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<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Troubleshooting Graphics Operation and Performance |
  
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<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Troubleshooting Graphics Operation and Performance |
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The goal is to achieve very realistic, smooth 3D graphics that closely resemble real-world on-water rowing action and scenery. Achieving this in practice requires a fairly powerful modern computer equipped with a fairly high performance graphics system.
The reality is that many PCs, while they have good or very good 3D graphics capability, they can't quite handle the full processing load involved in rendering high-quality moving 3D graphics.
The main consequence of over-taxing the computer's 3D graphics system is low frame rate, where the graphics system copes with the load by slowing down. Below about 25 frames per second (fps) this starts to show noticeable jerkiness in the movement of the boats and scenery.
Because of this, 3D applications like RowPro usually provide some controls to enable less demanding settings to be used. The idea is to use these settings to find a good compromise between the 3D frame rate and the level of detail in the 3D scene. In essence, the more detail required, the slower the frame rate will be, so by reducing the detail required you can speed up the frame rate.
The settings provided for this can be grouped into two main categories:
| 1. | Level of realism in the scene. |
| 2. | Smoothness of object edges in the scene. |
The controls available in RowPro in these two categories, and how to optimize the settings of these controls, are described below.
Apart from level of detail settings, another factor that has a huge effect on 3D quality is how smoothly the scenery moves. Apart from the fps RowPro achieves, the main factor affecting smooth movement is Vertical Sync. This can be turned on or off as described below.
Finally, the graphics system itself - the hardware, drivers and graphics interface make an enormous contribution to the graphics performance. Actions you can take to upgrade or reconfigure these items to improve graphics performance are also set out below.
For smooth graphics the PC display must operate at a respectable frame rate. This is the number of times per second the 3D or 2D display is updated, expressed in frames per second, or fps. You can check the frame rate RowPro is achieving by looking at the fps indicator on the bottom right of the PM twin frame.
If you're having graphics performance problems, your fps will be too low. Ideally the fps should be over 25 fps. Around 15 fps the motion will be noticeably jerky, although still basically working OK. Below that it progressively ceases to be a good representation of rowing, and if it goes below 1 fps RowPro begins to seize up.
The fps is influenced by a number of factors as set out below. If you have low fps, please explore each of the topics below until the frame rate is over 25 fps.
Note: If you choose a graphics setting that your PC cannot support or that causes RowPro to error, RowPro automatically sets your 3D display to 2D and warns you why it has done so. If this happens you should select another more suitable graphics setting.
From version 3, RowPro has live water, meaning water that interacts with the boat and oars, showing ripples and wakes when the boat moves. This effect is produced using graphics technologies that are not present in all PCs, such as Vertex Shaders and Fragment Shaders. If your RowPro PC does not have the required graphics technologies, your PC will not be able to show the live water and you will need to use the static water setting instead.
If your computer is a Desktop, you may be able to equip it with a more capable graphics card and driver, but if your computer is a Notebook, Netbook or MacBook and you have the latest graphics drivers installed, there is very little you can do to up-spec the graphics capability as these computers normally have the graphics chipset integrated into the computer's motherboard. You should however check that you have the latest graphics driver and that you have the optimum settings, as described below.
RowPro checks the graphics capability of your computer each time it starts and sets the graphics to 3D live water, 3D static water, or 2D, based on what it finds. You can change this setting setting in Control Center | System Settings | Display if you wish, however if you choose a setting your PC cannot support, RowPro may revert to 2D until you change the setting again.
To improve your frame rate, try manually changing the Display Style in RowPro Control Center | System Settings | Display to a lower level of detail in the 3D scene or switch to the 2D display.
Computer display settings
Your computer has a number of display settings that can have a big effect on the RowPro frame rate.
To check and adjust the Color quality and Screen resolution settings:
| • | Windows XP - Right-click on your PC desktop and click Properties | Settings. To check and adjust the Hardware acceleration setting, click Advanced | Troubleshoot. Check these carefully, change any that aren't appropriate, and experiment with alternate settings: |
| • | Hardware acceleration - This needs to be set to Full. If it's set to a lower setting than this, change it to Full. |
| • | Color quality - If your computer is set to Highest (32 bit), try the Medium (16 bit) setting. You'll only notice a slight difference in the display colors, and RowPro will run at a much faster frame rate. |
| • | Screen resolution - If the slider is set to More, try moving the slider down one step towards Less. This may not be convenient for other applications, however if RowPro has a low frame rate it's important to at least know if a lower screen resolution is the answer. Once you know this, you can make a call as to whether you will reduce the screen resolution on an ongoing basis. |
| • | Windows Vista and 7 - Right-click on your computer desktop and click Personalize | Display Settings. Check these carefully, change any that aren't appropriate, and experiment with alternate settings: |
| • | Color quality - If your computer is set to Highest (32 bit), try the Medium (16 bit) setting. You'll only notice a slight difference in the display colors, and RowPro will run at a much faster frame rate. |
| • | Screen resolution - If the slider is set to High, try moving the slider down one step towards Low. This may not be convenient for other applications, however if RowPro has a low frame rate it's important to at least know if a lower screen resolution is the answer. Once you know this, you can make a call as to whether you will reduce the screen resolution on an ongoing basis. |
Anti-aliasing
Anti-aliasing is a method used to smooth the edges of angled lines on the display so they don't look jagged.
