Stack with window shape

[lewis]

I am unable to create a stack with a window shape (OS is Windows XP)
although I have followed the tutorial for this. I use PNG images.
I always end up with a grey rectangular area of the initial stack shape as well as the image I am trying to use.
I can't find any way through this. Any help?

[ale870]

Can you post the image you are using?
Try to create a simple black/white image, save in png and set transparency color.

Cheers!

[lewis]

Have downloaded and run stack bouncy.rev
-- Bouncy 1.0, copyright 2003 by Geoff Canyon
-- geoff@runrev.com
-- http://www.runrev.com
-- gcanyon@inspiredlogic.com
-- http://www.inspiredlogic.com
and this has same grey rectangular area of the initial stack shape as well as the Rev logo.
Thus I assume the problem lies somewhere between the Rev application and the windows XP OS
or my graphics drivers.
Does anyone know about this?

[ale870]

Do you mean that neither BOUNCY.REV works for your computer?
Hint: check if your video card is running at 16bit (65536 colors) or 24 (true colors). Better if you can setup your driver to 32 bit (24bit + alpha channel).

Did you update video drivers? Which video card have you?

[lewis]

The Bouncy stack works fine, i.e. it bounces fine, but the stack window shape
is still a grey rectangle (with the rev logo on it), i.e. the transparency needed for shaped
windows ain't there.
I have a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 graphics card, with the most up to date (Windows approved) drivers,
set for (and displaying) 32 bit color.
My various graphics programs display PNG files with transparency.
Whether or not its relevant I have DirextX vers 9.0c.
I am really disappointed that I cannot achieve what Revolution says can be done in a such a simple way.
BTW I've tried and failed also using a GIF file rather than a PNG.

[ale870]

Hello,

First of all: my RunRev version is 4.0.

I created a PNG image (created using GIMP), 640x480 32bit and I saved with compression 1 (minimum), and with transparency color. I created the letter "A" in black.
Then I "Importer as Control" the image file, in the current stack.
Finally I set up the property "Window Shape" with the image loaded in the stack.
It works perfectly.
I attached a zip file containing my PNG image and a REV stack using it.

Try this!

I hope this could help you.

Cheers!

[lewis]

Thanks for your interest ale870, but I'm not getting anywhere.
Heres a screenshot of how your stack displays on my computer.

Screen1.png (18.05 KiB) Viewed 6890 times

Are you running Windows XP?
I think I will make a new post titled windowShape stacks don't work under Windows XP !!??
to see if anyone else has this problem.

[ale870]

I work on Win XP SP2 and SP3. Check your SP.
A funny thing happened: for me the program works, but as soon as I try to make a screen grab, the letter disappear, and I cannot grab it! When grab is completed, the letter appear again!!!

Mystery....

[lewis]

I did a new install of RevMedia 4 on an old, slow (and small screened) computer on my network and
of course stacks with a windowShape looked and worked just fine.
So now I will uninstall the 2 old versions of Rev that i have as well as the new Rev 4 on my main computer
and do a new install of Rev 4. And then will still probably have to face up to the task of a new install of Windows,
or somehow do something about the graphics card driver, or maybe eliminate all references to PNGs in the registry
and hope they will get rebuilt or whatever, - it's all got a bit too tehnical for me.
But if anyone wants to make a suggestion I'm only too happy to try to understand it.