Photo-based hotspots flicker

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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby Simon » Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:15 pm

Did you find a way to fix your problem ?
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby VigilanteMark » Thu Jan 24, 2013 1:53 am

Sadly, not yet. I appreciate your follow-up, but I still don't even really have a lead on what could be causing this. You'll be the first to hear when I find one :).
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby Simon » Thu Jan 24, 2013 12:27 pm

I hope you find out, I have no more ideas...
Maybe it's not a very big problem in the end ?
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby Simon » Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:57 am

Hey VM,
since my game ASA has released, I'm starting to receive messages about some bugs that are due to Adventure Maker. Noone mentionned image flicking, but I thought that the 2 following bugs might help you solve the problem :

- When something is not at the right place (example : a gif image of a cursor that should be at precise coordinates, but it's somewhere else on the screen), it is due to the size of the font in the windows parameters. The display must be set to the default 100% (96 dpi), not more. I don't know the exact terms in the english version of windows, but it's in the control panel.

- It happens that the game doesn't scale correctly in fullscreen. You can fix it like this : look for the exe of your game, right click it, properties. Go to compatibility and check the option about the scaling on high resolution systems.

Maybe one of these will solve the problem ?
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby GORDON » Fri Feb 01, 2013 4:53 pm

I found that my game played on a friends "XP" computer [fairly small screen with large font setup] didn't scale properly. I'm using AM 4.7.1 and full screen setup and thought that this version solved all problems in regards to the user having the "large font" preference. Have you had many complaints on this issue and will the "check the option about the scaling on high resolution systems" actually solve this issue ?
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby Simon » Sat Feb 02, 2013 3:14 pm

Hey Gordon, there aren't many people who complained yet about the large fonts issue, and I wish there won't be too much...
Anyway it IS a real problem and the ones who got this issue are usually people who don't really have good eyes, so they set Windows with large fonts.
You can't solve this problem in your game, the only solution is to go back to a 100% size in windows.

The other problem (= the pictures scaling wrongly in fullscreen) is independant of the font problem.
- The font problem makes some GIF or JPG pictures inside hotspots to be in a totally different place than the one they should be.
- The scale problem is different : the game runs correctly but in fullscreen the picture has a bad aspect ratio.

So you have to differenciate the 2 problems. One of them can happen to someone while the other doesn't. Of course the 2 of them can happen simultaneously too.

The only known solutions are :
- font problem : go in the control panel, display parameters and set the font (not always written "fonts") size to 100%, not over. In older versions of Windows (like XP) it's not 100% but 96 dpi
- scale problem : search for the .Exe file of your installed game. Make right click/ properties / compatibility, and check the option about the scaling on large resolution displays.
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby GORDON » Sat Feb 02, 2013 11:34 pm

I thouht v4.7.1 took care of this problem. Is that the version you are using? If so, this is very depressing! I thought all these issues were now gone.Thanks for the info.
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby Simon » Sun Feb 03, 2013 12:47 pm

Yeah I have the latest version of course...
I think that a part of the problem must have been solved, but ASA has been played by a lot of people, so there's no doubt that these problems still exist.
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby JeeAir » Sat Nov 09, 2013 9:38 am

Hi!

Here is a technical description of what it's causing HOTSPOT (PictureBox control) flickering.

When an Hotspot flickering occur, this is when the picture region into the picturebox being redrawn. This give the FLICKERING effect.

The cause, in most situation, is because the REDRAW STYLE isn't set to DOUBLE BUFFERING.

DOUBLE BUFFERING prevent the FLICKERING effect to be "viewable". In Visual Basic 6, this problem was popular.

Maybe in the AM 4.5.2 the DOUBLE BUFFERING of the REDRAW STYLE was enabled, and in the AM 4.7.1 was disabled.
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby VigilanteMark » Sat Nov 09, 2013 2:18 pm

This double buffering idea seems worth investigating! Does anyone know if there's a way to test whether double buffering is enabled in AM?
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby reneuend » Sat Nov 09, 2013 7:57 pm

I'm not sure if this is the issue in this case. The issue is only happening on your PC and not on anyone else that has tried.
If it is the double-buffering setting, It would be embedded in the AM code.

I think this issue and other issues should be compiled and placed on a single post. Because GM has been out of the picture so long, I don't know if AM will be updated again, rewritten, or left on the shelf as an old classic.

Thank you Simon for all your research and for still hanging in there VMark.

A couple more suggestions:

1. Load AM on a different computer (friends?) and add your project. Test and see if you see the flicker. I'm convinced that its your PC and not AM - cause I have never had this issue and I have near a hundred projects.

2. Try using the latest KeyGuard Studio to build your project. I think it defines its own custom hotspots. Not enough people have tried this tool out and the awesome features that it has. Including having hotspots of any shape. http://www.shadowhunter.co.uk/index1.html
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby VigilanteMark » Sun Nov 10, 2013 12:11 am

Hi Reneuend,

Thanks for getting back to me. I've actually already tested this on four computers, as I posted in this thread on 12/19/2012:

VigilanteMark wrote:Even though reneuend has been unable to reproduce my problem, its presence has now been confirmed on four different computers (my main one with Win7 Pro 64-bit, my laptop with Win XP Home, my parents' computer with Win7 Home 64-bit, and whatever your machine is, Simon). The issue appears in both an installed version of the game (from .exe) and a version viewed in AM, but is only present with AM 4.6.x and up. Rather than all of these computers having the same compatibility issues, it seems far more likely that newer versions of AM are either choking on something about my projects, or else contain some kind of rendering bug. I'll keep experimenting on my own and will post if I find any more clues, but in the meantime, I'd welcome any further suggestions.


Simon did see the flickering issue on his machine at least once, as he said on 12/13/2012:

Simon wrote:To come back to your problem :
I tried your test project (beautiful forest ^^) and I do have the flicking pictures sometimes.

It seems to happen when the screen is being refreshed, but I don't see why it would do that... Reneuend is probably the person who can help you the best, if he has the time.


This is why the double-buffering setting sounded like something worth checking out. I suppose I could find more computers to test on, but the way this issue tracks with my upgrade from AM 4.5.x and the number of machines I've already tried really makes it seem like a program issue. Have I mentioned that if I open an old copy of the project in 4.5.x on any computer, the flickering issue isn't present, but if I open the same copy project in 4.6.x or higher on any computer, the issue appears and persists even if i re-open the project in 4.5.x? Does that help?

I'll give the new KeyGuard a shot but I'd appreciate it if you'd include this issue in your consolidated post so the GM can review it if he does ever decide to update AM again. I'd hate to have to learn a new game engine when my project is so close to completion. Thanks again for looking :).
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Re: Photo-based hotspots flicker

Postby JeeAir » Sun Nov 10, 2013 6:46 am

With NVidia GeForce video card, if the double buffering isn't enabled it will be noticeable, and I said with NVidia Geforce card. On my system, I use GeForce GTS 450 with the lastest drivers and I have this same issue too. Picture box flicker when redrawn.

*EDIT*
Due to limitations of Adventure Maker, it is not possible to change the double buffering settings within a script. I tried that.

Also, if I didn't set DISABLE DESKTOP THEME from compatibility tab of the Adventure Maker EXE, when I move an Hotspot on a frame, the Hotspot loag as ~~didn't mean to swear~~, and then my Nidia drivers crash, then Windows has to recover the drivers. SO, MAYBE this is NVidia Geforce related problem.
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