CyberPeter

I can set a StyleName for a particular control, for instance: MyCustomControlDescendant->StyleName = L"Windows11 Modern Light" ; However, this only works if a Style has been applied application wide: TStyleManager::TrySetStyle() (Any Style) Usually I prefer no Style, because Styles do flicker a lot etc. But for a TrackBar for instance, an ugly control, a Style feels appropriate. Sadly assigning one to just the control via StyleName is not possible, unless I first load a style application wide My question, is it possible at all and if so, how ?

My app has a splash screen, but it was created at least 16 years ago (BCB5 I think) and I'm really ready for something else. It's based on two BMP's. One is used as a mask to tell the code what should be transparent. Instead of hurting my (currently covid impaired) head trying to figure out the old code and ancient methods of then, surely VCL Forms and graphic support has evolved to something where this is a lot easier to do ? I recently upgraded to C++ Builder 11 (coming from Builder 2009) I was thinking of finding a graphical artist who can make me a nice *.png that I then use as splash screen. It's far easier to ask someone to make a nice PNG than to describe the need for two BMPs, one of which acts purely as a mask etc. I tried a few things with a free test.png found on the net (artist unknown), but I'm not having the easy success I hoped I'd have. Are there good and easy ways to do this using Builder / Delphi 11 ? I looked around but wasn't very successful in finding documentation. I see Anders has a couple blog posts about it, but that too seems outdated (correct me if I'm wrong). The easy: - I created a Windows VCL test app - Set Form BorderStyle = bsNone - Plonked a TImage on the form (Align = allClient) - Loaded the test.png in Image1's Picture at design time - Compiled. Works nicely but of course the form color shows where the PNG is transparent - I then set the Form background to MoneyGreen, TransparentColor = true, TransparentColorValue = clMoneyGreen - Compiled. Nice result but the PNG half transparent regions blend with the green color, and are hence not blending with the background. - The net result is sadly not perfect. It was simply too easy 😉 I made this screenshot on a white background. If I set AlphaBlend = true and give it an AlphaBlendValue = 100 (for instance) there are certainly very nice additional features to play with: Now, this doesn't need to be total failure. - I could experiment with different Form background colors and see how they interact with the half transparent fields of the PNG. Perhaps the net result is pleasing. - I could ask the artist to make me a transparent PNG but with well defined edges that don't blend, that are not half transparent. In conclusion, as far as super easy methods go, this certainly is not a bad start if a good color compromise can be found for the blending issues and/or depending on the PNG. But ... perhaps I'm missing quite a few things that can be done to achieve a perfect result ? Please let me know. Thanks. The test.png also attached:

I just implemented displaying *.svg files via TSkSvg but I'm glad I fairly quickly found out that by doing so the application doesn't start anymore on all the older Windows OS (via VM). Is there a requirement I'm not aware of ? A dependency ? Where is this documented ? I looked here: https://docwiki.embarcadero.com/Libraries/Athens/en/Vcl.Skia I see no mention of dependables ? What am I missing ?

c++Builder 12.2 I finished an implementation where I load pictures from a proprietary source into a TImage instance. Image->Picture->LoadFromStream(Stream) This works well and during testing I found I could render following file formats without a problem on my W11 development system bmp, jpg, png, wmf, emf, webp, gif, ico, tif, cr2, erf, raf, 3fr, dcr, dng, mrw, nef, orf, raw, pef, srw, sr2 However, while testing on older OS (VM) I noticed a lot of the fancier formats above do not work. Only the basic ones: bmp, jpg, png, wmf, emf, gif, ico and tif 1. I'm guessing TImage uses system installed resources to render images ? Which ones ? How does that work ? What do other applications install for TImage to be able to use them 2. Is there a way to get a list out of TImage that lists the supported files on the system the exe is running on ?

Understood. So both TBitmap and TGIFImg take TImage.Transparent in account. From testing it looks like native Icon, PNG, tiff, wmf, and WIC support ignore this setting. For jpg I'm not even sure right now whether I use VCL or WIC (to be tested)

I had a minute today, too curious to let this be. I found an issue in my Stream and after I fixed it, the GIFs render fine with your component @Anders Melander Except perhaps that the background is not transparent for one of the GIFs. Left is via WIC, right is via GIFImg You see this too ?

