HI Mark
Thanks for your input. You are very helpful on this board.
I am speaking in terms of the API. I realize now that my mildly cynical frustration above may have been somewhat misleading
My questions and answers related to my posts are strictly in terms and terminologies of the interface that I am using.
As far as what happens beneath the wrapper should for the most part be insulated from the programmer with the exception
of general design rules set forth in the documentation. What I mean is that if the API uses terms like SetLayer, or SetZ then
I should be able to express myself in the same way. Even the roVideoScreen documentation follows exactly what I am talking about:
The roVideoPlayer can be used in conjunction with the roImageCanvas to do graphical overlays, windowed video, zoom, and programmatic control of playlists and trick play. When using with the roImageCanvas, you can put the roVideoPlayer is at a lower z-order layer than other imageCanvas layers and implement overlays on top of the playing videoAs you can see the documentation uses the same terminology. I know where the videoplayer sits and I also know that the layered effect is a matter
of cropping. I also have a good idea of what goes on even further below these layers. Been in the business a long, long time.
My real problem here is that at times, I combine graphical animation and video playback. Being forced to keep the windows AlphaEnable flag set to false has created
a real problem for me. I can either show the animation or the videoplayer - not both; thus my frustration. I have tried many ways to get around this with no results
Even briefly changing it for drawing purposes only does not seem to make a difference
I feel that the videoplayer should have been integrated more seamlessly, even if it needed to be wrapped in or took as a parameter additional interface which
would free it from the windows alpha enable setting. It is simply a matter of alpha bit manipulation as you know. Even with this I should be able to use the alphaenable
settings of bitmaps to create the hole. And I can - just not over the videoplayer with the windows alpha enable set to true. So I still ask "Am I missing something here" ? I am beginning to think not for even the documentation is not sure how alpha blending works in all cases:
There are limitations when using the onscreen bitmap as a source. For example, Alpha blending may not work. (ed. we need to verify this) Anyway I appreciate your help. I have a couple of ideas I want to try then I'll take it from there
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Updated: 11-11-2015 - Completed Keyboard interface
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