Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 6:25 pm

Hey, I've recently updated to Zmud 7.20b and since then have been experiencing a few problems. I haven't a clue how I might fix these (if I can even) and couldn't spot anyone else here with a similar problem, so...

a) it seems that when I've been running Zmud for a while, it will occasionally and out of the blue suddenly change the text colours to black text on a black screen. I can only see the text if I highlight it (white over black, thusly) and I've found the only solution is quitting Zmud and re-loading it again. Odd. Memory problem?

b) I've noticed that if I've had two char screens up, when I close one I get a sort of lag phenomenon where Zmud seems to pause, stalled... my remaining char screen appears on the tool bar sometimes, or sometimes remains on the forewindow but all black as if it was a void screen and then perhaps after about 15 seconds comes back as it was.

Is it a problem with the latest version or with my set up somewhere? I have -no- clue. Any help would be appreciated, many thanks! Confused

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 12:16 pm

Anyone, any ideas? I'm stilling getting the problem and it's slightly frustrating Sad

Wanderer Joined: 25 Oct 2005 Posts: 99

I have been running the same version for quite some time without any of the mentioned problems. It does sound like it could be a memory problem with either errors or low memory. Try running memtest and see if it detects any errors in the memory. It is also possible it could be a spyware related issue.

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 1:31 pm

Hey people. I'm still having problems here, particularly with the slow delay in closing down/opening char windows. Since I last posted I even have a different computer with higher specs and the problem is just as bad as before, so I can't think that it's a memory thing :( It's very annoying and never used to do this with previous versions of Zmud, so any help very appreciated! I have noticed that with the loss of screen colour (to black text on a black screen) that if I re-load the default screen colour scheme again, from that point on again it works fine. I still have the problem with lag in closing windows though, and this gets worse the longer I have had Zmud running through the day.

GURU Joined: 26 Jul 2001 Posts: 1958 Location: Canada

a) As a quick fix you could try changing your:
view->preferences->colors
Foreground mapping
[ ] 0 black to maybe dark purple

How does this black on black occur? Does it happen to your entire screen or just to new text that comes in after a certain time. It really sounds like a bad MUD ANSI implementation where colour bleed is happening.

b)
I get a lag spike when I open or close character windows with many child windows. I've always blamed it on the rethinking of the graphic interface. No ideas to speed it up. Perhaps that should be a zMud/CMUD wish list thing.

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:41 pm

Hey - thanks for responding so quick! :) What happens with the text problem is that after a while the text colours just suddenly change. I'm not even necessarily doing anything at the time but could be idle with people chatting on a com channel... and then I just see the screen scroll but it's all black. Only way I can tell what they're saying at that point is to highlight the text - which IS there, and when I do that I see highlighted text on a black background. As I said before, if I go to view, preferences, colours and reset the colours to default, then it goes back to normal again, barring the bit of text that I 'lost' before.

As for b) the more annoying of the problem as it happens -routinely-, I very rarely have more than two child windows open. Even closing the second of the two can cause a lag of up to perhaps 30 or 40 seconds. In that time, I see a window appear in the taskbar with the char's name (which I normally do not have - I normally only have the Zmud window in the taskbar), and when that finally goes the screen will reappear with text back to my one remaining screen. I've also realised that I am getting this same lag when I maximise the window if it wasn't full screen, or size it down from max vice versa. Just to note... I -am- running Zmud 7.20b, not a, on Windows XP home, Intel Celeron 2.50 GHz, 766mb RAM. Not specs I would have expected to have a problem with, really.

GURU Joined: 26 Jul 2001 Posts: 1958 Location: Canada

a)
If you start seeing a scroll and the text above it is fine then you received a bad ansi sequence. Smaug muds are famous for that particularily. You can do a "#DEBUG file1.txt file2.txt" till it occurs then "#DEBUG" and see exactly where the break down is in those files.

I usually snip those 2 files and send it to the hard coder to get their ansi fixed up.

b)
Not sure why but when the windows open/close zMud thinks hard. Perhaps someone with tech skills would know why.

Wanderer Joined: 17 Nov 2005 Posts: 65

Do you use either the DB or the AutoMapper in zMUD, more so the AutoMapper? If so, that can slow things down as MS Access files can take a while to close, thus one of the reasons why it's a good idea to compact it every so often so as to reduce the file size significantly, which then allows for a faster close down. MDB files do expand rather easily and quickly when you are making modifications to it, thus when it expands, it using up significantly more memory. That's one of the reasons why I do the compact either from within the Automapper or if I'm in the file directly from Access, I use the "Compact and Repair Database" option from the "Tools>Database Utilities" menu option. Another reason for doing this, it also helps keep the MDB file from getting corrupted as that sort of thing has been known to happen, which is also another reason why to make backup copies of the MDB file, preferably when the file has been closed out and no one/no program in it.

Sincerely,

Dodgester