Author Topic: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?  (Read 3032 times)

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Offline asyikarea51

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Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
I'm not sure how to best say this so I'll probably just state the situation. (I didn't properly check Wiki or the READ THIS thread on whether some of these are already known, so pardon my dumb-ness if it is. At the time of composing this message I was also randomly trying stuff like creating a new pilot.)

So at random, decided to just look at FSO, I load up 3.7.4 RC1 AVX with de facto stock data with wxlauncher. 5.5g did kinda work until I broke it and it couldn't read the res anymore because new-ness, but anyway...
1st monitor has native res of 3840x2160 over DP, 2nd has 1280x1024 over a HDMI-to-VGA dongle thing.

At 3840x2160 native in fullscreen and fullscreen window, I don't get flickering, but the cursor can't get to the bottom parts of the screen. Same res in windowed, the game window waaaaay overshoots the monitor size. At any lower res in fullscreen, the screen flickers constantly i.e. unstoppable flicker/game unplayable. -> workaround in lower res is to play windowed/fullscreen windowed.

Then - again, totally at random - I set the text scaler in the display setting from my chosen 125% down to 100%, and the flickering issues at lower resolutions just magically go away... oh wait, no, not exactly. I also had to disable the second monitor (Extend these displays -> Show only on 1) to get the flickering to stop. Basically I have to play around with the settings related to disabling 2nd monitor, disabling scaler at .exe level, disabling scaler at OS level to get something workable whenever it misbehaves. Haven't been thorough in this in finding a consistent setting to use.

Long story short, right now I can kinda get the game working - scalers forced to disable/100%, 1 monitor only. But in fullscreen at 3840x2160 native, my target selector box either keeps getting stuck at top-left or just disappears - doesn't appear on the target even when I'm facing it. It feels like it has a higher tendency to do this if I am facing an enemy I targeted, and the enemy already lobbed a missile at me hence triggering the LOCK blip animation, (or SOMETHING happens that triggers a blip, then both the blip AND the selector starts flickering, while I'm changing targets and turning to face them, and then the selector finally gets stuck at the top-left corner) but I couldn't tell at the time. If I shrunk down to 1280x720 fullscreen, this doesn't happen to the selector (however I didn't finish the campaign mission I was playing to verify properly - got killed halfway, so if it does happen at this res, then "it didn't trigger as fast as it did at native res").

If in case it matters the pilot file is quite old (sometime in 2014 and I don't know what mod it links to, but very likely to also be stock data or, much less likely, some sort of MediaVPs since I'm not getting that missing active campaign error).
Inferno plz
The Power of Nightmares
TheHound: "Nice idea, but I have a thing against announcing campaigns before having them already finished."
G5K: "The flipside of that is that if you don't announce your campaign, yet take too long to finish it, other people may independently come up with some of the same ideas."

 
Re: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
You could disable DPI scaling for specified application. In this case for 3.7.4 RC1 AVX.
This is a known issue. When you have desktop magnification active in Windows, FSO will be scaled up; You will need to right-click on the fs2_open executable, go to properties, open the Compatibility tab, and check the "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" checkbox.

 

Offline asyikarea51

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Re: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
That's one of the things I already did actually. (disable display scaling on high DPI settings flag, then run the .exe via wxlauncher right?)

What I can't solve is the targeting where the box goes all the way top-left, even though I'm looking right at the target. Same with the player's missile lock, it also gets stuck @ top-left, although if you fire the locked missile it will still track the target as per normal.

i.e. I don't know if the object in front of me is what I'm actually targeting. And the warning blip (incoming enemy missile, flares etc) also seems to add to it going haywire...?
Inferno plz
The Power of Nightmares
TheHound: "Nice idea, but I have a thing against announcing campaigns before having them already finished."
G5K: "The flipside of that is that if you don't announce your campaign, yet take too long to finish it, other people may independently come up with some of the same ideas."

 

Offline Yarn

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Re: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
Are you running any mods by any chance? If so, what happens if you play with no mods (not even the MediaVPs)?
"Your fighter is running out of oil.  Please check under the hood and add more if necessary"
--strings.tbl, entry 177

"Freespace is very tired.  It is shutting down to get some rest."
--strings.tbl, entry 178

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

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Re: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
What I can't solve is the targeting where the box goes all the way top-left, even though I'm looking right at the target. Same with the player's missile lock, it also gets stuck @ top-left, although if you fire the locked missile it will still track the target as per normal.
This appears to be Mantis #3070 rearing its head again, but only on higher resolutions this time. I don't think you're the first person to report it, but unfortunately I don't know if any SCP devs actually have monitors capable of resolutions high enough to trigger the problem.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Codethulhu GitHub wgah'nagl fhtagn.

schrödinbug (noun) - a bug that manifests itself in running software after a programmer notices that the code should never have worked in the first place.

When you gaze long into BMPMAN, BMPMAN also gazes into you.

