ATI and OpenGl Acceleration
Author
Hi,
I seem to be having a problem in getting ATI [Radeon] cards to use hardware acceleration. When I query for the vendor its always reporting "GDI Generic" which I guess is software.
I've made sure the latest drivers are installed (catalist iirc is what the package is called), but I can't seem to get any of the machines with said cards to use the hardware!
I've looked for OpenGl Drivers for ATI, but I just find info saying to install the latest Catalist drivers.
Anyone had similar problems, or got suggestions on how to resolve this?
Thanks in advance.
Machines are Windows 2000, with 9800 or better gfx cards. And Quake hasn't been installed on the machines which I heard can break bit of opengl.
Installing the Catalyst 5.7 drivers for Windows 2000 should give you hardware acceleration. The best way to test this is to run an OpenGL application. It should be unreasonably slow if it's not hardware accelerated, something like 1 fps rendering a simple scene, or something like that.
Author
Quote:Original post by James Trotter
Installing the Catalyst 5.7 drivers for Windows 2000 should give you hardware acceleration. The best way to test this is to run an OpenGL application. It should be unreasonably slow if it's not hardware accelerated, something like 1 fps rendering a simple scene, or something like that.
Thanks, but we are already using the latest drivers. One thing I have noticed is that on the one machine it runs fine on only has a single monitor attached.
So is their a problem with ATI and dual monitors and OGL hardware acelleration?
Thanks in advance for any info.
yeah, I belive they do have troubles when it comes to multiple monitors and OpenGL, however I'm not sure if there is a solution to it
I didn't know ATI had problems with multiple monitors.
The place where you're most likely to get the help you need is at ATI's customer care.
The place where you're most likely to get the help you need is at ATI's customer care.
Well, i think its still the case, in theory it should work fine on the primary device but I think they still have issues with using the 2nd or both at once.
Ofcourse, I could be completely off base, not having two monitors I dont really keep track so asking them or emailing Humus (www.humus.ca) would be your best bet
Ofcourse, I could be completely off base, not having two monitors I dont really keep track so asking them or emailing Humus (www.humus.ca) would be your best bet
This might be tangent to the problem, but I had a problem with OpenGL HW acceleration not too long ago. It was accelerated on a single monitor system, but not on a multi-monitor system. Turned out the problem was an embarrasingly lame window on the primary monitor that accidentally extended a couple pixels onto the 2nd monitor (the split thus causing OpenGL to revert back to software mode).
Author
Thank all,
The issue is still occuring, even if I run the app in a small window that is completely contained within the primary devices window.
However some OpenGl screensavers work fine, but these when activating only draw to one window. Perhaps its dependant on how you create your OpenGl window.
Anyhow it's a pain, but the problem will go away since we are moving exclusively to nVidia gfx cards at work so as to reduce the support overhead our IT department has to cope with.
Thanks again, all.
The issue is still occuring, even if I run the app in a small window that is completely contained within the primary devices window.
However some OpenGl screensavers work fine, but these when activating only draw to one window. Perhaps its dependant on how you create your OpenGl window.
Anyhow it's a pain, but the problem will go away since we are moving exclusively to nVidia gfx cards at work so as to reduce the support overhead our IT department has to cope with.
Thanks again, all.
Author
Hi all,
Just an update. I've found out that if using the latest ATI drivers I can get a win32 application to use opengl acceleration. This is where I myself register the windows class and create the window explicitly.
However when I turn this application into a screensaver it runs in software on ATI cards. This leads me to believe it is something specific about the way windows registers and creating the window that you are given to draw into.
so anyone got any ideas on what this might be and how to rectify it?
Thanks.
Just an update. I've found out that if using the latest ATI drivers I can get a win32 application to use opengl acceleration. This is where I myself register the windows class and create the window explicitly.
However when I turn this application into a screensaver it runs in software on ATI cards. This leads me to believe it is something specific about the way windows registers and creating the window that you are given to draw into.
so anyone got any ideas on what this might be and how to rectify it?
Thanks.
Yep, I found this to be a problem a while back. The easiest way to get around it is to create a child window that belongs to the screensaver window. That way you have complete control over the pixel format and specifiying CS_OWNDC. You can do this by calling CreateWindow in the WM_CREATE message of the ScreenSaverProc.
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