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Bug Reports / [DGDK] Disappearing circles, ellipses, dots

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Mireben
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Posted: 23rd Sep 2009 22:23 Edited at: 23rd Sep 2009 22:46
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There have been complaints recently on the forum that dbCircle, dbEllipse, dbDot commands do not work on Vista+nVidia configurations. I made a simple code to reproduce the problem.



If I run this on my machine, the line and the box stay permanently on the screen, but the circle, ellipse and dot "blink up" for a split second, then disappear.

If I try to solve the issue by manual Sync:



Then the circle, ellipse and dot stay on the screen as long as I don't move the window, but as soon as the window is dragged, they disappear. The line and the box stay visible.

Dark GDK 7.3 version. Vista Home Premium (32 bit), nVidia GeForce 9700M GT card (laptop). The driver is from August 2008.

Please see also this thread:

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=157918&b=22
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natepen
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Posted: 27th Sep 2009 07:14
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Hello,
I am receiving this problem as well. While I do thank the people who posted answers on how I can create a circle another way I would still like to understand why I cannot do this the intended way.
Any info from the creators?
Thanks
Nate
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Morcilla
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Posted: 13th Oct 2009 12:33
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Green Gandalf had this problem too:

Bug Reports / lock pixels bug

He is drawing 2d, and at the thread he states:

Quote: "This may be a Vista problem - I can't reproduce the bug on my laptop (XP) but have just confirmed that the bug is also present in U7.1 on my Vista machine"
.
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Silver Surfer57
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Posted: 4th Jan 2010 19:22
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dbPoint is another command that does not work on Vista. The code compiles properly but it does not read the RGB values. It works fine on XP.

I sure hope TGC are working on these problems because I suspect the same issues will appear with Win7. It's pretty hard for me to teach a class with DarkGDK when half the students can't get their programs to work because they have Vista!
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Whitewolf007
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Posted: 21st Jan 2010 21:01
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Cmon devs we need an answer here. My entire class is using this in school working from the Games & Graphics in C++ Tony Gaddis book. It's not looking good when the code in the book wont even seem to work on win vista 32 / win 7 64 bit. I've even taken Win 7 64 off the laptop and put vista 32 on it in case it was a 64 bit problem but still no dbDot, no dbCircle. Can it be an issue with Nvidia drivers or directX?
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Mireben
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Posted: 27th Feb 2010 11:55 Edited at: 27th Feb 2010 14:29
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According to Ian's request, I have created a solution with two projects to reproduce the problem. Note that it is reproducible only on certain hardware+software configurations (NVidia+Vista are the main suspects) but it affects many users and therefore it should be investigated.

If you run the CircleStationary code: On my machine, all shapes show up on the screen as long as the window stays in one place, but as soon as I drag the window, the circle, ellipse and dot disappear. (For other users, these shapes may not show up at all from the beginning, it seems that the behaviour is not even uniform on different machines, I can only report my experience.)

If you run the CircleMoving code: When the code contains the dbCLS command, then it works normally, i.e. the shapes are moving upwards without leaving a trace. However, if you comment out the dbCLS command, then the behaviour of the shapes is different. dbBox and dbLine will leave a trace (normal, because their previous positions are not erased), but the circle, ellipse and dot will not leave a trace, so their previous drawings disappear after one screen update.

There is another thread which reported a similar problem for camera bitmap, including the possible reason (the problematic shapes do not use D3D acceleration) and that is already confirmed. It would be good to get this confirmed as well.

EDIT: I tried the compiled executables on another machine with XP+Radeon and they work normally on that machine, but not on Vista+NVidia.

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IanM
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Posted: 28th Feb 2010 00:02
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Ok, I can't fully test these right now as I don't have a system with those combo's of Windows & Graphics cards.

However, I have taken a look at the code, and I see that the CircleStationary code is incorrect. The original code is this:


and should be changed to something more like this:


The reason is that there are settings for how windows are dragged on a per system basis - if the 'drag window content' is disabled then you are guaranteed to get a black window if you aren't calling dbSync().

