Quote:Original post by MrCpaw
It just wouldn't look too good because you have transparency on your GUI window.

Quote:Original post by Drilian
Something that makes layered blending SUPER EASY is premultiplied alpha. Basically, you take your alpha image and just go ahead and multiply the color channels by the alpha (given the 0..1 range). So, for instance, white that is 50% transparent would be [0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5] instead of [1, 1, 1, 0.5]. Then, you blend with SourceBlend = One, DestBlend = InvSrcAlpha (where the standard blend is SourceBlend = SrcAlph, DestBlend = InvSrcAlpha - the SourceBlend is different in premultiplied).

Because of the nature of it (and tomf's blog, linked above, is a bit better at explaining this), blending a ton of layers of alpha stuff together is cake - it just works the way you'd want it to (instead of having to screw around with render-to-texture stuff). It has some other advantages too that are listed on that page :)

EDIT - wow, I think I really misread the problem in your entry...but hey! It's still a handy technique! Maybe you're even already using it :D

Quote:Original post by Milkshake
Good grief! That looks like a real game!!!

You've really come a long way. The UI + water effects really look sharp.

And if you don't mind me asking, how are you calculating the blur?

sampler tex : register(s0);

struct INPUT
{
	float2 coord : TEXCOORD;
};

struct OUTPUT
{
	vector color : COLOR;
};

float level=0;

OUTPUT main(INPUT input)
{
	OUTPUT output;
	float2 t=input.coord;
	
	float p=0.003*level;

	float4 total = tex2D(tex,t);
	total+=0.895*tex2D(tex,t+float2(1*p,0));
	total+=0.895*tex2D(tex,t+float2(-1*p,0));
	total+=0.641*tex2D(tex,t+float2(2*p,0));
	total+=0.641*tex2D(tex,t+float2(-2*p,0));
	total+=0.368*tex2D(tex,t+float2(3*p,0));
	total+=0.368*tex2D(tex,t+float2(-3*p,0));

	output.color=total/4.808;
	return output;
}

Quote:Original post by Milkshake
And if you don't mind me asking, how are you calculating the blur?

Quote:Original post by VBStrider
To handle the rounded edges, you could also have "corner" graphics and "edge" graphics assigned to the control. The "edge" graphics would be repeated as needed. I haven't actually used this system yet, but it seems like it would work well.

Quote:Original post by Aardvajk

Quote:Original post by Milkshake
And if you don't mind me asking, how are you calculating the blur?

And if you don't mind me asking, when are you going to update your journal? [smile]

Quote:Original post by Aardvajk

Quote:Original post by Milkshake
Good grief! That looks like a real game!!!

You've really come a long way. The UI + water effects really look sharp.

And if you don't mind me asking, how are you calculating the blur?

Just two pretty simple shaders. I render the game to a texture, then put the texture through a horizontal then vertical blur then render to the screen.

Can't remember where I blagged those constants from - somewhere on the internet.