Characters blink between slides

Apr 01, 2014

Design:

I have a story where I want to show one character or another based on a variable that captures gender. I use that variable in triggers that "hide" the undesirable character at the start of each slide (when the timeline begins).

Testing (previewing the entire project):

My design functions as I would expect inside each slide, but I come across a problem when the project transitions to the next slide. At this point, both characters briefly appear on screen.

Request for help:

I would like to have a seamless transition between slides without the seeing the hidden character. How can I fix this. Story attached.

Thanks,

Refugio

follow-up+-+part+2+one+scene+two+genders.story

8 Replies

Michael Hinze

10 years ago04/01/14 at 5:35 pm (UTC)

Instead of hiding the characters based on gender selection when the timeline starts, try setting their initial state to hidden and then change their state to normal.

Refugio Jones
Author

10 years ago04/02/14 at 8:05 am (UTC)

Michael,

Great idea. I tried it and found that now instead of both characters "blinking", the intended character disappears then reappears (blinks-off then comes back). I think that the issue lies in the slide transition.

Other suggestions?

Refugio Jones
Author

10 years ago04/02/14 at 8:37 am (UTC)

Of course, I could created a duplicate scene and just have the target gender in each scene, but this creates problems in scoring and reporting on a single results slide. I tried two results slides, but found that I couldn't control which result slide went to my LMS.

It makes the most sense to choose between two characters within a single scene because it allows me to accurately score and report from one results slide. Unfortunately, I couldn't foresee this "blinking" character issue.

Phil Mayor
Hero

10 years ago04/02/14 at 9:45 am (UTC)

The blink is because timeline start triggers only fire after the timeline has started, if you have a transition this will make the flicker more obvious as the timeline does not start until the transition is complete.

The best way to minimise this is to remove the transition and as Michael suggests transition the state from hidden rather than from normal

Refugio Jones
Author

10 years ago04/02/14 at 1:55 pm (UTC)

Hi Phil,

I changed the slides as Michael suggested (transition from hidden rather from normal) and I still get a flicker, but not the same flicker that I had before the edit.

I don't understand what you mean by "remove the transition". Can you explain further?

Refugio Jones
Author

10 years ago04/03/14 at 11:03 am (UTC)

Here's the same course, but edited with Michael's suggestion (keeping the characters hidden unless their respective gender is selected during the lesson set-up). The suggestion works because only the intended character appears and the optional character remains hidden.

Unfortunately, I still get a flicker when one slide changes to the next.

I don't understand how to implement the "get rid of the transition" fix that Phil recommends. Will adding a manual slide transition (a 'next' button) fix this?

My intention is to make a scenario that moves seamlessly. How do I do this with automatic slide transitions? I tried this by adding a "next" button at the end of the first slide ("2.2 Scenario set-up..."). There's still a flicker.

Any suggestions?