AutoHotkey Community

Dragyn · Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 14

I have a simple AHK script that searches the screen for images and when it finds them it clicks on them.

The machine that runs the AHK script is a machine on my network without a monitor attatched. I use VNC from a different machine with a monitor to run the AHK script locally on the monitor-less machine.

As long as VNC is connected, the script runs fine on the monitor-less machine.

As soon as I close VNC, then the script no longer clicks on images anymore.

I'm thinking that somehow because there isn't a monitor connected to the machine running the AHK script, that there's no video signal for AHK to do an image search of. When VNC is connected, it seems to generate a video signal for the remote login, but as soon as that closes the AHK script stops finding images on the "screen" cause there isn't a screen connected?

Anyone know any way I can work around this other than to leave VNC up and connected all the time so the machine keeps generating a video signal for the AHK to search?

Am I totally misunderstanding whats actually going wrong here?

Any help or suggestions greatly apreciated!

TDMedia · Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 196

I'm not sure particularly how AHK's ImageSearch command does it's job (though I think it's through "stock" API funcions,) but my real question is what flavor of VNC are you using? A couple of different VNC-based distributions use, or have the option to use a specialized driver. One such example is UltraVNC, which I prefer myself. So, are you using such a distro, or are your video drivers stock from your card/chipset manufacturer? If you are using those specailized drivers, turning them off may cause the problem to stop.

Like I said, though - I'm not all that sure how AHK performs it's ImageSearches. You may simply have to get what's called a terminator, or dummy load, for your VGA/DVI port that makes your machine believe that there's hardware connected to it. A simple terminator should do the job (if such a thing exists for VGA,) but if you have a VGA/DVI adapter, that may also work. If AHK's problem is what you think, then that would probably be the best way.

Dragyn · Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 14

Just using plain old vanilla VNC. Free Viewer 4.1.2 and Server 4.1.1. Guess I need to update the server on that machine but I don't think that'll make a difference.

The terminator idea is apreciated. Any other software solutions anyone can think of? Or any confirmation that that is what the problem is? Or a better way to confirm it?

Chris · Site Admin Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 10474

This is just a wild guess, but this might not be related to the lack of a monitor. Even if the machine had a monitor, the problem might still occur if closing VNC causes the remote machine to switch to a different desktop (such as the login screen on Windows XP).

silveredge78 · Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 387 Location: Midwest, USA

*nods to Chris* I dont see how this would relate to it not having a monitor. There is still a video signal even if there is not a monitor hooked up. Also, I doubt that AHK cares bout the actual video signal going to the monitor as much as the data composing that signal.

I would check your VNC server settings. If you are using 4.1.1, check specifically the Desktop tab, under "When last client disconnects", make sure the radio button is set to "Do nothing". Either of the other two options would cause your script to stop performing.

Good luck!
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SilverEdge78

Dragyn · Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 14

VNC is set to do "Do Nothing" when it disconnects already.

Interestingly it seems like there's a specific image that it keeps getting 'stuck' on when VNC is not running.

IE if I leave VNC open the AHK script runs without fail (and I can see that via VNC).

If I close VNC, and check back 30 minutes later, the AHK script seems to have 'stalled' on the same image not finding it. And I can see that it wasn't clicking for over 90% of that 30 minute time period.

I've tried running the AHK script on another computer with a monitor via VNC, and it seems to run fine even after closing VNC.

So that leads me back to the lack of monitor being somehow related.

Any other ideas of how to isolate the problem?

Thanks for all the help so far!

Chris · Site Admin Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 10474

When VNC disconnects, it's possible that the colors seen by the script are different. You might try using the shades-of-variation option of PixelSearch and ImageSearch to make the color detection more forgiving. If that doesn't help -- and you're using ImageSearch now -- you might try substituting PixelSearch instead (if feasible).

Dragyn · Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 14

Shades of variation was set to 5 originally, I tried bumping it up to 15 and am getting the same behaviour. PixelSearch wouldn't be to practical as there's various image sets some with 50+ images.

Its not really the direct fault of AHK so I really apreciate you taking time with all these suggestions. I'll keep messing with it.

Chris · Site Admin Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 10474

It's a longshot, but you can try going even higher on shades-of-variation. Even as high as 150 is sometimes not so high as to cause false positives (depending on the nature of the image).

SanskritFritz · Joined: 17 Feb 2005 Posts: 283 Location: Hungary, Budapest

I am doing this exactly as you described at my work (for automatic testing). The machine the AHK script is running on, doesnt even have a monitor, i connect to it with VNCViewer (AT&T, version 3.3.3.3, server version 3.3.3.9). It runds flawlessly with or without VNC. The only thing i had to set, was to disable the screen saver.
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Is there another word for synonym?

silveredge78 · Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 387 Location: Midwest, USA

I would test it on my network here. I use VNC 4.1.1 for viewer/server both. I dont know how to code this kind of thing though. Is this a code you could post that I could test for ya? Smile

Or do you need that?

Also, SanskritFritz has a good point that I hadnt thought of...
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SilverEdge78

corrupt · Joined: 29 Dec 2004 Posts: 2421

Out of curiosity, does the machine that has the issue without VNC being active have a mouse physically connected to it?

Dragyn · Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 14

Chris: I tried 100 and got too many false positives, but I tried 50 without false positives, but without it continuing to run once VNC was shutdown also.

Sanskrit: Screensaver and power saving are both turned off on that machine. I'm experimenting with other version of VNC as I have time to see if I can find a different version that will work better.

silveredge: the code is pretty straightforward it just searches for images and clicks them when it sees them. But you'd need a suitable set of images to search for which is probably more tricky.

corrupt: No actually the machine does not have a mouse connected, I wonder if that could be related to the problem. It does however have a keyboard. I'll experiment with that.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions!

JSLover · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:19 am Post subject:

Robert Carnegie · Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Posts: 53 Location: Scotland

We presume the script is still running when VNC is disconnected, it just doesn't find your target image. (You can test that. From limited experience with TightVNC, I would expect it, whereas Windows Remote Desktop Connection for instance to an XP Professional machine goes to a locked screensaver when you disconnect.)

But can you take a screen-dump within the script and save it, after disconnection, to get a handle on what AutoHotkey thinks the screen looks like?

For instance is it like XP's "So you want to log off" dialog box where the desktop fades to grey scale in the background.

Or is it a screensaver.

With my screensaver, a script that regularly performs "Winset, Top" - I use an onscreen keyboard which is stationed on the taskbar, which is liable to hide it - "Winset, Top" makes the window appear over the screensaver (until the monitor switches off). This isn't intended but accidental. But maybe closing the VNC connection puts the PC into a state where "WinSet, Top" will be effective in making the target program's graphics detectable.

Incidentally, I also got Windows horribly confused by trying to run the TightVNC client on the desktop which was also the TightVNC server, so that approach may not help you either.