update AddAlphaChannel

[nomadsoul]

  hi i've got some probleme with AddAlphaChannel

I have a small programm which allow me to take the output webcam frame into truevision texture. Then the texture is calculated to be in 2 color ( black-white), the result is my futur alpha texture!
In my doloop sub i have this line:

Code:

tvtext.AddAlphaChannel(MyTexture, MyTextureToBlack, "alpha51")
                tv2d.Draw_Texture(globals.GetTex("assassin"), 0, 0, 1024, 512)
                tv2d.Draw_Texture(globals.GetTex("alpha51"), 0, 0, 1024, 512)

                tvtext.DeleteTexture(globals.GetTex("alpha51"))

The programme slow down to 8 FPS! Can it be possible to update my alpha51 texture each frame whitout using addalphachannel.
The programme work nearly 1700 FPS with output webcam texture in tv and nearly 60 FPS for the black-white texture! Any solution to keep it working at nearly 40 Fps
Thanks

2 vids:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xenzy9_ditvar-transparent-effect_tech
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xen0ni_ditvar-v1_videogames

[Lenn]

Create a texture with alpha in the first place, then you won't have to add it every time. Did you miss that, or did I not understand your problem?

[Mithrandir]

Depending on what the format of your data is you can use SetPixelArray to change the alpha of an existing texture. It might be faster ...

[Toaster]

You could always just use a shader..

but ya what lenn said.

-Toaster

[nomadsoul]

look the two vids post previously please! The alphatexture change every frame due to the webcam output !
I can not use setpixelarray, if i use the ".a" value into 0 it not become transparent.
I don't know if shader can be apply on a texture only ( i don't use mesh but just draw2d)

 

[Lenn]

You mean, if you use setpixelarray with all .a values = 0, then nothing is transparent?
How are you creating the array that you are passing to it that way?

[nomadsoul]

this is my code

Code:

tvtext.GetPixelArray(MyTexture, 0, 0, MyBitmapData.Width, MyBitmapData.Height, retwhitecolorarray)
        If alphabutt.Checked = True Or RadioBLT.Checked = True Then
            Dim ut As Integer
            ut = 0
            find = 0

            For ut = 1 To MyBitmapData.Width * MyBitmapData.Height
                ' blackorwhith(ut) = New TV_COLOR
                ' blackorwhith(ut) = globals.DecodeRGBA(retwhitecolorarray(ut))
                blackorwhith(ut) = globals.DecodeRGBA(retwhitecolorarray(ut))
                '  If blackorwhith(ut).r > redvalueup / 255 = True And blackorwhith(ut).g < 75 / 255 And blackorwhith(ut).b < 90 / 255 Then
                If blackorwhith(ut).r > redvaluedown / 255 And blackorwhith(ut).r < redvalueup / 255 And blackorwhith(ut).g > greenvaluedown / 255 And blackorwhith(ut).g < greenvalueup / 255 And blackorwhith(ut).b > bluevaluedown / 255 And blackorwhith(ut).b < bluevalueup / 255 Then

                    blackorwhith(ut) = New TV_COLOR(0, 0, 0, 0)
                    ' blackorwhith(ut).a = 0
                Else
                    blackorwhith(ut) = New TV_COLOR(1, 1, 1, 1)
                    ' blackorwhith(ut).a = 1
                End If

                retwhitecolorarray(ut) = globals.RGBA(blackorwhith(ut).r, blackorwhith(ut).g, blackorwhith(ut).b, 1)
                '  fff((Int(ut / 640) - (ut / 640) * 480), ut / 640) = blackorwhith(ut).r

                If blackorwhith(ut).r = 0 Then
                    find = find + 1
                    whereiswhith(find) = ut
                End If


            Next
 tvtext.LockTexture(MyTextureToBlack, False)
            tvtext.SetPixelArray(MyTextureToBlack, 0, 0, MyBitmapData.Width, MyBitmapData.Height, retwhitecolorarray)
            tvtext.UnlockTexture(MyTextureToBlack, True)

This code show how the black-white texture is created

[Lenn]

Thats kind of confusing to me because I wouldn't do it that way, but why are you setting alpha always as 1?

Code:

retwhitecolorarray(ut) = globals.RGBA(blackorwhith(ut).r, blackorwhith(ut).g, blackorwhith(ut).b, 1)

shouldnt it be like this:

Code:

retwhitecolorarray(ut) = globals.RGBA(blackorwhith(ut).r, blackorwhith(ut).g, blackorwhith(ut).b, blackorwhith(ut).a)

[nomadsoul]

yea when i post my message i see my error i correct it into my game but 0 or 1 doesn't change every think ! only addalphachanel work ! it come from tv2d.drawtexture ? when i set scene.setautotransparentcolor into black , it doesn't work too !

[Lenn]

You don't need AddAlphaChannel.

