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Animated GIF issue

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JamX
Posts: 207
Joined: October 4th, 2019, 2:46 pm

Animated GIF issue

Post by JamX »

Hi guy's,

This will be me last attempt to make this work since I've been working on it like ages, so hopefully one of you can tell me how to make it work.

I've a simple skin for displaying an animated gif from the internet (weather radar from 'buienradar' image of the BeNelux)

The GIF is downloaded (current.gif) and split into 9 individual frames (current0000x.png) with gif2frames.exe program and displayed on the desktop.
(The code I copied from this rainmeter forum)

At first this all works perfectly BUT, after 6 successful updates (1 update every 10 minutes) the:
The "new" GIF IS downloaded (current.gif date modified timestam changed)
The "new" PNG's are created (current0000x.png date modified timestam changed)
The [MeasureAminLoop] is still running.

BUT the animation is NOT displayed anymore.

You'll have to do 1 or 2 refresh of the skin to make it work again.

Please take a look at these recordings and see what I mean.
The first one is where the update is successful and the GIF's are displayed.
Transition OK.mp4
The second is where the update is successful and the GIF's are not displayed. ???
Transition NOK.mp4
Here is the skin package:
Radar_.rmskin
Why does it work for a certain periode of time and then suddenly, just after an update, it stops displaying the animation.???????
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mak_kawa
Posts: 908
Joined: December 30th, 2015, 9:47 am

Re: Animated GIF issue

Post by mak_kawa »

Hi JamX

I am trying your code as is. And, after 12th update (=2 hours elapsed time) of the skin, it is still working well and displaying the gif animation. So, there is no problems with your code at least for me. I am not sure why your skin stops working after 6 updates...
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JamX
Posts: 207
Joined: October 4th, 2019, 2:46 pm

Re: Animated GIF issue

Post by JamX »

mak_kawa wrote: June 17th, 2020, 11:07 pm Hi JamX

I am trying your code as is. And, after 12th update (=2 hours elapsed time) of the skin, it is still working well and displaying the gif animation. So, there is no problems with your code at least for me. I am not sure why your skin stops working after 6 updates...
Hi mak_kawa,

That's one of the issues I have with this code/skin, it's not consistent. The amounts of updates, before it stops, is not always the same.
Sometines it runs all night (12 hrs) and I think I've got it but then it suddenly stops and sometimes it stops after a short period of time (30 minutes)

I'd appreciate it if you run the skin longer to so if you could run it for longer time. (24hrs or longer would be great)
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balala
Rainmeter Sage
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Joined: October 11th, 2010, 6:27 pm
Location: Gheorgheni, Romania

Re: Animated GIF issue

Post by balala »

mak_kawa wrote: June 17th, 2020, 11:07 pm I am trying your code as is. And, after 12th update (=2 hours elapsed time) of the skin, it is still working well and displaying the gif animation. So, there is no problems with your code at least for me. I am not sure why your skin stops working after 6 updates...
Same for me aswell. After a few hours it still shows the animation. Gonna leave it running, to see what's happening, but I see no problems.
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JamX
Posts: 207
Joined: October 4th, 2019, 2:46 pm

Re: Animated GIF issue

Post by JamX »

balala wrote: June 18th, 2020, 8:17 am Same for me aswell. After a few hours it still shows the animation. Gonna leave it running, to see what's happening, but I see no problems.
If nothing is wrong with the skin/code what could be causing this issue.

I have it on 2 different laptops. !!

That's the strange thing.
One (Medion) is windows10 home 64 bit the other (lenovo) is windows10 prof 64 bit version

The one thing they have in commen is the network but this seems to be working since the GIF is downloaded and extracted into individual frames.

I've removed all non used plugin's from the rainmeter plugin folder in the "C:\Users\Name\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter\Plugins" directory but this did not work.
I deleted te rainmeter.ini file but did also did not work.
Installing the 4.4 beta eversion of rainmeter did not work.


