Mouse cursor issues

GeometriX

I've been using software mouse cursors up until now, but recently changed over to hardware to avoid the flickering that happens between the Windows and custom mouse cursors.

In hardware mode, the cursor no longer flickers (in the built version of my game; it still does in the editor), but I'm having two particular issues:

1) The mouse cursor is tiny. No matter what I set its size to, either under "Main cursor" or the individual interaction icons, it's still very, very small. This happens with inventory cursors as well.

2) The cursor changes don't seem to affect examine icons. Normally if I have no left-click interaction on a hotspot set then it defaults to the examine interaction and appropriate cursor (as per the setting under Cursor), but in hardware mode, this doesn't seem to have any effect.

Any clues? Thanks!

ChrisIceBox

1) By the nature of hardware cursor rendering, the size now depends on the source graphic.  You'll have to edit the source file.

2) This may be an issue with Unity.  What platform are you working on, and does this occur in builds or just the editor?

GeometriX

Thanks @ChrisIceBox,

1) I thought as much, but there's something overriding the size of the cursor. I tried with a new cursor image that's four times the size of the old one, but at runtime it shrinks it down to the same minuscule size. Interesting to note is that this "shrinking" doesn't happen on draggables if the "icon at contact point" is set to the exact same cursor file: there it appears at full size.

Here are a couple of screenshots, of my cursor asset itself, and the Cursor settings under AC:

The mouse cursor size is 256x256px:

I'd show you a screenshot of the comparisons in-game, but unfortunately the mouse cursors don't capture in screenshots when set to hardware mode.

2) I'm running Windows 8.1. This happens both in the editor and in builds.

ChrisIceBox

1) It works fine on OSX, but it could be that Windows limits the maximum size of a hardware cursor to 32x32.  The Size variable is ignored by AC and should be hidden.  Try cropping the empty space around the image.

2) OK, I'll look into it.

GeometriX

Thanks @ChrisIceBox,

Aha, okay there is indeed a size limit imposed by windows, but it's 64x64. So I've cropped the cursors and they appear right, but it's pointed me to another problem: the mouse cursors don't scale with the screen resolution. This means it'll appear too large on smaller screens and tiny on larger screens. It also means that when changing between hardware/software cursors (as is the case with the Draggable cursors), there's always going to be a size disparity.

Is there any way around this?

Or, I suppose this would be the preferred solution: is there any way around the mouse cursor flickering while retaining software cursors? Software seems to offer a lot more control, and integrates with AC's systems far better than hardware.

ChrisIceBox

When does the flickering occur, exactly?  Are there steps that you can provide that recreate the issue?  It may be related to your OS, however.

GeometriX

Okay, so, something interesting: I was trying to recreate the steps that cause this by going back and peeling away Game Objects in my scene until the flickering stopped. I found that the flickering in software mode is caused my PlayMaker! Specifically, the "PlayMakerGUI" object. I removed it (and configured its preferences to prevent it from reappearing) and now the flickering, which was a constant shift back and forth between the AC cursor and Windows cursor, has now stopped! \o/

This is kind of a big deal, as I've seen a few other users here struggling with mouse flickering/blinking issues and unable to find a solution! I suspect that the GUI object doesn't need to be removed altogether, but I don't need it anyway so I took it out.

Except now, gosh, there's a new, similar, problem. Maybe it's been there all along and I only noticed it now that the "normal" flickering is gone: whenever I click on a hotspot, the mouse briefly flicks between the standard AC "Main cursor" and the interaction cursor.

I know this probably seems like an endless problem (I know that I probably seem to have endless problems :P), but if you could have a look and see if there's anything that can resolve this, I'd much appreciate it!

Here's a screenshot of my interface settings:

ChrisIceBox

What settings do you have in your Cursor Manager?

Incidentally, the issue of draggable cursors being the wrong size with Hardware rendering will be fixed in v1.49.

GeometriX

Oh, haha, well that's good news!

Cursor Manager settings:

ChrisIceBox

Thanks.  Fixed for v1.49.  It's going to be a good one!

GeometriX

\o/