Problem running Stellarium on Vista laptop

[OneOfOne]

I just downloaded and installed the latest version of Stellarium. It works great on my computer at work, a little slow on my single core 2.6GHz computer at home but on my laptop, about 2 years old running Vista, all of the text comes up as a series of lines ie. -|-__+||=_ which makes it bit difficult to read! I looked on the FAQs and they mention this problem and suggest turning of some programs, but I don't have these on the computer anyway. They also say there is a problem with ATI graphics cards, which my laptop runs but don't say much else. Does anyone have any ideas or has encountered this problem?

Thanks guys.

[Barrykgerdes]

Locate the /user/<yourname>/Application data/roaming/stellarium.config.ini

add to [main] use_glshaders = false
also try use_qpaintenginegl2 = true/false
and see if that works.

Barry

[mswhin63]

I too tried Stellarium and mobile ATI graphics cards are not supported with Stellarium. I now use CdC. Even Virtual Moon is not reliable on the same laptop but better. For more image related experience I use Worldwide Telescope.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi

Yes ATI graphics cards are a problem with many computers. Stellarium uses some very good features of openGL for shading etc. that are not supported by ATI cards.

The code is slowly being modified with special detectors for ATI cards that give work arounds for some of the problems but there is no universal solution. You can try some of these entries to the config.ini file

add to [main] use_glshaders = false
also try use_qpaintenginegl2 = true/false

You may need to get the beta copy of 0.10.5 to implement these.

Barry

[supernova1965]

Its not a case of ATI are not supported by Stellarium but a case of OpenGL is not supported by ATI and they really have no excuse as it is called OpenGL meaning they have full and free access to the source code of OpenGL.

[OneOfOne]

I added and set UseGlShaders = False and started Stellarium up. It made the text legible, but still not completely. Some of the text looked like it wasn't rendered properly and some characters had vertical or horizontal lines that were two pixels wide, while other parts of the character were one pixel wide. Looking through the ini file I found it was set to use the font DejaVuSans, which is not installed on the computer, so I am guessing it used a "similar" font that really wasn't...well...similar. I changed this to Arial and the star names are now readable, however, the text that appears over the menu items still appears with thick and thin lines, but at least you can read it, sort of.

Thanks for your suggestion it at least changed it from "what the?" to "So why does the word Melbourne look funny?"

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Trevor

The DejaVuSans.ttf file is in the Stellarium\data folder. There is a later version out now also you have not mentioned what version of stellarium, just latest. The latest release is 0.10.4 and this did have a problem with text flickering. It was fixed for the next release. Download and install this
patch. It will show as version 0.10.5

www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP)

and see if it is any better on the fonts.

Barry

[mithrandir]

If you think you have problems with ATI cards on Windows, Linux is much worse.

Barry, which is newer, the version in the data folder, or dejavu-fonts-ttf-2.30.zip on SF?

[Barrykgerdes]

The latest svn version of Stellarium is using the new version of DejaVuSans.ttf and DejaVuSansMono.ttf It is just an upgrade to those fonts. I don't know when it was originally released.

I have not seen the dejvu-fints-ttf.zip on SF but I would imagine that would be the latest version that has just been implemented in Stellarium.

Barry

[michaellxv]

FWIW I just put the 10.5 patch on and have no problems even though I run Vista and an ATI graphics card.

In fact I have never had a problem on this system with Stellarium.

[Omaroo]

My 27" iMac runs Stellarium on an ATI Radeon HD 4850 under OpenGL 1.6.7 without issue on OSX 10.6.3. I'm not sure that the ATI cards are the sum of the problem. As comments from both Warren and Andrew intimate, the cards behave differently under various environments. ATI specify OpenGL 3.2 support for this card, so maybe Apple ported it ages ago and run with their own adaptation... ?

[mswhin63]

The main probem is ATI mobility cards don't support or at least a few. I generally get Stellarium working but it is so slow that it is unusable.

[irose_57]

Hi,

I had this problem as well and I'm running an ATI graphics card.

The bug is described here - https://bugs.launchpad.net/stellarium/+bug/525995

The last entry is -

"Jarda Kristen, could you please download the test build from here:
https://launchpad.net/stellarium/+download (https://launchpad.net/stellarium/+download)
And report if there is a difference?
If some of the text in the test build is unreadable, try the following: in Stellarium's configuration file (config.ini), under "[main]", add the following line:
use_qpaintenginegl2 = false
Then save the file and restart Stellarium.
(On Windows, Stellarium's configuration file is accessible through Stellarium's folder in the Start menu - just look for "config.ini".)"

I did this and all is fine now.

Ian

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Ian
Did you try the launchpad version.

I would be interested if you could download and install today's patch

www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP)

This will work with 0.10.4 or the launch pad 0.10.5
There have been quite a few changes to the text and the loading bar has been removed to improve loading speed.

