DelphiX Transparency

[Proph3t]

Hi

I apologize for so many threads at once, but problems never end

See DelphiX isnt all that bad, but it's transparency sucks. I create all the images for sprites in Toon Boom Studio 7.1. So when I finish and export my animations as bitmaps, I find that the outline of the spriteimage has more than one color for blending purposes. When I load any of these images into a standard TImage component with transparency enabled, the transparency is perfect. But with DelphiX, when I draw that same image on a DXDraw also with transparency enabled, it either makes the black color transparent after I specified that the transparent color is clGreen, or it doesnt make my image transpatent at all, or it does make the image transparent (with luck), but there are still green edges around a black character. Why is this? Is there any way of fixing this? Is UnDelphiX's transparency better?

Sorry if this question has been asked before...

[SilverWarior]

Check the tutorial again. If my memory seves me corectly it is explained there about how to use transparancy and how it works.
You also need to note that DelphiX only uses single color to determine your image transparancy. So if your graphic tool uses gradiant transparancy using AlphaBlending you will end up with colored line around your graphic.

[Proph3t]

Check the tutorial again. If my memory seves me corectly it is explained there about how to use transparancy and how it works.
You also need to note that DelphiX only uses single color to determine your image transparancy. So if your graphic tool uses gradiant transparancy using AlphaBlending you will end up with colored line around your graphic.

Okay I'll check, thanks

See this is a problem cause I dont know of any animation software that uses single color... Except paint, which isnt an option lol

[SilverWarior]

Check your graphic software documentation. Most of them have ability to make sharp edges (single color transparency) but it is not used by default.
And even latest version of MS Paint makes smoth edges by aplying Anti-Aliasing effect to the imgaes. But it is quite terible at it. Whatever you do don't save your image until it is finished as MS Paint aplies this Anti-Aliasing efect every time before image gets saved. So parts of image that existed for several saves literaly become blurred becouse of this.
Last time I was doing some graphics in MS Paint I use the one that comes with Windows 98 but since it doesn't support PNG images as new ones does I had to reopen and resave the images with new one to make transparancy work. But yeah I ended up with that strange colored line around my objects.
That and the fact that I don't have any proper graphic making program encouraged me to try and make one myself. Unfortunately it stil isn't done like most of my stuff. But it will be some day.

[User137]

New UnDelphiX should support alpha-channeled PNG images. It's propably over 3-4 years since i last used it and it worked back then. So you can have pixels which transparency is value anything from 0 to 255.

The glowy edge on images is propably caused by JPG saving? That format is never pixel-perfect, and shouldn't be attempted to use with transparency masks. You should really learn Gimp, it packs alot of possibilities and easily rivals best commercial software such as Photoshop.

I dont know of any animation software that uses single color

It means that you have 1 solid color as background in that combined animation picture, that is often times fuschia or black. Even if animation software gives the picture a transparent background, you can add make it black yourself with Gimp for example. MsPaint does not support any kind of transparency unfortunately.

[Proph3t]

I am still currently trying to get UnDelphiX to work with my game. I programmed an Isometric tiling engine with UnDelphiX and it worked fine, so I'll give it a try. I use bmp format for my graphics. And I use Toon Boom Studio 7.1 for NPC sprites cause it makes it easy to create animatios. Once the animationn is complete, I export the animation sequence to bitmap. I have tried black an fuschia, but it doesnt work. See the only time it works is if the outline of my chatacter has 1 color. Then transparancy is great. But I will try Gimp as you suggest. With Toon Boom Studio, my background is usually Fuschia.

[pitfiend]

I am still currently trying to get UnDelphiX to work with my game. I programmed an Isometric tiling engine with UnDelphiX and it worked fine, so I'll give it a try. I use bmp format for my graphics. And I use Toon Boom Studio 7.1 for NPC sprites cause it makes it easy to create animatios. Once the animationn is complete, I export the animation sequence to bitmap. I have tried black an fuschia, but it doesnt work. See the only time it works is if the outline of my chatacter has 1 color. Then transparancy is great. But I will try Gimp as you suggest. With Toon Boom Studio, my background is usually Fuschia.

Just to be absolutely sure, fuschia is $FF00FF. As said before, Gimp is The Tool you need to do your grfx and save to png format, best compression best results and never lose a bit of your sprites!

[Proph3t]

Just to be absolutely sure, fuschia is $FF00FF. As said before, Gimp is The Tool you need to do your grfx and save to png format, best compression best results and never lose a bit of your sprites!

Thank you for te information! I will get Gimp next month, although I am way better at programming than drawing, but I will give it a shot