There are a few small difficulties if you do that. Greatest problem is to use the right register and to compare it to the correct value. The value needed might change with the number of titltes, your starting title, the number of the button used to start the chapter ...
(An other possible error could be to place the command in the wrong pgc.)
But there is an easy way to see whats going wrong:
use the debugger of pgcedit, single step to the point of interest and control the value of the register(s).
Sorry, I can not explain you the details, because I didnt do it myself since some month and I would also need to experiment a little bit if I would do it now. Also the exact way to do it may differ with each version of pgcedit.
pgcedit and chapters
-
Robert Horton
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:43 pm
Hi all,
I have been away for a few days and come back and find all this discussion. Thanks for all your comments. Helge, it was your original postings some considerable time ago now that got me interested in pdcedit. I printed off your instructions to have a go. I looked at your instructions for creating 16:9 menus and I seem to have cracked that one (the only downside seems to be that if anyone was to view on a 4:3 tv, the buttons and highlights don't seem to match up, bu 16:9 tvs are fine. I then looked at your post for dealing with this problem with chapters. I followed your instructions blindly as the working of pgcedit leave me very confused. Anyway I am very happy with WS2 but if you could suggest and idiots (that's me) guide to the original chapter problem it would be great.
Cheers all and thanks for all your contributions - makes life interesting anyway.
Bob
I have been away for a few days and come back and find all this discussion. Thanks for all your comments. Helge, it was your original postings some considerable time ago now that got me interested in pdcedit. I printed off your instructions to have a go. I looked at your instructions for creating 16:9 menus and I seem to have cracked that one (the only downside seems to be that if anyone was to view on a 4:3 tv, the buttons and highlights don't seem to match up, bu 16:9 tvs are fine. I then looked at your post for dealing with this problem with chapters. I followed your instructions blindly as the working of pgcedit leave me very confused. Anyway I am very happy with WS2 but if you could suggest and idiots (that's me) guide to the original chapter problem it would be great.
Cheers all and thanks for all your contributions - makes life interesting anyway.
Bob
Hi Bob,
I don't believe you to be an idiot (exept if you speak of this word in its archaic meening, in which case most if not all of us are idiots
), but this makes it difficult to tell whats going wrong.
I rewiewed my description and cannot find much things to explain more clearly. Just a few hints:
- even if you have multiple chapters, you need only one cell command, which should have the number one
- verify with the play button right of the chapter, that it is the one you want to return after
- did you build your dvd with the servicepacks installed? If not DWS could have generated different code (e.g. used other registers).
- if it does not work for the first chapter but it works for the other, then you have placed the track instead of the chapter on the menu
Debugging:
There is a button "toggle trace view" on the top toolbar. Press it. You should get player like commands and a lot of other windows. Press play. The menu should appear. Select the chapter, which does not work and press "Select & break". From now on you can single step by pressing the "step" button, til the chapter "plays". (If you watch the executed commands you can learn how the dvd works.) Really the chapter wont play, but it will show you the first frame. But you can move the slider on top of the window to quickly view the chapter. If you close the preview window you should find yourself at the cell command. On the bottom right there is a trace window, which shows you the history of executed commands and even how conditions had been evaluated. Examine the values of the registers (maybe you need to open manually a register window from menu) if they contain the expected values. If you do now a single step you can see in the trace window how the condition is evaluated and if it had branched to the end or the track.
Please dont expect to find the bug at the first try
Even very experienced programmers need often weeks to figure out whats going wrong. So be patient and try again. There is no way to descipe in general how to find a bug. (Fortunatly! We developers want to earn our money 
) There is allways a lot of thinking needed and every case is different.
Hope this helps. Good Luck
Helge
I don't believe you to be an idiot (exept if you speak of this word in its archaic meening, in which case most if not all of us are idiots
), but this makes it difficult to tell whats going wrong.I rewiewed my description and cannot find much things to explain more clearly. Just a few hints:
- even if you have multiple chapters, you need only one cell command, which should have the number one
- verify with the play button right of the chapter, that it is the one you want to return after
- did you build your dvd with the servicepacks installed? If not DWS could have generated different code (e.g. used other registers).
- if it does not work for the first chapter but it works for the other, then you have placed the track instead of the chapter on the menu
Debugging:
There is a button "toggle trace view" on the top toolbar. Press it. You should get player like commands and a lot of other windows. Press play. The menu should appear. Select the chapter, which does not work and press "Select & break". From now on you can single step by pressing the "step" button, til the chapter "plays". (If you watch the executed commands you can learn how the dvd works.) Really the chapter wont play, but it will show you the first frame. But you can move the slider on top of the window to quickly view the chapter. If you close the preview window you should find yourself at the cell command. On the bottom right there is a trace window, which shows you the history of executed commands and even how conditions had been evaluated. Examine the values of the registers (maybe you need to open manually a register window from menu) if they contain the expected values. If you do now a single step you can see in the trace window how the condition is evaluated and if it had branched to the end or the track.
Please dont expect to find the bug at the first try
Even very experienced programmers need often weeks to figure out whats going wrong. So be patient and try again. There is no way to descipe in general how to find a bug. (Fortunatly! We developers want to earn our money ) There is allways a lot of thinking needed and every case is different.Hope this helps. Good Luck
Helge