Help with freezing marquees.

[chamlex]

So I removed the Uptime Meter from the Actionlist and it begins to scroll, but unfortunately it locks up Rainmeter and I have to kill it via task manager. Seems Yincognito and myself have the same computers that like to lock up on action timers. Yincognito I am going to take a look at your scrolling to see if I can adapt it to my skin.

[Yincognito]

So I removed the Uptime Meter from the Actionlist and it begins to scroll, but unfortunately it locks up Rainmeter and I have to kill it via task manager. Seems Yincognito and myself have the same computers that like to lock up on action timers. Yincognito I am going to take a look at your scrolling to see if I can adapt it to my skin.

Okidokey, but make sure first that the freeze is because of ActionTimer and not because of some other potential error / glitch in other places in your skin - just to be on the safe side. One way of doing this is try (solely) one of the basic samples in the thread here, and see if it still locks up Rainmeter. If it does, then the culprit is definitely ActionTimer.

I can bet balala will have no problem running the animation in the other thread for hours, just like jsmorley eventually did (although the first samples hanged his computer as well in the beginning - or maybe I understood things the wrong way).

[balala]

Wow thanks for the quick replies and comments. I am impressed by the helpfulness of this community.

For sure this community is a great one and if possible, you probably always get help.

Balala quick question for you though your code has a request to update an Uptime meter that I did not have in my original code. What type of meter is this? Sorry if its a dumb question

No, it's not a dumb question. There are no dumb questions. Such things doesn't exists. What might look a dumb question for someone is not for other. Don't worry.
So, back to the question. Not sure what you meant by this, but such notion as Uptime meter doesn't exist. Uptime measure does, however Uptime meter doesn't.

I'm still learning and getting use to the coding language.

We always are learning. Many times Rainmeter can surprise me, even now, after many years of coding. It always has hidden features, which might surprise me from time to time.

[chamlex]

Okidokey, but make sure first that the freeze is because of ActionTimer and not because of some other potential error / glitch in other places in your skin - just to be on the safe side. One way of doing this is try (solely) one of the basic samples in the thread here, and see if it still locks up Rainmeter. If it does, then the culprit is definitely ActionTimer.

I can bet balala will have no problem running the animation in the other thread for hours, just like jsmorley eventually did (although the first samples hanged his computer as well in the beginning - or maybe I understood things the wrong way).

So this animation ran without issue so it might be another potential code or glitch that's locking up the script. For me it seems that it only happens when an ActionTimer calls another ActionTimer before it's complete. With balala script i got the error
!UpdateMeter: [Uptime] not found, as soon as Spotify starts rainmeter then locks up, so I can't see any errors.

[balala]

!UpdateMeter: [Uptime] not found, as soon as Spotify starts rainmeter then locks up, so I can't see any errors.

Right, sorry this is my fault. I'm using a String meter named [Uptime], which I had in an old code. This meter has the right settings to can be used in any code and I'm copying it to the end of each code I'm working with to can visualize different values. Then sometimes I add some bangs used to either update the meter, or for any other purposes. Finally when I post the code, I usually remove the meter as well as each reference to it. But many times (yes, I am forgetful sometimes) I forget to remove each bang related to this meter. That's why that bang remained into the code. Sorry, just remove it.

[chamlex]

Right, sorry this is my fault. I'm using a String meter named [Uptime], which I had in an old code. This meter has the right settings to can be used in any code and I'm copying it to the end of each code I'm working with to can visualize different values. Then sometimes I add some bangs used to either update the meter, or for any other purposes. Finally when I post the code, I usually remove the meter as well as each reference to it. But many times (yes, I am forgetful sometimes) I forget to remove each bang related to this meter. That's why that bang remained into the code. Sorry, just remove it.

Awesome no worries. I did remove this reference but then it seems that Rainmeter just locks up when the skin is active,.

[jsmorley]

Now for doing animations, even marquee type animations, that are short and not recursive or endless, ActionTimer works great...

