jon_joy_1999

12th September 2002 21:47 UTC

Vis overlay
you know how Avs has an overlay mode so you can have avs on your desktop. sometimes you want a picture on the desktop too, but currently it can't be without it being ugly. What I was thinking was there could be an overlay with something like transparency. so say the overlay color was black (0,0,0) so 0,0,0 (makes black) could be full overlay and 127,0,0(50% red) could be 50% overlay and 50% red, 127,127,127 (grey) could be 50% white & 50% overlay and 255,255,255 (white) could be 100% white and 0% overlay.
this is a complex idea and it is hard for me to put into words. if any one has ideas input them (or you can pm me)

UnConeD

12th September 2002 21:52 UTC

Doesn't really work because the overlay mode is done in the final stages of the video card's processing pipeline. Considering the overlay's resolution usually doesn't match the screen res, it wouldn't work at all.

jon_joy_1999

12th September 2002 21:56 UTC

with my idea I don't think that the res matters. and why would having the overlay processing be near the end of the video processing not make it work (actually I thought overlay was done by software)

<edit>whoops!</edit>

UnConeD

12th September 2002 22:28 UTC

Nope, overlay is as hardware as can be. Just think about it:

You have 1024x768 resolution, where all the pixels in a certain colour are being replaced by an interpolated 320x240 image.

Sound *very* hardware to me, and it is. That's why the image lags around when you move media player on the screen: the image in the buffer is already updated, but the video card is still displaying it at the old location.

Oh and I refuse to vote on polls where the only options are "Sucks dik" or "rocks @$$". Surely you can put those other braincells to use too?

jon_joy_1999

12th September 2002 22:38 UTC

I thought about it and I can see that it is done with hardware. I just thought that it was done by software (like winamp). but I now remember seeing in my computer's hardware statistics that my motherboard supports overlaying. kool. I guess I thought that software applications were unlimited in thier power. I now see that overlaying would have to be hardware because it would be to damn slow for the software do do it alone
that still doesnt answer my question. wait yes it does. you can't have what I suggested because the hardware doesn't support it.

I suppose that some day in the future, we will have advanced so far we won't need to advance any more in the critical applications for hardware and then we will start on fun things (like what I mentioned)
alright
peace

jheriko

15th September 2002 11:32 UTC

you could probably hash something together software-eise to transparently lay the image over your desktop but you would lose the ability to only draw where a certain colour was and it would probably be too slow to be useful. I'm thinking capture the avs frame, stretch it by relevant proportions (shame you wouldn't be able to mip map it or anything tho) and literally whack it over the desktop keeping it always drawn at the back (just above the desktop but below the application windows). But it's probably the least efficient way of doing it.

Zevensoft

15th September 2002 12:28 UTC

What I use to get 25% opacity on my desktop is to 'dither' a pattern of my overlay colour (r0 g15 b31) onto my actual desktop bitmap using PSP. This means that when using overlay mode, instead of setting the desktop to colour, it just overlays into 1 in every 4 pixels, giving the 'illusion' of transparency.

jheriko

15th September 2002 12:30 UTC

that is such a cool idea that i'm going to go and try that right now...

UnConeD

15th September 2002 20:46 UTC

Heh great idea :). By the way there's an easy way to create this fake transparency for arbitrary levels by using PSP's dissolve layer blend mode.

First, fill the background with the desired overlay color...

Then, add another layer which contains your background image. It can have transparencies and see-through areas. Now, the extra layer will blend with the overlay color which is not what we want, but if you use "dissolve" as layer blend mode, PSP will use this "poor man's transparency" instead!

It doesn't look perfect, but at high resolutions it's quite acceptable really.

jheriko

16th September 2002 04:39 UTC

i was planning on using a 2x2 bitmap as an alpha pattern for a fill, but I hadn't got round to it yet, I'll have to try that dissolve thing as well.