6810: your video settings could not be enabled, and fallback settings are in effect (VM)

[LAZA]

Installed Windows 8.1 as an VM under Xubuntu 12.04 with Virtualbox 4.2.18.
Guest additions lead (still) to a big mess in graphics so i got back to my snapshot after installation.
Video resolution changed to 1280x1024 and working flawless.

Downloaded Widelands 17 and bzr6810 and installed them both (in english) - no problems.
Starting bzr6810 (seems the same problem with release 17), i got this error message:
"Your video settings could not be enabled, and fallback settings are in effect. Please check the graphics options!"

I did, but resolutions i checked - nothing happend!

Turning OFF the OpenGL rendering did it for me - so this options should NOT be standard directly after installation.
Or a warning about this option with this error message would at least be helpfull.

[SirVer (sirver)]

I am not sure what this bug report is all about. Your system (in emulation) does not seem to support the GL capabilities that we need for b18 - b17 needed less. And OpenGL is the default because with any reason it will be the only system going forward - maintaining two drawing modes is a lot of hassle. Also, SDL rendering is super slow on "modern" resolutions, another reason to kill it.

It's great that SDL worked for you for now, but having reasonable hardware support inside your emulated systems seems even more reasonable to me.

I vote for closing this as wontfixed. Please feel free to contradict me if you feel strongly, but please explain more clearly what you want to have changed.

In particular I did not understand the meaning of the following sentences:

> Guest additions lead (still) to a big mess in graphics so i got back to my snapshot after installation.
>I did, but resolutions i checked - nothing happend!

[LAZA (laza74)]

Guest addition:
There was/where a lot of trouble with guest additions in/under Windows 8 and 8.1 generally (about 184k hits in Google).
Could be something like this: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10380?cversion=0&cnum_hist=3

Anyway, i wanted to make the point clear, that at this time, the guest additions where not installed.
Mouse worked without problems, mouse pointer integration off.

I did, ...:
I checked as mentioned, the graphics adapters and all other settings in Windows and WL, but no change.
(Rereading this, i see your point, that it is as clear as the notorious english fog! :-)

I think, it is most helpful to describe the hardware and software circumstances accuratly, especially in VMs - cause a bit different in any of the system can cause a lot of problem to isolate the bug.
In this case it was luck, that the bug was described some days before...

BTW: What is "having reasonable hardware support inside your emulated systems"?
Is there an guide or white paper about the hardware minimum in VMs or generally at all?

[SirVer (sirver)]

> Is there an guide or white paper about the hardware minimum in VMs or generally at all?

Not that I am aware of. But rendering to offline surfaces is what I meant by this - if this is not supported you will not be able to run Widelands in OpenGL mode.

[LAZA (laza74)]

So, is the fact known, WHICH version of OpenGL is at least required?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL

After this, everybody can look for himself/herself if the graphics card is supported or not in the lists here:

AMD/ATI:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units

Intel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Intel_graphics_processing_units

NVidia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_nvidia_graphics_processing_units

The recommended requirements for Windows XP (which is still supported AFAIK) is:
Processor: 300 MHz
Memory: 128 MB of RAM
Video adapter and monitor: SVGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution

[SirVer (sirver)]

Feel free to figure this out - we need some kind of render extension that can render to offline buffers. I am sure it slipped into the standard at some point, but I did not keep up with Open GL which is a rapidly moving target.

[LAZA (laza74)]

@SirVer:
How can i do this?

With some g**gling i found this:
http://www.chip.de/downloads/GLDirect_29890418.html
Supports Win 95 till XP (which is dying in a few days :-)

I'm here on Linux but also as dualboot MS Windows 7 to test things out, but how can i simulate an older (and newer?!?) graphics card?

[LAZA (laza74)]

Bug shows up only in rare circumstances and for me, it can be closed:

This happens every time in an VM, IF
- 3D support is not activated in hypervisor program (VirtualBox, ...)
OR
- guest additions are not installed

Unsetting OpenGL in the menu does the trick, then all screen resolutions work and WL also.
Graphic cards support OpenGL 2.0 since 2002/3 so i think this could be closed.

BUT:
It would be not a bad idea to mention OpenGL in the error window, so everybody can avoid this bug and play...

[SirVer (sirver)]

wontfix then. Also Widelands will need 3d (i.e. opengl) in the future.

[LAZA (laza74)]

What about the mentioning in the error window?

Looking through "all pages" in the "wiki" there is no such side like "System Requirements" or something where these things should be explained!
If somebody would please create a blank page in the wiki i will fill in some general information an that 3D / OpenGL is preferable.
At work i have an real old machine (Pentium IV, Extreme Graphics 2) which i could work things out...

[SirVer (sirver)]

In my mind I see the software renderer dying soonish - there is not many ways around it. It just doesn't scale to modern resolutions and it is not as portable as a well written open gl version. Your old machine at work will not support OpenGL 2, but you will also not have any fun running widelands in software rendering mode on it (maybe at 640x480) - so what is there to be done?

I also do not think that the error text needs changing as I think that software rendering has to go anyways.

Just my 2c though.