Draco1962 Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 Hi Tom - I am reporting an issue with how the .apng files are displaying within the menu of GameEx Arcade Edition v17.20. I have not tested within GameEx as I do not have it installed on my laptop. I assume the same behavior would occur there as well. Attached are my gameex.ini and log.txt files from this morning and a quick video showing the problem in action. 633105076_GameEx_APNG_Issue_2022-03-1309-42-22.mp4 GameEx.ini log.txt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted March 13, 2022 Author Share Posted March 13, 2022 P.S. I used Scutters Spinning Ball Animated Wheel Images app to create the APNG files. I have tried recreating some of the files to see if there was any change in behavior to no avail. As you can see in the video, the behavior is not consistant and some display with no problem and all were created using the same settings within the app. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted March 17, 2022 Author Share Posted March 17, 2022 Thought I might need to attach some copies of the files APNG_Samples.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scutters Posted March 18, 2022 Share Posted March 18, 2022 @Draco1962 - wondered how you were getting on with your wheel creation. Those look pretty neat! I thought i'd tested the wheels with PinballX (which i assume uses the same display library as Gameex), but maybe i just got lucky and used images that didn't have the issue. I think the cause is that the image frames aren't being stacked so only the changed pixels / sub frames are displayed with no base frame (see http://littlesvr.ca/apng/inter-frame.html). You could try unchecking the compression option in the app and see if that helps (but obviously if it does it will come at the cost of larger file sizes). @Tom SpeirsThe images play fine in Chrome\Edge, but you can see the issue in MNGer. Is the problem with the image format or the display library? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted March 18, 2022 Author Share Posted March 18, 2022 @scuttersI disabled all Image Compression on a test file and the issue resolves but the file is more than twice the size 1.87mb vs 755kb . Added Image Compression back and issue returns. Confirmed same results via MNGer. UPDATE: Confirmed no issues with compression enabled in Chrome or Edge. Observed minor "jump" in XnView as the file loops to the beginning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scutters Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 Tbh, I'm not sure if the 'interframe optimisation' thing is something Tom can fix so that the frames get stacked when rendered or not (or even if it is a bug?) I suppose i could add a nearly transparent pixel in each corner of the image on alternate frames or something like that so that the change rectangle in the optimised apng is always the full frame. i think that could be workaround (might mess up the file size reduction though) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted March 21, 2022 Author Share Posted March 21, 2022 I haven't tested making minor changes with the compression settings to see if it resolves the issue while allowing some compression. I will give it a try if you think it might work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scutters Posted March 21, 2022 Share Posted March 21, 2022 18 minutes ago, Draco1962 said: I haven't tested making minor changes with the compression settings to see if it resolves the issue while allowing sone compression. I will give it a try if you think it might work. I did play around with that earlier (without success), but you're welcome to try too. If i get chance tomorrow i'll have another look. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scutters Posted March 22, 2022 Share Posted March 22, 2022 @Draco1962 I didn't have any luck by changing the compression level, but i did by adding one pixel dots in each corner of alternate frames to force the change rectangle to be the full frame (and avoid the inter frame optimization). The pixels added are virtually transparent so shouldn't be an issue visually. It does affect the file size reduction though, but in my tests the saving were still ~80% of the savings made before. Hopefully the 'fix' will work for your images, i tried a few different image combinations but there's a chance your images may still have an issue. ImageToSpinBall_131.zip Only the exe included in the zip, just copy it over your existing exe. I probably won't update the app in the main download as this is just a hack to get us by (i'm hoping in the future gameex apps can display the original format animations like Chrome/Edge etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted March 22, 2022 Author Share Posted March 22, 2022 So should I use it with the compression enabled? