Bug: FGII 2.6.1 rt-mouse button bug

[DarkWiz58]

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UPDATE: The following problems only seem to happen when I am using FGII with the mouse in left-hand mode. I cannot reproduce this stuff when the mouse is in [normal] right hand usage. So I guess I'll just have to let my carpal tunnel right hand hurt a little when I run a game!!
But, if you use the mouse with your left hand, meaning the "left" and "right" buttons are swapped, the following all apply.


This is a moderate-severity bug that can be tolerated, but it seemed like I should report it.

Using the new FGII version 2.6.1 along with 4E_JPG version 1.5.1, and seen using a quick test on the Foundation rules set also, the following irregular action happens:

1) Fresh start of the program
2) Open an image
3) Rt-click on the image
4) Set a grid on the image

At this point --and sometimes right after step 2 above!?!-- FGII's reaction to further mouse rt-clicks will cause the radial menu to appear on rt-button-press and disappear immediately on rt-button-release. HOWEVER: if you keep rt-clicking the mouse sometimes the radial menu will appear and persist correctly on the screen as normal. Click it some more and the radial menu starts disappearing again on rt-mouse-button release.

As we all know, sometimes a radial menu shouldn't be used until some things like db and I/O ops are finished, so we've been accustomed to having to wait sometimes to effectively use the rt-mouse button before this release.

But not like this.

I next wanted to make sure this isn't just an issue with some long path-length execution in the new grid code.

So I found that even when the new grid code is evidently not executing the same weird thing happens. I kept pressing the rt-mouse button. Sometimes the radial menu will persist on the screen, and sometimes it will vanish. And it doesn't seem to be tied to an image window specifically: it happens sometimes on any window including the main desktop.

Just keep pressing the rt-mouse button and you'll see the problem come and go yourself.

This makes it hard, but not impossible to select radial sub-menus via the rt-mouse button. You eventually can do it, or move to the sub-menu choice quickly enough to left-click on it to use it. That's why I classify this bug having only moderate severity: you can work around it.

Oh, and as if things weren't strange enough: it may be that mouse handling code may have a problem in general. Sometimes I have to press on the Start button from the launcher about five times before I can get the campaign to come up. I can see the control "pressing" but it doesn't do anything.

Sorry if I've described this in too complicated a way. It just matches my personal test mode and results so that you can recreate it. I hope.

-Alex / DarkWiz58

PS: Thanks much for the parentcontrol, by the way !

NOTE AGAIN: This only seems to happen when the mouse is being used on the computer by the left hand.
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[EugeneZ]

Maybe I am misunderstanding this, but if not, hopefully this helps.

FG2 has two "modes" in which it open it's radial menu. The mode it uses depends on the action you take after depressing the the right mouse button (depressing, but not yet releasing).

If the mouse button releases without moving, it goes into the "click" mode where the menu stays in place and you can only close or change it by clicking on things.

If the mouse moves, it goes into "drag" mode, where the action taken is signified by dragging the mouse in the direction of an action and releasing the button.

Thus, if you hold down the right mouse button and drag to the top, then top again, then let go the mouse button, you exit the game. Many FG2 players probably discovered these two methods via regular use of FG2.

In any case, it sounds like the issue you are having is that you click slowly. That's right, you click slowly. Meaning that when you right click, but BEFORE the button rises, your mouse might move a tad. This would make FG2 show the menu, a split second before closing it when you let go the button.

I opened up my FG and "flicked" the mouse a bit like I'm describing, clicking the mouse while slowly moving my mouse a bit, and was able to get the menu to behave as you describe and as I predicted it would.

Does that help?

If that is indeed what is happening to you, you may not be able to avoid the tiny mouse movements you are making (since you obviously don't mean to make them), so the better option might be to simply use the second mode, the one where you drag, all the time. Just hold the right mouse button and don't let go, then drag the mouse. Let go of the button when you are hovering over the desired option.

[Valarian]

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UPDATE: The following problems only seem to happen when I am using FGII with the mouse in left-hand mode. I cannot reproduce this stuff when the mouse is in [normal] right hand usage. So I guess I'll just have to let my carpal tunnel right hand hurt a little when I run a game!!
But, if you use the mouse with your left hand, meaning the "left" and "right" buttons are swapped, the following all apply.
I use my mouse with my left hand and suffer no problems. Granted, I use the buttons in the normal, right-handed manner. From the above, I take it that it's a problem when you've switched the buttons in to "lefty" mode using the Windows control panel setting (i.e. the right button does a click and the left brings up the context menu). However, maybe the, possibly strange, way I use the mouse would be a workaround for you. Use the mouse with your left hand, just don't swap the buttons.

[DarkWiz58]

EugeneZ: when I use the mouse in my right hand everything works the way it is supposed to work, and has worked, for the past few years in FGII. But thanks for the suggestions.

I've had this "left-hand mouse [buttons swapped]" problem appear in other programs occasionally, and my sleep-deprived mind last night forgot to test that before I put in the initial post.

When you use either the microsoft or Logitech mouse driver packages which overlays the basic mouse support built into the system, telling the computer you are using the mouse with your left hand swaps the buttons as Valarian points out.

Here's why: the button under your index finger, whether right- or left-handed presents the "Left Click" operation to the application if the application is using the API correctly. The middle finger, again either right- or left-handed, pushes the "Right Click" operation.

One program in particular that didn't handle this correctly until recently is Photoshop. Until CS4 (release 11), it too got mixed up sometimes when I had to switch the mouse to my left hand.

Let me reiterate: this problem is NO BIG DEAL. The number of people that end up using the mouse with the left hand is pretty small, often just because over-use of the right-hand on computers has inflamed the tendons. I learned to use my mouse with my left hand, so I certainly can re-train myself not to swap the buttons.

So, in retrospect, I'm rather sorry I brought up the whole matter....

-Alex / DarkWiz58