popup transparency Thread last updated on 2003-05-02 01:27:57

Posted by member 23979 on 2003-04-28 16:09:16

I would like to use popups with partly tranparent images so that I can define the background color of the popup/entry/selentry with a theme file / switch between different colors without recoloring all images.
Is there a module supporting this?

Posted by member 7 on 2003-04-29 01:49:05 link

You mean displaying background image and background color at the same time? I don't think it's possible right now. You can use | to put images ontop of each other though...
ModuleBackground generic.bmp|scheme.png

I'm not sure if the first or the second one ends up on top, try it and see. :P You can use the | trick as often as you want, ie. you could technically place 1000 images ontop of each other (as long as you have enough memory). =)

Posted by member 7223 on 2003-04-29 03:20:31 link

Why didn't I find this in the docs ?
...I guess it won't work with all modules

Posted by member 1 on 2003-04-29 03:27:48 link

| is covered in the docs in relation to folders in popup2 but there is no reason why it can't be covered elseware.

Posted by member 23979 on 2003-04-29 04:50:17 link

Thanks, that's nearly what I was looking for.

Is there a way I can tell Litestep the easy way to look in two(or more) directories for images?

Something like:
theme_color "blue"
ImagesDir "$ThemeDir$images\$theme_color$"|"$ThemeDir$images"


The purpose would be that it first looks in the "blue" directory for specific images and if not found then in the generic directory. This way one can easily change the theme color without rewriting code and can easily override generic images.

I know I could copy all generic images to each color directory, but it's redundant and if I have to change one I easily would forget to update the others ;-)

Posted by member 7 on 2003-04-29 06:50:47 link

I'm afraid you will have to use separate evars. If a full path is given LS will look there, only if no path or only a relative path is given it checks $LSImageFolder$. So you should be able to do something like
LSImageFolder "$ThemeDir$images\" ; generic images
Scheme "$LSImageFolder$$theme_color$\"

ModuleBackground generic.bmp|$scheme$module.png

Posted by member 1413 on 2003-04-30 10:53:16 link

Oooo this is almost as good as alpha blending..
Well ok, it's not, but it's a new toy to play with. :D

Posted by member 7 on 2003-05-01 07:41:25 link

Btw, if you use | you use any combination of PNGs, BMPs, and icons (with .extract); you're not limited to one format :p

Posted by member 186 on 2003-05-01 08:35:14 link

so does popup support using PNGs? i didn't think it did... but if it does it'd be cool

Posted by member 1413 on 2003-05-01 15:14:37 link

Not pngs with alpha blending unfortuently.. But the png format is still supported in nearly all ls modules. Right now the only module supporting alpha transparency is layercut.dll.(I could be wrong)

Posted by member 7 on 2003-05-01 15:21:49 link

Nearly all LS modules support PNGs, but no fancy alpha transparency stuff unless the module provides its own implementation (layercut et al).

Posted by member 186 on 2003-05-01 19:06:38 link

if only i had some alpha blending, oh how i would enjoy that. How hard is it to put that kind of support into a module anyways?

Posted by member 23979 on 2003-05-01 20:22:04 link

Maybe that's not the right forum for this, but...

Why don't modules use a middle "layer" which deals with graphics. If this API is extended the improvement will be accessible for all modules...

Posted by member 186 on 2003-05-01 21:04:59 link

maybe put this in with the 'wishlist' posts.

Posted by member 1783 on 2003-05-02 00:52:44 link

a really good idea kromo :)

Posted by member 7 on 2003-05-02 01:22:41 link

That's been discussed over and over in the last year or two. Currently it's hardly possible to implement such a thing in the "right" way, but we will be working on it in the post-0.24.7 era; which means it will happen at some point but I cannot tell when. I think most people will understand that 0.24.7 has to be done first before we start to seriously look into such things.

Posted by member 7 on 2003-05-02 01:27:57 link

Besides, the alpha transparency stuff is not as easy as to add basic PNG support. All modules will have to be modified individually.