Transitionals

New Post: TransitionConverter cannot convert from Type System.String

jaredbienz — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:28:14 GMT

Hello Haider. I beleive your issue is related to this one. Please open an issue in the issue tracker with steps to reproduce and I'll take a look later this week. I believe this is due to a limitation in the transition converter, but I'm not exactly sure why that's being called when you're specifically stating the FadeTansition. Will have to look more into it.

Thanks,

Jared

New Post: TransitionConverter and custom transition types

jaredbienz — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:25:18 GMT

steve_baker wrote:
I have used the tab control implementation I found here:

Hey Steve, thanks for your note. Any chance you could document this as an issue in the issue tracker? That way it will show up in Visual Studio as a task item for the project. As much information as possible to reproduce the error is appreciated. I hope to spend some time on Transitionals later this week and will have a chance to look at it.

New Post: TransitionConverter cannot convert from Type System.String

HaiderMalik — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:47:50 GMT

I get this error in design mode and then the designer never lets you see the Window/Page because error comes whenever you try to reload the designer. In the TransitionConverter's ConvertFrom function I placed a message box to prompt if value is null and display it's type if it is not null. Then when I reloaded the deigner it showed me 3 or 4 messageboxes with all showing data type System.String (which is supported by converter) but in the end a null object prompt. After that the designer reports the error mentioned in subject and the Window gets unloaded in design mode.

Can you please help what should be the behavior when null object is passed? Currently you have called the base.ConvertFrom method due to which i think this error is coming. Or should the null object never be passed? I dont know who is passing this null object. I've just set this

                <DataTemplate>
                    <t:TransitionElement Content="{Binding}">
                        <t:TransitionElement.Transition>
                            <trans:FadeTransition Duration="0:0:0.5" />
                        </t:TransitionElement.Transition>
                    </t:TransitionElement>
                </DataTemplate>

as the ContentTemplate of a TabControl.

New Post: TransitionConverter and custom transition types

steve_baker — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:41:30 GMT

I have used the tab control implementation I found here:

http://www.hardcodet.net/2008/05/wpf-tab-effects-with-transitionals

when I use this xaml from the sample at that site:

<!– the data template binds the content to a transition element –>
    <DataTemplate x:Key=”TabTemplate”>
      <t:TransitionElement Content=”{Binding}”>
        <!– rotate tab contents –>
        <t:TransitionElement.Transition>
          <trans:RotateTransition Duration=”0:0:1.500″
                                  Angle=”90″ />
        </t:TransitionElement.Transition>
      </t:TransitionElement>
    </DataTemplate>

It breaks the vs.net 2008 designer and i get an error stating that TransitionConverter cannot convert the transition type. I debugged in and found that i had to add code to strip the namespace off the string being passed to the TransitionConverter.ConvertFrom function just to get it to work properly. All that is fine and dandy but now I have written a custom Transition and am having problems finding a good way to get it working.

I tried writing a custom TypeConverter and Attributing the CustomTransistion with it, but the vs.net designer still calls the TransitionConverter instead :(

I think ideally the best way to go anyway is to come up with a better implementation for the TransitionConverter, as stated in the comments:

// TODO: The implementation of this class is too restrictive. Does not easily support adding new
// transitiosn to the core and does not support transitions outside of this project.

I would be more than happy to implement something more robust if someone could help me come up with a good idea for making it extensible enough to allow for custom transitions.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Steve

New Post: InvalidOperationException

pmont — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:33:25 GMT

Thanks for the update.

Your suggestion of using a snapshot is fine for what I am doing. I just wanted to make sure that a reproducible example of the bug is not lost by getting around the problem. It is always better to drive to the actual problem and fix it then to do a workaround and lose reproducibility of the error.

As always the intent is to make the product the best that it can be. Again, tell them thanks, and if it really is a framework bug, make sure you get an honorable mention for it. <grin>

Paul

New Post: InvalidOperationException

jaredbienz — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:30:41 GMT

Well, the good news is that I have an update. The bad news is that it doesn't resolve much. I don't want to post Brendens e-mail verbatum, but I will relay the key points.

“I’ve verified that the DX runtime has no impact for me. … It seems like there is definitely a bug in the framework, and the bad news is that we closed up shop on 3.5 SP1 a couple weeks ago so there won’t be a fix until the next release at minimum. I’ll open a bug on the issue so that we can track it.”

