Less of a "How-To" and more of a "How-Come?" in Developer Help

ID:159310
 
Apr 3 2009, 6:45 am (Edited on Apr 3 2009, 6:51 am)
How come the color transparency option on the skins makes the whole rest of the skin transparent. Is it really nessary for me to see my other windows?

Seeing as that makes no sense....
1.)Make a skin with a background image
2.)Make a output with a special color background
3.)Check the make transparent color in image with the same color you selected before
4.)Be amazed at the gaping hole in the middle of your skin.

Expected results? To just make the output invisible.
#1 Apr 3 2009, 7:25 am
I can't find the topic in question, but I do think this was brought up previously. It pretty much amounts to how the Win32 API handles transparency on controls, such that it's an all or nothing kind of affair in your case. So while it doesn't make programmatic sense in BYOND, it makes sense on the C++ front.
#2 Apr 3 2009, 7:27 am
In response to Stephen001 (#1)
Know any work arounds?
#3 Apr 3 2009, 7:33 am
In response to Tubutas (#2)
Based on Falacy's comments on the matter a while back, I don't think any decent ones have been devised.
#4 Apr 3 2009, 7:38 am
Tubutas wrote:
How come the color transparency option on the skins makes the whole rest of the skin transparent. Is it really nessary for me to see my other windows?

When transparent windows were first introduced in Windows 98, it was by creating a transparent color just like in a .gif image or a primitive .png--this was before widespread use of alpha transparency. The window is drawn on screen by ignoring that color throughout.

Expected results? To just make the output invisible.

Note the transparent color option belongs to the window, not the output, so there is no way that what you were attempting would have been specific to just the output control. I could see wanting the transparent color to only affect the background image of the window itself and not affect controls; Windows doesn't work that way, but it is at least a reasonable expectation.

As for making the control itself transparent, that's a subject that has come up many times before and has one simple answer: It can't be done. I don't know if the changes in Vista's paint model make transparent controls more feasible because I have yet to see working code around that idea, but essentially too many technical limitations make this impossible in XP or older systems. Windows sort of gets the concept that a control may need to be transparent, but it doesn't get that when that control updates its image it should trigger a repaint of that entire section of the window.

If anyone ever comes up with a method to handle transparent controls that works in dynamic environments, I'll be all over it. The fact that many talented programmers have tried and failed speaks volumes, though. Statistically speaking, someone should have figured it out by now if it was possible.

Lummox JR
#5 Apr 3 2009, 7:46 am
In response to Lummox JR (#4)
No its not possible in vista because paint only got crappier onto vista. How come the transparency doesn't effect the map then?