Announcing a new look for SMF 2.0: Curve

[Antechinus]

looks like some really nice eliments in this but something i think that seriously lets down the default theme that could really be improved on is the recent posts section of the info center which in my view is appauling..... its all bunched up together and not easily defineable, everything about themes is structured, divided, sectioned, in columns etc yet the info center isnt

a suggestion as an improvement is to have nice columned recent posts like this



and possibly have a scroll bar so that for example 100 recent posts can be shown in a small space rather than either showing either just a small amount of recent posts or having the recent posts taking up more space than your actual forum cats & boards do

Hmmm. I have to admit that I always change the standard info centre whenever I do a custom theme so I'll raise this point in the top-secret sneaky Curve forum (just teasing y'all).

One thing you do have to watch though is that the recent posts listing can actually put quite a load on your server because it relies on running a lot of database queries. If you have a very active site and want 100 recent posts listed and don't have a lot of headroom on your server then you could get severe performance problems.

Bearing in mind that (ahem) all recent posts are actually available on the forum itself    having a hundred of them stacked up at the bottom of your screen is of dubious value.

I agree though that the general layout of the info centre could and should be cleaned up a bit. Everything else is being updated and the poor old info centre seems to get forgotten sometimes.

[bullbreedluverz]

lol the 100 was just a random figure

not changing it would be like painting a wall 3/4 of the way down then leaving the bottom 1/4 the same old brown stained colour from nicotine lol

[Antechinus]

You have a way with words, old son. My current position requires phrasing things somewhat more diplomatically.

ETA: Since half the team are going at it hammer and tongs anyway I think I'll just hack the info centre into what I think looks good and see what the powers that be think of it.

[Paracelsus]

Great new look!

From the thumbnails it looks more modern and harmonic and it keeps the most important part of all: you don't get tired of looking at it over and over again (I really can't say the same about phpBB3 default theme - it gets boring and irritating after a couple of hours).

[bullbreedluverz]

i thought i was being quite elliquant with the use of a metaphore 

[X3mE]

It looks great!

[ethankcvds]

Ya! Well I know it will definitely be a nice improvement to SMF 2.0, and it will be worth the wait for RC 2. Like my one favorite musician said "If it's planned it's boring" so don't start asking when SMF 2.0 RC 2 is going to be released.

[hefesto]

You guys are so cruel! "You can see it, but you can't touch it" I thought my hunger for more would disappear for a while after RC1 was released, but now... God I can't wait to get that new fashioned theme!

Great work.

[ascaland]

That looks so cool! Now its ok to use the defualt theme. xD
By the way, would it be possible creating a theme like this for 1.1.x versions?

[_Anthony_]

Holy ******! That's looks amazing, I've never seen a theme so nicely designed. Now I can't wait till 2.0 final comes out!

[Nibogo]

Sweet!

Really nice Bloc

[I JaR oF JaM I]

Most excellent!   Looking forward to this!

[Me313]

very good..

[Sverre]

Congratulations!

No matter how nice it may look, it's impossible to judge a book by its cover, so any substantial evaluation will have to wait until RC2 is released and we - or more specifically, gurus like deathshadow (unless he's already been enlisted to help polish Curve's code that is) - get a chance to play around with the new theme and see what's hidden underneath the hood, so to speak

Judging by the screen shots, it seems like Curve will bring a much needed fresh look to SMF though. The skin appears to introduce some very nice details and ideas, which I can hardly wait to see in action, but I also see a few things I don't like quite as much - such as the images in the drop down menus for example. If people want unnecessary images to interfere with their forum navigation, I don't see why it can't be left to be added by a MOD instead of cluttering up an otherwise (seemingly) pretty sleek looking default theme???

Obviously, this is still a work in progress, so the following comments, thoughts and suggestions may have already been addressed/discussed.

• In the screen shots, there is an inconsistency in the use of rounded and square corners between different templates (i.e. the "containers" wrapping each board on Board Index have square corners, same goes for topics on Message Index and the sections of the Administration Center, while posts and information boxes in Display and Profile Information respectively have rounded corners).
• The "Administration Center" heading uses a light blue background gradient, while other similar headings, such as the "Summary" heading from Profile Information uses the common dark blue gradient.
• Because of the different background colour, locked topics attract too much attention compared to regular topics. Personally, I much prefer the visual distinction used to signal locked topics in the theme currently used here (grey text).
• I've never been a fan of the styling of the "quote", "modify", etc. links in posts, with the superfluous images accompanying them. Maybe it could be an idea to use the same/a similar styling to what's used on the mod_buttons array?

I'm very glad to hear that the Bablon and Classic themes have been dropped from the installation package by the way!

[Bancherd]

    Nice, Thanks! 

[SleePy]

Sverre,

Thanks for the notes. Please do remember this is a work in progress and things are subject to change.

[yashmaf]

Looks great, bloc and team. Definitely an improvement over Core.
Can't wait to test it out. Keep up the hard work

[TurkmenKing]

Awesome !!!


Good Luck with this nice project !!

[cenourinha]

Well done, it looks great.

[Fustrate]

Win!

I was sent an image of it about a month ago, and didn't believe it. Once I saw the signature images, I knew it was the real deal

Amazing work, Bloc!