Suggestions

[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!

[Taron]

By the way, Pud, I hooked up the paint blocker, if you use [f] or [b], so you don't accidentally paint while you want to adjust those widget dials. Let me know, if I missed one!

I know it may seem strange and unnecessary, but could be nice to have fun...
Taron, what do you think?
Could we use two pens at the same time?