Jim Helman (jimh++at++surreal)
Fri, 24 Feb 95 18:31:31 -0800
Problem:
chost/clogin used IL hardware acceleration which could tie up
framebuffer resources causing Performer applications to be unable
to allocate a z buffer.
Solution:
1) kill chost and clogin. (My recollection is that sometimes one
had to stop and restart graphics to get the framebuffer back.)
2) csh: "setenv IL_HW_ACCELERATE 0" or sh: "IL_HW_ACCELERATE=0"
before running any desktop applications that might use IL, e.g.
in your ~/.xsession or other X/desktop startup file.
This use of framebuffer resources by the desktop is supposed
to be fixed in IRIX 5.3, however we have not verified it.
rgds,
-jim helman
jimh++at++surreal.asd.sgi.com
415/390-1151
From: aschaffe (Allan Schaffer)
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 13:24:49 -0800
To: info-performer++at++sgihub.corp.sgi.com
Subject: Re: Antialiasing and other RE stuff
>
> I have had similar problems on our ONYX (OS 5.2, 2 CPU's, 2 RM's),
> except it appears as a transparency problem (maybe AA too, it's hard
> to tell in NTSC). I ran at 4++at++640x486_30i. I have seen the same
> problem when I run at 1600x1200 (small pixel depth), so for some
> reason the machine thinks it's in small pixel depth mode when no one
> is logged in to the console. We are running the visuallogin. The
> problem is not there if I log on to the console.
This is something that has been mentioned a few times before; I'll
add it to the FAQ list. This is a bug of sorts; it is caused by
'clogin' and 'chost' using the ImageVision library to display bitmap
images of users & machine types. On RealityEngine the IL uses
hardware acceleration to scale the images, which gobbles up
framebuffer memory.
The symptoms show up when Performer (or any other GL application)
tries to configure the framebuffer. Since the framebuffer memory is
already in use (by clogin or chost) Performer has to back off & ask
for something less.
It's possible to work around this, somewhat:
setenv IL_HW_ACCELERATE 0
should force the IL to do its' computations on the host. Or to
work around it for just 'clogin' you can 'chkconfig visuallogin off'.
Or just log in.
Allan
--
Allan Schaffer
Silicon Graphics
aschaffe++at++sgi.com
From: aschaffe (Allan Schaffer)
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 12:19:51 -0700
To: hodeckes++at++VNET.IBM.COM, INFO-PERFORMER++at++sgi.sgi.com
Subject: Re: Peformer rendering
. .
On the same theme --
In IRIX 5.2 some of the System Administration tools (ie 'chost' and
'clogin') make use of the ImageVision library to scale & display
bitmaps of users faces & other pictures -- on RealityEngine this eats
up a lot of the frame buffer because it uses hardware acceleration.
So, if you run those tools and a Performer program at the same time,
you won't get any Z buffer. Once you kill them off and re-start the
Performer application it will be able to allocate the multisampling &
zbuffer memory it needs.
Allan
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