OpenGL for OpenCPN

[HappySeagull]

ooh!This is cool.the pan around and zoom is quick..maybe a little jerky as she shifts gears through tiles and charts and though she bogs down,she is still regaining a grip,despite unnatural usage...like a crazy seagull flying on google earth...my charts are not so continuous as GE tiles and likely explains it?
I'm going to try this on the D420 now.

[cagney]

Testing 2.6.1004 on my eeepc 901.
Vector charts generally works OK.
CM93 zooming is considerably slower than with raster and S57/ENC.

Thomas

[HappySeagull]

a keeper!
the d420(XPsp1 handling 2x 1.1ghzprocessor,1ghz ram,GMA 950Video) is running well.I'm just running it from the folder I copied on to this machine(it made a settings folder itself)..but I then tidied up the 2folders to include plugins and UserIcons etc.No other O and vcredist was uninstalled too.(!)also,I think I'd winkled out all the reg entries for O..
Non-GL is just fine.smooth zoom is a little chunky per tripping over changing scales?likewise the cm93.

GL so far so good...restarts ok with GL on .so.I can't see any loss of cm93 detail..?the Raster charts (note to self:I have to be careful to note the zoom scale before I squawk)look fine-no diff if I go nogl while looking at em if at 100% but a little blurrier zoomed in or out a lot than nongl....who cares if I can switch though..maybe a new version would have a button for this?
panning with arrow key..a little bit choppy -like turging through a mudbank sometimes but usually ploughs on after apause.2.5 can be like that too but I am pretending this is GE ..holding the keysdown....

PSI copied into Program Files here,while on the other Dell,I just copied to any folder.No previous install on it either.

[HappySeagull]

...but still definitely a dog on the T42(has a video card=ATIMobilityRadeon7500)...With GL off,the CM93 are mud and the current arrows don't display right...teeny-weeny arrows... have to zoom in to know they are there per picture attached.


GL on ?well, rasters chop up and freeze.CM93 work a little better.
No absolute crash though

[bdbcat]

Thomas....

Your observations:

1. I cannot reproduce the ENC vector chart bad render in your attachment. Which chart number is it?

2. Do not understand the scenario:
"The XP box also has a quite good ATI card. Trying raster charts with cm93 running was painfully slow, almost hung."

Do you mean switching to raster chart after having displayed cm93? Or the case where cm93 fills the window when a raster chart is unavailable?

Maybe it is a memory issue on the XP box....
Possibly MEMCacheLimit in the config file could be boosted from the default , which is calculated as 50% of total available memory?


Dave

[cagney]

Dave

The ENC chart was EA200002 from the East Asia Hyd Com.
I can repeat the same thing with the Colombian
INT4025 aka CO200008.00
Both have download links in the wiki Chart Sources | Official OpenCPN Homepage

Do you mean switching to raster chart after having displayed cm93? Or the case where cm93 fills the window when a raster chart is unavailable?

It was the first case. But not anymore..
Installing the latest driver from ATI took care of the problem!
Win XP was quite happy with the existing driver however.
I understand that this is a general problem with Microsofts operating systems and OpenGL, they do not provide updated drivers. Users must download the latest drivers for the graphic card themselves. In my case from ATI:s web site.

Thomas

[cagney]

Dave
More about the "blackout".
I can repeat the same thing with a raster chart. Quilting on, and part of the screen rendered by CM93. The problem seems to occur when part of the screen is CM93 and the other part is raster or ENC.
This is just on my Linux box. I can not repeat this on the XP box with the updated driver.
Thomas

[bdbcat]

Hi Guys and Gals....

The final Alpha test iteration of OpenGL code is available on github.

This one is called 2.6.1019

git://github.com/bdbcat/OpenCPN.git

Windows build available.

Install as per previous version, that is:

Download zip file from:
Package1019.zip - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download

To install:

Unzip the downloaded file into a directory OTHER THAN your normal OpenCPN run directory. Maybe use something like C:/Program Files/OpenCPN/OCPNGL...

You will see in the unzipped folder the new opencpn.exe executable (2.6.1019), as well as a set of .dlls which enable OpenGL support for wxWidgets. After unzipping, run OpenCPN from this folder as normal. It will use your current config files and chart setups. The config files are compatible, so that your existing OCPN installation will not be corrupted.

The file Helvetica.txf should be copied to the folder C:/Program Files/OpenCPN/s57data, or equivalent for your installation.

Enable OpenGL support in Toolbox->Settings.


What's new:

1. Rotated modes implemented (COG Up and North Up on skewed raster)
2. Further performance improvements overall.

General observations:
OCPN performance with OpenGL is highly dependent upon your graphics hardware and drivers.

