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Photo Booth effects "bubbling" on rMBP ...

C

Cockney Rebel

Guest
Original poster
Sep 10, 2012
250
0
As the title implies, I am experiencing strange jerky, "bubbling" artefacts with the effects in Photo Booth on this new rMBP?

I am only speaking of the effects on the first page where your face is distorted (Space Alien, Blockhead, Nose Twist, Bug Out, Chipmunk and Frog).

The other effects on the first page (Lovestruck and Dizzy) where the things fly around your head, work as expected. Also, the effects on the other pages work as expected.

* I have installed a fresh copy of ML ... has made no difference

* Repaired permissions ... made no difference

* Installed latest ML update ... made no difference

* Disabled automatic switching of graphics cards to force the machine to use the higher end graphics card ... made no difference

Would all you other rMBP owners out there load up Photo Booth and see if you are experiencing this same issue, please?

I would really appreciate you doing this for me, and letting me know if the same thing is happening with your machine.

Many thanks ...
 
Are you telling me that not one person can help me out with this?

Even if it is to load up Photo Booth on your own rMBP and let me know if it is working "normally" on your machine?

This is important to me as if it turns out to be an issue with this system (one would presume the graphics card/s) then it will be going back on Friday - ie within the 14 day return period.

There have been plenty of viewers so please one or two of you report back & let me know.

I assure you, I would do the same if it was the other way round.

Thanks ...
 
What exactly do you mean by bubbling? What I see is that the face recognition snaps into position as it refinds the face / updates position/size, this causes a movement that I suppose could be called "bubbling".

What I can tell you is that it is better on my rMBP than my 2010 cMBP, the face tracking is a bit faster and less "bubbly", but it is still there in both and is I assume a result of the algorithm rather than anything hardware based. I really don't think this is any problem...
 
nontroppo said:
What exactly do you mean by bubbling? What I see is that the face recognition snaps into position as it refinds the face / updates position/size, this causes a movement that I suppose could be called "bubbling".

What I can tell you is that it is better on my rMBP than my 2010 cMBP, the face tracking is a bit faster and less "bubbly", but it is still there in both and is I assume a result of the algorithm rather than anything hardware based. I really don't think this is any problem...
Click to expand...

Nontroppo ... first off, thanks a lot for getting back to me on this, buddy.

I don't believe it's to do with tracking my face as the other effects (not listed) work as expected.

Also, it occurs when I keep my face in one position. Was trying it just now and even when I have my face stationary but facing slightly to one side, the effect is "jumping" (please do not confuse with an FPS problem) from e.g. slightly chunky (lets stick with the Chipmunk effect for now) to less chunky. I can be perfectly still but my face on screen is erratically changing.

I just booted into safe mode, but it still occurs.

I really don't know what else to try ... any suggestions?

Thanks again ...
 
Bubbling....

Works just fine on mine CR no bubbling whatsoever. Must confess I've only looked at this app a couple of times but never had any problems.
 
AdeFowler said:
Happens to me on my 2012 MBP (non retina). It kind of twitches. I really wouldnt worry about it.
Click to expand...

It "twitches" quite a lot. It was butter smooth on my iMac so I would have thought that on this powerful laptop it would be equally smooth?

My concern is that it indicates a problem with the graphics card/s, or indeed other hardware?

Can anyone else suggest any other tests/things to try?

I called my local Apple Store on Saturday and the fella checked the models on display ... all worked without the jerky/bubbly behaviour.
 
I had several unusual behavoirs on my 2nd rmbp, which started with very simple things like pressing power button 2 times to respond, or typing something, and nothing shows for several seconds, track pad not responding for click. Those are the things that really would not bother right? But in one day iit took totally unpredicted turn, graphics became teared on screen and dektops mixed up with parts of old and new. Many people might say you worrying too much and you trying to find a flaws, as it happened to me. But I believe if something, even most not important feature is not working as it suppose to, then possibly it may lead to way bigger problems. I dont know if problems on my 2nd rmbp were related or not, but out of the box it was laggy and unresponsive, nothing close to my 1st rmbp, so I knew instantly something is not right, until later I discovered problems I explaned.
My advice is check your computer within 14 days to make sure everything is fine.
 