The link still works for me too

Thanks @Anders Melander, I will double check on Monday. I tried to finish too many things in the last few hours of the week. I now also build a list of WIC registered codecs. It's possible I made a mistake. Weird though that all the other formats work without issues. Only (embedded) GIF has an issue at the moment. The Offset is definitely set to 0 (not on my dev system, so can't check, but pretty sure). I'll put some breakpoints on Monday and will check my custom stream that pulls the data from various sources.

@Anders Melander Just signing off, Friday evening down under. I quickly included GIF again and built in 32bit and 64bit (Modern) LoadFromStream() seems to throw an exception after testing the first two bytes (I think - checked in haste) removing the include fixes the issue (use of WIC instead)

If I include GIFImg, Image->Picture->LoadFromStream() throws an exception on the two GIFs tried (Passed via a custom Stream) If I don't include GIFImg, all GIFs tested work fine, assuming WIC was used.

Will check the WIC API functions, thanks. FYI I experimented with built in GIF support but I have already disabled it again //#include <Vcl.Imaging.GIFImg.hpp> // For TGIFImage because WIC does a better job on the images that I tested

Interesting, thanks @vfbb For the time being at least I have completely disabled support for *.svg since I don't want to statically link to a third party dll. But good to know.

I arrived at this first iteration code: { String formats; static const TGraphicClass graphicClasses[] = { __classid(TBitmap), // BMP __classid(TJPEGImage), // JPG __classid(TPngImage), // PNG __classid(TMetafile), // WMF, EMF __classid(TIcon), // ICO __classid(TGIFImage), // GIF __classid(TWICImage), // TIF, TIFF }; constexpr int numClasses = sizeof(graphicClasses) / sizeof(graphicClasses[0]); for (int i = 0; i < numClasses; i++) { String mask = GraphicFileMask(graphicClasses[i]); if (!mask.IsEmpty()) { // Remove "*." from extensions mask = StringReplace(mask, L"*.", L"", TReplaceFlags() << rfReplaceAll); if (!formats.IsEmpty()) formats += L";"; formats += mask; } } return formats; } which reliably provides me this list: L"bmp;jpg;jpeg;png;emf;wmf;ico;gif;tif;tiff" which I can use to decide on providing a picture for a file or not Although I might as well hard code these since they are built in anyway I am not seeing the @Anders Melander mentioned external WIC extensions. Any idea how to get to those ? GraphicFileMask() on the WIC class only adds tif and tif @Remy Lebeau I suspect *.webp, just like cr2, erf, raf, 3fr, dcr, dng, mrw, nef, orf, raw, pef, srw, sr2 (and perhaps more) on my system are supported via mentioned external WIC class ? I just need to find a way to build up a list

> I would also unregister the TWICImage class (see UnregisterFileFormat) as support for all the formats it support might not be a good thing. All the formats will just confuse your users. It's not a picture viewing program as such. More of an extra feature if the functionality is available for that type picture (user needs to jump through hoops to get there). Example: So I will try to build a list of supported extensions on that system and use that list to make the functionality available for that file (or not) using this suggestion: > Calling GraphicFileMask(TGraphic) from Vcl.Graphics will give you a list of supported extensions.  Though I still need to figure this out ?

> Only when these units are used in your application the corresponding file extensions will be supported.  I seem to have support for all of them, but ok I will also explicitly include them: #include <Vcl.Imaging.GIFImg.hpp> // *.gif #include <Vcl.Imaging.jpeg.hpp> // *.jpg, *.jpeg #include <Vcl.Imaging.pngimage.hpp> // *.png > svg, webp and wbmp in Vcl.Skia I have fully disabled Skia again because I don't want to statically link an extra dll #if defined BUILD_WITH_SKIA #include <System.Skia.hpp> #include <Vcl.Skia.hpp> #endif However *.webp works for me, loaded in TImage btw, so I don't see the relationship with Skia ?

