I’ve recently upgraded to Ubuntu Natty on my HP pavilion zv5000. Versions prior to Blender 2.5 were no problem, but since 2.5 came out I haven’t been able to use Blender because the text on all the buttons is scrambled and unreadable. Is there something I need to do to fix this? Has anyone else had this problem?
Here is the screenshot, this is my first time posting here and realize I should have done so.
As for proprietary drivers, I have an ATI card, which seems to be notoriously difficult in Ubuntu. I’ve got 3D acceleration going, although I’m not sure which drivers I’m using (the open source ones or the ATI ones). I think they are the open source drivers. Everything else that requires openGL seems to work fine. It’s just blender’s buttons.
Just chose from the version you are using, and if you already have proprietary drivers installed, uninstall them first. They tell you how to do that as well.
Well, I gave it a try and still have to find a tutorial that successfully installs the ATI driver. I got pretty much through the instructions, but ended up with no opengl at all (Blender doesn’t even open up on the screen at all when I start it), and another program that works fine otherwise (Stellarium) doesn’t open at all either. I’ve returned to using the open source drivers.
the problem could be a wrong/bad rendering of the fonts blender is using for its buttons, etc.
changing the default font in blender uses in blender? (cannot find it quick, there was a posting about it)
Another way is to pull up the dpi-setting in blender -> userconfig -> System
at the left side.
For example my blender version says there: DPI 75
but
if i check the dpi-setting of the screen
(for example with following command in a terminal:
xdpyinfo | grep resolution
)
it says 85x86 dots per inch
so the internal blender setting is smaller and results in a smaller/tiny font-rendering
but it i pull it up in blender to 85 it is getting bigger(better readable) and wastes more space - thats why i have kept the DPI 75 setting. But with a 17-zoll monitor an same dpi, it might be too tiny.
First i would suggest to pull up the internal blender DPI setting in the user-preferences – next would be to check for a better rendered font-face…
test-dr - you are on the right track. I checked my screen dpi settings and it said 96x96. I managed to muddle my way to the blender settings and tried upping the resolution. It is getting better, but I had to set it to it’s highest setting (128dpi). The fonts are huge, but I can now pretty much read them. The only problem is they are now doubled. It’s like I’m cross-eyed. Leaving antialiasing works better. Any further suggestions?
what ubuntu version are you using? 10.04 … newer?
Have you tested other programs and checked it with
programs like office, gimp, … editors …
and? without the Anti-Alias activated in blender-user-preferences,
the double rendering of the font is still there?
Next can you check the rendering in other windows of blender like
the python-console or the text-editor? Same double/triple font-display?
and last, in the blender-user-preferences there are options to select for
redraw to screen, normaly set to “automatic” … maybe you try all options
(including the “full redraw”).
test-dr. Thanks for all the suggestions. I’m using 11.04 (natty narwhal). I don’t know if it is important, but I have English as my main language but also have international fonts and input method for Japanese. Blender is the only software that gives me this double text effect. Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus, Libre Office, Calibre, Shotwell, Chrome, Thunderbird, Stellarium, Audacity, Banshee, VLC media player and more all work fine. Whenever I screwed up the graphics drivers Blender and Stellarium didn’t work at all, but when I got the graphics drivers working again Stellarium went back to normal but Blender still had the messed up fonts. All the windows of blender are messed up, including the text editor. I also tried all the redraw methods, both with and without AA. Still no luck.
Thanks again for the suggestions. Let me know if you think of anything else.
no way at the moment - kind of hardcoded in the source.
But: what happens if you use different user-preference settings for the
window redraw instead of Automatic? Triple, Full …
And:
any better readability if disable the often used “shading” of the text in the user-interface (its in preferences, theme …)?
this shading is used to generate those 3d-style-buttons …
and last, pls. post the hardware you are using, maybe someone else has the same
and already solved this problem. (maybe it is graphics-hardware related …)
and please check what happens if you
zoom in/out the settings-windows.
Thats normaly +/- of numpad in blender-2.57
(instead of the old ctrl-scrollwheel of blender-2.4)
test-dr. - no go on redraw. It makes no difference. Disabling shading makes a visible change to the buttons, but doesn’t make a difference in the doubled text. zooming in and out on the settings window made it bigger and smaller but no better with the doubling either.
As for hardware, I’m on an older hp paillion zv5000. The processor is an intel pentium 4 1 GHz. The video card is: VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS300M AGP [Radeon Mobility 9100IGP]
For the record, I tried 2.58 and still there is the font problem. Also, when I try enlarging the fonts, blender shuts down after a font size of 104 dpi. It was worth a try at least.
I got the same problem of unreadable blender menues and this clue of phoronix (“Updated and Optimized Ubuntu Free Graphics Drivers”) really solved the problem.