SDL 1.3 rendering failure

SDL Development
1

Hi Folks

So I am testing my app with the PC platforms I will be using, and I have a wierd fault on one system using a rubbish (but sadly unchangable) Intel Extreme Graphics chipset.
All I get is a black screen, but I can hear and play the game…just with no graphics.

Here’s a diagnostic output from the gfx card. Any ideas? I am using hardware acceleration as a flag in SDL_CreateWindow, but SDL_RenderCopy returns -1 which is a failure.
I wonder what happens if there’s isn’t sufficient video memory for the texture I am using??

Thanks
Ed>

INTEL® EXTREME GRAPHICS 2 FOR MOBILE REPORT

Report Date: 01/07/2011
Report Time[hr:mm:ss]: 15:38:35
Driver Version: 6.14.10.4497
Operating System: Windows XP* Professional, Service Pack 2 (5.1.2600)
Default Language: English
DirectX* Version: 9.0
Physical Memory: 2015 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 32 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory: 64 MB
Graphics Memory in Use: 10 MB
Processor: x86 family 6 Model 13 Stepping 6
Processor Speed: 1800 MHZ
Vendor ID: 8086
Device ID: 3582
Device Revision: 02

  • Accelerator Information *

Accelerator in Use: Intel® 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller
Video BIOS: 3360
Current Graphics Mode: 1024 by 768 True Color (60 Hz)

  • Devices Connected to the Graphics Accelerator *

Active Monitors: 1
Active Digital Displays: 1
Active Notebook Displays: 1

  • Monitor *

Monitor Name: Plug and Play Monitor
Display Type: Analog
Gamma Value: 2.0
DDC2 Protocol: Supported
Maximum Image Size: Horizontal: 13.0 inches
Vertical: 10.0 inches
Monitor Supported Modes:
640 by 480 (60 Hz)
640 by 480 (70 Hz)
640 by 480 (72 Hz)
640 by 480 (75 Hz)
720 by 400 (70 Hz)
800 by 600 (56 Hz)
800 by 600 (60 Hz)
800 by 600 (70 Hz)
800 by 600 (72 Hz)
800 by 600 (75 Hz)
1024 by 768 (60 Hz)
1024 by 768 (60 Hz)
1024 by 768 (70 Hz)
1024 by 768 (75 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (60 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (61 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (65 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (70 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (75 Hz)
Display Power Management Support:
Standby Mode: Supported
Suspend Mode: Not Supported
Active Off Mode: Not Supported

  • Digital Display *

Monitor Name: Plug and Play Monitor
Display Type: Digital
Gamma Value: 2.0
DDC2 Protocol: Supported
Maximum Image Size: Horizontal: 13.0 inches
Vertical: 10.0 inches
Monitor Supported Modes:
640 by 480 (60 Hz)
640 by 480 (67 Hz)
640 by 480 (72 Hz)
640 by 480 (75 Hz)
720 by 400 (70 Hz)
800 by 600 (56 Hz)
800 by 600 (60 Hz)
800 by 600 (72 Hz)
800 by 600 (75 Hz)
832 by 624 (75 Hz)
1024 by 768 (60 Hz)
1024 by 768 (70 Hz)
1024 by 768 (75 Hz)
1152 by 870 (75 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (60 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (75 Hz)
Display Power Management Support:
Standby Mode: Not Supported
Suspend Mode: Not Supported
Active Off Mode: Supported

  • Notebook *

Monitor Name:
Display Type: Digital
Gamma Value: 3.0
DDC2 Protocol: Supported
Maximum Image Size: Horizontal: Not Available
Vertical: Not Available
Monitor Supported Modes:
640 by 480 (60 Hz)
640 by 480 (63 Hz)
Display Power Management Support:
Standby Mode: Supported
Suspend Mode: Supported
Active Off Mode: Supported

  • Other names and brands are the property of their respective owners.
2

check what renderer is actually used.
I have noticed that the software renderer fails at SDL_RenderCopy if it is created with the hardware acceleration flag.------------------------
EM3 Nathaniel Fries, U.S. Navy

http://natefries.net/

3

Thanks for the tip, I tried it, but no difference. So I output the renderer info, and it says the maximum texture size is 2048x2048. My texture is currently 5120x2304. Ho ho ho. So I’m going to try a test project just loading a 2048 square texture and display something…

4

Yeah, texture size was the problem. Maybe we can incorporate this in SDL_GetError when it all goes wrong.

