Several games don't display fonts

[Luis Jorge]

Binary package hint: tremulous

Tremulous and several other games don't display text and menu graphics correctly. Usage of this games is impossible, due to unreadable menu items. It's even difficult to exit the games. Games that I've tested with this problem: Tremulous, Nexuiz, OpenArena, Metal Blob Solid (which shows a "FONT_ERROR" message where there should be some menu options).
Using Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid beta, on a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop.
This didn't happen in 8.04 with the same hardware.

[Luis Jorge (luisjorge)]

I attach a couple of screenshots from Tremulous. There should be menu items at the top right corner of the game screen, but they can't be seen. I believe the second screenshot is from the game server selection, so there should be a lot of text there as well.

[David (launchpad-davidsev)]

Disable compriz / all desktop effects before running 3D apps, they don't play well together.

[gursikh (gursikh)]

David is correct, composting wm's (aka Desktop Effects, compiz, beryl, etc.) will cause this problem with a fairly large number of programs, especcially 3d games and opengl applications.

Disable desktop effects before launching one of these games.

[Luis Jorge (luisjorge)]

Hi! Thanks for the quick replies! Like you said, disabling compiz before playing these games did the trick. What I don't know is if I can change this bug to be against compiz instead of any game, because this problem didn't happen to me in Ubuntu 8.04.
Thanks for the help!

[Jordy van Heeswijk (jordyvh)]

I'm also running Ubuntu 8.10, and I installed the restricted ATI driver.
I have also disabled desktop effects, but Metal Blob Solid still displays FONT_ERROR messages in its menus.

[Makurosu (samfoit)]

The problem also occurs in kxmame, where the text flashes for a moment and then disappears from the list boxes, menus, and dialog boxes. Disabling compiz fixes this, however I am also getting the FONT_ERROR messages in Metal Blob Solid even when disabling compiz. None of these issues occurred in Hardy.