Blank screen

[Neal McKinney]

I'm trying to create a video overlay for information display via a video switcher.  Using a 'Key' function, the black area on the screen can be replaced with the underlying video image.

Is there a way to just have a black screen, then add elements of graphics and data to that black screen?

[Mike King]

Not certain exactly what you are trying to do....

Do you want the full windows desktop to be black (no taskbar, no heading)?

[Neal McKinney]

Correct.  One of the extended desktops (not the main system one), should be black.  No heading or anything else on this extended desktop.  But I want to be able to 'print' data and graphics to that extended desktop.

[Mike King]

This should get you what you want -- although its set for the primary screen.

Code Select Expand

  begin
  for line$ from fin(0,"XYMonitors")
  read data from line$,sep="," to *,*,*,wd,hi ! Get Primary monitor size from 1st line
  break
  next
  print 'dialogue'(0,0,80,25,"",opt="F*m"),'SR','_black','white','DF', ! Create the window
  print 'option'("AlwaysOnTop","1"), ! Force on top
  print 'option'("Frame","none"), ! Remove frame
  print 'option'("XYPos","0,0,"+str(wd)+","+str(hi)), ! Set size to full screen size
  print 'CS', ! Clear the screen
  escape


You code combine all the prints to a single line but it was easier to read by breaking them down.