[SOLVED] How do I clear a Direct2D render target to fully transparent

How do I clear a Direct2D render target to fully transparent

I'm trying to draw semi-transparent rectangles on an invisible HWND. However, clearing the window with ID2D1HwndRenderTarget::Clear just makes the entire window black, so when I draw rectangles on top, they look semi-black.

If I don't Clear() and don't draw, then the window is invisible, as it should be. Clear() is the culprit here; however if I don't use it then painting messes up pretty badly.

Here's the code I'm using in my WindowProc:

case WM_PAINT:
    // Begin drawing
    pRenderTarget->BeginDraw();
    pRenderTarget->SetTransform(D2D1::Matrix3x2F::Identity());

    // Clear the window
    pRenderTarget->Clear();

    // Paint the panel and its children
    D2DSurface()->StartPainting();
    {
        D2DSurface()->PaintTraverse(panel);
    }
    D2DSurface()->FinishPainting();

    // Finish drawing
    HRESULT hr = plat->pRenderTarget->EndDraw();

Thanks in advance!

Solution

When creating your RenderTarget, you'll have to tell D2D that you want to use alpha (in premultiplied mode) in the pixel format:

  HRESULT hr = mD2DFactory->CreateHwndRenderTarget(
    D2D1::RenderTargetProperties( D2D1_RENDER_TARGET_TYPE_DEFAULT, D2D1::PixelFormat( DXGI_FORMAT_UNKNOWN, D2D1_ALPHA_MODE_PREMULTIPLIED ) ),
    D2D1::HwndRenderTargetProperties( mWindow, size ),
    &mRenderTarget );

After this, calling Clear() with an alpha value of zero works just fine.