Problem Resolution Guide for JView3DPro

Writing a 2D Java application enjoys the hard-won benefits from Sun of Write Once Run Anywhere (WORA). We write an application in Java 2D, and if it does not work on a particular platform, we are surprised, nay even shocked.

When developing 3D applications, prepare to be shocked. It is alas quite common to see an application fail on a particular platform, but work well elsewhere.

Remember that in a 3D application, most of the work happens in the 3D engine on the video card. Indeed this must be the case, otherwise even a speedy modern CPU would slow to a crawl. Alas, the 3D engines are not nearly so uniform and well behaved as the JVM. Additionally, Java 3D does not have the benefits of Sun's mighty testing program. We have found many issues that trace back to quirks and differences in the 3D engine: the video card and the video driver. Sometimes the problems can be solved by upgrading your video driver. Other times, you may need to change your video card. Once you enter the world of 3D, you are leaving WORA behind you.

Video cards and drivers change quickly. The online version of this guide has the latest information that we can find to help you. You should also check the following helpful resources

Laptops

Laptops tend to be problematic when running Java 3D. Some work well, but quite a few do not. Video drivers are harder to get (you have to get them from the laptop manufacturer), and tend to be buggier and more out-of-date. The video cards in laptops have less. Less video memory, less power, and less cooling. They just don't work as well as their cousins on the desktop machines.

Plan on spending extra time, money, and effort to get your application to run on a laptop.

Linux

Configuration for Java 3D under Linux can be tricky, but is possible. The binary build of Java 3D 1.3.2 at http://java3d.dev.java.net/binary-builds.html supports Linux. You may find some other information to help you at blackdown. Generally speaking, Linux video drivers don't work as well as their Window counterparts, and you will be more likely to experience problems, and roadblocks.

Java 3D

You should definitely use the latest version of Java 3D that is available. The Java 3D developers are hard at work improving the platform and fixing bugs. Thanks guys.

Currently, you can get Java 3D version 1.3.1 from Sun. You can also get version Java 3D 1.3.2 from java.net. You should definitely use OpenGL. As of 1.3.2, Java 3D does not work well with Direct3D. When you download Java 3D 1.3.1, you will need to choose OpenGL or Direct3D, and will obtain an installer. When you download Java 3D 1.3.2, you will get both OpenGL and Direct3D. It will default to using OpenGL. However, you will obtain a zip file and instructions but not an installer. Don't panic, it's really pretty easy.

Currently, you can download Java 3D 1.3.1 from http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/3D/download.html. You can currently download Java 3D 1.3.2 from http://java3d.dev.java.net/ or http://java3d.dev.java.net/binary-builds.html.

Video Driver Installation Tips

If you have a laptop computer, get your new video drivers from the laptop manufacturer. The drivers from the video card manufacturer may not work on your laptop.
If you have a desktop computer, get your new video drivers from the video card manufacturer.
Preferably, do not get your drivers from the O/S vender (Microsoft, RedHat, etc.). The 3D engines on the graphics cards and their drivers change rapidly and the driver from the O/S vender is likely useless.
On Windows, to install a new video card driver follow this procedure.
1. Write down the current driver version in case you wish to go back to it.
2. Download the new driver onto your local harddisk.
3. Use "Add and Remove Programs" from the Control Panel to remove the currently installed video driver. This will cause Windows to use a default VGA driver with conservative settings. Windows will still be usable.
4. Install the new driver. Please note that the "roll back driver" option does not appear to work.

Flickering Swing Widgets

Many Windows XP users experience difficulties using OpenGL 3D with Java Swing components. It appears that some older video graphics drivers have difficulties with this combination. The application is using OpenGL hardware acceleration and nearby in the same window the Swing components are using DirectDraw hardware acceleration to draw themselves.

The symptoms are that the Swing widgets flicker and blink. You may have difficulty selecting focus in JText or JList widgets. JPopupMenus may be drawn without any text in them. The JText widgets may recycle old text. The symptoms can be mild and intermittent, or so severe that the application appears to be having a seizure. A discussion of this issue may be found on this forum and also on this thread.

At this time, the flickering swing widgets appears to be associated with NVidia cards. In particular, NVidia driver 4.5.0.2 (aka 45.02) from 11/3/2003 exhibits the problem. Driver version 7.1.8.9 (aka 71.89) from 4/1/2005 corrects the problem.

Any of the below approaches may fix this problem. The preferred approach is to update your video drivers.

Update your video graphics card driver. The cards and drivers change rapidly, being driven by intense competition, and high customer demand for new features. Most computers have video drivers installed from the factory or from the operating system default. Often the video drivers are two years old. This is an eternity in the time frame of video drivers. In many cases, installing a new driver will fix your problems.

However, please note the below issues with certain ATI driver versions. You should avoid these driver versions.

