Well, basically mine too, I have all the legit licenses for the PA pluggies I'm using, but I have only the key'd versions installed.
Also, both versions are probably interesting for the members.

By def it's showing only res files, that's true, but you can switch to show all files at the bottom right. Standard Windows procedure.
Rest in PM.

 

I'd be very grateful if you'd tell me your findings too. Thanks in advance!

 

@4096 @No Avenger

Ok so far I only had time to do some back and forth testing with the "Purple Audio MC 77.dll". Already enough to bring some bad news, I'm afraid. And I encountered some strange things along the way.
Put short, it's not working with the legit .dll either.

My first thought why it's not working seemed obvious at first glance. The original legit .dll is certified/signed, and when modifying/resaving the .dll, the new version will lose the signature. So I was pretty sure this would be the reason why the plugin won't work anymore.



BUT:
I tested resaving without changing anything, initially for the purpose of ruling out what No Avenger mentioned (the thought that different file sizes could play a role). So I resaved this one and the new .dll still had the Digital Signature, just like the original.
But that .dll doesn't work either, and it's even worse and different like before. That version brutally crashes every plugin scanner, even hosts I tested with.

AND:
The thing with the missing Signature wouldn't explain why it's not working with the R2R release either. Because that R2R file doesn't have a Signature.



No Avenger provided the R2R files (thanks for that!) and I can't find a way to make it work with those either. But those are interesting and acting kind of awkwardly lol.
For instance, when I'm renaming the file from the screenshot "Purple Audio MC 77.R2R backup" to "Purple Audio MC 77.dll" and replace my original plugin with that one, it ends up being exactly the same as my legit version
Zero difference, no crashes or anything, everything's 1:1 to the original, even the current trial status I have for the MC77 is correct. Weird thing.
Some R2R magic live in action I guess

There would be other things worth mentioning, but the post is too long already. Bottom line is that it's not working.
So currently it doesn't look like there would be an (easy) way to make @4096's skins available for Windows. Might almost require to go into reversing territory, patching the .dll files and stuff like that. Most likely not something 4096 had in mind.

When I got time I'll do some more testing anyway (btw I already tried with other tools than ResourceHacker), definitely will give it a shot with the vst3 version, might be the case it's different with that one, fingers crossed.
So long.

 

Good job, interesting results, much appreciated.

 

Thank you so much for the work you've done! You really dug deep where I'm less well-versed. It's sad that there's no such an easy way to bring the skins to Windows as on Mac, which is very unfortunate.

PA skins don't work, so I hope my Waves skin pack will fit the need for good UI and won't disappoint! It will be 100% compatible with both platforms. It's still not exactly where I'd call it a fully finished bundle (I want to provide as much value as possible. I'm afraid of underdelivering), so I hope by 24-28th it will be out!

For now, I'd like to know if anyone has any recommendations/priorities? The plan is to eventually make every old plugin (from the ones made before I was born to something like H-Reverb) HiDPI compatible.

 

I'm sure this is a protection/licensing mechanism.
Everything's running through the PA Installation Manager, you need to login with your data and the computer gets an ID. Likely the .dll that installs will be marked with that data to get a unique ID, maybe in conjunction with the exact timestamp of creation. When a PA plugin is launched the data will be verified, and whenever there's something wrong with it the plugin won't work anymore.
I don't have proof for that, but it sounds logical and reasonable to me. And I mean, without mechanisms like that it would be possible (very drastically spoken) to copy the .dll to an usb-stick and run it from any other computer lol.

I still keep digging this, if only out of interest if there's a way to make it work. But even if there is some way, we're already in an area where you'd need to provide a 30 Minute "how to install" instructions video along with the skins
Guess you know what I mean, for a casual user it's probably just too much effort.

I was confident this would work, I created custom skins myself that way before. And until now it has always been the case: if you were able to extract the png/bitmap from the .dll, you could always bring them back without issues, too. But that's how it is, always something new.

I went all legit with audio stuff three years ago or so, also bought some Waves plugins. Shortly afterwards there was an issue with their licensing system, and those mofu's forced me to basically create my own dongle to make the plugins work again
Didn't take long and I threw all Waves plugins into separate folders (to prevent the plugins being scanned) and never ever used them again
Not a very valuable info for you, but I had to dump that little rant lol

 

I can make skins for windows version, can you send me the resources you made

 

That's an odd request, to be honest.
How would you be able to make those skins if you can't even figure out how to get those resources lol.
First post ever, hmmm....

May I ask how you would "make" the skins?

EDIT:
prove you can do it, use the two files I'm attaching

 

Last edited: Dec 3, 2023

@JiNian
Sorry if I was sounding a bit rude and distrustful. I just thought it's weird to ask for the resources, while they are lying right in front of you.
But it actually would be fantastic if you'd know how it could be done.

 

Icarus v1.6 currently comes free with ComputerMusicMagazine.
Skinning wasn't supported for v1, came with v2 I guess. But for fun I tried a very basic recolor test, same method as for the PA plugins. Seems no problem to do this with Icarus.



Just a damn' PA thing...

 

I came up with new skins for Windows version , but no go for this 4096 person I guess , but i dont care , I'll save it for my next kontakt build.

 

Would you mind being just a tiny bit clearer?

New skins for PA plugins?

Since you said:

Are you patching/recompiling the plugins?

What has Kontakt to do with this?
Maybe you're vkDani and planning to do a custom GUI for Kontakt or whatever. But how is this related to this topic here? NI isn't PA.

 

ueah , new skin for the plugin ( at the very first post he made to open this topic ) , "he said he didnt know how to create a skin set for windows version , so i went ahead and made them for him. But he showed no interest for them after i messaged him that i had created it.
So Im saying , thats kool because i'll just use this skin for some new kontakt build I creat for one of my efx I create in my rack.

Clear enough for ya or what !!??

 

Yo yo, calm down mate, all good. How can I know when you're talking riddles?

I'm generally interested in this, so I'm certainly curious how you were able to port this to Windows.
But I won't crawl on the floor for that info.

 

So both of you have been able to edit the GUI and the WiN plugin is still working? Care to share how you managed this?

 

I just created the GUI files , knobs , buttons , gui interface , ect ..... i created them from the ground up of my own doing.
I was just trying to help that 3096 person out so he could create the windows version was all. Ans so I got a bunch of guff about it ??

 

Ah, ok, appreciated but it looks like this isn't the real difficulty which is, you can't put it back into the WiN version because then it stops working.

 

so, you got them on the plugins... and got the plugins to work??