Post by adlerist on Feb 8, 2022 22:38:53 GMT -6
🪲 FLICKERING BUG 🪲
15 October 2020
There is a bug in the Vale. A sort of flickering.
BACKGROUND
Several months ago, dragonglow, greggerman, rulilind, and wapatango reported 'flickerings' in their parks. For a couple weeks, we discussed the bug and everyone submitted screenshots, videos, and status updates.
Sometimes the flickering looks like this:
Other times it is more severe:
The frequency and severity of the flickering depends on the device (both processor and RAM), the size of the park, and the amount of animation displayed.
You may recall in September 2019, there was a bug in the game that looked like this:
Players posted similar images on Reddit and FB. After several weeks, Backflip fixed the bug, and no one has posted about it since.
However, most interestingly, the above screenshot is not from last year’s glitch. It is a frame from the second flicker video I posted above. If you play the video frame by frame, this image is what occurs in the quick flashes. So the flickering is related to the old glitch.
THE PLOT THICKENS
If you compare Hooded’s tail with the above screenshot, there’s a sense of déjà vu.
It appears the flickering bug is caused by one glitched frame in Hooded’s animation going full screen.
I first notified Deca of this bug during the summer. They have now informed us the source and reason for the bug cannot be identified, so they will need to look into it further. We don’t know if it will become worse as parks grow, but it seems fairly stable for now. Remember, Backflip worked on this issue, and while they were able to minimise Hooded’s enormous black and gold blotches to a flickering, they were not able to completely resolve it.
WORKAROUND
While we’re waiting for a permanent fix, I found a workaround to end the flickering. If you hibernate all the Hooded dragons in your park, the glitch will stop. Generally, for items to affect your game, they need to be displayed.
Note: traited Hooded dragons in the Rift do not need to hibernate. Visual glitches like these don’t travel to the Rift.
As the flickering in my game is minimal and intermittent, the wonderful flicker testers graciously volunteered to test the workaround in their parks. After several weeks, they all reported no flickerings. But when they let Hooded roam free again, the glitch immediately returned. So, if the flickering is disruptive in your park, this is an effective temporary solution.
CREDIT AND STANDING OVATIONS
Many bountiful thanks to the flicker testers, dragonglow, greggerman, rulilind, and wapatango, who brought this bug to everyone’s attention and for their thorough and outstanding reports on the glitch.
The participants in this group were using an iPad 7th gen (3GB RAM), two iPad 6th gen (2GB RAM), iPad Pro 1st gen (4GB RAM), iPad Pro 2018 (6GB RAM). Some are playing in Low Resolution Mode, others not. Two players have 16 islands, the rest have all 29. This bug is not exclusive to iPad or iOS devices. It has been reported on Android as well.
The videos posted above are edited clips from a longer video by wapatango. All the testers submitted screenshots, videos, and data that was used to evaluate and report this bug to Deca. Enormous kudos to the very scientific and always humorous (there were lots of laughs) flicker testers. Flicker Friends Forever!
The flicker testing was performed in May 2020 - June 2020 and the results reported to Deca Games in July 2020. Deca looked into the issue for several months, and since the bug was not fixed, the above information was posted on the DragonVale Community Forum on 15 October 2020.
UPDATE - 20 NOVEMBER 2022
Since the latest DV update (version 4.27.2), it appears the Hooded bug has returned to its original state in some parks. There are reports on Reddit that players are again seeing large portions of Hooded’s tail in the Vale. If you’re experiencing this bug, the workaround (hibernating Hooded) should still work. I’ve reported this new development of the bug to Deca Games.