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted March 22, 2022 Author Share Posted March 22, 2022 I have tried it with both. If I disable the Image Compression, all APNG builds thus far work but are quite a bit bigger. If I enable Image Compression, the file sizes are significantly smaller and I might get the first one that previously "failed" to work, but subsequent attempts fail. Opening in Chrome or Edge looks flawless, it is only in MNGer and GameEx Arcade Editiion that do not display the APNGs with Image Compression correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scutters Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 21 hours ago, Draco1962 said: I have tried it with both. If I disable the Image Compression, all APNG builds thus far work but are quite a bit bigger. If I enable Image Compression, the file sizes are significantly smaller and I might get the first one that previously "failed" to work, but subsequent attempts fail. Darn, thought the hack would work. Maybe @Tom Speirshas an idea? The compressed apngs work in Chrome/Edge and Irfanview but not in Gameex apps (my guess is it's something to do with the blend_op flag in the apngs frame control chunk - https://wiki.mozilla.org/APNG_Specification#.60fcTL.60:_The_Frame_Control_Chunk) edit - @Draco1962 one other thing to try i suppose is to turn off compression in the app and then try compressing via https://tinypng.com/. Maybe that uses a slightly different algorithm for blending / optimising. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Speirs Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 I see this. I will look into it. Sorry, got a lot on right now. Cheers. Tom. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Speirs Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 In the meantime here is a coding meme! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted March 24, 2022 Author Share Posted March 24, 2022 Lived that meme during one of my app implementations 2 years ago. Not fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted May 13, 2022 Author Share Posted May 13, 2022 Hi Tom - I have installed v18.03 of GameEx AE .net6 and still getting the issue with the .apng files not running properly as previously reported in this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Speirs Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 I need the theme buddy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Speirs Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 But it sounds like you got a solution anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted May 17, 2022 Author Share Posted May 17, 2022 24 minutes ago, Tom Speirs said: But it sounds like you got a solution anyway. No solution. An attempt was made by scutters to fix through his app but to no avail, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered. It isn't the themes, simply the .apng files. I will try to get those to you if you need them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Speirs Posted May 17, 2022 Share Posted May 17, 2022 5 minutes ago, Draco1962 said: No solution. An attempt was made by scutters to fix through his app but to no avail, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered. It isn't the themes, simply the .apng files. I will try to get those to you if you need them. I thought you said disabling compression fixed it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted May 17, 2022 Author Share Posted May 17, 2022 It did in most cases but at a significant increase in file size and intermitent but noticeable lag with the files loading as I advanced the menu. The fact that the compressed files work fine in everything else but GameEx was concerning. On 3/23/2022 at 3:02 AM, scutters said: Darn, thought the hack would work. Maybe @Tom Speirshas an idea? The compressed apngs work in Chrome/Edge and Irfanview but not in Gameex apps (my guess is it's something to do with the blend_op flag in the apngs frame control chunk - https://wiki.mozilla.org/APNG_Specification#.60fcTL.60:_The_Frame_Control_Chunk) edit - @Draco1962 one other thing to try i suppose is to turn off compression in the app and then try compressing via https://tinypng.com/. Maybe that uses a slightly different algorithm for blending / optimising. If this is more than you wish to deal with at this time I can certainly understand. I'll stick to the static images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted May 19, 2022 Author Share Posted May 19, 2022 On 3/16/2022 at 8:03 PM, Draco1962 said: Thought I might need to attach some copies of the files APNG_Samples.zip 4.91 MB · 2 downloads @Tom Speirssamples here of files observed behaving badly. As I noted previously, the issue displays within all themes, default-default inclusive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted June 12, 2022 Author Share Posted June 12, 2022 Verified still occurs with latest 18.09 when utilizing compression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Speirs Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 I have not has a chance to look at this yet. The compressions stuff may take some work and may not ever be supported. Its not a simple thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draco1962 Posted June 18, 2022 Author Share Posted June 18, 2022 I know it may be a while but will continue to report back if I notice anything new from testing. Removing the compression remedies the "squashing effect" from top and bottom of the image only. The files are 3-4x the size uncompressed. There are other issues that occur with the image displaying striping artifacts as the frames progress. Here is a quick vid and a copy of the same file. I have tested viewing the .apng file in MNGer, MS Edge, and XnView and none of these exhibit the striping. I tested it with a static (.png) background image to rule-out any issues with the bak.mp4 but the same striping artifact occurs. 1930910589_GameEx_Start.._GoldenEraOfArcade_64_60_2022-06-1817-34-02.mp4 Golden.apng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts