Evolve v1.5.5 Important Bug Fixes and Features! (Patreon)

Edit - Oct 3, 2024

This post now has v1.6.1 attached below specifically exported for Patreon Members.

Notable Bug Fixes:

• Adaptive Colours: The Adaptive Colours feature now consistently updates the app’s appearance after generating a theme. While this has improved stability, additional refinements are still planned to make this even smoother in future updates.

• Online Wallpapers: Evolve now automatically generates a GTK theme based on any online wallpaper you apply, provided that the "Adaptive Colours" feature is enabled. This ensures that your system theme remains cohesive with your wallpaper, offering a more seamless visual experience.

• User Themes Shell Extension: The expired link for the User Themes Shell Extension screenshot on the Shell Extensions Store has been updated, resolving an issue where a fallback image would appear instead.

• Search and Text Boxes: 

  

  A visual issue that disrupted the correct appearance of search and text boxes after introducing the new search box has been resolved. Both now display as intended, improving the overall visual consistency of the UI.

• Online Wallpaper Preview:

  

  The transition from a blurred low-quality preview to a sharp, high-quality wallpaper is now smooth and glitch-free. This resolves the issue where users sometimes experienced a jarring switch between preview and final wallpaper.

• Config Applicator: Previously, if a required extension was unavailable (common among configs exported on Ubuntu), the Config Applicator would exit abruptly. Now, instead of crashing, Evolve will display a message in the terminal that the requested extension isn't available.

• Window Buttons Layout: The layout issue with window buttons—where incorrect arrangements appeared when not all buttons were enabled—has been fixed, ensuring that all window buttons display correctly based on user settings. This isn't perfect yet. Window decorations are handled by Evolve since Flutter still uses the gtk3 window decoration. I am exploring all the opportunities to solve this issue but this isn't a priority.

New Features:

• Shell Theme Setup:

  

   A new "Shell Theme" option has been introduced to the first launch page. Evolve now checks whether the User Themes Shell Extension is installed and, if not, provides the option to install it directly within the app. This makes sure the user can change and apply third party shell themes from Evolve.

• Command Update for Adaptive Colours: The deprecated "convert" command, used for generating Adaptive Colours, has been replaced with the more modern "magick" command. If "magick" is unavailable, the app will gracefully fall back to the "convert" command to ensure compatibility across systems.

This update focuses on improving stability, enhancing visual look, and adding new user-friendly features to Evolve. I’m confident these changes will make your experience with the app even better!

A release page for v1.6 will be created soon as we gear towards a public release. A feature tour video for v1.6 is ready btw!