XaraXtreme 4 - lack of vector anti-aliasing levels - HELP!

[kaputnik]

So I may be doing something wrong, but within my first 30 seconds of using XX4, I want to stop using it.

What I find is that I am now limited to three "quality" levels of the vector / anti-aliasing;

1 - Wireframe - no fills or bitmaps shown, simply a anti-aliased wireframe
2 - Unaliased - All lines, fills and bitmaps are displayed, but they are not anti-aliased
3 - Full quality - everything is shown and is fully anti-aliased

What this means is that the really useful intermediate vector quality levels from Xtreme3.2 backwards have been lost. I can no longer go to the alias level where I see lines and the bitmap behind them, but no fills. This makes it almost impossible to do manual tracing of bitmap objects, without constantly removing the fill then adding it back on.

Please tell me I'm doing something wrong or that I just have to tweak some settings somewhere! At a stroke this has put a stop to how I use and what I use Xara for; do I need to be going straight back to XX3.2?

HELP!

[kaputnik]

Now I'm just going mad! When you save it in XX4 then go back to XX3.2, this "feature" carries over.

I think it is converting the bitmaps to some other format that wont display in the 2nd lowest quality setting on the XX3.2 slider, like what happens when you converted a bitmap to an object with a bitmap fill.

[ss-kalm]

Well, there are 5 levels as opposed to the 4 in V3.2. However, I don't see any setting in either that will let you see wireframe over a bitmap and still see the bitmap.

[handrawn]

Hi welcome to TG

As I understand it xtreme 4 does not handle bitmaps as bitmaps anymore - they are now handled as bitmap fills in clipped shapes.

Would this explain what you are experiencing?

[gwpriester]

Welcome to the Xtreme Conference

I wonder if you are confused because Xtreme 4 has removed the extra ticks from the Set View Quality slider?

Here's what I see.

[kaputnik]

Like handrawn says, rather than inserting the bitmap, XX4 inserts it as an object filled with that bitmap. The bitmap fills in those objects aren't displayed until level 3... That's what's causing my problem, and that's why XX4 isn't any use for the way I draw; I need to be able to see my bitmaps below the wireframe!!

[handrawn]

yes I know what you mean kaputnik - I have done that myself on occasion - but because xtreme4 no longer has 'bitmaps' - everything is a shape or a filled shape, I think it may not be possible in this version, as everything is treated equally by the quality settings

[ss-kalm]

Apologies,
It seems that now you have 5 levels that you can use - numbered 1 - 5 and you cannot get intermediate steps. However in 3.2 the steps were numbered 0, 5, 10 and 11 but would allow the intermediate steps on the slider approx. 3 will show the bitmap in full, but the vector art in wireframe. Hadn't realised that before (I just drew with no fill) but I can see where it would be very handy. I think that it would still function if you were allowed the intermediate steps.

I don't think that this was an intentional side effect.

[handrawn]

agreed its a side effect of the new way of working that is most unfortunate in this case....

[handrawn]

can you adjust your way of working and use layers instead? - okay I realise that may not be practical - but other than go back to 3.2 I don't know what else to suggest sorry