"I am one of the best FREDders on Earth" -General Battuta

<Aesaar> literary criticism is vladimir putin

<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. :P
<MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".
(the very next day)
<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again
<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."
<MageKing17> **** ME
<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID
<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.
<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.
<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"
(...)
<MageKing17> so
<MageKing17> more than two hours
<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion
<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!
* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

 

Offline asyikarea51

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Re: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
Are you running any mods by any chance? If so, what happens if you play with no mods (not even the MediaVPs)?

No, it's all stock. Don't even have latest MediaVPs. I never seriously touched FSO at all ever since the very first BP:WiH release.

What I can't solve is the targeting where the box goes all the way top-left, even though I'm looking right at the target. Same with the player's missile lock, it also gets stuck @ top-left, although if you fire the locked missile it will still track the target as per normal.
This appears to be Mantis #3070 rearing its head again, but only on higher resolutions this time. I don't think you're the first person to report it, but unfortunately I don't know if any SCP devs actually have monitors capable of resolutions high enough to trigger the problem.

Oh well. I could try to find time to test this if you guys have a patch or two.

EDIT: wtf am i doing giving useless responses in the early morning
« Last Edit: April 22, 2016, 09:49:05 pm by asyikarea51 »
Inferno plz
The Power of Nightmares
TheHound: "Nice idea, but I have a thing against announcing campaigns before having them already finished."
G5K: "The flipside of that is that if you don't announce your campaign, yet take too long to finish it, other people may independently come up with some of the same ideas."

 

Offline Yarn

  • 210
Re: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
This appears to be Mantis #3070 rearing its head again, but only on higher resolutions this time. I don't think you're the first person to report it, but unfortunately I don't know if any SCP devs actually have monitors capable of resolutions high enough to trigger the problem.
This sounds even more like Mantis #3155, a very weird bug that seems to be triggered when all of the following are true:
  • 4K resolution (3840x2160) or anything close to it
  • Fullscreen or fullscreen window mode, or regular window mode with the entire window (including the border) being visible
  • A HUD table that contains a HUD entry, even if it's empty
  • HUD scaling by at least a certain amount (I think above 2.5x)

Asyikarea51, can you check your FreeSpace2\data\tables folder, if it exists, and make sure it's empty? Also, can you create and post a debug log by following the steps in this post? (I want to see whether you have extra VP files in the root of your FreeSpace2 folder.)
"Your fighter is running out of oil.  Please check under the hood and add more if necessary"
--strings.tbl, entry 177

"Freespace is very tired.  It is shutting down to get some rest."
--strings.tbl, entry 178

 

Offline asyikarea51

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Re: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
Attached the required (is really just hoping on the checksum, some of the files are really old leftovers)

I tried to take a video with the debug build but I get the Int3() crash.

EDIT / EDIT2 - test scenario:
OS scaler 100%,
.exe scaler disable checkbox is TICKED
2nd monitor disabled in OS ("Show only on 1")
debug .exe run via Launcher, with preset "Default FS2" selected
Fullscreen

EDIT3: Would the warning blips flickering together with the targeting bracket, before the bracket itself finally retreats to the top left, have anything to do with this too? (pardon me if it seems like I keep asking on this point, it was weird seeing this)

(removed the video - can reupload via PM if a coder needs it)

[attachment DELETED!! by Strong Bad]
« Last Edit: May 05, 2016, 09:18:07 am by asyikarea51 »
Inferno plz
The Power of Nightmares
TheHound: "Nice idea, but I have a thing against announcing campaigns before having them already finished."
G5K: "The flipside of that is that if you don't announce your campaign, yet take too long to finish it, other people may independently come up with some of the same ideas."

 

Offline asyikarea51

  • 210
  • -__-||
Re: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
Hi Yarn / AR / whoever can look into this,

Just wanna check if there's any update?

If there isn't any incoming fix soon (or anything you guys might need me to try in the short term), it's ok, I'm cool... I can probably scale down res and fiddle around with the settings whenever I feel like playing since it's not some severe CTD.

Plus this res is a minority and right now I barely touch anything FSO (like, once in 2 months if at all) - interests are elsewhere plus we all have day jobs.
Inferno plz
The Power of Nightmares
TheHound: "Nice idea, but I have a thing against announcing campaigns before having them already finished."
G5K: "The flipside of that is that if you don't announce your campaign, yet take too long to finish it, other people may independently come up with some of the same ideas."

 
Re: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
also interested in anyone who has this problem - i have it as well running at 4k with the scaling gauges line inserted into the file in the tables folder

 
Re: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
also no matter what resolution i tryu to use, it puts it in 4k - meaning i cant play the game because of hte glitch

 
Re: Flickering / Display scaler / Selected target stuck at top left?
I'm also having this bug as well, is there anywehere is my log file:



[attachment stolen by Russian hackers]