Sounds good. I should have plenty of time over the weekend to get it all together... all you'll have to do is change names and such, and it should all work together...
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Sounds good. I should have plenty of time over the weekend to get it all together... all you'll have to do is change names and such, and it should all work together...
Someone who has Photoshop, would you mind grabbing all of the main icons as 22x22 pixel bitmaps and posting them in a folder? I got MSPaint, Fireworks, and FreeHand taken care of, but I don't have Photoshop.
Thanks!
well i don't have cs, i got photoshop 6 and it doesn't have menu icons :(
drr.... oh well. don't worry about it then. we'll make do with what we have.
Here is the menu for photoshop 6.0
Hey guys. I'm kinda interested in joining this project. I would be willing to write most of the GUI stuff and you guys could do the actual programming of the graphics features.
The reason I want to join is because I think the LightFusion team is about to break up for good and I had an AWESOME time making the IDE for it. I learned a lot about how to make a good looking program because I am a perfectionist when it comes to looks. I'd really like to take what I learned and apply it to something that will actually get finished.
I'd like to help if you guys want my services.
Show me what you can do. I don't think timeshifter has made any progress on this..
chem
I'd love to. I am free all weekend, so I will start some work on it. Would you like to see some screenshots of how the LightFusion IDE was starting to look? I did my best to make it look very professional and have the most XP-ish style possible.
Yeah, screenshots or just attach it here.
Either way I'm happy.
chem
Here is a screen shot of the LightFusion IDE.
http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...id=42154&stc=1
You can't tell too much from the screenshot, but the the toolbars are just like the ones in Windows Explorer (for XP). When you hover you get the nice raised effect. The listview on the right is just like the one in Windows Explorer also.
Before I left the LF project, I was working on making Owner-Drawn menus, because I don't like the look of those. They aren't bad, but they could be better. I was actually in the middle of converting to that menu type because it fits the toolbar stuff perfectly. The old menus I was using looked like this:
http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...id=42155&stc=1
I switched because the DLL for those menus was over a meg and the one I am using now is 200 kb. There were also a lot of bugs with the drawing procedures and it wasn't open-source so I couldn't fix it. The last problem was that the grey bar on the right didn't match the rest of the theme prefectly.
What do you think? I am also able to do Office XP style menus/toolbars, but I (personally) like the XP style better.
Nice.
You can start whenever you want then :)
chem
I am truly sorry I haven't been able to work on it recently.. my computer came close to death and I had a fun time trying to save files, then reformat the hard drive and remember where everything went... Still don't have a "full" copy of VB reinstalled, either... but what I have should work fine.
What kind of arrangment do you guys want to have? MDI, SDI, or my personal favorite: MDI with tabbed windows instead of sloppy hard to find actual MDI child windows.
If someone could answer my last question I could get to work on this?
Is it worth my time to put a lot of work into this? Or do you guys not have much intention of completing this?
I intend on completing it. I just hate GUI design :eek:
For now, create an SDI interface. I plan on getting layers and stuff working for 1 document at a time first. Then we can move onto opening multiple pictures.
chem
Well, if you plan to ever have an MDI interface, then I might as well make it from the start. It's no harder for you at this point. All the problems that arise with multiple documents are handeled by me for the most part. All you guys need to do is make the effects and paintbrushes and layers and stuff.
So, would you perfer a normal MDI environment (like photoshop) or a tabbed MDI child windows (like .NET IDE)? Like I said, I think tabbed windows are the best, but its up to you.
I just have no idea how I'll go about creating layers for several documents, accurately. Oh well, start with an MDI then - tabbed, like you say. The non-tabbed way has always looked horrible to me.
chem
Implement the layer stack for each document as a member of that document's window or document object. Localise everything as far as you can, that's a very good key programming principle to follow.
Yeah. I was thinking of having them as Form properties. Or, accessible through a forms properties I should say. Oh, its late.
But I know what you mean.
chem
All you have to do is create a class module that represents a document. Say its called CDocument. Now every time you make a new document all you do it this:
VB Code:
You should probably also make a CDocuments that is a collection for CDocument. That allows you to access things by their Key and such. You can also store the key in the Tag property of the form that it is linked to so you always know which form goes with which instance of the class.
A while back I created some sort of Control array of forms. Can't remember how I did it now, as its 6.49am, I've had no sleep, and my backups are elsewhere. I know what you mean by using classes, and honestly, if my code ends up looking too sloppy, I'll convert it to using classes.
For now I just want to get a basic working beta up.
chem
I really think you should put it into a class now. You will thank yourself later.
I've actually found another project that I want to devote my time to, so I will only have time to throw together a basic UI for you guys and the code for building on it should be pretty self-explanatory. I'll be around for some help, but I don't think I will have time to make the whole thing.
Timeshifter, could you upload all the icons you have found so far?
Also, I think it would be WELL worth your guys' time to look through these:
Image Processing
Copy the a picture to the clipboard
Hue/Luminance/Saturation
Gray scaling
Color scaling
Cool alphablending
Custom filters
Blur/Sharpen/Emboss
Sure. here ya go ;)
The basic code we're using already uses the technique described in those articles EM.
chem
Okay. I didn't look into them much, I just thought they might help. Do you guys have filters set up like that?
Yes. The main 6-7 filters so far use the same 3x3 grid technique described in those articles. Only one of them uses a slower 5x5 grid.
chem
Could you guys make a decision for me? I need to pick between which rebar-type control to use.
