Missing splash screen on Windows and Mac OS X

[Pierluigi Panunzi]

when I run Stellarium 0.12.0 , 64 bit, on Windows 7, there is NO splash screen : instead of the usual Stellarium Logo indicating the program version, there is only a black screen for a couple of seconds and then the correct landscape.

my log.txt file is the following

2013-02-22T22:49:00
Windows 7
Compiled using MinGW GCC 4.6.1
Qt runtime version: 4.8.2
Qt compilation version: 4.8.2
Addressing mode: 64-bit
Total memory: 4078 MB (unreliable)
Total virtual memory: 8388607 MB (unreliable)
Physical memory in use: 40%
Processor speed: 2793 MHz
Processor name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2300 CPU @ 2.80GHz
Processor speed: 2793 MHz
Processor name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2300 CPU @ 2.80GHz
Processor speed: 2793 MHz
Processor name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2300 CPU @ 2.80GHz
Processor speed: 2793 MHz
Processor name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2300 CPU @ 2.80GHz
C:\Program Files\Stellarium\stellarium.exe
 -------------------------------------------------------
[ This is Stellarium 0.12.0 - http://www.stellarium.org ]
[ Copyright (C) 2000-2013 Fabien Chereau et al ]
 -------------------------------------------------------
Writing log file to: "C:/Users/packard-627009/AppData/Roaming/Stellarium/log.txt"
File search paths:
  0 . "C:\Users\packard-627009\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium"
  1 . "."
Config file is: "C:\Users\packard-627009\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium/config.ini"
Going to initialize the OpenGL 2 renderer
OpenGL supported version: "3.3.0"
Qt GL paint engine is: "OpenGL2"
GL vendor is "NVIDIA Corporation"
GL renderer is "GeForce 405/PCIe/SSE2"
Log of the compilation of builtin shader " plainShader " : "Built successfully"
Log of the compilation of builtin shader " colorShader " : "Built successfully"
Log of the compilation of builtin shader " textureShader " : "Built successfully"
Log of the compilation of builtin shader " colorTextureShader " : "Built successfully"
Cache directory is: "C:\Users\packard-627009\AppData\Local\stellarium\stellarium\cache"
Sky language is "en"
Application language is "en"
Loading Solar System data ...
Loaded 74 / 74 planet orbits from "C:\Users\packard-627009\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium/data/ssystem.ini"
Loading star data ...
"Loading "./stars/default/stars_0_0v0_1.cat": 0_0v0_1; 5013"
"Loading "./stars/default/stars_1_0v0_1.cat": 1_0v0_1; 21999"
"Loading "./stars/default/stars_2_0v0_1.cat": 2_0v0_1; 151416"
"Loading "./stars/default/stars_3_1v0_0.cat": 3_1v0_0; 434064"
"Loading "C:\Users\packard-627009\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium/stars/default/stars_4_1v0_0.cat": 4_1v0_0; 1725497"
"Loading "C:\Users\packard-627009\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium/stars/default/stars_5_2v0_0.cat": 5_2v0_0; 7669011"
"Loading "C:\Users\packard-627009\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium/stars/default/stars_6_2v0_0.cat": 6_2v0_0; 26615233"
"Loading "C:\Users\packard-627009\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium/stars/default/stars_7_2v0_0.cat": 7_2v0_0; 57826266"
"Loading "C:\Users\packard-627009\AppData\Roaming\Stellarium/stars/default/stars_8_2v0_0.cat": 8_2v0_0; 116923084"
Finished loading star catalogue data, max_geodesic_level: 8
navigation/preset_sky_time is a double - treating as jday: 2.45151e+06
Loaded 10051 NGC records
Loading NGC name data ...
Loaded 288 / 288 NGC name records successfully
Loading star names from "./skycultures/western/star_names.fab"
Loaded 230 / 230 common star names
Loading star names from "./stars/default/name.fab"
Loaded 3215 / 4359 scientific star names
Loaded 88 / 88 constellation records successfully for culture "western"
Loaded 85 / 85 constellation art records successfully for culture "western"
Loaded 89 / 89 constellation names
Loading constellation boundary data ...
Loaded 782 constellation boundary segments
Not using any viewport effect
Creating GUI ...
Loading shortcuts...
Loaded plugin "AngleMeasure" .
AngleMeasure plugin - press control-A to toggle angle measure mode
Loaded plugin "CompassMarks" .
CompassMarks plugin - press control-C to toggle compass marks
Loaded plugin "SolarSystemEditor" .
Using the ssystem.ini file that already exists in the user directory...
Loaded plugin "TimeZoneConfiguration" .
Simple planet shader build log: "Built successfully"
Shadow planet shader build log: "Built successfully"
Using vertex shader for atmosphere rendering.
Atmosphere shader build log: "Built successfully"
Build log after adding a Mat4d transform shader: "Built successfully"
Build log after adding a stereographic projection shader: "Built successfully"
Unloaded plugin "TimeZoneConfiguration" .
Unloaded plugin "SolarSystemEditor" .
Unloaded plugin "CompassMarks" .
Unloaded plugin "AngleMeasure" .
Downloaded 0 files (0 kbytes) in a session of 25.999 sec (average of 0 kB/s + 0 files from cache (0 kB)).

[gzotti (georg-zotti)]

confirmed for Win7-64 on NVidia GTX590M.
Splash works in 32bit version (WinXPsp3 / NVidia 8200 and Win7-32 on Intel Atom/GMA3150).

[Bogdan Marinov (daggerstab)]

To be more precise, the splash image appears for a part of a second before disappearing.

I've tracked the issue to the buffer swap in StelLoadingBar::draw(). (Commenting that line out causes the splash screen to be displayed normally.) I'm going to try to find out the precise reason.

Does anyone know why the buffer swap is or was necessary? Do we keep contact with the author of the reworked graphics engine?

[Nicolas Martignoni (nicolas-martignoni)]

I can confirm that on Mac OS X (10.8.2), after commenting out this line (around line #74):

  renderer->swapBuffers();

 of StelLoadingBar.cpp, the splash screen is correctly displayed. Patch attached.

(It's a mystery though how you managed to find this out :-))

[Bogdan Marinov (daggerstab)]

Don't you think that creating a patch for a one-line change and then submitting it to the development team member who suggested the change in the first place is a little bit... pointless? I've deleted the file, so that a patch icon doesn't appear on the bug's listing.

Thank you for testing it, though. I didn't know it was an issue on Mac OS X too.

The problem is that I'm not sure what this change will do on systems where the bug doesn't occur, and I don't know why the buffer swap was originally necessary.

[Nicolas Martignoni (nicolas-martignoni)]

Nevermind. Sorry if I offended you.

[Bogdan Marinov (daggerstab)]

I tested commenting out the buffer swap on a system that displayed the splash correctly without the fix and it seems that the normal case is not affected by it.

I also checked out the trunk branch at revision 5572, before the new graphics engine was merged in. It looks like even then, in the whole of Stellarium, StelPainter::swapBuffer() was called only in StelLoadingBar::draw(), which means that it's probably a leftover from the time when the StelLoadingBar class actually drew a loading bar and some animation was necessary. :)

I've committed the fix to the trunk:
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~stellarium/stellarium/trunk/revision/5917
But I think it needs to be tested on more "normal" systems, i.e. those not affected by the bug.