sprite candy flicker?

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Userlibs/sprite candy flicker?

ryan scott(Posted 2006) [#1]
i bought sprite candy because i use particle candy, works pretty decent, thought sprite candy would be ok.

first thing i tried i get flicker in my game on the HUD.

I then discovered somewhere flicker can be a problem and sprite candy has got no real dev/support anymore.

should i abandon ship and go with another system?


lo-tekk(Posted 2006) [#2]
I had the same issue with it an no support at all. I then bought the HUD-Package from Codersworkshop, works without flickering but has only HUD functions, so no sprite-engine. I had discovered that the guys from codersworkshop use a separate camera for their HUD, that is far away from the scene-cam. Maybe you would be able to fix the flickering by attaching the sprite-candy stuff to a separate cam. If so please post your results.

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www.moonworx.de


LineOf7s(Posted 2006) [#3]
I can't speak to your specific support issues, but I sent an email just last week enquiring about the latest update to Sprite Candy (which I discovered existed on the support forums here) and had a reply (and download link) within the hour.

So there is someone there, at least. :o)


lo-tekk(Posted 2006) [#4]
As i can see, the latest version is 1.09, where the update-thread was last edited march 2005. This is nearly a year without any news from xpressive and no fix to the flickering problem. If you have a newer one please confirm.

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www.moonworx.de


Uncle(Posted 2006) [#5]
Just a thought... try altering the hud camera zoom. I had a similar problem and this fixed it for me.

Cheers,


Unc


popcade(Posted 2006) [#6]
I can't fix in last project and stopped for that reason, actually I'm using nSprite2 now.


ErikT(Posted 2006) [#7]
Is it a compatibility thing? Does it work without flicker on some but not all computers?

If it is then I might be in big trouble :o


Shambler(Posted 2006) [#8]
I recall having the CameraRange 'near' value too large caused flicker which got worse the further away from the world origin the camera was.


lo-tekk(Posted 2006) [#9]
The problem exists after i have changed the graphic-card. Here's the sample code producing the bug:



Provide your own font from the Font Studio and have a quick look.

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www.moonworx.de


ErikT(Posted 2006) [#10]
Aha! The text is flickering and jolting like a spastic so it bugs out here too then. Phew, good news for me (ahem) but pretty bad for anyone using Spritecandy for 3D-game HUD's I guess :/


MadJack(Posted 2006) [#11]
It's a camerarange issue isn't it.

Set camerarange to (for example) .5 near, 1024 far and the text remains stable until about 12000+

Do some testing next time before writing off someone's entire library of work. SpriteCandy is, in my estimation, a good product.


ErikT(Posted 2006) [#12]
You're right, adjusting the camerarange works wonders for me with the above code.


LineOf7s(Posted 2006) [#13]
Per this thread:
I announced that users that may have a problem using SC should email me their questions directly in case of emergency.

The last SC update (v 1.0.11) has been sent out just a couple of weeks ago. If you did not receive it, you probably changed your email address, so let me know.


Now, I neither saw any announcement nor received an update automatically, but as I posted earlier, as soon as I emailed him about it he responded.

And now I'm the proud owner of version 1.0.11 - hurrah!


lo-tekk(Posted 2006) [#14]
So i sent out my update request today. Lets see whats in the package then. @MadJack in fact it's not a camerarange issue, it remains a Sprite Candy issue cause i never heard someone wheening about a CameraRange bug but some about the flickering. Beside of this changing the camerarange might interfere with other code and a range of about 15000 might not be enough to some of us.


MadJack(Posted 2006) [#15]
'i never heard someone wheening about a CameraRange bug but some about the flickering'

If you have a single camera rendering both your HUD and main scene with an extreme cam range of 15,000 blitz units, then you're going to run into issues such as the 'flickering' you've described (and probably others as well). I don't consider this a Spritecandy 'bug', but more a result of bad game design.

If you're going to use such a large cam range then you'd probably need a 2 pass render - the first being your space scene, and a second overlay render with much a smaller camrange.

Secondly, it's a known issue with Blitz that at large distances from 0,0 child entity positioning can start to move about due to floating point errors. Again, this isn't strictly a SpriteCandy 'bug'.

Do you use any sort of scaling factor in your space sim?


lo-tekk(Posted 2006) [#16]
@MadJackSome posts above i have suggested using a second camera for the HUD. Cannot find where i have mentioned that i need a camerarange of about 15000, i meant a world scale above 15000, the sample code runs with the default range of 1 to 1000 and starts flickering at only 2000 units. This all is far away from 15000. Beside of this i am using another HUD-Lib that runs fast and stable even at a 100.000 distance from world-origin with a single rendering pass. Furthermore i have never blamed X-Pressive for selling a bad product.

Okay problem fixed:

..... ooops censored


Okay, i think the problem is sorted out now. Lets get back to business as ususal.


MadJack(Posted 2006) [#17]
Fair enough - good luck with your game.


Boiled Sweets(Posted 2006) [#18]
Sprite Candy is supported and I've found MD to be VERY accomodating with my requests. I have asked for various fixes and additions and he's done them all.

The same with Particle Candy (in fact he even thanks me in the .bb!)

We use Sprite Candy HEAVILY for our 3d project and it rocks!


lo-tekk(Posted 2006) [#19]
For gods sake, there were never ever problems with sprite candy, the support forum gave a quick response faster than one can think, flickering in sprite candy has something to do with mental distortion or bad game design. Anyone stating otherwise is a sort of a liar.
I hope that ryan has found the right solution to his problem.
( errm sorry, what problem ? lol )


MadJack(Posted 2006) [#20]
We're the Sprite Candy Mafia - fear us.