New v6 widget properties: Background Component & Scaling Insets

[Opus4]

There are a couple new widget properties that sound rather dull, but which can actually be fairly important for anyone doing a custom STV UI and/or the graphics that the custom STV will use.

Several widget types can now be marked as being a Background Component. Checking this property allows the widget to fill its entire parent's background area, ignoring any limit the parent sets on where its children can be drawn. You could use insets & so on to place text/images/panels/buttons/etc in a limited area, yet still have an image fill the entire background for a panel/button/Options Menu/etc. (p. 19 of the v6.0-B Studio manual)

And, Image widgets can use the new Scaling Inset property to define what portion of an image is to be scaled, and which portions of its edges are to be displayed w/o any scaling. Why would you want this? It allows you to create a background image where the edges remain unscaled & crisp so that the edge design does not get blurry, while the central (usaully non-detailed) portion of the image is scaled to fill the remaining space. (p. 41 of the v6.0-B Studio manual)

With these 2 new properties, you can display background images for buttons/dialogs/etc that fill the entire area while retaining the image's full edge details. (We just haven't made use of them in the default STV yet, or else I would point to some examples.)

- Andy