Transparent background for GPU monitor gadget?

cnckane

I think the transparent background looks better than that black, it's posibble to do this?

stangowner · 02-06-2010, 03:46 | posts: 562 | Location: MA

I just tried it real quick and the background worked fine, but doing so changed the text and graph lines to pink. I'll see if I can figure that out and I'll include it in the next release, along with optionally removing the border too.

stangowner · 02-06-2010, 18:14 | posts: 562 | Location: MA

I should be able to get around that semi-transparent turning pink issue with some css tricks. Here's a new example:

It does cause a few other issues, but I should be able to resolve those.

Fyew-jit-tiv · 02-07-2010, 18:33 | posts: 675 | Location: Memories 4 Life

Quote:

Originally Posted by stangowner

I should be able to get around that semi-transparent turning pink issue with some css tricks. Here's a new example:

It does cause a few other issues, but I should be able to resolve those.

Sup Nick... Looking good dude. Any chance you could add an option for virtical bars.?

stangowner · 02-07-2010, 19:12 | posts: 562 | Location: MA

Not in the next release. That would require a lot of changes.

I'm liking this transparent thing though.....it allows you to click through the gadget so if you are using this as a HUD over a game in windowed mode it does not get in the way. Playing full screen, you would still have to use RT's OSD, but this is a nice alternative to have graphs (history) in a HUD. Here's a simple example running over FurMark. I'm going to add an option to also not display a gadget title too, just to allow you to clean that up if you want.

Fyew-jit-tiv · 02-07-2010, 20:23 | posts: 675 | Location: Memories 4 Life

Im liking that dude.. Is it possible to only have a selected Gadget instance whilst in full screen.?

stangowner · 02-07-2010, 22:04 | posts: 562 | Location: MA

This won't work at all in "Full Screen" mode. When you launch a game full screen, everything in windows is not visible at all. RivaTuner's OSD works differently, presumably by intercepting the DirectX and OGL calls and overlaying the text in the frame to be drawn just before the card renders it.

Gadgets are just window instances spawned by a common process (sidebar.exe). Because they are separate windows, you can separately specify if they will be "always on top" or not.

So for instance, right now I have 4 gadgets (gpu, cpu, system, hdd) without the option always on top selected they behave like they are part of the desktop. And I have a 5th one like pictured above which only has a few monitors in it and is set to always be on top. You can use this one as a HUD, but the game has to run in "windowed mode".

That make sense? There's no way for me to make the gadget on top in full screen mode. And there's also no way for me to recognize you are launching a game and dynamically change your gadgets to filter stuff out, make it transparent, relocate its position and set it to be always on top. You have to control it manually.

Fyew-jit-tiv · 02-08-2010, 09:13 | posts: 675 | Location: Memories 4 Life

Quote:

Originally Posted by stangowner

This won't work at all in "Full Screen" mode. When you launch a game full screen, everything in windows is not visible at all. RivaTuner's OSD works differently, presumably by intercepting the DirectX and OGL calls and overlaying the text in the frame to be drawn just before the card renders it.

Gadgets are just window instances spawned by a common process (sidebar.exe). Because they are separate windows, you can separately specify if they will be "always on top" or not.

So for instance, right now I have 4 gadgets (gpu, cpu, system, hdd) without the option always on top selected they behave like they are part of the desktop. And I have a 5th one like pictured above which only has a few monitors in it and is set to always be on top. You can use this one as a HUD, but the game has to run in "windowed mode".

That make sense? There's no way for me to make the gadget on top in full screen mode. And there's also no way for me to recognize you are launching a game and dynamically change your gadgets to filter stuff out, make it transparent, relocate its position and set it to be always on top. You have to control it manually.

Makes total sense now you have explained it in depth. Nick is it possible to add an option for a simple digital 24hr clock.? i only ask this because having a clock gadget does not look right next to GPU monitor. Kinda spoils the look of my desktop.

stangowner · 02-08-2010, 11:16 | posts: 562 | Location: MA

I don't think I want to add any specific features that fall outside the scope of RivaTuner.

What I may be willing to do would be write another plugin that displays the time in "hh.mm" format and lets you choose 12 or 24 hour format. There is a clock plugin already, but it displays as "hhmmss" and the gadget only supports up to 9999.

So if you had something like 08.12 or 20.12, instead of 201248, you could display it in the gadget using one of the existing formats. But it would not be a digital font, although I could tell you how to hack that easily enough.

R0m · 02-25-2012, 16:56 | posts: 3

Quote:

Originally Posted by stangowner

I should be able to get around that semi-transparent turning pink issue with some css tricks. Here's a new example:

It does cause a few other issues, but I should be able to resolve those.

Hi,
I know that it is an old thread but I am currently in the same case.
When I enable transparency GPU monitor becomes pink...
So stangowner (or anybody else) what did you do to solved this problem ?

stangowner · 02-26-2012, 17:23 | posts: 562 | Location: MA

Quote:

Originally Posted by R0m

Hi,
I know that it is an old thread but I am currently in the same case.
When I enable transparency GPU monitor becomes pink...
So stangowner (or anybody else) what did you do to solved this problem ?

Transparency requires you to use an Aero desktop theme as mentioned here. There should be nothing else needed. Right click the desktop and select Personalize.

R0m · 02-26-2012, 17:55 | posts: 3

Aero is always enable but I don't know why my GPU monitor still look pinky

Here is a screenshot of my desktop configuration
http://i39.tinypic.com/34gn0ao.png

stangowner · 02-27-2012, 12:35 | posts: 562 | Location: MA

I can confirm the same behavior. Give me a few days to check into why it broke. I'll reply back here shortly.

stangowner · 03-27-2012, 11:16 | posts: 562 | Location: MA

I'm not sure exactly why it broke. Its not the first time M$ updates have done this. I tried to find a work-around for several hours, with no success.

The only supported way of making a transparent background seems to be using the g:background methods to add images and/or text. This gadget is far too complicated to be limited to calls that are so elementary.

Given the fact M$ took down the gadget site several months ago, I don't envision them fixing this. They have abandoned gadgets all together. So at this point, I don't think there is anything that can be done. Sorry. You'll have to use a colored background.