Again, thanks for the feedback on this new feature, guys!
@montego: I'd love to be able to offer an option to make the masks smooth / antialiased, but the stencil buffer is just not up to this task, even with workarounds like drawing a blurred bitmap, etc. 🙁
So you'll still have to use the PixelMask filter for such smooth masks; maybe I'll add that (or a "MaskFilter" class) to Starling in the future to support both options.
Of course, if anyone has an idea how to trick the stencil buffer into smoothness, I'm happy about any input, of course! And at least on desktop, you can turn on antialiasing in general to avoid any problems.
@IonSwitz: those names would be possible, thanks for the suggestion! I'll keep looking for a more concise name, though ... hm ...
@neirao: the SWC is only updated for stable releases! Inbetween, you have to use the source directly (or compile it yourself).
@ciaodu: That the mask scales with the display object is intentional, but open for debate. 😉
Frankly, I always found it a little strange in the classic display list that the mask, though a property of the display object, was not automatically connected to it. When a button contains a mask ("button.mask = ..."), and I move the button, I always felt it natural that the mask moves with the button; it's a property of "button", after all. (That's also the way the "clipRect" property of Starling works.)
If you want the mask to stay at its position, you can still add it to the button's parent object; so you can achieve the same effect with Starling's way of doing it.
That said: this is open for discussion, I might still change this! When I implemented it, it just felt to be cleaner that way; but that's always very subjective.
@modegames: I mentioned my plans in this somewhat buried post here: 😉
http://forum.starling-framework.org/topic/spriteilluminator-2d-dynamic-lighting#post-75930
@Astraport: You mean the "Shape" class, right? A method like "beginBitmapFill"? Yes, that is planned, though I'm not sure if it will be part of Starling 1.x or 2.x!
Let me know if there are any further questions, if you run into any problems, or if you think the mask positioning just sucks. 😉
Thanks, guys!! =)