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Author Topic: [bug] Circle Dock screen redraw problem - GDI Issue?  (Read 7501 times)

YetAnotherUser

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[bug] Circle Dock screen redraw problem - GDI Issue?
« on: November 15, 2008, 05:51 AM »
First of all, thank you for your wonderful CircleDock! I finally got rid of those ugly icons on my desktop, which is now totally clean and empty ;)

Now to the bug. I've began experiencing screen redraw problems since I've installed all the necessary applications on the new PC. It begins happening after some time of work and disappears after the reboot, and with some programs more often than another. For example, I get a CircleDock-shape black zone in ACDSee when viewing pictures - see the images attached. Or I get a black desktop background with CircleDock-shape remainances of the image. Another program that toggles the issue greatly is Adobe Photoshop CS4 (trial) that uses OpenGL to redraw the images being edited - I usually get a black CircleDock shape on the screen instead of the image... The issue in Photoshop disappears once I turn off the OpenGL GPU-based acceleration. The funny thing is that CircleDock is the only thing that works as expected in that unstable environment  :D

I have also had issues with screen redraw problems in Firefox 3 - they tend to appear at about the same time as ACDSee issues. There is a thread on the Internet about the FF's problem, and it suggests it is a GDI object leak issue. Indeed, Firefox is a GDI-hungry application (Task manager - View - Select columns - GDI objects). At the moment my Firefox uses over 1000 GDI objects, while my CircleDock uses 570, and the issue seems to be trigerred when several GDI-hungry applications are launched.

But the thing that tells me it's something to do with CircleDock is in the last attached image (I only managed to take a picture of it with a camera). With none of the above-mentioned issues, even after a reboot when I change tabs in Firefox or switch images in ACDSee, especially those sites or images of a different color, for a mere moment I can see the CircleDock shape... As if it affects screen redraw greatly... It is not an issue as is I believe, but it is a bit irritating as I'm running a new computer (NVIDIA 8800 GTS512MB with latest drivers @ 1920x1200 single monitor, Windows XP Home SP3).

So I would be greatly pleased If you could investigate the issue as uninstalling CircleDock for me is almost unexceptable :)

YetAnotherUser

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Re: [bug] Circle Dock screen redraw problem - GDI Issue?
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2008, 06:04 AM »
Ok, the first (total screen redraw problems) issue disappeared once I got rid of the /3GB switch in boot.ini. I dug in and found out that Windows automatically reduces desktop heap from 48MB to 20MB once the switch is added. But I actually do need the switch to let applications use more RAM, and CircleDock provokes the issue...

The second screen redraw annoyance (screenshot 5) is still present, and changing z-level, opacity and other settings won't help. Does CircleDock minimize itself as a normal application, or does it 'hang' transparently in the desktop area? Then what about minimizing CD right after the fadeout animation and maximizing it again before fadein animation? I'm no expert in programming so I have no idea of how it works, but that would be REALLY helpful.

YetAnotherUser

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Re: [bug] Circle Dock screen redraw problem - GDI Issue?
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2008, 08:05 AM »
CircleDock was causing artifacts in CoolIris extension for Firefox as well, so I worked out a lame workaround - I made an Autohotkey script that would WinHide and WinShow all the ahk_class Window titles that I had to find manually. Implementing transparency fade in-out should not be much of a problem, I believe, but actually HIDING CircleDock in the future release would help a lot.
P.S. Anyone here?..