Follow the readme instructions on where to put all the files that need to be upgraded.

Barry

[irose_57]

Barry,

Yes, I am running the launchpad version and I did make the config.ini change.

My reading of this was that some ATI cards were having problems with OpenGL2 and the config.ini change turns it off?

Anyway, I tried the latest patch you mentioned and it made some things worse e.g. the information display on the top left after you click on a star was unreadable.

I'll revert back to the launchpad 0.10.5 with the config.ini change as that seems to work OK.

Ian

[bird]

fwiw I was having problems running stellarium 10.4 under windows 7 x64 on an ATI card, and this build fixed it for me:

Version r6110:

https://launchpad.net/stellarium/+milestone/0.10.4

cheers, Bird

[Barrykgerdes]

Version 6155 is on launchpad now.

Barry

[fhub]

What would you suggest, this 6155 version or your Stellarium_Patch0.10.5 from a few days ago?
What's better?

[Barrykgerdes]

Version 6155 is later than the patch which was 6110. So I would expect it to be better. However my patch includes a simple reader for the old *.sts scripts and sound if you have an Avance audio system. The current version 6175 has better telescope control and improved text rendering and quite a few changes to the code structure. I will upgrade the patch to this level today. I think we are getting close to an official release.

Barry

[mswhin63]

I installed 6115 last night, no longer do I have slow screen update but can't read the text on the screen only the dialog text, even that some dialog text goes funny.

Has anyone else experienced the same problem?

[Barrykgerdes]

The screen text problem was a nasty bug that we believe has now been fixed. The problem only showed on some screens.

The patch for build 6175 is now in the uploads. try it and see if it fixes the text. It did for me. The latest build has some additions to the telescope control facilities to slew to a set of coords.

Barry

[mswhin63]

I will keep my eye out, cant see 6175 ATM, mistake on my behalf I have 6155 not 6115. Tripping a lot lately.

[Barrykgerdes]

iT's here.

www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/stellariumpatch.ZIP)

Barry

[mswhin63]

I tied to locate the files, would be handy with directory in the zip file but didn't really have much of a problem copying them.

I didn't fix the problem so went online to the forum and saw a post to enter the following in the config file:

use_glshaders = false
use_qpaintenginegl2 = false

I re-installed the release verison and with the input it is almost working, can now see text enough to use. Also the frame rate is now 27fps far better than the 0.2fps on the original installation.

The progrm is now getting there, although still have more testing.

[fhub]

Ok, I've now tried the last svn6155 and your patch above, but the problem on ATI graphics still exists: the realtime update stops after a few seconds, it starts again when I move the mouse but again only for a few seconds!

I really wonder when/if the Stellarium programmers will finally be able to fix this bug, for me this doesn't look at all like an OpenGL problem of the ATI driver ...

[Barrykgerdes]

From what I have gathered it is not a problem with Stellarium. Stellarium uses many of the newer features of OpenGl but ATI has not updated its drivers to suit these new features.

The programmers have put quite a few work arounds to bypass many of the problems but have not been able to solve all these problems. I have not had any problems but I do not have any computers with ATI video

have you tried

use_glshaders = false
use_qpaintenginegl2 = false

in the config.ini file

Barry

[MikeyB]

Effectively, this appears to mean that those of us with older ATI cards (Radeon X300 series in my case), for which no further driver updates will be issued by the OEM according to their website, have been forgotten about by Stellarium developers too busy chasing the latest and greatest OpenGL features to incorporate. In which case, it's a problem of the programmers' own making!

The Stellarium people seem to have a disappointing approach to legacy system support - my Dell is only 4-5 years old and running well on XP, it's hardly scrap-heap material.

[mswhin63]

I had the exact same problem, to resolve I updated to the test release 6155 although stable release did have some improvement. In the config.ini file which is accessable from START-> PROGRAMS -> STELLARIUM, I inserted the 2 line under the [main] section

use_glshaders = false
use_qpaintenginegl2 = false

Now it works completely and also getting frame rates up to 50fps which is now faster than I get with Worldwide telescope. I am still doing some run throughs on the program but now beginning to like it now.

Admittedly there are a lot of unhappy people even on the bugs report website but once it is working it is actually quite nice. Not as realistic as Worldwide Telescope which I still use for realism effects but very functional.

If it still doesn't work then I suspect there may be no resolution to the problem for your PC.

[MikeyB]

Thanks, Malcolm - I'm going to try all the suggested fixes. The Stellarium version I used previously, worked fine on this system, so I'll be annoyed if their "upgrades" have now made it incompatible.

[mswhin63]

I noticed something while browsing the program, the main problem causing the jumbled text seems to be in relation to colour matching between foreground and background. The problem i saw again while clicked on a satelitte with daytime screen view, the text was all garbled. I moved to the darker forground which i use as the ocean and the text cleared up as I panned down. I panned back up again and the text jumbled again.

