here is a small overlay program that can be used to cover portions of the screen when you record a replay or broadcast a tournament, for example. in can also work for any other purposes outside BW (e.g. SC2, CS, QUAKE) etc.
it only runs on windows but probably on a lot of different versions of the os. tested on xp-x86 and vista-x64. not tested on wine but there is a big chance its broken there due to api incompatibility and bugs.
i'm also pretty sure that most definitely there are alternatives of this out there :-).
[q]: why use this when bitmaps can be placed in multi-cam software like VHMultiCam ? [a]: this is a very efficient yet simple alternative written in c (+ some asm to cut a couple of corners). if you have a lets say 10y/o machine you might find that VHMultiCam is actually quite resource hungry. on the other hand you can possibly run 100 instances of this program and still be under 1% cpu (for single frame images).
[q]: how to load images and use transparency ? [a]: supported image formats (since 0.52) are BMP/GIF/PNG/JPEG. you can check for a short example in the [extras] sections of the "readme.txt" file on how to load images with transparency.
[q]: it says that it cannot load an image ? [a]: probably there is something wrong with the image format. try to open the file in an image editor (like ms paint, photoshop, image ready) and save the image as a new file.
[q]: why do the colors look bad for some animated GIFs ? [a]: this should be a similar answer to the one above.
[q]: when i set transparency the overlay disappears with VHScrCap or Xsplit ? [a]: bcoverlay uses very simple winapi methods to make use of transparency. it also depends on what the capturing software is doing. for example CamStudio _does_ capture transparent windows. edit: looks like VHScrCap has an option which enables that "Config -> Settings -> Capture layered windows".
[q]: how efficient is it ? [a]: it is quite efficient for a static overlay, but rendering animated images (multiple frames) is a cpu heavy operation.
[q]: does it support unicode and different languages ? [a]: it is an unicode application essentially and "should" work with all languages, but i have only tested with latin / cyrillic. one of the downsides of this is that it consumes more ram per instance (~2mb) thus the current maximum number of characters is limited to 512.
[q]: why keyboard shortcuts instead of a settings panel ? [a]: i think there should be less configuration windows and panels popping out during a stream, so most overlay controls are accessible with shortcut keys. its very easy to get used to the controls.
[q]: i find it a bit difficult to prepare my overlay setup each time ? [a]: bcoverlay allows command line scripting. each overlay which is currently on the screen has a command line accessible via f5. a list of command lines can be stored in a cmd or bat file and executed later. please check the included files "set_start.cmd" and "set_kill.cmd" for an example.
[q]: where to report bugs ? [a]: you can report in this thread for now. if not check the "readme.txt" for contact info. please specify OS/ CPU and steps to reproduce.
[q]: source code ? [a]: i may release it eventually. it is quite a mess and needs some cleanup. (edit). ------------------------ download (v.0.52): http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28720954/bcoverlay.zip
thanks for the comments. @ byFd: bc means "BasiC" i guess. "boverlay" project name was already taken last time i've checked via google.
here is a quick update. the download link in the first posts now points to version 0.2. changelog: - f5 - will show all settings in the form of a command line, so that such can be reused later on if copy/pasted to a cmd prompt or in a batch script. - double click right mouse button - duplicates the window with all its settings (except multiline text) - double click left mouse button - closes the window
notice: the new duplicate functionality might trigger a false-positive in AV software. let me know if this is the case, specifying the AV program (+vendor) and possibly if a heuristics engine is active.
I used this today (Version 0.2) and appreciate the release. From my attempt to use it, noticed the following things:
1. Changing the color (F3 or F4) also seems to update the text in this version to the color that was set. So - if I have "Player VS Player" and then change the text color to white, it would now read "FFFFFF".
2. Double clicking on it shouldn't close it, I think. It is too easy to accidentally do so and it happened to me twice using this. I think it would be more user friendly for a double click to simply pop-up the text editor as it is more likely one wants to edit text rather than close it?
On May 15 2011 13:07 [-Bluewolf-] wrote: I used this today (Version 0.2) and appreciate the release. From my attempt to use it, noticed the following things:
1. Changing the color (F3 or F4) also seems to update the text in this version to the color that was set. So - if I have "Player VS Player" and then change the text color to white, it would now read "FFFFFF".
oops, that was a bug. fixed in the link in first post now (0.2a).
2. Double clicking on it shouldn't close it, I think. It is too easy to accidentally do so and it happened to me twice using this. I think it would be more user friendly for a double click to simply pop-up the text editor as it is more likely one wants to edit text rather than close it?
