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GUI dialog box Z-ordering  Topic is solved

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GUI dialog box Z-ordering

Postby wkitty42 » Thu Feb 26, 2015 9:58 pm

i'm not sure if this is the proper area for this... if it is not, please move it... thanks!

what i see: if i have the radio dialogue (F12) and the map dialogue (CTRL-M) open with one overlapping the other, when i release my left mouse button on the top dialogue in a position over a portion of the lower dialogue, the lower one will pop to the top... i've not tried this in an area where three dialogues are overlapped... this happens with all dialogues in the sim... i list the radio and map because they are the ones i generally have open the most...

this is a self-built 3.4.1 from GIT using the download_and_compile.sh script (5 days ago)... the only options passed to the script are "-s -j 8"... i'm guessing Qt4 is in use as i see specific notation in the output of the script that it cannot find Qt5 (which is correct)... the OS is 64bit kubuntu 14.0.4 with all updates applied...

for the video, Help->About says:
gl-vendor:NVIDIA Corporation
gl-version:3.3.0 NVIDIA 331.113
gl-renderer:GeForce 8400GS/PCIe/SSE2
gl-shading-language-version:3.30 NVIDIA via Cg compiler

"git branch" says that i'm in the "release/3.4.0" branch... i've tried running the script again to see if there was any update in GIT but nothing was pulled down... i have not pulled the "next" branch at all...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: GUI dialog box Z-ordering

Postby wkitty42 » Fri Feb 27, 2015 8:27 am

wkitty42 wrote in Thu Feb 26, 2015 9:58 pm:what i see: if i have the radio dialogue (F12) and the map dialogue (CTRL-M) open with one overlapping the other, when i release my left mouse button on the top dialogue in a position over a portion of the lower dialogue, the lower one will pop to the top... i've not tried this in an area where three dialogues are overlapped... this happens with all dialogues in the sim... i list the radio and map because they are the ones i generally have open the most...

following up on this:

i have now tested this with three dialogues... when releasing the mouse button, the next one down in the stack is brought to the top... the third one stays where it is...

eg:
radio dialogue at back of stack
autopilot dialogue settings in middle of stack
map dialogue on top of stack

left click and hold the mouse on the map title... now release the button... autopilot jumps to the top and map goes down one to the middle...

[edit] clarification: your mouse has to be over an area covered by both dialogues for this problem to manifest [/edit]

additional note: i also discovered that the release of the mouse button carries the click through to the next dialogue... in the above, set the autopilot for pitch/altitude control with active (selected) altitude hold of 2000 feet... also set inactive (unselected) vertical speed set for -100... now, bring the map dialogue to the top... as above, left click and hold the mouse on the map title... now drag the map title so that your mouse is over the vertical speed selector in the autopilot dialogue... release the mouse button and the autopilot dialogue will come to the top and the vertical speed will now be active instead of altitude hold... if you stop your drag with your mouse over a button on the next dialogue, that button will be activated when that dialogue comes to the top... clicking the botton again when it is on top does not carry through and will not bring the next dialogue behind up to the top... test this by dragging the map title over the radio dialogue such that your mouse is over the standby/active radio switch... when you release the mouse, the radio dialogue will come to the top and the freqs will switch... by the same token, if you release the mouse while over an editable field, the next dialogue will come forward and the cursor will be active in the editable field...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: GUI dialog box Z-ordering  

Postby Johan G » Sun Mar 01, 2015 4:42 pm

Dialog z-ordering (fighting?) is my biggest annoyance with the current GUI, and has been there since at least 2.0 (when I started using FlightGear). :(

Qt does not have much to do with it. The very most dialogs as well as the main menu uses PUI (Picoscopic User Interface) that is part of PLIB (Steve's Portable Game Libraries) which was used for the FlightGear graphics up to about 2.0.

FlightGear then switched over to using OSG (OpenSceneGraph), though not completely. I do not know for sure, but I think one of the main reasons for the switch was that PLIB more or less was unmaintained, while OSG is sprawling with activity and possibilities.

