gp2x flickers on

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Ian Price

That's just not possible. There will ALWAYS be bugs and glitches in code and displays. Even big games like GTA IV aren't perfect - there's loads of glitches, bugs and pop-up in pretty much every game. Some don't matter so much (like flickering on a GP2X), whereas others are atmosphere killers.

You have to appreciate that sometimes there is more work involved in finding and curing problems than it's actually worth - even professional game studios don't fix every bug that they know about.

Gernot is a one man army, working on the ONLY commercial programming language that compiles for the GP2X. There is only so much that he can do. I'd rather he implemented new features and fixed other bugs than spend time on something so trivial. Maybe he'll get around to looking at the issue - I know he has looked into it in the past, as it was a lot worse then, so he might know where the problem lies.

But you also have to remember the GP2X isn't exactly a quality bit of kit and it's build quality and support is less than satisfactory. Are you writing to them to ask why the volume control is software only, or why their headphone jacks break off? Or why the battery life is so crap? Why does it take so long to boot up? etc. etc. etc.

Accept it for the time being. Maybe it'll get sorted, maybe it won't, but whatever the case it's not a game killer.
I came. I saw. I played.

Grz-

It's different, GTA IV and others console games or PC games are based actually on a API like OpenGL, Direct3D etc... which provide all basics things for displaying stuff on the screen, same in 2D, and these API should be PERFECT because it's the display base for some games... after, it's just a inherent problem on how the game is programmed.

When you code in Basic you can't have the same control as a low level language has... but i think peoples who pay 60€+ for a game language can have a perfect display, because it's the base for a game. I'm ok with the GP2X quality, i'm patient so i don't care to the boot time, the battery life ? With a good 2600mah it's not a problem. The GP2X screen have a good quality, all works correctly for basics stuffs, it's not perfect for extended stuff but it's perfect for basic things and GlBasic should have a perfect display too because it's the base.

I know it take time to fix it, but in ~2years (i don't know when GlBasic come to GP2X) it should be already fixed. :)

And no it's not the only commercial programming language on GP2X, Game Editor is too. (ok it's not a full language but it provide a advanced scripting system similar to a basic language)

KidPaddle

Are you using the mmuhack? I have noticed this flickering, if i use mmuhack.o in "c++" programs. Delete the file mmuhack.o and check, if the display always is flickering.

Thomas
Intel CoreDuo 6300, GT 7950 512MB, 2 GB Ram, XP SP2
GP2X MK1, Firmware 2.0.0

AndyH

It's funny, I had seen it happen before but not really noticed it as it seems so infrequent.

I would agree, it needs to be fixed, but on the grand scale of things I would not rank it as a high priority.  Hopefully Gernot will be able to fix it at some point.  I don't know any of the history behind the previous flicker issues but as Ian suggests it may not be a simple thing to track down so it could take some time and I'd agree that there are other things that are probably a higher priority right now.

For example, there was a problem on the PocketPC where after an amount of time the display would just lock up.  Now that is a serious problem and it took some time to track it down and fix it.

Gernot has done a fantastic job to date with GLBasic, but I also understand the amount of time he can spend on it is limited being something he does mostly in his spare time.  I think it's fantastic that GLB compiles for so many platforms, with very little (if any) modification of code as long as you design with a broad scope of support in mind.

Personally I'd like for the PocketPC music support to be completed and for the bug with Music / Media shoeboxes on the GP2X to be fixed first, but that aligns to my priorities ;)  I'd also like to see built in support for MOD/IT music on ALL platforms and would rank this a higher priority too.

I'm sure an improvement to this bug will come at some point ... just maybe not today :)

Ian Price

There is no difference between a game and a programming language - there will ALWAYS be some things that don't work perfectly, but work well enough to be more than passable. Sometimes the consumer doesn't notice. Sometimes they do. Sometimes it isn't that important. Obviously to you this is.

In a perfect world there would ne no flaws in software or hardware. But this isn't a perfect world and there are flaws.

Like I said, maybe Gernot will be able to find out what's causing this problem, maybe he won't. Arguing the toss with me is pointless - I can't fix the problem. At least I can confirm the problem exists. But to me, it's not an issue. But that doesn't mean that I wouldn't like to see the problem fixed either.
I came. I saw. I played.

heliuse


Moru

Since I'm still waiting for an example with flickering screen (WITH SOURCECODE!!!) I created one myself. Then I sat down for 10 minutes and stared on the screen and didn't see any flickering. No I didn't miss one while blinking, I changed eyes so I would always have one eye on the screen. My test code only contains a LOADBMP and a DRAWSPRITE command, and also a PRINT statement.

Since this gave no result I added the mp3-song you had in your game Poker. Still no flickering, not even while loading the mp3-file. Can you mabe try to remove parts of your program to try to figure out what is causing the flickering in your game?

Ian Price

Right - here is evidence of a flicker on GP2X with a GLBasic app. Be aware, my camera is really shite and the lighting conditions etc. are not optimum.

http://www.iprice.remakes.org/stuff/flicker.rar

The flicker occurs about 4.5 seconds in. On the GP2X it's much more pronuounced, but as my camera uses a more stop-frame approach to moving images it's not so good, but it is still evident.

I came. I saw. I played.

Moru

I have seen the GP2X flickering but I have never seen sourcecode for an application that flickers. I'm no expert but I imagine it's horrible to debug something like "my screen flickers, fix it", without any sort of example code. Please at least show us the source of the thing that flickers and mabe remove all code that doesn't change the flickering.

My games run without flickering and I have no idea how to make them flicker.

Note: I'm no GL Basic developer, I just want to help the poor guy so he has a chance to find the problem when he has time for it. Mabe you could help a bit too?

heliuse

#24
Ian Price:  :good:   

Moru:  "My games run without flickering and I have no idea how to make them flicker."

ALL games written in glbasic have this problem on gp2x .

LOADSPRITE "sprite.png",1
WHILE TRUE
  DRAWSPRITE 1,0,0
  IF key(44)=1
    END
  ENDIF
  SHOWSCREEN
WEND


  :noggin:

Ian Price

I concur with heliuse, all GLBasic games flicker on GP2X at some point - no matter how simple or complex.
I came. I saw. I played.

Moru

Ah, finally some sourcecode.  :nw: See, could have saved me half a day of wondering how to recreate this. I was loading a background picture and they DO NOT FLICKER. However if I load a sprite that covers the whole screen and draw that one each frame it does flicker after 5-10 minutes. A sprite on the background doesn't flicker what I saw but it doesn't move as smooth as I would preffer. (I made a loop moving my 64x64 sprite smoothly over the screen but it's getting stuck now and then for one frame so it doesn't look smooth)

Kitty Hello

The gp2x has some flickering problems with the lower right 4 pixels (sound problem) and some occasional flickering (Sync problem).
I don't know how to get rid of it, and all other programs do have the same problem for me.
If your flickering is bad, please post a video and your source code.

heliuse

at your place i considerate this bug as a major problem for a language who peoples need to pay. the sdlbasic and fenix are free and display correctly.
the gp2x version of GlBasic has been released in 2006 and this kind of bug should be already fixed in priority.

Kitty Hello

No. Please post a video of your flickering here and the code. GLBasic has no more flickering than any other program on my devices.