View Full Version : Blur / Bluring
Two kinds spring to mind:
1) a blur restricted to an area defined by, say, a mask. So if you have transparent areas in your skin, you can blur the image underneath.
2) a fullscreen blur. So when a dialog pops up you can have everything behind it blurred.
I have no idea if any of this is possible, but obviously Compiz uses it in Linux.
jmarshall
2008-07-19, 03:18
I think it would be doable but it'd be a property of the image (i.e. specified in terms of how it renders on to the background). You could then do a fullscreen blur by placing an image over the whole screen.
d4rk had some ideas a while back on this - no idea how far they were taken.
Cheers,
Jonathan
d4rk basically said it would be opengl specific and would nto work on the xbox because the graphics crad was too old
Much as I don't like driving a wedge between the old and the new, is that a reason not to do it?
jmarshall
2008-07-21, 00:35
Nope - xbox build will eventually be retired at some point anyway, though I'm sure a blur effect would be possible on xbox, just a bit more work.
What sort of blur are you wanting exactly?
eg just a simple gaussian 3x3 blur or something more sophisticated? Would/could it be animated? What sort of other effects of a similar kind (blur I presume is done by reading from the current screen buffer and writing back into it?) would be wanted?
I'm not really up to speed with GLSL shaders, so if anyone has any ideas/code snippets/whatever then speak up. I'm willing to give it a go one rainy weekend if someone is willing to do a bit of groundwork to get me some info to look at :)
Cheers,
Jonathan
Some quick mockups:
http://www.aeonproject.com/dropbin/aeon_alphablur2.jpg
http://www.aeonproject.com/dropbin/aeon_alphablur3.jpg
http://www.aeonproject.com/dropbin/aeon_alphablur6.jpg
jmarshall
2008-07-21, 01:11
How are you applying said blur - there seems to be quite a bit of weight applied to the last one - how "wide" is the blur in that case? Any idea on what (photoshop I'm assuming) it's using to do the blurring?
Cheers,
Jonathan
Photoshop indeed. That's using the "lens blur" filter, which gives away few clues as to the underlying process. To be honest, though, I'm sure even the most basic gaussian blur would work wonders. The effect in those shots is more about the combination of blur and texture than just the blur. Aeon's textures were designed with it in mind from the start, tbh.
I'd disregard the weight of effect used above - I just pulled up a filter and mashed in any old settings.
Just for the record 9T9 wanted this effect a long time ago as well (the main reason d4rk looked into it originally if I recall) So I'm all for said effect being added as well
rwparris2
2008-07-21, 07:30
I'm not a skinner but an animated blur effect would be great.
I'm all for eye-popping awesomeness on our already great skins.
Gamester17
2008-07-21, 12:45
I'm not really up to speed with GLSL shaders, so if anyone has any ideas/code snippets/whatever then speak up. I'm willing to give it a go one rainy weekend if someone is willing to do a bit of groundwork to get me some info to look at :)Does the Xbox/XDK not support DirectX HLSL shaders?, (Vertex/Pixel Shader Model 2.0 right?), ...I understand that OpenGL GLSL shaders can be converted into DirectX HLSL shaders for Microsoft Direct3D API and vice versa.
HLSL2GLSL - library and tool that converts HLSL (High Level Shader Language) shaders to GLSL (OpenGL Shading Language)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HLSL2GLSL
SHARK (Shader Assembly Compiler) - a tool to perform conversion from DirectX 9 pixel shader assembly language into C++ code
http://dxshark.sourceforge.net/
AMD/ATI GPU ShaderAnalyzer - Support for both Open GL GLSL and DirectX HLSL
http://ati.amd.com/developer/
gDEBugger - OpenGL debugger and Profiler (helping to find bugs and optimize performance)
http://www.gremedy.com/
KAGEfx - a framework to load shader programs based on the OpenGL Shading Language contained within an XML file that holds descriptive metadata about the shader and to replace shader modules on-the-fly with respect to their level-of-detail metadata.
http://christian.helmich.free.fr/kirin/kagefx/index.php
???
jmarshall
2008-07-21, 13:29
The xbox has pixel shaders v1.1
It only supports them via assembly as far as I'm aware.
I definitely would like to see this. Would a great for use on dialog windows.
created a trac ticket for this:
http://xbmc.org/trac/ticket/5453
minimalko
2008-12-08, 00:09
created a trac ticket for this:
http://xbmc.org/trac/ticket/5453
Thought it was already on trac. Thanks for doing it.
I searched for blur, and couldn't find any. But if there already wore a ticket... then I'm sorry.
found some blur GLSL code that might be useful:
http://www.ozone3d.net/tutorials/image_filtering.php
I added it to the trac-ticket (http://www.xbmc.org/trac/ticket/5453) as well.
