fix(gui): Stop game time clock from jittering horizontally by bobtista · Pull Request #2860 · TheSuperHackers/GeneralsGameCode

bobtista · 2026-07-07T20:24:08Z

Addresses #2859

drawGameTime() positioned the top-right clock by subtracting live-measured text width every frame, right-anchored to the screen edge. With the proportional Tahoma font, digit widths change as the time ticks (and the .NN frame counter changes every frame), so the whole timer shifted a pixel or two each frame.

Reserve a fixed width per field from the widest digit and anchor the timer's left edge to it so the white clock no longer moves as digits change. The frame counter is butted against the timer's live right edge so the two stay adjacent.

TODO:

Test
Replicate to Generals

greptile-apps · 2026-07-07T20:27:50Z

Greptile Summary

This PR fixes the horizontal jitter of the in-game clock by replacing per-frame right-anchored positioning with a stable left-anchored layout computed once when font resources are refreshed. The fix is correctly replicated across both the Generals/ and GeneralsMD/ codebases despite the PR TODO checkbox being left unchecked.

refreshGameTimeResources() now measures the widest digit (0–9), the colon, and the dot character using the active font, then stores m_gameTimeReservedWidth (6 × maxDigitWidth + 2 × colonWidth for HH:MM:SS) and m_gameTimeFrameReservedWidth (dotWidth + 2 × maxDigitWidth for .NN). These values are computed once per font change, not every frame.
drawGameTime() anchors the timer's left edge to screenWidth − position.x − reservedTotal, eliminating per-frame left-edge variation. The frame counter is butted against the live right edge of the timer text, so it remains visually adjacent while the total block stays within the reserved bounds.

Confidence Score: 5/5

Safe to merge — the change is a targeted, well-scoped fix that only affects the positioning arithmetic in drawGameTime() and the one-time measurement step in refreshGameTimeResources().

The reserved-width calculation correctly accounts for all characters in the HH:MM:SS format (6 digits + 2 colons) and the .NN frame suffix (dot + 2 digits). The total block is bounded to exactly the reserved area so it cannot overflow or go off-screen. Per-frame logic is unchanged except for replacing two live-measured offsets with pre-computed constants, which is strictly safer. Both Generals and GeneralsMD are updated identically.

No files require special attention.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/InGameUI.cpp	Adds width measurement for digits, colon, and dot in refreshGameTimeResources(), stores reserved widths, and uses them in drawGameTime() to anchor the timer's left edge; frame counter is placed at the live right edge of the timer text.
GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Include/GameClient/InGameUI.h	Adds m_gameTimeReservedWidth and m_gameTimeFrameReservedWidth Int member fields with consistent column alignment matching surrounding code.
Generals/Code/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/InGameUI.cpp	Identical fix replicated from GeneralsMD; same logic for measuring reserved widths and anchoring the timer's left edge in drawGameTime().
Generals/Code/GameEngine/Include/GameClient/InGameUI.h	Adds the same two reserved-width member fields as the GeneralsMD header, maintaining existing alignment style.

Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
    A["refreshGameTimeResources()\ncalled on font change"] --> B["Measure widest digit width\n(iterate '0'–'9' via getWidth)"]
    B --> C["Measure colon width\nand dot width"]
    C --> D["Store m_gameTimeReservedWidth\n= 6×maxDigitWidth + 2×colonWidth"]
    C --> E["Store m_gameTimeFrameReservedWidth\n= dotWidth + 2×maxDigitWidth"]
    D --> F["drawGameTime()\ncalled every frame"]
    E --> F
    F --> G["Set timer text: HH:MM:SS\nSet frame text: .NN"]
    G --> H["Compute horizontalTimerOffset\n= screenW − posX − reservedTotal\n(STABLE — no live measurement)"]
    H --> I["Compute horizontalFrameOffset\n= timerOffset + liveTimerWidth\n(frame butts against timer text)"]
    I --> J["Draw timer at timerOffset\nDraw frame at frameOffset"]

_{Reviews (2): Last reviewed commit: "fix(gui): Stop game time clock from jitt..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

githubawn · 2026-08-01T14:17:36Z

 	m_gameTimeString->setFont(gameTimeFont);
 	m_gameTimeFrameString->setFont(gameTimeFont);
+
+	// TheSuperHackers @fix bobtista 07/07/2026 Reserve widths from the widest digit so the clock does not jitter


We can streamline refreshGameTimeResources() by passing a 2-char stack buffer (WideChar buf[2] = {d, 0}) to setText() in the digit loop to avoid UnicodeString heap allocations.