Standard Rebar:
Advantages:
* Nicer look
* Slightly easier to code for
Disadvantages
* Non-draggable/locked (because if enable the drag option then it makes sense to save the layout of the toolbars when the program unloads and restore them afterward and there are a lot of bugs in this part of the vbAcc code).
Dockable Rebar:
Advantages:
* Dockable :)
* Dragable
* SaveLayout and RestoreLayout work properly
Disadvantages:
* Slightly harder to code for (but you won't be coding a lot of new toolbars after the original ones are added).
* Slightly bigger .OCX
* Doesn't look as nice :(
Its up to you guys. Let me know ASAP.
Use the Standard Rebar. We don't need it to be as fancy as dockables :p
chem
Okay cool. If that is the case, then I will post screenshot of the program when I get home today.
Would you guys like me to throw your graphics engine into a simple Class Module or keep things the way they are now? It would be cleaner and make more sense, but its up to you.
Also, would you like the picture to be scrollable when it is too big? I guess that is somewhat necessary. I will try to add that, but Im not sure how to go about it. I could do it a couple ways. I could simply add scrollbars then attempt to link their movement to the movement of the picture. Or I could add scrollbars to the entire child for using some vbAcc code. I'll look into the possibilities more when I get home.
I found this on vbAcc:
http://www.vbaccelerator.com/home/Re...er/article.asp
It obviously dosn't have enough colors but me be helpful when you guys write your own color picker.
The code doesn't really need to be in a Class Module. I planned on just chucking it into a module, and cleaning it up a bit. As it is now, its extremely messy I know, but I plan on making it alot more readable once we have the basic functionality down.
As for the colour picker:
I'll write one of these. It won't be too hard, and I will probably make it like the Photoshop one.
chem
Its your program so this will probably be my last comment on class modules, but you are making your life a lot more difficult if you don't put it into a class. If you aren't familiar with class (like I wasn't a few weeks ago) its an awesome time to learn. If you don't put this stuff into a class then it will always be harder to use and work with. The best thing I can do to convince you is to link to to an awesome description of what classes are: http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?p=2228217
You really should abstract the drawing stuff (using a class) from the rest of the program. This is the best way to make it easy to expand in the future and also the best way to allow it to work with many images. If you put it into a class and have the class represent the stuff you can do with one image then all you need to do is make a new object instance for that class and you can do everything all over with a new image.
If you put it into a module then you have to keep track of the current state (zoom level, undo record, file path, file type, JPEG quality preferences) for each and every file. If you put it into a class then these would all be properties of the class and you would have their default value set one time and all you have to do (once again) is "Set oImg = New CMiniShopProImageClass" and BOOM, theres another image all ready and rearing to go.
Anyway, if that didn't convince you then nothing will. I am more than willing to help you with classes if you want it.
Sorry I didn't get a screen shot of the GUI up yesterday, I keep adding and adding and adding to it :).
I know what classes are, what they do, and what they can be used for. I never meant to say it won't happen, but until I get the main code going within the GUI, it won't have layers and all that sorta thing. So in turn, I guess I am saying it will be placed into a class module...later. :)
I'm glad you're working on the GUI. I hate doing the GUI. Thanks again for it :)
chem
Okay, sorry, didn't mean to imply you didn't know about them, I just kinda thought you were in the same position as me a few weeks ago.
My pleasure to work on the GUI. I was only planning on doing the basics, but I am basically doing almost all of it at this point.
Okay, GUI is almost done. I am in the middle of converting the old code for image effects into the new program. After that the only thing I have left to do is add an MRU (Most Recently Used) file list. I also need to implement a progress bar that shows in the status bar while an effect is being applied. That is, of course, unless you would perfer the progress bar be somewhere else.
I would post a screen shot now (like I said I would earlier), but I'd rather you see the whole thing all at once. I think you'll love it. I can (almost) say for sure that it will be done by this weekend.
Old code for image effects? You're putting the code in there? Fair enough. Either way, I'm still going to - most likely - re-write quite a bit of it. Most of whats there is for testing. Ooo. I'm dieing for a screenshot.
chem
By old code I mean the code that actually did the image effects from the most recent version of the program that was posted on this thread.
I guess I can give you a peak :)
http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...id=42504&stc=1
http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...id=42505&stc=1
Here is a short list of the things I was going to point out when I posted the actual code:
* Menu/Toolbar Help text in the statusbar when you scroll over any item.
* Coords on your mouse in the status bar
* XP Styles (duh)
* Office XP styles on the menus
* A custom window list (with shortcuts of Alt+1 through Alt+9 for your windows and Alt+Left/Right Arrow to scroll through windows)
* Menu items and corresponding toolbar item are linked using a class I made so enabling/disabling/creating the item in my class does it for both.
* Tooltip of buttons contain the shortcut for that item
* Shortcuts are automatically done just by adding them to the caption. This is thanks to the way the vbAcc menu control works
* Scrollbars on the image with just a small class (instead of a control). Once again thanks to vbAcc.
There is more, but I will probably post a full list when I post the code. :) The first screen shot shows the window list and a normal image. The second shows a solarized image and the tooltip and the statusbar text.
I hope its to your liking. :)
EDIT: I just finished the math and it looks like I am also saving 1 megabyte worth of dependencies by using the smaller vbAcc controls and class instead of the Windows Common Controls and such. Thats 1 less meg to package and ship with the program. :)
Nice dude. Very Nice.
We will also need some sort of sizing slider control to size the brushes. Could this be incorporated into the toolbar up the top? (kinda like PhotoShop)
chem