Known issues with video drivers

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[edit] Stars Render As Squares

[edit] Problem Description

Star rendering messed up in version 0.10.3 - stars look like squares which are too big.

stellarium001.png

[edit] Solution

Edit the config.ini file, fine the main section and add the following:

[main]
use_glshaders = false

[edit] Discussions


[edit] Dialog windows are rendered incorrectly (ATI Radeon video cards)

[edit] Problem Description

Some of Stellarium's dialog windows (i.e. the ones accessible through the left menu) are rendered incorrectly, making them unreadable. (The effect has been described as "out of phase"; see the links below for screenshots.) This issue seems to be limited to computers that use ATI graphics cards. It looks like this:

stellarium_corrupt_window.jpg

[edit] Solution

Update your graphics card driver to the most recent version possible. Several users have reported that this fixed the problem, although it seems that not all cards con be fixed in this way.

Drivers can be downloaded from ATI's official website, but it seems that ATI does not offer support and drivers for all Mobility Radeon models - users are supposed to get drivers from their laptop/notebook's manufacturer.

If you have this problem, please add your details to this list so the development team can get a picture of what is going on:

OS Video Card Driver versions with problem Driver version which works Notes
XP 32 ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series, RAM 128 MBytes 8.522.0.0 (July 31 2008)  ? Details from astrohobby's forum post
Vista 64 ATI  ?  ? jose1dav's forum post
Vista 64 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 ATI Catalyst 9.4/8.512.0.0  ? Left-hand menus displaying "out of phase" as in screenshots on forum posts above. Stellarium 0.10.1 works.
Vista 32 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 ATI driver 8.x Download latest catalyst drivers from ATI or DriverHeaven, follow instructions at http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php to modify the Catalyst driver to work on Mobility Radeon (confirmed with Catalyst 8.12). Left-hand menus displaying "out of phase" as in screenshots on forum posts above.
Vista 64 ATI Radeon HD 3650 ATI driver 8.500.0.0 ATI driver 8.600.0.0 Left-hand menus displaying "out of phase" as in screenshots on forum posts above. Stellarium 0.10.0 beta worked. Solved by installing latest ATI driver issued on April 8 2009.
Vista 32 ATI Radeon HD 3450 ATI Catalyst 9.3  ? Left-hand menus displaying "out of phase" as in screenshots on forum posts above.
Vista 32 ATI Radeon HD 3450 ATI Catalyst 9.3  ? Left-hand menus displaying "out of phase" as in screenshots on forum posts above.
Vista 32 ATI Radeon HD 3470 8.477.0.0  ? as per this forum post
Vista 32 ATI Radeon HD 3200 8.513.1.3000 8.640.0.0 (Dated 14/07/2009), Package 9.8 Left-hand menus displaying "out of phase" as in screenshots on forum posts above. Left-hand menus displaying correctly in 0.10.2 with latest driver installed.
Vista 32 ATI Radeon HD 3470/256Mb 8.501.0.0 (2008-02-06) no updated driver available
Vista 32 ATI Radeon X1300 8.501.0.0 Package 9.3 (Driver 8.591.0.0000) Left-hand menus problem, fixed by new driver which included upgrade to Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable version 8.0.56336
Vista 32 ATI Radeon X1200  ? 8.593.100.0 (9/29/2009) Left-hand menus problem, fixed by new driver
Vista 64 ATI Radeon 4850 (512 Mb)  ? 8.600.0.0 (dated 4/8/2009) Solved as per discussion in this thread on the forum
Vista 32ATI Radeon HD 3400 ATI Catalyst 9.7/8.474-080312a-061416C-Sony none this is the latest exactly the same as per description
Vista 32 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 8.513.1-080717a1-067445C-Sony none this is the latest exactly the same as per description
XP 32 (Hungarian) ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 ATI Catalyst 9.6 none this is the latest exactly the same as per description
XP 32 (Hungarian) ATI Radeon HD 8450 ATI Catalyst 9.6 none this is the latest exactly the same as per description
XP 32 (Spanish) Sapphire ATI HD 3850 ATI 20/12/2007 8.451.0.0 exactly the same as per description
Vista Enterprise 32bit SP2 ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 on HP nc8430 notebook 8.501.0.0 (02. June 2008.) 8.593.0.0 (12. March 2009.) Driver update resolved the issue. HP notebook users can find most recent drivers versions on HP support pages.
XP Professional ATI Mobility FireGL V5700 on HP EliteBook8530w 8.503.2.3000 (22. September 2008.) No updated driver available Exactly the same as per description
XP Professional ATI Radeon X1600  ? 8.593.100.0(21. July 2009.) Latest driver at time of writing
Ubuntu Linux 9.10 Intel GMA 4500M  ? none (older versions don't compile; in Ubuntu 8.04, Stellarium 0.9.1 worked fine) Latest driver of distribution

[edit] Quick Alternative Fix

If your graphics card does not have the adequate drivers to solve this problem, there is an easy quick fix (which must be done every time you open a new dialog box) that allows you to see the dialog boxes correctly.

Slowly resize the width of the dialog window (by dragging its border with the mouse) while carefully observing the distortion in the dialog box. The distortion will gradually get better until, at a given exact width, the dialog box displays correctly. (see talk page for more info).

[edit] Fix in 0.10.3

For users where version 0.10.1 worked OK, but 0.10.2 did not, the next release should bring some relief. The default graphics back end was the QT "native" mode in 0.10.1. This was changed to "raster" for 0.10.2 to fix a lot of OSX problems and because it improved GUI rendering performance a lot. Sadly this seems to have triggered the glitch for many radeon users.

In version 0.10.3 the default is "native" rendering on PCs, and "raster" on OSX. There will be a command line option to select "raster" or "opengl" on all platforms which may mean performance increases, but the default should be safer.

[edit] Discussions

[edit] Font rendering on Intel 945

[edit] Problem Description

Font rendering messed up.

intel_font_problems.jpg

StellariumFontRendering.jpg

[edit] Solution

???

If you have this problem, please add your details to this list so the development team can get a picture of what is going on:

[edit] Discussions

Stellarium 0.10.4 - I have the font rendering problem on an Acer Aspire 5515 (Windows 7) with ATI Radeon X1200 Series driver (version 8.593.100.0, dated 09/29/2009).

OS Video Card Driver versions with problem Driver version which works Notes
Ubuntu Intel 945  ?  ?
Ubuntu 9.10 Intel Corporation 82G35 Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)  ?  ? Stellarium v0.10.2
WinXP x64 ATi HD3870 Catalyst 9.6  ??? Added a Screenshot above
Fedora 12 x86_64 Intel X4500 HD 2.9.1  ?
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