Possible bug with Gifs

[ruckage]

Hello Loadman,

I think I've found a couple of bugs when using Gifs in the latest version of Mala (1.73/1.735).

I'm currently building a layout and I'm using video 2 to play an animated gif.  The Gif has 17 frames but for some reason Mala isn't playing the entire animation - it seems to only be reaching frame 12 before looping back to the start.

As an experiment I tried a shorter animation, this time 9 frames.  This played the whole animation but seemed to stutter at the end, it looks like the last 2 frames are looped twice before returning to the start of the animation cycle.
To rule out my pc I've tried it on my main desktop and what will be my mame machine with the same results.  I also tried using your avatar Gif to to make sure my gifs weren't at fault and your avatar also stutters.

I still have a copy of Mala 1.65 so I tried my layout in that and the gifs played perfectly so I'm fairly sure it's a new bug.

Thanks for all the hard work you put into this great program, I've only just joined these boards but have been using Mala for quite a while and it keeps getting better.

[loadman]

ok Thanks for reporting

[loadman]

OK Tested.

Problem seems to exist in MaLa 1722 +

I is when I switched to Delphi 2007.

I am using an updated version of the Video Driver (Engine)

I will send a support email to the developer for a fix 

[ruckage]

That's great.   The use of gifs are nice addition and a great way to spice up a layout, if possible in the future it would be really nice to have a few more video objects available to use for gifs.  Also any chance that the gifs can support transparency as it would aid design.

[loadman]

The developer of the Video engine got back to me and tells me he is working on a fix

[ruckage]

Hi Loadman,

Just tried the latest beta and the gifs seem to playing properly now.  However there are a few more bugs now I think.

Firstly the new beta seems to blur the gif animations, I've attached an image below showing the difference between mala 1735 and 1739 to show the problem.



Second new problem is that the gif now shows as a solid black box before it begins playing now.  It's only for a second but it just takes the shine off a bit and it doesn't happen in 173.5 

The next problem is related to the screensaver, after exiting the screensaver the gif doesn't seem to be returned to the exact same size as set in the layout so you get a black line either to the right or to the bottom of the gif (1735 puts a line at the right in my case and 1739 puts a line at the bottom.)  I think it's related to the size of the video window changing as you get the same black borders if the window isn't scaled to the same ratio as the actual gif.

The image below shows the problem, the black line is only 1 pixel high and only shows after the screensaver has been active. The bottom of the gif I'm using is just underneath the joysticks and is where the black line is appearing.




Finally the setting for the video2 window size don't seem to be very accurate, the layout is fixed size 1024x768 and the gif was designed specifically for that resolution but the video2 window size doesn't match what is entered in the layout (or maybe the video isn't matching the window). It doesn't seem to affect all sizes of Gifs though as after some tests some render at exactly the size entered but I haven't managed to narrow it down to exactly what sizes/ratios cause the problem so I'll investigate further to give you more solid information to work on.

Sorry for the extra long post, hope I didn't ramble too much. I'll provide more information as I find it.

Thanks for all the hard work.

[loadman]

Hi,

I didn't mention that I made changes in that area to you as I saw the 'blurry' effect myself so I was awaiting a fix on that.

You obviously saw new beta version appear on the website 

I will investigate the other reported symptoms when I have a newer/fixed version of the video editor

[ruckage]

Hi Loadman, yeah I saw the new beta and thought I'd give it a try - guess I jumped the gun a bit, at least you know I'm paying attention   

[loadman]

OK I took back the Video Engine version back quite a way until it looked OK

You can try latest beta if you want 

[ruckage]

Gave the beta a try and it works perfectly now

[loadman]

hmmmm

Older of Video Engine version works better  ehh 

Weird.

[ruckage]

Yep, certainly seems to.  It's also fixed the screensaver issue I mentioned so I guess that must be caused by the newer video engine as well, everything just seems to be working as it should now.

[loadman]

Thanks for the feedback..

I will let you know when/if I plan to change the Video engine again