Windows 1.3.1 p11 - Taskbar Strangeness

[don]

Has anyone running 1.3.1 p11 on Windows XP (fully updated critical patches) noticed that the Windows Taskbar tooltips become messed up and even flash and flicker?

When Celestia is running, and I hover over an item in the taskbar, it's pop-up tooltip (title) will sometimes flicker / flash uncontrollably.

In addition, the tooltip titles are all incorrect, showing the title of some other active application, Launch area icon, etc.

When I close Celestia, all is back to normal.

-Don G.

[selden]

I see no such flickers on my system at work:

512MB 2.4GHz P4, WinXP Pro SP1, all critical patches
128MB FX 5200, Nvidia driver v52.16, OpenGL v1.4.1
1600x1200 Samsung SyncMaster 210T LCD, 60Hz, DVI connection
Celestia v1.3.1pre11 complete download

I also see no such flickers on my system at home:

256MB 500MHz P3, WinXP Pro SP1, all critical patches
128MB GF4 Ti4200, Nvidia driver v44.03, OpenGL v1.4.0
1600x1200 Hitachi SuperScan 812, 60Hz, "dvi" analog connection
Celestia v1.3.1pre11 exe in pre10 directory
Celestia v1.3.0
Celestia v1.2.5

Maybe it depends on what Celestia is displaying?

I watched the Earth rotating at a time rate of 10000x with all eye candy enabled. Celestia's framerates were less than the screen refresh rate: 10 to 40 fps at home, depending on the viewpoint.

[granthutchison]

It's been around for a while:
http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2313

Grant

[Harry]

Has anyone running 1.3.1 p11 on Windows XP (fully updated critical patches) noticed that the Windows Taskbar tooltips become messed up and even flash and flicker?

When Celestia is running, and I hover over an item in the taskbar, it's pop-up tooltip (title) will sometimes flicker / flash uncontrollably.

In addition, the tooltip titles are all incorrect, showing the title of some other active application, Launch area icon, etc.

When I close Celestia, all is back to normal.

I can confirm this (Win XP Home). Probably a problem with Windows? The names are sometimes incorrect while celestia is not even visible (background window or iconified). Strange...

[don]

Thanks guys.

Harald, are you running an ATI card by any chance? That's what I'm using.

[Harry]

Thanks guys.

Harald, are you running an ATI card by any chance? That's what I'm using.

No, a mere Geforce 2MX. Anybody knows whether this occurs with older celestia-versions? I would be surprised if this is pre11 only.

[granthutchison]

Anybody knows whether this occurs with older celestia-versions? I would be surprised if this is pre11 only.

Definitely in previous versions: that link I posted is from May this year.

Grant

[don]

Hmmm, that's gonna be a tough one to find.

Maybe it started with the multi-view feature?

[granthutchison]

Maybe it started with the multi-view feature?

It's been present since 1.2.5 on my machine, running XP Pro 2002 SP1, with full updates.

Grant

[selden]

I finally managed to create flickering taskbar popups by expanding Celestia's window to full size but still on the desktop, so that the taskbar tooltips and Celestia are sharing the same screen real-estate.

Is this the environment you have?


On my system, the problem goes away when all hardware acceleration is disabled and only Microsoft's OpenGL software routines are used:
acceleration levels 0 and 1 (out of the 5 available) show no flicker.
It reappears at level 2, the lowest level that vendor-specific hardware acceleration is used.

In other words, it's related to the video hardware and drivers, not to Celestia.

[don]

Good work Selden!

I can confirm your findings that it is a hardware acceleration problem. Nice to know it's not Celestia!

-Don G.

[Tech Sgt. Chen]

I've encountered similar occurrences with all three of my computers, though not yet using Celestia. I've known this to happen whenever a scripting language (secifically, Java Script or Visual Basic) is being executed. I suppose, if additional apps. are running or a website is open while Celestia is in effect, could be a possible source too.