[MAC] Distorted/Pixelated Images Across Multiple Skins

[CallMeCam]

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to read this. I know the developers (and other problem solvers) have got a lot on their plates, and the fact that they take the time to read about everyone's problems/complaints/bugs/whining shows just how much they care about the work they're doing... and subsequently making available for free. So thank you!

That being said - I'm experiencing an interesting, though not debilitating, problem with XBMC. Specifically, any skin I try to load appears pixelated in different places. I can still navigate the menus (for the most part) easily. Video plays perfectly fine with no hiccups or "artifacts." But the skins and especially their menus, seem to be mis-rendering.

I am experiencing the problem with PM3.HD, Confluence, and Rapier. Had it just been a single skin, I'd post in that skin's appropriate forum; but as I'm experiencing this complication across multiple skins, my next thought was that I'm having some form of incongruous system problem.

And so as to not incur the wrath of davilla - here's all the pertinent information:

Basic Info
OSX Version: 10.4.11
Platform: 15" MacBook Pro
Install Method: DMG
CPU: 2 GHz Intel Core Duo
RAM: 1 GB
SVN Revision: XBMC 9.11 r26018 (Compiled: Dec 23 2009)

Video Info
Vendor: ATI
Chipset: ATY,RadeonX1600 OpenGL Engine
OpenGL version: 2.0 ATI-1.4.56
VRAM: 128 MB
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.068
Resolution: 1440 x 900 @ 60.00 - Full Screen 60.10 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color

Debug Log: http://pastebin.com/f71598083

Steps to Re-create: None. This is a clean install of XBMC, with the default PM3.HD and Confluence skins loaded. I performed a simple install of Rapier. The problem seems to occur naturally on my system when trying out the different skins.

I've also attached a few (6) screenshots to help better illustrate the problem I'm having.

Confluence - Home

Barely legible main menu due to serious pixelation.

Confluence - Settings

Very obviously a problem in the middle of the screen, menu header, and less-obviously around the left and right edges.

PM3.HD - Library Mode in Cover Flow

All along the bottom of the covers.

PM3.HD - Menu Issues

Both the "Sort by" radio button and context menu are scrambled.

Rapier - Home

It may be hard to see, but the pixelation is appearing amidst the menu items at the bottom.

Rapier - Submenu

The problem is much more visible in this shot once a main menu item has been selected and the submenu is visible.

I'm sorry if all of my information and screenshots seem overkill; but I'd much rather give the developers more information than they need, rather than less.

And if this problem was already resolved in a previous thread, I very humbly apologize. I tried to perform a thorough search to the best of my abilities before posting all of this; but came up with nothing.

[bigjuggler]

Very nicely detailed. I am seeing the exact same problems on my iMac G5 (2nd gen). I did two clean installs as well. I also tried reinstalling the skins. No dice. I am running OS 10.5. I do not have any of the distortion at all with PM3.HD though (I don't think, I have not tested it extensively).

I just got a new 27 inch imac and I can try it out on that machine as well if that helps. The new build and skins are fine on my appletv though.

I am relieved that I am not the only one seeing the artifacts.

[davilla]

Hahaha, nice. very detailed bug report. thanks don't get many like this.

Have you tried switching the renderer setting? If set to auto, try ARB or GLSL.

[CallMeCam]

Thanks for the reply!

Since leaving my first post I thought it would be wise to try a few other skins for proper rendering; see if it could maybe help me develop a theory. So in a fit of sheer boredom I downloaded all of the skins listed on the main XBMC site.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that the bulk of them worked fine. Transparency! distorted a few graphics, namely some arrow buttons. MediaStream - Redux worked perfectly fine which was surprising since (at least on the surface, didn't compare the XML) it strikes me as the precursor to Confluence.

Back Row, MediaStream, MiniMeedia, and both "Stark" and "Auriga" versions of Aeon were flawless. Well, a few Aeon elements weren't placed quite right or overlapped, but I'd more readily blame that on a small-ish resolution rather than finicky hardware/drivers.

Originally Posted by davilla

Have you tried switching the renderer setting? If set to auto, try ARB or GLSL.

Glad to know I'm not totally off-base! I remember having "pixelation problems" back in the day with an earlier release of XBMC where my videos were distorted and changing the renderer to ARB fixed it right up.

So that was one of the first thoughts that came to my mind (though I initially thought the renderer setting was specifically for video playback, not skin/window rendering... but considering I've made 0 media center applications in my lifetime, I'll readily admit that I don't know that much ). So I took your advice and tried both ARB and GLSL and unfortunately the problems persisted across the board. Good news though is that none of the problems worsened from the switch either!

