I switched to using CC3MeshNodes populated as textured rectangles. Problem solved for me.

Has anyone found a work around for this problem from the CC3Layer documentation:

However, since the CC3Layer's background color and any background 2D nodes have already been drawn by normal cocos2d CCLayer behaviour and cannot be redrawn during 3D drawing, when a touch event is used to select a node, there is a very slight flicker on any translucent nodes that have nothing behind them except the layer's background color or 2D CCNodes. Opaque 3D nodes are not affected and do not flicker. Nor do translucent nodes that have 3D nodes behind them.

To remove this flicker on translucent nodes during touch event processing, make sure that translucent nodes do not appear directly over the background color of the layer, or over 2D CCNodes. In such cases, use a full 3D skybox in the 3D world instead.

I am attempting to use Cocos3d in an AR app, and the only thing behind the CC3Billboard is the video layer. So when the billboard which has some transparency is tapped the transparent parts of the sprite turn black for a split second. I'm fairly confident that this behavior that I am seeing can be explained by the CCLayer flickering explanation, I'm just not sure how to correct it in my case. It's an AR app, so putting a 3d object or a skybox behind (around) the sprites in the scene will now work for my purposes.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I'm having this issue on iPhone 4S with Cocos 1.0.1

Disabling depth test fixes the issue. Not sure this is still relevant.

Hi, I have a layer with several CCMenuItemSprite, the layer background is 1024 × 1499 pixels because I move it up and down when you tap on some of the menu items. I move the layer like this:

CCEaseOut *moveLayer = [CCEaseOut actionWithAction:[CCMoveTo actionWithDuration:0.8 position:ccp(0, 730)] rate:3.0];

While the layer is moving the menu items flicker and also all the running animations too :(

Any help please?
Thanks

I was runnig some tests on my new app, and i notice this bug . I made up a "solution" to those who, like me, would like to use CCTransitionPageTurn. Instead switch setDepthTest On and Off on each scene, i put it on CCTransitionPageTurn. That's what i did:

1- On the very first scene of you app set setDepthTest off on init method ;

2- i made this modification on CCTransitionPageTurn.

#import "CCTransitionPageTurn.h"
#import	"CCActionPageTurn3D.h"
#import "CCDirector.h"

@implementation CCTransitionPageTurn

/** creates a base transition with duration and incoming scene */
+(id) transitionWithDuration:(ccTime) t scene:(CCScene*)s backwards:(BOOL) back
{
	return [[[self alloc] initWithDuration:t scene:s backwards:back] autorelease];
}

/** initializes a transition with duration and incoming scene */
-(id) initWithDuration:(ccTime) t scene:(CCScene*)s backwards:(BOOL) back
{
	//Enable DepthTest to make transition THIS IS NOT A DEFAULT SETTING <-PUT THIS
    [[CCDirector sharedDirector] setDepthTest:YES];

    // XXX: needed before [super init]
	back_ = back;

	if( ( self = [super initWithDuration:t scene:s] ) )
	{
		// do something
	}
	return self;
}

-(void) sceneOrder
{
	inSceneOnTop_ = back_;
}

//Disable DepthTest  THIS IS NOT A DEFAULT METHOD <-PUT THIS
-(void)swapDepthTest
{

    [[CCDirector sharedDirector] setDepthTest:NO];

}

-(void) onEnter
{
	[super onEnter];

	CGSize s = [[CCDirector sharedDirector] winSize];
	int x, y;
	if( s.width > s.height)
	{
		x = 16;
		y = 12;
	}
	else
	{
		x = 12;
		y = 16;
	}

	id action  = [self actionWithSize:ccg(x,y)];

    //Disable DepthTest as part of action THIS IS NOT A DEFAULT ACTION  <- PUT THIS
    id actionSwap = [CCCallFunc actionWithTarget:self selector:@selector(swapDepthTest)];

	if(! back_ )
	{
		[outScene_ runAction: [CCSequence actions:
							  action,
							  [CCCallFunc actionWithTarget:self selector:@selector(finish)],
							  [CCStopGrid action], actionSwap, //Added to action sequence<- PUT THIS
							  nil]
		 ];
	}
	else
	{
		// to prevent initial flicker
		inScene_.visible = NO;
		[inScene_ runAction: [CCSequence actions:
							 [CCShow action],
							 action,
							 [CCCallFunc actionWithTarget:self selector:@selector(finish)],
							 [CCStopGrid action],actionSwap, //Added to action sequence
							 nil]
		 ];
	}

