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However, you'll notice that NSFrameView implements a method called _shadowType, which returns a bit-mask; effectively, an integer between 0 and 31. Leopard uses subtly different shadowing effects depending whether the window is a utility window, a sheet, or a normal window, whether it is opaque, is the key window, and so on.

What if you want your app to really, er, stand out from the crowd? Do you remember some earlier betas of Leopard? One release had a much more forceful looking window shadow than currently used. If you want to experiment with this, sub-classing the window frame is, once again, the only way to travel. Take a look at the following code:

- (void) _setShadowParameters
{
        extern OSStatus CGSSetWindowShadowAndRimParameters (void * cid, int wid, 
                  float standardDeviation, float density, 
                  int offsetX, int offsetY, unsigned int flags);
        
        int stype;
        if ((stype = [self _shadowType]) != [self shadowState])
        {
                [self setShadowState: stype];
                CGSSetWindowShadowAndRimParameters ([NSApp contextID], 
                                           [_window windowNumber], 
                                           35.0, 0.75, 0, 28, 0);
        }
}

The _setShadowParameters method is called, as needed, to set the shadow parameters associated with the window. Normally, this method looks at the type of window and sets the appropriate type of shadow. Here, we've overridden that behaviour and used the undocumented GSSetWindowShadowAndRimParameters routine to give the window a much more imposing screen presence!

You'll find that it's possible to push the standardDeviation and density values quite a bit higher than I've done, but don't go mad or you'll get unpleasant boundary effects appearing. You have been warned!

As ever, you can download the demo application and source code here.®

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