt using the default Stretch attribute for everything will have any noticable effect on a practical level. There just aren't that many rigs out there slow enough for it to matter. Wherever tiling can be used without altering the desired appearance of the skin, it's helpful and might speed window painting slightly, but you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference in most cases.

Cheers,
Daiwa
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
it's helpful and might speed window painting slightly, but you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference in most cases.


yup
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Not everyone has a fast machine


Anyone with a slow machine most likely will not be running XP, so the XP stuff will not be skinned.
I have a slower machine for using XP, 2.4 gig celeron, 512 ram @ 266 ( 333 but runs at 266 with celeron ),
most skins I have I change most things to stretched, no speed issues at all.