graphical issues

numbr007 · 08-21-2004, 06:05 PM

I've noticed a couple graphical issues.

Firstly, occassionaly, the bubbles begin displaying on my screen as white or blue squares. Very odd. This is an intermittent issue.

Secondly, the background of the tank displays some pretty noticable "banding" as the daylight changes to night and vice-versa. This does not occur in Marine Aquarium. (Running with Millions+ colors, 1024x768, GForce 3).

AKcrab · 08-21-2004, 06:14 PM

I notice the banding as well.

numbr007 · 08-21-2004, 06:58 PM

Here is a great example of the bubbles turning into "squares."

JimO'Connor · 08-21-2004, 08:21 PM

Got the square bubbles.

The banding is not something I think we can affect.

numbr007 · 08-21-2004, 08:34 PM

Do you know why the banding happens in GA but not MA? I was just wondering. It's not a dealbreaker or anything.

AKcrab · 08-21-2004, 08:55 PM

Originally posted by numbr007
Do you know why the banding happens in GA but not MA? I was just wondering. It's not a dealbreaker or anything.

My eyeballs tell me it happens in MA, but the bands appear to be smaller vertically.

JimO'Connor · 08-21-2004, 11:24 PM

Drawing a gradfill rectangle is a matter of telling OpenGL what color goes on each corner. It is up to OpenGL to make the color ramp smoothly (no banding). Rewriting the graphics primatives isn't really an option. Some things are just to small on the reward for the effort expended scale.

JimO'Connor · 08-22-2004, 01:03 PM

Fixed the bubbles and you'll see it in 0.9.5. Thanks for reminding me of that.

dhigbee · 08-24-2004, 07:54 AM

I'm running the application (not the screensaver) on my 800 mhz iBook G4, with 32 mb VRAM, and 768 mb RAM. I'm using OS 10.3.5. I've had to slow down the application or it has regular short stalls (everything stops for up to half a second). I've turned shimmer off, bubbles off, and have set it to run at 25 fps. I have 3 fish in the medium-planting tank. If I try to add minimum shimmer, or go up to 30 fps I experience the stalls again. Any suggestions?

I've not experienced other stalls like this on the ibook, either with applications or screensavers. The application runs well on my 1000 mhz G4 desktop, BTW.

Dana

JimO'Connor · 08-24-2004, 02:18 PM

Probably the other processes on your machine get CPU starved while the application is running flat out. The screen saver runs at a lower priority (hence it is always a few fps slower) so it doesn't stall because other processes get a greater amount of time. Do you have AppleShare running or anything else that would be a background task but have time sensitive requirements? Since you see this in the application you could probably get a lot of information from "top" in the terminal.

dhigbee · 08-24-2004, 09:44 PM

H'mm. When I run the the goldfish aquarium aplication, I pretty much just sit there and watch it. I do have file sharing turned on, if that's what you meant by appleshare. Here's what the terminal is telling me. Hopefully it will mean more to you than it does to me. Thanks for looking at this.

Processes: 51 total, 2 running, 49 sleeping... 161 threads 22:38:56
Load Avg: 1.07, 0.54, 0.45 CPU usage: 51.5% user, 17.4% sys, 31.1% idle
SharedLibs: num = 123, resident = 35.9M code, 3.51M data, 11.5M LinkEdit
MemRegions: num = 7105, resident = 211M + 11.2M private, 96.8M shared
PhysMem: 68.1M wired, 158M active, 301M inactive, 528M used, 111M free
VM: 3.55G + 84.7M 34858(0) pageins, 1515(0) pageouts

PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
571 Goldfish A 46.9% 0:33.28 4 190 364 18.6M 23.1M 28.6M 162M
569 top 11.9% 0:20.92 1 17 26 308K 492K 2.15M 27.1M
568 bash 0.0% 0:00.02 1 12 15 132K 948K 1.26M 18.2M
567 login 0.0% 0:00.04 1 13 37 140K 484K 2.33M 26.9M
565 Terminal 2.2% 0:03.89 4 75 162 2.30M 11.2M 19.9M+ 112M
494 slpd 0.0% 0:00.06 6 29 37 244K 1.10M 908K 30.4M
477 lookupd 0.0% 0:00.93 2 34 61 468K 1.04M 1.23M 28.5M
423 Address Bo 0.0% 0:03.42 3 96 173 3.22M 11.1M 21.9M 112M
403 nmbd 0.0% 0:00.86 1 12 25 256K 1012K 1.07M 27.9M
364 Safari 1.4% 44:58.26 20 536 1278 153M 53.5M 184M 552M
363 ntpd 0.0% 0:01.68 1 10 18 136K 600K 340K 17.9M
335 xinetd 0.0% 0:00.02 1 14 20 116K 568K 228K 26.8M
333 WeatherPop 0.0% 1:29.39 7 164 146 2.45M 10.5M 3.11M 112M
325 automount 0.0% 0:00.03 2 29 27 228K 968K 928K 28.3M
323 HP Communi 0.0% 0:19.13 5 221 123 1.24M 6.68M 3.41M 98.2M
322 AppleFileS 0.0% 0:01.35 2 39 36 740K 1.96M 1.23M 31.8M

08-21-2004, 06:05 PM	#1
numbr007 Registered Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 7	graphical issues I've noticed a couple graphical issues. Firstly, occassionaly, the bubbles begin displaying on my screen as white or blue squares. Very odd. This is an intermittent issue. Secondly, the background of the tank displays some pretty noticable "banding" as the daylight changes to night and vice-versa. This does not occur in Marine Aquarium. (Running with Millions+ colors, 1024x768, GForce 3).

