Sun Xi/ Discussion

Sub-page of SunXi

Sunxi Go Screen Saver Discussion

SunXi : If you encounter any problem with this screen saver, if you want to help (I'm looking for help for this page and another in french), if you would like to know anything about this software, leave a message here.

amnoti : I often get the following error msg. when stopping the screensaver: The instruction at "0x693d8014" referenced memory at "0x00000044". The memory could not be "read". Click on OK to terminate the program.

kritz : Grid lines seem to be missing in the new version ...

SunXi : Hi kritz ! If grid is missing on the board, that can mean you're running in software emulation, download the last drivers for your graphic cards. If you still have problems, then please send an email with a complete bug report or just let a message here.

quantumf : Intel 82915G, version 6.14.10.4308, Windows XP Pro, version 3.01 of screensaver, no gridlines

SunXi : I always have problems with intel 3D chips, that can only means one thing : drivers are not correctly written. All works perfectly on other gfx card and never on intel series. Other possibility : OpenGL extension (and especially GL_ARB_multitexture) is not present and can be replace by something else... Sorry for inconvenience...

Quicksilvre: Mine works pretty well, but I wish you could assign a folder to play out instead of a single file--so it doesn;t repeat the same file over and over.

Other than that, I love it. Keep up the good work.

SunXi : My dear Quick (may i call you quick ? :) The last version V2.0 include a complete playlist with many features, you can choose one folder and play it randomly or not, construct your own playlist with as many files as you want (on any location) ... All that since the 21 feb 2005.

Quicksilvre: Oooh, let me check it out then.

(later) Got the update; the new features are fantastic. Thanks!

Rellik : I have over 1300 sgf in one directory. It plays one or two files correct then it stop at the end of the file and didn't do anything else. Is there a logfile that I can send you? Maybe there is some special code in some of my sgf ?

SunXi : I check that immediately... (after checking) I've just tried with 3851 files and it works perfectly. Just tell me how you use the playlist, if you use random playing in a folder or if you use random/normal playing in the playlist. Even if a .sgf file have an error inside, it should work, the parser is not that bad and can detect errors and warnings. If too many errors occurred while reading or if too many files does no longer exist in your playlist, you will have a warning on screen and the default game will run (only once and the program retry after that). If you have enough time, try to compress your directory and send it by email please (only if it's less than 5Mb, or the mail won't arrive due to quota security). If you still have problems, please tell me in details what is happening, does the board appear ? Black screen ? ... Thanks in advanced.

Rellik : I use random in a folder. The board freezes at the last move. The SGF's are on the way, it has 4,8MB. I hope it goes through your quota.

SunXi : Thanks for your mail Rellik, i've just checked and it's a bug from your files (most from SGFC 1.13b), sometimes the coordinates are going out of the goban... I've just added a security, those moves won't appear/exist, all will run correctly in next release. Thanks for your help.

Rellik: Wow, everything is done. Only a view graphics are missing. Can't wait to see it. What may be the BIG surprise???

SunXi : The famous big surprise ... You'll have to look around the board to see it, ... may be ...

SunXi : Please make comments, suggestion, bug report here, i release V3.0 today and need your feedback, thanks !

Rellik : The new version looks really great. Can you make the kibiz area set to the same transparents as the 2d goban? A carved in grid (maybe as bumpmap) would look nice.

SunXi : I'll put custom opacity for kibitz in next release.

uxs: Very nice screensaver. Outrageous request: at work, I have 2 screens which are set up as one desktop. When I run the screensaver, the 3D board is stretched on the 2 screens, which looks horrible. So I disable the 3D board and show the 2D board at 70%. (Any bigger and it becomes centered - which splits it on the 2 screens and makes it look bad again.) So I was wondering if it's possible to make the 3D board only show on one of the screens, leaving the other black or, even better, for the 2D board. (Or make it a choice.) Either way, some explicit support for multiple screens. I told you it was an outrageous request.

SunXi : Outrageous ^_^ ! But you're not the first to ask that. I'll put a dual screen support for next release.

SunXi : You'll find a dual screen support in new release, check also faq on the web site for more informations.

C.S. Graves: Afraid I don't know the version I'm using offhand (away from my home computer) but no matter what type of stones I select, I can't see any difference. Am I missing something? Otherwise, great screen saver!

SunXi : You can see the difference only in 2D mode (for the moment), don't forget to put the 2D board size large enough.

Regulus : Hmm, I don't know if this suggestion would work, but how about two separate markers, one for white, and one for black, one hovers above the last move played while the next move is made with the other stones marker. That way it's easier to keep track of white and black, and it would do wonders for study. And I love the Japanese Room 3D background. It makes me wish also for a bamboo forest background. Perhaps this is asking a bit much. ^^;

SunXi : Very good idea, i'll implement that in next release. For the bamboo forest in background... Ask Kamil :)

Hikaru79: On the download page, there is now an "- SunXi Viewer v1.0b - Linux -" entry, although it is not linked at the moment. Does this mean there will soon be a Linux version? Or am I just getting my hopes up? :) Great work by the way!

