Feature request: transparent background (not just black)

[daT4v1s]

example situations:

• playing audio with subtitles .SRT .VTT .ASS (allow to use window as overlay) with
  opaque subtitles
  • with completely transparent or semi-transparent-black background
• playing custom rendered/composited RGBA videos
  or any video with opacity/alpha channel (YV12+A)

(also nice if possible to make most of the window (non-OSD-GUI) click-through

[CounterPillow]

playing custom rendered/composited RGBA videos
or any video with opacity/alpha channel (YV12+A)

Exists and is called --alpha=yes.

Looks like --background not being affected by the alpha component is an oversight and might be easy to fix.

[daT4v1s]

apparently that does not work/implemented in linux,
i've seen examples via wine apps that do true-transparency
thus transparency is possible in linux

[ghost]

It's possible, but Mesa broke it. The mpv manpage even mentions the Mesa bug number.

[benjaminBrownlee]

I noticed that the referenced EGL Mesa bug (67676) is now resolved. Any update on this implementation? It still does not work on my machine.

[guidocella]

It seems that the merge request that closed the bug was reverted and now https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/2376 has to be merged.

[ghost]

I can try to look at it once all affected components have made it to something I can use and install. Is there any distro which has these changes yet? (Obviously I won't go too much out of my way for this.)

[ghost]

Also I think Mesa forgot to write the EGL_MESA_config_select_group specification.

[ghost]

OK, after looking some, the things mentioned above were reverted in Mesa. So this still can't be fixed. Blame Mesa.

[ghost]

It turns out that you can circumvent the mess with another (existing mess) - it's fixed now on X11.

[benjaminBrownlee]

Sweet, I guess I'll download the mpv-git AUR pkg and test it out. Thanks for your help!

[guidocella]

Any chance of making the alpha component affect --background?

[SaphiraKai]

I'm still having issues with this on Linux with X11, playing an RGBA video with mpv --alpha=yes test.mov and mpv --alpha=yes --background=00000000 test.mov both yield a solid black background. And yes I do have a compositor running

[Dudemanguy]

That's because it's still broken in Mesa. The commit that originally closed this issue may have possibly worked at the time as some weird hack, but it definitely doesn't work right now.

[cipricus]

There is the option to add an opacity value before the 6-digit hex number. Here is a list with all the values:

100% — FF
99% — FC
98% — FA
97% — F7
96% — F5
95% — F2
94% — F0
93% — ED
92% — EB
91% — E8
90% — E6
89% — E3
88% — E0
87% — DE
86% — DB
85% — D9
84% — D6
83% — D4
82% — D1
81% — CF
80% — CC
79% — C9
78% — C7
77% — C4
76% — C2
75% — BF
74% — BD
73% — BA
72% — B8
71% — B5
70% — B3
69% — B0
68% — AD
67% — AB
66% — A8
65% — A6
64% — A3
63% — A1
62% — 9E
61% — 9C
60% — 99
59% — 96
58% — 94
57% — 91
56% — 8F
55% — 8C
54% — 8A
53% — 87
52% — 85
51% — 82
50% — 80
49% — 7D
48% — 7A
47% — 78
46% — 75
45% — 73
44% — 70
43% — 6E
42% — 6B
41% — 69
40% — 66
39% — 63
38% — 61
37% — 5E
36% — 5C
35% — 59
34% — 57
33% — 54
32% — 52
31% — 4F
30% — 4D
29% — 4A
28% — 47
27% — 45
26% — 42
25% — 40
24% — 3D
23% — 3B
22% — 38
21% — 36
20% — 33
19% — 30
18% — 2E
17% — 2B
16% — 29
15% — 26
14% — 24
13% — 21
12% — 1F
11% — 1C
10% — 1A
9% — 17
8% — 14
7% — 12
6% — 0F
5% — 0D
4% — 0A
3% — 08
2% — 05
1% — 03
0% — 00

(I have found about it here.)
So, to play mpv with a 80% opacity of a black subs background: mpv --sub-back-color=#CC000000 video.mp4

[iiiGerardoiii]

that's cool @cipricus , but I think this bug is about trying to achieve full transparency of the video itself, not the subtitles.

e.g. opening a .png image of a circle and the corners of the image are showing whatever is behind the window, instead of a checkerboard pattern.

[cipricus]

that's cool @cipricus , but I think this bug is about trying to achieve full transparency of the video itself, not the subtitles.

e.g. opening a .png image of a circle and the corners of the image are showing whatever is behind the window, instead of a checkerboard pattern.

Sorry, I must have misunderstood. Too eager to share !

[wick3dr0se]

@iiiGerardoiii even though @cipricus misunderstood, a valid point was made.. Hex accepts opacity and that means it should work fine. And it does!

mpv FILE --background=#00000000 -- alpha=yes

Also the opacity is the last two, not the first

[digitalsignalperson]

thanks @wick3dr0se, confirmed here --background=#00000000 --alpha=yes working with a mpv wayland window and a .mov with transparency

[iiiGerardoiii]

@iiiGerardoiii even though @cipricus misunderstood, a valid point was made.. Hex accepts opacity and that means it should work fine. And it does!

mpv FILE --background=#00000000 -- alpha=yes

wtf @cipricus was right all along

I stand corrected.