Shoutbox

Hi all,

I really need help with this, as it's annoying me to no end.  I've searched the forums and the web without success.

I work on a laptop with a small screen.  I like to view my contacts' display pictures alongside their conversation.  I DON'T like their display picture taking up half of my screen; stretching my chat window so that I have to hide the picture and resize it or every other window that opens will be that size.

Oversize display pictures can be used well, especially when they are only enlarged to fill the empty vertical space below the standard 96x96 display picture window, but many people abuse this, and the number of people doing so keeps growing.

Yes I can do the following:
1.  Tell the person to change their display picture size.  Most don't, as it 'works fine for everyone else' over larger screens.
2.  Disable viewing ALL display pictures, but I like them when they are 96x96, and doing so means I miss out on everyone who uses display pictures with consideration of the other person.
3.   Click the little arrow to hide their display picture (if it is on-screen and not pushed away by the display picture).  This is annoying to do over and over.

Why should I do all this?  It's their choice to put whatever display picture they want.  Fair enough.  However on my side I should have full control over what is shown.   It goes against every programming principal of control I've ever learnt!  The user should always have full control on there side.

By now you've probably guessed what I'm looking for - a plugin/setting that either:
1.  Limits the visible section of the display window to 96x96
2.  Scales the display picture to 96x96
3.  Another solution that preserves a display picture size of 96x96

I seriously hope something is out there.  With a bit of luck this is some sort of fad that people eventually get tired of.  I'm already tired of it.

Thanks for reading. 

Well this is probably the reason why Microsoft have made it in MSN Messenger 7 that it resizes all pictures. Unfortunately that is, because oversized pictures can be very good if they are not abused. There should be an option somewhere to turn it off, but it seems they are going to restrict everybody (well at least those without Stuffplug NG)

But yeah I don't know of any plugins to do this. You could try and find a copy of Messenger 7, although it is buggy right now (and illegal... i think)

Me and Anubis are trying to make a plugin to make every display pic (if you want to be) the default msn size. Tell me what you think, if we do make this there will be more features aswell as this.

I think that's a great idea - surely I'm not the only one who finds this annoying.

What other features are you thinking about implementing?  It'll be hard enough to resize the display picture before it gets displayed.

quote:

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Originally posted by Unknown...
surely I'm not the only one who finds this annoying.

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indeed, you are not alone...

in fact, the first time the oversized DP patch was introduced, I suggested to add a restriction on it as I knew it would lead to the situation it is now (people abusing it and MS who restricted it in their new messenger)....

Anyways,

quote:

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Originally posted by Attitude Extreme
if we do make this there will be more features aswell as this.

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The "only" options/features I could see are:


  +----------+----------+-------+
  | Settings | Advanced | About |
+-+----------+----------+-------+-------------------------------------+
|                                                                     |
|  (*) Convert all the display pictures to 96x96                      |
|  ( ) Convert the display pictures from contacts I select only       |
|                                                                     |
|  +--Contact selection--------------------------------------------+  |
|  |                                                               |  |
|  | +--My contact list--+                 +--Selected Contacts--+ |  |
|  | | other contacts    | [    Add ->   ] |                     | |  |
|  | | contactname 1     | [  <- Remove  ] |                     | |  |
|  | | contactname 2     |                 |                     | |  |
|  | | contactname 3     | [  Add All -> ] |                     | |  |
|  | | contactname 4     | [<- Remove All] |                     | |  |
|  | +-------------------+                 +---------------------+ |  |
|  |                                                               |  |
|  +---------------------------------------------------------------+  |
|                                                                     |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+



  +----------+----------+-------+
  | Settings | Advanced | About |
+-+----------+----------+-------+-------------------------------------+
|                                                                     |
|  +--Convertion method------------------+                            |
|  |                                     |                            |
|  | ( ) Convert by using pixel pesizing |                            |
|  | ( ) Convert by resampling           |                            |
|  |                                     |                            |
|  | (*) Convert by cropping             |                            |
|  |      +++                            |                            |
|  |      +++                            |                            |
|  |      +++                            |                            |
|  |                                     |                            |
|  +-------------------------------------+                            |
|                                                                     |
|  +--Background color-------------------+                            |
|  |                                     |                            |
|  | ( ) Solid color: [###]              |                            |
|  | (*) Transparent                     |                            |
|  |                                     |                            |
|  +-------------------------------------+                            |
|                                                                     |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+


Explaination:

1. The "contact selection" is indeed the same as the one used by Plus!. This also means that the frame is disabled and greyed out when you select "Convert all the display pictures to 96x96"
   
   
2. The "other contacts" are all other contacts who are not listed in your contactlist (eg: people on your reverse list).
   
   
3. "pixel resizing", "resampling" and "cropping" are the methods used to convert the DP back to 96x96.
   