Code: Select all

[Rainmeter]
Update=1000
DynamicWindowSize=1
AccurateText=1

[Variables]
ContainerW=300
StringX=0
U=[!UpdateMeter *][!Redraw]

[Slider]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=ActionTimer
ActionList1=Repeat SlideLeft, 2, #StringWDelta#
SlideLeft=[!SetVariable StringX "(Clamp(#StringX#-5,-#StringWDelta#,0))"]#U#
ActionList2=Repeat SlideRight, 2, #StringWDelta#
SlideRight=[!SetVariable StringX "(Clamp(#StringX#+5,-#StringWDelta#,0))"]#U#
DynamicVariables=1

[MeterContainerVisible]
Meter=Image
W=(#ContainerW#+10)
H=32
SolidColor=47,47,47,255

[MeterContainer]
Meter=Image
X=5
Y=5
W=#ContainerW#
H=27
SolidColor=0,0,0,255
MouseOverAction=[!CommandMeasure Slider "Stop 2"][!CommandMeasure Slider "Execute 1"]
MouseLeaveAction=[!CommandMeasure Slider "Stop 1"][!CommandMeasure Slider "Execute 2"]

[MeterLongString]
Meter=String
X=#StringX#
FontSize=15
FontWeight=400
FontColor=255,255,255,255
SolidColor=0,0,0,1
AntiAlias=1
DynamicVariables=1
OnUpdateAction=[!SetVariable StringWDelta "(Abs(#ContainerW#-[MeterLongString:W]))"][!UpdateMeasure Slider]
Container=MeterContainer
Text=This is a long string to be clipped in a container. And I mean really, really long. No, longer than that. I mean a long, long string.

test.gif

Note that if you put the entire Gettysburg Address in there as one long string, Rainmeter will in fact hang... The message queue just can't stay up with that many "redraws" that quickly.

[Yincognito]

Awesome no worries. I did remove this reference but then it seems that Rainmeter just locks up when the skin is active,.

Well, it doesn't lock for me, but then, I can't see any meters besides the buttons either (and the measures don't seem to have any values) ...
By the way, you have some typos in the first 3 or 4 measures, where instead of Substitue=, it should be Substitute= (not to mention that Substitute="":"" doesn't look good anyway, besides doing absolutely nothing), as well as some very big numbers there as X= and Y= ... Are you sure Rainmeter "locks up" and it's not just the enormous layout of the skin "covering", say, Rainmeter's About window? I also thought it was freezed at first, but then realized that I couldn't "push" a button in Rainmeter's window because the skin was "over" it and reacted to my mouse actions instead. So as you know, I took your first posted version of the code.

I will see if I can "repair" things up in the skin, at least the most obvious ones. First I need to see some things as values for the measures, before I can tackle the ActionTimer issue...

[Yincognito]

Now for doing animations, even marquee type animations, that are short and not recursive or endless, ActionTimer works great...

Precisely my point, but it took me a while to realize that. I went as always, with my usual motto in these cases, that "everything is possible", but it turned out AT was of a different opinion when it came to endless recursion. It was still possible ... but only until it hanged. No endless or recursive animation though - no problem for Action Timer, it works 100%.

[chamlex]

Well, it doesn't lock for me, but then, I can't see any meters besides the buttons either (and the measures don't seem to have any values) ...
By the way, you have some typos in the first 3 or 4 measures, where instead of Substitue=, it should be Substitute= (not to mention that Substitute="":"" doesn't look good anyway, besides doing absolutely nothing), as well as some very big numbers there as X= and Y= ... Are you sure Rainmeter "locks up" and it's not just the enormous layout of the skin "covering", say, Rainmeter's About window? I also thought it was freezed at first, but then realized that I couldn't "push" a button in Rainmeter's window because the skin was "over" it and reacted to my mouse actions instead. So as you know, I took your first posted version of the code.

I will see if I can "repair" things up in the skin, at least the most obvious ones. First I need to see some things as values for the measures, before I can tackle the ActionTimer issue...

Yeah I get the dreaded spinning circle and when I open Task Manager it lists Rainmeter as not responding. Yeah the x and y puts it in the middle of my desktop where I have an area on my background that this would've fit perfectly. I just typed that in there versus putting it in Rainmeter screen. I assumed either would've worked.