Topic: Flashing DSP windows (Read 8928 times)

mark_h · « **on:** October 31, 2015, 03:54:43 am »

This has been a problem since about half-way through MC20.

Some DSP plugins now flash like crazy when you move the mouse around, making them almost unusable.

I've captured a short video of it happening:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7082504/Media%20Center/brokendsp.mp4

It doesn't seem to affect built in DSP, only some third party plugins. Again, all affected plugins worked perfectly prior to the MC change and they continue to work fine in other software, so I strongly suspect MC is at fault here...

If you look carefully you will see that the flash is alternating between the currently selected plugin and the previously selected one.

mark_h · « **Reply #1 on:** November 23, 2015, 03:10:47 am »

[bump]

Matt · « **Reply #2 on:** November 23, 2015, 08:28:15 am »

Could you share one of the DSP plugins that exhibits this with matt at jriver dot com?

Thanks.

Matt · « **Reply #3 on:** November 23, 2015, 08:45:51 am »

I just tried a VST visualizer plug-in I had sitting around and the flashing didn't happen at all.

So I definitely need a copy of your plug-in.

Thanks.

Matt · « **Reply #4 on:** November 24, 2015, 08:50:21 am »

I just tried the VST plugin you sent me (NUGEN VisLM) and it's just fine. The text is really, really small on my high DPI display, but I think that's just a plugin issue.

Moving the mouse between plugins doesn't make it redraw even a little.

I'm stumped.

mark_h · « **Reply #5 on:** November 24, 2015, 10:01:15 am »

That's what I feared :/

Graphics drivers (nvidia here)? Chromium??

mark_h · « **Reply #6 on:** December 09, 2015, 03:15:09 am »

I was using this VST without issues yesterday in Pro Tools and, just for fun, tried it with the final version of MC (v19) this morning, and again it works without issues. So, it's definitely a problem introduced with later builds of MC. If I recall correctly the problem started midway through MC20...

Anyway, just saying

I realise if you cannot see the problem it's much harder to fix, but if you can think of any changes that were made in MC20 that might be related to DSP video window...? Or anything else I can do to help debug this problem...?

mark_h · « **Reply #7 on:** December 14, 2015, 03:54:32 am »

OK, so I did a binary chop through the MC 20 installs and found the one the breaks things...

20.0.107

And more specifically:

9. Changed: Updated the remaining skins for high DPI and scaling.

I use Thunderstorm as my skin, and it looks like it was finally updated by 9. above in this build.

In previous builds if I switch to skins that were already updated for the DPI/scaling changes the DSP also starts flashing. Prior to the DPI changes all skins/DSP work perfectly fine.

My screen resolution is 2560x1440. DPI @ 100%

I've done all I can now to debug this. A fix would be great!

mark_h · « **Reply #8 on:** December 15, 2015, 01:44:21 am »

Further testing...

If I copy an early MC20 Thunderstorm skin into my MC21 skins and select it - NO FLASHING DSP...

I'll see if I can isolate the change in the skin that is causing the issue...

mark_h · « **Reply #9 on:** December 15, 2015, 03:01:30 am »

Ok, so the entries causing the problem are

<FRAME> ... <Entry Name="LeftBorder" Bitmap="Frame_LeftBorder.png" Margins="0,60,0,22" TransColor="FF00FF" DrawMode="REGION_E_VTILE" Scale="2" /> <Entry Name="RightBorder" Bitmap="Frame_RightBorder.png" Margins="0,60,0,22" TransColor="FF00FF" DrawMode="REGION_E_VTILE" Scale="2" /> ... </FRAME>

More specifically, it's the scaling... remove the Scale="2" and the flashing stops, but the size of the graphics are wrong. With the old skin, everything is right on my display, but I'm guessing may not scale as well on other devices.

In the current build, the only skin that don't flash for me is: Noire but that seems to be a completely different template to the other skins so it's not as easy to compare differences.

So, it seems that the root issue is the scaling changes made aren't 100% working in every case.

I already use a custom Thunderstorm skin to correct some other problems caused by the DPI/scaling changes, so I guess I'll just edit my local copy to fix the flashing DSP for my own use.

mark_h · « **Reply #10 on:** December 15, 2015, 03:33:28 am »

Final thought... even though the issue can be "fixed" by reverting to older XML, could it be that something internally inside MC is mishandling the SCALE="2" stuff that could be fixed? Or is it really just "broken" XML causing the problem??

Matt · « **Reply #11 on:** December 15, 2015, 07:31:21 am »

The truth is I'm riddled by your problem. I just can't reproduce it, so it's kind of a dead end.

Sorry.

mark_h · « **Reply #12 on:** December 15, 2015, 07:39:40 am »

No problem, Matt. I have a local solution that I am happy with. Just worried that other users might have the same issue, either now, or down the line...

Matt · « **Reply #13 on:** December 15, 2015, 08:07:11 am »

We tested your VST on a second computer and no blinking there either.

Sort of out of ideas.

JimH · « **Reply #14 on:** December 15, 2015, 09:38:56 am »

Could be the video driver.

mark_h · « **Reply #15 on:** December 15, 2015, 10:32:26 am »

Driver is NVIDIA and up to date. Also, doesn't flash in other software or, as per above, in MC with the pre-DPI XML. Has to be MC, but clearly some very obscure combination of circumstances... I wouldn't spend any time on it.

JimH · « **Reply #16 on:** December 15, 2015, 11:26:01 am »

Even if it works with other software, it can still be a driver issue. Bugs are often triggered by unique combinations of events.

It could also be MC, but we've tried to reproduce it and can't.

Matt · « **Reply #17 on:** December 15, 2015, 12:42:09 pm »

Well we finally reproduced it on John's machine by switching skins. And the two of us stared at it and poked at things in the skinning engine and are just totally confused. So we're going to take a break for a couple days and then come back to it.

mark_h · « **Reply #18 on:** December 15, 2015, 01:16:57 pm »

Well, that's great. Apologies for creating more work for you

Matt · « **Reply #19 on:** December 18, 2015, 08:29:36 am »

I think there will be a fix coming next build.

This puzzle has kept me so vexed for the last few days! And the solution turned out to be totally in left field from where the problem manifests.

It's kind of a fun feeling now that I've actually figured it out though. Sometimes really hard problems make a person feel good about themselves when they're finally solved.

mark_h · « **Reply #20 on:** December 18, 2015, 08:36:30 am »

Go, Matt! Go, Matt! Go, Matt!!

This has been a real pain for me as I use DSP a lot with MC, so I'm thrilled that a fix is incoming.

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