RowPro has a setting that enables you to control the amount of anti-aliasing used in the RowPro 3D Display. By default this is set to "Jagged" which means no anti-aliasing is used. This is because anti-aliasing requires considerable graphics processing and many computers will not be able to run RowPro at an acceptable frame rate with anti-aliasing.
If you are achieving a high frame rate in RowPro, say 60 or more, you may wish to use some anti-aliasing to make objects in the 3D scene smoother. Even one step up from Jagged can substantially improve the smoothness.
Vertical Sync locks the RowPro frame rate to the screen refresh rate of your monitor. This is important to smooth the movement of the scenery as you row, however Vertical Sync is only useful if your computer can achieve a frame rate higher than your monitor refresh rate.
By default Vertical Sync is off in RowPro. Most laptops have a default monitor refresh rate of 60 Hz.
| • | If RowPro can achieve a frame rate higher than this in your computer, then turning on Vertical Sync in Control Center | System Settings | Display should produce smoother movement. |
| • | If your frame rate is lower than 60 Hz, you should not turn Vertical Sync on because this will almost certainly result in more jerky scenery movement while you row. |
There are two main graphics interfaces that RowPro can use to display 3D graphics:
| 1. | OpenGL - OpenGL is an open source graphics interface. |
| 2. | Direct3D - Direct3D is the 3D graphics part of the part of the Microsoft DirectX multimedia interface. |
From version 3, RowPro can use either Direct3D or OpenGL for the 3D Display. You can select which of these graphics interfaces is used by RowPro in Control Center | System Settings | Display.
By default, many computers have OpenGL installed but not Direct3D. If the correct version of Direct3D is not installed in your RowPro computer, the Direct3D option in Control Center | System Settings | Display will be grayed out and not selectable. To enable the Direct3D option, you will need to download the latest version of DirectX9 from the Microsoft Downloads Center at www.microsoft.com/downloads and install it in your RowPro computer.
Note: By default, Vista and Windows 7 ship with later versions of DirectX (e.g. DirectX10 or later). Even if your computer has one of these later DirectX versions installed, RowPro needs DirectX9 installed in order to work in Direct3D. You can install DirectX9 in a computer that has DirectX10 or later installed - the two DirectX systems will happily co-exist in the same computer.
Your computer graphics driver may work perfectly in both OpenGL and Direct3D modes, however it is not unusual to find your computer graphics driver has problems with either Direct3D or OpenGL. If you're having problems with the 3D graphics in RowPro, you should try the other graphics interface to see if that works correctly.
Computer display RAM
The minimum display RAM is 8MB for static water and 32 MB for live water. RowPro uses this to store graphics textures, which are the colored surfaces of graphics objects like trees and boats. If your computer has less than the required display RAM, the frame rate will be low, and you should change the Display Style in RowPro Control Center | System Settings | Display to a lower level of detail in the 3D scene or switch to the 2D display.
Computer graphics driver
If your computer crashes when you start RowPro, this is most likely to be a problem with your computer graphics driver. Your computer graphics driver may also cause low frame rates.
To resolve this, always check for a newer graphics driver on your computer manufacturer's website, and upgrade if there is a newer graphics driver available.
For any kind of graphics issue with RowPro, the recommended troubleshooting sequence is:
| 1. | Start by checking your computer has the minimum required display RAM (8 MB for static water, 32 MB for live water). If not, then you'll need to increase your display RAM or change to a more powerful computer. Also check your computer meets the other RowPro system requirements. |
| 2. | Next check and if necessary upgrade your computer's graphics driver. You'd be surprised how often this solves graphics issues, even in brand new computers. |
| 3. | Next try switching between OpenGL and DirectX to see if one of these performs better than the other. You can change this setting in Control Center | System Settings | Display. If Direct3D is not already installed, you will need to download the latest version of DirectX9 from the Microsoft Downloads Center at www.microsoft.com/downloads and install it. Again you'd be surprised how often graphics drivers work perfectly with OpenGL but not Direct3D, or the other way around. |
| 4. | Next use the settings in Control Center | System Settings | Display to adjust the level of realism in the scene and/or adjust the smoothness of objects in the scene. |
| 5. | Finally try changing the Vertical Sync setting to on or off. |
After making each change, either row briefly or run one of the Demo rows to check how it looks when the boats and scenery are moving.
If none of these steps fixes the problem, please contact assist@digitalrowing.com for free assistance.