Thanks again for the application!
yes, you are correct - "edit text" is more intuitive for double left click. i though that it might be way to easy to close unintentionally....option is now present like you suggested in 0.2a. -- edit: p.s. if someone records a vod when using this overlay solution, please post a link for everyone to check out.
v.0.3 180511 - added basic support for bitmap loading and resize - f6 toggles text visibility - added f12 key to toggle fullscreen
to load an image: 1) save it as BMP format in the folder where bcoverlay is located. for example "image.bmp" 2) start a bcoverlay instance and press F7 3) enter "image.bmp" without the quotes 4) press F7 again -> image should load 5) to hide the image press F8
please, note that F12 will simply stretch the overlay to fit the desktop. more general info in the "readme.txt" file
size of the executable is still under 25kb (can be brought down more)
v.0.4 200511 - overlay now accepts drag&drop of bmp files - f9 matches window to image dimensions - f10 toggle disable window mouse events - f11 locks overlay position and dimensions - various small fixes
loading an image will always fit the current window size. if ` (tilde) is pressed the window size will match the loaded image size. (edit)
note on f10 vs f11 from "readme.txt":
[6] the difference between f10 and f11 is that f11 will lock the position and dimensions of the overlay, but it will still be accessible to mouse and keyboard. f10 will disable mouse events for this window and it will only be accessible from the task bar (or task manager). this may also make the window non visible to recording software that does not capture transparent or "layered" windows.
an example for using f10 is when an overlay is placed near the edge of broodwar in w-more. with mouse events for the overlay disabled, mouse scroll in the game screen for example will work _bellow_ the overlay.
Great work. The only thing I was concerned about was not being able to lock the overlays, but now that's fixed :D I'll be using this in my casts today and tomorrow to see how it goes ^^
Edit: double-click to edit text seems to be broken in the new version. F2 still works.
It would appear that using the & symbol between characters makes it vanish. It will appear only if there are one or more &'s placed beside it. - http://www.justin.tv/nanashina/b/286345235 I toy around with it at around the 1:54:00 mark
thanks for the bug reports. @nanashin issue fixed in v0.4b:
v.0.4b 230511 - fixed issues with prefixes in text such as "&". - some window position optimizations. - improved positioning of multiline text in overlay. - moved the command "f9 matches window to loaded image dimensions" to the " ` " key (usually the same key as ~ tilde). - added basic functionality to change font via f9 and the command line.
tip: to change the font press f9, enter any font name from the windows "fonts" folder (e.g. Times New Roman, Verdana, Courier New) and press f9 again.
hello, here is another small update (v.0.42, link in first post):
v.0.42 270511 - added proportional resize when holding shift key and resizing edge - added ctrl+z to undo the last move / resize - removed case sensitivity for letter shortcuts - other small fixes
the undo is very primitive at this stage. can be extended later on to restore all parameters up to a number of undo stages.
assuming that a caster does not change his streaming settings much (e.g. vscrcap rectangle is fixed for all casts), basically once you have created your overlay setup as well, go trough all the overlays, press f5 and copy the command line to a new cmd file (e.g. myset0.cmd) and save it where "bcoverlay.exe" is.
example:
this example creates a nice overlay setup (but note that it places the score board near the 0, 0 coordinate).
^ changing the numbers in the end of the cmd line will change the x, y coordinates. if you want to shift the entire score board to the 50, 50 coordinate simply add 50 to all the numbers. becoming 50, 50; 50, 66; 150, 66...etc more info on cmd line can be found in "readme.txt"
I seriously have to say that I absolutely love this overlay program of yours and have used it quite a lot in the past four or five months.
Not sure if you're still around or even tinkering with BCoverlay anymore, but if you are, is there any possibility of you making future iterations of the overlay support gif, namely the animated sort?
v0.52 161011 - added support for more image formats PNG/GIF/JPEG/BMP (+ image animation) - added copy / paste functionality for the overlay text - reduced render flickering - executable size inflated to ~600 kb due to new functionality
the default performance hasn't changed, but rendering of multi-frame images (e.g. animated GIF) is a resource hungry operation in general. all memory is released properly and also i've tried optimizing as much as possible. the performance over here is similar to the default "picture and fax viewer" in windows xp, i think.
On May 17 2011 23:51 Chef wrote: Does it have to be in windowed mode? I kind of want to put this at the top of my screen just to pretend I am a progamer T.T lol
This.
Is this usuable in normal starcraft? I stream the old school way (camtasia + FMLE) so I can play/cast in fullscreen. Didn't seem to be able to get it to work but maybe I just have zero idea what I'm doing.
Sorry to disturb guys but how do i change the color of the overlay? sorry i read the readme.txt but is kinda complicated to me. having a hard time T_T i saw people just use mouse click but i try and dont work. TY PEOPLE D: !! help me
On March 11 2012 01:28 S2Glow wrote: Sorry to disturb guys but how do i change the color of the overlay? sorry i read the readme.txt but is kinda complicated to me. having a hard time T_T i saw people just use mouse click but i try and dont work. TY PEOPLE D: !! help me
with asdfghjkl or qwertyuiop, just click the overlay and press the key for the color.
EPT![[image loading]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28720954/bcoverlay_scr.PNG)
![[image loading]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28720954/bcoverlay_test_set0.png)