Now to re-write my code and re-do the graphics for multiple textures

Ed [Crying or Very sad]

5

Is there any hardware accelerated graphics platform that allows textures
as big as you were trying to use?On Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 10:27 AM, ebyard <e_byard at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Yeah, texture size was the problem. Maybe we can incorporate this in
SDL_GetError when it all goes wrong.

Now to re-write my code and re-do the graphics for multiple textures

Ed [image: Crying or Very sad]

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6

Yeah other systems I have around allow textures up to 8192x8192.

Sadly I have to cater for the lowest spec system which is a 1.8Ghz Pentium - running my game on this system, for some reason I know not yet, uses 90% of the CPU time, whereas a faster system uses ~3%. Bizarre, and frustrating.

7

ebyard wrote:

Yeah other systems I have around allow textures up to 8192x8192.

Sadly I have to cater for the lowest spec system which is a 1.8Ghz Pentium - running my game on this system, for some reason I know not yet, uses 90% of the CPU time, whereas a faster system uses ~3%. Bizarre, and frustrating.

are you calling SDL_Delay in the main loop? this will help with that if you aren’t.
otherwise the problem may be that whatever engine you’re using (probably D3D) is probably implemented in software on your machine; meaning it’s possible to be even slower than SDL’s software renderer.------------------------
EM3 Nathaniel Fries, U.S. Navy

http://natefries.net/

8

Yeah I call SDL_Delay with the difference between my frame rate and the amount of time rendering actually took (usually 19ms on fast systems).

The CPU problem is just because this older PC is frankly a load of rubbish - the CPU is doing all the work as there’s no GPU to speak of, being an old Intel Extreme Graphics system.
Re-writing my framework to only draw the changes has reduced the CPU load from 90% to ~38%, but it’s not an ideal solution as it wrecks my frame based system.

It’s driving 2 monitors with 1024x768 9though little changes on the 2nd monitor) and the speed of rendering is still an issue. I wonder if scaling down to 800x600 will make any difference?

Ed

9

Yeah, it definitely will. Many Intel graphics cards are slow. The
lower resolution, and frame rate the better for them.On Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 5:16 PM, ebyard <e_byard at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Yeah I call SDL_Delay with the difference between my frame rate and the
amount of time rendering actually took (usually 19ms on fast systems).

The CPU problem is just because this older PC is frankly a load of rubbish -
the CPU is doing all the work as there’s no GPU to speak of, being an old
Intel Extreme Graphics system.
Re-writing my framework to only draw the changes has reduced the CPU load
from 90% to ~38%, but it’s not an ideal solution as it wrecks my frame based
system.

It’s driving 2 monitors with 1024x768 9though little changes on the 2nd
monitor) and the speed of rendering is still an issue. I wonder if scaling
down to 800x600 will make any difference?

Ed

SDL mailing list
SDL at lists.libsdl.org
http://lists.libsdl.org/listinfo.cgi/sdl-libsdl.org

10

Come to think of it, since all my graphics are done for 1024x768 and I just scale up for larger monitors…is there a way to fit to 800x600 without modifying the graphics? Surely the CPU will still be doing a load of work to scale down so you might as well just downsize the graphics to 800x600, no?

