nanogui: Thread: Graphics Plane Support

Hi,
I am planning to use Nano-X in an h/w platform where display device has 3
graphics planes and one cursor plane. Does Nano-X provide APIs to control
individual graphics plane? We need to render an image as background and on
top of that we would draw other controls (text box etc). Every time we don't
want to render background, we just want to change/draw different controls as
move from one screen to another.     

I am a newbie in Nano-x. I don't know if it is a very basic question.

Thanks,
Aveek
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: Does Nano-X provide APIs to control
: individual graphics plane? We need to render an image as background and on
: top of that we would draw other controls (text box etc). Every time we 
don't
: want to render background, we just want to change/draw different controls 
as
: move from one screen to another.

No, there isn't currently support for this.  All graphics operations
start in the nanox/ api layer, then move to the device-independent
engine/ layer, and are finally drawn (usually to a framebuffer, but
not always) at the driver/ layer.  The layer names are also the
src/ directory names.

Regards,

Greg 

But somehow I need to draw one image (may be a button) on the top of another
image (say background image). As only one graphics plane is supported by
Nano-X I have no choice but to merge two images. How can I do this? Is any
API already exist for that operation?

Thanks & regards,
Aveek 

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Haerr ####@####.#### 
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 6:29 AM
To: Aveek Adhya; ####@####.####
Subject: Re: [nanogui] Graphics Plane Support

: Does Nano-X provide APIs to control
: individual graphics plane? We need to render an image as background and on
: top of that we would draw other controls (text box etc). Every time we 
don't
: want to render background, we just want to change/draw different controls 
as
: move from one screen to another.

No, there isn't currently support for this.  All graphics operations
start in the nanox/ api layer, then move to the device-independent
engine/ layer, and are finally drawn (usually to a framebuffer, but
not always) at the driver/ layer.  The layer names are also the
src/ directory names.

Regards,

Greg 


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To unsubscribe, e-mail: ####@####.####
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: But somehow I need to draw one image (may be a button) on the top of 
another
: image (say background image). As only one graphics plane is supported by
: Nano-X I have no choice but to merge two images.

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for here.  If you're
just talking about drawing twice on a "surface" or "plane",
then nano-X allows that by drawing twice to the screen
memory, or the memory in a "pixmap" created through
GrNewPixmap.  Transparent pixels are handled.
Thus images are drawn on top of backgrounds normally
through all drawing API calls.

What exactly type of drawing are you looking to perform?

Regards,

Greg 

Well, consider I am writing an application for TV and the application should
display a simple screen on TV. The screen should be as follows:
1. There is a background image, that is, a gif file displayed as screen
background (implemented using GrSetBackgroundPixmap()).
2. A text is displayed on the top of the background on TV screen.

Now I want that the text background to be transparent. That means the
background image should be displayed from within the text message. Is it
possible using nano-x?
 
Assume there is no video on TV.

Thanks,
Aveek

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Haerr ####@####.#### 
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 5:08 AM
To: Aveek Adhya; ####@####.####
Subject: Re: [nanogui] Graphics Plane Support

: But somehow I need to draw one image (may be a button) on the top of 
another
: image (say background image). As only one graphics plane is supported by
: Nano-X I have no choice but to merge two images.

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for here.  If you're
just talking about drawing twice on a "surface" or "plane",
then nano-X allows that by drawing twice to the screen
memory, or the memory in a "pixmap" created through
GrNewPixmap.  Transparent pixels are handled.
Thus images are drawn on top of backgrounds normally
through all drawing API calls.

What exactly type of drawing are you looking to perform?

Regards,

Greg 


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To unsubscribe, e-mail: ####@####.####
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: Well, consider I am writing an application for TV and the application 
should
: display a simple screen on TV. The screen should be as follows:

Whether the screen is a TV or not is completely seperate from
the business of nano-X writing its framebuffer.  Setting up any
alpha or video along with the nano-X framebuffer will have to
be done outside of nano-X.


