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[cagney]

Originally Posted by twinsmurf

Hello everyone,

Is that the right place to post question/threads about the use or settings of OpenCPN ?
For instance, i can't find the option to use the opengl engine

ta
twinsmurf

Yes this is the right place, and welcome to the OpenCPN forum.
OpenGL is only available in the 2.6 beta testing series, and not in the 2.5 stable version.

This is the Toolbox->Settings tab in 2.6.xxxx



Thomas

[BluegillBoy]

what's the benefit of OpenGL?

[bdbcat]

Benefits of OpenGL:

1. Raster charts render faster, depending on your graphics hardware capability.

2. This is the route to enable high performance chart overlay PlugIns, with variable transparency. Coming soon....

Downside:

1. Some may find the display "fuzzy" at certain zoom levels.

2. On some Windows machines, screen dimming range may be limited.

So, its a tradeoff. Individual user preference should decide.

Dave

[biggy]

Hi all,
Do not know what is going on with my open cpn.I have 2.5 installed on a laptop and a desktop.Laptop HD went south and had to get it reformatted.The problem is installing charts. I try both from cd,s and c:/ and it goes thru directry scan and seems to copy but when right clicking on a red square more detail here does not come up and if it does chart does not open.Also I am loosing some of previous installed charts. This is happening on both computers. Have tried many different cd,s. Can anyone help? Windows 7 btw.

[dougwm10]

NIGHT MODE SCREEN DIMMING PROBLEM

I am running OpenCPN Beta 1609 on WINXP with all service packs and current MS updates.

When a CM93 chart is open the night mode menu button works correctly and allows the whole screen to be dimmed down – all OK so far.

When I select a *.KAP chart i.e. the charts provided by MARCO for New Zealand then the Night mode menu button does not dim the entire chart - it only dims the Toolbar + GPS icon + bottom chart / location bar.

Does ANYONE know why it does not dim the whole screen and the chart.

Am I missing something obvious – or is there a work around for this ????

[nohal]

Originally Posted by biggy

Hi all,
Do not know what is going on with my open cpn.I have 2.5 installed on a laptop and a desktop.Laptop HD went south and had to get it reformatted.The problem is installing charts. I try both from cd,s and c:/ and it goes thru directry scan and seems to copy but when right clicking on a red square more detail here does not come up and if it does chart does not open.Also I am loosing some of previous installed charts. This is happening on both computers. Have tried many different cd,s. Can anyone help? Windows 7 btw.

Biggy...
Which red square are you right-clicking? Screenshot of your problem?
Perhaps reading the manual, especially Installing Charts | Official OpenCPN Homepage and Basic Features | Official OpenCPN Homepage could get you going...

Pavel

[cagney]

Originally Posted by dougwm10

NIGHT MODE SCREEN DIMMING PROBLEM

I am running OpenCPN Beta 1609 on WINXP with all service packs and current MS updates.

When a CM93 chart is open the night mode menu button works correctly and allows the whole screen to be dimmed down – all OK so far.

When I select a *.KAP chart i.e. the charts provided by MARCO for New Zealand then the Night mode menu button does not dim the entire chart - it only dims the Toolbar + GPS icon + bottom chart / location bar.

Does ANYONE know why it does not dim the whole screen and the chart.

Am I missing something obvious – or is there a work around for this ????

It's all explained in the documentation Night Navigation | Official OpenCPN Homepage.
The issue has been discussed in many threads as well, on this forum. Use the search button.
Come back here if more explanations are needed.

I would recommend just using F6 & SHIFT +F6.

Thomas

[biggy]

Originally Posted by nohal

Biggy...
Which red square are you right-clicking? Screenshot of your problem?
Perhaps reading the manual, especially Installing Charts | Official OpenCPN Homepage and Basic Features | Official OpenCPN Homepage could get you going...