Change your hardware acceleration setting. This helps some older drivers without having any noticeable impact on performance. Go to Control Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot and change the slider labeled "Hardware acceleration." Set this slider to one notch below "Full". This setting should say the following
```
Disable cursor and bitmap accelerations. Use this setting to correct
problems with the mouse pointer, or to correct problems with corrupt
images.
```
Use the java property flag -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true to disable DirectDraw in the Java application. For example, run MyApplication like this
```
   java -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true MyApplication
```
If you are running an applet (web based Java), you can set this property in the Java plug-in control panel. Go to Control Panel > Java Plug-in > Advanced and enter "-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true" (without the quotes) into the Java Runtime Parameters text box.

In some cases, -Dsun.java2d.d3d=false may also be useful, although it does not appear useful on our test machines.

Very Slow 3D Applications

In some cases, you can experience very, very slow speed in the 3D application combined with very high CPU and memory consumption. Please realize that Microsoft provides in Windows a software based OpenGL rendering engine. This engine does not use the hardware acceleration on the video card, and thus is always available no matter the video card. Unfortunately, software rendering is so slow as to be almost completely useless. Your video driver can revert back to software rendering if your hardware is unable to support your configuration or rendering requests.

If your 3D applications are excruciatingly slow, it is possible that your system is using the software based OpenGL renderer.

Please make sure that you have a video card that supports 3D graphics acceleration.
Try different settings on the video card. For example, most cards do not support 3D graphics acceleration with dual monitors. Try using only one monitor.
You may wish to update your video driver.

ATI Driver Issues

Crash in ATI driver

See Bug 69 at java3d.dev.java.net. If you attempt to run any Java 3D program, such as HelloUniverse, on Windows/XP using the ATI driver, version 6.14.10.6467 dated 3-Aug-2004, it will crash with a memory fault in atioglxx.dll. The downloaded driver file name is: "wxp-w2k-8-042-040803a-016701c". This error happens with Java 3D 1.5_beta2 and Java 3D 1.3.1 (fcs) or 1.3.2-build5. The error message is as follows: java HelloUniverse

#
# An unexpected error has been detected by HotSpot Virtual Machine:
#
# EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) at pc=0x693f6643, pid=3436, tid=3008
#
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (1.5.0-beta2-b51 mixed mode, sharing)
# Problematic frame:
# C  [atioglxx.dll+0x3f6643]
#
# An error report file with more information is saved as hs_err_pid3436.log
#
# If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:
#  ...

Pixel format invalid

The application will not run, and either of the following error messages is displayed on the console

wglCreateContext Failed: The pixel format is invalid.

Failed in wglCreateContext - Invalid access to memory location.

This is known to happen with ATI driver versions 6.14.10.6467, 6.14.10.6483, and 6.14.10.6497. See the discussion at this Java Desktop thread. This discussion posts some potential workarounds although it is not clear if the proposed workarounds correct this issue. Driver version 6.14.10.6436 does not have this problem.

Java 3D version 1.3.2 has incorporated a fix for this issue. As well, this issue is specific to the OpenGL version of Java 3D, the DirectX version may work on your machine.

Java3D based applications fail to start on ATI 8.10 driver

See Bug 104 at java3d.dev.java.net. Java3D based applications fail to start under the following ATI driver. http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k-catalyst-8-10-050119a-020581c.exe

Recommendations for ATI drivers

See forum discussion for a summary of the situation.

You can try an older ATI driver such as 6.14.10.6436. However, this driver does not work with really new ATI cards.
You can try using Java 3D for DirectX. The ATI driver issues appear to be in their OpenGL driver. However, the Java 3D community does not focus on the DirectX version as much as the OpenGL version, so this may cause issues of its own.
You can try using Java 3D version 1.3.2 which is available at the Java 3D home on java.net. This version of Java 3D has a fix to the wgl Pixel format error.

Crash using NVidia driver 71.74

See Bug 130 at java3d.dev.java.net. NVidia driver 71.74 causes crash in the rendering thread in removeAllCtxs().

#
# An unexpected error has been detected by HotSpot Virtual Machine:
#
#  EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) at pc=0x5ed8051c, pid=2808, tid=2780
#
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (1.5.0_02-b09 mixed mode)
# Problematic frame:
# C  [OPENGL32.dll+0x8051c]
#

---------------  T H R E A D  ---------------

Current thread (0x0aface30):  JavaThread "J3D-Renderer-1" [_thread_in_native,
id=2780]

...
C  [OPENGL32.dll+0x8051c]
C  [OPENGL32.dll+0x78fa9]
C  [OPENGL32.dll+0x79050]
C  [OPENGL32.dll+0x808c8]
C  [OPENGL32.dll+0x8097b]
C  [OPENGL32.dll+0x783cb]
C  [OPENGL32.dll+0x2b02a]
C  [OPENGL32.dll+0x1bb91]
C  [j3dcore-ogl.dll+0x1ade]
j  javax.media.j3d.Renderer.removeAllCtxs()V+187
J  javax.media.j3d.Renderer.doWork(J)V
j  javax.media.j3d.J3dThread.run()V+19
...

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