Arista

Has anyone else ever encountered this problem:

If you place two differently-colored graphical elements too closely together in the TGA file, then sometimes the colors will "bleed" together when one of the elements is displayed in the UI.

The element displays correctly but there is a "hint" of the other color in the element. This can happen even if there is a 2-pixel space between the elements in the TGA file. I've found that placing the elements at least 4 pixels apart in the TGA will prevent the color bleeding from happening.

Is this normal, or is there something else I can do to without having to space out the elements? I like to pack my elements closely together, so I can fit more stuff in the same TGA file.

__________________
Arista
Former Enchanter of The Seventh Hammer
TimerMod - Timer Utility for EverQuest UI

Cormanth

This quite possibly has to do with your Alpha (transparent) Channel. I believe if you have anti-aliasing enabled, it sort of feathers the edges of your transparency, allowing neighboring colors to softly bleed through.

I could be completely wrong, since I'm more of a programmer than a graphics guru. But this has been my experience anyway.

-Cormanth

Woody

Some other force must be affecting the image (like the aliasing Cormanth referred to). I have colored images that sit directly beside each other with no space period and I don't have this issue.

My advice: check your settings.

__________________
Woody Hearn - cartoonist
GUComics.Com

Arista

Well, it turns out that there was nothing wrong with the image after all. I loaded up the exact same UI on another machine, and it looked just fine. So it was just that one machine that exhibited the color bleeding problem.

As mod/skin developers, should we account for the possibility that the user's machine has this problem, and space out the images accordingly in the TGA files? Otherwise, it is possible that our mod/skin will not display properly on those machines. I, for one, will be ensuring a 4-pixel spacing between differently-colored elements, just so the images look right on my own machine.

(BTW in case anyone is interested, the problem machine uses a GeForce3. Since that's a fairly common video card, and I haven't heard any other reports of this problem, it's probably not a factor in why the problem occurs.)

Anyone out there that has seen this problem, or know what causes it?

Edit: I did check the image settings as suggested, and confirmed that there was no anti-aliasing on the selection. Since the image looks fine on other machines, I'm now assuming that the image itself is OK.

grottel

you didn't mention what resolution your displays are at??

Arista

Both machines are running EQ at 1024 x 768.