Call to Retina users (for Fredo6 plugins)

[slbaumgartner]

@fredo6 said:

Steve

Thanks for these enlightful explanations.

My idea was to scale the palette in my code, but I need to understand the problem with the text size. I wonder why oli_sketch gets a tiny text! whereas you and pbacot get a normal text size.

By the way, did you check in the OpenGL preference panel if there are any option available talking about points.

I am not sure the SU team is working on a solution in the short term.

Fredo

If there is an OpenGL preferences panel, I haven't been able to find it. Do you know there is one, or are you speculating? If you know how to open it please let me know and I will look at it. But, as discussed next, I don't think it would matter...

OpenGL in itself doesn't provide any support for text (consult any book on OpenGL programming to verify this). To show text on the screen, an app has to draw the characters using one of the low-level OpenGL functions. There are libraries such as FreeType that an app can employ to add a text-drawing layer atop OpenGL, but I don't know whether SketchUp uses one or if so which one. Given this state of affairs, only the SU code itself can control the size and font used.

Our test experience shows that the SU team did not write code that senses Retina and changes these parameters for view.draw_text nor did they expose a UI that lets a user specify them. So, until they do I think we are stuck. Considering that very few plugins/extensions use view.draw_text and that the problem is severe only on screens that pack a very high pixel count into a relatively small screen (i.e. MacBook Pro Retina vs a super-large monitor), I am not surprised that the SU team doesn't give this problem much priority.

As an extreme workaround I suppose you could create your own library of character images at double size and place your text using collections of these. Clearly that is an awful lot of work to handle a small portion of your user base!

Steve

[fredo6]

@slbaumgartner said:

If there is an OpenGL preferences panel, I haven't been able to find it. Do you know there is one, or are you speculating? If you know how to open it please let me know and I will look at it. But, as discussed next, I don't think it would matter...

The OpenGL Panel is in Windows > Preferences

But it might be there is nothing specific to the problem of Retina.

I don't think the SU Team has yet looked at the problem. What I am trying to clarify is the size of the text because we have 2 examples where the text size is different, even for the same settings (Best for Retina).

Fredo

[driven]

@fredo6 said:

What I am trying to clarify is the size of the text because we have 2 examples where the text size is different, even for the same settings (Best for Retina).

Fredo

I suspect that will be down to graphics cards.

from what I can ascertain, openGL_view on a mac, converts the 'text string' into an openGL image/texture...

theres a bunch of legacy methods apple provided if the graphics 'hardware' support was lacking for this conversion.

GL_APPLE_float_pixels is one example. [from c2003]

I suspect the new 'mac' hardware no longer supports the fallbacks, so if the graphics 'hardware' differs from vendor to vendor, you will see different results...

john

[pbacot]

If it is due to different graphics cards, then it has to do with how different graphics cards treat retina, because the same dialogs on another "regular" monitor (same computer) look fine. So that would make it really convoluted, Apple providing different graphics card solutions for retina.

[pbacot]

I get the following message when I try start ThruPaint

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[slbaumgartner]

@fredo6 said:

I made a change to offer the possibility to scale up the button palettes (by a factor 2).

ONLY FOR RETINA USERS
Would you be be kind to

1. Drop the attached file Lib6Palette.rb into the Fredo6_!LibFredo6 subfolder
   [attachment=1:1g1qxvfs]<!-- ia1 -->Lib6Palette.rb<!-- ia1 -->[/attachment:1g1qxvfs]

2. Go to Windows > LibFredo6 Settings... and set the Retina Screen parameter to true (it is at the bottom of the dialog)

3. Check with my plugins if the display has improved.

4. If possible, post some screenshots so that I can see visually what is going on.

@oli_sketch: I still don't understand why you get tiny text whereas other Retina users get normal text size

Thanks very much

Fredo

Here's a screenshot. As you can see, this affected the button graphics, but not the text. BTW, different models of MacBook Pro Retina have used different GPU chips. In theory at least, that could cause some low-level variations from Mac to Mac...

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[fredo6]

@pbacot said:

I get the following message when I try start ThruPaint

Could you upgrade to libfredo6 5.5g and FredoTools 1.6g

Fredo

[pbacot]

@fredo6 said:

@pbacot said:

I get the following message when I try start ThruPaint

Could you upgrade to libfredo6 5.5g and FredoTools 1.6g

Fredo

I upgraded the above and that removed the error message. I then copied the Lib6Palette.rb at the location shown. Restarted SU. The Thrupaint toolbar does look not any different than before.

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[fredo6]

@pbacot said:

@fredo6 said:

@pbacot said:

I get the following message when I try start ThruPaint

Could you upgrade to libfredo6 5.5g and FredoTools 1.6g

Fredo

I upgraded the above and that removed the error message. I then copied the Lib6Palette.rb at the location shown. Restarted SU. The Thrupaint toolbar does look not any different than before.

Did you go to the default parameters and check the flag for Retina?

[fredo6]

@slbaumgartner said:

Here's a screenshot. As you can see, this affected the button graphics, but not the text. BTW, different models of MacBook Pro Retina have used different GPU chips. In theory at least, that could cause some low-level variations from Mac to Mac...

I can't do anything for the text from the Ruby side. There is no API for that and apparently the setup of text size in Model Info [Text section] does not do anything for the text drawn from Ruby.

But since some Retina users get the text in 'normal' size, there may be a way for you to get it as well by playing with some settings. If this is a matter of graphical card or driver, then I am afraid we'll have to wait for the SU Team to address the problem.

Anyway, I guess this is already a progress to get the buttons bigger, even if the text remains tiny.

What I need now to do is to make the change for some other graphical elements like the Visual Progress bars, the custom tooltips and some other decoration.

Fredo

[pbacot]

@fredo6 said:

@pbacot said:

@fredo6 said:

@pbacot said:

I get the following message when I try start ThruPaint

Could you upgrade to libfredo6 5.5g and FredoTools 1.6g

Fredo

I upgraded the above and that removed the error message. I then copied the Lib6Palette.rb at the location shown. Restarted SU. The Thrupaint toolbar does look not any different than before.

Did you go to the default parameters and check the flag for Retina?

Doh! Didn't do that!. But I can't find it now. Peter

[oli_sketch]

Dear Fredo,

Can you help me?

.-oli

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[fredo6]

@oli_sketch said:

Dear Fredo,

Can you help me?

.-oli

Sorry, I should have said it. Please upgrade to LibFredo6 5.5g before and then copy the Lib6Palette.rb file.

Do not forget to turn on the flag about Retina Screen in the LibFredo6 Default Parameters.

Fredo

[oli_sketch]

Hi Fredo,

I have installed the 5.6g lib but the same problem appears....

thanks.

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[fredo6]

Oli,

I realized that on Sketchup 8, there is a problem. So here is a corrected version. Sorry for that.
Lib6Palette.rb

Fredo

[fredo6]

I made a change to offer the possibility to scale up the button palettes (by a factor 2).

ONLY FOR RETINA USERS
Would you be be kind to

1. Drop the attached file Lib6Palette.rb into the Fredo6_!LibFredo6 subfolder
   Lib6Palette.rb

2. Go to Windows > LibFredo6 Settings... and set the Retina Screen parameter to true (it is at the bottom of the dialog)

3. Check with my plugins if the display has improved.

4. If possible, post some screenshots so that I can see visually what is going on.

@oli_sketch: I still don't understand why you get tiny text whereas other Retina users get normal text size

Thanks very much

Fredo

[oli_sketch]

Hi Fredo,

I´ve installed your file and SU 2013 open it without problems.

I show you some screenshots.

Thanks.

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[oli_sketch]

Hi Again,

Sorry, I´ve selected Retina in default parameters but I haven´t saved the changes.

Much better.

Thanks

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[fredo6]

Oli,

Do you have any way to play with the Retina settings on OSX to see if they would impact the text size? Some other Retina users have a bigger text.

If not, then, I am afraid that I won't be able to do anything about it, except that the buttons are now bigger.

Fredo

[oli_sketch]

Hi again,

The only way (Mac) that I know for change the type size on screen is choosing resolution.

When you talk about retina users with normal size, are they using macosx 10.9.1 ? macbook pro 15" latest 2013 ?
Gráficos NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB ?

Thank you again