Blending two DX11 textures with alpha and text

[seltzdesign]

So I am putting the finishing touches on a patch we are working on and added a nice GUI (based on CatGUI).

I have some DX11 output which is in the format of a DX11 Texture 2D. The GUI is generated and rendered to create a second DX11 Texture 2D using Text(DX11.Layer) and some quads. I use the Blend(DX11.TextureFX) to overlay one over the other, while being able to still see the 3D output in the background while you are tweaking values.

What it looks like now:

If I just blend one over the other its fine, but if the blend value is too low, you cant see the controls so well, and if it is too high, you cant see the 3D shapes so well. So I want to blend it in such a way that the GUI elements and text is not transparent and only the black background of the GUI is transparent.

For that to work I have to set the renderer background of the GUI to have some alpha and change the picture format to one that includes an alpha channel. What happens then though is that all the font rendering goes all horrible. It seems no combination of picture format with an alpha channel will create sharp text.

What it looks like with a format with alpha and transparent render background:

Its the same for any of the formats with an alpha channel in them. Anybody know what might be causing this?

[antokhio]

hi you want to switch your blend on add or overlay for gui layer
that what you see there is pixels written to 0 alpha, and mostly are artifacts

[seltzdesign]

@antokhio - Add is kind of cool but means no semi-transparent black background. I now simply blend another black texture with the 3D stuff in the background when the GUI is showing to darken it.

Thanks!

result: