Transparent color for effects

[Virsacer]

Hi, I just tried to put a temperature effect over the rainbow effect on a lightning strip, but selecting black as the first color just turns it off completely...

 

When adding a visor for example, the rainbow effect still shines through :cool:

Would be nice to have a transparent color to achieve that fading too :biggrin:

[DevBiker]

I'm not sure that I understand what effect you are trying to achieve here. Are you trying to dim the effects? Have you looked at using the custom effects, where you can set transparency of the layer?

[Virsacer]

My idea was to have a rainbowwave (or whatever default effect you have) when the temperature is "normal" and when it gets hotter it should morph to a static yellow and then to a static red...

So just as the usual temperature effect, but with the first color beeing transparent to see the next effect-layer.

 

I checked the custom effects - it has opacity but you can't change the color or the visibility of the layer depending on a temperature reading!?

[c-attack]

The light layers don't literally overlap. The superior layer overrides the command of the lower layer to turn color X. If the top effect tells LED #6 to turn red and the lower effect tells it to turn blue, it will be red - not purple. You can see this by stacking two static or solid color effects.

 

The visor is a bit more complicated. The LEDs are only turning on briefly as the "wave" passes through. When the LEDs are in an off state from the superior effect, then they can take commands from an underlying effect. However, black is the opposite of transparency by definition, so that is never going to work. You need to try it the other way. Also, using the rainbow wave in any layer of lighting tends to be difficult. It will a dynamic, but full coverage effect. On top it will always dominant. Subservient it will show through any off LEDs, but in hard to control ways - at least in terms of the color display.

 

If you want the temp based color shift to be invisible, put it as the lowest layer. Set the bottom temp color to black. That will keep it in the off state and the visor can override it in the top effect position. However, be aware the temp shifts are not 39.9C green, 40.0C yellow. You will see them blend together as your approach the designated temperature and your CPU temp is going to be a very dynamic variable. It will take some experimentation to find your temp change points. You can also set both of the first two zones to black and use this like the "notification" setting - another way to turn the fans all one solid color when you hit a certain temp threshold. The advantage of this way would be it does not require a reset or other action to return to normal operation.

[Virsacer]

Ok, this is probably true for most effects...

But when using the custom static color with opacity, you can see the layer underneath it ;):

So red + 50% blue = purple :D:

 

Unfortunately this slider is missing in the temperature (and other) effect - this is exacly what I need for the first color...

 

Your idea, putting the temperature below, is good, but unfortunately only works with some of the effects and the effect would still be visible when "hot"...

 

I know the shift is not instant - it goes smoothly between the selected temperatures - but this should not be a problem when setting only slightly different values for temp 1 and 2 and then have a bigger step to temp 3 :biggrin:

[c-attack]

OK, you seem to know your way around. Since the Static Color setting is the only effect with its own specific opacity slider, I am not expecting it to show up for the rest of the effects any time soon. You're right, you can blend two static colors together. I typically don't think to approach design this way since you can always make the blended color as a 3 value RGB point, but playing around it looks like you can use a Black Static Color overlay as a more finely tuned brightness slider (dimmer). You could actually layer a 90% black on top of Spiral Rainbow and finally tame that thing down. LOL. That may have more useful applications.

 

No the color shift is not instant and probably not troublesome going from green to yellow or other adjacent colors. However, it does get a little tricky with black. The color shift will begin "prematurely" as you approach the threshold, likely necessitating the need to use a higher than expected value. That part is solvable, but in my brief playing around with this on a 8700K, the CPU is just too dynamic (even delidded) to make this useful. I set a Black-Black-Red with the upper crossover at 60C. Even though my registered package temp never made it past 50C, I saw all kind of red trail effects. Not sure what CPU you are using. Some older Sandy Bridge models or even Haswell-E might be consistent enough to use CPU package, but I almost think you would be better of with a different variable. I have a Commander Pro that gives me access to a lot of other temp choices. Not sure what it looks like with just the Lighting Node Pro.

 

The only way I know how to approach this right now is to put the temp layer as the bottom and override it on the superior layer. That isn't going to work with the full coverage rainbow wave or spiral rainbow, but you might be able to work something else out with the more "open" effects.

[Virsacer]

Interesting discovery :D:

 

Well, with the lightning node I can choose between some temerature readings (CPU, GPU, RAM, Mainboard)

I have not tested in detail, but I do see temperature jumps with my Ryzen.

Also have to use the reading from the mainboard since iCUE "thinks" the CPU reading is about 90°C :eek:

 

Transparent colors would make it easiest, but perhaps I find some other effect combination, which meets my taste :biggrin:

I have to play a little bit around, I guess...