SunXi : Thanks Hikaru79, for the moment, i just don't have linux on my computer, if you know an easy way to download it and install it (i also need XP to work ...), tell me, i'll try a port on linux (it should be easy, but long to implement)

Hikaru79: Hi, SunXi :) Actually, it is very easy to get a Linux distribution up and running while still keeping Windows XP. The easiest way is to install something like VMWare or Microsoft Virtual Server. This software allows you to run a separate operating system in a "virtual machine", so you can actually use Windows and Linux at the same time in separate windows. Of course, this comes with a bit of a performance cost, unless you have a very powerful computer. The other possibility is to "dual-boot" Windows and Linux. It is a bit more complicated -- you would have to partition your hard drive and configure a bootloader -- but if done properly, it will let you choose when you turn on your computer, whether you want to run Windows or Linux for that session. There is no performance hit in this situation :) Send me an e-mail at adrianp@cogeco.ca if you would like some help installing Linux; I've done it a thousand times and I can walk you through the tougher parts!

Alejo If SunXi uses VMWare he could use Xp inside linux, but I think he needs dual booting... In fact, SunXi, it's much easier than expected (at least, I did it two months ago). I recommend using Ubuntu or something similar (it's very easy for users moving from windows) and, when you start the installation it allows you to do any partitions you want and automatically sets the dual-booting system. You won't lose any of your Windows data if you have defragmented it first.

Keynes: Thanks for your great screen saver. For displaying some sgf file which contains some chinese words, they cannot be displayed correctly. Can it support multi-language fonts? It would be great if it can support Chinese.

Birdmw: I love this dang screensaver... i must have it.. but without the lines it is useless :( My laptop does not show the lines.. I have a compaq pesario v3000 laptop and for some reason your program hates me :( I am very computer savy (i dont code as deep as nvidia drivers require), but if it helps at all.. I know you can do it Xi ! I believe in you !

SunXi: Hi, read faq first please, if the lines doesn't appear it can be an opengl driver problem (most of the case intel 3D chips) - I can help you fix that if you want, only if you don't have intel 3D chipset - just send an email - Thanks !

Alejo I've made a videoreview on this program. Let me know what you think of it, as the programmer your opinion is very valuable. I wonder if you'd like to be it on the main wiki page of SunXi. You can see it [ext] here. Please, let me know your comments!!

SunXi: Nice review ! Even if you did a few mistakes, this is the first video on this screensaver and it's really nice, Thanks a lot Alejo !

Alejo Could you tell me about my mistakes? The English-grammar and vocabulary are obvious ones... but is there anything you'd like to point out?

SunXi: Don't worry about those few mistakes, it's not important, no need to make another review, this one is correct. But you asked for it, then here are 5 mistakes i've notice :)

1. The web site is just [ext] http://www.sunxi.com

2. In the review you forgot the feature "16/9 view" in the 3D menu, it display the 3D view with 16/9 ratio - not really important i agree.

3. In the review you forgot the "Force 3D super filtering" in the 3D menu - this feature avoid lines on the board to flick and dance when the camera move, it also increase a lot the quality of the render engine - it's a VERY IMPORTANT feature i think - But it's 100% MY FAULT, i didn't write that anywhere and put the option in the bottom of all the menu ... Stupid me !

4. You said "Low CPU usage option is here to save a bit of memory..." - Well, low CPU usage is here to save CPU of course. It's written just next the feature : it saves cpu to allowed background tasks to run really faster (low priority to the 3D engine) when the screensaver is on.

5. The playlist have the feature "Include sub-folder to browse" - This feature can of course be cancel when running, if you parse all your files from the root (C:\) it can take a long time, and if you change your mind in the middle of the process ? That's why i added the cancel feature, you just have to press the 'A' key to stop the browse operation - But it's written on the screen, may be i should have make it flash :)

That's all !

Alejo: Ok... it seems like I forgot a few things. But I had already seen the Force 3D super filtering, I know I could have commented it (I totally forgot) but I couldn't have enabled it, because the increase of the CPU usage... and my computer, recording a video, with your program featuring "advanced" 3D features, would die. And about the low CPU usage... I sincerely didn't know it, I think I would have mentioned it if I had known about it. Thanks for your comments ;) I hope to improve the quality of my reviews... Thanks once again !!

Alejo Once again, here I am, do you mind if I put a link to the video at SunXi's main page? Obviously, it would be at the bottom of it, but I think it would be interesting for most potential users to see it first. Something like: There is a videoreview where you can see most SunXi Go Screensaver features in action, watch it here: [ext] SunXi's Videoreview at [ext] Alejo's Tenuki.

