Beta Test / Technical

[rgleason]

The Hover link is helpful, too bad the date does not appear. Perhaps a note in the website text for Mac and Windows users?
I don't know how Linux users cope with versions & updates.

I think it is difficult to modify the website html with version and dates, each time there is a plugin update because it involves additional work.

[rgleason]

Sorry some of the links were wrong.

The following Plugins have been updated but have not been updated on the website Download page yet (to my knowledge), particularly Windows versions:

AIS_Radar Seth Dart has made fixes. 11 days ago. No release yet. Windows Release

Logbook 19 days ago ptulp ahead of deltabable. Fixed. Windows Release

Celestial_Navigation Sean needs to merge stelian's PR #20, Fixed. Windows Release including PR20

Weather_Routing 18 days ago. Fixed, with setup for new users. Windows Release

WeatherFax Sean has not merged PR's for some time. Updated XMLs. Windows Release

[rgleason]

For a more complete list please Refer to Plugin Update List thread

[rgleason]

Looks, like Stelian may update the Celestial Navigation plugin again, to fix a couple of stumbling blocks for users.

Is there a reason we can't or shouldn't have a

Right Click - "MOVE BOAT TO LAT/LONG" ?

With a prompt to enter Lat/Long or to accept a paste of lat/long.Life easier with Celestial Navigation, Dead Reckoning, etc. Right now we cannot really move a boat to a particular position that I know of..... Maybe there is some direct command prompt to do this that I don't know about...?

[did-g]

Hi,
Do we still need a no OpenGL code path?

Remove it could delete a lot of code, code with many copy and paste bugs.

-On linux (x86) software OpenGL is better (course up, nicer zoom in/out for raster charts) and faster than gdi.

- Linux on no x86?

- It seems that Mesa could be use for software OpenGL on Windows, no idea if it's faster.

- OS X?

[rgleason]

did-g aren't users of some RPI systems running without opengl due to incompatibilities with their particular flavor of linux?

[hoolie]

Originally Posted by did-g

Hi,
Do we still need a no OpenGL code path?

Remove it could delete a lot of code, code with many copy and paste bugs.

... ...

It would trash the display on my current Windows XP miniITX boat computer. I can't get updated graphics drivers.

Until I updated my W10 laptop drivers to W7 "no OpenGL" was much faster (x10?) than the rubbish generic drivers from MS.

I'm sure there are lots of users with legacy systems that currently benefit from not having OpenGL.

[did-g]

Originally Posted by hoolie

It would trash the display on my current Windows XP miniITX boat computer. I can't get updated graphics drivers.

Until I updated my W10 laptop drivers to W7 "no OpenGL" was much faster (x10?) than the rubbish generic drivers from MS.

I'm sure there are lots of users with legacy systems that currently benefit from not having OpenGL.

Not necessarily, a software OpenGL implementation doesn't need graphic drivers it's using the same OS API than Opencpn.

On windows it would be either Microsoft implementation (poor perf?) or open source Mesa library.

Memory could be an issue though, how much RAM do you have?

[did-g]

Originally Posted by rgleason

did-g aren't users of some RPI systems running without opengl due to incompatibilities with their particular flavor of linux?

Yes if you're trying to use the hardware accelerated path but a 100% software implementation doesn't really care about hardware or flavor of linux.

Currently on x86 linux not using opengpl doesn't make sense, it's slower and raster charts rendering is unusable.
Visit My Harbor charts with software opengl and without opengl:

[hoolie]

Originally Posted by did-g

Not necessarily, a software OpenGL implementation doesn't need graphic drivers it's using the same OS API than Opencpn.

On windows it would be either Microsoft implementation (poor perf?) or open source Mesa library.

Memory could be an issue though, how much RAM do you have?

There isn't any way I can improve my boat computer, but it doesn't matter too much as it's now long overdue for replacement.

Windows generic OpenGL drivers run very slow. On my Asus Eeepc the machine effectively hung up completely trying to run Ocpn after both W7 to W10 and the more recent Creators update. Intel W7 drivers for Intel Express Graphics work well under W10 so that's no longer a problem, nor on my laptop with similar graphics.

Mine are a very small sample of possible problems and I'm sure there will be others with problems too.

[rgleason]

Did-g take a look at this. Verkbr wants opengl off for some particular reason here. 2nd example)

[rgleason]

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/....php?p=2480313

[did-g]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Did-g take a look at this. Verkbr wants opengl off for some particular reason here. 2nd example)

Something is missing The only thing I'm seeing is an advertisement for someone trying to sell me cheap car insurance in Dubai.


Don't misunderstand me, I'm not advocating always using hardware OpenGL, it's not doable, but rather than trying to badly emulate opengl by duplicating all our rendering code we could use someone else library, mesa.

I do understand Windows OpenGL drivers status (bad to awful) but in 4.8.0 release there's at least one bug only in gdi path. If you look at git history it's not the first time.

Software opengl give us for free:
- better rendering.
- faster too, on my old linux (but with 2 cores) rendering my whole charts set with software opengl is twice as fast than using wx API.
- Moreover once we don't shackled or hands we wx API we can use better opengl practices (currently we're stuck to obsolete soon to be removed 1990 era OpenGL API). I think we need it more and more as many move from outdated CM to S57 charts (currently we reinventing the wheel, using new API would diverge code paths too much).

Of course me must don't regress. I think good software is software without barrier to upgrade ie. up to a point you should be able to install a new version on your old computer and the same functionalities as before should be available only more reliable and faster.

I'll try to compile Mesa for windows and put it on (I have an old win 7 ASUS , just have to figure out how to compile OCPN with AppVeyor)

[hoolie]

I would certainly support your proposal to embed OpenGL capability in Ocpn. Reliance on other indifferent or hopeless drivers/software emulation is what I would hope to avoid.

[did-g]

Originally Posted by hoolie

I would certainly support your proposal to embed OpenGL capability in Ocpn. Reliance on other indifferent or hopeless drivers/software emulation is what I would hope to avoid.

Fully agree, mesa llvm pipe is also used by Qt:
https://wiki.qt.io/Cross_compiling_Mesa_for_Windows