OpenCPN Beta Version 3.3.1931 Released

[Gilletarom]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Gilletarom...
"Problem only with the border of the chart with "texture compression" when zoom is greater than possible"

May we see a screenshot, please?

Dave

OpenGL ON and "Texture Compression" ON, there is a small anomaly on the left side of the map, but neither up nor down, nor the right. This small discrepancy is visible with maximum zoom. Just somme parallel red lines

But my internet connection is bad and I can not send a screenshot.

Sorry.

[bdbcat]

Testers...

OK, the scrambled Palau charts bug was introduced by commit

https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/c...7bc1fd1263d086 on 26 June.

Only affects non-GL mode on Windows.

Do not know what's going on yet, but it goes on the list.

Thanks
Dave

[Gilletarom]

Hello Dave, hello Mike,

This concerns both O331931 and Tcurrent plugin.

OpenGL ON:

If the window displays Tcurrent, and if the window displays of the tide for a port, for example, DOVER, everything is very slow.

It takes a very long time to open the tides. it also takes a very long time to move the window of the tide. Moreover, when moving the window of the tide there for some time, two windows tidal displayed.

Really, I do not recognize OpenCPN. Responsiveness is really too low now.

OpenGL OFF
The reactivity is improved. It is not yet as with older versions of O, but it is much better than OpenGL ON.

Gilletarom.

[Ptizef]

Continuing my tests of the "screen touch" mode (3.3.1931) I would like to note some small issues and proposals

1) "Create route" mode
1.1 - I create a route. Then the rollover is not display when touching this new route. It's necessary to exit O and restart to get rollover working
- I start O with one or several routes already created : the rollover works as requested. Now I modify a route ( for example I drag a Route point) then the rollover works but only one time and after that do not work anymore for all routes
- when I start creating a route, the fist route point (starting point) is not displayed until the second route point is created
2) "Measure tool" mode
2.1) - When I use this mode, nothing is displayed except the rollover. I have to zoom in or out to get the measured line displayed
2.2) - Difficult to measure outside the screen - I would propose to clone the route creation behavior ( touch the edge of the screen to go outside and display as soon as the start point is created )
3) I would add another proposal
When creating a route, we can pan by single touch on the screen edge... right
It would be even more friendly if we could have a "continuous panning" by long touch on this same edge zone. That means a long touch over the edge would generate the equivalent of the left/right/up/down keys ( repeated normal panning or "smooth panning" if this parameter is set )
... and off course also for the measure tool

Jean Pierre

[bdbcat]

Gilletarom....

I agree that the TCurrent PlugIn is a little slow, needs some optimizations.

Also, the tide/current window display in OpenGL is clearly not correct.
This seems to be a Window only problem...
Thanks for reporting this.

Moving ahead...

Are you finding performance problems with O in general, without the Tcurrent PlugIn?

If you are using OpenGL on a lo-spec machine, you will have better performance if you

a) disable texture caching, or
b) Pre-build the texture cache in a region of interest. That is, move the boat to say Dover. Then do Options->openGLOptions->Build Texture Cache. You do not need to wait the entire time, which may be hours for a large chart set. "Skip" out when the distance reported is 100 miles or so.
Eventually, after steady use, your texture cache will be filled automatically in the background, and performance will increase steadily.


This subject needs Wiki work, obviously....


How else is O unrecognisable?

Thanks
Dave

[bdbcat]

Gilletarom...

Just so I am clear...

I am assuming that most (all?) of your raster charts are NVC, and using the NVC PlugIn?

Thanks
Dave

[Ptizef]

Another small issues concerning touch/tablet mode

1) The tide window is normally opened by a right click thus should be by a long touch in this mode. In fact it's opened by both a single touch and a long touch
That is confusing when a tide icon is near a route point and you select it as you also open the tide window
2) sometime at certain zoom level, tide icons are not selectable
if an icon is not selectable, I change zoom level and it become selectable. Then I move to another zone with the same zoom level and icons are not selectable. Again I change zoom level and it become selectable ... and so forth.

Jean Pierre

[Gilletarom]

Hello Dave,

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Gilletarom...
...
I am assuming that most (all?) of your raster charts are NVC, and using the NVC PlugIn?
...
Dave

This year, I sailed along the coasts of France and England. I used only the CM93 and English raster charts VisitMyHarbour.

I have not used the charts NV Verlag.

I used only the 322 release. I suffered many crahs. For example, returning to England from the Isle of Wight and Charbourg 3 crash in the same day. My wife considers it too. Although it does not say strong, I feel a pressure that I seek another more efficient software.





Indeed, the 322 version has not satisfied me. Too crash.

On the latest versions 33xxxx: The slowness operation last 3 versions, including the latest, do not meet my expectations. OpenCPN was faster and more flexible before. The proliferation of settings options is really a hassle that many sailors will not operate.

The introduction, in the code, work BoatAlexandra for raster maps, did not bring anything positive from my point of view. But it is true that in my area, we do not have raster maps as there are in the U.S. or New Zealand.

That said, I am not able to write program lines. And therefore, my "critical" must be relativized.



Best regards

Gilletarom.

[bdbcat]

Ahoy testers...

OK, lets get some input here.

Some are reporting that O 3.3.1931 is very much slower than 3.2.x on modern Win7 platforms. Especially in OpenGL mode. Indeed, the comments apply to O Betas since about April of 2014.