Nmarconi
2009-05-07, 05:46
Gaussian blur at 3-5 would be cool - better if we can select the amount. Here is an example of a concept i am going to attempt to base a skin on. I added gaussian blur at 4.5 to this mockups (in photoshop). It adds a very nice touch. The mockup is very rough - i was just creating it and hoping the ability to blur was going to be added so i searched the forums and found this thread.
at 4.5
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4759/blurwatchmen.jpg
at 8
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1522/blurwatchmen08.jpg
at 15
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/201/blurwatchmen15.jpg
ethan_9219
2009-05-07, 06:09
Gaussian blur at 3-5 would be cool - better if we can select the amount. Here is an example of a concept i am going to attempt to base a skin on. I added gaussian blur at 4.5 to this mockups (in photoshop). It adds a very nice touch. The mockup is very rough - i was just creating it and hoping the ability to blur was going to be added so i searched the forums and found this thread.
at 4.5
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4759/blurwatchmen.jpg
at 8
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1522/blurwatchmen08.jpg
at 15
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/201/blurwatchmen15.jpg
Looks nice!
Nmarconi
2009-05-17, 15:58
Hello,
Is no one with knowledge of pixel shaders willing to help on this one? I am not too familiar with gpu/pixel shading, but I'll try to work through it if no one else has the time/interest. I found this article which seems to make decent arguments and provides some HLSL code for Gaussian blur including some interesting tidbids about a brightness issue and optimization.
http://theinstructionlimit.com/?p=14
A blur effect would be great. Additionally, a hue/saturation effect would also be very useful.
Arcanthur
2009-05-18, 06:57
Add me to the list of designers that craves blur functionality. :nod:
here is a small POC vid of a fullscreen blur i did using the Python Imaging Library default blur,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B50RnCwNPe4&feature=fvsr
it's not the best blur but i think you can see what a blur animation would look like:)
here is a small POC vid of a fullscreen blur i did using the Python Imaging Library default blur,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B50RnCwNPe4&feature=fvsr
it's not the best blur but i think you can see what a blur animation would look like:)
Cool, any way to adjust/increase the blur?
here is a small POC vid of a fullscreen blur i did using the Python Imaging Library default blur,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B50RnCwNPe4&feature=fvsr
it's not the best blur but i think you can see what a blur animation would look like:)
Ive done a similar effect but more blurryer. I havent used the PIL library only due to the fact I wasnt sure about the xbox/linux etc support side of things. However since my process involves taking a screenshot and i assume yours. Then any mouse pointers will be grabbed in your screenshot and thus blurred. I havent tried hiding the mouse yet before takign the screenshot and re-enabling after tho.
At the moment my python code stands at summin like 5 lines and rest is done in the xbmc skin engine.
Due to the fact alot of the work is done in the skin engine this can slow down xbmc quite a bit in some cases. But i have a idea how to optimise but my python skills are near to zero. So will keep at it untill i know enogh :grin:
How many people actually use a mouse to navigate xbmc anyway?
..definitely a cool proof of concept. I'd love to see this with more blur though.
How many people actually use a mouse to navigate xbmc anyway?
..definitely a cool proof of concept. I'd love to see this with more blur though.
*rising hand*
I would like to use a mouse to navigate XBMC with Aeon, but unfortunately the mouse support is far away of being good. The mouse cursor in XBMC behaves spongy.
In other Media Players e.g. Zoom Player the Mouse support is exemplary :nod:
*rising hand*
I would like to use a mouse to navigate XBMC with Aeon, but unfortunately the mouse support is far away of being good. The mouse cursor in XBMC behaves spongy.
In other Media Players e.g. Zoom Player the Mouse support is exemplary :nod:
Thats because like you said they are media players they are ment to be used sitting at your PC with a keyboard and mouse. XBMC is a media center it meant to be used on a tv sitting back in your couch with a remote control
Cool, any way to adjust/increase the blur?
i think you can but as this is the 1st time i have played with it i'm not 100% on what can be done...
here is a link to the Python Imaging Library site
http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/
However since my process involves taking a screenshot and i assume yours.
yep it is done by taking a screenshot :grin:
Using python to do things like this in xbmc is ok for proof of concepts but i would not use it in a released skin as python is not 100% reliable, as we can see from using the Weather & RecentlyAdded scripts....
i think you can but as this is the 1st time i have played with it i'm not 100% on what can be done...
here is a link to the Python Imaging Library site
http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/
yep it is done by taking a screenshot :grin:
Using python to do things like this in xbmc is ok for proof of concepts but i would not use it in a released skin as python is not 100% reliable, as we can see from using the Weather & RecentlyAdded scripts....
on the other hand the usage of blurring absolutely improves focussing onto a certain spot on screen (like dialogs, selected thumb in a wall view or a picture wall). man it would even improve your recently added concept of showing the last 5 entries by blurring the backdrop ;)
i would love to see that being available to the skin engine as an animation or image altering tag that can be combined with "xxx.has.focus"
hence my bump..
:;):
The-Boxhead
2009-09-22, 12:56
didnt notice this topic until now :)
But yeah bluring in the skinning engine would be an awesome adition and
open up for some new cool eyecandy in the skins.
Regretfully i cannot help in the programming depertment of this :(
Gaussionblur would be my preffered blur type since it's the most versatail of all the blur effects.
minimalko
2009-09-22, 13:57
here we go again bumping the old thread..