It would be cool if there was another dialog option to set transparency, contrast, hue, and brightness on channel image and other window backgrounds

Is that really needed? How often would someone use that? I know I wouldn't. I like the way mIRC looks now.

You would need a very ballsy computer for that to work without slowing down the GUI.

How about instead of making mIRC do the manipulation, you set all that information using an image editor, save the file, then load it as the background. The only time I could ever see it being used is when the bg is set, meaning once it is set there should be no reason to change it. Therefore you should just make the image file contain the necessary adjustments.

Hehe, it is a cute idea though. Imagine setting a red hue over the channel when there's a fight in progress and the atmosphere is tense... and a progressively darker blue hue as people start falling asleep and the channel becomes idle.

Though, that's all the idea will ever be... cute. Still sucks :P

- Raccoon

Well you could still do something like that if you really wanted, again, image editor.

bg.bmp
bg.red-light.bmp
bg.red-dark.bmp
bg.blue-light.bmp
bg.blue-dark.bmp