Without going into too much detail at this point Benden believes there is a timing issue between the managed layer and the unmanaged DirectX. Timing issues could explain why new drivers or the new DX installer seems to fix things for some people. He goes on:

“I have one idea for a workaround so far. The transitions seem to work fine if you use only VisualBrushes as the content of the TransitionElement during the transition. As you stated on your forum post, the issue only occurs when you have a VisualBrush of the visual rendering somewhere, the visual has no parent Visual, and then you set the TransitionElement.Content to that visual. I changed the code in TxnPanel.cs :: OnListBoxItemSelected to something like this:

Rectangle rect = new Rectangle();

rect.Height = v.Element.RenderSize.Height;

rect.Width = v.Element.RenderSize.Width;

rect.Fill = v.vBrush;

te.Content = rect;

However, with only a VisualBrush there you won’t get things like hit-testing, which I’m sure you’d want. You could work around that by then using the TransitionEnded callback so that TxnPanel or any other consumer can swap in and out the TransitionElement and the real content, i.e. detect a change -> swap old content and TE -> set TE.content to new content -> on callback swap TE and new content. That way hit-testing and input would be live at any point, except during the transition. …”

Brenden did say he planned to work with others on his team who had been out to try and find a better work-around.

I’m going to look more into his suggestions but I want to be completely honest that I might not have any time to seriously look at it until the 18<SUP>th</SUP>. I’ve got some time blocked off on my calendar then.

If any of you have a chance to look at this in the mean time and have your own suggestions to make, please do so. This may be as simple as having the content always parented by the TxnPanel or may be as complex as swapping things in and out of the view. I don’t personally feel that hit testing is important during the transition (of course it is before and after). If anyone feels that proper hit testing is important during the transition please let me know as that might have a big impact on the bug fix. Please cite examples as to when you’d need this functionality, and thanks.

Regards,

Jared

New Post: InvalidOperationException

pmont — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:19:42 GMT

Jared,

Any updates? And to answer the above question, I have not installed the DirectX End User Runtime on the systems I have access to.

Again, thanks for the effort, and tell the other guys working on it thanks too.
Paul

New Post: InvalidOperationException

jaredbienz — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:50:22 GMT

Thanks renzska for that info. Have any of the others in this thread tried running the latest DirectX End User Runtime installer to see if it resolves the issue for you? Obviously this is not the ideal resolution and I'm still working with the WPF team to track it down.

Both Gerhard Schneider and Brendan Clark are looking at it in their spare time. On Wednesday Brendan thought he'd found it. He thought the way the visual tree was being modified in change events firing from DisconnectedUIElementCollection were part of the problem. There were asserts there, but he later decided that wasn't the root cause. He's going to debug against checked binaries to see if he can track it further, but he didn't think the version of the DirectX runtime would matter. If we have several people that have run the new web installer and it's caused the issue to go away I'd certainly like to send that feedback on.

Finally, I'd like to point out one work-around. This problem only occurs when two circumstances are true:

The actual visual is not in any visual tree until it gets shown in the transition panel.
There is a VisualBrush of the visual elsewhere in the visual tree at all times.

If you change either of those then I think you can work around the issue. My first thought is can you get by with just a snapsot of the visual instead of a live VisualBrush? Not as glamerous and certainly doesn't work for video, but it's a thought.

Sorry guys, I know this isn't ideal and I know it's taking a long time to get resolved but know we've got the best people posible looking at this as they can.

New Post: InvalidOperationException

renzska — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:56:51 GMT

One of my users of MuvUnder Cover was getting the same error related to the System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.NotifyPartitionIsZombie call. They already had Vista SP1 and .NET 3.5 installed so the transparency hotfix didn't apply.

Having them run the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer, as mentioned at http://forums.msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/wpf/thread/446f5f1c-4a0b-4479-b4ac-605d3c96d90b fixed the issue for them. The problem for me is that my program was written against .NET 3.5 which is already a 30MB+ download depending on their OS and the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer is an additional 22 KB - 61.2 MB (from there site, though on my VM it was about 60MB), which means to install my program and to avoid any possibility of that error would require 90-120MB of downloads for the user...obviously something I'd like to avoid.

Is there any idea exactly what file is causing the issue and is getting updated when the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer is run and is there anyway we could get a hotfix for just that file, or files if it's more than one?

Thanks,

John
MuvEnum

New Post: InvalidOperationException

pmont — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:28:55 GMT

jaredbienz wrote:
Gerhard was VERY kind and willing to take a look. He said it will at least be later Monday before he has a chance. I'll keep you posted.

Tell him thanks from all of us.

When one has a repeatable bug, I always try to take it to its solution. You never know when one might be able to find it again.

I still bet on it being a bug in something I am doing <grin> Framework bugs are few and far between, and the last thing I would figure a bug is in. On second thought, compiler bugs are after that. <grin>

New Post: InvalidOperationException

jaredbienz — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:42:16 GMT

Gerhard was VERY kind and willing to take a look. He said it will at least be later Monday before he has a chance. I'll keep you posted.

New Post: InvalidOperationException

jaredbienz — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:38:41 GMT

This issue is certainly deeper than the Transitionals framework itself, though I'm having trouble replicating it in a stand-alone application. The root cause is from a fun little line of code called System.Windows.Media.MediaContext.NotifyPartitionIsZombie. After doing some research I found these related forum posts:

http://forums.msdn.microsoft.com/en/wpf/thread/f3fc5b7e-e035-4821-908c-b6c07e5c7042/
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=321955

When this error shows up it seems to do with the current graphics card drivers. (NOT a good thing to have to worry about right?)

