Stykz 1.0 build 220 Bugs/Optimization

[scykei]

K some new ones:

• Using the Subselect Tool, use Shift + Click or Ctrl + Click to select a few segments. Then, use the same method to deselect them. This function does not appear to work properly. (Reported this before but you've probably missed it :P)
  
• Using the Subselect Tool to create a new figure, it will show the Figure Properties palette instead of Segment Properties. I remember in a very old build, making a segment with the Subselect will automatically select the new segment so that minor tweaks can be applied immediately after being created. Where did that feature go?
  
• Small bug: From what I know, when using the Polyfill, Add Line or Add Circle Tools, all hidden segments should show up. However, they will not do so until you actually try to make a line. For example, merely switching to the Add Line Tool will not show those lines but you will need to at least attempt to make a line before they show up.
  
• This is sort of related to the above bug: After having the hidden lines to show up, switching to the Select Tool does not remove them until it actually interacts with a figure.
  
• I don't think that you should be able to select the stage with the Subselect Tool. Instead, when clicking on the stage, it should not change to the Stage Properties but instead remain at the Segment Properties showing "There is nothing is selected" or something simliar. This means that it should remain the Segment Properties regardless of where you click because the tool's sole purpose is to create and edit figures and segments. I dunno, just a suggestion.
  
• Duplicating a figure with Ctrl + D will create a duplicate slightly away from the figure. Why not when Copy and Pasting? I think it should do how MS Word handles its copy and paste. There, it will intelegently detect if there is already a shape in that location and if there is, it will move it slightly away.

[stykzman]

• Using the Subselect Tool, use Shift + Click or Ctrl + Click to select a few segments. Then, use the same method to deselect them. This function does not appear to work properly. (Reported this before but you've probably missed it :P)

Verified

• Using the Subselect Tool to create a new figure, it will show the Figure Properties palette instead of Segment Properties. I remember in a very old build, making a segment with the Subselect will automatically select the new segment so that minor tweaks can be applied immediately after being created. Where did that feature go?

It seems to have disappeared... I'll see what I can do to put it back. If it's too much trouble, though, it's only an extra click...

• Small bug: From what I know, when using the Polyfill, Add Line or Add Circle Tools, all hidden segments should show up. However, they will not do so until you actually try to make a line. For example, merely switching to the Add Line Tool will not show those lines but you will need to at least attempt to make a line before they show up.

Are you talking they should show up for the currently selected figure(s), or for all figures? Because they show up properly (at least for me) if the figure is selected with the or if a segment of the figure is selected with the .

• This is sort of related to the above bug: After having the hidden lines to show up, switching to the Select Tool does not remove them until it actually interacts with a figure.

Once again, this works for me if the figure (or a segment of the figure) is selected.

• I don't think that you should be able to select the stage with the Subselect Tool. Instead, when clicking on the stage, it should not change to the Stage Properties but instead remain at the Segment Properties showing "There is nothing is selected" or something simliar. This means that it should remain the Segment Properties regardless of where you click because the tool's sole purpose is to create and edit figures and segments. I dunno, just a suggestion.

I'll take that under advisement - I'm planning on making it easier to get to the Stage Properties (for example, if you have a full-frame polyfill figure you *can't* click on the actual Stage anywhere), so I may deal with it then.

• Duplicating a figure with Ctrl + D will create a duplicate slightly away from the figure. Why not when Copy and Pasting? I think it should do how MS Word handles its copy and paste. There, it will intelegently detect if there is already a shape in that location and if there is, it will move it slightly away.

I respectfully disagree - there are times when you want a copy to share the same base line as the original; if there was no way to do that easily the only alternative would be to make the copy, move it approximately where it should be, and then use the alignment tool to align the bottoms. Right now, I can copy and paste and use the arrow keys (shift-arrow mostly) to move the figure. It's funny, actually, because I was thinking of changing Duplicate so it did what Copy/Paste does now... but of course I can put that in as a Preference option perhaps.

[GuitarMangler]

Duplicating a figure with Ctrl + D will create a duplicate slightly away from the figure. Why not when Copy and Pasting? I think it should do how MS Word handles its copy and paste. There, it will intelegently detect if there is already a shape in that location and if there is, it will move it slightly away.

I respectfully disagree - there are times when you want a copy to share the same base line as the original; if there was no way to do that easily the only alternative would be to make the copy, move it approximately where it should be, and then use the alignment tool to align the bottoms. Right now, I can copy and paste and use the arrow keys (shift-arrow mostly) to move the figure. It's funny, actually, because I was thinking of changing Duplicate so it did what Copy/Paste does now... but of course I can put that in as a Preference option perhaps.

In flash they have it so you can press Ctrl + Shift + P to paste something in the exact spot that it was copied and just pressing Ctrl + P pastes it to the center of the stage. I think that is a good way make a manual method of choosing the location.