As for the dialogs there is some work going on aiming to replace them with Canvas based dialogs.
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Re: GUI dialog box Z-ordering

Postby wkitty42 » Sun Mar 01, 2015 10:14 pm

Johan G wrote in Sun Mar 01, 2015 4:42 pm:Dialog z-ordering (fighting?) is my biggest annoyance with the current GUI, and has been there since at least 2.0 (when I started using FlightGear). :(

thank you for the confirmation and the reply... i was starting to think that i was crazy and talking to myself again :lol:

Johan G wrote in Sun Mar 01, 2015 4:42 pm:Qt does not have much to do with it. The very most dialogs as well as the main menu uses PUI (Picoscopic User Interface) that is part of PLIB (Steve's Portable Game Libraries) which was used for the FlightGear graphics up to about 2.0.

FlightGear then switched over to using OSG (OpenSceneGraph), though not completely. I do not know for sure, but I think one of the main reasons for the switch was that PLIB more or less was unmaintained, while OSG is sprawling with activity and possibilities.

As for the dialogs there is some work going on aiming to replace them with Canvas based dialogs.

yeah, i didn't think that Qt had much to do with the problem... it seemed to be to be more of a simple bug in the existing stuff... it should be easy enough for someone to fix... i'd do it myself and offer up the proceeds but i don't do C at all other than some reading of it and i'm much too new to the scene to know the inner workings and underpinings...

it would be nice if the project had some sort of leadership that guided everything instead of letting scrips and scraps of this'n'that permuate the code... sure, branch and play with that library but do it all so that everything is homgeneous and doesn't have bits and pieces of gak all over it... it is a hard job, i know... i've been there a few times and it is why i much prefer to do my own work or to manage a team... some times with an iron fist which doesn't go down very well, either ;)
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: GUI dialog box Z-ordering

Postby Johan G » Mon Mar 02, 2015 2:44 am

Sorry if I get a bit off topic.

wkitty42 wrote in Sun Mar 01, 2015 10:14 pm:it would be nice if the project had some sort of leadership that guided everything instead of letting scrips and scraps of this'n'that permuate the code...

Well, I am not sure this is the best way to put it, but you should feel right at home; we pretty much are a herd of cats. :roll: :wink: :lol:

If you are familiar to The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond, FlightGear is not that seldom beyond the bazaar. :wink: I highly recommend reading it by the way. There is a free e-book available for download at Eric's web site.

In most cases though, people are doing what they are most passionate about. This ultimately means that there is a number of one-man efforts that often have made a huge impact. That said there have of course also been coordinated team efforts. The downside about being passionate about what one is doing though is that it can cause conflicts now and then. Perhaps not as much due to invested time and effort as due to having seen a problem from one perspective over quite some time while trying to add a feature or set of features.

But yes, I am quite sure that in the end many things in the project could really need some more coordination. I also think that more and better documentation would help new contributors to figure out how to contribute in an efficient and rewarding way. This is why I have tried make it at least somewhat easier to contribute to documenting it all using the wiki (in turn mainly by adding documentation in the form of help pages and more and better template documentation).
Low-level flying — It's all fun and games till someone looses an engine. (Paraphrased from a YouTube video)
Improving the Dassault Mirage F1 (Wiki, Forum, GitLab. Work in slow progress)
Some YouTube videos
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Re: GUI dialog box Z-ordering

Postby Thorsten » Mon Mar 02, 2015 8:21 am

it would be nice if the project had some sort of leadership that guided everything instead of letting scrips and scraps of this'n'that permuate the code...


You wouldn't have a project then. You can tell paid workers what to do, and they'll do it even if they disagree with the plan because they get the money in return. How do you propose to do that for volunteers?

Besides, Mirco$oft definitely has leadership - but does this make it a software that isn't plagued by bugs?
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Re: GUI dialog box Z-ordering

Postby Johan G » Mon Mar 02, 2015 7:47 pm

Thorsten wrote in Mon Mar 02, 2015 8:21 am:Besides, Mirco$oft definitely has leadership - but does this make it a software that isn't plagued by bugs?

Interesting point. :lol:
Low-level flying — It's all fun and games till someone looses an engine. (Paraphrased from a YouTube video)
Improving the Dassault Mirage F1 (Wiki, Forum, GitLab. Work in slow progress)
Some YouTube videos
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Re: GUI dialog box Z-ordering

Postby wkitty42 » Mon Mar 02, 2015 9:08 pm

Thorsten wrote in Mon Mar 02, 2015 8:21 am:
it would be nice if the project had some sort of leadership that guided everything instead of letting scrips and scraps of this'n'that permuate the code...


