I'm working on a series of tutorials/lessons for MMF2 that will come in exe format. But, unfortunately it is not displaying correctly on certain machines. Everything works fine for me though and I have only heard about the glitch. Something to do with the shadows it seems.... I have tried running it on a few machines and at different resolutions but I just can't seem to create the problem.
If a few of you could take a look at it and let me know if you see anything weird, that would be great! Every frame uses the same code so I've only included a couple of frames in the mfa. Use the left and right arrow keys to navigate and click the blue text for more information.
Are the display problems just with the MFA or is it with the EXE?
I only ask this because I have MMF2 installed on my laptop (which has an actual graphics card), while my day job workstation doesn't have MMF2 installed. My laptop usually runs everything without problems, but the workstation often has rendering issues: it uses an integrated graphics chipset.
In the days of HWA being standard-issue for most MMF games, this might boil down to a hardware issue. Have you collected system specs from the people with display problems?
In any case, I'll download the MFA, compile it on my laptop, then try to run it on both machines to which I have access. If there are any problems I'll be sure to pass along the details (including system specs).
Incidentally, I think releasing a series of tutorials is nothing but excellent for the community, Chris.
EDIT: Here's a screenshot of a display error shown on the first two panels of your tutorial:
I didn't see the shaded lines on my laptop (close to a "gaming machine" in system specs), but definitely did see them on my workstation computer...Has WinXP, over 1Gb RAM, 2.8Ghz Dual Core Processor, 256Mb integrated chipset.
Wow!!! That is hideous and very strange. I have no idea what could be causing that and worse, as I can't see the problem myself, I have no way of isolating it. Another thing... I have never seen that shadow in my life! I don't see how any of my objects could be causing it haha.
S-m-r, the code is pretty simply, if you aren't too busy do you think you could have a little play around? Apparently, the glitch occurs in both exe and mfa format.
Could anybody who is experiencing the glitch have a little play with the code and see what is causing it? There is only a few lines of code and it should be easy to isolate. I would be eternally grateful!
Notice how those shadows intersect with the top-right corner of your "boundary2" active on the Enemy Instances 9 level?
Have you tried moving the active on screen up and to the left by one pixel? When I run the mfa on my PC, I see a line, but it's not nearly as dramatic as the shadows you're talking about, so it might not even be the same issue.
I saw a second line on Enemy Instances 10 that I was able to fix by changing your Y-pos on your FIG actives to -32px instead of -33px. I really hope that helps but I figure it can't be that easy.
ChrisD> Employer: Say, wanna see a magic trick?
ChrisD> Employee: Uhh… sure, boss.
ChrisD> Employer: Your job! It just disappeared! Pack your things and leave! Pretty good trick, huh?
I've had a fiddle with some of the code and I was about get rid of some of the shadow by setting the scale quality to 0 but I've also noticed it could be down to Direct X 9 or 8 being on too.
When I put it to standard it works fine bar a tiny line appearing on the bottom of the white space in the first frame.
Thanks for checking it out Road Kill. I think it happens when you re-position an entire layer containing scaled objects with alpha channels. Not quite sure exactly...
Either way, I've been re-writing each tutorial in html and it seems to work much better. Sorry to waste your time. Thank you again!
Originally Posted by Road Kill 1987 I've had a fiddle with some of the code and I was about get rid of some of the shadow by setting the scale quality to 0 but I've also noticed it could be down to Direct X 9 or 8 being on too.
When I put it to standard it works fine bar a tiny line appearing on the bottom of the white space in the first frame.
I can concur. Just set your resize quality to 0 and it resolves the issue.
Just set all the scaling quality like lembi2001 said and it looks great. no issue. nothing to do with DX 9 or 8 then. I just missed the scaling code for the white space. oops