   
4. "pixel resizing" and "resampling" will only convert DP's bigger then 96x96; smaller ones are not converted (AKA magnified), but simply centered in the new 96x96 DP. Also, the aspect ratio is kept as it is. (when you allow the aspect ratio to change too, it would make very ackward DP's which is not the purpose and thus also not usefull for this addon.)
   
   
5. "pixel resizing" is the easiest one to program, it will result in what you see when you resize an image in your browser; AKA no anti-aliasing.
   
   
6. "resampling" means resizing with anti-alias methods (like bilinear resampling, bicubic resampling, etc.) often used in paint programs. If you like you can make it so that you can even select the resample method with an added dropdown list.
   
   
7. When "cropping" is choosen, you can select which corner square (96x96 px) is used to crop the image: upper left, upper middle, upper right, middle left, center, middle right, lower left, lower middle, lower right.
   
   The blue in the example depicts the lower right corner.
   Blown up, the whole control looks something like this:
   +---+---+---+
   |   |   |   |
   +---+---+---+
   |   |   |   |
   +---+---*****
   |   |   *   *
   +---+---*****
   well, you know what I mean
   
   Of course some bits of the image can't be selected if the image is too big. But making a control where you can move the square freely around on the DP would be too much "freedom" and this is also rather useless as the position would be image specific and the contact may change the DP. Thus, only 9 positions, is more then enough "freedom" IMO...
   
   When the original DP is smaller then 96x96, selecting a different crop-square wouldn't make any difference in the result as each square is 96x96 pixels anyways. In this case the DP will be centered in a 96x96 square (with a background color surrounding the original DP).
   
   
8. "Background": In case the original DP is smaller then 96x96, the area around the DP needs to have a color. Or when the image is resized/resampled and the aspect ration wasn't 1:1, then there is also a blank space on the sides. The background color to fill that space can be selected here.

quote:

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Originally posted by Unknown...
It'll be hard enough to resize the display picture before it gets displayed.

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Indeed, this "plugin" (more like an addon for messenger, due the way it has to be made) wouldn't be easy to make at all; You need advanced programming knowledge for this: You need to intercept the DP and change it before it is saved in the cache of MSN Messenger. So this addon needs to deal with the protocol. Putting it in another way: you need to make a proxy also.

/sapplause Cookie.

I like that much. But now we need someone to do it. And since MSN Messenger willl have less users in the following months, it's not very practical to design something for it.

It would be interesting as part of SPNG (used locally AND remotely allows to see oversized DPs). Or as a complement for SPNG, although I'm not sure TB allows much hooking into SPNG, if not so, it should be really difficult.

quote:

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Originally posted by KeyStorm
It would be interesting as part of SPNG (used locally AND remotely allows to see oversized DPs). Or as a complement for SPNG, although I'm not sure TB allows much hooking into SPNG, if not so, it should be really difficult.

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It could (also) be made into SPNG (that's up to TB), but I rather see this as a seperate dedicated addon.

quote:

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Originally posted by TheBlasphemer

quote:

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Originally posted by Attitude Extreme
Me and Anubis are trying to make a plugin to make every display pic (if you want to be) the default msn size. Tell me what you think, if we do make this there will be more features aswell as this.

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HAHAHA!
ROFL!
Whatcha gonna make it in?! VB ?!!?

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tbh, this can be done in VB: A proxy? possible... Hooking messenger? possible... Intercepting/playing with the protocol? possible...

(eg: Messenger Discovery)

quote:

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Originally posted by TheBlasphemer
and who deleted my rofl post anyway ?

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quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
It could (also) be made into SPNG (that's up to TB), but I rather see this as a seperate dedicated addon.

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nah, the option should be available in spng itself

* Chrono looks at TheBlasphemer innocently

quote:

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Originally posted by TheBlasphemer
Would be a hell of a lot of a work for msn6, just get msn7 and disable oversized dps?

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MSN 7 ist legaly out yet so u shall do it!

(i just want to annoy u, dont worry )

quote:

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Originally posted by TheBlasphemer
Would be a hell of a lot of a work for msn6, just get msn7 and disable oversized dps?

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What if we want to have a tastefully oversized (or an undersized) dp.
But dont want to see huge ones.
There could be an option to be able to use them, and one to be able to see them