Thanks guys, I'll check it out tomorrow (signing off now, down under) > For example, include the pngimage unit for PNG support, the jpeg unit for JPEG support, etc. Is this not implied if I use TImage ? Since it supports those formats via the different graphics classes that it supports (png, bmp, jpg, wmf, ico)

I wish the dll would not be statically linked. That would allow inclusion of all functionality and if the dll is not present, the functionality would simply not work (similar to an unsupported file being loaded)

I see. I'll look into it. And it is fully 'legal' to bundle this dll with an application ?

I did not deploy a dll no. The documentation did not mention the need for a dll. Where do I find this dll ?

Hi, yes VCL, c++ Builder 12.2 Adding everything and making it work on my system was easy, but I did not expect the program to crash on startup on every other system I tested. It only works on my W11 development system

I recently upgraded my old C++ Builder 2009 to C++ Builder 11. It was time .. and I wanted to make use of the new GUI improvements (Styles, Scaling, High DPI etc). GUI stuff in other words. To that end I spent a lot of money to get a license. Everything is relative, but to me this is the biggest investment in quite some time and the biggest software investment ever. I have always been happy with Builder 2009 and yes, there were some issues that I had to work around, but not too many. Since I have upgraded I have already reported close to 20 bugs. Never ever did I have to .. It's also making me nervous as to when these things will get fixed, if at all, as it impacts my work. The silver lining at least was that my bugs triggered interaction. I saw them being escalated to development or they were assigned to me again to provide more information. All that has stopped in the last few weeks. For all the last bugs there has been zero interaction. Nothing, as if nobody cares. The GUI work involves custom controls for which I need the help files, to be able to apply the Styles properly etc. In itself already poorly documented but for 3 weeks now docwiki has predominantly been unavailable. There are already other posts about that, so I won't get into the specifics of that, but it adds to what looks like a systemic failure. - Many bugs in the very features they're touting about and that convinced me to upgrade - Nothing appears to be done about it, nobody seems to care - Docwiki offline, nothing seems to be done about it, nobody (at embarcadero) seems to care The person most responsive in QA before and who has not responded anymore has a Ukrainian name. Perhaps coincidence, perhaps my paranoia but how exposed is Embarcadero development and support to Ukraine. Is this the reason for all the recent issues ? If so, communicating about it would at least renew confidence. All this nonsense would not be necessary if they would just COMMUNICATE about the issues (docwiki for instance). The silence only feeds the idea of a failing company or at least a failing product and I feel bad for having invested my time and money in this at this stage. My 'happy life' with Builder 2009, the type of work I'm doing with it and the low exposure to issues may have made me blind to something that is well known and has been happening for years ? I don't know ? Maybe I shouldn't worry because this is business as usual ? In which case I wish I had done my homework though.

Thanks for the update. All I needed to know. Cheers.

FYI: Using C++ Builder 12.1 I tried to compile icsv8w: IcsVclCB110Run.cbproj and IcsCommonCB110Run.cbproj which now fails This still worked OK using C++ Builder 12 PS. I only need the run time stuff, not the design time stuff. I link to the *.hpp and *.o / *.obj files To the point: So I downloaded this version (9.2) and notice the packages for C++ are generic ? No version number ? I built: icsv92\Packages\IcsCommonCBNewRun.cbproj icsv92\Packages\IcsVclCBNewRun.cbproj successfully, using C++ Builder 12.1 But .. there are no *.hpp files emitted ? Libs are created (*.o and *.obj) but they seem 'light' in number and size (not tried to link in anything yet since I don't have the *.hpp files) No c++ support yet ? Not to mention support for the 64 bit 'Modern' build toolset.

Just FYI I installed C++ Builder 12 yesterday (fresh install, no settings borrowed from earlier versions) I built again and get the exact same error.

I was counting on the fact that v12 would have the same VCL styles as v 11 ? I mean they can add styles, but remove them ?? This introduces all sorts of problems since I store the selected style in user settings, and if I need to use different styles in a new build I will have to deal with that. In v11 I use: but they are not available in v12 ? v12 features: instead, which are not the same styles.