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Re: [XaraXtreme-dev] Xara's feature

Bulia,

--On 19 February 2007 11:23 -0500 bulia byak <buliabyak@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


On 2/19/07, Alex Bligh <alex@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

You can simulate many of these things using transparency including the
bitmap in question


I really doubt you can efficiently approximate an arbitrary
curvilinear mesh, or even smooth a subdivision lattice like in that
Inkscape screenshot, with nothing but transparency.


You can't simulate an arbitrary mesh with a single level of transparency
(clearly). However, many uses (including most of the photorealistic uses,
which gradient fills simulate), can also be simulated using graduated
transparency (and/or blends, which are really useful here). If you
remember, I'm not arguing they are useless, though!


Indeed. But, like I said, it's a question of general approach more
than lack/presence of specific features. In Inkscape, blur is a
fundamental feature of any object, right next to opacity. In Xara,
feathering is much more "fundamental" than blur if you judge by their
UI accessibility and the order they became available.


Indeed. In Xtreme a "blur" (or other live effect - it could be sharpen,
posterize, whatever) is (essentially) something you apply on top of other
objects, as opposed to a property each object has (a conventional
attribute). The Xtreme mechanism is thus more general in this respect.
You have a "live effects stack" of effects applied to given object(s).


Yes. But blurring allows you to do with much fewer subdivisions and
therefore a smaller file size.


That (file size) not a problem if you calculate the interpolations between
the major divisions on the fly, like blends.


Although, I agree, blurring must be
adaptive so its radius never exceeds the sharpest color transition in
the mesh. If you're creating a crisp edge in the mesh, the blur radius
must automatically decrease and the number of subdivisions
correspondingly increase.


Yep. What I meant was if you calculated them on the fly, you could
get down to 1 screen pixel as the subdivision (assuming we are using
the same terminology for our subdivisions/divisions).

Alex