PhotoModeler 3D Viewer Problems

There have been a few reports from users (usually with ATI graphics cards running the 64bit version) having sporadic problems with 3D Viewer display and/or the display of 3D projections on photos. Error messages relating to ‘coin’ or ‘openGL’, ‘buffering’ or ‘PMOIModelProjection’ will be shown when displaying the 3D Viewer or enabling 3D items on photos.

In most cases updating the graphics card driver will solve the problem.  Check your card’s manufacturer and then visit the manufacturer’s website, which should have a Support/Downloads page listing driver updates.

For users with ATI graphics cards, reverting to an older ATI driver may resolve the problem. In other cases, an update to the latest ATI driver helps. We’re looking into the problem and we’re in touch with ATI but we don’t have a full solution at this time as we have had trouble consistently reproducing the problem. It appears there may be an issue with some versions of the Windows 64bit ATI OpenGL driver.

In v2014.1.0 (to be released early July) there is a Preference setting (Options menu, Preferences) on the 3D Viewer/Display page called “Force Buffers Off”.  Setting it to on/checked can resolve related problems. In older versions of PhotoModeler, you will have to edit the PhotoModeler.ini configuration file manually (see instructions) to add this section and setting:

[OpenGL] ForcePBuffersOff=TRUE

Please also note that in some special cases (when all else fails) you may also need to set a System Environment Variable:

COIN_FULL_INDIRECT_RENDERING=1

To set your system Environment Variable, click Windows Start, Control Panel, System, Advanced System Settings, Environment Variables…, New… (in the System Variables section).   Use COIN_FULL_INDIRECT_RENDERING for the variable name and 1 for the value.

 

For those running PhotoModeler on older operating systems such as XP or Vista, lowering ‘Hardware Acceleration’ can help.

 

***UPDATE for Users with ATI graphics cards***

In recent months ATI has released various drivers that appear to have resolved the issue, based on reports from PhotoModeler users. However, we have also had recent reports that the most recent driver package may cause trouble in PhotoModeler. Previous version(s) appear to be more reliable (ie Catalyst v12.2  – download here).