Disappearing character sprites

Learn how to use AAO by reading tutorials, and seek help from the AAO community.

Moderator: EN - Forum Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
OrderOfTheNick
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2013 5:42 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English,Hungarian

Disappearing character sprites

Post by OrderOfTheNick »

Sprites are disappearing at a certain point in my case, but only when I skip through the text or instant text typing is on.
Here's a video showing the error:

https://youtu.be/9ZZuX8oJyTw

Does anyone know why this happens?
I made Turnabout in the Two Towers, the winner of the Method in the Madness case competition.
User avatar
Enthalpy
Community Manager
Posts: 5169
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 4:40 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, limited Spanish

Re: Disappearing character sprites

Post by Enthalpy »

I have a vague memory of seeing this bug before, but I don't recall the cause off hand. Hopefully I'll have time to look into it this weekend.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
User avatar
Tiagofvarela
Posts: 357
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2014 7:16 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, Portuguese
Location: Portugal

Re: Disappearing character sprites

Post by Tiagofvarela »

The cause is clicking the button during smooth scrolling. Instant text amplifies the problem by making this easier to occur.
Simply be careful not to spam-click during segments which have smooth scrolling between the lawyer benches or witness.
A Laggy Turnabout ★
A Batty Turnabout ★
A Tricky Turnabout ★
Upcoming: A Worldly Turnabout, A Courtly Turnabout, A Clumsy Turnabout, A Needy Turnabout
User avatar
OrderOfTheNick
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2013 5:42 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English,Hungarian

Re: Disappearing character sprites

Post by OrderOfTheNick »

Tiagofvarela wrote:The cause is clicking the button during smooth scrolling. Instant text amplifies the problem by making this easier to occur.
Simply be careful not to spam-click during segments which have smooth scrolling between the lawyer benches or witness.
Is there no way to actually fix it on my end then?
I made Turnabout in the Two Towers, the winner of the Method in the Madness case competition.
User avatar
Nicky Boy
Posts: 579
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 8:54 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: Ελληνικά, English
Location: Greece

Re: Disappearing character sprites

Post by Nicky Boy »

Tiagofvarela wrote:The cause is clicking the button during smooth scrolling. Instant text amplifies the problem by making this easier to occur.
Not always. I had this happen in an investigation segment, in an area that was exactly one screen big. I think the rapid clicking is the problem; I was trying to skip a segment I had already read, and after that sprites were gone like in the vid, too. Changing scenes didn't help there, either.
Image Image
ImageImage
Image
ImageImageImageImage
Image
User avatar
Enthalpy
Community Manager
Posts: 5169
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 4:40 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, limited Spanish

Re: Disappearing character sprites

Post by Enthalpy »

That triggered my memory. The bug this reminds me of is this one here. This was an issue introduced in the last AAO update with timed transitions. The original report was just about cases where the user selected transitions, but it's possible those problematic transitions were marked by default. I can't explain why that would create a problem in "single screen" locations...

The short version is that this may already be fixed on developer versions. I need to see specific trials to know for sure. The best thing you can give me are "minimal working examples" - the shortest trial possible that will show the bug.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
User avatar
Nicky Boy
Posts: 579
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 8:54 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: Ελληνικά, English
Location: Greece

Re: Disappearing character sprites

Post by Nicky Boy »

Upon some testing, I realised that the problem was a transition. However, it was just that I didn't realise it at that point and falsely remembered a single screen popup/location change that "Hid previously present characters" from the screen to be culprit. Sorry for the misinformation.
Image Image
ImageImage
Image
ImageImageImageImage
Image
User avatar
OrderOfTheNick
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2013 5:42 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English,Hungarian

Re: Disappearing character sprites

Post by OrderOfTheNick »

I played around with it, and managed to recreate it (I think.) Clicking through rapidly makes the sprites disappear at the judge's first line, and they can't be brought back without reloading the page. Also, the screen doesn't scroll anymore.

http://www.aaonline.fr/player.php?trial_id=109047
I made Turnabout in the Two Towers, the winner of the Method in the Madness case competition.
User avatar
Nicky Boy
Posts: 579
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 8:54 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: Ελληνικά, English
Location: Greece

Re: Disappearing character sprites

Post by Nicky Boy »

Not to sound like an expert, but I got some interesting results.

Rapid clicking only for Phoenix and Edgeworth (the first time they appear) did not cause the judge to disappear. However, once I rapid clicked through Phoenix, Edgeworth and the witness, then the judge did disappear. The thing is, once I stopped rapid clicking on the witness, neither Phoenix nor Edgeworth disappeared; it seems as if the bug occurs when the place changes without smooth scrolling, rather than immediately after clicking during a transition.

Hope this helps with debugging!
Image Image
ImageImage
Image
ImageImageImageImage
Image
User avatar
Tiagofvarela
Posts: 357
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2014 7:16 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, Portuguese
Location: Portugal

Re: Disappearing character sprites

Post by Tiagofvarela »

Nicky Boy wrote:Not to sound like an expert, but I got some interesting results.

Rapid clicking only for Phoenix and Edgeworth (the first time they appear) did not cause the judge to disappear. However, once I rapid clicked through Phoenix, Edgeworth and the witness, then the judge did disappear. The thing is, once I stopped rapid clicking on the witness, neither Phoenix nor Edgeworth disappeared; it seems as if the bug occurs when the place changes without smooth scrolling, rather than immediately after clicking during a transition.

Hope this helps with debugging!
If I understood this correctly, the same occurs on my side:
  • Rapid clicking during the transition will make the sprites and screen scrolling disappear, but this only happens once the scene changes.
  • Rapid clicking on the characters makes the sprites disappear only when the scene changes to the judge's bench, regardless of when I rapid clicked in a smooth scroll.
A Laggy Turnabout ★
A Batty Turnabout ★
A Tricky Turnabout ★
Upcoming: A Worldly Turnabout, A Courtly Turnabout, A Clumsy Turnabout, A Needy Turnabout
User avatar
OrderOfTheNick
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2013 5:42 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English,Hungarian

Re: Disappearing character sprites

Post by OrderOfTheNick »

Looking back at the video (and the data for that trial), the sprites disappear on a frame where I cut to the defense bench without any scrolling, which seems to fall into the discussed pattern.

Playing back the video in slow motion (slowest setting, from 1:30) it looks like the screen scrolls to the prosecution, not getting there all the way before being forced to go back to the defense. That's the line the sprites disappear at. I hope this helps.

EDIT: Found a second instance of this in the trial, it really seems to happen when scrolling is interrupted?

https://youtu.be/Mw5G_JqUhMM
I made Turnabout in the Two Towers, the winner of the Method in the Madness case competition.
User avatar
Enthalpy
Community Manager
Posts: 5169
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 4:40 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, limited Spanish

Re: Disappearing character sprites

Post by Enthalpy »

I can tell you just by looking at OOTN's example that this is exactly the same as the bug I mentioned earlier. It's already been fixed on the developer version and should be fixed when Unas updates AAO next. I'm not sure when that'll be, but I'm hoping to make a couple additions to the developer version of AAO soon (fixing a Unicode bug and adding some extra visual effects) that will mean that will happen sooner rather than later.

If you have an example that doesn't use smooth scrolling, let me know, and I'll investigate.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
Post Reply