goonix
25th December 2005, 02:56
In my self created menus I often get an issue when selecting a button, a part of the highlight of the neighbour button will be wrongly shown. The reason is the overlapping of the hotspot rectangles. The highlight pictures can have every shape, but the hotspots must be rectangular. If you have specific ideas for creating your menu, then overlapping of the hotspot rectangles is difficult to avoid.
But PgcEdit provides an opportunity to circumvent this problem.
First, when making the highlight pictures, you have to take care that adjacent buttons, where the hotspots will overlap, have different "basic" colors.
If you use "pattern" for one button highlight, then use "emphasis1" for the adjacent button.
If there is a third button that overlap the first one, you should use "emphasis2" for its highlight picture.
In PgcEdit's menu editor assign the overlapping buttons to different color schemes.
If your first button uses color scheme 1, then the overlapping adjacent button should use color scheme 2.
For the first button (which uses the highlight basic color "pattern") edit color scheme 1.
For selected button choose the color you whish (e.g. yellow) for pattern, then set only the opacity of pattern to 15.
Choose an other color for activated button and set only the opacity for pattern to 15 here too.
For the second overlapping button (which uses the highlight basic color "emphasis1") edit color scheme 2, choose the color you wish (e.g. yellow again) for emphasis1, and set only the opacity of emphasis1 to 15.
Do it similar for selected and activated button.
Now the button highlights are independent among each other.
------------------------
Here are some examples with overlapping buttons. Its not great artwork, but should mainly show the functionality.
http://www.goonix.biz/download/overlap/example1.jpg
In the first example invisible buttons are used to hide parts of the usable button.
Its difficult to explain, just try it.
http://www.goonix.biz/download/overlap/example2.jpg
The second example demonstrates overlapping buttons in a geometrical button arrangement.
Interesting is the effect if you repeatedly press the left/right arrow of the remote.
You can test it using the pad of PowerDVD.
http://www.goonix.biz/download/overlap/example3.jpg
The third example shows overlapping buttons in an isometric (perspective) text.
You can download these examples here: DOWNLOAD (http://www.goonix.biz/download/overlap/overlapping_buttons.rar)
Its only 500k...
You can test it with a software player like PowerDVD.
Then you can look to the button rectangles and color schemes using PgcEdit.
The highlight subpictures can be examined with SubRip or with jeanl's new DVDSubEdit.
I have somewhere read that overlapping buttons are not allowed in the DVD specs. But the examples above were tested in PowerDVD, Media Player Classic, Nero Showtime and two standalone players. And I have seen overlapping buttons in some commercial DVDs too. So it can't be that bad.
goonix
But PgcEdit provides an opportunity to circumvent this problem.
First, when making the highlight pictures, you have to take care that adjacent buttons, where the hotspots will overlap, have different "basic" colors.
If you use "pattern" for one button highlight, then use "emphasis1" for the adjacent button.
If there is a third button that overlap the first one, you should use "emphasis2" for its highlight picture.
In PgcEdit's menu editor assign the overlapping buttons to different color schemes.
If your first button uses color scheme 1, then the overlapping adjacent button should use color scheme 2.
For the first button (which uses the highlight basic color "pattern") edit color scheme 1.
For selected button choose the color you whish (e.g. yellow) for pattern, then set only the opacity of pattern to 15.
Choose an other color for activated button and set only the opacity for pattern to 15 here too.
For the second overlapping button (which uses the highlight basic color "emphasis1") edit color scheme 2, choose the color you wish (e.g. yellow again) for emphasis1, and set only the opacity of emphasis1 to 15.
Do it similar for selected and activated button.
Now the button highlights are independent among each other.
------------------------
Here are some examples with overlapping buttons. Its not great artwork, but should mainly show the functionality.
http://www.goonix.biz/download/overlap/example1.jpg
In the first example invisible buttons are used to hide parts of the usable button.
Its difficult to explain, just try it.
http://www.goonix.biz/download/overlap/example2.jpg
The second example demonstrates overlapping buttons in a geometrical button arrangement.
Interesting is the effect if you repeatedly press the left/right arrow of the remote.
You can test it using the pad of PowerDVD.
http://www.goonix.biz/download/overlap/example3.jpg
The third example shows overlapping buttons in an isometric (perspective) text.
You can download these examples here: DOWNLOAD (http://www.goonix.biz/download/overlap/overlapping_buttons.rar)
Its only 500k...
You can test it with a software player like PowerDVD.
Then you can look to the button rectangles and color schemes using PgcEdit.
The highlight subpictures can be examined with SubRip or with jeanl's new DVDSubEdit.
I have somewhere read that overlapping buttons are not allowed in the DVD specs. But the examples above were tested in PowerDVD, Media Player Classic, Nero Showtime and two standalone players. And I have seen overlapping buttons in some commercial DVDs too. So it can't be that bad.
goonix