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[loken]

I encountered this bug with the first version of WME I used (1.8.1) and the most recent. I've not tested it on 1.8.2 though. I've mostly used the included demo to examine the bug.

The included screenshots will probably describe it better than I can. I see a lot of lines originating from a point in the upper left corner. The image is not static, and flickers a lot.







This usually occurs 2-3 seconds after I've started the game, however, it sometimes happens immediately, and almost always immediately within WME's editor windows.

This only occurs when 3d acceleration is used. Theres no difference when using DX9 or DX8, or Hardware T&L.

If I turn on 2x or 4x AA, the problem is almost completely gone, though occasionally there will be a flicker.

Whether this is related or not, I'm not sure, but when I run the game in full screen, I get a nearly constant framerate of 60fps, but in windowed, it reads as 1600fps or more. If AA is turned on I get around 800fps in Windowed mode.


The nature of this bug makes WME practically unusable for me. To be honest, I really don't know if it's a problem with WME or my video card. Most everything else works fine on my video card, from Blender, to Bioshock. So I'm not sure what's going on.

I'm running a freshly installed Windows XP Home SP2 with all updates installed.
Here's a brief rundown of my system specs:

DirectX 9.0c
Nvidia Geforce 7900GT (256.0 MB)
Forceware Drivers version 163.75
Intel Core2 Duo e6750 (@2.667 ghz)
2 Gigs of Ram
Desktop Resolution of 1680x1050 @ 32bit @60hz

The bug also occured on my older computer, which had a completely different motherboard, ram, and CPU (Athlon X2 4200+) - however, the video card was the same. I thought the bug could be related to having multiple cores, but confining the affinity to just one core makes no difference.

If theres any more information I can provide, please let me know. I would really love to use WME for my project.

[Mnemonic]

Can you try updating the Forceware drivers to the latest version? (169.21)

[loken]

Hi,

Updated to latest Forceware drivers. No difference.

I forced 4x AA to always be on via Nvidia Control panel, and that does remedy the problem for the most part in both the WME IDE's, and the Demo game so far. I'll continue messing with it.

Still displays a framerate of 1162+ in windowed mode though. Is there suppose to be a frame limit?

[odnorf]

About the frames per second in windowed mode vs fullscreen the difference is coming from an option in the gpu drivers called vsync. If it's enabled (in fullscreen) the game's fps is locked by the gpu to the monitor refresh rate. In your case your monitor is at 60Hz so the fps is locked at 60fps too.

[Mnemonic]

How about the 3D demo? Is the 3D character displayed correctly?

[loken]

Yes, the 3d demo has the same problem. Only seems to be affecting windowed mode. It occurs as soon as the menu is drawn.

The distortion in the editor seems to be rather random as to when/if it happens. I was able to make it happen by resizing the main window and restoring it.

[Mnemonic]

Well, unfortunately I have no idea what could be the source of this problem. I would be interested in knowing if the pre-1.8 versions of WME have the same problem on your machine. There are some new sprite optimizations in 1.8, however they only affect text, GUI and particles. In your case other sprites seem to be affected as well...
Also, when I was asking about the 3D demo, I wanted to know if the *3D character* was displaying ok.

[loken]

Hi Mnemonic,

The distortion occurs to the 3d character as well.

I looked, but couldn't find any pre 1.8 versions to download. I'd be willing to try it out if you could provide a link.

Given the nature of the bug and the fact that apparently no one else has reported it, I really think it could just be my video card. Unfortunately I don't have another to test that theory with.

[Mnemonic]

I already removed the old installers... But for testing purposes you might perhaps download some of the wme games made with older versions? I have the Five lethal demons installer on my FTP, it's made with WME 1.6.
But since the 3D model is distorted as well, it really seems there's something fishy going on with the hardware.

[loken]

It occurs with the 5 Lethal Demons as well.

It's just weird. I don't get this problem with any other 2d hardware accelerated game engines like Novashell or even intensely gpu bound games like Bioshock.

Oh well. It's largely mitigated by just turning AA on. 5 Lethal Demons works fine with even 2x AA.

Thanks for the help. Unless it happens to someone else, it's probably me and not WME.

-Loken

[metamorphium]

isn't it some sort of refresh rate problem? Is your card overclocked?

[loken]

I suppose it could have something to do with the refresh rate -- I can't change my systems refresh rate to test that idea though as I have an LCD monitor locked in at 60hz. The problem doesn't just distort the characters, most of the screen is completely garbled, and the screen shots don't quite explain it well enough. There's black horizontal bands that flicker as well.

Oh, and no, my video card is at the stock clock speed, as is the rest of my system.