I have found that some graphics chipsets (e.g.intel 945G) have rather poor OpenGL driver support, so that we cannot fully utilize the hardware acceleration potential of these systems.
Some scenarios are actually slower on OpenGL than on old style DC graphics architectures.
Some cards/drivers actually can crash the linux X11 stack on certain "legal" rendering operations, which takes some doing....sigh....

On the other hand, nVidia graphics, even very old cards, seem to perform very well. ATI was not tested.

And (surprise) rotated modes are really fast and clear on OpenGL. This may be the best benefit of all.

Also, on Windows, please note that the generic OpenGL drivers in use may not be very finely tuned to your graphics card.
You may want to investigate video card driver updates.....

But the "gamers" out there know all this stuff anyway.

Conclusion: OpenGL may not be "better" for everyone's OCPN application. But it is better for some (including me and my everyday nav systems),
so we will retain the OpenGL option going forward, and let users make their choice at runtime.

Test results for this final alpha release are solicited, please.


Thanks for all your support.
Dave

[Zoef]

I have run both the 2.5 and the 2.6 versions on a Zotac NVIDIA GeForce 9300, win7 32 bits, E7400, CM93 maps. Did not update drivers.
Installed the OpenGL version as suggested, worked fine.
Didn't notice a different behavior apart from 2.6 being snappier when zooming in or out fast or when switching enc text on and off.
Thumbs up!

[janp391]

Originally Posted by Zoef

I have run both the 2.5 and the 2.6 versions on a Zotac NVIDIA GeForce 9300, win7 32 bits, E7400, CM93 maps. Did not update drivers.
Installed the OpenGL version as suggested, worked fine.
Didn't notice a different behavior apart from 2.6 being snappier when zooming in or out fast or when switching enc text on and off.
Thumbs up!

I have the same experience. Installed without any problems.
Running an MSI laptop, 1 month old with W7-64 bits Prof. AMD Dual-Core E-350, 4 GB RAM and AMD Radeon HD6310 Graphics. Runs equal as the 2.5 version, no faster zooming

[sailorF54]

Windows Vista - ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics with latest AMD drivers

Switching (back and forth) from CM93 to .kap charts freezes the chart display when using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out except for a few tiles that still zoom in and out.
Using the zoom in/out button seems to reset the display...

Added: this is true without quilting. Seems OK when quilting is on.
Some screen refresh problem ?

[sailorF54]

Color rendering, soundings, ATON shapes ... (using my tweaked S52RAZDS file)
are slightly different between the classical (right) and GL renderings (left)

[cagney]

Dave

Smooth panning appears not to work on Linux/XP. Zooming OK.
Another difference, compared to the last version, is that +/- on the numerical keypad does not work for zooming. No problem on the main key board though.
Skew and North Up works just fine with GL now.
I noticed a small general glitch. If the option "Show skewed raster charts as North-up" in the Settings tab, is not ticked, the North Up/Course Up toggle works as "Skew Up/Course Up", which may lead to confusion.

Thomas

[bdbcat]

cagney...

Thanks for the info.
1. Smooth panning is disabled for OpenGL, temporarily. There is some logic problem with synchronization of OpenGL screen redraw.

2. Any suggestions on how to improve the CourseUp/North/SkewUp toggle for skewed charts? I guess just change the context menu item to "SkewUp", which looks awkward to me.....

sailorF54....
I cannot reproduce this effect. Any more hints? Also, please note that some vector chart features are not yet implemented for OpenGL (e.g. complex line types, as seen with "Symbolized Boundaries", etc)

General:
The logfile now has some info at the top describing the OpenGL environment judged "best" by OCPN for rendering. I'd be interested in seeing the results for some various systems. For instance, my integrated intel graphics chipset does not work well, so I am using a very generic Xorg.conf setup. Here is my OCPN logfile report:

09:59:05 EDT: OpenGL-> Renderer String: Mesa GLX Indirect
09:59:05 EDT: OpenGL-> Using Framebuffer Objects
09:59:05 EDT: OpenGL-> FBO Stencil buffer unavailable
09:59:05 EDT: OpenGL-> Using Depth buffer clipping
09:59:05 EDT: OpenGL-> Estimated Max Resident Textures: 24
09:59:06 EDT: ChartDB Cache policy:  Application target is 350 MBytes

Thanks, all
Dave

[sailias]

For some reason downloading from git://github.com/bdbcat/OpenCPN.git gives me a 2.5 build not the referenced build number on Ubuntu. Run it three times now to be sure.....was wondering what Im doing wrong

git clone git://github.com/bdbcat/OpenCPN.git is the command I used.

/ch