System exception during dynamic crop

[Don Walters]

This is an error I sometimes get.  I am running version 01.08.04.1195 Ripley (x64).  I'm on Windows 10 Pro on a Surface 4.

Here is the scenario:

I open a existing project that I have saved.  It has all my process icons sitting on the workspace with many values preset for my convenience.  However, I will say that it doesn't necessarily matter if I open my existing project or start a new one.  The error sometimes happens either way.

Then I open an image file, in this case it is an .xisf that was output from BatchPreProcessing.

I open DynamicCrop.

As soon as I move the mouse over the image, this message pops up (see attachment).  I click OK, but as soon as I move the mouse back over the image, the error pops up again.

Is there a log file I can send that would help?  I see nothing happening in the Process Console.

Sometimes the error does not happen and everything works smooth as glass.  Sometimes I get this error.  The solution seems to be to close everything and restart PI and it will work OK.

[Don Walters]

Also getting it on Dynamic Alignment.  This time, I cannot fix it; the popup just kept coming back up after I click OK.  Only solution was to close PI and lose my work.

[tomb18]

I have exactly the same thing.  It happens on dynamic crop and the DBE tool.
 It's November 12....no replies since you posted this?
Wow, I'm a new user of a couple of days and if this is the type of support I may have made a mistake.
Tom

[pfile]

sometimes this happens on Dell machines because of all the crap that dell installs that conflicts with some of the open source stuff that PI is built on.

i think there were other threads similar to this regarding surface machines and IIRC it has something to do with the touchscreen. again IIRC juan was hoping that the next release of PI will resolve these problems because it will be built on a newer version of Qt.

rob

[RickS]

I get similar errors on my Dell laptop (high res touch screen).  I don't get them on my desktop system.  Doing my best to get rid of interactions with Dell's dubious Qt implementation helped but didn't completely fix the problem.  Seems consistent with the theory that an update to Qt which handles touch screens better is the solution...

Cheers,
Rick.

[tomb18]

This is not great.  Yes I have a Dell but it is a clean Windows 10 install.  It happens in many modules when I put my mouse over an image. So what now?  I bought the software and can't use it? 
Seems this problem has been around for a while, why hasn't it been fixed.  There should be a disclaimer at least.  Do NOT buy Pixinsight if you have a Dell.  This is crazy.

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Tom,

As an exception to our EULA, since you've purchased your license just a week ago, let me know if you want a money refund and I'll process it immediately.

The problem is mainly with some laptops, mainly touch screens, and Windows 10. Unfortunately, I cannot fix these problems quickly and definitely. I am working on a new version of PixInsight with the latest Qt version, but I can't guarantee that this will fix all of these issues. Sorry for not being able to offer a more comfortable solution.

[tomb18]

Before we go that route.  Are there any things to be tried here?  I heard something about disabling native file dialogs.  That did not work.
What about graphics devices?  I mean this happens when the mouse goes over a picture.  Only then and only if a process is open.
What about intel graphics vs nvidia?  My laptop has both?
Any other things to try?

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Tom, Rick, Don,

Today I have managed to get my hands on a brand new Dell laptop borrowed from a friend. It is a very nice Dell Precision 15" with a 4K touch screen. It has a clean Windows 10 installation, so it has no Dell software installed. After installing PixInsight on this machine, I've been able to reproduce this issue. It is a really weird problem, most likely a graphics driver conflict. When I've reproduced it, it has happened sometimes, and always working with dynamic tools. Then it has stopped and everything has worked fine. Then it has returned after a while, without any repeatable pattern, and without any way to relate it to any specific action, other than the fact that it has happened exclusively while interacting with dynamic tools (DynamicCrop, DBE, DynamicPSF, etc) on an image. Very annoying indeed.

