Problem running Stellarium on Vista laptop

OneOfOne (Trevor) · #1 04-04-2010, 12:56 PM

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 · #2 04-04-2010, 01:08 PM

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 (Malcolm) · #3 04-04-2010, 08:26 PM

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 · #4 05-04-2010, 06:50 AM

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 (Warren) · #5 05-04-2010, 08:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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 (Trevor) · #6 05-04-2010, 09:37 AM

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 · #7 05-04-2010, 10:54 AM

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

and see if it is any better on the fonts.

Barry

mithrandir (Andrew) · #8 05-04-2010, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supernova1965

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes

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

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

Barrykgerdes · #9 05-04-2010, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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?

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 (Michael) · #10 05-04-2010, 09:16 PM

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 (Chris Malikoff) · #11 06-04-2010, 06:40 AM

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 (Malcolm) · #12 06-04-2010, 10:43 AM

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 · #13 10-04-2010, 04:27 PM

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
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 · #14 10-04-2010, 05:20 PM

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

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 · #15 11-04-2010, 09:05 AM

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 (Anthony Wesley) · #16 19-04-2010, 09:42 AM

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 · #17 19-04-2010, 12:58 PM

Version 6155 is on launchpad now.

Barry

fhub (Franz) · #18 20-04-2010, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes

Version 6155 is on launchpad now.

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

Barrykgerdes · #19 20-04-2010, 07:26 AM

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 (Malcolm) · #20 20-04-2010, 09:22 AM

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?