Suggestions

[Taron]

Hahaha, sorry, Knacki, but that had always been my thought and it seems like a no-brainer, but that's not the solution. I tried various approaches of that kind. It just can't work- a little tough to explain-, because it only shifts the paradigm, you know. As long as it behaves the same for color to nothing and color to color, it cannot act differently for one of them, ending up with the same result. I really know it seems like it would...really awkward, but nope.
I am still kicking around the idea of adding a TRADITIONAL mode, but it would take up an extra layer during painting with extra processing, of course, and with at least 3 of you constantly bickering about needing 10k resolutions, otherwise their artistic brilliance cannot manifest, it's a big ask, you know.
Thing is, if people were treating Verve like a real paint medium, rather than a fancy photoshop, none of this would be a big problem. That's not to say that I didn't hate this chronic challenge, of course, but it shouldn't be the end of the world, you know.
So, yeah, I will work on dealing with this, even if it means to become a little more extreme and simply destroy the current layering concept and come up with a whole new approach. We will find something to make it all good.

Do it your way, taron!
I just can suggest. There'll be always requests for these and that.
I don't want verve to be photoshop - I love it - you know that best, but this behavior is not communicable to new, and even old users, as it is not logical from a users point of view. Only annoying.
99% of the users don't care about maths or programming at all and they don't like workarounds - most of them will never find workarounds, as they already switched to another app they are used to before fiddling around.
This alpha issue simply looks like a bug, still.
Let alone the "memory effect" one have with erased and over painted areas. where the structure of past and erased brush strokes appear again and can only be heavily smudged away.
If you would like to go commercial, taron - I think it just should work like expected, otherwise you'll loose plenty of customers in the important first 30 minutes. There are plenty of apps out there, and those mobile apps are doing a very big step into customer friendly nobrainers. Young people don't know windows 3.11 and all those problems one had anymore. There are not patient regarding software not working as expected, I guess.
Something photoshop will have to face as well, as it is a monster in functionality, but a very old, not straight forward one.

Back to clear color.
As you already know, my idea of filling a layer with a +brush & black is not working, as black paint with plus is not transparent. Must be a different algorithm than on layer?

BUT filling a layer which is set on add with black works.
No disgusting colored borders, as there are no alpha areas, but still the layers are transparent - well for the price of only using layers with add.
Smoothing is smoother and no ugly, unexpected color irritations when using a different color on a half filled layer.
Instead of erasing, one need to use black.
Well this is no solution, but smudging even with alpha simply works this way like expected.

That's how it should be on normal canvas, in my honest opinion.

[Taron]

I understand, Knacki. I appreciate your honesty and care, always do. I get the feeling you think I wouldn't want to have it any other way? I'm not "failing" on purpose.
I have one other solution. No more alpha, no more transparency. Filled canvas, one layer with potential modifier layers for color, additive and multiply. That way there's no way to run into such troubles. Erase just brings the material back to 1.0 and the "background" color. That way you'll never know there could be an issue, but it's no longer that useful for alpha based 3d textures, of course. At least it would not look like it had bugs. Hmmmm...I've been thinking about that, too. If it feels right, it will go straight to commercial, too.

One layer solution will be hard to sell, I guess.
Skipping one of the biggest advantages of digital painting?

[Taron]

I know, right!? Right now I'm a little down, you know. It's a rough time emotionally, though, mentally, intellectually I'm not quite that low. It's just a bit tricky to keep it together, running in place for next to nothing, except 1 super generous and grateful genius and a few great artists with a heart like yourself, but my life slipping between my fingers. But these are my choices and I will keep fighting forward and I will find the solutions it takes to create a software that makes it a joy to create with. To be honest, I'm not too happy myself these days with Verve. There's something bothering me that had always bothered me, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It's not the problem you are struggling with right now, but actually the blending itself. I want it to behave differently. This could be blending, could actually be just a proper color palette solution, but my ultimate test is always to quickly paint a shaded ball. This is currently terrible, I find. It doesn't feel as simple and direct as it should be.
In days like this, it's probably best just to ride them out. Knacki, my dear friend, I'll push Verve to where you will feel inclined to encourage me again.

I am quite often in this situation.
The only solution is to start, willing to make compromises on the first and second go and look for details later.
Creating is the only thing that can help.
Every day one small target, one after another.

If verve is not good in blending to your likeness - leave it for another day, but start with something else.
Forget about the alpha issue.
There are so many "simple" organizing things to do - And to beta test before official release.
You'll see, once in a run, you'll find a blending solution just by accident
And finally you'll laugh about the alpha issue.

Hugs,

Knacki

[Taron]

Love it, great plan!
I really, really should get to do the brush class. If you can believe it, it still is just a bunch of functions, while I have the prepared class sitting there for years already. Sometimes it's tough to find the right order in which to clean things up. But it's getting there.
In the meantime I've done plenty of other things, though, not directly Verve related. One thing I thought about giving you all, too, just to play around, but it's not quite there, yet. It's a pure vector drawing tool with infinite canvas and networking. Really a cute little tool.
Anyway, right now I'm focusing on two things: Verve and my wife's Java app. I have the distinct feeling that the latter will get us back up long before Verve gets a commercial release, hahaha. It's pretty cool! Anyway... step by step, I like that! Thanks, Knacki!

I am curious to what, I can use this ring in verve (I did not find)
turn the knobs does not work
I tried to force the ring to work with the knob but the ring requires CTRL, ALT or SHIFT plus f (the f itself does not work)

[Taron]

perfect illustration!

Well, "Brush Size" actually works! If you click on the center button of the ring, it toggles through different modes. One of them is "brush size". This actually works in Verve already, because I chose the same keyboard shortcuts for it like in Photoshop: "[" and "]".
The wheel sends out key-down, key-hold and key-up messages as you scrub it. By default, though, the gaps between brush sizes is rather large, making this feature of the tablet rather useless, I find. I could make those gaps a lot smaller, but then the keyboard shortcut could get kind of useless. I could make another customization option for this, too, or a kind of "tablet mode" checklist for how keys are supposed to behave.
Anyway, I could find some unused keys or so to let the wheel control specific parameters such as fluidity and so on. Could be good fun!

So, yeah, I will see, if I can make the ring more useful than what this accurate comic strip illustrates!

GOOD CALL!

[Taron]

Well, it's total garbage, I'm sorry! Wacom kind of dropped the ball with that stupid ring.
I've done some fun experiments, but it really, really is pretty useless for "performance", if you will. It just doesn't act desirably. I've written a neat routine that can collect keystrokes to respond to written words, too, which is so fun, but this stuff holds up the windows processes and can't be used nicely during pen strokes, for example.
So, yeah, stick to "Shrunken Head Stand"! Likely the most exciting use for it!