script saving an image sequence does not work correctly

Errors and unexpected results
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hproe
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Re: script saving an image sequence does not work correctly

Post by hproe »

Hi Bob -

Many thanks for the code. I got it working and like it. However, I have two remarks.

1. When capturing an image out of a time sequence, invariabily the blue time pointer skips to the second time step and saves this one. I have seen this also with writeImageAtIndex I am using in my code.

2. The clipping options are fine, but it will be difficult to obtain a satisfatory (and reproducible!) cutout of the display, in particular when usin non-rectangular projections. Here I prefer to go through Porjections>Viewpoints and View>FullScreen.

Anyway, I am looking forward to see the 'threading problem' resovled.

cheers from non-winter, HP
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hproe
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Re: script saving an image sequence does not work correctly

Post by hproe »

Hi Bob -

I am coming back to my svImageSeq script and my have additional useful information. As already reported by me earlier on, and confirmed by you, the script saves now always the frame sequence with the correct timing, but more or less sporadically frames are left blank. Recently I have been running the script with different image sizes and pixel densities. I got the impression that the density of blank frames depend on these values, in particular on the image size. I have tested several times with a full-screen size of 200x200 pixels and got no blank frames.

So it looks like, notwithstanding the sync commands that have been added to the loop code, the script is not yet in full control of when the image content has been placed in the current frame. Does this make sense?

cheers, HP
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bobc
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Re: script saving an image sequence does not work correctly

Post by bobc »

Hi HP -

Thanks for your letting us know that the frequency of blank frames seems to be dependent on full-screen size. I'll run some tests on my end here to see if I can replicate your findings.

Thanks -
Bob
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hproe
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Re: script saving an image sequence does not work correctly

Post by hproe »

Hi Bob -

News from running my script - weird.

Since a couple of builds 1.5beta2 (at least since 2015-02-01) all saved images are blank. And also the full-screen display remains blank druing the capture, which was never the case before.

Another detail I saw the other day (before encountering the issue above). when saving an images overlaid with a model field, only the images are saved.

HP
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bobc
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Re: script saving an image sequence does not work correctly

Post by bobc »

Hi HP -

I tried running the svImageSeq function with all 4 switch values and I'm seeing some blank images here and there, but most images look correct. With switch=0, 1, and 2, in my loop of 10 images one output image was black. With switch=3, all of the images were correct. Running from the background, switch=0, 1 and 2 all produced good images.

Can you let me know exactly how many images you're working with in your loop?

When you say "full-screen display remains blank druing the capture", are you referring to the gray display window that happens when the full screen is reset on Windows? This problem is written up as Inquiry 517.

As for the satellite displays overlaid with gridded data, I just ran some tests here and my results were:
- switch = 0: all images have satellite and gridded data, one image missing one layer label
- switch = 1, 2, and 3: 1 or 2 black images (some included the map with no data, others didn't have the map or the data). Some images had satellite and no gridded data. Some images had grids but no satellite data.

Were you seeing that the satellite image would be in all (or most) of the images, but the gridded display wasn't in any of the images?

Thanks -
Bob
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hproe
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Re: script saving an image sequence does not work correctly

Post by hproe »

Hi Bob -

First of all, when I say 'full-screen display' I am not referring to the blank mother display window after full screen is reset, but to the display widget that comes up when going View > Full Screen (containg the well-formed display to be saved by the script).

With 1.5beta2 of 2015-02-03 10:30 the behaviour of the script has very much improved, irrespective of the switch being set to 0, 1, 2 or 3. The script still saves empty images every now and then, though (1-2 per 100, say). No problems with overlays of model fields - they go saved with the satellite image.

I also note a change in the 'visible' behaviour of the saving sequence:
for many builds before today's one what I was seeing was:
... 'full-screen' goes blank - former image appears - former image replaced by next one - 'full-screen' goes blank - ...
today I see (and seems more logical to me):
... 'full-screen' goes blank - next image appears - 'full-screen' goes blank - ...
Looks like the new behaviour makes saving also somewhat faster.
.
In short, we still have rare drop outs.

HP
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bobc
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Re: script saving an image sequence does not work correctly

Post by bobc »

Hi HP -

In today's nightly (03/02), we put in some code changes that should help out the black images. I ran a variety of tests on Windows 7, Linux 64-bit, and OS X using your svImageSeq() function with switch values of 0 through 4. Everything seems to be working fine on OS X and Linux.

On Windows 7, with switch=0 there are some problems with missing layer labels, and I have seen a couple cases where the output image had a map, but no satellite image or layer label. However, switch values of 1, 2, and 3 are all working fine in my tests on Windows.

This is still a bit of a work in progress as far as the missing layer labels on Windows, but if you give the new nightly a try, please let us know if the problem of black images is resolved. Also, if you see any other odd behavior with capturing images, let us know.

Thanks -
Bob
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hproe
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Re: script saving an image sequence does not work correctly

Post by hproe »

Hi Bob -

Sorry for the delay, I have been away. With very recent builds, both on a W7 and a W8.1 notebook, I get images with the matte(s) attached, but no image and map on them. By chance, afterwards I have manually switched back to the 'Full Screen' display (empty, of course) and played with shifting/zooming it. Lo and behold, I got the image back, but very distorted, see the attached image that was produced with a simple but massive zooming out. So, the image and map were just completely outside the display window. Looks like something is going wrong when the script is applying the projection.

HP

zoomedOut.png
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bobc
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Re: script saving an image sequence does not work correctly

Post by bobc »

Hi HP -

Thanks for testing this out again, and sorry that you are still seeing problems. I showed this to our programmer and we are going to try looking into this. I have not seen this problem myself, so I have a couple questions:

1. Are you seeing this problem with every image with a matte, or just some of them?
2. Have you seen this problem in the past, where you would see the matte in the output image but not the actual satellite display/map?

Thanks -
Bob
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hproe
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Re: script saving an image sequence does not work correctly

Post by hproe »

Hi Bob -

Answering your questions:
1. All images show the same.
2.Earlier on there were drop-outs. I did not check for projection anomalies then, of course. But I suspect that they were not there, because the rest of the series were good-looking.

HP
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