[EmPeeKay]

I like that it copies to the same spot and duplicates to the side a bit. It works the exact same way in inkscape.

[scykei]

Sorry for the rather late reply. I've been quite busy and I could only access the forums using my iPhone, and it sorta' sucks making long posts.

• Using the Subselect Tool to create a new figure, it will show the Figure Properties palette instead of Segment Properties. I remember in a very old build, making a segment with the Subselect will automatically select the new segment so that minor tweaks can be applied immediately after being created. Where did that feature go?

It seems to have disappeared... I'll see what I can do to put it back. If it's too much trouble, though, it's only an extra click...

It causes some inconsistency issues, like making a new figure with subselect will have the new move nodes become red when it is usually impossible to do.

• Small bug: From what I know, when using the Polyfill, Add Line or Add Circle Tools, all hidden segments should show up. However, they will not do so until you actually try to make a line. For example, merely switching to the Add Line Tool will not show those lines but you will need to at least attempt to make a line before they show up.

Are you talking they should show up for the currently selected figure(s), or for all figures? Because they show up properly (at least for me) if the figure is selected with the or if a segment of the figure is selected with the .

K see this: Have some figure with a segment both hidden and static. Then click somewhere to deselect the figures so that those segments cannot be seen. Now go to Add Line Tool. Merely going to the tool will not cause those hidden segments to show up. They only do when you finally create a line. What if you'd have wanted to create a branch from a hidden node? That would mean you'd have to make a line somewhere just to bring up the hidden segments.

• This is sort of related to the above bug: After having the hidden lines to show up, switching to the Select Tool does not remove them until it actually interacts with a figure.

Once again, this works for me if the figure (or a segment of the figure) is selected.

And so for this one, it works sort of in reverse. Now that all the hidden segments are shown, merely reverting back to the Select Tool would not cause them to disappear. You will need to click on one of the figures before they do. I don't really know how to explain but that's the best I could do. :P

• I don't think that you should be able to select the stage with the Subselect Tool. Instead, when clicking on the stage, it should not change to the Stage Properties but instead remain at the Segment Properties showing "There is nothing is selected" or something simliar. This means that it should remain the Segment Properties regardless of where you click because the tool's sole purpose is to create and edit figures and segments. I dunno, just a suggestion.

I'll take that under advisement - I'm planning on making it easier to get to the Stage Properties (for example, if you have a full-frame polyfill figure you *can't* click on the actual Stage anywhere), so I may deal with it then.

Right. But hmm, somehow what I've thought of for this is also related to the above. I was actually thinking that because having a figure selected, switching to the Subselect tool will not revert the Figure Properties Palette. So having the properties "forced" to change might prevent this. I dunno but somehow the current system doesn't feel really "tidy", if you know what I mean? :3

• Duplicating a figure with Ctrl + D will create a duplicate slightly away from the figure. Why not when Copy and Pasting? I think it should do how MS Word handles its copy and paste. There, it will intelegently detect if there is already a shape in that location and if there is, it will move it slightly away.

I respectfully disagree - there are times when you want a copy to share the same base line as the original; if there was no way to do that easily the only alternative would be to make the copy, move it approximately where it should be, and then use the alignment tool to align the bottoms. Right now, I can copy and paste and use the arrow keys (shift-arrow mostly) to move the figure. It's funny, actually, because I was thinking of changing Duplicate so it did what Copy/Paste does now... but of course I can put that in as a Preference option perhaps.

I thought of this because currently, we can't really see if it was actually pasted or not until we drag the figure out of the way. The way the duplicate works make more sense to me :/ Maybe the certain hotkey what changes how it pastes, like GuitarMangler said.

And I just found out about this: How come holding shift while dragging degrades performance? Don't know if it works for anyone else...
Try having five of the default Stykz stickmen on the stage. Select them all and drag them around. Now hold Shift and continue moving the cursor, very quickly around the screen. Notice how the figures lags a bit when Shift is held? This does not happen when the key is let go...

[stykzman]

• Small bug: From what I know, when using the Polyfill, Add Line or Add Circle Tools, all hidden segments should show up. However, they will not do so until you actually try to make a line. For example, merely switching to the Add Line Tool will not show those lines but you will need to at least attempt to make a line before they show up.

Are you talking they should show up for the currently selected figure(s), or for all figures? Because they show up properly (at least for me) if the figure is selected with the or if a segment of the figure is selected with the .

K see this: Have some figure with a segment both hidden and static. Then click somewhere to deselect the figures so that those segments cannot be seen. Now go to Add Line Tool. Merely going to the tool will not cause those hidden segments to show up. They only do when you finally create a line. What if you'd have wanted to create a branch from a hidden node? That would mean you'd have to make a line somewhere just to bring up the hidden segments.

