Known issues with video drivers
It may be relevant to an older version of Stellarium, or it may not be relevant at all. This page itself should be updated, archived or deleted.
This warning has been here since 10 October 2010.
Contents |
Unreadable fonts (Stellarium 0.10.3/0.10.4)
Windows users can download a test build from here: https://launchpad.net/stellarium/+download
Try both shortcuts in Stellarium's Start menu folder - "Stellarium" and "Stellarium (no OpenGL)". If only the second one works OK, you can copy it to the desktop and replace the default desktop shortcut.
If you still have problems, please report and ask questions through the usual channels (Stellarium's bug tracker, Stellarium's forums).
Stars Render As Squares
Problem Description
Star rendering messed up in version 0.10.3 - stars look like squares which are too big.
Solution
Edit the config.ini file, fine the main section and add the following:
[main] use_glshaders = false
Discussions
Dialog windows are rendered incorrectly (ATI Radeon video cards)
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:
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 32 | ATI 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 |
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).
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.
Discussions
- Feedback forum - Left mau is...
- Bug ID 2684199 - Menus rendered incorrectly (screenshot)
- Bug ID 2688541 - Dialog boxes appear out of phase (screenshot)
Font rendering on Intel 945
Problem Description
Font rendering messed up.
Solution
Add the following line to your config.ini in the [main] - Section:
use_qpaintenginegl2 = false
This worked for me and everything is now perfectly readable (Win7 x64 with ATI X1800XT) !
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 |
| 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 | ? | |
| Win XP | ATI Radeon 9600 | Catalyst 8.593.100.0 | ? | |
| Win XP SP3 | ATI Radeon Sapphire X1650 Pro | 8.593.100.0 (10/02/2010) | ? | Stellarium 0.10.4 (fonts are OK in 0.10.2 and 0.10.3) |
