Shadow for custom mouse cursor (2)

Question

After reading the answer to the Shadow for custom mouse cursor question, I did some testing.

From my Delphi application I loaded both 32bit and 24bit versions of my cursor. Never a shadow. I did the same with the standard Windows arrow pointer. No shadow either.

Also I tried the opposite and assigned my custom cursors to the "Normal select" pointer in the Windows mouse settings. Both the 24bit and 32bit pointer were given a shadow.

So, it appears having an alpha channel in a cursor doesn't influence the shadow behaviour. But what am I doing wrong in my application?

First step is adding the cursor to the application's resources via an .rc file with

CUR_EDGE_R Cursor DISCARDABLE "edge_r.cur"

And in the application it is loaded with:

const
  crEdgeR = TCursor(135);
 .
 .
  Screen.Cursors[crEdgeR] := LoadCursor(HInstance, 'CUR_EDGE_R');

So, what is the way to have Windows add a shadow to a custom cursor?

Note: I have seen posts on the internet suggesting to create two version of the mouse cursor, one with and one without shadow, and load the appropriate cursor, depending on the user's settings. This is not the solution I'm looking for.

With regard to the answer to the question you refer, I should note I find the following quite confusing: "Note: The system setting for a shadow under the mouse pointer is ignored if the cursor has an alpha channel (32 BPP)". — Sertac Akyuz
@Pol: Both Delphi 7 and Delphi 2009. And I'm developing on Windows 7, but the application should work on XP as well. @Sertac Akyuz: Yes. But it doesn't state how it is ignored. (Could be allways on.) — H. de Jonge
Done a few test, XP doesn't put shadow on a 32bpp cursor, Vista and 7 does (through mouse settings or 'SetSystemCursor' of course, otherwise no joy!). — Sertac Akyuz

LaKraven LaKraven · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-12T12:52:39

In order to place a shadow under your custom cursor, you simply design the cursor with an Alpha channel (which enables semi transparency) and draw your shadow in place. You can even use Photoshop/GIMP (or any other capable graphics editor) to produce your cursor with a "Drop Shadow" effect, save it as a PNG, then use an Icon Editor (such as Microangello) to convert the PNG to a cursor.

As I understand it, none of the cursors shipped with Windows Vista/7 are designed as "flat", using some system effect to generate their shadows.

Shadow for custom mouse cursor (2)

1 Answers