Actually this is "by design" (at least at the moment) - as I have no idea how many figures will be on the stage or how complex they will be, I felt it would take too long to run through all the potential figures looking for hidden segments. So right now, if a figure or segment is selected, hidden segments will show. And (as you found out) as soon as you start to add a segment to a figure, hits hidden segments will show as well. So if you want to add a segment to a figure, click on it first with the select/subselect tool before you add the segment and you'll see the hidden segments. At some point I'll have this optimized so I can show hidden segments of all figures on the stage, but for now this is the workaround.

• This is sort of related to the above bug: After having the hidden lines to show up, switching to the Select Tool does not remove them until it actually interacts with a figure.

Once again, this works for me if the figure (or a segment of the figure) is selected.

And so for this one, it works sort of in reverse. Now that all the hidden segments are shown, merely reverting back to the Select Tool would not cause them to disappear. You will need to click on one of the figures before they do. I don't really know how to explain but that's the best I could do. :P

That's a byproduct of my explanation above - when you revert back to the Select Tool, the figure is still selected, and so it will display the hidden segments.

• I don't think that you should be able to select the stage with the Subselect Tool. Instead, when clicking on the stage, it should not change to the Stage Properties but instead remain at the Segment Properties showing "There is nothing is selected" or something simliar. This means that it should remain the Segment Properties regardless of where you click because the tool's sole purpose is to create and edit figures and segments. I dunno, just a suggestion.

I'll take that under advisement - I'm planning on making it easier to get to the Stage Properties (for example, if you have a full-frame polyfill figure you *can't* click on the actual Stage anywhere), so I may deal with it then.

Right. But hmm, somehow what I've thought of for this is also related to the above. I was actually thinking that because having a figure selected, switching to the Subselect tool will not revert the Figure Properties Palette. So having the properties "forced" to change might prevent this. I dunno but somehow the current system doesn't feel really "tidy", if you know what I mean? :3

Yeah, I know what you mean.

• Duplicating a figure with Ctrl + D will create a duplicate slightly away from the figure. Why not when Copy and Pasting? I think it should do how MS Word handles its copy and paste. There, it will intelegently detect if there is already a shape in that location and if there is, it will move it slightly away.

[/list]

I respectfully disagree - there are times when you want a copy to share the same base line as the original; if there was no way to do that easily the only alternative would be to make the copy, move it approximately where it should be, and then use the alignment tool to align the bottoms. Right now, I can copy and paste and use the arrow keys (shift-arrow mostly) to move the figure. It's funny, actually, because I was thinking of changing Duplicate so it did what Copy/Paste does now... but of course I can put that in as a Preference option perhaps.

I thought of this because currently, we can't really see if it was actually pasted or not until we drag the figure out of the way. The way the duplicate works make more sense to me :/ Maybe the certain hotkey what changes how it pastes, like GuitarMangler said.

Well, if you look closely, you'll see the pasted figure "blink"... I did that intentionally because I wanted to have *some* visual feedback that the paste took place. Maybe it's just conditioning yourself to use Duplicate instead of Copy/Paste?

And I just found out about this: How come holding shift while dragging degrades performance? Don't know if it works for anyone else...
Try having five of the default Stykz stickmen on the stage. Select them all and drag them around. Now hold Shift and continue moving the cursor, very quickly around the screen. Notice how the figures lags a bit when Shift is held? This does not happen when the key is let go...

It may be your system (or conversely, it may *not* be *my* system)... I don't see this - it's the same performance for both for me. For anyone else reading this, have you experienced what Scykei experienced?

[GuitarMangler]

And I just found out about this: How come holding shift while dragging degrades performance? Don't know if it works for anyone else...
Try having five of the default Stykz stickmen on the stage. Select them all and drag them around. Now hold Shift and continue moving the cursor, very quickly around the screen. Notice how the figures lags a bit when Shift is held? This does not happen when the key is let go...

It may be your system (or conversely, it may *not* be *my* system)... I don't see this - it's the same performance for both for me. For anyone else reading this, have you experienced what Scykei experienced?

I put 5 figures on the stage like he said and I got no performance delay when using the arrow keys both with and without shift. I then tried it again with 20 figures and I got a bit of delay, but no more than if you're doing anything else with the figures like changing colors or angle.

Testing this actually made me run into a bug where if you use the arrow keys on a lot of figures at once it will displace on of the figures by whatever interval you are moving them at.

Edit: I do actually see a noticeable performance difference between using the arrow keys and dragging the main node with the mouse.

[stykzman]

Testing this actually made me run into a bug where if you use the arrow keys on a lot of figures at once it will displace on of the figures by whatever interval you are moving them at.