You wouldn't have a project then. You can tell paid workers what to do, and they'll do it even if they disagree with the plan because they get the money in return. How do you propose to do that for volunteers?

i was thinking of the linux kernel project... that one definitely has leadership :wink: :lol: but there are others with leadership or at least a homogenous view of the path and what it takes to get there... those aren't as severe as the linux kernel, too...

Thorsten wrote in Mon Mar 02, 2015 8:21 am:Besides, Mirco$oft definitely has leadership - but does this make it a software that isn't plagued by bugs?

hahahahaha... 1. i have a hard time calling what's there "leadership"... there hasn't been any in a long time since billG basically moved to management and stopped coding and really sticking in that area... i dropped m$ in the wastecan several years back and that after working with their stuff since their first DOS thru their first windows and up to vista... too much greed for me there as well as all the bugs and security holes that show a major lack of true alpha and beta testing... 2. i wasn't speaking of the bugs, really... more of things that i've read in these forums in the time that i've been around and how there's so many launchers, gui interface attempts and other... we're working on canvas now, right? has the other existing stuff been ripped out and replaced with canvas yet? will it be? granted, it is a huge project and i wish that i could be more of a part of it but i only read C/C++... all my coding is done closer to the bone when i really need to get in there... aside from that, i offer what i can 8)
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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wkitty42
 
Posts: 9146
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Re: GUI dialog box Z-ordering

Postby Thorsten » Tue Mar 03, 2015 7:42 am

i was thinking of the linux kernel project... that one definitely has leadership


Ah well - so does e.g. Phi in FG. Take a small enough subsystem, and you will find coherent structure. Take Linux as a whole - don't we have gnome, KDE and a profusion or other desktops to match the various launcher options? Don't we have even a handful of valid file systems to organize your harddisk? Don't we have in fact different Linux distributions because there's no general consensus how things should be done?
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Re: GUI dialog box Z-ordering

Postby wkitty42 » Tue Mar 03, 2015 9:28 am

Thorsten wrote in Tue Mar 03, 2015 7:42 am:
i was thinking of the linux kernel project... that one definitely has leadership


Ah well - so does e.g. Phi in FG.

agreed and in the case of Phi, i'm really enjoying it... most especially the map... the main thing there is that i don't have to fumble about trying to find and install that "Atlas" program... i've done festival and mbola but still haven't figured out how to clear up the ATIS/ASOS voices and slow them down a bit so that i can understand them... oh well... that's another topic, anyway...

Thorsten wrote in Tue Mar 03, 2015 7:42 am:Take a small enough subsystem, and you will find coherent structure. Take Linux as a whole - don't we have gnome, KDE and a profusion or other desktops to match the various launcher options? Don't we have even a handful of valid file systems to organize your harddisk? Don't we have in fact different Linux distributions because there's no general consensus how things should be done?

to a point, you are correct but "linux in general" is really really huge... in any case, i'm enjoying what i'm able to do... FG is my escape from my own coding and testing world... now if i can figure out where i should post the "things that don't work as expected" topics that i come across, i'd fit into the community better...

an example of "things that don't work as expected": C172p - v3.5.0 - autopilot dialogue allows setting heading bug and the craft follows properly (*once you remember to turn on the AP on the dashboard of the plane and not only by the X in the dialogue*) but the altitude settings are ignored from the dialogue... additionally, every time i've attempted to use the speed control in the dialogue, the craft has gone pure nuts in the sky... turning that off (removing the X) returns things to normal flight... the altitude controls worked in 3.2.0 and 3.4.0 but i can't tell if they're not working in 3.5.0 because i'm using the Phi interface as well or not... it would be nice for the autopilot dialogue to have a power on/off button linked to the autopilot in the dashboard... i can much easier work dialogues entering data in input fields than trying to spin knobs and the like... to me the dialogue should be fuly interoperable with the dashboard device... some parts are but for some reason, others are not or they were and now they're broken...

another example of "tings that don't work as expected": single prop planes pull heavily to the left... i saw a post that said one can use double prop planes and that they are much easier because the engines spin opposite and balance each other out... i haven't found this yet... a few of the double prop planes i've tried have had even more pronounced left drifting and have been harder to control... many times i find myself just hitting CTRL-U a couple of times to get up in the air and then getting the AP turned on because it is all i can do to try to control the thing with the keyboard... at times it seems like trying to "bust a bronco" when all i wanna do is fly around and look at the scenery...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9146
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04


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