ann: Visual plugin brings window to life

The WD14 "Naavi HUD" project has been upgraded to use visual plugins animation.

This is an amazing new feature, that doesn't require the use of "Windows Presentation Foundation" nor the encapsulation of "Windows Media Player" (like when using the WD14 "multimedia" field).

It has a small CPU footprint, to be cooperative with other running applications.



[i][b]Preamble:[/b][/i]

This is a very special project, because it doesn't use any of the built-in WinDev's facilities.

It is based on direct use of the core Windows API, using low level SDK procedural programming style (same as in C), because it is the only way to create a window that is fully compatible with the [size=large]D[/size]esktop [size=large]W[/size]indow [size=large]M[/size]anager of VISTA and SEVEN.

The use of the composited AERO mode allows you to create amazing eye candy, with ultimate speed display, because everything is handled by the [b]GPU[/b] instead of using the conventional CPU.

However, to render everything on the DirectX surface of VISTA and SEVEN, we have to use graphic llibraries, like WinLIFT and GDImage, that are compatible with the latest technology.


[i][b]How to use this project:[/b][/i]

You need a computer with a graphic card, that is AERO compatible

To show you the use of variable opacity, "Naavi HUD", is provided with several backgrounds that you can change on the fly.
To do it, click with the left or right mouse button, on the icon located on the top left of the window, asside the caption title.

The circular gauges rotate the Naavi on herself, and the vertical slider zoom in/out.
You can move the sprite around using the mouse drag and drop.

For the best visual result, you shoud use a [b]dark Windows wallpaper[/b] background.

To start the animation, click on the "Visual plugin" check box, and make sure you are using a transparent background (click on the Naavi icon to select a new one), or check the "Transparent HUD mode". 


[i][b]Audio files:[/b][/i]
You can use any music tracker format (mod, xm, it, mtm, s3m, mo3), and mp3 or ogg audio files.


[i][b]Source code:[/b][/i]

It shows you what is really going on under the hood, without the obscurification of DotNET or C++ classes. Everything is written in pure SDK programming style, with a standard message pump, and a WndProc callback to perform the message cracking.

To ease the portability and compatibility with low level programming languages, the whole API is encapsulated into WinDev code to use exactly the same syntax than C.


[i][b]Skin Engine:[/b][/i]

Because the purpose of this project is to run in [b]transparent HUD mode[/b], Windev's skin can't be used.

Several WinLIFT's theme are stored in the EXE folder, to use/try a specific one, search the code for "[color=#0000CC]// Change the WinLIFT skin theme here:[/color]", and REM or UNREM the name of a specific ".sks" file.

A "sks" file (Skin Style), works like a CSS file for an HTML page.


[i][b]Visual plugin mode:[/b][/i]

The animation is playing in the background, without alteration of the speed of the parent application.

The plugins are stored into the "EXE\Plugin" folder.


[size=large][i][b]To download the WD14 project:[/b][/i] [url=http://www.zapsolution.com/preview/HUDplusWD14.zip]click here[/url][/size]


[i][b]Screen shot:[/b][/i]

[img]http://www.zapsolution.com/pictures/HUDplus.jpg[/img]

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