blender running...choppy.

[dpvtank]

alrighty. So here is the deal.

I recently installed Windows Server 2003 and after sometime, I started disabling many services since this was going to be a standalone computer (not a server)

and then, I install Blender. I noticed one thing.
Everytime you load something in there, there is a type of a choppyness.
For example.
When you load up blender, you see the splash. Well, for me, I do see the splash, but when its supposed to just go away, what it infact does is slowly starts dissapearing from the bottom, right uptill the top

the same goes the menus..
When I hit space and select something, and click it, the menu slowly goes away starting from the bottom, to the top..

So, I thought this might be a brilliant scheme of windows. So, I went into the System properties, and then into the Advanced Tab, and went into the Performance settings and made sure that Programs are given more priority then system services...and indeed that is how it was..

So, my problem is, why is this happening? I used to run Windows 2000 before and everything was fine....The same services I disabled on Windows 2k were disabled here. Does anyone know what the problem might be?

[digitalSlav]

maybe be a vid thing here - turn off aliasing and mabe any mouse effects - also upgrade your vid drivers to begin with

[dpvtank]

I have set everything for the best performance rather then for eye candy.
Pretty sure none of those things are on...
and vid. card driver is up-to date.

[z3r0 d]

I bet the menus do that too...
or I had a computer that did.

Just because your drivers are up-to-date doesn't mean that your gl version is.
I would like you to try this: (run from a text window)

from Blender.BGL import *
print "GL Vendor	", glGetString(GL_VENDOR)
print "GL Renderer	", glGetString(GL_RENDERER)
print "GL Version	", glGetString(GL_VERSION)

it will print something like (this is for me)

Loading required GL library /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.1.2 GL Vendor VA Linux Systems, Inc. GL Renderer Mesa DRI Voodoo3 20010501 x86/MMX/3DNow! GL Version 1.2 Mesa 3.4.2

if your vendor is the same as your videocard (ati or nvidia) it is probably your drivers
if your vendor is Microsoft, you should look into why that is. (likely an intel video card)

the microsoft version of opengl is not as good (isn't accelerated, and not as new) as the one distributed by ati or nvidia.

oh, I am running linux, which explains the VA systems as vendor, and Mesa as renderer.
(blender runs fine on a well configured voodoo)

[alien-xmp]

Dude! you're running a voodoo too! :P

[dpvtank]

sorry..but umm..where exactly do you execute this?

[digitalSlav]

you still havent answered what card you are using to begin with... make sure antialiasing is turn off for applications and the desktop!

[dpvtank]

I have a cheap comp

TNT2 - 16 Mb
800 Mhz
368 Mb of SDRAM
pentium 3

[dont make me feel more like crap now ]

[digitalSlav]

you did download new drivers? what is the version number of those drivers? i too had this card with 32Megs and i never had a problem. the updated drivers are however 75% faster than the ones shipped with it which i never understood you can try downgrading drivers as well to see if the problem persists. all problems i mentioned earlier do not apply to that card only newer generation cards.

[Vogetoemon]

I don't know if this applies but I read somewhere that hardware accelleration was disabled in 2003 Server so it would need to be enabled to have 3d acceleration work.

Just did a quick search in google and got this
http://www.neowin.net/articles.php?a...ge=1&pagenum=2

You might need to do where it says Enable Hardware Acceleration

Hope this helps.

Nick V

[dpvtank]

ahh.
well, well, I increased my hardware accelration and also downloaded the drivers from nvidia's site.

while installing using the installer, it gave me an error that it needed aliagp.sys file. so, i put in my windows cd and it searched and that file wasnt there. so, i got it off the internet (windrivers.com or something...) and then tried it.
everything worked.

i rebooted, set it to full hardware acceleration and opened up blender..and lo and behold! comes the dreaded blue screen of death! it says that there is something wrong with alygp file thingy and it is doing a memory dump on my physical harddrive or something..

then, upon reboot, I lowered by hardware accelration untill the blue screen didnt come..
and when i did that, blender is still having the same issues.

[Vogetoemon]

Hmm.... well i just did some research and I think the aliagp.sys is supposed to be included with the nvidia drivers. I think you get the BSOD because the file you downloaded is not for your drivers and does not know how to use that version. Maybe try your old drivers and/or different ones. Also, hardware acceleration must be on because i believe that is the reason why its running slow. I believe that aliagp.sys has to do with 3d acceleration but it needs to come from the driver. I know what you are going through because I have had troubles with my ATI Radeon 9700 but I finally got those fixed. Just keep trying.

Nick V

[dpvtank]

the driver has something to do with asus motherboard thing-a-ma-jig. Maybe a driver for the built in card which comes wtih asus motherboards? not sure about it.

[Dittohead]

Originally Posted by dpvtank I have a cheap comp TNT2 - 16 Mb 800 Mhz 368 Mb of SDRAM pentium 3 [dont make me feel more like crap now ]

whoa man. you really shouldn't be running full fledged server software on a machine like that.

the vid card should work fine, many people around here use that same card.

my suggestion is that you downgrade to windows 2000, or upgrade you ram, maybe the proc, and you video card if possible.

i started using a blender on a 256ram, 400mhz pentium2 with a 32 meg ati, windows me...really bad combo!!

[z3r0 d]

Try a different color depth as well.

The script I suggested you run would tell you if you were running accelarated drivers or not. copy/paste it into a file, then open a text window (the icon is like a notepad), and open it using the dash button on the window header, and run it with alt+p