SunXi : Sure, put the link directly on the main page (why not just next the first image ?)

Alejo: Wow!! I just saw it!! I didn't know that youtube's videos could be embedded here. Well, I think that placing it at the top may be too much for it... I expected it to be in the middle or bottom of the site. Sincerely, it's your program, it's your section of SL, place it where you want ;) I'll be pleased just by the fact that you place it there.

Olivier : Bonjour, Just discovered this screensaver - looks really nice. Unfortunately, like another user before, grid doesn't draw when in full screen saver mode. It works in the small window when setting parameters but not in full screen: board is drawn without grid (and coordinate neither). Here is a copy of my setting. I downloaded latest driver (running HP Pavilion dv1000 on Windows XP) but no change. Hope this can help... From system analyse :

Snip...

Vendor Intel Version 1.4.0 - Build 4.14.10.4543 Name Intel 945GM

Snip, snip...

Sunxi : Hi olivier (Salut), as written in the faq, intel 3D chip doesn't support correctly opengl, they didn't make any correction in their drivers (for this bug) for more than one year, ask them why, they will may be answer. I'm sorry for that. It works in any other 3D chip. Anyway, if they want to offer me a computer with an Intel 945GM inside, i'll isolate this bug with a lot of pleasure :)

it's a real real shame you can't figure out how to get this fantastic screen saver working on intel chipped computers. I've had 4 different computers in the last 3 years and all of the use intel and none of them can display your screen saver. I've had to settle for 2D with no lines for years now. I could just try to get a computer without intel but it's everywhere!!

Sunxi : Sorry, i understand your point of view ... I send many emails to intel (they use to reply very quickly) - The bug seems to come from their drivers, they can't display multitexture correctly if the textures have different size - I'm ready to help them correct that but i don't have any intel 3D chip around me - Anyway, if it can makes you feel better :o) here is a screenshot of the product i wrote based on this screensaver : [ext] http://hiboox.com/lang-fr/image.php?img=ebybtrwx.jpg - It's still a beta. I'll try to resolve this problem with this software. Best Regards

Leslielau:The lines does not show when I try it as screensaver, but it(the lines) shows in the configurator and the OPENGL informations say no problem.I use Vista and my graphic card is Mobile Intel® 965 express chipset family.How can I fix it?

Sunxi : As i said, the problem comes from the intel drivers - It works on all other 3D chip (i've tested it on Nvidia riva128, GeForce, MX, 6800GT ... Ati Almost all models...) I'll try to contact intel again to see what we can do and help them isolate this problem.

Leslielau:THanks,hope you can solve the problem ASAP.

Oberon? : What is strange is that the grid is well displayed in the 3D animation area of the screen saver setup window. It's only in full screen mode that it doesn't work. I found a kind of a workaround : just choose for the goban texture an image file with a grid already drawn on the wood and shut-off the grid display in the screen saver setup window. It's not as beautiful as the calculated grid but it works.

SunXi : I agree with you, it's strange and should not happenned, because it's the same program running in full screen and in 'configurator' ... I'll fix that bug for the editor.

kritz quick thought - it appears there is a .jpg for the wood texture. Where are they located? For those of us with intel processors, could we generate a woodtexture with an imbedded 19x19 grid? Even if it may not look fantastic but it may make it useable ... can you post one?

I actually made one - and the solution works well- I just can't get the grid to line up with the STONES!

Gobear? : My Dell laptop running XP Pro doesn't show the coordinates or grid lines either. They display in the configuration window but not in the screen saver. But why worry about Intel and their driver bugs? If it's possible to make the board display and the stones display, then it's possible to find ANOTHER way to display the grid coordinates, even if it's only in the 2D board. What about an optional grid "overlay" for the 2D board? That's not too hard to implement. Then the thousands of users with Intel chips can enjoy the screensaver too. Also... for the Playlist: it would be nice to have a "Select All" option on the left (not just the right) and also "Select Directory", to add all the files in a specific directory OR all the files in a list of directories to the Playlist.

Aotsuki? : Hi SunXi, I was just wondering... did you do any kind of progress for the Linux version of the screensaver? I mean, I'm actually using Linux (Fedora) 90% of the time oppose to when I worked on Windows (20%), and I just miss so much your go screensaver. Also, about the new software Universal 3D Chess. I still didn't found much time to try it out, but for what I know, I prefer a lot more the screensaver. Anyway, that's only one opinion, and I hope I found time to test it and report. Same question as before, is there a Linux version to this project?

Anonymous : I use the free software goban screen saver. It is somewhat dated, so I've had to make some edits to the code, but it mostly works well. The original is at [ext] http://draves.org/goban/ (with SRPM)


Sun Xi/ Discussion last edited by 50.23.115.116 on January 26, 2015 - 08:01
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