Mids' Wineskin Wrapper Built

Auch! Sounds like a web programmer or someone with very little experience in UI building. I haven't done a UI like that since TurboPascal 6.0 arrived in 1990.
I'm saying it mostly works in the WineWrapper as is. With your description I'm thinking it might still be possible to track down what's causing the behaviour on Mac and fix it. I'm not saying you should rewrite the entire code, it works on Windows and nearly works on Mac, except for this one thing.

If the whole UI is basically a stack of bitmaps, with a mouse map to determine where the mouse is, then I can think of three things causing what I see on the Mac:
1) The stacking order going wrong, so that the invisible elements end up behind the background image. It might be that when it's done it does a final redraw of the background image, and Wine has misinterpreted the stacking order.
2) Transparency. The invisible elements are somehow set to transparent, or there is something in front of them that should be transparent but isn't.
3) A draw/paint function isn't properly executed for these specific elements.

I'm not sure we can solve this, but maybe one of these rings a bell with you, if you're familiar with how the UI code works? Is it using transparency somewhere, is it drawing things on top of each other to hide/show things?

I can understand that it's really hard to track down an issue like this, especially if you don't have a system to test and reproduce the issue on.

But largely the UI works. All the hard stuff, like the interaction with the mouse, pop-up menus and such those are fully functional. Just one UI element isn't drawn properly when the bitmap is constructed.

Providing the files in a .zip would make updating the WineWrapper simpler, as it would just be:
1) Delete files at location (might even be optional)
2) unzip this file at that location.

That is, unless the registry keys do something important?

I've heard mixed results with people relying on Mono. The only two ways that I've had good success in making cross-platform programs, is with Java, but then it's a pain to make it look decent, or with C++ with Qt. In both cases using Eclipse as the IDE. Once you get into it, Qt is very nice, although I've heard WPF is slightly easier.

If you'd offer some minimal support for the WineWrapper, that would do the trick as well. It's basically now Paragon supports Mac, the Mac client just runs in a custom WineWrapper, just like what U_Dark made. Their support consist of making sure it works.

I'm not asking to open source the code if it's not. I'm bascially asking, that if I'd get access to VS 2010, I could become a temporary "Mids developer", so I could have a look at the code and could see if I can find what the problem with the Mac version is.
I don't have recent Visual Studio experience, last time I worked with it was in 2003. But where I work we make a lot of software, and I should be able to get access to a licensed version fairly easily.

This was Mids' first application, and he was using it to teach himself stuff and never expected it to be used beyond a circle of friends... He winces when he thinks about it now, but it's what we've got. St0n3y was in the middle of making a new UI layer for it, but didn't get far enough for me to use it. I've been focusing on refactoring the database and business layers, and don't intend to get to the UI until after.

We've had similar issues with black squares from overwriting images before, especially in the mouseover texts. The power selection controls are all the same control, so that at least narrows down the codebase. Sadly, the solution to the earlier problems was "Paint and Refresh a few times randomly until it works" - a solution I really don't like.

This is my biggest restraint.

I'm pretty sure it's just file association and registering it in the Control Panel.

It's going to be an experiment. Maybe it'll work, maybe not, but along the way, I'll be refactoring most of the code into more efficient and more logical object oriented system, and finally build the Mids DLLs I want.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't hop on board the Titan team for a temporary period to assist in Mids development.

I think that's what I mean by tweaking. It sounds very similar to the Mac issue and probably that needs a similar "solution".
I'll see if I can get access to VS 2010 then.

If the money isn't there for it, take a look here:

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudi...itions/express

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

I get a '502 bad gateway' error message on that page. Do we need a password or something?

Just to see what I'd get, using Firefox 11 I get the following message when I click that link.

Of course, I don't have a Mac but I'm sure the message isn't OS dependent.

after a whole lot of DUHHHHHH it occurred to me this happened because ironyeti likely used a free temporary registration on the filedropper site... they only last for 7 days.

the i22 version from that link is slightly out of date now anyway -- another update just came out including Staff Fighting and fixing some ATO stuff. so far i personally have not been able to get RogerWilco's update method to work for me, but i'm probably doing something wrong.

if anyone is having success updating correctly, and willing to put it up on another temporary registration, that would be great.

i thought about at least putting the version i have up into my public dropbox... but it has to be moved up and down one file at a time that way, which sucks.

netphenix pointed out that wetransfer doesn't require any registration and is also capable of moving the app as a complete package. however, the delivery system does require an e-mail address to complete, so that solution depends how comfortable you are sharing that information with someone here.

Why not just zip it and post the zip as U Dark did? Then it's only one file to upload.

I didn't get around to making any tweaks to the UI code yet, and no word from RogerWilco. Without a mac, I'd only be making stabs in the dark.

I've been really busy with a deadline at work so I had no time to visit the forums or play the last couple of weeks.

I've zipped and uploaded my current Mid's, with the glitches, but with the ATOs update applied:

http://www.filefactory.com/file/1udv...signer_app_zip 200 MB!!

If you open it, it might actually contain a character build. I don't seem to be able to print either, but I'm not sure if that worked before as I never tried it.

I'm still planning to have a look at the graphics glitches, if I can get access to Visual Studio 2010. But my job comes first, as it pays for my subscription. ;-)

Edit: I just read the rest of the thread, and I probably need to apply the update for Staff Fighting. I will make another upload when I've done that.

PropertyListEditor comes with OSX for me. It might be part of Xcode or another optional package.

The wineskin did print until about a week or week-and-half ago. There was a few security updates from Apple and after that the program crashes when you try to print.

At least that seems to be the case for me. Those Apple updates are the only thing I can attribute to the change, as it was the only change to my computer in at least a month or more (outside of deleting user created files and such). If memory serves one of the updates was very specific to Java. Could that cause some issues with accessing the printer settings and causing a crash?

You're the best. Anyone who is doing this is.
Hoping the graphics issue can be fixed soon... if not, I mean, what's it really going to hurt?

Property List Editor does indeed come with Xcode.

Have people tested this? Does it work for you?

Should I wait before you update it to Mids 1.956 before I stick this up on the planner website?

I do remember they made some security updates to Java because of the Flashback Trojan. It was all over the news as the first time a significant number of Macs got infected by malware.

I'd find it odd that a Java update would have this effect. It could be something in the Wineskin wrapper.