Plugins and MVP / PCH - are there extra requirements?

[Ommina]

So, I'm having a discussion with Ted the Penguin in the support thread for my wee plugin. The relevant bit starts here.

Summary: Ted is using PCH, and the rendering of the controls is being a bit... goofy.

I quoth Ted:

That being said... the screen update in the plugin seems rather buggy on the PCH (and an MVP most likely). when I press down and I have selected the last item on the screen, it only updates that last item as it scrolls down. It randomly leaves things selected, etc...

My clarification follows his post.

Owning neither a MVP nor a PCH, I'm somewhat in the dark here, so I'm hoping somebody here can provide some guidance.

I did check to ensure that needsRendering is returning true (it is). Additionally, the number of controls returned in the GetRenderlistArray is appropriate.

Is there something special I need to do (or not do) for MVP / PCH clients? I'm aware that the API does provide an indication to plugins if the player is an MVP client, should I be taking this nugget and putting it to some good use?

I'm grateful for any guidance any of you might be able to offer, as right now I'm at a loss.

Thanks!

[whurlston]

Is it happening in your controls (menu buttons) or in the list items? If it's your list items, just build the complete list and let the base class handle it. If it's your buttons, I have some code that may help. It's a derivative of someone else's code so I would need permission first though.

[psycik]

There is not too much needed to do different between a gbpvr server and an mvp/pch.

I've removed time processing before (ie updating a time on a second by second basis) since that seems to give a bit of server trouble.

But other than that everything is fair game.

To identify an mvp/pch client you can use the PluginHelperFactory.GetClientIdentifier(). The MVP's identify themselves as mvp-xxx not sure about the pchs.

[Ommina]

@Whurlston: My menu buttons don't do any scrolling, so I guess it must be the list items that are causing the issues. Best I'm able to tell, the array of list items is being built and passed correctly to getRenderList. Everything looks right anyway, and works great on the PC!

@psycik: Hm. Should I be artificially reducing the frequency with which needsRendering returns true when running against a MVP client, perhaps? OK, I admit I'm grasping.

Ok, so if it works on the PC it 'should' (in theory) work on the MVP / PCH as well. Any guesses where to start looking when it doesn't?

Thank you both for your replies!

[psycik]

Ted the penguin could be seeing an issue that was caused by incremental updates (made for the PCH) and not using the blue skin...

I had this issue, and i think sub posted a patch about it... bugger, I can't find it for you....

Have you had any other (bad) mvp reports?

You shouldn't have to artificially play with the needsrendering - and it doesnt sound like that is the problem. When I had issues perviously with the time updating, I had a slow response from the server and the mvp had trouble keeping up, not scrambled screens.

[psycik]

Found it: http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...mental+pch

[Ted the Penguin]

just for clarification, I am using the blue skin on my PCH for now...

and more clarification on what is happening.

As for the screen updates, let's see if I'm understanding correctly before you break out the camera.

• The list fills with 13 items.
  
• You can move the selection up and down within those 13 items without issue (?)
  
• If you move the selection all the way to the bottom then ask the list to scroll (effectively moving item one off the top, 14 onto the bottom and shifting two through 13 up), one through 12 remain the same, and item 13 does change to the text of 14, etc.
  
• For added giggles, items one through 12 will appear selected, for no good reason.

That sum it up?

pretty much... except for that last bullet. I will explain

• The list fills with 13 items.
  
• I hit the skip button (twice) to go to items 14-26
  
• the entire list updates and everything looks peachy.
  
• I press the up arrow a few times to select an episode (say 20) (still looking good)
  
• oops, went to far (to 19), gotta press down to select the episode I want
  
• I press down to select the episode (20) and 19 stays selected... and this continues when I keep pressing down.

Out of curiosity, if you subsequently move the selection up the list, will it re-render the (incorrect) text to the correct version?

yeah, in the first case, it does (not updating all of the items on the list while scrolling down), the second case is much harder (impossible) to fix without selecting another anime then going back to the one I am watching. where it just exhibits the same problem again when I try to skip a page.

[mvallevand]

Ted the Penquin, did you try this patch that sub made?

http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=2...ostcount=8

For others that haven't seen the problems due to this new incremental update mode in the same thread there is a screen shot

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=35181

Martin

[Ted the Penguin]

not sure if I have that patch applied, I will check when I get home... but that screen shot looks nothing like the problem I was seeing.

[sub]

Behind the scenes the application makes a hash key from the elements in the renderlist, built from its name + location + forceRefresh attributes. It uses these hash keys to determine if something has changed from previous screen to next screen. I suspect all you have to do to improve your compatibility with the PCH is make the name attribute more descriptive on some of your elements. For example, if you've given them very generic names like 'button' then your may need to change them to have slightly more descriptive names like 'normal button' and 'selected button', or even 'play button normal' and 'play button selected'. This will help the application tell the difference between the various things that make up your screen.