Pavel

Thanks Pavel for the comeback.I have used open cpn for a couple of years sailing in the north atlantic with success. Have gone thru the manual many times. Definetly clicking on the right square. It seems to be installing the charts but they do not open up when right clicking to show max detail. your thoughts.
Biggy

[nohal]

Biggy...
I really don't understand what's that "red square" you are referring to and what right-clicking should be involved in what you intend to do... The only thing in the GUI I can recall that could possibly be a red square would be an outline of a raster chart of square shape, but there's no right-click action associated with it and has never been.

Curious

Pavel

[biggy]

Originally Posted by nohal

Biggy...
I really don't understand what's that "red square" you are referring to and what right-clicking should be involved in what you intend to do... The only thing in the GUI I can recall that could possibly be a red square would be an outline of a raster chart of square shape, but there's no right-click action associated with it and has never been.

Curious

Pavel

Pavel
Maybe I am doing something altogether wrong but it is the way I always did it before.The red square I refer to is actually the outline of a chart and when I point at it and right click then a menue comes up with "max detail here" on top and clicking it opens the chart. So how do I open a chart that is outlined in red? I take it GUI is the guide. Thanks Biggy

[nohal]

Biggy...
OK, so I take it your setup is raster charts, quilting off. Right?
The max detail here should definitely show you the biggest scale chart available at the cursor position. If you are sure that there is a chart available, which the outline should confirm and choose the "max detail here" option from the context menu inside the outline, that chart should be shown. Same effect would have zooming in at the desired location. What comes to my mind is that if you try to click exactly on the outline, you perhaps happen to be outside of the chart area?
A screenshot of your problem would be worth a thousand words...
GUI is the interface of the program to which you interact - Graphical user interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pavel

[biggy]

Originally Posted by nohal

Biggy...
OK, so I take it your setup is raster charts, quilting off. Right?
The max detail here should definitely show you the biggest scale chart available at the cursor position. If you are sure that there is a chart available, which the outline should confirm and choose the "max detail here" option from the context menu inside the outline, that chart should be shown. Same effect would have zooming in at the desired location. What comes to my mind is that if you try to click exactly on the outline, you perhaps happen to be outside of the chart area?
A screenshot of your problem would be worth a thousand words...
GUI is the interface of the program to which you interact - Graphical user interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pavel

Pavel,
I have being loading charts from a cd.The program goes thru directory scan then you see individual charts being loaded.Then I see the chart outlines but in this case when right clicking max detail here does not show in box. Am trying to include screenshot with little success.
John

[HappySeagull]

biggy,
go here:
Installing Charts | Official OpenCPN Homepage
does that look familiar per "red squares"? Red squares are the borders of charts you have. Now look at the bottom of the OpenCPN window. There should be a row of blue-lozenge like buttons...a bit like the pictured example, but your background might be black if you have no small scale which cover a large area. Left-Click a blue button... Left-Click the next one....and so on. If you have more than one chart of an area,they are arranged according to scale.


The blue buttons I describe are bsb/kap charts(look like paper charts) but the chart you see in the example is a Vector chart..the yellow button.Often these are loaded into Opencpn as a folder called "cm93"...these contain many levels of zoom in what seems to be a single chart...
Tell me if I'm getting warm.

[nohal]

Originally Posted by biggy

Pavel,
I have being loading charts from a cd.The program goes thru directory scan then you see individual charts being loaded.Then I see the chart outlines but in this case when right clicking max detail here does not show in box. Am trying to include screenshot with little success.
John

John...
One more thing comes to my mind. Is the CD with the charts still in the drive? If not, your problem could be obvious: When you "add" the charts, they are not copied anywhere by OpenCPN, they are just scanned and the data about them is stored in the chart database. Whether the chart files are still available is not checked until the next database update or a moment when the particular chart is needed for performance reasons, so you can see borders even for the charts that are actually not available on your computer anymore.

You should always copy the charts from the CDs to your hard drive and in OpenCPN add the charts from the hard drive - it will work much faster than from a CD or flash drive and will prevent the situation described earlier.

Pavel

[HappySeagull]

...and per "right -click" max detail , if it no longer appears, go to the toolbar, click the wrench, and uncheck
"Enable chart quilting"