yes, that's just a storage method, I don't see the link




of course, I too use monochrome planes as light planes, but what's the link with HLS as you originally wrote?

Recoloring bitmaps is only good for things that the user really needs to color (tracks, etc) to identify them.

Ok, I wasn't gonna comment on that screenshot you posted , but now I understand why it's so ugly.
No, textures are generally not synthesized, they're generally photo's, and backgrounds in good-looking UI's generally require lots of layers that would be pretty hard to achieve by code. It's not a wallpaper tile that you repeat behind knobs.

That screenshot you posted would be much better without background texture at all. It's not a problem if you can't draw, all you have to do is to achieve good-looking stuff by simplicity (look at Live, it looks good enough & hardly requires work).
I know I put work in my UI's for the fun of it, but if I couldn't do them or if I had time constraints, I would do with flat, sober stuff (but they're so boring). And I also know that when I started my stuff was butt-ugly (I only wish someone told me).

well planes could be stored in hls or whatever, generally each plane might have any number of sub-planes... we're talking here about either partial synthesis (using layers of samples to create a scalable output sample) or full synthesis (using a full model.)

if the bitmaps could be created in the first place, you could create them in code. it's a simple fact, there is absolutely no reason other than a lack of effort to fully vectorize the graphical parts of a vst. i'm not saying you should: i think for the current market it would be absolutely retarded to try to do so, bitmaps are the proper way to handle the current market. however, the "best" way would be a full graphics synthesizer.

these are all also 100% synthesized:

http://xhip.cjb.net/xhip/releases/xhipgui/limeflavour/lf2.pn g
http://xhip.cjb.net/xhip/releases/xhipgui/branis/branis.png
http://xhip.cjb.net/xhip/releases/xhipgui/standard/standard. png

don't blame me if the first two look bad in your opinion, that's how the artists designed them. branis' could use a bit of work, but again it's a matter of time thing, not a capability thing. the "standard" one is what i prefer, no fancy graphical nonsense. if i had something to work with that looked any better i could do it, it's just nobody has suggested or designed such a thing. i'm a coder, not some homosexual graphics guy.
Last edited by aciddose on Mon Jan 05, 2009 6:54 pm; edited 1 time in total

Sry but no. Metallic/wooden/rust/scratches textures are generally pictures. Some UI's are also fully synthesized, but using complex 3D models & rendering qualities so that too excludes resynthesis on the fly.

Yes you can definitely do good-looking vectorial UI's, there are proves out there, but the best-looking UI's out there are still bitmap ones that no vectorial UI would match.

actually, the first 2 look good (& could be made even better with more artwork [& a better font rasterizer of course]), the last one looks bad (such bevels should be your enemies).

Are you sure the orange panel in the first one isn't a bitmap btw? It definitely can be generated by code, but if you can render text with proper antialiasing, why are the other labels all pixellated?




didn't know you had to be gay to draw UI's
Last edited by tony tony chopper on Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:03 pm; edited 1 time in total

when i was wanting to do my own gui to demonstrate the library these others were made with, i did a search for screenshots of GUIs. the stuff people post here on kvr looks like shit, as well as anything i could find on google. the best looking examples i was able to locate were extremely simple 3d rendered:

http://xhip.cjb.net/temp/public/abl210b.jpg

or cheap looking:

http://xhip.cjb.net/temp/public/poizone2uib.jpg

if you want to rant on about imaginary guis "usually are photographs" that's ok with me, but i'd rather if you actually posted something material.

"graphics gay":

http://www.lifeclever.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/dress_m ac_01.jpg

come on...

Just chimin in to say YES, larger VST gui.

I know you're not criticizing way someone else's fonts look.

I definitely agree and that's why Live-looking UI's should be most people's choice. But that doesn't mean it's the best choice to get the best results.




yes, looks good, but good luck to do that realtime (here we're talking 3D, not flat-vectorial anymore). It would require proper acceleration, and a very good soundcard to achieve good oversampling.





if you're asking for an example, you have one to the right, it's called 'center' (good luck generating such scratches algorithmically)

You guys want an example of a Pro Gui.......................

http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php?mode=show&id=2543#

I really fail to understand how someone can crap out such a nice UI with those ugly little LED switches badly rescaled. Looks like a programmer who destroyed someone else's artwork & shouldn't have been allowed to.

i don't mean this in an offensive way (realizing it might be understood as such after typing it): that looks more cartoonish than usual.. and you're arguing you used photographs to create that gui? that could be easily synthesized, and as you're not using 3d for the knobs they could be created from a single bitmap and rotated in real-time. look at the limeflavour or limeflavour2 guis for xhip to see realtime rotation in action, or actually take a look at this:

http://xhip.cjb.net/temp/public/guitest_coocoo.dll

this is a realtime rotozoomer - unoptimized. using sse2 optimization it could easily be 16x faster. i decided it doesn't need to be. the bitmaps come with alpha-layer of course. with lower detail bitmaps (like your knobs in 'center') you could synthesize those quite easily. when i say "quite" obviously i'm talking about a number of days work on a single knob - but you're supposed to be getting paid for this.

You mean Wave's Center? I have nothing to do with that UI, it was just the most recent example. Here's a shot of mine (that the OP would surely qualify as way too small)





argh rotating bitmaps now, that's an heresy.

Really, better draw a plain circle (Live again) than rotate bitmaps, please.
(& if you really really need to rotozoom, use Intel's IPP)
Last edited by tony tony chopper on Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

Oh of course. It doesn't have a little girl's dancing Anime Doll. No wonder you don't like it at all.

You of all people have no reason to talk. Your FL Studio GUI is Impractical, Unreadable and Plain.

Once again your staggering arrogance and ignorance shines through................
Last edited by Teksonik on Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:30 pm; edited 1 time in total