KnobMan, the VSTGUI AnimationKnob bitmap generator

[kylie]

hi g200kg,

I have the strange tga transparency export bug again. but even more strange I have an installation where it still works fine.

both systems are win2000 ws. there are some differences, though.

buggy machine:

tried knobman 1.25, 1.26, went back to 1.24 and even downgraded to 1.22 yesterday. tga transparency missing. I had to put a gdiplus.dll into the program dir to get it working when I installed knobman earlier. of course there are some other instances of that dll around somewhere on the disk. I put the newest one I could find into the knobman dir.
checked again: no dotnet installed.

when I remove the gdiplus.dll from the folder, it won't start.
I took an older one instead, but the export problem remains.

working machine:

currently running knobman 1.25. exports are fine.
no gdiplus.dll in the program dir, but several instances on the disk. don't know which one is used.
only dotnet 1.1 installed (I found a gdiplus.dll somewhere in the dotnet folder, so I thought it might be worth mentioning).

I don't know if this is relevant at all, but these are the only major differences I've spotted so far.

anything I could try, apart from copying the working installation to the other machine?

-greetings, markus-

[g200kg]

hi g200kg,

I have the strange tga transparency export bug again. but even more strange I have an installation where it still works fine.

both systems are win2000 ws. there are some differences, though.

buggy machine:

tried knobman 1.25, 1.26, went back to 1.24 and even downgraded to 1.22 yesterday. tga transparency missing. I had to put a gdiplus.dll into the program dir to get it working when I installed knobman earlier. of course there are some other instances of that dll around somewhere on the disk. I put the newest one I could find into the knobman dir.
checked again: no dotnet installed.

when I remove the gdiplus.dll from the folder, it won't start.
I took an older one instead, but the export problem remains.

working machine:

currently running knobman 1.25. exports are fine.
no gdiplus.dll in the program dir, but several instances on the disk. don't know which one is used.
only dotnet 1.1 installed (I found a gdiplus.dll somewhere in the dotnet folder, so I thought it might be worth mentioning).

I don't know if this is relevant at all, but these are the only major differences I've spotted so far.

anything I could try, apart from copying the working installation to the other machine?

-greetings, markus-

hello kylie,
hmmm... strange

At least I can say, the gdiplus.dll is NOT used when TGA export
(ya, gdiplus is not support TGA ).

If you dump the exported tga file, you can find following
(almost hard-coded) 18bytes header. xx xx and yy yy is
the size of the image. and next "20 28" means the image has
the alpha channel.

00000000: 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 xx xx yy yy
00000010: 20 28

could you check or send me the exported tga file?

[novaflash]

thanks again for this great tool.

there is too much post to find a reply to my question below,
let me re-post some again

remark :
- layer inversed order vs "classic" photoshop, flash etc

possible? :
- layer renaming
- size in percent -> absolute pixel (useful when working at 1:1 scale)

how to? :
- changing emboss angle

there is a FAQ somewhere ?

thanks,
Eric

[g200kg]

hello Eric,
indeed, thanks for repost

remark :
- layer inversed order vs "classic" photoshop, flash etc

yes, i know. but the downward-foreground is fittable to tree-view style item list (like SkinMan). child should be under the parent and drawn foreground. probably natural when the KnobMan support the tree-view style layer structure in the future.

possible? :
- layer renaming
- size in percent -> absolute pixel (useful when working at 1:1 scale)

renameing: supported in the r-click of the layer list or Menu "Layer - Rename". is that ok?
size by absolute pixel: exactly, i would like to investigate.

how to? :
- changing emboss angle

currently, the embosss cannot be rotated. except for rotating primitive itself. i recommend to use the 'edge hilight' instead (even though a little diffrent looks).

Emboss: an attribute of the primitive. fixed direction for the primitive. rotated if you rotate the primitive.

Edge hilight: an after effect of the rotation. definable direction and constant dir even if you rotate the primitive.

there is a FAQ somewhere ?

somewhere the place i hoping there are....

[novaflash]

@g200kg:
- emboss : i will tweak like you have described.
- all other Q : ok, thanks for the detailed replies.

[Leslie Sanford]

Losing sleep with KnobMan again.



PlainKnob

Basically just fiddling with how to render tick marks.

Also, used a little bit of sand texture on the top layer to add some feel to it.

[Kriminal]

nice

[kylie]

At least I can say, the gdiplus.dll is NOT used when TGA export
(ya, gdiplus is not support TGA ).

ok, but it was worth an inquiry.
is there, btw, a specific search order for the dll if not present in the program directory?
I'd like to know which gdiplus is actually used by knobman to make sure all my installations will use the same resources in case I look for erroneous behaviour (if so) again.

ok, I could use the sysinternals tools or taskinfo to spy on that.

If you dump the exported tga file, you can find following
(almost hard-coded) 18bytes header. xx xx and yy yy is
the size of the image. and next "20 28" means the image has
the alpha channel.

00000000: 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 xx xx yy yy
00000010: 20 28

could you check or send me the exported tga file?

I can verify that the correct export file has a 20 28 in the header. I will check the other file (not in reach currently) for the header entry. or send you the file.

is it generally possible that switching between 2 machines with different versions of knobman and several upgrades in line could have corrupted my .knob file?

I'll do a fresh install on a third machine (also no dotnet) and let you know how about the results.

-greetings, markus-

[duncanparsons]

markus, std win behaviour when looking for a dll (unless specified directly with a LoadLibrary call) is application directory, then it uses the path environmental variable and searches in the order given there (at a command prompt, type set path to see what you have )

DSP

[Leslie Sanford]

Screws. Can make nice accents on the UI's corners.



Philips Screw



Shiny Plain Screw

[grymmjack]

Screws. Can make nice accents on the UI's corners.

nicely er.. screwed

make some rack holes next, and some chrome bar handles

that'd be interesting to see (the chrome handle ears).

is there a central repository of .knobs?

*edit* stupid /quote

[scuzzphut]

a central repository of knobs is a good idea - maybe on Box.net or similar ?

Leslie - ummm, err,..... thanks for the screws

[Christian Budde]

is there a central repository of .knobs?

I have all knobs I used (and done by myself) in the repository of my open source project.

You can find an older "release" of the knobs here
However, I have about twice as much done by now.

Christian

PS: Some have been inspired by other manufacturers. Not sure, whether this is might cause any copyright problem. Though I didn't take screenshots and I do not sell the knobs or creations based on the knobs, so I doublt this is a problem.

[Acrobat]

Screws. Can make nice accents on the UI's corners.

Thanks, Leslie, I was in need of that, maybe I'll change a bit to suit my colors...great work! Obligado

[scuzzphut]

Some of them are very nice, Christian - thanks