Re: [Pipmak-Users] Autocubic: my reply to C.Walther

[Christian W. <cwa...@gm...>]

Andrea Viarengo wrote:
> While you will be on the way, if it isn't too difficult to implement,=20
> would be useful (of course... for my target, but probably
> could be useful also for other people)
> another function which able to cut a region inside a patch
> using another picture like a mask (which could be only black and white)=
=2E..
> and the region cut will become transparent.=20
> (off course the patch must be a PNG).

Cutting rectangular holes into images is already possible using the=20
image manipulation support that's currently in SVN (but not in an=20
official release yet). Using other images as masks is not possible yet,=20
but it seems like a good idea. I'll think about it.

> Would be useful also the opposite, i.e.: the possibility of use the
> discarded region: imagine that I make a picture with all the=20
> alphabetic letters inside, I could make a function that write some text=

> on a layer cutting the letters directly from that picture...
> I could change font just changing the picture...=20

I'm not sure you'd still need that when you have the text rendering=20
support that's currently in SVN...

> And what you think about possibility to arbitrary rotate a patch...
> (for now pipmak give us the possibility to flip a patch using
> negative width and height)
> useful for realize some instrumentation like pressure meters, compass,
> clocks and other tools equipped with pointers...

Yes, I agree. I also thought about that when Stefan Gro=DFhauser posted=20
his "Z=FCndapp Underground" - he uses a few pre-rotated images, but being=
=20
able to rotate a patch would probably make things easier and better-looki=
ng.

Of course you'll already be able to do this "by hand" with the arbitrary =

patch corner placement, but a way of specifically setting rotation would =

certainly be useful.

If you'd like to help make this happen, could you propose a=20
specification of how you'd imagine this to work? What methods or=20
parameters would be added, and what would they exactly do? I think=20
finding a nice user interface for this is already half the work, and it=20
can't hurt to have several people take part in the design process -=20
actually implementing it should be quite simple afterwards. This is just =

OpenGL, after all, which doesn't care whether the textured triangles we=20
tell it to render are rotated or not.

  -Christian