I use Diskmaster regularly; I have been doing so since 1987 and got so used to it that trial runs of Opus were never comfortable.

But since the upgrade to OS4.1u6, it has been gobbling up large chunks of my life, taking five seconds every time I switch between DM and Workbench.

I originally had that problem with update 5, but by messing with Prefs > Screens and MUI > Screen (I don't know which one takes precedence), I was able to cure the problem. But nothing works now.

Two programs that open their own screens, PageStream5 and Diskmaster2, are set up both in Prefs and MUI. They are set up exactly the same in each of those. But there is a big difference in how they work: I can switch instantaneously between Workbench and PageStream, while it takes five seconds to get to DM.

I have the same slow screen shift with FinalCalc and FinalWriter, although I don't switch back and forth from them to Workbench enough to suffer much. Is there any way to fix the DM problem?

@kilaueabart

I suspect that the screen changes instantly, but the monitor takes some time to adjust to the new format.

One way to test that would be to create some public screens in the exact same format as Workbench, and try switching around between them.

Just a guess, but easy enough to test.

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@kilaueabart

I use FinalWriter a LOT and suffered with this delay in screen switching for over a year after getting my Sam460. I tried all sorts of different screen mode settings and mode promotion tools to no avail. Then, one day, I finally stumbled across the solution when I loaded FinalWriter from the shell and discovered the screen switching delay was gone. After a little more digging, I figured out that the culprit was a Tooltype in the icon called "BORDEROFF". I disabled the "BORDEROFF" Tooltype and voila, no more delay in screen
switching.

I don't use DM but I'd suspect it would be a similar issue. If there's some setting that turns DM's screen border off, try disabling it.

@kilaueabart

New TFTs are slow if the screenmodes are different, I make all my screens the same size & switching is very fast.

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@kilaueabart

The answer is use CyberGfx, but sadly only available on OS3x,
This is the reason among others that I abandoned OS4 on my classic.

Wol.

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@kilaueabart

i am pretty sure you have 1 screen in 16 and 1 in 32bit.. make sure they are using the same bit and you will be ok.

hope that helps.

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Just make sure you're using identical screenmodes and the switching will be instant.

It's a hardware "feature" of modern displays, nothing to do with software.

(Edit: though mpiva above must have had a display that just borderline somewhere, as that should make no difference. What I was referring to though was the CGFX/P96 and OS3/OS4 comparison)

Last edited by Spirantho on 04-Jun-2013 at 07:53 AM.

@kilaueabart

try 16bit instead of 32bit you might be running out of graphic card memory, it will result in swaping between system memory and graphic card, you might also want to disable composition, it takes a lot extra memory for the shadow effects.

Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 04-Jun-2013 at 03:49 PM.
Last edited by NutsAboutAmiga on 04-Jun-2013 at 02:57 PM.

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@kilaueabart

When changing modes what happens? Does the monitor go black for a short while, then display the screen?

If so:

Do your screens have the same depth?

If not make sure they do. The monitor will resync much faster if they do. If this does not fix it them make sure they have the same depth and dimensions.


If the above is already the case.

When you drag down the WB screen can you see the DM2 screen? Does expsoing it cause the slow down too? If so what gfx card and how much GFX RAM?

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@NutsAboutAmiga

Quote:

Yry 16bit instead of 32bit you might be running out of graphic card memory, it will result in swaping between system memory and graphic card, you might also want to disable composition, it takes a lot extra memory for the shadow effects.

The shadow effects doesn't take much memory at all, windows are just slightly bigger than normal. If he drops to 16bit then that effect is switched of anyway.

What does take up a lot of memory is a texture heavy theme.

But at the moment we don;t know what card / machine he's using so suggesting lack of memory is too soon.

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@Wol

Quote:

The answer is use CyberGfx, but sadly only available on OS3x, This is the reason among others that I abandoned OS4 on my classic.

Utter unhelpful rubbish.

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Wow, I finally get back here after a few days lost to screen switching , and find all kinds of help! Thanks, everyone!

@mpiva
Magic! Disabling "Borderoff" had the same effect here! Immediate switching. But no such tooltype in FinalCalc, only
stringbackpen=0
stringhifrontpen=1
stringhibackpen=3
stringfrontpen=2
I'll try messing with those, just to see what they are...
DiskMaster has no tooltypes at all.

@lylehaze
I tried the "Like Workbench" on FinalCalc, setting it exactly the same as FinalWriter's setting in Screens. For reasons I don't understand, both of those screens are listed with "Custom:" in front of the name, but none of the settings are custom. Another curiosity is that "FinalCalc" in the "Title:" requester is ghosted, even after setting everything the same as for FinalWriter, namely
Radeon RV73: 1280x1024 RGB32 apply as default
DejaVu Sans/16 apply as default
GUI: Like Workbench; Use GUI pens as default; Palette Use settings and defined colors as defaults
There is one other strange difference on the Display tab for FinalCalc: "Open/close automatically" cannot be selected.
In any event, after making it as close to FinalWriter as possible, it does now open instantaneously and switches screens instantaneously. Unfortunately the screen is hardly usable with incomplete windows, tiny fonts, and other problems, but I'll try tweaking some things.
As for Dismaster, it was already set like Workbench. Its name in Defined screens list is a ghosted "DM.1"!(?)

@NutsAboutAmiga
As a last resort I might try shrinking to 16 bits, but most of my 32bit screens switch immediately. I quit using composition almost as soon as it became available. It kept interfering with SGrab.

@broadblues
Yes, the screen goes black for five seconds. They didn't all have the same depth, but now they do. I'll have to figure out how to see whether their dimensions are otherwise the same. It seems that at least FinalCalc's screen dimensions are off. And, yes, pulling screens down was one way to avoid waiting for LA^N/M to take effect.

I still don't know what effect if any MUI Screen might have. FinalCalc and FinalWriter aren't even listed there, just Workbench, DigitalUniverse, DM.1, and PageStream, all 1280:1280x1024 ARGB32, and all instant switchers except DM.1.

I run a Radeon RV73 (surprise!) on a SAM460ex, with "2,048MB Memory, 1,657MB free" at the moment. And thanks again, everyone. You've solved some and given me hope for the rest.

Last edited by kilaueabart on 09-Jun-2013 at 02:09 AM.

@kilaueabart

Quote:

"Custom:" in front of the name, but none of the settings are custom.

"Custom:" means it's a 'custom screen' not a public one. If there is an option in the prgrams you are setting up to use a named public screen instead of own screen you can try that. Then setup a screen with the name of your program (or a joint screen if you want to run two or maps on the same screen), and choose that.

Quote:

As for Dismaster, it was already set like Workbench. Its name in Defined screens list is a ghosted "DM.1"!(?)

Ghosted means it's deactivated, double click to activate that screen. Then it will be used by DiskMaster next time it opens a screen.

Quote:

In any event, after making it as close to FinalWriter as possible, it does now open instantaneously and switches screens instantaneously. Unfortunately the screen is hardly usable with incomplete windows, tiny fonts, and other problems, but I'll try tweaking some things.

The only thing you need to make the same is the screen depth / dimensions, let FinalCalc control everything else. The issue is solely with monitor syncing, and that's solely affected by the screen mode.


Quote:

I quit using composition almost as soon as it became available. It kept interfering with SGrab.

Really? How exactly? I use compositing and have no issues with screeb grabing with SGrab, the only windows you can't grab are overlay windows. (these come out black).

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@broadblues
Thanks for the clarifications. I am now (maybe) slightly less ignorant than I was before.

Quote:

The only thing you need to make the same is the screen depth / dimensions, let FinalCalc control everything else. The issue is solely with monitor syncing, and that's solely affected by the screen mode.

FinalCalc is weird! Setting it to "like Workbench" was a disaster. Everything big and overlapping--couldn't get at the menus, and it opened on Workbench, not a separate screen. Finally went to "Use defaults" and set screen size up in FinalCalc as "Custom." Project windows no longer fill the screen, but they are big enough to use and sure enough, it switches without delay. Only Diskmaster left to fix...
Quote:

Quote: I quit using compositing almost as soon as it became available. It kept interfering with SGrab. Really? How exactly?

I would try to grab something on Workbench, and the boing ball would show through in the results, for example. I couldn't figure out what compositing was really for, anyway, so the simplest thing was just to turn it off. That was several years ago; I guess I'll give it another try in a few minutes.

Last edited by kilaueabart on 16-Jun-2013 at 12:22 AM.

@kilaueabart

i was first and yet to ignore me .


anyway, composition should not interfere with sgrab , i use Sgrab daily and i have no problems with it , are sure you have the latest version?.

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@Toaks

Quote:

i was first and yet to ignore me .

#6 (-1) to kindly offer help, first to suggest going to 16 bits. But I seem to get along fine with 32, so I didn't reply to you specifically, but you were included in my sense of gratitude.

As for composition, maybe I am getting mixed up with transparency. I've been looking for a way to set up compositing to see what kind of trouble it caused me, but I can't find it in Prefs anywhere.

Several days later, I am still completely befuddled as to how to turn compositing on.

Last edited by kilaueabart on 16-Jun-2013 at 12:24 AM.

@kilaueabart

Quote:

Several days later, I am still completely befuddled as to how to turn compositing on.

And then a few minutes after that edit I found it in plain site in Prefs > GUI > Effects.

I turned it on, and sure enough, it causes just the kind of problem that led me to turn it off: If I open a window on Workbench and SGrab it, the result has the Boing ball and "AmigaOS 4.1" in big white letters showing through.

Interestingly enough, that did not happen with this OWB window into AmigaWorld, although when SGrab's window is selected, the background (including the dock strip at bottom) does show through.

The problem arose when I needed to make a jpeg of a document saved as PostScript from Pagestream for e-mailing to people. The ghost of Workbench showed through, and it still does. Maybe there is something else I need to set?

@kilaueabart

A couple of things you can do to solve this.

1. Choose a delay of a few secnds in SGrab then use that delay time to activate the window your mainly interested in. Then, assuming a sane transparancy setup, the active window will be opaque so no backgtround will show.

2. Just grab the window not the whole screen, then it's contents should not be blended with any background.

Last edited by broadblues on 16-Jun-2013 at 01:08 AM.

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@broadblues

Before I got back here, I belatedly discovered that I can make unselected windows opaque, and that may be the way I will go. I'll haved to experiment a bit to see if I find anything I like about compositing.

Meanwhile, I am gratefuly learning a lot from you (that I should have known years ago). I never even wondered what that slider with the "0" by it in SGrab was for! So I guess I could go back to a "sane transparency setup" now that I know.

In SGrab I almost always just leave "Windows" checked and then "Mark & Grab." I suppose I really should experiment more with SGrab too, but my mindless routine gets me what I want.

Last edited by kilaueabart on 16-Jun-2013 at 07:18 AM.
Last edited by kilaueabart on 16-Jun-2013 at 03:31 AM.