Well its finally here, open live is officially released for all of you to use. You won't find Open Live in the skins database since it is a resource so yeah. Anyway onto a few release notes (pretty much the same as the official page:

Skinning Windows Live Messenger has never been an easy task. Most people struggle to understand what is going on when you make and skin and do not know where to start. I created open live to try and help those new skinners out and to give experienced skinners something to save them a bit of time.

Open Live is a special version of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 that has been edited to make a skinners life a lot easier. The key features of open live are as follows:

    * No MSNRLE images, all images are normal png, jpg, bmp, ico and gif.
    * Easy one line edits for things such as text colors and spacing of buttons.
    * All images are named and labeled to show what they do and are also in organized folders
    * Comes with guide images and source images for animations and those tricky images
    * Comes with pre-made and pre-translated options and about windows.

and MUCH MORE!

Open Live will be sure to make the skinning process a much quicker task than what it is now.



TERMS OF USE

This skin is not intended for commercial use since it is based upon Microsoft's design and contains mostly their resources. Although this skin is free to edit and redistribute, the only this I ask for in return is that you leave the small credit that gives thanks to the translation team and the "based on open live" line in the about window.

Thanks for the support!

For Windows Live Messenger 8.5 ONLY. Requires Messenger Plus! Live 4.60 to use.

Skin options panel available in (future updates may add support for more languages):

English
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Italian

Open Live Download

Official Open Live support will be at http://designevolved.net, with an update to the site happening eventually which will host Open Live content and a tutorials database.

EDIT

This link will let you download the latest build of Open Live, while it is still marked as the build that is up on the page there are still differences:

Website Version: 1.1.0A
Latest Version: Open Live 1.1.0C

Great job Willz, i think i might try out skinning now

Well I hope everyone finds it handy, my plan is to start a wiki on designevolved which will take you through skinning messenger using open live. Of course that will be a lot of work, but I think it would potentially have a lot of interest.

I'll see whether its worth it or not soon enough I guess.

Now that it's in the wild, I can use it to make a skin ... figure it needs some promoting ...

You should see a skin from me soon, you know which one ... just need a catchy name for it though.

p.s. you seem to have too much time on your hands...

quote:

---

Originally posted by ipab
Now that it's in the wild, I can use it to make a skin ... figure it needs some promoting ...

You should see a skin from me soon, you know which one ... just need a catchy name for it though.

---

Great , now I might try skinning as well.Cheers mate .

yeah well i just found a bug thats not because of my code, but rather Plus! not being able to replace certain resources properly so I will have to make them their own custom resources.

For those playing at home its the checkbox images that I'm talking about, those don't replace at all (even though the code is right)

EDIT ok sent it over to menthix, will be marked as version 1.0.1. Should be up shortly.

Thanks Willz! This will help out the community tones! .

Pity i cant use it... Im a die hard 9.0 user .

But very very good work Willz!

The skinning community wouldnt be where it is now today without you Willz! I think Patchou owes you something!

ok well menthix has uploaded 1.0.1 so go nuts now

I was going to try 9 comparability, but then i found that a few things were not working and then i figured the skininfo would become too complex, which is the opposite of what i want.

And then of course theres the whole thing about if a new build of 9 is released ill have to code it all again.

So yeah.... just went with 8.5.

Yeah i knew you'd never do 9.0. *sigh*. Only 7 more months till 9 becomes final! Hopefully by then they have added the time stopping algoreth(i cant spell). Which would be fairly usefull in messenger. You know, stopping time so you can catch up on your WLMing

08/05/06 06:37:08| **** The trace has started ****
08/05/06 06:37:08| Skin: Open Live 1.0.0
08/05/06 06:37:08| Messenger version: 8.5.1302.1018 (en-us)
08/05/06 06:37:08| Messenger Plus! version: 4.60.324
08/05/06 06:37:08| Last definition file loaded: 947
08/05/06 06:37:08| Last style sheet file loaded: 947
08/05/06 06:37:08| Last picture file loaded: 59103
08/05/06 06:37:08| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:37:08| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
08/05/06 06:37:08| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:37:08| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
08/05/06 06:37:09| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:37:09| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
08/05/06 06:37:10| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:37:10| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
08/05/06 06:37:46| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:37:46| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
08/05/06 06:37:46| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:37:46| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
08/05/06 06:37:46| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:37:46| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
08/05/06 06:37:59| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:37:59| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
08/05/06 06:38:00| **** The trace has ended ****