The only thing that works is pressing 2 time refresh button.
mak_kawa
Posts: 908
Joined: December 30th, 2015, 9:47 am

Re: Animated GIF issue

Post by mak_kawa »

Hi JamX

24 hours... I think I will pass. :-)

I am not sure what is going on, but have a feeling that some operational "timing" may cause the issue. For example, how about change [MeasureAnimLoop] measure to that of a different logic? Like as;

Code: Select all

[MeasureAnimLoop]
Measure=Loop
StartValue=1
EndValue=9
Increment=1
LoopCount=0
RegExpSubstitute=1
Substitute="^(.*)$":"00000\1","^.*(\d{5})$":"\1"
Or... add [!UpdateMeter *] to the FinishAction of [MeasureExtract] measure?
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JamX
Posts: 207
Joined: October 4th, 2019, 2:46 pm

Re: Animated GIF issue

Post by JamX »

mak_kawa wrote: June 18th, 2020, 10:49 am Hi JamX

24 hours... I think I will pass. :-)

I am not sure what is going on, but have a feeling that some operational "timing" may cause the issue. For example, how about change [MeasureAnimLoop] measure to that of a different logic? Like as;

Code: Select all

[MeasureAnimLoop]
Measure=Loop
StartValue=1
EndValue=9
Increment=1
LoopCount=0
RegExpSubstitute=1
Substitute="^(.*)$":"00000\1","^.*(\d{5})$":"\1"
Or... add [!UpdateMeter *] to the FinishAction of [MeasureExtract] measure?
The different code for [MeasureAminLoop] and "[!Updatemeter MeterAminLoop] did not solve the problem. :confused:
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balala
Rainmeter Sage
Posts: 16110
Joined: October 11th, 2010, 6:27 pm
Location: Gheorgheni, Romania

Re: Animated GIF issue

Post by balala »

JamX wrote: June 18th, 2020, 2:08 pm The different code for [MeasureAminLoop] and "[!Updatemeter MeterAminLoop] did not solve the problem. :confused:
Yeah, I actually doubt such a simple solution could help. There is something else, but unfortunately I can't realize what. Maybe someone else here has a better idea?
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Yincognito
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Re: Animated GIF issue

Post by Yincognito »

JamX wrote: June 17th, 2020, 4:42 pm Hi guy's,Why does it work for a certain periode of time and then suddenly, just after an update, it stops displaying the animation.???????
I wasn't able to reproduce the issue, just like the other folks who tried to help you with this, but I believe mak_kawa is correct, some operational timing is the cause of this. You might want to investigate:
- setting a Timeout in the RunCommand measure, to "kill" the task if it somehow continues being active even after the usage period
- make the process clearer and less "overlapping prone" by setting the measures / meters to update "on demand" with the help of the UpdateDivider=-1 & !UpdateMeasure/Meter combo
- make the leading zeros substitute simpler by using something like Substitute="^(.*)$":"0000\1","^.*(.{5})$":"\1"
- better separate the operations in your workflow to avoid their overlapping by using a small delay especially at the start of the FinishAction from MeasureExtract (even a [!Delay 0] produces a delay, despite what one may think due to the "0", i.e. non existent delay period)

Other than that, what I think it happens, given the fact that the entire image dissapears, is either:
- the operations somehow overlap each other at some random intervals
- the image meter is looking for a non-existent image once in a while
- the RunCommand operation doesn't finish properly before the next "session" begins, at various moments
- the image name being looked for is valid, but the contents of the actual .png image file is somehow invalid (unfinished extraction?)
Profiles: Rainmeter ProfileDeviantArt ProfileSuites: MYiniMeterSkins: Earth
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balala
Rainmeter Sage
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Joined: October 11th, 2010, 6:27 pm
Location: Gheorgheni, Romania

Re: Animated GIF issue

Post by balala »

Yincognito wrote: June 18th, 2020, 7:21 pm (even a [!Delay 0] produces a delay, despite what one may think due to the "0", i.e. non existent delay period)
Just as a little off-topic, this is caused by the fact that, according to the manual, the lowest possible value of the delay is 16:
The lowest possible value is 16 milliseconds.
So, [!Delay "0"] is equal to [!Delay "16"], which led to a delay.
The beauty of Rainmeter.
Sorry for the off-topic.