Weird graphical anomolies on Mac Mini running Windows
by Adam Holmes · in Torque X 2D · 06/11/2009 (6:05 pm) · 4 replies
Hey everyone!
I'm fairly new to Torque X, just got started via the XNA creator's club. I spent a fair bit of time messing around with it on a secondary PC I have, and I have now installed it on my main PC, which happens to be a Mac Mini (running Windows.. through boot camp on an intel chip - so no, this isn't an emulation issue as there is no emulation happening, I just mentioned it's a Mac Mini so everyone's aware of the stats, video card, etc)
Specs: www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html
When I ran on the other PC, everything worked great! There are a multitude of issues when running on my Mac, though.
1) Whenever I use tilemaps of any kind, the program crashes when I go to test run my game
2) For some reason, I can't maximize the Torque X Builder window
3) The editor portion of the TXB window is all glitchy colors - there's a whole scene there that you can't see.
The last two you can see illustrated in this picture:
Could it be the video card? I've tried reinstalling a bunch of times, clearing out the registry each time. I'm running on a 40 inch LCD TV through DVI->HDMI.
Thanks everyone!
Holmfry
I'm fairly new to Torque X, just got started via the XNA creator's club. I spent a fair bit of time messing around with it on a secondary PC I have, and I have now installed it on my main PC, which happens to be a Mac Mini (running Windows.. through boot camp on an intel chip - so no, this isn't an emulation issue as there is no emulation happening, I just mentioned it's a Mac Mini so everyone's aware of the stats, video card, etc)
Specs: www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html
When I ran on the other PC, everything worked great! There are a multitude of issues when running on my Mac, though.
1) Whenever I use tilemaps of any kind, the program crashes when I go to test run my game
2) For some reason, I can't maximize the Torque X Builder window
3) The editor portion of the TXB window is all glitchy colors - there's a whole scene there that you can't see.
The last two you can see illustrated in this picture:
Could it be the video card? I've tried reinstalling a bunch of times, clearing out the registry each time. I'm running on a 40 inch LCD TV through DVI->HDMI.
Thanks everyone!
Holmfry
#2
06/12/2009 (5:40 pm)
The exact same thing, it's really strange. If I go into preferences and try to change my grid color, etc, the whole scene portion of the window starts going crazy, randomly changing colors but never showing me the scene. 
#3
I figured it's because I'm running Windows 7 (on a normal dell desktop, nothing fancy like a mac with windows). It's a brand new computer, and it has had this problem from the get go. I got a new video card (for other reasons) to upgrade my onboard video card, but it does the exact same thing.
I am in tech support, and without going into a lot of boring detail, it's definitely a software issue, and it's most likely with TXB itself.
Any GG people want to help? I'd really like to be able to program...
07/07/2009 (1:05 pm)
I was about to post this bug, good thing I stumbled on this topic. I am getting the exact same three errors, word for word (even the red background is the same)I figured it's because I'm running Windows 7 (on a normal dell desktop, nothing fancy like a mac with windows). It's a brand new computer, and it has had this problem from the get go. I got a new video card (for other reasons) to upgrade my onboard video card, but it does the exact same thing.
I am in tech support, and without going into a lot of boring detail, it's definitely a software issue, and it's most likely with TXB itself.
Any GG people want to help? I'd really like to be able to program...
#4
Your Mac Mini has a Gefore 9400, and my desktop has a geforce 8400. I disabled that card, uninstalled the drivers (Windows 7, by the way), and used the onboard video card and TXB no longer crashed nor got weird graphical glitches. However, my background was still red like in your screenshot (which is so ugly, I wish I could change the red), and I still could not maximize the window nor resize it dynamically (resizing it in the commonprefs.xml works though).
Installing each of the whopping three different nvidia drivers available for windows 7 gave me distinctly different graphics related errors (i.e. TXB locking up, never displaying a scene or material windows, etc etc). So, I'm now installing Windows XP and hopefully the wider range of available drivers will fix the issue. For the record, Windows 7 is AWESOME. I'll be installing it once it's finalized and all the drivers play nicely with it.
Anyway, try different nvidia drivers: your mileage may vary.
07/09/2009 (12:31 pm)
God knows where GG people are, but I think I've diagnosed (if not solved) some of this problem. It appears to be a nvidia driver issue.Your Mac Mini has a Gefore 9400, and my desktop has a geforce 8400. I disabled that card, uninstalled the drivers (Windows 7, by the way), and used the onboard video card and TXB no longer crashed nor got weird graphical glitches. However, my background was still red like in your screenshot (which is so ugly, I wish I could change the red), and I still could not maximize the window nor resize it dynamically (resizing it in the commonprefs.xml works though).
Installing each of the whopping three different nvidia drivers available for windows 7 gave me distinctly different graphics related errors (i.e. TXB locking up, never displaying a scene or material windows, etc etc). So, I'm now installing Windows XP and hopefully the wider range of available drivers will fix the issue. For the record, Windows 7 is AWESOME. I'll be installing it once it's finalized and all the drivers play nicely with it.
Anyway, try different nvidia drivers: your mileage may vary.
Torque Owner L P