08/05/06 06:38:02| **** The trace has started ****
08/05/06 06:38:02| Skin: Open Live 1.0.0
08/05/06 06:38:02| Messenger version: 8.5.1302.1018 (en-us)
08/05/06 06:38:02| Messenger Plus! version: 4.60.324
08/05/06 06:38:02| Last definition file loaded: 947
08/05/06 06:38:02| Last style sheet file loaded: 947
08/05/06 06:38:02| Last picture file loaded: 59103
08/05/06 06:38:02| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:38:02| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
08/05/06 06:38:02| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:38:02| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
08/05/06 06:38:02| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:38:02| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1
08/05/06 06:38:04| DUIParserFailure: Value creation failed '' 173
08/05/06 06:38:04| DUIParserFailure: Failed to locate stylesheet 'logonFrameSS' -1

That skin trace file doesn't make sense, those image numbers are from version 1.0.1 yet your version is 1.0.0

Bah stupid xml must not have updated in the zip file properly.

Ok tony download this skininfo, should fix everything up.

v1.0.1 skininfo file

*Edit, skin updated so it now contains the 1.0.1 xml.

Works like a charm, thanks for updating it. Ill be ripping it whenever is possible

Woohoo, now I have all the tools to start learning skinning again. Now, I need to find an idea and, well, time...

Well done, Willz! You're really saving the skinning community with your work!

quote:

---

Originally posted by aNILEator

quote:

---

Originally posted by ipab
Now that it's in the wild, I can use it to make a skin ... figure it needs some promoting ...

You should see a skin from me soon, you know which one ... just need a catchy name for it though.

---

Ipab's vista ultimate X-treme++ lite?

That'll get in the downloads

Congrats On the skin completion, surprised you didn't ask me to test anything

---

Nice Willz! Now time for some OpenLive-ing my skins

I would use it, but I hate relying on other peoples code .
So yeah, I wouldn't use it, but great to recommend to newbies

Thanks Willz

* High Speed Chaser downloads now

quote:

---

Originally posted by Willz
Well I hope everyone finds it handy, my plan is to start a wiki on designevolved which will take you through skinning messenger using open live. Of course that will be a lot of work, but I think it would potentially have a lot of interest.

I'll see whether its worth it or not soon enough I guess.

---

Well I just installed it because I like the default skin and just wanted the options, but enabling "Hide voice clips button" makes WLM crash every time I try to open a chat window.

Apart from that, very nicely done Willz

quote:

---

Originally posted by Eljay
Well I just installed it because I like the default skin and just wanted the options, but enabling "Hide voice clips button" makes WLM crash every time I try to open a chat window.

Apart from that, very nicely done Willz

---

Maybe a little more beta testers/bug testting before release?

quote:

---

Originally posted by mattisdada
Maybe a little more beta testers/bug testting before release?

---

Intresting skin concept. I like it.

You just need to add 9.0 compatibility. Its been a long time since a new build hasnt been released so you dont have to worry about a update.

Now watch you make this 9.0 compatibile and MS releases a new version of 9.0

quote:

---

Originally posted by Willz

quote:

---

Originally posted by mattisdada
Maybe a little more beta testers/bug testting before release?

---

Meh I'm only human.

Most of the testing went into seeing if the layout changes I did would not cause bugs (not removal options) since I did chop the hell out of the UI and as of yet there is nothing bugging up without using patching options.

But yeah I mean theres only about 3 ways to remove a button and WLM is really picky on which needs to be used :/ I assumed that the chat window buttons could be removed the easy way but obviously the voice clip button is not one of them (even though in 8.1 it was fine :/ and that was the last time I had done it so I just thought it would be the same but obviously not)

Other skinners will know how inconsistent WLM is when it comes to that sort of stuff. Take the contact search ghost text bug that only existed from 8.5 before that it was totally not there

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by riahc4
Intresting skin concept. I like it.

You just need to add 9.0 compatibility. Its been a long time since a new build hasnt been released so you dont have to worry about a update.

