Adding effects not listed under "effects" section to existing dreams

from WinCustomize Forums

I was wondering, is it possible to edit dreams other people made (like the ones I get off of WinCustomize.com) so I could change or add an effect? I wanted to have certain scenes (like ocean, lighthouse, spooky old graveyard, etc.) have like a foggy effect, but I'm not sure how to do that. I think maybe it'd be great if Stardock would add that to the effects section, but it's not in there yet. :( Also, a lightning effect may be cool for certain dreams as well (like the types I mentioned), especially some of the Halloween or storm themed dreams. Again, no such effect exists under the effects section yet. :( I think I recall seeing something like that when I was making a St. Patrick's Day themed dream once & scrolling through the effects, but I forgot where I saw that effect. X| This might be kind of a trivial question, but maybe some other people had a similar idea too, not certain. Just curious... |-)

deskscapes
7,989 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
I have forward your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

After I posted I came across this post: https://forums.stardock.com/343508/editing-a-dream The 1 poster called "Littleboy" did explain how to do that, but when I looked in the Extracted Data folder, I noticed all my video files from the dreams I have used are in AVI format. Would what "Littleboy" posted still work, even though the video isn't in MPEG or WMV format?? According to that post, I assume all I'd need is the video file & then make the modified dream from that, correct?? I'm not sure if I could edit the video file like "Littleboy" says... I'm not a pro or anything, I just do this stuff as a hobby for myself, so I don't wanna have to buy video editing software just to play around with dream files & stuff. (no complaints, just saying... :grin: ) Is it possible to just add the video file to a new dream, add the effects I want, then save it as a new dream file instead of editing the video file?? I don't think any of the dreams I have are dynamic like they mentioned, as they just have a video file & a "cache" file in the folders. They're all whatever I see on WinCustomize.com that don't cost extra $$, so none of them are protected or anything like that either. I get many of them from AzDude & Cyberslober, but sometimes from other artists. Maye I didn't have to mention that, but I wanted to cover the important stuff that they mentioned about in that post... :grin:  

 

P.S. While I'm thinking of it, I have 1 dream that's a triggered dream & changes the video every 6 hours. I'd like to change the video every 15 minutes instead. I edited the XML file (in Notepad) & just changed the numeric values in the hours to 0 & the seconds to 15, 30, 45 & 0, but it only shows 1 video & never changes it to another. I only used the seconds to see if it would work – I'll put those values in the minutes instead once I get it to work... but that seems to be a more of a challenge than I thought. What did I do wrong & how do I fix it?? Thanks... :grin:  

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Hello,

As far as adding other effects no , maybe in future updates the Dev's might add more 

but for now that's it .

Some of those other dreams your referring to they are very old dreams that were made

with older Mpeg formats , some of those videos in them were updated to work with the

newer formats and play well with DS11 . 

There's no info available as how to make changes your asking for and probably not possible 

to make any changes to them anyway .

 

Now with the DS11 it includes an updated version of Dream Make ( Dream Maker Pro )

and with Dream Maker Pro you can make the type of dreams you seem to want .

Lightning , Oceans etc. can be made with it and then with a video editing program you

can add all the sound effects you want to enhance them to your liking ,

So I would recommend taking some time to get to know and learn using Dream Maker Pro 

and see what you can come up with , if you have questions about it I can help you with it .

 

If you want to take the time to search through some of my dream ( 4500 of them ) you'll

probably find many that you like , there are oceans graveyards lightning etc , some with

sound effects ...

 

Also as far as making changes to say any of my dreams there are no files available for

you to do that in any of the folders , you would have to make changes to the actual video

in a editing program , which wouldn't be wise . That's why I say try dream maker pro .

As far as say ( My ) dreams them being protected , if only for your own personal use then yes 

you can play with them but not for upload to the site then you would need the authors permission. 

 

Todays standard format for dreams is now MP4 , AVI , WMV ( but WMV runs higher CPU usage ).

 


AzDude
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Hmm, okay thanks. I'll keep all that in mind... :grin:   I did play around with Dream Maker Pro a little bit once before, but yeah if I get stuck, I can poke around the forums or let my question in a post on here if it's not already answered.

Yeah, I did notice that some of those themes were pretty old, yet they still work (at least the ones I tried) on DS11. I only encountered a few from WinCustomize that just didn't work for some reason, but most of the dreams work just fine. :congrat:

Um, I wasn't planning to upload anything... I would just use the modified dream for my own personal use. I recall making an animated dream once from a pic I got on the web... I forget where (I Googled it) & it doesn't seem to be copyrighted, but someone else made the image, I just animated it. I never uploaded it cause I wasn't sure about that part... so yeah, I wouldn't just upload stuff without permission from whoever made it... B)

Thanks for the info, it was most helpful... :congrat:  :grin: