Possible Scaleform bug

[Alucard123]

Hey there,

I think I found a bug in Scaleform using the axis rotation extensions.
I never experienced this problem before until today. After hours of identifying the problem I came to the conclusion that it has to be a bug.
So here is the problem:

I was setting up the HUD for our game. Like the UDKGame I have a MC on the left side for the playerdata and one MC on the right side for the weapondata. Both MC reside inside another container MC. Inside this container I put the rotation code on the first frame. Everything looks perfect so far and is working. Now it gets interesting. For the center messages I rebuild the setup from the example HUD. For testing I put an example text into the textfield. It gets displayed properly. But when I try to set a different text the center text disappears although the text get set!!! I spend several hours on testing it. It get definitely set! Thats not the problem.
What I experienced is that with an additional dynamic textfield or input textfield on the stage (doesnt matter if its inside a MC or on _root) the playerdata and weapondata MC rotation is distorted. The TextFields inside the MCs dont rotate right at the beginning. After setting the new text to the center Textfield they start appearing as intended but the center TextField vanishes. When resizing the window of the GFxMediaPlayer the center-TextField get displayed for a second with distorted playerdata and weapondata. (false rotation, lines are rotated right, all txtfields not) After a second the centertextfield vanishes again and the both MCs are rotated right. When I comment out the rotation code everything works very well. nothing is distorted and the center message appears.

Does anyone else had this strange problem or has a solution?

[Matt Doyle]

This does not sound like an issue I have seen reported before; however, it could very well be in how you've set it up, and not a bug. If you were a Scaleform licensee, I'd ask you to send our tech support department the Flash files containing the problem so that we can try to figure out what might be wrong; however, as a UDK user, the best you can do is post all your stuff here and perhaps one of the users here can help you figure out what might be wrong.

[Alucard123]

Good morning Matt! :-)

Well I have been a Scaleform licensee 3 years ago with Scaleform 2.0 but I doubt that I have any support anymore. Especially for GFx 4.0 and UDK integration. Well, being a licensee or not I am sure it is of interest for you to dig into it and solve this bug for future releases (if its really related to a Scaleform bug!!!) to improve Scaleform reliability. I will hand over my files to you or any other official Scaleform member on request

Until then I will do some more test and report my result here. What I will research next will be how the TF will behave in wireframe mode and see if the TF polys are still there or if they vanish. If so it might be a problem of appying wrong matrixes on non transformed dynamic assets. I will supply you with all information I can.

[Alucard123]

I did some more research now.

If I put a dynamic or input tf on the stage and enter a initial text the hud is shown corrupt but the text in the tf is shown. When altering the text in the tf the tf is not visible but the text is entered (input tf) The hud starts rotating right and is shown as intended.

If I put a dynamic or input tf on the stage and dont enter an initial text the hud is rotating right but when entering something into the tf the text is not shown although the text got assigned!

INTERESTING:

If I FIRST put the dynamic or input textfield on the stage which is not rotated by the axis rotation code and after that putting the MC with the HUD on the stage which includes the rotation code for the left and right HUD elements everything works as intended! So here must be a bug!

Hope I could help to trace the bug down.


EDIT:

What the.....

Ok guys.... now it gets really curious. I moved the TF from above to the bottom and voilá! It works. When moving the TF up again its broken! BUT! When entering text into the broken input TF and its long enough the text slides in from the right and waaaaaayyyyy toooo big like its translated really near the camera like a zoom!

[Matt Doyle]

It certainly sounds like some weird issues you're having, but without having the actual files, there's really nothing anyone here can do to help you test it and track down the issue's cause.

[Alucard123]

Hi Matt!

You dont need my files. You can easily reproduce the bug for yourself. Here is the tutorial:

1. Make a new AS2 flash file. I changed the FPS to 30, changed the flashplayer to version 8 and changed the stage size to 1600x900
2. Create a new Font. I used "ARIAL - Regular". I embedded tall letters, small letters, numbers, special chars and the latin1 one.
3. Create a new MC in the bib.
4. Place a TF inside the MC and apply our Font. I used a static TF.
5. Place the MC on the stage. I placed it in the bottom left corner and also apply our created Font.
6. Place a dynamic or input TF at the top-center of the stage. I used both for testing. To see the zoomed text use an input TF so you can change the test.
7. Put the following code on the first frame on root:

_global.gfxExtensions=true;

test._yrotation = -45;
test._xrotation = 25;

where "test" is the name of your MC.

8. Save your FLA and test the SWF with the GFxMenuPlayer.

Depending on the TF you will see a none rotated MC or a blank TF. Now enter some text in the input TF at the top center. You will see that it´s not shown but slides in from the side very close to the "camera" like the text got zoomed in a lot.

[Matt Doyle]

I have passed this on to the engineers here. Thanks.

[Alucard123]

Thank you very much! I hope I could help you to increase the reliability of your already awesome product.
May you inform me by a post if your engineers could confirm the bug and or about a solution?!

[Matt Doyle]

Ok. So it looks like this bug exists in Scaleform 4.0.15 and older. In Scaleform 4.0.16 (the current release of Scaleform) it is apparently fixed.

Unfortunately, UDK (latest versions) is currently on Scaleform 4.0.15.

So, once UDK integrates Scaleform 4.0.16 or later, this bug will hopefully go away for you guys.

[Alucard123]

Thanks for the information Matt!

For those who experience the same problem. I found out that moving the layer which contains the none rotated TF beneath the layer with the 3d rotated TFs solves the problem. Its just a workaround but better than nothing for now.