Look, this:

Code:

tex = TexFact.CreateTexture(256, 256, False, "TexName")
TexFact.AddAlphaChannel(tex, alphatex, "TexNewName")

is same as this:

Code:

tex = TexFact.CreateTexture(256, 256, True, "TexName")

alphatex can be an 8bit texture, or a texture that already has an alpha channel. I am using texture with alpha, and it always works. You can write alpha to the texture using
SetPixel for example.

Code:

Dim ccol as Integer
ccol = Globals.RGBA(0,0,0, YourAlphaValue)

TexFact.SetPixel(tex, x,y, ccol)

tex needs to be locked.

It always works, IF YOU create the texture with HasAlpha = true (read above). So if it doesnt work, you're doing something else wrong. DrawTexture is working just fine.

[nomadsoul]

  i am very very very NUL and newbie i use tv3d for a long time and i have forget
the true when i creat my texture ! Thanks a lot for your help ! Now it run nearly 150 FPS when i render my Transparent texture !

[serial]

I bet it would be worth checking out how to do this in a shader. 
 

[Lenn]

i am very very very NUL and newbie i use tv3d for a long time and i have forget
the true when i creat my texture ! Thanks a lot for your help ! Now it run nearly 150 FPS when i render my Transparent texture !

You are welcome. Read the intellisense a little better, sometimes it pays to just go thru the method list for various tv classes.

I bet it would be worth checking out how to do this in a shader. 

 
In a shader it would be 800 FPS and very easy to do, IF you know how to make them. He's probably happy as it is.

[nomadsoul]

Is it possible to apply a shader on a texture and then render the result with tv2d.drawtexture ? if yes i will use this method because we can make more effect with shader and it's more easy than using my own algorythm on each pixel !

[ZaPPZion]

Take a look at tutorial 20 found here: http://tv3dsamples.blogspot.com/2008/07/arius-tutorials-vb-net.html
It explains how to draw a texture 'fullscreen' with a shader.

[nomadsoul]

"fullscreen" mean without any form ? or mean that it render in all tv3d screen (picturebox) ? the result can be a picture to be save into memory or a file ?

thanks

[ZaPPZion]

it is possible to render to a picturebox as well, so you're fine with going for that approach

[nomadsoul]

I took the tutorial number 21 from "Arius Tutorials VB.NET" call "HLSL Per pixel object".
I have try to implement my own code but it doesn't work. I try to take a texture, create a fullscreenshader and render the result with tv2d.drawtexture. Can you tell me what it's wrong in this code ? ( the shader work well for the cube but not for fullscreenshader)

Code:

Public Class Form1
    Private TV As TVEngine          'This is the main engine class. It's all we require for a blank screen.
    Private Scene As TVScene        'This is used for instantiating resource types - Geometry, Render Targets, Shaders and so on.
    Private TF As TVTextureFactory  'This is for basic texturing functionality
    Private Cube As TVMesh          'This is the mesh that will contain the cube we're going to render.
    Private Cam As TVCamera         'This is a camera
    Private tv2d As TVScreen2DImmediate
    Private Shader As TVShader          'This is our post shader.
    Private Text2D As TVScreen2DText    'We're gonna need some text so we know how much bump is being applied.
    Private Input As TVInputEngine      'We want to +/- the bump amount on keypress, so we need some input.

    Private fTime As Single         'This is our tick value
    Private bLoop As Boolean        'This variable will make sure the program loops
    Private IDDiffuse As Integer    'This is an ID for our texture. You can store a string also, but that's slower.
    Private IDNormal As Integer     'This is an ID for our bump texture. RGB is a normal map, A is a parallax map. I've done it this way to demonstrate that you can pack data in textures. So here we have all of our required bumping information in one sole RGBA texture map - instead of 2 seperate ones.
    Private IDFont As Integer       'This is an ID for our font texture.
    Private survace As TVRenderSurface
    Private fBumpAmount As Single
    Private screen As TVRenderSurface 'This is our bump amount.

    Private Sub Form1_Activated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Activated
        SetupScene(Me.Handle)   'Setup the engine. We need to send the handle of this form, since the engine needs to know where to render to.
        bLoop = True            'Make it possible to run the loop
        Main_Loop()             'Let's execute the main loop
    End Sub

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Me.Show()
    End Sub

    Private Sub Form1_FormClosing(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.FormClosingEventArgs) Handles Me.FormClosing
        bLoop = False           'Stop the loop
    End Sub

    Private Sub SetupScene(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr)
        'Instantiate the classes. NOTE: We do not instantiate geometry in this way.
        TV = New TVEngine
        Scene = New TVScene
        TF = New TVTextureFactory
        Cam = New TVCamera
        Text2D = New TVScreen2DText
        Input = New TVInputEngine
        tv2d = New TVScreen2DImmediate
     
        'Now, lets initialize the engine. It's important to understand that this must be done before any other TV class is used - with the exception of TVDeviceInfo.
        TV.SetDebugFile("c:debug21.txt")  'Set the debug file to the same folder as the program itself. This is very useful, Sylvain is good at catching common mistakes and informing you that you've made them in this files log.
        TV.Init3DWindowed(hWnd, True) 'We want to initialize on our windows handle and we have hardware transform and lighting.