I've reached out to Gerhard Schneider see if he'll graciously assist us, but honestly this is a bit beyond me. If Gerhard can't help I'll try and ask a broader group.

New Post: InvalidOperationException

pmont — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:26:25 GMT

jaredbienz wrote:

I just wanted to let you guys know that I am looking into this. I literally don’t have a one hour block of free time until July 17th so I’m trying to squeeze this in between calls, etc.

What I’ve found so far is that this is due to a problem with VisualBrush. In fact, I think you might have found a bug in the framework itself. I’m trying to reproduce the issue without Transitionals in the picture, but here’s what I think happens:

You are the man. Again thanks for taking the time with this, and for the work you have done to get Transitionals up here.

Paul

New Post: InvalidOperationException

jaredbienz — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:09:11 GMT

Transitionals takes whatever element you have and makes a VisualBrush of it before it starts animating (Transition.cs line 146). Then we say that the brush should be cached unless the visuals size crosses a threshold (Transition.cs line 149). My guess is that the animations that work are OK because the animation they do does not cause the threshold to be crossed. The other ones cause the threshold to be crossed and the VisualBrush has to be reevaluated.

Now, this is normally not a problem, but I think it MIGHT be a problem when you have another VisualBrush attached (the one you’ve got in your ListBox). The error that gets thrown is actually a memory access exception in COM! I’d bet that this is happening when DirectX is trying to evaluate the surface that represents the VisualBrush. If you use only ONE VisualBrush (either in TransitionBox OR in your Menu) everything is OK. It’s when attach two VisualBrushes to the element that’s when we get the crash.

So, anyway, I’ve got some more research to do. I can turn off caching and see if that fixes it. Or maybe there’s an option to take a snapshot of the visual and use that instead of a VisualBrush. Of course, if it’s a video or something that updates frequently it will look funny. I’ve still got some research to do but I wanted to let you guys know where I was at.

New Post: Enable / Disable transitions

jaredbienz — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:53:49 GMT

P.S. Performance was one of the major reasons I wanted to get this out to the public. Keep in mind that all of these transitions were created for Acropolis in it's early CTP stages. If Acropolis had ever been taken to market I'm qutie sure someone would have spent some time looking into improving the performance. Unfortunately this may be a little beyond me (especially some of the 3D ones) so anyone that wants to help in this area is very welcome.

New Post: Enable / Disable transitions

jaredbienz — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:50:58 GMT

MooseTaylor wrote:
Hi Jared, my reason for asking for an option to disable the transition is for users on lower spec machines. I'm writting an app that produces a WPF powerpoint slide presentation. On hi-end machines, the transitions look really good and add to the presentation, but on some laptops (single core), the performance gets in the way of the presentation.

It would be useful to disable (without destroying) the transition.

p.s. Really like the library...great work.

I've added a feature request to the issue tracker for this. I can't promise when I'll get it in but it's not a huge thing to implement. For now, you should be able to just set the TransitionElement.Transition to null and it should work as requested. The reason I still think an 'Enabled' property would be nice to have is beause bool is easier to data bind to a checkbox or configuration setting that Transition is.

Created Feature: Enabled Property for TransitionElement

jaredbienz — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:48:46 GMT

Would be nice to temporarily or perminantly disable transitions based on machine spec for example. This can be accomplished by setting the transition to Null, but it's not as easily data bindable.

New Post: Enable / Disable transitions

pmont — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:36:24 GMT

Why not try to create a transition that simply switches the two views? No effects. Set the TransitionElelement to that transition when you determine you are on a box that is low power? Then set it to the other transitions when it is running on the high power box.

New Post: Enable / Disable transitions

MooseTaylor — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:24:06 GMT

Hi Jared, my reason for asking for an option to disable the transition is for users on lower spec machines. I'm writting an app that produces a WPF powerpoint slide presentation. On hi-end machines, the transitions look really good and add to the presentation, but on some laptops (single core), the performance gets in the way of the presentation.

It would be useful to disable (without destroying) the transition.

p.s. Really like the library...great work.

NEW POST: InvalidOperationException

pmont — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:11:03 GMT

quad? I go for at least five. I have no idea want went wrong, but I hope it doesnt do it again. <grin>

jaredbienz wrote:

pmont wrote:

thanks, at least I know it isnt only my code. <grin>

I am pretty sure it occurs on the EndTransition, I see the transition occur, and then the exception. More digging will be required.

pmont.

MooseTaylor wrote:
I'm having exactly the same issue, I've got a listbox bound to the visuals of the content I want to show. Some of the transitions work, but most blow up (but not the explosion which is ironic)

Woah, what happened there with the quad post?

I'll be happy to take a look at it but I'm a bit booked up today. If I PM you with my e-mail address can you send me some sample code that reproduces the issue?