Bitmap names in stim list display as text, not pictures
Bitmap names in stim list display as text, not pictures
I created a text file with a succession of bitmap names to be displayed randomly without replacement. However, DirectRT did not seem to recognize the content of the stim list as pictures, even when I added the file ending .bmp. Instead, the bitmap name was displayed as if it were a text item.
In the end, what solved the problem was to omit a minus sign in the bitmap file names (i.e. initially the file was named abcd-xyz.bmp, and I renamed it abcdxyz.bmp). For whatever reason, without the minus sign the bitmap names in the stim list were correctly displayed as pictures.
Strange--when the file name appeared on screen, that was probably DirectRT telling you it couldn't find the file (that's the default if DirectRT can't find a file--just show the name of it as a placeholder). Out of curiosity, was the dash appearing in the on-screen text? Or was DirectRT misreading it and displaying a modified file name? I'm wondering if it was having trouble reading the dash and so it was consequently thinking it couldn't find the file (which was in fact there)..?
[Update Sep 20, 2007]
We also found in one recent case that removing the .bmp from the files when listed in the stimlist also helped. e.g., instead of
mypic1.bmp
mypic2.bmp
try:
mypic1
mypic2
