VB6 + RC6 Auto-generated Widget-Forms via direct PSD-FileParsing

[yereverluvinuncleber]

In larger size, adjacent to each other, RC version on the left. It might not seem much of a difference but the deeper shadows change the viewers perception without them knowing it and of course I notice it! You can really see it around the locking pin top left of each widget and underneath the main body and on the cables that connect the speakers.

The RC one (left) has the advantage of being DPI aware so it looks a lot more crisp. Very nice.

PS. You will see slight changes to items that have/have no shadows, I am still experimenting.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

This is the PSD file for reference, with a white background:



FYI, I can make the shadows much lighter in Photoshop (9%) rather than 27% and then I can make the resulting graphic appear as I want it to using RC. However that involves changing the shadows on every layer of the original PSD, doing some guess work as to how it is going to look, then flattening all the layer sets (groups) to correspond with the program. It take several iterations back and forth to get it right and it is quite a bit of work - that I'd really like to avoid.

[Schmidt]

This is the PSD file for reference, with a white background:

Could you upload the original PSD-File somewhere - (not as *.png-render-output)?
...so that I can step through the Parsing-Code, and see where exactly the Parser is "missing some Layer-Info"...

Olaf

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Will do, thankyou Olaf, coming by email!

[yereverluvinuncleber]

the new Code-Zip-Link now contains the cwAlphaImg.cls (as code) directly (so that no dependency to RC6Widgets exists)...

Thankyou Olaf, that works a treat.

[Schmidt]

Will do, thankyou Olaf, coming by email!

Have just downloaded and checked your PSD,
but I have absolute identical results in my IrfanView-PSD-viewer,
compared with the VB6-Output generated by this code:

Private Sub Form_Load()
  Const PSDFile As String = "c:\temp\dieselVolumeMerged.psd"
  
  Dim PSD As cSimplePSD, i As Long, CC As cCairoContext
  Set PSD = New_c.SimplePSD(PSDFile) 'create the PSD-parser-instance (on the given File)
 
  For i = 0 To PSD.LayersCount - 1 'loop over all the Layers in the PSD
      Debug.Print PSD.LayerAlphaPercent(i), PSD.LayerPath(i) 'LayerAlpha-Percentages and Layer-Names
  Next
    
  PSD.AllLayersSurface.WriteContentToPngFile PSDFile & ".png" 'write all "stacked-layers" as a *.png-file
  
  'output of the just written PNG on the VB-Form (ensuring white background)
  Set CC = Cairo.ImageList.AddImage("", PSDFile & ".png").CreateContext
      CC.Operator = CAIRO_OPERATOR_DEST_ATOP 'ensures, that the next drawing-op happens "underneath"
      CC.Paint 1, Cairo.CreateSolidPatternLng(vbWhite) 'add white "underneath" the PNGs Alpha-Channel
  Set Picture = CC.Surface.Picture
End Sub

My debug.printed enumeration of the separate "Sub-Layers" in that *.psd -
does show all SubLayerAlpha-Values at 1 aka 100% (and not 25% for some of them, as you claimed).

Here is the Parser-generated PNG-Output:





Olaf

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Strange, but as you can see the shadow on the two earlier images shown side by side certainly indicate a difference. Much denser shadows. Must be something else that is adding extra shadow, if it is my code then it is doing so unwittingly. It ios not something I have deliberately added. I'll carry on and finish the volume control functionality and if you don't mind, when done, I'll ask you to test the finished program on your desktop and then we can compare.

[Schmidt]

Have now found, what you meant...

The darker Alpha-Blur is not happening whilst "parsing out the SubLayer-Images" of the PSD... these work just fine...
it is generated when these SubLayer-Images are rendered from "within a Widget" (on a non-deep-cleared BackGround).

We had this topic already in another thread (RC6 does no deep "Auto-Clearance" on its own anymore, due to performance-optimizations compared to RC5).

So, your "workhorse-widget" (cwAlphaImg.cls, which you now have as source-code) -
needs the same update in its Paint-Event as the "Blend-Animation-fix" in the other thread:

Private Sub W_Paint(CC As RC6.cCairoContext, ByVal xAbs As Single, ByVal  yAbs As Single, ByVal dx_Aligned As Single, ByVal dy_Aligned As Single,  UserObj As Object)
  CC.Operator = CAIRO_OPERATOR_CLEAR
  CC.Paint
  CC.Operator = CAIRO_OPERATOR_OVER
  
  Dim Srf As cCairoSurface
  If Cairo.ImageList.Exists(W.ImageKey) Then Set Srf = Cairo.ImageList(W.ImageKey) Else Exit Sub
 
  CC.RenderSurfaceContent Srf, 0, 0, W.Width, W.Height, ,  W.AlphaInherited 'render the current W.ImageKey-Surface (as loaded  priorily into the ImageList)

  If W.MouseOver And W.HoverColor <> -1 Then 'render a colored,  slightly blurred copy of the Srf with 25% Alpha (in case of being  hovered)
     CC.RenderSurfaceContent Srf.GaussianBlur(0.1, , True, W.HoverColor), 0, 0, W.Width, W.Height, , W.Tag * W.AlphaInherited
  End If
End Sub

Olaf

[yereverluvinuncleber]

That does it, perfectly.

[taishan]

I'm sure Olaf is way ahead of me, but it must be the way the alpha Channel processes transparencies...?

[yereverluvinuncleber]

We have it sorted now. Three missing Cairo commands required for RC6. I just have to ensure they are replicated within the W_PAINT functions.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Olaf, will it be possible some time to implement the Simple PSD parser into RC5 as well? I'd like to eventually back port my desktop widgets to run on XP and ReactOS. I have a few basic RC5 widgets that use just a single image or two and those will probably operate well on XP/ReactOS - I'm going to test soon - but the more complex programs whose graphics are rooted in a PSD file, won't run on XP and probably won't run on ReactOS for a while yet, until they have an NT6 compatible version.

[xiaoyao]

psdParse and export PNG. Can this function be compiled into a small DLL by itself? Maybe only 500 kb.Do a 64-bit, 32-bit can be used.

Many excellent things would be better if they could be made into independent components. Like nuget. Exe, NPM. Exe.

We can package a complete DLL, or download multiple DLLs at a time, or make some functions into a separate ddll.

psd image Is the format a vector diagram? Maybe it can be enlarged arbitrarily without blurring.

If the picture is only in pixel format, it cannot be vector enlarged.
The simplest way is to convert it into multiple transparent PNG images.
Winxp, Linux, mac, all have different ways to show the effect of animation.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

Just a gentle BUMP for Olaf to read and hopefully respond to my last query

Olaf, will it be possible some time to implement the Simple PSD parser into RC5 as well? I'd like to eventually back port my desktop widgets to run on XP and ReactOS. I have a few basic RC5 widgets that use just a single image or two and those will probably operate well on XP/ReactOS - I'm going to test soon - but the more complex programs whose graphics are rooted in a PSD file, won't run on XP and probably won't run on ReactOS for a while yet, until they have an NT6 compatible version.