First:

Hello Michael! We corresponded a bit via the Rhino newsgroup during the early days. Glad to see you still kicking! And congrats on MoI. I'm really (I mean really!) liking it. MoI seems to be the next logical step in interactive modeling (up from the Rhino paradigm, I mean).

Second:

My cursor exhibits "stickiness" any time it crosses a viewport divider. By stickiness I mean: hesitation before the cursor position updates to match my hand movement. This behavior seems to be correlated with the "fade-in" display of navigation icons at the bottom of the pane and is apparent whether I am using my Logitech mouse or Wacom tablet.

Cursor "stickiness" also occurs inside a viewport immediately after adjusting one of the view properties (pan, zoom, etc.) with the mouse/pen, either directly or via the icons. If I wait a second or two before moving the mouse/pen then smoothness returns.

These behaviors occur even when all snaps are disabled and make the entire interface seem "herky-jerky" at times.

Any chance for more "fluidity" in future versions?

Hi John, I'm glad that you like MoI!

This is the first that I've heard of this particular problem.

Can you tell me what video card you are using?

The first time that the cursor enters a view that has changed in some way (if either the view has changed or the model has changed), there is a calculation that happens to make it quick to locate the nearby objects on subsequent mouse moves.

This calculation involves reading information from your video card back into MoI. Some older video cards are slow in transferring information in this reverse direction (from the card back to main memory).

From your description of the symptoms, it sounds to me like this is the likely problem area.


> Any chance for more "fluidity" in future versions?

Maybe - it depends on what video card you have.

I've tried hard to give MoI a lot of "modern" capabilities without actually requiring too much in the way of hardware. For instance any mainstream (ATI or nVidia) video card from about the last 5 years or so should be fine. But I do rely on the video card being fast enough in a few certain areas. It may be difficult for me to improve this if you've got a really old or somewhat exotic video card that is just not fast at this particular operation.

It is possible that upgrading the driver for your video card to the newest version could help.

- Michael

It's a Radeon 9600XT with most settings at "Application Preference".

Well that one is certainly supposed to work, I use a Radeon 9600 Pro here for my main development system.

Is there any chance that you have overclocked the card? Or is it possible that you have heard any strange noises from inside there that might indicate the fan on the card is not working properly?

I'm also not able to reproduce your other problem with display artifacts over here, and that's another one that I haven't heard before also...

- Michael

No problems with the video card under other circumstances... games, Maya, etc. After much experimentation, it appears that the hesitation only occurs under the following circumstances:

- Pan, zoom, or rotate a viewport. (Smooth!!! Instant updates.)

- Immediately move the cursor (ie. in one motion: release the mouse button after the viewport change and at the same time move the cursor).

- The cursor "sticks" for a second or so after the completion of the view change.

It's almost as if MoI is intensely busy for a very short interval immediately after the view change.

Not a big deal, though. I can work (uh, play!) around this issue by changing my behavior just a wee bit.

Hi John,

This definitely sounds a little weird.

I'm still not quite entirely clear on what part actually "sticks".

Do you mean that the actual Windows system mouse arrow cursor itself freezes on the screen and does not move anywhere?

Or do you mean stuff that is drawing inside MoI, like a line that you are drawing, or selection highlights, etc.. seem stuck?

Does it happen when you are in a totally blank scene like at a fresh start up of MoI?

- Michael

Solved it.

"Display pointer trails" was enabled in my Mouse control panel object. With pointer trails enabled, the mouse cursor "sticks" momentarily to each viewport boundary while the navigation icons fade out/in.

Disable "Display pointer trails" to fix this issue.

Thanks for your patience!!

That's good news John, thanks for reporting back here on the results.

I haven't had a chance to dig down into that other display artifact yet, I'll try to look some more at that one after this next beta is out.

- Michael