Couple a months ago I had plans for creating new Starscape theme from scratch, with much more features than current Starscape has. But for the past few months I have less free time and much more work, so most of the plans are now abandoned. Most of my free time now goes into GD Star Rating plugin.

But, a week or so ago, I have decided to continue working on Starscape. This will not include completly new theme, but rather cleaned up and partially rewritten version of the current version. This work will end up in releasing Starscape 2.0 in the next few months. Also, if time permits I will also work on two more themes called Starscape 3 and xScape.

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Finally, new version of theme is ready. Some of the new features still need some work, and this should be done for the next and last edition of current Starscape. I will post new article by the end of the week with announcement of Startscape II theme.

This edition features new rendering engine called Nova. This will make significant change in the way blog looks. It’s very customizable and is not as limited as classic was. Control panel is also changed to reflect adding of new rendering engine.

Beside this, some new modules have been added: new posts navigation, comments and trackback displaying. Typography is updated, and all the errors from the previous version are hopefully fixed. Also, a lot of other things are fixed with this version including the probelms with the classic theme in 1024×768 monitor resolutions. User guide is also updated.

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This blog will be updated to new Starscape version in a day or two because I am working on new graphics and I still need some time to finish it. Current version has few background images for a Nova engine, and even more will be included in the next edition Draco that will be ready in the next two weeks.

I hope you like the way the Starscape development is going.

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Well, the work on new Starscape engine takes more time then anticipated. I was ill for a few days, unable to work, but now things are getting together. Nova engine turns to be more complicated to create, but much simpler then default classic Starscape engine.

As you can see, there are no boundaries left or right, and the layout can be with fixed width or fluid. Even more width of every element (header, main menu, center, footer) can be adjusted separately. Each element can have independent background color or background picture. There are much more Nova features in the works, so be patient, I think it will be worth waiting.

Also, there are a lot of other overall changes and new features, and most important fixes.

Official release date for Starscape 1.3.0 Cygnus is 4.july 2008.