Millisecond Forums » Millisecond Forums » Inquisit 6 » Weird image background

Weird image background

sallidina — Mon, 25 May 2026 16:00:38 GMT

Hello! I am getting a new study ready to launch on Inquisit Web and one of the people testing it reported a strange issue with the images.

I've included a screenshot of this below. This is supposed to just show the face on a white background and the label "Republican" above it, but it seems to be overlaid on some background text that might be the install instructions for Inquisit. I'm not able to reproduce this on my own setup, but I'd like to be sure this doesn't happen for any participants.

I'm wondering if others have encountered this before and if there's a known fix. Happy to send the link to the web experiment in a PM if that would help.

Thanks!

RE: Weird image background

sallidina — Mon, 25 May 2026 16:00:38 GMT

Okay makes sense, thank you Dave!

RE: Weird image background

Dave — Mon, 25 May 2026 15:44:37 GMT

+x[quote]

[b]sallidina - 5/25/2026[/b]
+x[quote]

[b]Dave - 5/25/2026[/b]
+x[quote]

[b]sallidina - 5/23/2026[/b]
Hello! I am getting a new study ready to launch on Inquisit Web and one of the people testing it reported a strange issue with the images.

I've included a screenshot of this below. This is supposed to just show the face on a white background and the label "Republican" above it, but it seems to be overlaid on some background text that might be the install instructions for Inquisit. I'm not able to reproduce this on my own setup, but I'd like to be sure this doesn't happen for any participants.

I'm wondering if others have encountered this before and if there's a known fix. Happy to send the link to the web experiment in a PM if that would help.

Thanks!

[/quote]

Almost certainly an issue with the respective system's graphics card driver. Just judging from the screenshot, the face image has some alpha-transparency, and what shines through in the background appear to be remnants on the experiment's launch page in the browser. so this is not drawn by the app, but "left over". Have the person get the latest drvier for their graphics card from the manufacturer; if they already are on the latest, have them reboot the system and try again.
[/quote]

Ah I see, thanks! Is there any way I can prevent this from happening for participants who might have outdated drivers? Not fully sure how the layers work here - for example, would putting a blank square without any transparency behind the image solve this?
[/quote]

You can try using some solid background, but on a normally functioning system this simply shouldn't happen, I've only ever seen things like this happening (and not even with Inquisit specifically) on systems that had some kind of malfunction -- buggy graphics driver, etc.

I'm not aware of any other reports, so I right now don't think we're dealing with some general issue here. And you only have that one report, if I understand you correctly. I'd only worry about this if there were more than that single instance of a likely broken system out in the wild.

RE: Weird image background

sallidina — Mon, 25 May 2026 14:31:54 GMT

+x[quote]

[b]Dave - 5/25/2026[/b]
+x[quote]

[b]sallidina - 5/23/2026[/b]
Hello! I am getting a new study ready to launch on Inquisit Web and one of the people testing it reported a strange issue with the images.

I've included a screenshot of this below. This is supposed to just show the face on a white background and the label "Republican" above it, but it seems to be overlaid on some background text that might be the install instructions for Inquisit. I'm not able to reproduce this on my own setup, but I'd like to be sure this doesn't happen for any participants.

I'm wondering if others have encountered this before and if there's a known fix. Happy to send the link to the web experiment in a PM if that would help.

Thanks!

[/quote]

Almost certainly an issue with the respective system's graphics card driver. Just judging from the screenshot, the face image has some alpha-transparency, and what shines through in the background appear to be remnants on the experiment's launch page in the browser. so this is not drawn by the app, but "left over". Have the person get the latest drvier for their graphics card from the manufacturer; if they already are on the latest, have them reboot the system and try again.
[/quote]

Ah I see, thanks! Is there any way I can prevent this from happening for participants who might have outdated drivers? Not fully sure how the layers work here - for example, would putting a blank square without any transparency behind the image solve this?

RE: Weird image background

Dave — Mon, 25 May 2026 11:59:13 GMT

+x[quote]

[b]sallidina - 5/23/2026[/b]
Hello! I am getting a new study ready to launch on Inquisit Web and one of the people testing it reported a strange issue with the images.

I've included a screenshot of this below. This is supposed to just show the face on a white background and the label "Republican" above it, but it seems to be overlaid on some background text that might be the install instructions for Inquisit. I'm not able to reproduce this on my own setup, but I'd like to be sure this doesn't happen for any participants.

I'm wondering if others have encountered this before and if there's a known fix. Happy to send the link to the web experiment in a PM if that would help.

Thanks!

[/quote]

Almost certainly an issue with the respective system's graphics card driver. Just judging from the screenshot, the face image has some alpha-transparency, and what shines through in the background appear to be remnants on the experiment's launch page in the browser. so this is not drawn by the app, but "left over". Have the person get the latest drvier for their graphics card from the manufacturer; if they already are on the latest, have them reboot the system and try again.