Image depending on sensor

[Marek]

Hello there

I'm preparing my first template for goverlay.
Unfortunately, I am very disappointed with the quality of the software. Drawing is very slow, the fonts are without antialiasing and true transparency, flickering etc.
The only way to obtain really good results is using 'Image depending on sensor' for everything. But there are a lot of restrictions.

Is there a way to use more than 10 (12) images?
Is there a way to create transparent and antialiased fonts?
Is there a way to set a background image for the 'Ploth Graph' and 'sensor' text?

[TheLaGmAn]

Hi Marek,

The issue is not software related but hardware related.
The display does not support double buffering so whatever you draw you overwite whatever was behind, so doing a drawing of numbers on top of a background image, you can never recover whatever a previous number overwrote on a space that now shouldnt be transparent by the new number.

RE the more than 10 images, you could but you would need to use a plugin or use the VisualScripting feature on the sensor, to change two of the images on the fly according to the value of the sensor.
Other option you have is to use TWO of this elements, one for half the image, and the other for the other half of it.

RE the transparent and antialised fonts, what i explained first is why we cant have antialias nor true transparency.

RE "Is there a way to set a background image for the 'Ploth Graph' and 'sensor' text?" is the same issue above, if we would then there is no way to recover the image that was before so we would need to redraw that image and redraw the lines again, which would affect performance a lot.


I know this is probably not what you wanted to hear but the software was designed to try to minimize this issues as much as we can because some things are not possible at all.
We are looking into ways to provide a true double buffered screen that would allow to do all you want to do and more easily but the price jump would be too much to be worth the features it will have, so we are looking into ways to make it price friendly.

Aside from all this, your template looks awesome and i hope you are able to make it work with this caveats.
My tips would be:
1- For the 10 images limit, make four imageSensor elements that would fit exactly the squares you marked down on the 2nd image and play with the min value and max value %, for example, one of the elements you can put min=0%, max=50%, the second, min=50% max 100%.
2- For the digit font, use transparency and put black on the "transparency color" so it would create the digit-clock type of font, on which the non-lighted-up number-parts would appear as black, otherwise you need to use again imagesensors but you will have up to 10 images and the number would go from 0 to 99 so you need 99 images.
The other thing you could try is to make ona imagesensor for each number but you will need to use visualscripting for that because you need to know the first number what it is and the second one for the second imagesensor, probably too much work.

[Marek]

Other option you have is to use TWO of this elements, one for half the image, and the other for the other half of it.

I did it. It works very slowly, even though it's just a copy bitmap operation.

The other thing you could try is to make ona imagesensor for each number but you will need to use visualscripting for that because you need to know the first number what it is and the second one for the second imagesensor, probably too much work.

How can I do this? Could you show me a script?

[TheLaGmAn]

for the imagebars, make sure you only put the parts that will change on them, i see a lot of black on the image, remove all that, make it the smaller it can be, so it draws faster, but if its still slow, split it into more imagebars, also, make sure the image has no "transparency color" since that draws slower.
The way the display works is that it draws everything pixel by pixel, so the bigger the image, the slower it is, doesnt matter if everything is the same color.
Transparency mode for images is slower beacause it has to skip the draw of a pixel that contains a specific color, so thats an additional check. The display has just ~16mhz of speed.


For the numbers with the imagebar, i added a feature to the imagebar so its easier, you can now select to use a specific digit from the sensor as the value for the imagebar.
You will either need to make them "transparent" with the full set of bars the number has as black or create every set with the background that part of the number has.

For the mhz numbers i recommend just using a look-alike font with transparency, since its that small you shouldnt need that antialiasing and transparency should "work" -option "Transparent BG (Partial)-" and set the font background to black, this should create this sort of effect with time

use this beta viewtopic.php?f=3&t=510

[TheLaGmAn]

Also, make sure you are not using any HUB between the display and the PC and try with a different port (avoid front ports) just to test the drawing speed, it could be affected by your computer bandwidth on the port you connected the unit to.

[Marek]

For the mhz numbers i recommend just using a look-alike font with transparency, since its that small you shouldnt need that antialiasing and transparency should "work" -option "Transparent BG (Partial)-" and set the font background to black, this should create this sort of effect with time

Is not possible due to different spacing between the digits of this font.

use this beta viewtopic.php?f=3&t=510

Works, but now there are a new problems.

[TheLaGmAn]

Thats weird, its not happening to me, can you check the logs tab to see if there is any error?

Here is how mine works (check if the speed is the same as you)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ct1f3zsxhjg1 ... 8.mp4?dl=0

(i added a fixed font spacing in the options of the left small sensor text, you need to use a font digit-like to make it work best)

[Marek]

Thats weird, its not happening to me, can you check the logs tab to see if there is any error?

"LCDSysinfo2 - Missing icon name (empty)"

Maybe "use partial value" generates fractional or empty result?

[TheLaGmAn]

the issue can be when the sensor detects 100% as the value, you dont have an icon assigned to that on the imagebar, check it out and add one

[Marek]

the issue can be when the sensor detects 100% as the value, you dont have an icon assigned to that on the imagebar, check it out and add one

So why the sensor at the bottom of the screen disappears?