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LightWaver-67 · 03:37 PM

I am frustrated / confused.

I thought the RSS/OpenGL screensaver was really cool. I have it displaying "TheDashboarder" RSS feed. It's a little glitchy because my 2nd monitor is run off a second display card (PCI) but the best I could find. The 2nd monitor just shows a black screen with the words: "Quartz Composer" randomly repositioning across the screen. When THAT text moves, the OpenGL RSS screen glitches a little... but THAT is not my complaint...

My complaint is that I just checked-out the Tiger videos on Apple's site and when the person demonstrated the RSS/OpenGL screensaver... it had a REALLY COOL textured (cloudy) background. Mine does NOT show this. Mine shows a simple pale-blue SOLID background under the text.

I purchased a dual 2.5Ghz machine w/ 2GB of RAM and the BEST video card Apple offers (the Ultra one) and yet I cannot view the background texture...?

What is going on here...?
-sf

EDIT #1: oh... fyi... I am running @ 1600 x 1200 75hz... but I have played w/ resolutions just to see if THAT was the issue. it is not.

EDIT #2: Images
[removed inline images: all inline images must not exceed 480 pixels width. --tooki]
EDIT #3: Not sure why it didn't dawn on me to edit the original. I could care LESS about post-counts or bumping threads... I am just truly a space cadet and kept thinking of things to add. My apologies.

Xeo · May 9, 2005, 01:35 PM

Posting 6 times in a row isn't cool. Bumping your thread after a few hours isn't cool. Use the "edit post" button if you want to add more content.

That said, I'm on an iBook G4 and I see the textured background.

IceEnclosure · May 9, 2005, 03:52 PM

I've got a 533 single processor G4 and I've got the super-cool sky-like blue background, moving, shifting, fluid. everything is fine on my RSS screensaver.

did you uncheck the 'render on main screen only' thing?

(best you could find) PCI card? drop like $3000+ on your computer and you have a crappy PCI card(assuming it's crappy, as you didn't state what kind it was) running a second display. Get a better card or a dual output card to replace your (Apple's best) current card. (assuming it's not dual output)

(how was my last reply helpful to you?) it wasn't, and i didn't claim it to be. in fact, I stated that in the post.

LightWaver-67 · May 9, 2005, 04:54 PM

Crappy...?

The second PCI video card is a Radeon 9200 w/ 128MB VRAM and the Primary card is the AGP 6800 ULTRA w/ 256 MB VRAM.

I was under the impression, and it was verified by the Apple sales rep over the phone, that using a second card would be less taxing on the system than TWO 21" displays @ 1600 x 1200 on ONE card. So... I believed him and it's been setup that way ever since.

-----

That brings me to today:

As of earlier, I was the status as explained above. Only ONE monitor was getting the Xtreme stuff (water ripples, Motion� previews, etc.). So... based on some of your feedback, I tried unplugging the monitor from the PCI card and attaching it via the dongle to the second port on the 6800.

I rebooted and although I was still not seeing the blue "cloud-like" texture in the RSS Screensaver, I WAS getting water ripples in Dashboard and MUCH faster Expos� response.

For the sake of trying it... I shut down and yanked the PCI card and rebooted again. BINGO! Clouds and all! I wish the dang sales rep knew what he was talking about before I dropped a couple (few?) hundred bucks on the Radeon 9200.

Sorry for my previous multi-posts and thanks for the input. I think I'll try sticking with the AGP for a while and see if there are any down-sides.

Tritium · May 9, 2005, 05:17 PM

If you have a geforce 6800 ultra, why do you have the second monitor connected to a different video card? It has two outputs capable of driving big displays. I'd pull out the second video card and try with only the 6800.

Edit:
Whoops, read the thread, went away for a half hour, came back, and didn't refresh. Guess my suggestion would have worked...

LightWaver-67 · May 9, 2005, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by Tritium

If you have a geforce 6800 ultra, why do you have the second monitor connected to a different video card? It has two outputs capable of driving big displays. I'd pull out the second video card and try with only the 6800.

Did you not read my previous post...? I specifically explained why.

--- paste ---

I was under the impression, and it was verified by the Apple sales rep over the phone, that using a second card would be less taxing on the system than TWO 21" displays @ 1600 x 1200 on ONE card. So... I believed him and it's been setup that way ever since.

-- end paste --

EDIT: Just read YOUR edit.

Cadaver · May 9, 2005, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by LightWaver-67

I was under the impression, and it was verified by the Apple sales rep over the phone, that using a second card would be less taxing on the system than TWO 21" displays @ 1600 x 1200 on ONE card. So... I believed him and it's been setup that way ever since.