}

This is it, I hope this can help somebody

Diogo

I'm using cocos 1.0.1 and tried various fixes. This change to CCDirector (no other changes required) seems to work the best for me:

- (void)runWithScene:(CCScene*) scene
{
NSAssert( scene != nil, @"Argument must be non-nil");
NSAssert( runningScene_ == nil, @"You can't run an scene if another Scene is running. Use replaceScene or pushScene instead");

[self pushScene:scene];
[self startAnimation];

// Fix: render the 1st frame to avoid flicker
[self drawScene];
}

Hi Codebrella,
I've also had this problem, but I found a solution. I hope this works for you as well. I think it's a combination of factors that cause this, one of them being the depth testing for 3d buffers, and the other being 16 bit depth buffer. Just flick this off and on, this is what I did:

Before the call to removeStartupFlicker in appDelegate, insert this line

[director setDepthTest: NO];

then before you need any 3d transitions (I set it in my first scene init), you can turn it back on.

[[CCDirector sharedDirector] setDepthTest: YES];

Hope this helps.

Ok, I solved it:
we should call
[[NSApplication sharedApplication] setPresentationOptions: NSApplicationPresentationHideDock];
before going to fullscreen to avoid the flickering above the dock.

Hello,

I have the following problem with my cocos2d Mac app:
In fullscreen mode (set by setFullScreen:true of CCDirectorMac) I have flickering black rectangles exactly the position "above" the Mac OS dock.
It seems to be the system are updating the dock "under" the full screen app and it causes the flicker.
The black rectangles are appearing for approx. one frame when I move the mouse cursor and it looks flickering when I move the cursor continuously.
cocos2d 1.0.1, Mac OSX 1.6.8.

Thanks in advance

Unless this doesn't do what I think it does...

director.projection = kCCDirectorProjection2D;

Then we are seeing it with 2D projection as well. :/

@ReturnZero: yes, 3d projections with depth buffer > 0 might trigger the bug.

@riq the issue is that when I switch to a 3D projection anything that's animating on the screen during the transition looks terrible. Once I switch back to 2D it's all fine. It's just during that transition that it looks bad. So does this mean that 3D projections will forever be broken in Cocos2d on the iPad 2?

@Codebrella I'm not sure which sprite I would set the vertexZ to, as pretty much all the moving sprites on the screen do this flickering.

Hi Codebrella,
i am also developing similar effect for page turn effect using CCtransitionPageTurn, This effect is similar to this but my layer is cutting at the end of transition.can u tel me the way u have implement the effect.you can also mail me the sample code at satishpatil98@gmail.com.

Thanks
Satish

Nope, it just happens with the UIViewController.

I also have no clue where to start. I disabled every single function and even used the HelloWorld project as a test but it always ends up with a black flicker.

Because I didn't want to annoy riq too early with an issue - of which I didn't know it was not a programming mistake yet - I created the issue now: http://code.google.com/p/cocos2d-iphone/issues/detail?id=1202

Sounds like you've found a bug, could you file a bugreport? So this doesn't happen when you use kGameAutorotationCCDirector?

When rotating a view using the view controller the various OpenGL buffers need to be created again. Multisampling has a different initialization path then the normal configuration, though the initialization is pretty straightforward. I wouldn't know directly which part could be the problem.

When the view controller performs the rotation, Core Animation rotates the view and layoutSubviews (a EAGLView method) is called whenever that happens.

I finally found the bad piece of code. It was the enabled multisampling in the EAGLView:

EAGLView *glView = [EAGLView viewWithFrame:[window bounds]
                                   pixelFormat:kEAGLColorFormatRGBA8
                                   depthFormat:GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT24_OES
                                   preserveBackbuffer:NO
                                   sharegroup:nil
				   multiSampling:YES
                                   numberOfSamples:4];

Turning off multisampling fixes the issue. But why is this piece of code problematic?

So, if I change supported device orientation from right to left, the flicker goes away. However, then the app seems to start "upside down" and then rotates (while Default.png is displayed). Kinda confused here.. Moreover, when I set the deviceOrientation in the AppDelegate to kCCDeviceOrientationPortraitRight, I get a flicker. Basically, the left orientation works but the right orientation flickers. This is an issue for me since Apple's own stand holds the iPad in a right orientation (the one causing a flicker).

