Confirmed Switching from OpenGL to software (in game) causes halt in drawing updates

Ace Dragon

Member
You can see for yourself in version 2.2.1 (at least on a Ryzen machine with Windows 10).

Switch the renderer to OpenGL, the game does what you would expect. Now press the arrow key again to switch back to Software, the game is still functioning, but the draw code is no longer running and it almost looks like the game froze.

However, going back to the desktop and closing the game from the taskbar works without a hitch, and starting the game again will have you back in software with everything working. For a few days I was wondering if I was now stuck using OpenGL only even for things like level design. For some reason the rendering code does not get re-initialized.
 
I also have this glitch and want to detail it a little more. The glitch don't occurs when in windored and you need to close the game or alt+tab to fix it.
Gif still work as expected just that the screen is never refresh.
 
Ace Dragon, can you confirm that this issue is not fixed by pressing the Windows key to switch out of SRB2, then going back into SRB2 (without closing/relaunching the game)?


And are you using windowed mode, (exclusive/default) fullscreen mode, borderless windowed not filling the whole screen, or borderless windowed filling the whole screen? (The latter two require the command-line "-borderless" launch parameter/option.)
 
But how, and some message.

So, I too have this glitch, when I just switch OpenGL to software, GAME JUST DELETED! Seriosly, I got this error in FIRST TIME.
 
Ace Dragon, can you confirm that this issue is not fixed by pressing the Windows key to switch out of SRB2, then going back into SRB2 (without closing/relaunching the game)?

Everything works as it should in windowed mode, but is there any reason to not play the game in full-screen (though I guess you get crisper graphics that way)?
 
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Everything works as it should in windowed mode, but is there any reason to not play the game in full-screen (though I guess you get crisper graphics that way)?
Personal preference would be a reason to not play it in fullscreen mode.


But, try to keep SRB2 in fullscreen mode, then test and answer this:

Once SRB2 freezes from switching to the software renderer, then if you switch focus to something else (by pressing the Windows key or by pressing Alt+Tab, without exiting the game fully), and then switch focus back to SRB2 (by clicking on it on the taskbar), do the graphics remain frozen, or does it unfreeze?
 
I'm curious as to what everyone's GPUs are in this thread.

I just tested it on my Radeon RX470 and I have the same problem. Who authored the in-game switch? Did they have an nVidia card?
 
I'm curious as to what everyone's GPUs are in this thread. -
Mine is an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. While I'm not sure about for "exclusive"/"default" fullscreen, I do know that I experience this issue when using borderless fullscreen, and that in that case it's a result of all NVIDIA GPU drivers since version 397.64(?) detecting if an OpenGL/Vulkan/DirectX 10+ game is running in a borderless window with the same dimensions as the monitor, and forcing it into "exclusive" fullscreen regardless if so, outputting the OpenGL/Vulkan/DirectX 10+ graphic buffer directly to the monitor or such (I don't know the technical details), while that OpenGL buffer thing will of course stop being updated when you switch back to the software renderer in-game. Again, I'm not sure if this also happens for "exclusive" fullscreen mode, but I can't deny that it might.


Switching focus away from SRB2 and then back to SRB2 will fix the issue, since switching focus away from it gets it out of that "OpenGL-directly-to-the-monitor" situation and it won't re-enter that situation until SRB2 is in OpenGL mode again.


(Yes, this also means that SRB2 can run in actual borderless fullscreen with the software renderer, yet not the OpenGL renderer, with NVIDIA GPU drivers since version 397.64(?).) (I believe that this also happens with AMD GPU drivers, though I don't know when they started doing this as well. Either way, I don't like it.)
 
Once SRB2 freezes from switching to the software renderer, then if you switch focus to something else (by pressing the Windows key or by pressing Alt+Tab, without exiting the game fully), and then switch focus back to SRB2 (by clicking on it on the taskbar), do the graphics remain frozen, or does it unfreeze?

I can confirm the game unfreezes using this method.

By the way, the card I have should SRB2 use the OpenGL mode is a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. Nvidia is pretty much the way to go for 3D CG work as they are the only company with a solid record of high-quality drivers.
 
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I can confirm the game unfreezes using this method. By the way, the card I have should SRB2 use the OpenGL mode is a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. [...]
Then the issue is 100% NVIDIA's fault (with a sprinkle of Microsoft on top). I don't know if it can be fixed from SRB2's side of things, but it's definitely* not SRB2 causing the problem.


* I'm 100% certain of this, but I could of course be wrong anyway. I'm still 100% certain, though.
 

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