I switched to night view and all clear again.

I think it has something to do with matching features available in OpenGL but obviously fails with regular cards.
It is not a major problem as it is easy to fix while viewing.

Just thought let you know. I think if they could place an transulent background with the text display it would be better.

[fhub]

Yes, but it doesn't change anything for this problem.

[fhub]

Well, it's not only about older ATI systems like yours.
My notebook is just 1 year old and I've updated the drivers to the very last version (just 1 month old), but nevertheless this problem of stopping the realtime updating in Stellarium still exists.

With their strange OpenGL policy the Stellarium programmers are in fact excluding a HUGE group of users (with ATI cards) from using their program! :(

[mithrandir]

It is not just Stellarium that suffers from ATI's lack of OpenGL support. For instance Virtual Moon Atlas runs like an absolute dog too.

They both run fine on my laptop with Intel GMA graphics or notebook with Intel 945 graphics. Neither of those chipsets could be called powerful, but have a much better OpenGL implementaion.

When I get round to it I have an NVidia card to replace the ATI card in my desktop.

Adding:

use_glshaders = false
use_qpaintenginegl2 = false

about halves the FPS on the laptop.

[MikeyB]

So much for the Stellariumpatch.zip file from yesterday. It's raised my version number from 10.4 to 10.5, but the garbled text problems are just as bad. To make matters worse, the enclosed ReadMe.rtf shows an appalling disregard for quality checking by the programmers responsible, with three of the ten files misnamed:

stelmainlib.dll should be libstelmain.dll
default_config.sys should be default_config.ini
log24bits.png should be logo24bits.png

Given their 30% error rate in file naming, I think I'm beginning to get a better understanding of where the problem actually lies.:eyepop:

[fhub]

Well, that's already a progress, isn't it? :P

:lol:

[Barrykgerdes]

Sorry about the typos. I am a two finger typist and do not see the screen when I type so I miss a lot of mistakes. I fixed it this morning but will not upload till next week. The readme file was only an after thought that was added in a hurry previously.

Please remember I am not a programmer and only put this unofficial patch up as something for the stellarium users who understand the location of the files etc. to experiment with. It is just a collection of information that I use to make a working program from a clean installation of version 0.10.4 by using the executables and relevant changes from the latest builds that I make while testing on the 10 assorted platforms I have. None of which have ATI video systems.

If you find bugs with the official versions the correct place to report is in the bug reporting area of stellarium.org

Barry

[fhub]

Hi Barry,

all this is of course no offend to YOU, just the opposite: we appreciate your efforts in creating such an easy-to-use update package for Stellarium!

Our complaints are directed to the programmers of Stellarium which just ignore the problems of a big group of ATI users, but it seems they don't care about it at all.

[mithrandir]

Shut down Stellarium. Rename your config.ini. Start Stellarium. Redo your customisations.

That fixed my font problems.



I've said this before and in this thread. ATI display problems are not caused by Stellarium's programmers. They are caused by ATI's inability to write good OpenGL drivers.

I'm not buying any more ATI cards, and will not consider a laptop with a ATI video.

[fhub]

Sorry but I don't agree.
The problem I described (realtime updating stops) did NOT occur in Stellarium version 0.10.2, it started with version 0.10.3.
So it's definitely the fault of the Stellarium programmers if they use the very latest OpenGL features which aren't yet implemented in all graphic drivers. There's certainly no new Stellarium feature in 0.10.3/4 which would require the use of such new OpenGL functions.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi

Stellarium is programmed to give as realistic a view as possible particularly with the shading features now included as part of the OpenGL. To utilise these features it is necessary to have a display that caters for these features. Some of the video display manufacturers have been slow to include these routines in their drivers and some of them don't intend to update drivers for older cards.

Please also remember that versions below 1.0.0 are technically beta versions. When we do eventually reach version 1.0.0 the program will be impressive. However there are still a number of the basic features for stellarium to be coded before the release of version 1.0.0

It is a pity that Stellarium does not run correctly with some displays now and the programmers are trying to identify areas of the program that can be given work arounds that bypass some of the new features but it is not a fault in programming.

To help with identifying areas that can be modified it needs a properly constructed bug report with all the relevant details submitted to the bug reporting area of stellarium.org where the various assistant programmers can attempt to find solutions and provide patches.

Version 0.10.2 was built using Qt 4.5.0. From 0.10.3 Qt 4.6 has been used. This version includes many new features that are highly desirable for use in Stellarium but required many changes to the basic code. That is why versions from 0.10.3 have not run on many ATI cards. Where possible an entry has been provided for the confi.ini file to new turn these features ON/OFF to suit displays that do not cater for them.


