ID:1865097
 
BYOND Version:507
Operating System:Windows 7 Ultimate
Web Browser:Chrome 43.0.2357.81
Applies to:Dream Maker
Status: Open

Issue hasn't been assigned a status value.
Descriptive Problem Summary:
If you don't keep dream maker view of a dmi file aligned with the top when you go into the view for a specific icon_state, when you back out the icons will flicker for several seconds. This appears to be related to the scroll bar trying to auto align itself back to the saved state while each icon_state is loading back into your view. When the scroll bar is at alignment with the top this does not occur.

Numbered Steps to Reproduce Problem:
1. Open a dmi file that has a scroll bar in it (more than 1 page of icons)
2. Open up a specific icon_state in the file
3. Press the back button
4. Icons will proceed to flicker for some time while the dmi loads every image back up.

Expected Results:
The dmi would reload as normal, and THEN the scroll bar would realign itself.

Actual Results:
The dmi moves the scroll bar back down to the position you had it before opening the icon_state after loading every image resulting in some lag time in dream maker while the screen appears to flicker rapidly.

Does the problem occur:
From my chats in IRC it appears to happen to other people as well, though nobody realized why.

When does the problem NOT occur?
When the scroll bar is aligned with the top of the dmi file so it doesn't need to automatically adjust your view back down.

Did the problem NOT occur in any earlier versions? If so, what was the last version that worked? (Visit http://www.byond.com/download/build to download old versions for testing.)
Unsure, I've never seen it not occur.

Workarounds:
Try to make sure the scroll bar is perfectly aligned with the top every time you open an icon_state.

The flicker is actually caused by the control used to display the grid of states loading a certain amount of states, the more states, the worse the flicker becomes. They've talked about optimizing the control used for it in the past, but never really had the need to prioritize it. It's why icons have a limit on how many states that can have, massive icons used to just crash Dream Maker.
But you can completely eliminate the flicker even on very large files simply by keeping your scroll bar aligned with the top of the dmi.

The flicker is becoming worse when there are more icons that load only due to the fact there are more times it has to rescroll down the scroll bar.
On lower-end PC's this was a huge pain. I learned the hard way and then from there on I started creating more separate icons in my grand design of a project.

Like the various rips and clones out there, a lot of the /turf icons are bunched into one file. That's great and all, but these issues happen then. I decided to branch from doing that and just place /turf icons into different category icons.
Some projects each /turf had it's own icon with various icon_states for weather changes.

I don't think this sort of thing could be resolved, but I do believe Lummox Jr is working on a new concept for the .dmi editor if I remember correctly. I'm not sure though, I can't seem to find the post so don't quote me on this.
Honestly if I can do a workaround as simple as putting my scrollbar at the very top of the file, then it could be at the very least resolved by not having an auto scroll back down feature at all (since it does nothing but lag anyway in any case in which it would be useful). I cant imagine this being a terribly difficult fix.