kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Piotr Esden-Tempski <piotr@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bob,

I did not change the resolution of my whole screen. I only told Mac OS to start Kicad.app in low resolution mode. (it makes all the children start in that mode too)

This is how I solved it, see section "Retina display slow”

http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/DEV/Known+System+Related+Issues <http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/DEV/Known+System+Related+Issues>

Obviously this can be also achieved by telling the OS to decrease the resolution of the Retina display but then all applications will run at lower resolution. This is not a good solution to the problem. I also have an external screen which is not HiDPI and moving the window over there makes it also run faster.

Also this has nothing to do with thunderbolt speed. Apple is usually not selling stuff they can not drive. This is why the 5k iMac display can not be used from an external computer but only from the built in one. The speed issues are related to KiCad not being able to render so many pixels not that the machine can not control the display. As I assume the default and cairo views don’t use any hardware acceleration and have to render all those pixels in software.

The OpenGL graphics mode is the only mode that has no issues rendering on that display and is totally fine with the resolution. For default view and even worse cairo I have to start in the “Low Resolution mode” this way the software thinks the display is low resolution and has to render much fewer pixels. The operating system then scales it up, probably using hardware, so that it is not so tiny on the screen.

Also the only application I use that has speed issues on this display is KiCad at the moment. I can’t wait to see OpenGL canvas be used throughout KiCad so I can take advantage of the nice screen. :D But I am totally fine with the lowres mode for now, just sharing the current state of affairs. :)

I hope this clarifies the situation.

Cheers,
Piotr

--
Piotr Esden-Tempski
Founder, Embedded Systems Engineer
1 Bit Squared 'Professional Nano UAV Systems'
http://1bitsquared.com

> On Apr 2, 2015, at 12:28 PM, Bob Gustafson <bobgus@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> Begin forwarded message:
>> 
>> Date: April 2, 2015 at 03:58:18 CDT
>> From: Bob Gustafson <bobgus@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:bobgus@xxxxxxxxxx>>
>> To: Piotr Esden-Tempski <piotr@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:piotr@xxxxxxxxx>>, Maciej Sumiński <maciej.suminski@xxxxxxx <mailto:maciej.suminski@xxxxxxx>>
>> Cc: Adam Wolf <adamwolf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:adamwolf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>, "kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>" <kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
>> Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] Bob's Mac Usability Problems
>> 
>> Super -  I will go out and get a standard PC logitech mouse.
>> 
>> According to the reports on the 5k iMac, you have 14.7 million pixels with a resolution of 5,120x2,880 - very impressive. Bandwidth to the screen is beyond Thunderbolt 2, so no wonder you have some slowness moving pixels.
>> 
>> There may be an adjustment for resolution - so you can trade off speed vs pixels.
> 
> 
> The Preferences our Mac mini include an item for screen resolution. It seems reasonable that if you cut the resolution, your screen render time should speed up.
> 
> See attached tiff of preferences window.
> 
> <DisplayResolutionPrefs.tiff>