0.13.0 client area sometimes flashes white during repaint

[norbinz]

I'm running Stellarium 0.13.0 32-bit on Win7 64-bit SP1, i7 CPU, GTX 460 with driver 337.88.
I'm running Stellarium in a normal window, not maximized.
When I drag another app's smaller window across Stellarium's large window, almost all of Stellarium's client area fills with solid white color while I'm dragging the smaller app. When I stop dragging, Stellarium looks fine. The problem occurs only when I use Windows Classic desktop theme (my favorite) or Windows 7 Basic theme. No problem when using Windows Aero themes (but I never use Aero). I don't recall seeing this flashing in 0.12.4.

[Alexander Wolf (alexwolf)]

Can't confirm on Windows XP.

[norbinz (norbinz)]

The white flash occurs on my Win7 machine (described above), but does not occur on my WinXP machine (WinXP SP3 32-bit with two Xeon CPUs and GeForce 9600 GT with driver 275.33).

[gzotti (georg-zotti)]

On a GTX 580M with driver 335.23 and else similar setup, when I really switch to a non-Aero design, there is an insignificant amount of flicker (parts of single-frame) while dragging another window around. Just a guess: NVidia driver vs. Qt issues, nothing we can solve. Why not use Aero designs on capable hardware like this ;-)

But very interesting is your other statement: Does V0.13 on your XP with NVidia 9600 GT work completely? I have until now only crashes within a few seconds. Maybe I should try an older driver then?

[norbinz (norbinz)]

After I installed 0.13.0 on my WinXP machine, I ran it for about 15 minutes. I configured some settings, installed all the large star catalogs, and zoomed and panned around for a little while. It was smooth and stable. No crashes.

My Win7 white flashing fills about 40% to 100% of the Stellarium window, depending on the size of the Stellarium window. My monitor resolution is 2560x1440 - that may be a factor.

I just discovered that the white flashing almost disappears (becomes a tiny fraction of the window) if I set Vertical Sync to Off in the NVIDIA Control Panel (and restart Stellarium).

The white flashing is merely a minor annoyance to me. It's not causing any trouble. It remind me of the flickering that can occur in a traditional Win32 app during WM_PAINT if I set the window background to a solid color instead of to NULL. My memory is a bit fuzzy though. I haven't done that kind of programming in years.

<begin aero bashing> I think Aero is ugly. It wastes desktop space, it sometimes makes the window's title bar hard to read, it's more difficult to distinguish in-focus windows from out-of-focus windows, and one of my engineering apps doesn't work with Aero enabled. <end aero bashing> ;-)

[norbinz (norbinz)]

gzotti, this may help you with your WinXP crashes:
https://answers.launchpad.net/stellarium/+faq/2570

[norbinz (norbinz)]

I installed 0.13.0 MESA onto my little old ASUS Eee PC 1005HA netbook with WinXP Home. It needs the MESA version because the latest ASUS graphics driver only provides OpenGL 1.4. Stellarium MESA runs kinda slow (about 5 FPS) on this machine, but that's tolerable.

The white flashing problem occurs strongly.
If the flashing can't be fixed, can it at least be changed from white to black? That would be better for night vision.

Or I can revert to 0.12.4.

[gzotti (georg-zotti)]

Hmm, I wrote that FAQ... ;-)

The MESA version runs at 3fps or so, but the 8200 is capable of OpenGL3.3, so 2.1 *should* work.

Thanks for the tries with driver settings, sync etc. I will try the older NVidia driver next. Admitted, for night mode in darkness, also short white flashes are a problem!

[gzotti (georg-zotti)]

Driver 275.33 did not help :-(

[gzotti (georg-zotti)]

As of 0.14.3, the problem is still here.
I tried with current trunk (r8459, 0.14.90). No more flicker!
It seems Qt5.6 may have solved this! Norbinz, can you please check with a current beta?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Stellarium because there has been no activity for 60 days.]