Barry

[MikeyB]

Andrew:

Barry:

The Stellarium directory system does not contain a file named config.ini, only default_config.ini (under /data). Renaming default_config.ini has no effect on the problem. Renaming the config.ini file that resides in C:\Documents and Settings\Michael\Application Data\Stellarium, has no effect on the problem. Renaming both files prevents Stellarium opening.

If the problem can in fact be resolved by simple config file tweaks as suggested, then it appears to be more an issue of Stellarium programmers having problems writing effective installation/initialisation routines, than "ATI's inability to write good OpenGL drivers." Nevertheless, as an interim measure, I propose renaming OpenGL, to ClosedGL.;)

Barry:

I cannot agree that any software feature is "highly desirable" when it leads to such widespread user problems. If a significant proportion of all PC's worldwide utilise ATI graphics technology, unless fully resolved, this compatibility issue will trouble many users for years to come.

[Barrykgerdes]

All the current variations to the operation and configuration of stellarium are held in the documents and settings/user area- application data\stellarium. Stellarium looks here for loading information that is user changeable. This includes the config.ini file and folders for stars, modules, data, landscapes, scripts etc.

Commercial programs written to make money usually use the Microsoft direct X graphics and because they all need to make money they make sure their programs work with these programs.

OpenGL is a free (open source) program that does the same thing and some extras. It is the way develpers of open source (free programs) can implement great graphics displays. New innovations are being added to graphics all the time and Stellarium tries to use them. Of course some of these innovations require special rendering routines that are not present in all video display drivers without updating.

One of the main aims of Stellarium is the development of new features that can be used in planetarium displays to great effect. These work great on most platforms but if your computer display cannot handle them it is not the problem of Stellarium but the short comings of your display system. The distributed package version of Stellarium is designed to run on the great majority of platforms without user input. However we would like as many people to enjoy Stellarium as possible so we try to implement work arounds to make the basic features work on computers that do not handle the new innovations.

I know there are many computers that run ATI cards and most of them have little bother. But if they do not work it is up to the user to solve using suggestions from various sources. Most of my computers are built from scrap parts and they all work great. The only pre-built computers I use are two of the cheapest (Acer) laptop/notebooks that I could find and they work without changes on XP and Vista.

Barry

[mithrandir]

It fixed the fonts on my boxes. YMMV.

My apologies for the completely unjustified assumption you knew where things are located. As Barry said, the user config.ini is in:

%APPDATA%\Stellarium

and that the default_config.ini distributed in the patch belongs in:

%ProgramFiles%\Stellarium\data

(or whatever the 32 bit version of %ProgramFiles% is on 64 bit boxes).

[netwolf]

Downloaded and installed today on my Win7 32bit system and got the font issue. I have a ATI X2300 card in my system, I have tried setting use_glshaders = false under %Appdata%/stellarium/config.ini but no change. Text is not readable. I also changed resolution in the ini file to 1440x900 and this made no difference at all. Is there any solution to this?

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Fahim

The font problem has been a problem on some computer videos particularly ATI for some time. However I believe a solution has been found and will be implemented in the next release.
In the mean time try use_qpaintenginegl2 = false in the config.ini

This can be implemented also by going to the start menu for stellarium and use the optional start icon.

Barry
Barry

[mithrandir]

I presume this goes in the [video] stanza, and it doesn't fix fonts on my "Mobile Intel(R) GMA 4500MHD" laptop video.

[Barrykgerdes]

I think it can be placed in a number of places but my config.ini has it under [main]

Barry

[netwolf]

Barry, spot on mate thanks found the alternative shortcut and it works, no more fuzzy fonts. Clear and readable now. Thanks very much.
Tried installing in my Virtualbox VM running LinuxMint but its sluggish and slow to respond.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Fahim

sounds like you are missing opengl drivers for the virtual box. Vmware are upgrading all the time. There is a new version out now but I haven't tried it yet.

Barry

[mithrandir]

I just found setting [main] version=0.10.3 works at least as well as [main] use_qpaintenginegl2 = false on two XP boxes - thinkpad laptop and emachines notebook

[netwolf]

Barry,
Far as i know Virtualbox does have openGL support but I did not have it enabled, will test it again and report back. This might be a feesable option for Laptop users with ATI cards. I have read people have had Quake running in a XP guest with 55fps.

Another query i have is where does Ctrl-S save the screen shots on a Win7 box? I read the manual and I looked under appdata and under program files and could not find it. And its not on the desktop.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Fahim

I am using VMware with a virtual XP SP3 virtual system. Windows 7 64bit
I tried Ctrl S with my 0.10.5 (release) and it did not work.
I next compiled the latest source in the virtual box
This time I tried Ctrl S and it placed the printed screen on the virtual desk top.
Speed was OK but I had trouble with menu fonts not showing although others were OK. I haven't solved that yet but I think it will be OK when a new patch being evaluated is installed.

By the way I have no display problems in Windows 7 (X86 mode)

Barry