Over zooming of ui VST3

[hfiguiere]

Bug Description:
Surge over zoom the UI in Ardour 8.

Surge XT Version
1.2.3 or 1.3.0

• Version:
• Plugin Type: VST3
• Bitness: x86_64

Reproduction Steps:
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Start Ardour
2. In Ardour preference set a font size to 125%. (it's still too small on my 4K screen)
3. Create track in Ardour to use Surge XT VST3
4. Open the UI. It's too big.

Expected Behavior:
The UI is properly sized.

Screenshots:

Computer Information (please complete the following!):

• OS: Linux Fedora
• Host: Ardour 8.1 or 8.2
• Version:

Additional Information:
Source: flathub/org.surge_synth_team.surge-xt#15 (comment)

tl;dr Ardour give the UI scale to the plugin. And the plugins seenm to do it twice.
I can't even change the ui zoom in Surge.
Also 150%, I get the black window.

flathub/org.surge_synth_team.surge-xt#15 (comment)

[hfiguiere]

Just to clarify, the above screenshot is NOT edited. The crop was taken as is.

[mkruselj]

I think this is an issue on Ardour end, as I don't think we see the same behavior in any other VST3 host.

(By the way, you can right-click in the background of the GUI to get the main menu of Surge, which also has the zoom options.)

[baconpaul]

i'll find some time to download ardour 8 and try hopefully before christmas

sounds to me like it is sending me the vst3 setting for screen pixel scaling as its internal scale.

[miranda]

I just installed Surge XT 1.3 on Arch Linux (via pacman), using it with Ardour 8... discovered the same thing. It's so huge it won't fit on my screen. But I also noticed none of the zoom or shrink settings do anything at all, even trying to enlarge it. I also noticed that it has the option "Set Current Zoom Level (250%) as Default" and "Set Default Zoom Level to..." brings up 250 to start with, and setting it to a different number won't change it. So it's obviously stuck at 250% zoom.

Another thing that it's doing is when I bring up the menu and move the mouse between selections, the Surge UI completely disappears and only the menu is visible. Not sure if that is related.

[mkruselj]

I really really think this is a bug in Ardour...

[erikjms]

Might this bug be related?

Ardour: VST3 Plug-In GUIs cannot be resized smaller than the size at the most recent project save

It's the most recent bug I can find that looks at all relevant on Ardour's bug tracker. It's been open since 2021. I have not tried the workarounds suggested but will.

In the meantime, setting Ardour GUI scale back to 100% and restarting makes Surge's GUI zoomable again. Tweaking presets in tiny Ardour and then using them in readable Ardour is somewhat cumbersome, but since they both do exactly what I want otherwise, that is what I have been doing.

I'd be grateful if you all could talk to the Ardour devs about this when you have a chance. I do not have the resources to argue-- or, um, discuss this with them. Making noise/music is much more life-affirming. :)

[mkruselj]

I suppose this means we could probably close this issue if it's confirmed on Ardour's end (which was my suspicion from the get go).

[mkruselj]

@baconpaul Thoughts on the above?

[baconpaul]

I was going to test it next time i was in linux. Lets leave it be open for now on the odd chance that up upgrade to juce 7.0.12 for #7640 also helps

[atomikaya]

I found a curious workaround: if I open Surge as a standalone, set the UI to 100% and save as default, then restart Ardour... Voilà 👌 My plugin opens at a 100% (still a lil bit scaled up from the Ardour 125% setting but that's an Ardour issue probably).

Not a real fix but I hope it helps.

Fedora 40 / flatpak Ardour 8.6.0 / flatpak Surge XT 1.3.4 as VST3 / held together with a good helping of Flatseal tape / a Keystation Mini 32 to make the beep boops

[mkruselj]

@baconpaul What do we do here?

[baconpaul]

I just updated to juce 8.0.4

I think i just give it a whirl when I'm in linux for other 1.4.0 issues and see what we can do.

My guess is ardour is mis-sending scaling information via the vst3 api and we are obeying it more strictly than others. but that's just a guess

[petter1]

I found this:

https://steinbergmedia.github.io/vst3_dev_portal/pages/Technical+Documentation/Change+History/3.6.6/IPlugViewContentScaleSupport.html

It seems to me, that scaling is now job of the host, and if scale is changed in plugin it has to tell it to the host so that the host can set scale.

@baconpaul did you find out where the default is stored? I do not have standalone and want try if I can workaround by changing a file

Edit: Now I understand @baconpaul's last post 🙊

[baconpaul]

Yes the host tells the plugin the scale using that api in vst3 (And a similar one in clap)

sure sounds like arduour is sending it in a way which is applied twice

I have not debugged it at all but yes now you see my point!