Problem with window blinds 5 and openGL apps:

Sunday, January 1, 2006 by indigosm | Discussion: WindowBlinds

I've found that if I have a window open over an openGL window, I'll not have the border graphics of the skin being drawn.

Also, I've found that if I take an openGL app (such as Modo or Radiant or Maya) and have a transparency skin applied to it, moving the window around will be EXTREMELY sluggish for the first 10 seconds or so and then it will eventually be able to be moved around onscreen at regular speed again. But once I minimize and unminimize again, or open up another window, the 3dapp's window will be EXTREMELELY sluggish again for another 10 seconds or so..

Here's two images that show the viewport corruption I get with openGL apps. It's really annoying when you open up a new window OVER a 3d app, because you can't even see the title bar at all (or the minimize/maximize/close buttons)




I was just curious if this was a bug that was going to be resolved soon, or if anyone else is seeing it? Or if it has something to do with certain video drivers, etc....

Thanks in advance.
-seneca
9 Reply 8 Referrals
Neil Banfield
Reply #1 Sunday, January 1, 2006 12:28 PM

It seems your OpenGL drivers are not 100% compatible with XP.  What type of card do you have?


JRSCCivic98
Reply #2 Sunday, January 1, 2006 12:31 PM
Have you tried using the latest drivers set for your card?  I'm not saying that's going to fix it, but if everything is up to date then it's easier to point the finger at WB.  I keep all my stuff updated monthly.

indigosm
Reply #3 Sunday, January 1, 2006 8:26 PM
Well, do you folks see this problem? What I'm really curious about is whether or not I'm the only one that's seeing this.... I'm betting this problem's just rare because there aren't that many other people out there that use 3d apps very often, and that's why they're not noticing it.

As for my video card and drivers, they're both pretty up to date, so I'm pretty sure they're not the problem....

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT
driver ver. 78.01

Anyways... Just curious...
later.
-seneca

JRSCCivic98
Reply #4 Sunday, January 1, 2006 10:29 PM

ForceWare Release 80
Version: 81.98
Release Date: December 21, 2005
WHQL Certified



That's the latest Nvidia drivers.  78.01 is not up to date.  Could be the drivers, could be something else.  Get the new drivers and see where you are from there.  Video drivers is the #1 thing to keep up to date when playing with video intensive apps like WB5 is now.


Damn, I just realized you seem to work for idsoftware.  I'm surprized you don't have the latest video drivers loaded on your system.  I know all those games you guys work on are graphics hogs.


indigosm
Reply #5 Wednesday, January 4, 2006 10:40 AM
Yup. I work at id.

Video drivers are a very sensitive issue. Our game's always running on beta drivers that aren't even out yet, but 3d apps like MODO can't run with those drivers... It's all very fragile.

I have to stick with whatever set of drivers just happen to work with both our game and the 3d apps I use.

I'll play around with the latest nvidia drivers, but I'm pretty certain that Modo won't run properly anymore, and it might not even fix the WB problem... But we'll see....

indigosm
Reply #6 Wednesday, January 4, 2006 10:50 AM
Yep, I just installed the 81.98 drivers and I'm still seeing the exact same problem, just as I suspected.

Oh well..

Neil Banfield
Reply #7 Wednesday, January 4, 2006 1:02 PM

It looks like the nvidia opengl drivers are simply not aware of per pixel windows.  DirectX apps are (I doubt MS would grant WHQL status on drivers if they were not), but Microsoft do not test OpenGL drivers.  Something tells me its a performance tweak.

I seem to recall ATI OpenGL drivers are correctly aware of per pixel windows.


indigosm
Reply #8 Wednesday, January 4, 2006 8:56 PM
yeah, i just switched back to DogMAX3 and now everything's really happy and it still looks awesome!

Good enough for me!
later.

Gearz
Reply #9 Monday, January 22, 2007 12:20 PM
Glad to see you found a solution. I've been having problems with menus and printing in OpenGL apps like SolidWorks and FEMAP. Especially with SolidWorks, I can not get a screen capture of either the application space or even the the entire desktop. Some menus disappear or show up with missing lines. Works fine if I unload Windowblinds. GT3 (my favorite theme) is the worst about this. DogMAX isn't as bad. I'm also using an Nvidia card with updated drivers.

WindowBlinds 5.1 System Information Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

You have 2 monitors.

(Dell 2007FP (Digital)) 1 is attached to NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M
(Dell 2007FP (Digital)) 2 is attached to NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M

Wblind.dll 2006/10/09 10:24:20
Wblind64.dll 2006/10/09 11:51:37
Wbsrv.dll 2006/10/09 10:40:18
Wbconfig.exe 2006/10/10 16:39:13
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:14
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:07
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2006/04/13 17:29:23

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