Now, for me, I find that 3.3.1931 is always faster than previous versions. Sometimes a lot faster, depending on the charts, CPU, etc.

My test platforms include:
Win7, 4 core ASUS laptop
Intel 2 core linux desktop, mediocre Intel OpenGL graphics.
Intel Atom SBC, mediocre Intel graphics.
Win 8.1 tablet
Mac Mini, Lion OS, Intel graphics.
Virtualized environments for AMD64-linux and XP.
Android ARMHF chroot to Debian
ARMHF native debian.

In alpha testing before Beta release, O 3.3.1931 is always faster than previous releases on all these platforms.

Certainly we do not intend to release O 4.x that is slower than 3.x. This is one of the main objectives of the current development cycle.

So, I need some feedback.

Leaving stability and functionality to one side, what are users actually finding relative to performance? I'm not looking for kudos here, I need performance problem reports.

If you are running slower, or even feel like you are running slower, we need to know this, with some detail.
Logfiles, screenshots, movies, whatever.

Thanks for listening
Dave

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by Gilletarom

Indeed, the 322 version has not satisfied me. Too crash.

On the latest versions 33xxxx: The slowness operation last 3 versions, including the latest, do not meet my expectations.
...
The introduction, in the code, work BoatAlexandra for raster maps, did not bring anything positive from my point of view. But it is true that in my area, we do not have raster maps as there are in the U.S. or New Zealand.

I have raster maps for 12 countries.

There were a lot of improvements other than raster.

For now I am seeing much faster performance for cm93. Why don't you post your log file. OpenGL is faster if your machine has hardware acceleration. I think there is a problem with your drivers. Did you ever try this program on different computers?

[Ptizef]

Hi all

I test with a quite old mid-range Vista notebook and navigate with a modern but low powered W8.1
on both that machines and CM93, 3.3.1931 is clearly faster than pevious versions. Particularly with the low powered one the improvement is impressive. I get more responsibleness and fluidness than I got with the other one before.
However, with raster charts, it's different.
I reported recently that with certain parameters, ( texture compression ON, and catching off, or caching On but no cache rebuilt .... ) O was almost unusable with frequent hangs and sometime crashes.
(see #199,#203,#206#,214 thread "OpenCPN Beta Version 3.3.1824 Released" )
This was fixed by using caching after a complete cash rebuilt , but I am afraid many users of these type of charts could not or have not the willing to manage correctly all this parameters and just conclude "it doesn't work"

I precise that I don't use this charts in navigation thus it's only tests

Jean Pierre

[bcn]

Starting with a general remark:

There are a lot of machines with problems with OpenGL.
Standard PCs like my 2 (Intel) Dell systems for example.
You can't assume that users are looking to "fix their drivers".
(I'm not aware of correct drivers for our systems btw.)
And you should not even assume that they should if the manufacturer does not apply an upgrade.

So forget about OpenGL for a very important part of the community.

Asking to play with parameters to get the performance right goes beyond a lot of user is willing to do. It's not fun for them and they are not even curious to see what happens if.
This should happen "under the hood". One can go as far to say the user should not even know that OpenGL exists.

The software has to work "out of the box". People want to sail. And some of those want to develop their plotter software as well.

This was fixed by using caching after a complete rebuilt of the cash, but I am afraid that many users of these type of charts could not or have not the willing to manage correctly all this parameters and just conclude "it doesn't work"

The frustration we see from some of the postings does come from this point of view.

So it should be very clear when we are talking about a beta - something that might have problems, a stage where you need to play - and versions that are intended to be used by the more then 100K users of OpenCPN.

This has been mixed in the 3.3.xx series. To be more exact from beyond 3.3.1606 on.

Remember as well: 80% Win (often very old systems), 10% Mac, 10% Linux.

Speed:
Within the S63 project we've got now a complete set from AHS, the Australian Hydrograhic Service - 845 charts or cells. So a real stress test.
Panning is no fun at all yet.
This is not a problem with CM93 sets.
No raster charts here for daily use.

We are "on the dry" for the next weeks and 1000nm away from the boat, so these tests are run without GPS or AIS input in parallel.
Even 3.3.1606 felt "right" - in this moment we didn't have the opportunity to run the AHS set. Just some 20 cells for the Med.

Hubert

[bdbcat]

jp...

We are still in development.
3.3.1931 has different texture compression logic than 3.3.1824.

Have you tried dense quilted raster charts with 3.3.1931 with texture compression ON and caching OFF on your low end machine? This is the worst case in performance, theoretically. Especially for a single core CPU.

It might be useful for testing to activate the Windows Task Manager, and monitor the CPU load while you are zooming and panning. If it goes very high for long periods of stall, that would be interesting to know.


Also, please know that once we get the compression/caching logic all worked out, we plan to simplify the user selectable options to a simple "OpenGL On/Off" checkbox. For the geeks, the individual options will still be available in the config file.

Thanks
Dave

[Rasbats]

Good day,

With 3.3.1931 NO OpenGL I am finding that chart quilting is impossible on my low spec machine, using the raster charts from VisitMyHarbour. There was no problem with 3.2.2.

Am I missing a setting?

Mike

[bdbcat]

Rasbats...

That's a known bug in 3.3.1931, No OpenGL, Windows only. Only occurs with some charts.

I don't yet have a copy of the VisitMyHarbors chart stick.

How is the performance of these charts with OpenGL mode on 3.3.1931?

Dave