UI scaling issues: Hot Spots

Hi,

I've been "getting by" with the various issues the NCrunch UI has with scaling when using multiple monitors with different DPI

Most of the time when the UI looks odd I can just wiggle something to trigger a re-render, like resizing the toolbox or adjusting the split. However, This doesn't work with the Hot Spots toolbox.

Here's what it looked like when I opened the Hot Spots tool window:

https://ibb.co/vD39pzk

As you can see the header area is taking up a lot of virtical space and the table is only showing 1 column. After stretching the window across both monitors I can see another column. But even after resizing as many columns as I can this way, I still don't see any timing information.

https://ibb.co/bzMjjqg

NCrunch version: 5.7.0.1

Monitor details:

1) Main screen: 3840x2400 at 250% scale
2) Landscape screen: 2560x1440 at 125% scale
3) Portrait screen: 1440x2560 at 100% scale

https://ibb.co/n37RWdv

As a bonus, here's how the context menu appears when you right click on the NCrunch icon :D

https://ibb.co/2ybCJGb

Hi thanks for reporting these issues. By chance we've been working on some of these issues for the next release. I'm going to try and tests for the specific issues you reported before we finalize that work.

That's great to hear !

Looking forward to it.

Hi,

Thanks for your patience, I've created a new build that hopefully addresses these issues. Would you mind trying it out?

NCrunch_Console_5.8.0.2.msi
NCrunch_Console_5.8.0.2.zip
NCrunch_GridNodeServer_5.8.0.2.msi
NCrunch_GridNodeServer_5.8.0.2.zip
NCrunch_LicenseServer_5.8.0.2.zip
NCrunch_Rider_5.8.0.2.7z
NCrunch_Rider_5.8.0.2.zip
NCrunch_VS2010_5.8.0.2.msi
NCrunch_VS2010_5.8.0.2.zip
NCrunch_VS2012_5.8.0.2.msi
NCrunch_VS2012_5.8.0.2.zip
NCrunch_VS2013_5.8.0.2.msi
NCrunch_VS2013_5.8.0.2.zip
NCrunch_VS2015_5.8.0.2.msi
NCrunch_VS2015_5.8.0.2.msi.7z
NCrunch_VS2015_5.8.0.2.zip
NCrunch_VS2017_5.8.0.2.msi
NCrunch_VS2017_5.8.0.2.msi.7z
NCrunch_VS2017_5.8.0.2.zip
NCrunch_VS2019_5.8.0.2.msi
NCrunch_VS2019_5.8.0.2.msi.7z
NCrunch_VS2019_5.8.0.2.zip
NCrunch_VS2022_5.8.0.2.msi
NCrunch_VS2022_5.8.0.2.msi.7z
NCrunch_VS2022_5.8.0.2.zip

Thanks for the update. I’ll test this version tomorrow and get back to you

@michaelkroes There's still lots of weird stuff happening in this version. After deleting all NCrunch files and the .vs folder in a project. Here's how it looks.

1) https://ibb.co/0n52WSP

2) https://ibb.co/XD23Zb6 After clicking "Enable NCrunch"

3) https://ibb.co/rkMk7ZT NCrunch is now enabled

4) https://ibb.co/Wvtmbrp After resizing the tool window a tiny amount

The above behaviour I've noticed in older versions. But you can see how things are really not scaling well, somethings are taking far too much space and other things are squished (like the trace output horizontal split)

Good news tho. The Hot Spots window is looking much better.

5) https://ibb.co/Jy4kxtb

However, the configuration tool window is very broken.

6) https://ibb.co/cJ7fCYJ Switch to the Configuration tab and expand the project
6) https://ibb.co/c1Zrv9K Press the down arrow
7) https://ibb.co/1qNWV1r Press the down arrow
8) https://ibb.co/JCzQS4g Press the down arrow
9) https://ibb.co/P9RZMc9 Press the down arrow

Once the configuration options have escaped from the UI there's no way to get them back. Even after restarting Visual Studio. I had to delete all ncrunch files in the project folder and the .vs folder in order to restore the options UI.

I'm sorry to hear it's not working. Can I ask what version of windows and visual studio you are using? I haven't been able to reproduce what you are seeing. Do you have any window managers running like power toys?

Windows 11 Pro: 10.0.22631 Build 22631

Visual Studio Professional 2022 (64 bit): 17.9.3

No window managers installed.

Thanks for sharing these extra details.

We've put a lot of time into trying to reproduce further problems with the DPI scaling in the way that you've described, but we can't seem to make them happen.

I believe the issues you're seeing may be somehow specific to your system configuration or hardware set. DPI scaling is a really tough area for us to work in, because we are using two entirely different UI systems concurrently (winforms+WPF) while integrated inside another application. We've noticed that handling for having different DPI scale settings across multiple screens is somewhat hit-and-miss through many Windows applications, and the story seems to change across versions of the O/S and platform.

Handling for different DPI scaling set in parallel has always been a stretch goal for us. I am, actually, somewhat surprised we've managed to handle it as well as we have (Michael deserves much credit for this), but at some stage we need to draw a line here. We can only fix the problems we can find, and DPI scaling itself currently seems to be a can of worms full of other cans of worms scaled across edge cases.

Unfortunately, we can't provide further support in this area. As a workaround, I recommend bolting NCrunch tool windows directly into the main IDE window. This should give more stable behaviour as the lifespan of the tool windows should be bounded within the same DPI scaling.

I understand. And I’ve lived with these quirks for years. But when this breaks the UI, like hot spots (where the information is 1000s off pixels off screen. Now fixed) or now the configuration window (where the config options disappear) i feel it’s worth raising a support ticket.

I’m surprised it’s not been possible to reproduce. I think I’ve had similar issues on three separate machines with 3 monitor setups.

I like having ncrunch on a dedicated screen but I’ll try keeping it docked. I’ll let you know if I find any issues.

Thanks for fixing the hot spots window.