I'm still getting a flicker (device only, iPad2 ) using 16-bit depth buffer on cocos 1.0.0rc3. My app is landscape only and I've uncommented appropriate code in AppDelegate.m. When I switch to back to 0, the flicker goes away. Any suggestions?

I tested out several things: On the iPod 4 w/ iOS 5B1 there is a short black flicker. On iPod 3 w/ iOS 4.0 there is sometimes a flicker where semi-transparent boxes appear on the screen which seem to be centered to some customized CCNodes. Mostly there is no flicker on that device.

Pausing the CCDirector before the rotation and resuming it after the rotation has no visible effect.

Is there any code within the CCDirector that is called when an autorotation is done by the UIViewController? Or is it just the EAGLView optimization in the RootViewController?

I just tested the autorotation functionality of my app and discovered that on rotating the screen (using UIViewController to rotate in landscape mode) there is a short black flicker. So it starts rotating, flickers and then rotates without no other issues.

I have a CCLayer with some CCNodes on it that have personalized -(void) draw functions.

Didn't find a workaround yet because the startup flicker (http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/forum/topic/10398) only appears on the startup and cares about "Default.png" not the whole scene. Do you know what's wrong?

@returnZero, I don't know if this is what you're experiencing but this may help, check my problem/solution: http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org/forum/topic/18335?replies=1#post-102875

@cjkeeme, could you show me how you got that to work? As far as I can tell from testing, that method isn't viable at all. But maybe I'm missing something.

I've tried to get a white background behind the page turn transition via the following:
1) A white CCColorLayer behind all the layers
2) A CCColorLayer with a white filler image
3) A CCLayer with a white filler
*fyi: these layers Z position was always set behind other layers, to be on the "bottom"

Might want to create a new post for this @bagusFlyer. I'd be happy to join that convo and figure this out :)

@bagusflyer. Why not just have a white CCColorLayer in the background?

I always get this problem when the app is running in simulator.

Another thing, do you have any idea how to set the backside of the page to white (or other color) when page is turning? It looks more realistic.

title says it all, I am experience a flicker at start up (between Default.png & first scene) when using 16-bit mode. This doesn't occur when set to 0. Anyone have a fix for this? This occurs on iPad (1st & 2nd gen) and iPhone devices.

The following code fixed this for me:

[spriteName setVertexZ:-3];

(spriteName is the image going beyond the visible bounds of the devices screen)

Thanks to @QcMat for finding this solution.

Sorry folks if I re-posted a problem that was already resolved elsewhere.

I can confirm that this works good on iPad 1, as I tried to help @Codebrella with this earlier tonight and we did lots of tests.

Hi Folks,

I am getting a flicker (artifacts?) on the iPad 2 during a CCTransitionPageTurn. I apply the following code before transitions to fix it:
[[CCDirector sharedDirector] setDepthTest:YES];

Moreover, I change the depthTest var back to 'NO' after the transition's complete, which fixed some other flickering issues. This snippet fixes the transitions until I try to transition to a scene which has a scaled/positioned layer. Here is a video showing a clean transition with the depthTest var set to true, and another scene set up exactly the same but with a scaled/positioned layer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM1bdnCakQ0

I do the zooming with the following code:

self.bgLayer.scale = 1.8;

If I change the scale property to 1.0, there is no flicker. This is similar for positioning the layer. If I position the layer too far away from it's origin (centered in middle of screen), it will result in a flicker. What is even more weird is that I can zoom it to like 1.1, no problem.

Here is an example with no flickering (not scaled/positioned):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiXLdGFT-4g

Has anyone been in this particular situation?

cocos2d (and other apps) were using this "undefined" feature of open gl. Technically it is not an opengl bug (please see this thread: http://www.imgtec.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1256&PID=4255 )

So my suggestion is: use a 2d projection. When you need to apply a 3d effect, switch to a 3d projection. Once the 3d effect is finished, switch back to a 2d projection.

Is there any update on this? We're getting close to release and this bug is quite ugly. I enable/disable the buffer when I can, but one of the primary transitions in the app is a page turn white requires it. Are there any work-arounds, patches, or anything else available or in the works?