08-21-2004, 08:21 PM	#4
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	Got the square bubbles. The banding is not something I think we can affect. Jim O'Connor Order N Development

08-21-2004, 11:24 PM	#7
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	Drawing a gradfill rectangle is a matter of telling OpenGL what color goes on each corner. It is up to OpenGL to make the color ramp smoothly (no banding). Rewriting the graphics primatives isn't really an option. Some things are just to small on the reward for the effort expended scale. Jim O'Connor Order N Development Last edited by JimO'Connor; 08-22-2004 at 01:02 PM.

08-22-2004, 01:03 PM	#8
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	Fixed the bubbles and you'll see it in 0.9.5. Thanks for reminding me of that. Jim O'Connor Order N Development

08-24-2004, 02:18 PM	#10
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	Probably the other processes on your machine get CPU starved while the application is running flat out. The screen saver runs at a lower priority (hence it is always a few fps slower) so it doesn't stall because other processes get a greater amount of time. Do you have AppleShare running or anything else that would be a background task but have time sensitive requirements? Since you see this in the application you could probably get a lot of information from "top" in the terminal. Jim O'Connor Order N Development

08-21-2004, 06:14 PM	#2
AKcrab Registered Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 233	I notice the banding as well.

08-21-2004, 08:34 PM	#5
numbr007 Registered Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 7	Do you know why the banding happens in GA but not MA? I was just wondering. It's not a dealbreaker or anything.

08-21-2004, 08:55 PM	#6
AKcrab Registered Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 233	Originally posted by numbr007 Do you know why the banding happens in GA but not MA? I was just wondering. It's not a dealbreaker or anything. My eyeballs tell me it happens in MA, but the bands appear to be smaller vertically.

08-24-2004, 07:54 AM	#9
dhigbee The Snorkeler Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 29	I'm running the application (not the screensaver) on my 800 mhz iBook G4, with 32 mb VRAM, and 768 mb RAM. I'm using OS 10.3.5. I've had to slow down the application or it has regular short stalls (everything stops for up to half a second). I've turned shimmer off, bubbles off, and have set it to run at 25 fps. I have 3 fish in the medium-planting tank. If I try to add minimum shimmer, or go up to 30 fps I experience the stalls again. Any suggestions? I've not experienced other stalls like this on the ibook, either with applications or screensavers. The application runs well on my 1000 mhz G4 desktop, BTW. Dana

08-24-2004, 09:44 PM	#11
dhigbee The Snorkeler Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 29	H'mm. When I run the the goldfish aquarium aplication, I pretty much just sit there and watch it. I do have file sharing turned on, if that's what you meant by appleshare. Here's what the terminal is telling me. Hopefully it will mean more to you than it does to me. Thanks for looking at this. Processes: 51 total, 2 running, 49 sleeping... 161 threads 22:38:56 Load Avg: 1.07, 0.54, 0.45 CPU usage: 51.5% user, 17.4% sys, 31.1% idle SharedLibs: num = 123, resident = 35.9M code, 3.51M data, 11.5M LinkEdit MemRegions: num = 7105, resident = 211M + 11.2M private, 96.8M shared PhysMem: 68.1M wired, 158M active, 301M inactive, 528M used, 111M free VM: 3.55G + 84.7M 34858(0) pageins, 1515(0) pageouts PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE 571 Goldfish A 46.9% 0:33.28 4 190 364 18.6M 23.1M 28.6M 162M 569 top 11.9% 0:20.92 1 17 26 308K 492K 2.15M 27.1M 568 bash 0.0% 0:00.02 1 12 15 132K 948K 1.26M 18.2M 567 login 0.0% 0:00.04 1 13 37 140K 484K 2.33M 26.9M 565 Terminal 2.2% 0:03.89 4 75 162 2.30M 11.2M 19.9M+ 112M 494 slpd 0.0% 0:00.06 6 29 37 244K 1.10M 908K 30.4M 477 lookupd 0.0% 0:00.93 2 34 61 468K 1.04M 1.23M 28.5M 423 Address Bo 0.0% 0:03.42 3 96 173 3.22M 11.1M 21.9M 112M 403 nmbd 0.0% 0:00.86 1 12 25 256K 1012K 1.07M 27.9M 364 Safari 1.4% 44:58.26 20 536 1278 153M 53.5M 184M 552M 363 ntpd 0.0% 0:01.68 1 10 18 136K 600K 340K 17.9M 335 xinetd 0.0% 0:00.02 1 14 20 116K 568K 228K 26.8M 333 WeatherPop 0.0% 1:29.39 7 164 146 2.45M 10.5M 3.11M 112M 325 automount 0.0% 0:00.03 2 29 27 228K 968K 928K 28.3M 323 HP Communi 0.0% 0:19.13 5 221 123 1.24M 6.68M 3.41M 98.2M 322 AppleFileS 0.0% 0:01.35 2 39 36 740K 1.96M 1.23M 31.8M