Workaround Option Request

[Alejandro Tejada]

on Tue Sep 9 14:37:01 2003
Scott Rossi wrote:

> I am dragging an image around on a card that is
> supposed to act as if it is illuminating an image 
>on a lower layer (a flashlight).

I've seen this effect in Director, but when
I try to replicate it in this platform, arise
the problem of cross platform differences with
the Ink effects.

>The biggest problem I've run into is drag 
>performance with translucent objects.

Does this happen even with the Alwaysbuffer set
to true?
Maintaining the fuzzy edges could be another
real problem.
There is stack in the Runrev users contributions
area that shows how to use a small graphic inside
an image to show parts of a large image.
Like the pane windows of Photoshop.

Maybe two stacks could do the same effect... 

>I've tried using a large PNG image that has a small
>transparent spot in the middle: dragging response is 
>OK, but not good.  I've tried using a small PNG
>and bordering the PNG with a draw graphic that 
>has a blend ink effect applied (this dynamically 
>resizes in relation to the location of the PNG),
>but the blend ink effect is Mac only.

Could you resize images in this way too?

>I doubt dynamically changing the alphaData of a 
>large PNG would be fast enough to keep up with the
>mouseLoc...

That could be an interesting sight. ;-)

>Ideally I (we) need to be able to apply the
blendLevel
>to draw graphics but since the Rev folks 
>probably won't get to this any time soon,

That probably will require to deal with the
bitmap representation of vector graphics on
the screen. Maybe SVG and Flash engines could
provide to the RunRev team inspiration for 
this task.

>Has anyone found a creative way to build an 
>irregularly shaped translucent object?

Some time ago, I try to create a polygon
graphic in a hidden (or out of sight) stack
(this works), then take the imagedata of the
windows of this hidden stack to create an image,
(this works too), (see Ken Ray site) but when 
I try to set the transparency of the newly 
created image all I get is a crash.

I left it for a while. If this method will work
someday, then It could be possible to have infinite
shapes for our stacks, because the vector polygon data

is small compared to the bitmaps of images.

Alejandro


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