Consider it acknowleged.

Actually, JCrabbit, this in on a quad core 6600 with nvidia 295 graphics under Vista 64 with 8 gb of RAM...so I definitely shouldn't be seeing chunkiness and slowdowns when I'm just adding more shortcuts to a single dock, hahahaha.

No, indeed you shouldn't, Excalpius.

One of my XP testing systems is a very old PIII at 500 Mhz with 384 MB of RAM, and although Nexus doesn't beat any speed records on it, it is still perfectly usable. In fact, my Win9x testing system is an even more ancient (ok, decrepit) PII at 300 Mhz with 128 MB of RAM (of course, since layered windows are not supported under Win9x, there is no magnify animation, which kind of helps ).

So, the question is: how many dock items are we talking about here? What's the icon size? What special effects (icon reflections, dock background glass blur, animations, etc...) are enabled? What dock background are you using? Does it have overlays? Does it restrict icon reflections to the background like the Winstep K-TEK4D dock themes do?

If you turn on all the effects at once, even a Quad Core will eventually start struggling - but that would happen to any dock that features as many special effects and features as Nexus does.

Ah, I didn't realize you are the developer, yes?  Okay, useful notes.

I had installed the full WinStep and as I mentioned the preferences interface was a nightmare to navigate.  Eventually I figured it out but found the dock was "steppy" in its animation once I got it 1/2 configured.  Never finished configuring it because of that. 

But I saw this new standalone dock release, so I installed that on top of WinStep and it seems to work fine.  The new GUI is great, btw.

So, I've got about 10 items on the dock.  Six are "gadgets" for CPU, Net In (Net Out btw always returns the same values as Net In so methinks that is broken somewhere hehe), clock, start menu, recycle bin, and weather.

The other five are standard folder or application shortcuts.  This represents 1/2 of the icons on have on the same Object Dock Plus zoomer on my main monitor, #2 of 3.  Nexus is running on my primary monitor, #1.  This allows me an apples to apples comparison. 

But even with twice as many icons (and four more docks hidden around), the OD+ zoomer is buttery smooth animation-wise, and the Nexus dock is starting to step a bit as I move the mouse through them.  It's subtle but there.  I know if I add more, it'll slow down more.

Both have semi-transparent backgrounds (Leopard default, 20% transparent in Nexus).  The only difference is that Nexus has 50% reflections, which is indeed the main reason I am testing it...and behavior under Vista 64.  

I also have "Apply transparency to dock background only (icons remain opaque)" ON/Checked because the Leopard dock is still a bit too solid for my liking by default.

NOTE:  I've done some testing to narrow this down.  It appears to be linked to the Unmagnify that occurs when the mouse moves off the dock back into the main window area.  Sliding the mouse through the dock objects doesn't step at all...it's baby smooth.  I've tried different desktop backgrounds (still, color, deskscape dream) and it makes no difference.  When the mouse moves off the dock, it shrinks back down kinda choppy...as if it is fighting something that it doesn't have to when the mouse is hovering over it.

I hope these notes help.  Thanks for being here and supporting your product.  8)

Yes, the Net Out meter was 'broken' in the first public beta of Nexus.  Fixed now for the next release though.

Ah! That is actually very useful information. Unlike what happens when mousing over the dock, the magnify/unmagnify animation uses a high-resolution multimedia timer, the resolution of which is hardware dependent. That's what might be causing a problem, and I have a pretty good idea on how to solve it.

Oh yes, they did help a lot thank you. Wanna beta test for Winstep?

And my apologies to Stardock for 'stealing' their thread.

I realize I'm the one who started this when I defended Winstep on my original reply to Excalpius, but it's not 'good manners' to talk about Nexus on an ObjectDock thread. I probably wouldn't like it much either if Jeff came barging into a Winstep thread and turned it into an ObjectDock discussion.

So, lets move any further posts about Nexus into another thread, ok?

Once again, my sincere apologies to Stardock and Jeff.

Yes, of course I'd like to help out any way I can, beta testing included.

And, agreed, I had forgotten this was an OD2+ thread myself.  Sorry, mates!  8)

Please private message me when you get the chance.  Peace.  

Any news on beta availability?

You have to hand it to Stardock for trying to be like Apple.

'Cause of the reflection?  Or something else?

Of course.

And why shouldn't they??  MS wants to be like Apple: Linux wants to be like Apple: IBM wants to be like Apple, and Sun Systems Solaris wants to be like Apple (according to Apple), so why should Stardock miss out on a baseless Apple accusation that'd bring 'em great publicity... more people coming to check out its version of AppjectDock.

I would rather just get a Mac.

Nooooooooo!

What's with all the PC/Stardock product bashing that's been going on lately?

Not from me.

No, not from you.. Linux/Apple fanboi.

I mean, Apple/Linux fanbois wouldn't do a thing like that, now would they?