Launchers Transparency

Hi
I'm making a launcher for myself and I've added some fancy stuff to it and it looks so good but i've got a problem with it . There is some white areas in the final result . I know that its because of the conversion to bmp and its kind of impossible to get bmp to have transparent backgrounds ( I've used the Alpha channel method and its not working) . I have seen some launchers in the past which had no backgrounds while still having non square/rectangular launchers .

So what is the key for this ?

And there is another problem aswell with my launcher which is that the Article scroll never gets hidden
even though i've disabled it in the refresources.txt file and i've disabled the Headline which it controls but it just still appears in the middle of my launcher.

//{ 4,371,119,18,191 }, //article scrollbar
//{ 5, 59, 120, 305, 25 }, //article headline

I've tried using different refresources.txt files , tried different clients but it still appears !

I've never seen a silkroad launcher including alpha channel images, since, as you have pointed it out, it uses .bmp, and those are not able using alphas.

It has to be .png format, otherwise, .ddj does also inherit the alpha channel of the pre-made file.

So, I don't see a possibility than making smaller .bmp images in big sized launcher grids and placing them weirdly to cause an "opacity" illusion of modern launcher formats.

Quote:

Originally Posted by blapanda I've never seen a silkroad launcher including alpha channel images, since, as you have pointed it out, it uses .bmp, and those are not able using alphas. It has to be .png format, otherwise, .ddj does also inherit the alpha channel of the pre-made file. So, I don't see a possibility than making smaller .bmp images in big sized launcher grids and placing them weirdly to cause an "opacity" illusion of modern launcher formats.

@[Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] I just mentioned the Alpha channel thingy because i've seen a fail youtube tutorial of it and didn't want anyone to mention that video up here .

I didn't get the part you are talking about making an illusion with bmp images , can you be more detailed or give out an example please ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExtraSause @[Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] I just mentioned the Alpha channel thingy because i've seen a fail youtube tutorial of it and didn't want anyone to mention that video up here . I didn't get the part you are talking about making an illusion with bmp images , can you be more detailed or give out an example please ?

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Upper one, the usual thing.
Bottom left, the modern thing.
Bottom right, the compromise, without being able to rewrite the launcher handler. Use any kind of PNG you like, but simply fill the first layer with black/white or whatever you see fit.
Anything else on top of that layer can have different levels of opacity and alphas.

Quote:

Originally Posted by blapanda [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] Upper one, the usual thing. Bottom left, the modern thing. Bottom right, the compromise, without being able to rewrite the launcher handler. Use any kind of PNG you like, but simply fill the first layer with black/white or whatever you see fit. Anything else on top of that layer can have different levels of opacity and alphas.

@[Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] I kind of got what you mean now but this do still limit me to use square/rectangular launchers ... Its like I can't have custom edges to the launcher in no way without getting white/black backgrounds


@[Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] Just so I can get you to what i do exactly mean .
here is an example of a launcher which used to be in Silkroad Europe PS.

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(I dont have the launcher so i took a screenshot from a video)

You can see that the edges are transparent while he have got a not fully square shape when talking about the logo on the top of the launcher or the bottom where there are various cuts here and there .

you could do it using C#
like creating a new windows form or wpf or whatever and create socket to connect to server and receive packets bla bla
and about auto update you can create ftp server
i do it already
you can contact me for help

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexiuns* you could do it using C# like creating a new windows form or wpf or whatever and create socket to connect to server and receive packets bla bla and about auto update you can create ftp server i do it already you can contact me for help

Hmmmm .. I dont know if you posted this comment by mistake on my thread because it seems like you are talking about something else here :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExtraSause Hmmmm .. I dont know if you posted this comment by mistake on my thread because it seems like you are talking about something else here :)

i thought that you are need to create a transparent launcher same as silkroad europe if i'm not wrong

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexiuns* i thought that you are need to create a transparent launcher same as silkroad europe if i'm not wrong

Exactly , but what does it have to do with custom codings with C# and packets filtering ? I thought that all of this is related to graphics design and such things

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExtraSause Exactly , but what does it have to do with custom codings with C# and packets filtering ? I thought that all of this is related to graphics design and such things

no bro you have to do it using C#
because bmp files does not support transparency

so you have to do it like silkroad europe they are using C# for it

it seems like proxy you know to handle incoming/outgoing packets

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexiuns* no bro you have to do it using C# because bmp files does not support transparency so you have to do it like silkroad europe they are using C# for it it seems like proxy you know to handle incoming/outgoing packets

That's totally disappointing , looks like i'm going to stick on with the lame square/rectangular launchers designs then.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexiuns* you could do it using C# like creating a new windows form or wpf or whatever and create socket to connect to server and receive packets bla bla and about auto update you can create ftp server i do it already you can contact me for help

If you're already imlementing a socket to "connect to server and receive packets bla bla" you can also download directly from download serve and patch the PK2 instead of using dedicated FTP servers.

Related:
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Quote:

Originally Posted by DaxterSoul If you're already imlementing a socket to "connect to server and receive packets bla bla" you can also download directly from download serve and patch the PK2 instead of using dedicated FTP servers. Related: [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

aha great thanks i thought that they doesn't send the bytes xD