11

Oooh, I get this now, I didn’t use to on this machine (intel gma 945 card)

Oddly, I can get my game to render if I run inside my IDE rather than
running it directly from my console.On 7 January 2011 18:37, ebyard <e_byard at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Hi Folks

So I am testing my app with the PC platforms I will be using, and I have a
wierd fault on one system using a rubbish (but sadly unchangable) Intel
Extreme Graphics chipset.
All I get is a black screen, but I can hear and play the game…just
with no graphics.

Here’s a diagnostic output from the gfx card. Any ideas? I am using
hardware acceleration as a flag in SDL_CreateWindow, but SDL_RenderCopy
returns -1 which is a failure.
I wonder what happens if there’s isn’t sufficient video memory for the
texture I am using??

Thanks
Ed

Quote:

INTEL® EXTREME GRAPHICS 2 FOR MOBILE REPORT

Report Date: 01/07/2011
Report Time[hr:mm:ss]: 15:38:35
Driver Version: 6.14.10.4497
Operating System: Windows XP* Professional, Service Pack 2 (5.1.2600)
Default Language: English
DirectX* Version: 9.0
Physical Memory: 2015 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 32 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory: 64 MB
Graphics Memory in Use: 10 MB
Processor: x86 family 6 Model 13 Stepping 6
Processor Speed: 1800 MHZ
Vendor ID: 8086
Device ID: 3582
Device Revision: 02

  • Accelerator Information *

Accelerator in Use: Intel® 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller
Video BIOS: 3360
Current Graphics Mode: 1024 by 768 True Color (60 Hz)

  • Devices Connected to the Graphics Accelerator *

Active Monitors: 1
Active Digital Displays: 1
Active Notebook Displays: 1

  • Monitor *

Monitor Name: Plug and Play Monitor
Display Type: Analog
Gamma Value: 2.0
DDC2 Protocol: Supported
Maximum Image Size: Horizontal: 13.0 inches
Vertical: 10.0 inches
Monitor Supported Modes:
640 by 480 (60 Hz)
640 by 480 (70 Hz)
640 by 480 (72 Hz)
640 by 480 (75 Hz)
720 by 400 (70 Hz)
800 by 600 (56 Hz)
800 by 600 (60 Hz)
800 by 600 (70 Hz)
800 by 600 (72 Hz)
800 by 600 (75 Hz)
1024 by 768 (60 Hz)
1024 by 768 (60 Hz)
1024 by 768 (70 Hz)
1024 by 768 (75 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (60 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (61 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (65 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (70 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (75 Hz)
Display Power Management Support:
Standby Mode: Supported
Suspend Mode: Not Supported
Active Off Mode: Not Supported

  • Digital Display *

Monitor Name: Plug and Play Monitor
Display Type: Digital
Gamma Value: 2.0
DDC2 Protocol: Supported
Maximum Image Size: Horizontal: 13.0 inches
Vertical: 10.0 inches
Monitor Supported Modes:
640 by 480 (60 Hz)
640 by 480 (67 Hz)
640 by 480 (72 Hz)
640 by 480 (75 Hz)
720 by 400 (70 Hz)
800 by 600 (56 Hz)
800 by 600 (60 Hz)
800 by 600 (72 Hz)
800 by 600 (75 Hz)
832 by 624 (75 Hz)
1024 by 768 (60 Hz)
1024 by 768 (70 Hz)
1024 by 768 (75 Hz)
1152 by 870 (75 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (60 Hz)
1280 by 1024 (75 Hz)
Display Power Management Support:
Standby Mode: Not Supported
Suspend Mode: Not Supported
Active Off Mode: Supported

  • Notebook *

Monitor Name:
Display Type: Digital
Gamma Value: 3.0
DDC2 Protocol: Supported
Maximum Image Size: Horizontal: Not Available
Vertical: Not Available
Monitor Supported Modes:
640 by 480 (60 Hz)
640 by 480 (63 Hz)
Display Power Management Support:
Standby Mode: Supported
Suspend Mode: Supported
Active Off Mode: Supported

  • Other names and brands are the property of their respective owners.

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