Now watch you make this 9.0 compatibile and MS releases a new version of 9.0

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Willz

quote:

---

Originally posted by riahc4
Intresting skin concept. I like it.

You just need to add 9.0 compatibility. Its been a long time since a new build hasnt been released so you dont have to worry about a update.

Now watch you make this 9.0 compatibile and MS releases a new version of 9.0

---

I don't need to do anything when it comes to 9, if a new build hasn't been released in a long time then that means that the next build that does get released will be something thats drastically different than the previous (on the inside)

Besides 9 has too many random problems when it comes to skinning it as I've said a couple hundred times already.

There is no reason to document and create like I did with 8.5 for Open Live since its going to go down the drain soon enough. So yeah I do not want to hear anything about wlm 9.

not final = not worth it (and no I'm not angry cos someone mentioned 9, just saying thats all )

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by foaly

quote:

---

Originally posted by Willz

quote:

---

Originally posted by riahc4
Intresting skin concept. I like it.

You just need to add 9.0 compatibility. Its been a long time since a new build hasnt been released so you dont have to worry about a update.

Now watch you make this 9.0 compatibile and MS releases a new version of 9.0

---

I don't need to do anything when it comes to 9, if a new build hasn't been released in a long time then that means that the next build that does get released will be something thats drastically different than the previous (on the inside)

Besides 9 has too many random problems when it comes to skinning it as I've said a couple hundred times already.

There is no reason to document and create like I did with 8.5 for Open Live since its going to go down the drain soon enough. So yeah I do not want to hear anything about wlm 9.

not final = not worth it (and no I'm not angry cos someone mentioned 9, just saying thats all )

---

Wouldn't blame you if you where, you spend a lot of time just to help other people and then someone tells you that you didn't work hard enough. I know it would piss me off

nice work btw

---

sound like

Is there anything I must do before editing certain images..? When I edit the Toolbar Icons and Window Icons there a no changes.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Phillip
Is there anything I must do before editing certain images..? When I edit the Toolbar Icons and Window Icons there a no changes.

---

Any chance of just throwing up the new version here for now..? I'm eager on finishing my skin =]

Cheers <3

Open Live 1.1.0C

Ok here is a temporary download until Menthix gets the page updated.

EDIT: new 1.1.0 up temporarily. This minor build fixes the Spanish language being randomly not loaded. Thanks felipEx.

Maybe If you could create a shaped version of Open Live. Or a guide explaining how to create shaped skins. The documentation doesn't explain this so clearly and so there are only 3 shaped skins, including you Batman one. It would be very good for skinning if it was easier to create shaped skins.

Willz I'm still getting issues with the 9.0 port I'm making, It's just not liking it at all.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Basilis
Maybe If you could create a shaped version of Open Live. Or a guide explaining how to create shaped skins. The documentation doesn't explain this so clearly and so there are only 3 shaped skins, including you Batman one. It would be very good for skinning if it was easier to create shaped skins.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by aNILEator
Willz I'm still getting issues with the 9.0 port I'm making, It's just not liking it at all.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Willz
thats the reason why I did not bother with 9

---

Ok man. I tried and worked something out. The only thing I cannot understand is one. Can you add parts in the window so that you can leave a straight line between the top and the bottom and just add parts in the 4 corners?

Willz, I've got 2 suggestions:

1) Align all the gleams...I find it annoying when the buddies dont line up

2) Fix the contact list .ico thing...its all like bordered with black pixels... And I'm sure Willz can do something of higher quality than that .ico

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nagamasa
Willz, I've got 2 suggestions:

1) Align all the gleams...I find it annoying when the buddies dont line up

2) Fix the contact list .ico thing...its all like bordered with black pixels... And I'm sure Willz can do something of higher quality than that .ico

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Willz

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nagamasa
Willz, I've got 2 suggestions:

1) Align all the gleams...I find it annoying when the buddies dont line up

2) Fix the contact list .ico thing...its all like bordered with black pixels... And I'm sure Willz can do something of higher quality than that .ico

---

1: screenshot please.

2: I used the default .ico that come with WLM so it isn't up to me to make them look good, its up to you guys. I can't do all the work for you

---