GE Plugin and 3.0.2

[kiltym]

I am having some issues with running the GE PlugIn with 3.0.2. I did not have these issues when running 2.5.

1) The centering of the GE image is not centered on the center of the chart I have displayed. I always leave GE "connected" via chart view. So as I move the chart, GE moves as well to correspond to what I see. When I click the "Follow Boat" button in OpenCpn, the chart is centered on the boat, and then the charts move as needed as the boat moves. The issue now is that the image showing in GE is a bit to the left of center, so "My Position" does not show in the GE Window. I attached 2 images. One with my boat centered, and one with my boat slightly to the left on the chart window to show what I mean. Also showed the settings I have for GE.

2) I am getting a ton of messages in opencpn.log from the GE plug in. When I use it, I am usually disconnected from the internet, but again, never had this issue before. Here is a sample. It will log 8 megs of these messages over an hour period.


3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Show boat at 9.545533, -78.891383 requested
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Show boat at 9.545533, -78.891383 requested
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Boat display request discarded, too soon after a previous action
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Show boat at 9.545533, -78.891383 requested
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Boat display request discarded, too soon after a previous action
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Show boat at 9.545533, -78.891383 requested
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Boat display request discarded, too soon after a previous action
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Show boat at 9.545533, -78.891383 requested
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Boat display request discarded, too soon after a previous action
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Show boat at 9.545533, -78.891383 requested
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Boat display request discarded, too soon after a previous action
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Show boat at 9.545533, -78.891383 requested
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Boat display request discarded, too soon after a previous action
3:10:39 PM: [GECOMAPI] Show boat at 9.545533, -78.891383 requested


Thanks for any help or thoughts on what is going on.

[nohal]

Mark...
ad 1) This was the same with 2.5 - the plugin is unchanged. What happens is that the plugin tries to display the same area you can see on the chart. Achieving this 100% is of course impossible as a) neither the size nor the aspect ratio of the two viewports is equal b) it's not possible to instruct GE to show exactly the scale we need. This gets more apparent when, as shown on your screenshot, the difference of the shape of the two viewports is greater.

ad 2) As it seems there are no new problems with the plugin, I will disable the debug messages in the next version. Now there's nothing you can do about it, sorry.

Pavel

[kiltym]

Originally Posted by nohal

Mark...
ad 1) This was the same with 2.5 - the plugin is unchanged. What happens is that the plugin tries to display the same area you can see on the chart. Achieving this 100% is of course impossible as a) neither the size nor the aspect ratio of the two viewports is equal b) it's not possible to instruct GE to show exactly the scale we need. This gets more apparent when, as shown on your screenshot, the difference of the shape of the two viewports is greater.

Thanks Pavel.

I certainly understand that we have to live with the constraints of GE.

Certainly the size, aspect ratio, and scale cannot match perfectly, that I understand also.

But it certainly seems there should be a way for GE to "center" on a particular Lat/Long, no? This is assuming of course that information is available from OpenCPN too.....

I guess I did not notice this behavior before as I must have had slightly different size windows which didnt make this issue apparent. I will certainly play with various sizes to see if I can get it to work a bit better.

Certainly not complaining about the current functionality, simply trying to understand a bit more.

And if this is as good as it can get with GE, than that's that. Just would think that centering on a specific point is something that GE would support OK.

[nohal]

Originally Posted by kiltym

Thanks Pavel.

I certainly understand that we have to live with the constraints of GE.

Certainly the size, aspect ratio, and scale cannot match perfectly, that I understand also.

But it certainly seems there should be a way for GE to "center" on a particular Lat/Long, no? This is assuming of course that information is available from OpenCPN too.....

I guess I did not notice this behavior before as I must have had slightly different size windows which didnt make this issue apparent. I will certainly play with various sizes to see if I can get it to work a bit better.

Certainly not complaining about the current functionality, simply trying to understand a bit more.

And if this is as good as it can get with GE, than that's that. Just would think that centering on a specific point is something that GE would support OK.

Yes, it does support it, it's actually the only thing it supports, just use it in the "follow boat" mode and it will be in the center of the GE viewport. Won't be ideal either as you will have to adjust the scale manually though. Perhaps a combination of the two modes would come handy and if I don't forget about this discussion, I will implement it in the future. If you don't want me to forget, fill a feature request in OpenCPN::Tracker All Projects: Tasklist (registration needed).

Pavel

[kiltym]

Originally Posted by nohal

Yes, it does support it, it's actually the only thing it supports, just use it in the "follow boat" mode and it will be in the center of the GE viewport. Won't be ideal either as you will have to adjust the scale manually though. Perhaps a combination of the two modes would come handy and if I don't forget about this discussion, I will implement it in the future. If you don't want me to forget, fill a feature request in OpenCPN::Tracker All Projects: Tasklist (registration needed).

Pavel

Thanks Pavel.

Sorry to beat this point, but I still am not quite clear.

If GE can center on a point, and that's in fact all it does, why when a chart is centered in OpenCPN, does GE not center on the same point (when in Follow Chart mode)?

I tried the Follow Boat selection, and the same results happened, the GE window is still "off" from the boat. Just tried it again, same result, The GE window is off, and in turn, the boat's position does not show in the window. Although the GE image updates a bit as we swing at anchor so it does seem to be "attached" to the boat.

[kiltym]

To add one bit of data.

I made the GE window larger (pulled the divider to the right to make the size of the chart window closer to the size of the pinned GE window), and the boat does then appear.

But anything less then 50-50 for the screen real estate and the GE window is definitely not centered around the chart portion of the screen. It shows the boat on the right half of the GE window.

[nohal]

Mark...
To be honest, I never managed to reproduce your problem whatever I tried on my machines. Could you record a few minutes of your NMEA stream (VDR plugin does that) and publish it somewhere along with your opencpn.ini? Which version of GE are you running and what are it's settings? If you run it normally is the sidebar and toolbar hidden as suggested in https://github.com/nohal/gecomapi_pi...ter/README.txt (if not, try to hide them and retest)?

Thanks

Pavel

[kiltym]

Pavel, I think you got it!

I hid the GE sidebar and toolbar, tried it again, same result.

I re-booted. Tried again, now all seems perfect!

Thank you very much for helping to diagnose the issue I was having, really appreciated.

On my other install I did not hide the sidebar/toolbar in GE, but it was a different machine, different screen resolutions, etc.. so I guess the issue didn't show up for me.

Anyway, thank you again for your time on this issue.

[nohal]

Mark...
Good to hear. Made me remember some of the names I gave to the GE authors when I was implementing this
I will place a more apparent link to the readme instructions on the download page...

Pavel