[comp.sys.amiga] Dpaint/Dmouse Quirk

bear@bucsb.UUCP (Blair M. Burtan) (09/18/89)

Here's a little quirk I discovered last night while playing
with Dpaint 3 animation.  I've got dmouse running in the back
ground among other things.  While Dpaint is creating the
animation, dmouse blanks the screen as per usual.  But when
you playing the animation in continous loop format, the screen
doesn't blank.  Stop the animation and blanking procedes normally.
It seems that Dpaint can block the operation of the blanking
routine during animation.  Anyone experience this or know why
it happens?

					- Bear


-- 
----------- Signature Version 0.5 (aka Fine, be that way. )-----------------
bear@bucsb.bu.edu   bear@bucsf.bu.edu   bear@buengf.bu.edu
bear@bu-pub.bu.edu  enge05c@buacca.bu.edu     (Short enough for you?)

new@udel.EDU (09/19/89)

Actually, I've had the screen munged by having it blanked by QMouse
during an animation being drawn. I;m not really sure why, but I just toss QMouse
when I start and turn down the screen instead. -- Darren

dillon@POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon) (09/19/89)

:Subject: Re: Dpaint/DMouse Quirk
:Actually, I've had the screen munged by having it blanked by QMouse
:during an animation being drawn. I;m not really sure why, but I just toss QMouse
:when I start and turn down the screen instead. -- Darren

	I don't know about QMouse, but all DMouse does is 
    OpenScreen() a 1 plane ~16 pixel wide screen (very little CHIP memory)
    to blank it.

	If other programs can't handle that it's their fault!

					-Matt

dillon@POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon) (09/19/89)

:Here's a little quirk I discovered last night while playing
:with Dpaint 3 animation.  I've got dmouse running in the back
:ground among other things.  While Dpaint is creating the
:animation, dmouse blanks the screen as per usual.  But when
:you playing the animation in continous loop format, the screen
:doesn't blank.  Stop the animation and blanking procedes normally.
:It seems that Dpaint can block the operation of the blanking
:routine during animation.  Anyone experience this or know why
:it happens?
:
:					- Bear

	Heh!  DMouse is M.A.G.I.C ...

	Actually, DMouse just opens a 1-plane black screen to 'blank'
    the display.  It periodically ScreenToFront()s this black screen
    (at the same interval as the screen blank interval) just in case.

	So for example, if your blank time is set for 5 minutes, DMouse
    will OpenScreen() the screen after 5 minutes, then call
    ScreenToFront() 5 minutes later, then call ScreenToFront() 5
    minutes later etc... until you hit a key or move the mouse. Then
    it simply CloseScreen()s the blank screen.

	An animator will be switching it's screens to the front N times a
    second.  It simply pushes the DMouse 'blank' screen back and I
    doubt anybody would notice the ScreenToFront() calls DMouse is
    making (apart from that fact that, with no keyboard or mouse
    activity, the person is not likely there to notice it!)

					-Matt