Transparent Overlay

[CloseRange]

I would be highly surprised if this was possible in any version of Game Maker, but I do feel like it's possible in some languages (maybe it's possible to create an extension for it for game maker, that would be cool)

I'm wondering how I would go about programming a screen overlay that's transparent. In Game Maker, by default the screen is filled gray and most languages it's filled black or white by default. Can you make it so that you can see behind the screen to whatever is below it?

On top of that is it possible to have the screen always on top of everything while not being intractable.
My goal is to create game overlays for other games. For instance if I was playing League or WoW or something have my program show over the game to relay information to me without me having to constantly tab out.

Thanks in advance!

 

[johnwo]

In order to do this, without the game actually loading and running functions made by you (say, from a DLL), you'll have to:
- Create a transparent window.
- Draw interface to said window.
- Get the window-handle of target application (BIG no-no if you're playing a game with a half-capable anti-cheat system).
- Draw the interface on-top of the window with the correct window-handle.
- Alternative: Hooking into the DX-renderer of a DIrectX game in order to do the same thing. Be prepared to be insta-banned if that game runs any kind of AC tho...

Assuming you're using windows, a WS_EX_TOPMOST-flagged borderless window might work, depending on the game. The game might run in exclusive fullscreen, in which case it won't work.
Best course of action is to create a DLL which a developer can utilize in order to show/hide the overlay correctly (and safely).

It's very possible to have games made with GameMaker support overlays; just look at all GameMaker-games that are released on steam utilizing the SteamAPI.

In any case, this is totally out of the scope of what Game Maker is capable or intended for.