Try going into the Apple store and test there (though being allergic to Oxford St I try to avoid the Regent St store at all costs!)

Anyway you've had confirmations of the same behaviour on both a 2010 and 2012 cMBP along with another rMBP, so I suspect this is not a problem specific to your machine. What I notice is that it is worse with lower lighting conditions, bright lighting and little twitching. That to me signifies this is clearly software driven (or more to do with the iSight camera itself), even not moving your face the noise in the video signal causes small repositioning of the effects window. It can look quite cool, especially the twist one causes my nose to wobble about, B-) !

Quite interesting those effects, they track the face in depth, but fail to track the face once rotated beyond ~40° — tracking also gets laggier as light level drops; the poorer signal to noise causes greater averaging or something. If you do trek to the Apple Store, remember that they are generally very bright, so you may get less twitching than at home due to light levels.
 
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to respond.

I performed a 3rd reinstall of ML earlier and it hasn't made any difference.

I've been viewing videos on YouTube of Photo Booth in Lion and Mountain Lion and I can tell you now that what is going on with my machine is definitely not normal.

I have another identical machine being delivered Thursday/Friday so I will compare, and decide which one to send back. The second machine was ordered because this machine has a dead pixel but on reflection it is practically unnoticeable unless viewing on black with brightness at full.

However, if the second machine turns up with an LG panel it will be going back ... period.

I have truly become sick of Apple of late ... the only reason I bought this laptop was because the screen on my iMac died a few weeks back and it is only 3 years 10 months old.

Then my iPhone (9 months old) started playing up the other day and I had to pay a visit to the "Geniuses".

I have no faith when buying Apple products as I know that there is ALWAYS going to be something wrong ... ALWAYS.
 
So I have decided to return the machine; it's boxed & ready to be collected later on today.

I'm not suffering a £2450 (ish) computer that has me concerned from the very beginning. Nah, not me!

I'm already pissed at shelling out for an iMac which died prematurely so once bitten, twice shy ...

This machine is meant to be a supercharged, portable powerhouse so if it can't even handle simple Photo Booth effects (one face, mind you!) then something must be wrong.

The other once is due to be here Thursday/Friday so it's not like I have to wait for another couple of weeks.

Thank you to all for taking the time to offer some input on the matter ...
 
Just tested on my 2012 Octocore Mac Pro Workstation (ATI 5870 GPU), with a 27" Cinema display and guess what, it twitches/bubbles exactly like my 2010cMBP and 2012rMBP.

Also, lots of us have LG screens that are flawless (I'm a visual neuroscientist who has extensive experience quantitatively measuring temporal / spatial / chromatic profiles of visual displays[1]), so you are IMO wasting your time returning your machine for the "twitching" that is not retina specific or related to hardware[2], and wanting to return what in all probability will be a perfectly good display just because of its manufacturer. You of course have every right to do so if that will make you happier.

----
[1] I built my own photodiode temporal calibrator and also use a research grade colorimeter
[2] all it tells me is that Apple uses an algorithm that is not perfect but uses less CPU/GPU, this is a software trade-off
 
nontroppo said:
Just tested on my 2012 Octocore Mac Pro Workstation (ATI 5870 GPU), with a 27" Cinema display and guess what, it twitches/bubbles exactly like my 2010cMBP and 2012rMBP.

Also, lots of us have LG screens that are flawless (I'm a visual neuroscientist who has extensive experience quantitatively measuring temporal / spatial / chromatic profiles of visual displays[1]), so you are IMO wasting your time returning your machine for the "twitching" that is not retina specific or related to hardware[2], and wanting to return what in all probability will be a perfectly good display just because of its manufacturer. You of course have every right to do so if that will make you happier.

----
[1] I built my own photodiode temporal calibrator and also use a research grade colorimeter
[2] all it tells me is that Apple uses an algorithm that is not perfect but uses less CPU/GPU, this is a software trade-off
Click to expand...

Thanks for letting me know but this is what I politely asked people to do for me days ago.

Now, it is too late ...
 
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