How? DisplayString::setText takes UnicodeString, so this will allocate.

xezon

This is really unfortunate complexity. Is there no other way? Which font character causes this?

xezon · 2026-08-07T18:19:52Z

 	m_gameTimeString->setFont(gameTimeFont);
 	m_gameTimeFrameString->setFont(gameTimeFont);
+
+	// TheSuperHackers @fix bobtista 07/07/2026 Reserve widths from the widest digit so the clock does not jitter


TheSuperHackers @info because all this code is new from us.

xezon · 2026-08-07T18:23:14Z

+
+	m_gameTimeString->setText(UnicodeString(L":"));
+	Int colonWidth = m_gameTimeString->getWidth();
+	m_gameTimeString->setText(UnicodeString(L"."));


UnicodeString() is not necessary.

xezon · 2026-08-07T18:24:20Z

 	// TheSuperHackers @info this implicitly offsets the game timer from the right instead of left of the screen
-	int horizontalTimerOffset = TheDisplay->getWidth() - (Int)m_gameTimePosition.x - m_gameTimeString->getWidth() - m_gameTimeFrameString->getWidth();
-	int horizontalFrameOffset = TheDisplay->getWidth() - (Int)m_gameTimePosition.x - m_gameTimeFrameString->getWidth();
+	// TheSuperHackers @fix bobtista 07/07/2026 Anchor timer left to reserved widths so it stops jittering; butt frame against its live right edge


Superfluous comment

xezon · 2026-08-07T18:30:50Z

+	m_gameTimeString->setText(UnicodeString(L"."));
+	Int dotWidth = m_gameTimeString->getWidth();
+
+	m_gameTimeReservedWidth = (6 * maxDigitWidth + 2 * colonWidth) + (dotWidth + 2 * maxDigitWidth);


Why is this necessary only for the game time on the right? Why not for the clock time on the left? That also uses numbers and colons, right?

The jitter essentially happens when the font numbers are not mono-sized. Font "Verdana" on Windows does have mono-sized font numbers.

xezon · 2026-08-07T18:36:13Z

 	m_gameTimeString->setFont(gameTimeFont);
 	m_gameTimeFrameString->setFont(gameTimeFont);
+
+	// TheSuperHackers @fix bobtista 07/07/2026 Reserve widths from the widest digit so the clock does not jitter


How? DisplayString::setText takes UnicodeString, so this will allocate.

bobtista · 2026-08-08T00:54:20Z

This issue does not affect Windows - I actually ended up finding a better fix that doesn't need to be upstream, closing this.

GameTimeFont is INI-configurable, so a font without tabular digits would jitter in theory. If that’s ever worth guarding it’s a much smaller change than this PR

fix(gui): Stop game time clock from jittering horizontally

b21a897

bobtista added Bug Something is not working right, typically is user facing Minor Severity: Minor < Major < Critical < Blocker Platform Work towards platform support, such as Linux, MacOS labels Jul 19, 2026

fix(gui): Stop game time clock from jittering horizontally (Generals)

1f3ab63

githubawn reviewed Aug 1, 2026

View reviewed changes

bobtista added 2 commits August 5, 2026 14:25

refactor(gui): Simplify game time width reservation

81d9067

refactor(gui): Replicate game time width cleanup to Generals

f9e7a59

xezon reviewed Aug 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

bobtista closed this Aug 8, 2026

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Greptile Summary

Confidence Score: 5/5

Important Files Changed

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bobtista commented Aug 8, 2026

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bobtista commented Jul 7, 2026 •

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greptile-apps Bot commented Jul 7, 2026 •

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