: 1. There is a background image, that is, a gif file displayed as screen
: background (implemented using GrSetBackgroundPixmap()).

This should work fine as is.


: 2. A text is displayed on the top of the background on TV screen.
: Now I want that the text background to be transparent. That means the
: background image should be displayed from within the text message. Is it
: possible using nano-x?
:

When you set drawing text background to OFF with
GrGCUseBackground, then text will be drawn without
any background clears, and should be fine.


: Assume there is no video on TV.
:

Again, that doesn't really have anything to do with how nano-X
writes the framebuffer supplied to it.

Regards,

Greg 

But I can't see any API called GrGCUseBackground() as you mentioned. I am
using 'microwindows-0.91'. Do I need to apply any patch?

Regards,
Aveek



-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Haerr ####@####.#### 
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 9:15 PM
To: Aveek Adhya; ####@####.####
Subject: Re: [nanogui] Graphics Plane Support

: Well, consider I am writing an application for TV and the application 
should
: display a simple screen on TV. The screen should be as follows:

Whether the screen is a TV or not is completely seperate from
the business of nano-X writing its framebuffer.  Setting up any
alpha or video along with the nano-X framebuffer will have to
be done outside of nano-X.


: 1. There is a background image, that is, a gif file displayed as screen
: background (implemented using GrSetBackgroundPixmap()).

This should work fine as is.


: 2. A text is displayed on the top of the background on TV screen.
: Now I want that the text background to be transparent. That means the
: background image should be displayed from within the text message. Is it
: possible using nano-x?
:

When you set drawing text background to OFF with
GrGCUseBackground, then text will be drawn without
any background clears, and should be fine.


: Assume there is no video on TV.
:

Again, that doesn't really have anything to do with how nano-X
writes the framebuffer supplied to it.

Regards,

Greg 

In fact I wrote a hack within GrText() that will reset the 'usebackground'
flag of graphics context to 0. This will serve my purpose, but I want to use
GrGCUseBackground() to disable the flag. Problem is I can't see any such API
in the code-base.

Thanks for giving me pointer.

Regards,
Aveek


-----Original Message-----
From: Aveek Adhya ####@####.#### 
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 10:11 AM
To: 'Greg Haerr'; ####@####.####
Subject: RE: [nanogui] Graphics Plane Support



But I can't see any API called GrGCUseBackground() as you mentioned. I am
using 'microwindows-0.91'. Do I need to apply any patch?

Regards,
Aveek



-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Haerr ####@####.#### 
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 9:15 PM
To: Aveek Adhya; ####@####.####
Subject: Re: [nanogui] Graphics Plane Support

: Well, consider I am writing an application for TV and the application 
should
: display a simple screen on TV. The screen should be as follows:

Whether the screen is a TV or not is completely seperate from
the business of nano-X writing its framebuffer.  Setting up any
alpha or video along with the nano-X framebuffer will have to
be done outside of nano-X.


: 1. There is a background image, that is, a gif file displayed as screen
: background (implemented using GrSetBackgroundPixmap()).

This should work fine as is.


: 2. A text is displayed on the top of the background on TV screen.
: Now I want that the text background to be transparent. That means the
: background image should be displayed from within the text message. Is it
: possible using nano-x?
:

When you set drawing text background to OFF with
GrGCUseBackground, then text will be drawn without
any background clears, and should be fine.


: Assume there is no video on TV.
:

Again, that doesn't really have anything to do with how nano-X
writes the framebuffer supplied to it.

Regards,

Greg 


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Yep. It is there. Name is 'GrSetGCUseBackground()' and it works fine.
Thanks a lot.

Aveek

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Haerr ####@####.#### 
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 11:51 AM
To: Aveek Adhya
Subject: Re: [nanogui] Graphics Plane Support

: But I can't see any API called GrGCUseBackground() as you mentioned. I am
: using 'microwindows-0.91'. Do I need to apply any patch?

It's called something like that, I don't have the source here.
Grep src/nanox/*.c for 'UseBackground' and see what you
come up with.

Greg