I have loaded VStar on my new super-duper ASUS gaming laptop with lots of memory and graphic card memory and all the horsepower you can cram into a laptop. I am running windows 10 64 bit and have both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of JAVA 1.8 loaded. VStar is acting a bit strangely and it doesn't matter if I am using the stand-alone version or the webstart version. Highlighting and typing or pasting values in text entry control boxes like the star or JD box when loading a file or the mean days per bin box on the plot control or any other fill-in box the highlight function is slow and jerky. If I create a model, the tool bar icons flash as though I were rapidly clicking on different ones in random order. and if I have any dialog box open and navigate to another window being used by another program and try to navigate back to VStar, only the VStar dialog box (or boxes if it is a multilayer one) appear on top of the the window I am navigating away from. I cannot get the main window of VStar to re-open. I have to manually minimize the window I am trying to navigate from (as in the window I have open to create this post) before I can open the main VStar window. Then it displays correctly with the open dialog box on top.
Is this typical behavior in the current VStar or do I need to change something in a config file to, for example, make sure it is using the correct version (32 bit or 64 bit) of Java 1.8?
Brad Walter
Hi Brad
That's certainly not normal behaviour for 2.20.0 (or any version). Are others seeing this with Windows 10?
64 bit Java is all you should need on a Windows 10 64 bit system, yep.
Does the Task Manager Performance tab show a busy (CPU-wise) system at the time you see the sluggish behaviour?
The only odd behaviour I have noticed in recent times is dialog boxes going behind the main window in unexpected ways (on Mac OS X High Sierra), for which there's a ticket.
David
I too have Win 10 64 bit, Java 1.8, VStar 2.20.0. I have not seen this behavior. I would be happy to compare notes on the details of my Java config if you like.
cliff
Hi Guys
I have an ASUS gaimg laptop with all of the bells and whistles plus a PC with all ASUS bits and both running W10, 64 bit and the latest Java and am not having these issues. I did contact Davids about a plug in issue that meant I had to close and re open VStar from the website but the issues you have mentioned not so far.
Robert Jenkins
Here is an example of quirky window behavior. I had by browser window open to this forum, then selected the main VStar plot window from the windows task bar( VStar stand alone in this case). Instead of the VStar main window opening with the dialog box on top, The dialog window opened on top of the active window and the main VStar window remained closed.
I only see a .bat file and no config file. My bat file is attached and my VStar installation directory path is
C:\Users\Bradley Walter\vstar
The star.bat file initially had the "set" command for the home directory as
set VSTAR_HOME=%~dp0 . I changed it to
set VSTAR_HOME=C:\Users\Bradley Walter\vstar . That didn't seem to make any difference in behavior EXCEPT with the original setting, the Webstart Java initiation and the stand-alone produced different results for ANOVA of phase plots. Both were completely nonsensical but they were different. That, however, will be dealt with in a new topic.
By the way, Robert, I heartily endorse you choice of computers. The ASUS is so much more relaible than the Alienware I had previously. The Alienware ran hot. The ASUS G701VI-XS not only is cool, it runs cool - lots of airflow and a huge heatsink. And at no extra charge, it give me lots of exercise carrying it around. It is by far the heaviest laptop I have owned.
Brad Walter, WBY
I get an error code in the command window when I start th stand alone version of VStar. I have no idea what it is telling me or how to correct it. It doesn't stop VStar from running but it might account for some peculiar behavior. See attached.
Brad
Hi Brad
This is a known Windows problem. See:
https://sourceforge.net/p/vstar/bugs-and-features/440/
and the last comment of the ticket in particular.
David
Hi Brad
I've created a ticket for the first part of this: https://sourceforge.net/p/vstar/bugs-and-features/640/
The window (dialog) in question is modal so the main VStar window can't be dismissed until the modal dialog is. What happens when the modal dialog is dismissed? Does the main window open?
I agree that it would make sense for both windows to appear when the task bar icon is clicked on as it does on Mac OS X (High Sierra). There may be a way to address this via the Java Taskbar API.
As an aside, you see a .bat file; do you also see a .exe?
Either "set VSTAR_HOME" should be fine but you should not need to change it. I have no explanation for the different ANOVA results just by changing this setting. I've addressed the ANOVA result by replyig to your other post.
David
I worked with Brad on the sluggish behavior. We arrived at a workaround that might help other folks sometime so I thought I would explain.
Brad was disappointed that VStar was sluggish on his new computer with a high performance graphics subsystem. Brad tried another full feature 2D graphics based Java application, AstroImageJ or AIJ, and found it similarly sluggish. We tried several things that alter the way Java interacts with the graphics subsystem as described here. When we tried the option to switch the low level graphics drivers from the default Windows DirectX to OpenGL, the graphics performance returned to its usual good level for both VStar and AIJ. This is only a workaround. Brad still needs to check into driver updates.
The change was introduced in a Windows batch file by setting an environment variable
set _JAVA_OPTIONS="-Dsun.java2d.opengl=True"
This line is ahead of the line to execute java with the vstar jar file or run the Astroimagej.exe file.
There are a number of options described in the Java documentation page referenced above that might help in different situations.
Clear skies,
Cliff