NextPVR V5, Direct 3D and jaggy menu artifact

[NumberFive]

Just wanted to point out something I noticed.  I know that V5 uses Direct 2D, but being a long tim V4 user I've become tuned to the differences between Direct 2D and Direct 3D.  

This thread has another user noting a similar observation - https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=60835

In a nutshell, D3D seems to produce better rendering of fonts and anything involving transparency or shading.  The effect is marginal, but there.  I've attached a screenshot of V4 running with D3D and V5 (running with D2D).  

Many of the differences in rendering are subjective.  Arguably the "W" of "Wed" is less jaggy in D3D, others might say the text is more vivid in D2D generally.  I speculate that might be due to D3D rendering gradients / transparency better, but I've not delved into it.  I prefer the D3D look, but then I've been using it for many many years.

There's one bug though which is for sure incorrect.  The transparency effect around the main menu selector.  On V5, there is a cyan coloured jaggy edge which should not be present.  I am familiar with this artifact from V4 as meaning that D3D is not installed.  Installing D3D immediately fixes the issue on V4.

I haven't actually noticed a similar artifact elsewhere, only in this one location thus far.  I guess many people might not see it as it's not the default menu style, but I really like this style.  

I've no idea about GUI design or D3D but I'm guessing the objective of using D2D is to keep things simple.  I wonder if this menu issue is something that can be addressed with a tweak to the skin assets?


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Another minor observation:  Oddly the aspect ratio of V5 seems to be slightly off when windowed, but fine when full screen.  I see very slight letterbox bars on V5 when running 16:9 content no matter how I resize the window, almost as though it's rendering at 1.70:1.  V4 is fine, rendering at 1.78:1.  

[sub]

I've no idea about GUI design or D3D but I'm guessing the objective of using D2D is to keep things simple.

Yep pretty much, and it's nice not having to get users to install a prehistoric runtime to get Direct3D9 support.

Honestly, looking at those two screenshots above, there is very little in it. Zoomed they both show some level of jagginess.

I hadn't been intending to add a Direct3D renderer for the UI, but nextpvr.exe does allow for it in the future, so it's down as a solid 'maybe'. I'd created a plugin UI renderer layer, but only implemented a Direct2D renderer.

One thing worth noting is that the UI is internally rendered for fullscreen resolution, and definitely looks better in fullscreen mode vs windowed mode. ie no-scaling in fullscreen, scaling in windowed mode.

[NumberFive]

Hi sub,

I thought that was probably the case, getting the Direct3D installer is challenging now. For the last couple years I've kept a local offline installer as it's increasingly difficult to find on the Microsoft website.

On that last screenshot, there's definitely an error on the edge of the "menu selector". The dark blue curve is fine, but the cyan curve only manifests on D2D rendering and it looks incorrect even at full screen. It is the only place in all the menus I have seen this, and there are plenty of curves in other places in the menus. I've not delved into the skin assets, but I wonder if it's a quirk of this particular part of the skin.

[sub]

Try replacing your horizontal.xml with this one.

[sub]

That updated xml looks like this

[mvallevand]

I didn't update to the new skin but when I try http://localhost:8866/control?res=1920x1...ality=high I find it less jagged then your last sample I haven't been seeing this issue on the Roku or other UI clients in 5.1.1

Martin

[sub]

FYI, in my screenshot above I did resize it twice, which made it look more jaggy than it was in person. Here is a cropped screenshot from my 4k monitor, which matches what I see on the screen. ie, very crisp text

[NumberFive]

Hi sub,

Yes that new xml file does indeed remove the issue of the jaggies. Looks like the solution is to not render the boarder with the transparent blue gradient? Seems now I know what I'm looking for that does manifest in a few places such as on the right hand box of the Recordings / Music / Video menu screens.

What is so strange is that it doesn't affect the Orange accents (e.g. around the progress bar of a playing recording), and it doesn't affect the "pop-up" menu when you select a recording before selecting "Play". That is a box with rounded edges and Blue highlight, no artifacts.

I haven't looked into the skin files in detail, I wonder are these maybe drawing a separate outline rather than applying a border to a box. Tomorrow I'll go exploring.

Also very odd, as Martin shows, that the web UI doesn't exhibit the error at all. Happens on both an nVidia and Intel GPU, so must be specifically a D2D thing.

[sub]

Yeah there is certainly some minor differences in how alpha blending looks when rendered with the different UI renderers (GDI and Direct3D and Direct2D)

There may be some Direct2D options I can tweak to make it more pleasing.