Possible Map Viewer Label Halo Rendering Regression

[JoshBerna]

Hi All,

Posting here to see if anybody else is having the issue my organization is currently facing regarding halos for labels in Map Viewer. 

The Behavior:

Label Halos are no longer rendering at sizes that are not full integers. For example, a halo size of 1.5 and 2 appear exactly the same in Map Viewer, as do halo sizes of 1.4 and 1. It appears to be rounding to the nearest full integer, despite previously allowing decimal values for precise halo adjustments. 

(see demonstration video attached)

The Issue:

This makes Label configuration a bit of a nightmare. Oftentimes 1 is too small and 2 is too large. I generally use values between 1.2-1.5. This is no longer possible as it stands. 

I've tested this on 2 different accounts on different machines now, as well as on a brand new hosted feature layer published from Pro. I'm contemplating a bug report, and curious if anybody else is facing this issue. It seems to me like a genuine bug, though I only just noticed it, so I'm not sure when it came about. Seeing as Map Viewer previously allowed non-integer values for halo sizes, I do not believe this is intended behavior. 

If anybody from Esri could weigh in, I'd sincerely appreciate it. 

Thank you in advance!

[KVNSCK · Accepted solution]

Hi Josh!

Thanks for bringing this up! I went ahead and added a Halo to a layer in my 12.0 Enterprise deployment (which would be around the equivalent environment of ArcGIS Online two updates ago), and I was able to reproduce the same behavior. If this is a regression, it must have happened prior to the June Update.

I agree that it looks like the halo effect doesn't render properly at values in between integers. To make sure my eyes weren't going crazy, I took screenshots of the halo at four points (1, 1.4, 1.5, and 2), to see if they were different. I did the same in ArcGIS Pro to see if the behavior extended there.

Pro does seem to render the Halos properly. You can see the change between 1.4 and 1 clearly, where this doesn't happen in AGOL. I don't see any existing bugs or cases on this issue. I think this would be something you could definitely file a ticket on! 🙂

AGOL Halo 1:

AGOL Halo 1.4:

AGOL Halo 1.5:

AGOL Halo 2:

Pro Halo 1:

Pro Halo 1.4: 

Pro Halo 1.5:

Pro Halo 2:

[JoshBerna]

@KVNSCK, thank you for your very thorough response, and for confirming my suspicions! I appreciate the time you took to test this yourself, and to write up such a thorough summary for me. I'm going to contact my admin and put in a support ticket today.