Last few weeks I was working on some new features for Starscape Cygnus edition, and I have started compiling the list of features I would like to transfer to Starscape II and also a list of new features. Some of the current Starscape things is still in the rough phase, and I don’t expect to polish all of them, not until Starscape II is in development. This is especially the case with Nova rendering engine that has much more potential then the current version you can see in Cygnus edition.

I will start working on Starscape II in august, and I expect to see first public version in september. There will be a test blog available during development period, and I will upload new version of theme at least once a week.

So, if you are interested to read more on Startscape II features, then read on.

First of all, theme rendering will be modified version of current Nova engine from Starscape. But, this new engine will have a lot more customization features, and it would be easier to change anything you want. The idea of having all customizations done through control panel will be expanded to include even more options and features.

Control Panel

New control panel will be split into 3 pages (at least):

• Page One: General theme settings, including the active modules, upgrade, configuration manipulation…
• Page Two: Templates and elements placement on the page
• Page Three: Typography settings including used fonts and colors

Templates

I will work on creating templates with modular structure. You could modify each template to include sidebars, features article, banners or category module. Theme will have different types of this small building blocks or modules that you can work with. Idea is for user to be able to use Wordpress as a CMS and to do so completly through control panel.

Typography

You can set fonts used by the theme, font sizes and colors to match theme overall design. For colors, I will add color picker.

Banner managment

This will be availabe later, not in the first versions of StarscapeII. New page will be added into Wordpress Settings and it will help integrate banners with theme without any coding and changin the theme files.

xScape

xScape will be another theme that will partly have StarscapeII in the backgound, but it will be simpler with less customization options. Design of this theme is not going to be as free as StarscapeII, but it will still have a lot of custumization potential.

More info on StarscapeII progress will be available in the next two months until the first version will be available to public. I will post info as soon as I have something done, and StarscapeII pages will be also updated with development screenshots.

So stay tuned…