Edit: I do actually see a noticeable performance difference between using the arrow keys and dragging the main node with the mouse.

Thanks for reporting that - I fixed it so the performance is better, but you get the best performance if the Frames Palette is not showing. This is because when you drag the figures with the mouse, I don't update the "slot" in the Frames Palette until you release the mouse; but with the arrow keys, it gets updated when you release the arrow key. Now there *is* some code in there that prevents the frame slot update if you hold down the arrow key and let it repeat, but clearly the updating of the frame slot is one of the core performance bottlenecks in Stykz that I'm working on addressing.

[scykei]

[list][*]Small bug: From what I know, when using the Polyfill, Add Line or Add Circle Tools, all hidden segments should show up. However, they will not do so until you actually try to make a line. For example, merely switching to the Add Line Tool will not show those lines but you will need to at least attempt to make a line before they show up.

Are you talking they should show up for the currently selected figure(s), or for all figures? Because they show up properly (at least for me) if the figure is selected with the or if a segment of the figure is selected with the .

K see this: Have some figure with a segment both hidden and static. Then click somewhere to deselect the figures so that those segments cannot be seen. Now go to Add Line Tool. Merely going to the tool will not cause those hidden segments to show up. They only do when you finally create a line. What if you'd have wanted to create a branch from a hidden node? That would mean you'd have to make a line somewhere just to bring up the hidden segments.

Actually this is "by design" (at least at the moment) - as I have no idea how many figures will be on the stage or how complex they will be, I felt it would take too long to run through all the potential figures looking for hidden segments. So right now, if a figure or segment is selected, hidden segments will show. And (as you found out) as soon as you start to add a segment to a figure, hits hidden segments will show as well. So if you want to add a segment to a figure, click on it first with the select/subselect tool before you add the segment and you'll see the hidden segments. At some point I'll have this optimized so I can show hidden segments of all figures on the stage, but for now this is the workaround.

Why can't it show the hidden segments the moment the Tool is switched to? :o I mean you can make them show after they add a line. Can't it happen sooner? :P

Testing this actually made me run into a bug where if you use the arrow keys on a lot of figures at once it will displace on of the figures by whatever interval you are moving them at.

Edit: I do actually see a noticeable performance difference between using the arrow keys and dragging the main node with the mouse.

Thanks for reporting that - I fixed it so the performance is better, but you get the best performance if the Frames Palette is not showing. This is because when you drag the figures with the mouse, I don't update the "slot" in the Frames Palette until you release the mouse; but with the arrow keys, it gets updated when you release the arrow key. Now there *is* some code in there that prevents the frame slot update if you hold down the arrow key and let it repeat, but clearly the updating of the frame slot is one of the core performance bottlenecks in Stykz that I'm working on addressing.

Well, what I said had nothing really to do with the arrow keys. It was using the mouse. I've made a video to explain it :D Shift_lag.mp4 - 3.7 Mb

[stykzman]

Actually this is "by design" (at least at the moment) - as I have no idea how many figures will be on the stage or how complex they will be, I felt it would take too long to run through all the potential figures looking for hidden segments. So right now, if a figure or segment is selected, hidden segments will show. And (as you found out) as soon as you start to add a segment to a figure, hits hidden segments will show as well. So if you want to add a segment to a figure, click on it first with the select/subselect tool before you add the segment and you'll see the hidden segments. At some point I'll have this optimized so I can show hidden segments of all figures on the stage, but for now this is the workaround.

Why can't it show the hidden segments the moment the Tool is switched to? :o I mean you can make them show after they add a line. Can't it happen sooner? :P

I mentioned it in my response (see the underlined part). When I make them show after adding a line, it's only for the figure you've added a line to (if there are other figures on the stage with hidden segments, they aren't shown).

Testing this actually made me run into a bug where if you use the arrow keys on a lot of figures at once it will displace on of the figures by whatever interval you are moving them at.

Edit: I do actually see a noticeable performance difference between using the arrow keys and dragging the main node with the mouse.

Thanks for reporting that - I fixed it so the performance is better, but you get the best performance if the Frames Palette is not showing. This is because when you drag the figures with the mouse, I don't update the "slot" in the Frames Palette until you release the mouse; but with the arrow keys, it gets updated when you release the arrow key. Now there *is* some code in there that prevents the frame slot update if you hold down the arrow key and let it repeat, but clearly the updating of the frame slot is one of the core performance bottlenecks in Stykz that I'm working on addressing.

Well, what I said had nothing really to do with the arrow keys. It was using the mouse. I've made a video to explain it :D Shift_lag.mp4 - 3.7 Mb

I was responding to GuitarMangler's comment, since neither he nor I could reproduce what you were talking about. I see what you're talking about, though - I'll see if I can reproduce it...