Stellarium

[derekm]

A couple of years back I installed Stellarium on a recommendation, but each time I opened it, the image on the screen flickered. After a few tries, I uninstalled.

Last night, saw it in action at our society star party so tried again this morning. It flickered, but after three or four openings the flickering stopped. The program appears to run completely and perfectly, except that when the function menus are slid out, it is only they that flicker faintly.

It is Stellarium Win 32 and I'm on XP. Any ideas to get rid of this flicker please?

[CSM]

Stellarium on XP doesn't seem to like any other applications running. Indeed, if you try Alt+Tab to another program it will probably end up flickering constantly and Stellarium itself will crash and you won't get the other program - I end up restarting the computer.

[c3po]

It could be your graphics card and/or drivers. I've had issues before where the default MS agp driver had caused flickering in 3D and OpenGL graphics programs. Most were cleared by updating my graphics card drivers.

If you need any help with this, just give me a shout.

[mert]

I also think it's the graphics card. What card is in your machine?

[derekm]

Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

Re. the graphics, I think there's no separate graphics card, but that the graphics are part of the motherboard, but I wouldn't know where to start finding out!

The machine is a generic from E-Buyer and this is the only glitch I've ever had.

[Sam]

I had a similar problem with a version of Stellarium a few years ago. I had to wait until a new version came out that worked with my graphics card.

[8472]

No version of Stellarium has ever worked on my other half's prehistoric laptop.

I've only now just installed x64 v11.4 (latest at time of writing) and it works like a charm!

Its worth a go...

[Alastair Rae]

I have the same flickering and hanging up issues on my XP desktop at work. It works beautifully on my Ubuntu laptop at home.

[kev]

i have a Dell i3 e5510 running XP, and no matter what it has always been a pain locking and flickering when running OpenGL2.

** However ** if you run it on the No OpenGL2 option on the start menu, on my lappy and all my old pcs it runs a dream!!!

I love it.

[VigdisVZ]

My stellarium at work on my XP workstation runs, but it has font errors

[derekm]

i have a Dell i3 e5510 running XP, and no matter what it has always been a pain locking and flickering when running OpenGL2.

** However ** if you run it on the No OpenGL2 option on the start menu, on my lappy and all my old pcs it runs a dream!!!

I love it.

This sounds like it may be the solution, but how do I get to this start menu for the No OpenGL2 please?

[VigdisVZ]

This sounds like it may be the solution, but how do I get to this start menu for the No OpenGL2 please?

The start menu in the latest Windows releases is located at the bottom left corner of the screen.

If you're running mac or linux it may vary where you access other start options.

[derekm]

The start menu in the latest Windows releases is located at the bottom left corner of the screen.

If you're running mac or linux it may vary where you access other start options.

I'm running XP. The start button gives me access to Control Panel, which in turn has a Taskbar & Start Menu button, but I can't find any mention of OpenGL2 anywhere in there. Will "Clear list" (of startup programs) do the job?

[VigdisVZ]

This is where my version of stellarium puts its start menu entry on my workstation:

Otherwise you should be able to make your own shortcut with the following command line "C:\Program Files\Stellarium\stellarium.exe" --safe-mode

Hope this will get you sorted.

[derekm]

OK, found the "No opengl2" but the program is still flickering. It was worth a try though!

[VigdisVZ]

Yeah the no opengl option didn't solve my font issues either.

[martin_h]

I have just got a new(refurbished) comp for the obs, running XP and stellarium had font problems but after updating the graphics drivers all is good.

[Daggerstab]

A couple of years back I installed Stellarium on a recommendation, but each time I opened it, the image on the screen flickered. After a few tries, I uninstalled.

Last night, saw it in action at our society star party so tried again this morning. It flickered, but after three or four openings the flickering stopped. The program appears to run completely and perfectly, except that when the function menus are slid out, it is only they that flicker faintly.

It is Stellarium Win 32 and I'm on XP. Any ideas to get rid of this flicker please?

Two things to try:

- try to find out what exactly is your graphics chip, even if it's integrated, and try to download the latest possible drivers for it from the manufacturer's website. If it's an old model, they are probably in the legacy drivers section.

- use Stellarium in window mode - switching between window and full-screen is done by pressing F11 or clicking the appropriate button in Stellarium's bottom toolbar.

[derekm]

Well, apart from a routine defrag, registry cleanup and runs of Malwarebytes and Spybot (1 Trojan found), Stellarium now runs without flicker in both window and full screen.

Hope it stays that way, because it's an incredible little program and so easy to use.