Concept: Switch MP2 to D3D11/D2D rendering (2 Viewers)

[morpheus_xx]

A switch to DX11(.1) only doesn't bring any real benefit. What we gain most of is D2D, mainly rendering of primitives (AA) and texts (proper layout, RTL support etc.). See first post for more background.

 

[morpheus_xx]

Did a test on Windows 10 technical preview, but there is only a black screen with mouse cursor, if i use the cursor buttons on IRFB i hear the switching between the plugins.
On the Server with Windows 2012 i testet this version also, and there it's okay.
View attachment 164341

I can confirm this issue here too: on a 2nd PC I installed a Win10 10076 build and see the same execptions in log, resulting in a black Screen

Maybe I need to check SharpDX 3, as it is based on Win10 SDKs

 

[Stéphane Lenclud]

A switch to DX11(.1) only doesn't bring any real benefit. What we gain most of is D2D, mainly rendering of primitives (AA) and texts (proper layout, RTL support etc.). See first post for more background.

I see, still you could surely stick to D3D for those effects until you get them working with D2D.
You can probably still use text rendering from D2D along with D3D effects.

 

[morpheus_xx]

I've updated the first post with a BlueVision skin version matching to D2D testbuild #5.

@ge2301 I changed the blur effects for dialogs to D2D ones with quite big radius. You should check this for a good looking value. If you like to play around with the new D2D effects (mainly Shadow and Blur), please do so in the branch: https://github.com/MediaPortal/MediaPortal-2/tree/FEAT_DX11_D2D_v5_BlueVision. All other development should continue in existing branches, because I will rebase and merge this one at later time.

Another notable feature is the support of "LineHeight" property for labels. By this you can define the vertical spacing between text lines, which maked details of series and movies much better readable now. And I've introduced some font styles to apply them in comfortable manner.

 

[ge2301]

do you have an overview of the effect parameters and their ranges. From https://github.com/MediaPortal/Medi...urce/UI/SkinEngine/Controls/Visuals/Effects2D I can see following:

Blureffect:

• radius
• renderingBias
• borderMode

Dropshadoweffect:

• shadowDepth
• direction
• blurRadius
• color
• opacity

for opacity (0..1) , radius (0 ..) etc. I can guess it easily, but for direction, renderingbias, etc. I'm not sure about the setting values.

thanks

 

[morpheus_xx]

You can check the MSDN pages for property description of D2D effects, some have value ranges defined, others not. Example: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh706338(v=vs.85).aspx.

On the other hand I tried to make the C# side to look mostly compatible with WPF (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.media.effects.blureffect(v=vs.110).aspx), that's why in BlurEffect I have "Radius" which maps to "D2D1_GAUSSIANBLUR_PROP_STANDARD_DEVIATION".

 

[ge2301]

I have played a bit with the effects to see what is possible and where problems are

BlurEffect

• So far it is working well. I couldn't see any grafic errors with this
• I'm just missing the option, that the blur is applied only around a shape (as even MS Powerpoint can do). The BlurEffect is always to outside and inside, which for example does not allow semitransparent shapes with blur

DropShadowEffect

• I was not able to change any parameter mentioned 2 posts above, so the shadows currently can show up only with standard style
  
• I face lot of grafic errors with this effect
  • When a shadow is applied to the mediaitems of a grid, there is a flickering (like a wave) going through the shadows of each mediaitem. First I saw it only in home screen and thought it's the update intervall, but then I faced same in other screens
  • For "videos" the shadow is showing correctly behind the complete poster. In "movies" it is showing only behind half of the poster, even the code is tha same. Sometimes it shows up only for the bottom right poster and not for others.

There are no issues in the error log. Since most problems are dynamic, I didn't upload screens. I case you need more details, please let me know I like the new effects, but we need to solve a few issues before switching I guess.

 

[morpheus_xx]

Good news for Windows 10: I've updated to latest testbuilld 10158 and the Direct2D build is finally working again

Maybe my "insider" bugreport was considered and fixed . Great, so we finally continue on the switch to D2D.

 

[Timhoh1234]

Great, so we finally continue on the switch to D2D.

Almost 2 years it became silent here. Are you still working on the D3D11/D2D rendering feature?

Currenty the Anisotropic filtering and edge-smoothing seems not to work in MP2.
When I'm close to the TV I can clearly see a huge rendering difference to WMC. WMC looks much smoother and also fonts are clearer even with lower resolution.
I think with D3D11/D2D it could look much better and also bring a few new visual effect, that are currently missing. Blurrs and shadows can do a lot of magic

 

[morpheus_xx]

The D2D branch was merged with 2.1pre release code base some weeks before. It does work, but it is still unfinished in some parts (i.e. image render transitions).

If you are interested, I can provide a MP2-Client snapshot for D2D / 2.1 pre. It can be placed in any folder and doesn't need to be installed, this makes testing easier.