The theory I'm starting to cultivate (and feel free to shoot it down or critique) is that perhaps it may be a problem with my resolution. My thinking is that the skin is essentially getting "squished" which is causing rows of pixels to wrap onto "another line" and thereby distorting the images (which would also explain the staggered pattern the distortions seem to create) - of course if that were the case then my next question would be "Why is it only distorting in certain places and not across the whole screen?" Like I said, it's just a working theory.

I seem to remember (maybe XBMC Atlantis?) that you could actually specify which resolution you wanted XBMC to run under. Now, with Camelot, it would seem XBMC can very elegantly detect the resolution it needs to run at and offers the secondary option of running "windowed." Do you think it would be worth it to muck through the XML and manually specify a different resolution - perhaps something that was 1.78 rather than my 1.6 (1440 x 900); or would that be a spectacular waste of time?

So, if I sound like a complete rambling idiot who clearly doesn't know what's going on... that would be because I am! But I do want to be an active and positive part of the solution to my problem, which is why I'm trying to think of anything that could cause these skin distortions.

And @bigjuggler - you have no idea how relieved I am to know that I'm not the only one seeing artifacts! If you feel like testing on your G5 and 27" iMac, I'm sure we could use the extra help and data.

(And as for my thorough bug report... apparently I can read and follow directions. Too bad a complete report is now the "rare exception" rather than the "standard." Glad I could make you smile!)

[jmarshall]

Try:

1. Download Confluence dir from SVN directly (svn checkout http://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/svnr...kin/Confluence)

2. Place it as an alternate skin (just name it Confluence_test) - make sure you don't attempt to "build" the skin - it'll work just fine using the source files.

I suspect that will have no corruption. The difference is Confluence uses packed textures whereas SVN has the originals. I suspect that some of them are being packed into formats that your GPU does not support (in particular, DXTn compressed textures).

Resolution is unlikely to be the issue.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[CallMeCam]

Originally Posted by jmarshall

I suspect that some of them are being packed into formats that your GPU does not support (in particular, DXTn compressed textures).

Resolution is unlikely to be the issue.

You, sir, hit the nail on the head!

No more pixelation or distortion problems! It would figure that I'd overlook something as simple as my GPU having a hard time with the compressed textures file.

However, I would then assume that this means if someone doesn't release a skin with the source files that I'll be up the proverbial creek in regards to using that particular skin. But that's a minor inconvenience I can deal with in exchange for having such a solid program!

Thanks to bigjuggler and davilla for their responses; and thank you jmarshall for helping me to figure out not just the solution but the reason behind it as well. I love learning about why and how things work.

You guys rock, keep up the great work!!

[jmarshall]

Can you build yourself?

If so, see xbmc/RenderSystemGL.cpp:87. I suspect your system needs that as well - i.e. the hardware says it supports NPOT textures and it does DXT textures, and hence it *should* support both, but it doesn't. Basically, comment out the if block there and see if it fixes things.

Unfortunately there's no real way to know whether the hardware is actually going to support it or not without waiting for something corrupt to show up!

Cheers,
Jonathan

[CallMeCam]

Originally Posted by jmarshall

Can you build yourself?

At the moment, no. However I'll do some research on foolproof ways to build on OSX Tiger. I found the specific IF statement you were referring to and am quite curious to see how my system would respond after commenting it out. I'll be sure to post back here with my findings.

Am I correct in assuming that this is essentially a small hardware hiccup that will eventually fade away over time as Apple replaces and upgrades the older/out-dated hardware that went into their computers?

[jmarshall]

Newer hardware won't have the issue, correct. In theory (i.e. according to the spec), any OpenGL 2.0 graphics drivers should handle NPOT and DXT textures (and the combination) but in practice many do only a subset of these, or none at all. It's unfortunate, but I'm not sure whether there's anything we can do about it, other than having some settings for the user to fiddle with, as I suspect there's no error given if we use a format that's not supported. It's all the more difficult when most of the machines us devs have access to don't exhibit these issues!

Good luck getting a build env up - assuming you can get the necessary stuff from macports you shouldn't have a problem. If you have issues with macports, davilla may be able to help you out - I can't remember if the macport issues folk were having were due to a macport upgrade or snow leopard stuff.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[Clumsy]

It's because of a macports update - you will not be able to build with recent macports. You will however, if you follow these instructions:

http://code.google.com/p/xbmc-port-depends/