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Is using a Mask necessary and why?

lionheart

lionheart

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us-arizona
Hey guys,


I am having some troubles with my analogue dial gauges in my MFD EICAS. Not showing up as well as killing the gauge.

One thing I do not have is a mask.

So, my question is... Is a mask required? and why? What do they really do?


Many thanks for any input for this old kindergardner..


Bill
LHC
 
lionheart said:
Hey guys,


So, my question is... Is a mask required? and why? What do they really do?

LHC
Click to expand...

A mask is a kind of image in which those pixels with an RGB value of 1,1,1 are treated as transparent, instead of a standard bitmpat (with transparent=true implicit) that recognizes transparency as 0,0,0.

The idea of a mask is precisely to make visible selected areas of combined bitmaps that form a complex gauge like MFD, EADI, etc. This may be important in C gauges, where masks are usually applied over the background image

In XML you can avoid the use of masks, because a gauge does not need to have a defined background, and the display order of the images is given by the position of elements within.


Tom
 
Man Tom,

Great explanation. Many thanks.

I was wondering why some objects can have masks, yet I can just drop in font without a mask. Had me wondering how or why that would work.

I have noticed that compass roses and the like (PFD's) have masks. That pretty much explains it.


Bill
LHC
 
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