Not true. You got some bad advice.
You'll get better performance if you run both monitors off the one card. Both will be Quartz Extreme accelerated.

Unless there is some specific reason you'll need ALL 256MB of VRAM for textures on the main display.

Oh, and VRAM is assigned by MacOS X dynamically, so the monitors are not always fixed at 128MB/128MB when two displays are connected to your one card. If one display needs more VRAM, it'll grab it if its free.

Parky · May 15, 2005, 06:30 AM

I have an iMac G5 and I also don't see the 'clouds' background in the RSS Screensaver.

The odd thing is that I can see it on my much older, slower G4 12" PowerBook, so why not on the iMac?

I have 'Render on Main Screen only' selected, even though I only have this screen anyway.

I have rebooted, repaired Privs, etc, etc still no clouds, very very strange.

Ian

Parky · May 15, 2005, 07:35 AM

I have the solution !!!

I had a user define colorsync profile defined and if I reverted to the original supplied profile the clouds appeared.

So I ran through the calibration again, not really changing much, except turning off :-

'Use Native Gamma' and 'Use Native White Point' and then I saved the profile. It looked the same so my display was not affected, but the clouds now display.

Hope that helps,

Ian

LightWaver-67 · May 15, 2005, 12:45 PM

For me... just HAVING the PCI-Card seated in-place without any monitors connected to it was degrading performance. Once I yanked it out and ran my second display from the second port on the AGP card... everything got much "better".

I get fluffy clouds on BOTH monitors... the ripple effects, Exposé, Dashboard, Motion™... they ALL run quicker with the PCI card removed.

I wish I had talked to "other" people before listening to the frickin' sales rep. Anyone want a Radeon 7200 PCI vid-car w/ 128MB VRAM...?

zerostar · May 15, 2005, 01:17 PM

Originally Posted by Cadaver

Oh, and VRAM is assigned by MacOS X dynamically, so the monitors are not always fixed at 128MB/128MB when two displays are connected to your one card. If one display needs more VRAM, it'll grab it if its free.

Are you sure about this?

I am running motion (a VRAM hog!) on my main 23" display and I use the second display a 20" for pallets, etc. This is all off a Radeon 9800 256MB. I was told if I got a second PCI card it would help with motion since the main display would have all of the 256MB ram for it.

Does it seem worth it to get a second video card or just stick with the 1?

p.s. I am almost out of PCI slots anyway with Fibrechannel, FW800 and Blackmagic cards

LightWaver-67 · May 15, 2005, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by zerostar

Are you sure about this?

I am running motion (a VRAM hog!) on my main 23" display and I use the second display a 20" for pallets, etc. This is all off a Radeon 9800 256MB. I was told if I got a second PCI card it would help with motion since the main display would have all of the 256MB ram for it.

Does it seem worth it to get a second video card or just stick with the 1?

p.s. I am almost out of PCI slots anyway with Fibrechannel, FW800 and Blackmagic cards

I can confirm that running both monitors off of the 256MB AGP (Ultra), Motion now not only runs quicker on the main display, but you now get the correct "Previews" in the pallets on the second monitor that you would NOT see while using the PCI card.

zerostar · May 15, 2005, 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by LightWaver-67

I can confirm that running both monitors off of the 256MB AGP (Ultra), Motion now not only runs quicker on the main display, but you now get the correct "Previews" in the pallets on the second monitor that you would NOT see while using the PCI card.

Thanks for the tip! I forgot about the previews :-) I guess they need CV as well.

tooki · May 15, 2005, 03:40 PM

I cleaned up this thread.

tooki

cla · May 16, 2005, 05:18 AM

Originally Posted by Parky

I have the solution !!!

I had a user define colorsync profile defined and if I reverted to the original supplied profile the clouds appeared.

lol! I just tried your suggestion and whoa! A nice cloudy background appeared!
To my surprise, as I had no idea there were supposed to be clouds at all!
=]

Originally Posted by Parky

Hope that helps,

Ian

I sure did! Thanks a lot. Puzzles me though how you managed to find that odd work-around...

Parky · May 16, 2005, 06:07 AM

I found it by trying everything I could in all the System Preferences.
I just worked my way through each System Preference that I thought 'could' have some effect on the screen.
Eventually I came across the ColorSync Profiles, and just selected the standard profile and it worked.
I then tried amending my own profile slightly to see if that would fix it, and it did.

I have a long good background in System Development and Testing, so I know that by the process of elimination you can usually find the problem and fix it.

Ian