I have run both pieces of code (with my amendment above), and everything appears to be correct on my 2 systems.

Once I have access to systems of the correct types (or access to TGC staff who do), I'll check out the problem again.

@Morcilla,
I already understand that particular bug (my own plug-ins have the same problem), and it's not actually related to this bug report.

@Silver Surfer57,
If you don't submit a bug report, we won't know about the bug and won't fix it. If the problem is with the GDK, put a bug report together and we'll schedule it for fixing if it's a GDK problem.

Also note that the book was written independently, I don't own a copy, and so I don't know what particular piece of code you are talking about.

@Whitewolf007,
Quote: "It's not looking good when the code in the book wont even seem to work on win vista 32 / win 7 64 bit"

See my previous answer.

Utility plug-ins collection (updated 08 Dec 2009) and
http://www.matrix1.demon.co.uk
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Mireben
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Posted: 28th Feb 2010 11:15 Edited at: 28th Feb 2010 11:35
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Ian, if I change the stationary circle code to the while loop that you suggested, then the circle/ellipse/dot blink up for one dbSync update and then they completely disappear, I don't even need to drag the window. So that actually makes it worse. The box and the line still stay on the screen.

EDIT: Once I suggested to someone on the forum to redraw the circles every loop like this:



This helps on my machine, but the person replied that he can't see the circles even so. This would be a bigger bug but I can't confirm if I don't see it on my machine. For me, the drawing stays for one screen update and then goes away, that's as much as I can say for sure. It would really be good if others posted their experience too.
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s_i
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Posted: 1st Mar 2010 21:45
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@Mireben, please see also this thread:

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=160711&b=22

P.S. Maybe problem is in your MOBILE videocard (for laptops, not desktops)?..
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Kreh
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Posted: 11th Sep 2010 06:15
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I recently had this problem as well.

The solution is to update DarkGDK's include files and library files.

You can find the updates @ http://files.thegamecreators.com/DarkGDK

or I have attached a .rar archive containing all the updates to version 7.4a if you don't want to update to 7.3 then to 7.4 then to 7.4a

The .rar is also much smaller than the files from the link above.

Note : Even if you are not having this problem, it is a good idea to update your development tools to the latest available version if only because it is a good computing practice. Your system may not show the bug, but someone you distribute your work to may encounter it if your tools are not up to date.

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Mireben
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Posted: 6th Oct 2010 20:17
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Unfortunately this does not solve the problem.

Since the report, I have changed the operating system from Vista to Windows 7, installed the latest NVidia driver and upgraded to Dark GDK 7.4a (including the two additional lib patches). I confirm that the circle bug still exists.
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pn2bade
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Posted: 12th Oct 2010 00:53
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I'm having the same the same problem. I doesn't work on my main machine which is Windows 7 64 bit with a nVidia 285gtx with graphic driver 1.10.62.40. I am also using DarkGDK 7.4a. It works fine on my laptop which runs an ATI graphics card and it is running a pre 7.3 version of DarkGDK. It looks like this has been going on for over a year, and I really need this to work. Can they please fix this bug?
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LeonardInO 49
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Posted: 27th Feb 2011 21:42
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Was trhis problem ever fixed. I am having the same issue
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Mireben
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Posted: 28th Aug 2011 12:12
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I just want to inform you that the problem seems to be fixed in the latest NVidia drivers. I now have a driver version issued this May and the circles do appear now.
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Loraine
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Posted: 16th May 2012 22:31
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I will be using Gaddis's book Games & Graphics in C++ in the fall to teach a course at my community college. I am new to DarkGDK and am having this problem of the circles not showing even after installing the 2/29/2012 driver for NVidia GeForce 8400M GS. I am on the Vista 32-bit laptop.

Any other solutions or ideas out there?
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Loraine
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Posted: 18th May 2012 17:03
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I solved my own problem. I downloaded the two upgrades to GDK. The first upgrade includes a .exe file after the folder was unzipped and therefore installed the upgrade automatically (I assume). The second upgrade only created the folders in my downloads folders with the updated lib and include files so I had to manually copy them into the right folders after extracting them from the zip file.
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