Fixing this problem has been very easy, at least on this machine. I hope the same fix will work for you. The first weird thing that I've noted on this laptop, is that PixInsight has applied a wrong scaling factor by default. With a 4K screen working at native resolution (3840x2160), the correct scaling factor is 1.5. However, for some strange reason, the application has set a scaling factor of 2.5. This is completely wrong and yields an almost unusable application, where everything is huge. This is obviously a bug that I have to investigate. For some odd reason, this factor causes problems on Windows 10 with dynamic interaction. The same factor works without problems on Linux and OS X. Anyway, once I have set the correct scaling factor manually, everything has started to work fine. So the solution has been as simple as this:

- From the main menu, select EDIT > Global Preferences.

- On the Preferences window, select the Core UI Resources section.

- Disable (uncheck) the Automatic UI scaling option.

- Set UI scaling factor to 1.5.

- Press F6 or click the circular icon to execute globally.

- Exit PixInsight.

- Wait a few seconds, then run PixInsight again.

At least with this computer, this has fixed the graphics problems completely. The application works now very nicely with Windows 10 on this Dell laptop. Please let me know if it works also for you. Fingers crossed!

[RickS]

I had a very quick play with a couple of projects using those settings and it worked reliably, thanks Juan.  I only use the laptop when in the field or giving a presentation but I'll try to use it more often and report back if there are any problems.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Juan Conejero]

Thank you Rick. I'm glad to know it has worked for you!

[tomb18]

Hi,
In my case the UI scaling option was set to 1.  I then changed it to 1.5 but did not exit PixInsight.  I then opened a FITS image and immediately I received the access violation as soon as my mouse went over the image.  There was no process or anything else opened.
This would appear as a way to reproduce this at all times.
I then exited PixInsight and restarted.  Other than probably needing new glasses it seems to work very well so far.  But it didn't happen every time before.
Now, it would seem that you have a way to reproduce this!  In my case the default scaling was 1.0.  Effectively this is using the native resolution of the Dell with the 4K screen at the DPI of 200% so all objects appear large and the same as the desktop.  It should(!) work at 1.0 .
I suspect that these errors probably also can occur on other brands of laptops since the DPI scaling in Windows often causes issues with applications (I do software development and the same scaling issues sometimes come up but in different ways).
Looks like you might have a way now to finally find the bug!
Thanks for this!  I

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Tom,

Glad to know it's working. The default scaling ratio is always 1.0 when you disable automatic scaling. To know the actual scaling ratio being applied, enter this command on the Process Console:

j (new Control).resourcePixelRatio

For a 4K monitor, it should return 1.5 or 2.0, depending on desktop settings. On the Dell laptop I've used for testing, it gives 2.0.

[eganz]

Juan,

I'm glad that you now have at least temporarily a test machine that shows some of the windows problems that we have been talking about.

My Windows 10 machine, with a 4K screen, I have been running pretty successfully with 225% or 250% window scaling.

I want to repeat again how great the program is and how much success I've been having with it.

However, I still do have a fairly large number of persistent and also intermittent problems.

The persistent problems still include the histogram box drawing problem when you mouse over the active areas.

The intermittent problems include occasional memory  errors when mousing over the images.

I also have the problems with the dynamic actions including DBE and dynamic crop etc.
Sometimes these work, but often they don't, and require the program to be restarted. These problems are often very difficult to overcome.

when I have these problems, one of the things I do is to have the program cascade/fit Windows which Sometimes helps with the memory errors.

I'm hoping that you can reproduce and then repair more of these issues  on your new laptop. Please try running with Windows scaling active, and with individual frames zoomed in on the screen. I'm typically using 4096 x 4096 images, often in larger frames or filling the screen and zoomed in.

Eric

[tomb18]

From what it seems, screen scaling appears to be at the root of this issue.  My experience with windows development is that 100%, 150% and 200% usually work just fine.  Odd scaling like 125%, 225% and others always cause issues.
I would not go to 225 or 250 as you do and go to 150% as suggested here.
That might solve all your issues.
Tom