[solved] Multiple Problems with OpenSesame 0.25 Dashy Darwin on Mac OS X 10.7.3

Comments

• sebastiaan

  February 2012 edited 8:42PM

  Hi Alex,

  Thank you for your interest in OpenSesame! The problems that you are describing are partly about getting to know the user interface, and partly genuine problems with the Mac OS package. As you probably know, Mac OS support is experimental so (unfortunately!) certain problems are likely to occur.

  First of all, you may want to walk through the tutorial. This will help you to understand the basics (and also the explanation below): http://osdoc.cogsci.nl/usage/step-by-step-tutorial

  Problem 1: Sketchpad background grid is not white it is black with green lines although the colour says white.

  The background color is black, where as the foreground color is white. By default, that is. The green lines are a grid to help you draw straight lines, etc.

  Problem2: When I try to run the experiment in fullscreen the program crashes. There is no option to run in windowed mode. However I never try to run a finished experiment, I have only tried to run the start up template, and an experiment with only some text in a text display.

  Window mode is disabled on Mac OS, as it consistently crashes the program. If fullscreen mode also crashes, you could try selecting a different back-end in the general tab. If all back-ends crash, I'm afraid there's not much that can be done, right now.

  Problem 3: To clear all other open tabs I have to go to the menu bar at the top of the screen, there is no quick bar of buttons to do this, or any of the other functions listed in the cat faces experiment demo video.

  Try right-clicking on the menu-bar. This should give you a menu where can you show/ hide various parts of the interface.

  Problem 4: The text in the text_display does not wrap after 50 characters, or 40 characters when I change it.

  I'm not sure I understand this question correctly. The program crashes, right, so how do you know that wrapping doesn't work? If you mean that wrapping doesn't work in the user interface, you're right: It refers to the display as you see it when running the experiment.

  Hope this helps! We're working to improve Mac OS support in the future.

  Regards,
  Sebastiaan

  
  
  Check out SigmundAI.eu for our OpenSesame AI assistant!
  
• ashryl

  February 2012 edited 8:42PM

  Hi Sebastiaan,

  Thank you for your quick reply, I'm using this software for my final year psych experiment so speed is appreciated, and I will try what you have suggested.

  From what you said about the sketchpad I had another look and it makes sense. I was just getting confused because there was no foreground colour I could see, so I placed a few fixation dots around the place and they were white. I assume this is the foreground colour. However I can't seem to change the colour of the background to white, and the foreground to black. I try using the palet button, but nothing changes when I click on O.K.

  Also I am unable to view the pictures that I insert onto the sketchpad, although they are listed at the bottom with that description thing.

  Sorry for not communicating properly, I wasn't sure if the text wrapping was effective in both the user interface and running experiment, or just the running experiment, thank you for clearing that up.

  Alex
• sebastiaan

  February 2012 edited 8:42PM

  Hi Alex,

  Good to hear that you choose OpenSesame for your project! Life would probably be easier if you ran OpenSesame under Windows or Linux, but if you find that one of the back-ends works well for you under Mac OS, that might be an option as well, of course.

  Regarding the not showing of the pictures. This appears to happen with specific types of .bmp files, but it's limited to the GUI: Chances are that it will be shown during the experiment. You could also convert your files to .png format using a tool like GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/

  But I would strongly recommend that you walk through the tutorial first. Things like changing background color are all explained there. It will take maybe one or two hours, but it will save you loads of time in the end!

  Good luck,
  Sebastiaan

  
  
  Check out SigmundAI.eu for our OpenSesame AI assistant!
  
• ashryl

  February 2012 edited 8:42PM

  Thanks for your help! It's working fine now, I decided to cut my losses and use it on Windows XP.

  Regards,
  Alex
• sebastiaan

  February 2012 edited 8:42PM

  Good decision, especially if you're under time pressure.

  Hopefully switching to another OS won't be necessary anymore in the near future.

  
  
  Check out SigmundAI.eu for our OpenSesame AI assistant!