[pygtk] Making part of a GTK-window transparent and position another window behind

[John Stowers]

On Tue, 2010-02-23 at 08:33 +0100, Christoph David Hermann wrote:
> Hello to all,
> 
> I'm planning to develop a simulation game using panda3D
> (http://www.panda3d.org/) and pygtk. Unfortunately, it is not possible
> export an OpenGL-context from panda3D and directly draw on a GTK
> widget using an OpenGL-extension. So I decided to draw the main window
> with pygtk, make a part of the window transparent and position the
> panda3D window behind it. I want the GTK-window to capture all
> keyboard and mouse inputs.
> 
> My approach was to use shape_combine_mask
> (http://www.pygtk.org/docs/pygtk/class-gdkwindow.html#method-gdkwindow--shape-combine-mask) to make the right part of the window transparent. This works like a charme except for one thing: The GTK window isn't only transparent at the desired area; this area seems to be nonexistent, because if I click on this area the panda3D window captures my mouse input.
> 
> So, is there a way of making parts of a window transparent without
> making a "hole" in the window? 
> 
> Using a compositing manager and set_opacity
> (http://www.pygtk.org/docs/pygtk/class-gtkwindow.html#method-gtkwindow--set-opacity) is no option, because running panda3D makes the composition manager crash and return to normal mode on my target platform.
> 
> A solution which works on windows (xp and 7) and linux (ubuntu Karmic
> Koala) would be nice ;-)

I suspect you might have more luck by hacking pygtkglext, or writing
another small C extension to accept the gl-context from panda3d.

John

> 
> Thanks,
> Christoph
> 
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