How to run software renderer?

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Contrary to popular belief, we are not all-knowing-all-seeing magical beings!

If you want help you're going to have to provide lots of info. Like what is your hardware, what is your operating system, what version of GZDoom/LZDoom/whatever you're using, what mods you're loading, how you're loading it, what you've already tried for fixing the problem, and anything else that is even remotely relevant to the problem.

We can't magically figure out what it is if you're going to be vague, and if we feel like you're just wasting our time with guessing games we will act like that's what you're really doing and won't help you.
Homor
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat May 12, 2018 6:18 am

How to run software renderer?

Post by Homor »

I'm having a huge problem with the latest version of GZDoom. I have a Windows 10 rig that absolutely refuses to run anything GL-related. Previous releases of GZDoom have had built-in software rendering as a menu option right at the start but starting with version 3.4 the option isn't there, and apparently you have to start the game up to toggle it. That just simply isn't an option for me since the game won't open as long as OpenGL is involved. How do I switch to software rendering?

I should also add that: no, the Witi trick doesn't work and if it did I wouldn't have even made this thread.
lafoxxx
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Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:43 am
Graphics Processor: nVidia with Vulkan support
Location: Moscow, Russia

Re: How to run software renderer?

Post by lafoxxx »

try adding this to gzdoom-username.ini:

vid_rendermode 0
Homor
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat May 12, 2018 6:18 am

Re: How to run software renderer?

Post by Homor »

lafoxxx wrote:try adding this to gzdoom-username.ini:

vid_rendermode 0
Didn't work. Maybe I added it to the wrong spot? The ini looks kind of messy and I wasn't really sure where anything was supposed to go.

I'm going to do my best to make sure I keep everyone updated on what's happening, what works and what doesn't and if I have fixed the problem yet or not, because I understand people will most likely come across this thread during Google searches for this exact problem and there's nothing, NOTHING more frustrating than googling a problem and finding a post like this that ultimately tells you nothing.
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Enjay
 
 
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Re: How to run software renderer?

Post by Enjay »

You can add

+vid_rendermode 0

to the command line and that will set it (and the setting should be remembered from that point on).
lafoxxx
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:43 am
Graphics Processor: nVidia with Vulkan support
Location: Moscow, Russia

Re: How to run software renderer?

Post by lafoxxx »

Where do you open this file?
Latest GZdoom creates INI with non-usual line break format which Windows Notepad doesn't understand.
Try using Notepad++.

Here's where you need to add this line:
<...>
vid_aspect=0
vid_vsync=true
vid_defheight=480
vid_defwidth=640
vid_rendermode=0
vid_maxfps=200
win_maximized=false
win_h=864
win_w=1536
<...>

Just checked and it worked for me.
Last edited by lafoxxx on Sun Mar 03, 2019 4:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Graf Zahl
Lead GZDoom+Raze Developer
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Re: How to run software renderer?

Post by Graf Zahl »

If you absolutely cannot use OpenGL, I'm afraid you have to use an older build. Since 3.4 GZDoom uses OpenGL exclusively for all rendering to the screen, including software mode.
May I ask whar kind of graphics hardware is doing such a thing? These days there really shouldn't be any GPU which cannot do OpenGL.
lafoxxx
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:43 am
Graphics Processor: nVidia with Vulkan support
Location: Moscow, Russia

Re: How to run software renderer?

Post by lafoxxx »

You can also use some kind of emulated OpenGL, like Mesa: https://www.mesa3d.org/
Used it with some success on a laptop with faulty GPU, where installing Drivers only made things worse.
Homor
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat May 12, 2018 6:18 am

Re: How to run software renderer?

Post by Homor »

Graf Zahl wrote:If you absolutely cannot use OpenGL, I'm afraid you have to use an older build. Since 3.4 GZDoom uses OpenGL exclusively for all rendering to the screen, including software mode.
May I ask whar kind of graphics hardware is doing such a thing? These days there really shouldn't be any GPU which cannot do OpenGL.
If you don't mind, I'll just dump my System Specs:

Time of this report: 3/3/2019, 17:09:03
Machine name: DESKTOP-MRFCTTP
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (10.0, Build 17134) (17134.rs4_release.180410-1804)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: OptiPlex 780
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A04 (type: BIOS)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3996MB RAM
Page File: 4670MB used, 2653MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
Miracast: Not Available
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
DxDiag Version: 10.00.17134.0001 64bit Unicode

Hopefully somewhere in that mess there's some useful information.

Also, just for the record: the ini change did not work.
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Rachael
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Re: How to run software renderer?

Post by Rachael »

Yeah, the ini change will *not* work on any system that cannot init at least an OpenGL 2.0 context, no matter what. Every version since GZDoom 3.4.0 has rendered software rendering to an OpenGL backend unconditionally. That's why you're able to live-switch renderers in the first place - the API switch was simply removed and replaced with an OpenGL screen texture.

To be quite honest, it's a wonder you even got Windows 10 running on that thing.

The only thing you can do, for now, is run LZDoom. It's a semi-updated fork of GZDoom 3.3.0 from before the removal of the Direct3D backends, and it should run most mods designed for up to GZDoom 3.7.2, albeit with less features (i.e. a lot of things will look glitchy). It's going to run like shit because you don't have any accelerated drivers at all on that system - but at least it will boot. You can find that here: viewtopic.php?f=231&t=62157

(As a note, for accelerated graphics it's most likely just missing drivers, I don't know what your GPU is so I can't point you to the driver downloads)
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Rachael
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Re: How to run software renderer?

Post by Rachael »

I just realized: For graphics, your GPU may be so old that you can't even run WDDM drivers on that system. If that's the case, then the only way to get graphics accelration at all is to install Windows 7 and use an XPDM driver (XPDM support was removed in Windows 8+), or switch to Linux.

And if THAT'S the case, then no version of GZDoom 3.4.0 will run on that system anyhow even if you do get drivers working - period. Unless you run it through an emulator like Mesa's llvmpipe, but with that CPU, it's still going to run like garbage.
Homor
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat May 12, 2018 6:18 am

Re: How to run software renderer?

Post by Homor »

Alright, thanks for the help everyone. I just decided to downgrade for now, and it actually seemed to solve most of the problems I was having that made me want to upgrade in the first place. So basically, I hope people find this thread helpful. Using LZDoom sounds like the best fix for now.

That's all. Hope people googling my problem get something out of this.

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