Trendlines and graph repainting

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

I wonder if it could be possible to avoid the graph repainting (prices, moving averages, bottom indicator in TA graph...) when a trendline is moved, duplicated, resized or deleted, in order to avoid the graph flickering effect. When a new trendline is drawn there is no flickering / repainting, so maybe it might not be necessary with the other operations on trendlines?

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

I'm not sure, but it is something I can take a look at...

[Djobydjoba]

Another significant flickering effect with graphs is when you have chosen a background color other than black.
Then when the graph is refreshed you can observe that the background flashes in black before the background color is reapplied. I don't know if this could be avoided (maybe the background color could be preset for the entire window?). This would improve the experience.

An example with a window resizing (but it can be observed too with a change of the date range or when a line is drawn):
https://i.ibb.co/XrZKStk5/Background-Flickering.gif

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

I think it may be because the outer background remains black (where the graph labels are drawn), so the window background really is still black, and we have to draw the other color background for where the data is plotted. I can take a closer look at how it is really being drawn though. Maybe there is a better way...

[Djobydjoba]

avoid the graph repainting (prices, moving averages, bottom indicator in TA graph...) when a trendline is moved, duplicated, resized or deleted, in order to avoid the graph flickering effect.

Did you get a chance to look at this?

Removing the flickering when using trendlines would substantially improve the experience with trendlines. At times, you find yourself constantly adjusting them to find the right position.

And, from a user side, it looks quite surprising the flickering when an existing trendline is adjusted while it is smooth without flickering when a new trendline is drawn. I don't really understand why the difference...

[Mark]

Hi Djobydjoba,

I did look at this briefly. It definitely can be improved, but it will take a good amount of effort, and we weren't able to do it for FM 2026. For the trendline re-painting difference between new/editing it is just how we draw. For a new trendline, you can just draw it on whatever is there now. For an existing trendline being edited/deleted however you would have to remove that trendline, and put back whatever was under that trendline before. For example, if it was over a price line, you'd have to remember what was under that trendline. It is much easier (and thus what we do) to simply re-draw everything, instead of trying to un-do some previous drawing, which could have been over something else.

On the background flickering... There is one color "Main Window Background" and then a background color for each graph type, like "NAV background" for example. If you have these set to 2 different colors, this may cause more flickering, as the whole main window is painted with the main window background color, and then a rectangle covering just the inside of each graph's frame is painted with the color like "NAV background". So, you might try putting both of these colors to the same and see if that improves things. All of these colors, including the "Main Window Background" can be set under "Options / Colors..." inside a graph window.

[Djobydjoba]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the explanations. For the trendlines it looks not so easy indeed.