| Re: Graphics problem on Sun Ultra2 workstation [message #35855 is a reply to message #35851] |
Thu, 31 July 2003 01:34   |
Timm Weitkamp
Messages: 66
Registered: August 2002
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Member |
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Alex and Jim,
I have little knowledge about the hardware internals of computer graphics,
but I have seen the phenomenon described by Alex lots of times on
different kinds workstations (HP, Sun...). It occurs not only with IDL.
I am pretty sure that this is simply the way that their 8-bit visuals deal
with any application's attempt to allocate a larger number of colors than
is left free by the other applications (including the window manager).
In this case, the application gets a "private colormap", and every time
the focus is put in the application's window, the entire screen switches
to this colormap, inevitably messing up the rest of the screen. In other
words: it's a feature, not a bug.
I'd be surprised if it had anything to do with the refreshing rate.
Alex, your Sun probably has Netscape installed, right? Try start it by
typing "netscape -install". This forces Netscape to install a private
colormap, and the Netscape window should then exhibit the same behavior as
the IDL graphics window. The advantage is of course that Netscape or IDL
can use the full 8-bit range of colors for themselves if they install a
private colormap. A particularly smart program in this respect is Xfig,
which switches to a private colormap during runtime as soon as the user
wants to use colors that are not available in the public colormap.
Can it be helped? I don't know. I used to live with it. Also, it usually
didn't occur if I avoided having other color-intensive applications
running when starting IDL.
Timm
Timm Weitkamp <http://people.web.psi.ch/weitkamp>
On 30.07.03 at 15:04 -0700, Jim Brauher wrote:
> Alex,
>
> I've seen this problem before. You might want to examine your
> visual depth, resolution, and cycle rate. Try the following:
>
> % xdpyinfo
>
> which will give you a list of the various visuals available on your
> machine as well as the current one. I also assume you want to use 24
> bit color depth.
>
> Now try the m64config command under Solaris, but first read the
> manpage because this is a tricky command. The color flash is likely
> due to the number of cycles that your monitor is refreshing at. Look
> for a higher one (75 or 76 cycles).
>
> After that, use the m64config to change your color depth and
> resolution.
>
> % m64config -depth 24
> % m64config -res 1280x1024x76 (or some resolution that is available to
> you)
>
> Now log out of your X session and log back in. Note that this may
> affect some of your other applications if you were running in 8-bit
> Pseudocolor mode before.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Jim
>
>
> Wonko@wonkology.org (Alex Schuster) wrote in message news:<8qsf3D1Pd8B@wonkology.org>...
>> Hi there!
>>
>> I've been away from this group for some time.. too many thing to do,
>> too less time.
>>
>> I am having trouble with our two new (well, some years ago they were
>> new) SUN Ultra2 workstations and IDL (5.2). Whan I start IDL, and
>> enter the WINDOW command, a white window appears. If I move the mouse
>> cursor into the window, I get the correct black color, but my desktop
>> colors switch, too.
>>
>> I know this from other SUNs, but it never was a real problem, as
>> switching to pseudo color mode (DEVICE, PSEUDO=8) or setting DEVICE,
>> DECOMPOSED=0 solved it.
>>
>> This does not work with the new SUNs. All I can do is a device,
>> true_color, this prevents the color flickering. But I have tons of
>> programs using pseudo color mode that I don't want to change to true-
>> color mode.
>>
>> Any ideas? I'm sorry that I don't know much about the graphics card,
>> only that it's a Creator model, that's what the logo on the front
>> panel says. We have other SUNs (Ultra-1), with Creator 3d cards, and
>> they work well. I don't think there is an easy solution, but I thought
>> I'd give the group here a try.
>>
>> TIA,
>>
>> Alex
>
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