Translucent Programs

jpp1cdjpp1cd
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I saw a presentation of Mac OS X and saw that you can run programs over a dvd movie for example and see the movie through the program. What is it that does this? Is there any way to do anything comparable to this on any other platforms, os's? I am just curious as I live on both Powerbooks and PC's and would love to learn how to do it. (Would like it to be possible on PC's also but everyone knows how that is). Please help me out here.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    It's possible to hack something like that on any OS - someone managed to get translucent window dragging going in OS 9, for example. Only OS X can do it easily and (forgive the pun) transparently to all native applications, because of Quartz. With Quartz Extreme running on a hot video card, the amount of real time translucent compositing the OS can do is nothing short of amazing.



    Other OS's will pick up the ability when they get a display layer as sophisticated as Quartz is. I think MS will roll out something like it in 2004.



    [ 11-15-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
  • Reply 2 of 8
    jpp1cdjpp1cd Posts: 135member
    I was trying to do it in XP but when I make a window translucent, I can't see the video that is on Real One Player. Since that was the whole point, it kind of kills my desire on PC's at least. Is there a simple way to do it on Mac though? I thought they made it sound really easy as if it was built in to OS X?
  • Reply 3 of 8
    stupider...likeafoxstupider...likeafox Posts: 1,618member
    [quote]Originally posted by jpp1cd:

    <strong>I thought they made it sound really easy as if it was built in to OS X?

    </strong>

    <hr></blockquote>



    It is built in, look at the edge of a window, that shadow is composited over whatever is underneath. Menus and inactive windows are slightly transparent too. It is subtle because most things are rectangular and opaque but if you download Audion 3 from Panic software then you can experiment with it's alpha blended skins that have shadows and translucent windows.



    The best demo is to probably to open a Terminal window and set its background to be transparent, then you can place it over a Quicktime movie or your iTunes visualizer and type over the top of it.



    This all works a thousand times better if your machine is running with Quartz Extreme enabled.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Windows can't do it nearly as easily...



    Windows lets you make 2D windows translucent... as long as they don't interact (are layered over/under) with any 3D windows. Or windows of apps that have registered themselves for 3D libraries. Or have even thought about looking sideways at a 3D API call.



    Why? Under Windows the 2D and 3D pipelines to/in the graphics card are completely separate. There's no way to mix the data to produce a blended image with translucency.



    Quartz Extreme converts 2D window bitmaps into 3D OpenGL textures, then lets the 3D pipeline handle *everything*. Because it's all in one pipeline, the card can blend like a Waring on 'Frappe'.



    Hence, RealOne Player (and WMP, and QT/Win, and most other media apps) windows can't be composited with translucent windows from other non-3D apps, because those media players *can* show 3D content, so they register as 3D capable, eliminating them from the 2D pipeline.



    Short story: Apple engineers are clever and wily beasts.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    code mastercode master Posts: 344member
    jpp1cd, another app that takes advantage of translucent windows is <a href="http://www.indigofield.com/"; target="_blank">Proteus</a> (the best IM client around)
  • Reply 6 of 8
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    Does anyone here know how to make certain parts (not the entire window) of a window transparent in Cocoa?



    The developer of my favorite MUD client and I ( me being the author of most of its icons) would like to know...



    For those of you who have never played a mud, they are text based RPG's over telnet.



    On top of that, does anyone know the ASCII character number used to specify a password field (i.e, when you type nothing shows up in the terminal.)



    [ 11-16-2002: Message edited by: Spart ]</p>
  • Reply 7 of 8
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Check out the RoundTransparentWindow example app on Apple Developer Connection's site for step by step info on how to make portions of a window transparent.



    And the password field can be done automagically with an NSSecureTextField object.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    spartspart Posts: 2,060member
    Thanks for that. (<a href="http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/Sample_Code/Cocoa/RoundTransparentWindow.htm"; target="_blank">Link</a>)



    He already knows how to make it so it is a password field, just needs to find out what character a server sends to the client to instruct it to use it.



    If you want to find out more about Cantrip (the mud client) or download it go <a href="http://www.solidsun.com/cm"; target="_blank">here</a>.
Sign In or Register to comment.