        survace = Scene.CreateRenderSurface(512, 512, True, CONST_TV_RENDERSURFACEFORMAT.TV_TEXTUREFORMAT_A8R8G8B8, "ess")
        Input.Initialize(True, False) 'We don't need the mouse, so we set it to false

        'Load the texture into the integer ID holder
        IDDiffuse = TF.LoadTexture("..\\..\\..\\..\\common\\tv3dlogo_d.dds", "diffuse texture", -1, -1, CONST_TV_COLORKEY.TV_COLORKEY_NO, True)
        IDNormal = TF.LoadTexture("..\\..\\..\\..\\common\\tv3dlogo_n.dds", "bump texture", -1, -1, CONST_TV_COLORKEY.TV_COLORKEY_USE_ALPHA_CHANNEL, True)

        'Create a texture font.
        IDFont = Text2D.TextureFont_Create("font", "consolas", 8, True, False, False, False, True)

        'Set a starting bump amount. We'll start low.
        fBumpAmount = 1

        'Create and load our shader
        Shader = Scene.CreateShader("object_post")
        Shader.CreateFromEffectFile("..\\..\\..\\..\\common\\shaders\\ppl.shade")
        Shader.SetEffectParamVector3("LPos", New TV_3DVECTOR(0, 5, -50)) 'Give the shader a 3-vector, the shader will take this as a light position.
        Shader.SetEffectParamFloat("BumpAmount", fBumpAmount)

        'Now we instantiate our geometry
        Cube = Scene.CreateMeshBuilder("Cube")
        Cube.CreateBox(5, 5, 5, False) 'We create a box of 5x5x5 units.
        Cube.SetTexture(IDDiffuse, -1) 'Apply the texture to the cube
        Shader.SetEffectParamTexture("Normal", IDNormal) 'Set our bump map so the shader can find it. You can do this via semantics, but I wanted to demonstrate SetEffectParam etc.

        'Apply the shader to the mesh.
        Cube.SetShader(Shader)
        'Tell TV we want tangent information etc.
        'Cube.SetLightingMode(CONST_TV_LIGHTINGMODE.TV_LIGHTING_BUMPMAPPING_TANGENTSPACE, 0, 0)


       
        Cam.SetPosition(0, 0, -10) 'We move the camera 20 units back on the Z axis, because the cube is at (0;0;0). So we move it back in order to see it.
    End Sub

    Private Sub Main_Loop()
        Dim iTextColor As Integer = New TV_COLOR(1, 1, 1, 1).GetIntColor()
        While (bLoop)
            fTime = TV.AccurateTimeElapsed()
            'render a frame
            TV.Clear()
            ' Cube.Render()
            tv2d.Action_Begin2D()
            tv2d.Draw_Texture(survace.GetTexture, 0, 0, 512, 512)
            tv2d.Action_End2D()
            Cube.Render()
            TV.RenderToScreen()
            rendersurface()
            UpdateScene() 'Update our scene. We want the cube to spin.
            Application.DoEvents()
        End While
        TV.ReleaseAll() 'if the loop ends, everything needs to be released
        TV = Nothing
        Me.Close()
    End Sub

    Private Sub UpdateScene()
        'Rotate the cube by an amount scaled by our fTime tick variable.
        ' Cube.RotateX(0.00003 * fTime, True)
        ' Cube.RotateY(0.0003 * fTime, True)
        ' Cube.RotateZ(0.000003 * fTime, True)

        If (Input.IsKeyPressed(CONST_TV_KEY.TV_KEY_1)) Then
            fBumpAmount += 0.001 * fTime
            Shader.SetEffectParamFloat("BumpAmount", fBumpAmount)
        End If
        If (Input.IsKeyPressed(CONST_TV_KEY.TV_KEY_2)) Then
            fBumpAmount -= 0.001 * fTime
            Shader.SetEffectParamFloat("BumpAmount", fBumpAmount)
        End If
    End Sub
    Private Sub rendersurface()
        survace.StartRender()

        'tv2d.Draw_Texture(IDNormal, 0, 0, 512, 512)
        tv2d.Draw_FullscreenQuadWithShader(Shader, 0, 0, 512, 512)

        survace.EndRender()
    End Sub
End Class

[ZaPPZion]

Go for the #20 tutorial, that's with fullscreenquad
Or the #22 tutorial, that's also a fullscreen effect.

[nomadsoul]

  thanks, i have found another way (and better), for me i just want to render my webcam output frame into picturebox with tv3d and apply effect then export the result ! I have made a big box that take the all screen apply my output wecam frame as a texture on it. then i can aplly to the box all shader i want and export the result (vertex and pixelshader)! It work better than fullscreenquad. And i can apply light on the box...

Thanks for your help Guys