Hi there,
Some of you might have heard of Blender ( http://www.blender.org ), the cross-platform, open-source 3D modelling/animation/rendering/real-time game engine application. Blender uses a 100% OpenGL front-end for drawing everything, from 2D UI controls, to the actual 3D viewport rendering.
For the next major 2.50 release, the front-end OpenGL based UI is getting a major re-write, as well as the back-end, in order to allow for a highly interactive, and fully customisable, infrastructure for future developments.
For the new UI, the developers want to implement OpenGL in a very clean and efficient way from the start.
There is currently an issue with the UI fickering on some graphics cards ( in this case, an ATI and Integrated Intel graphics card on Windows XP ).
A fix was created for the 2.50 branch, based on the previous verions, which effectively draws everything twice ( not very efficient, but it does work ) - they are actively looking for a more efficient solution is found to implement.
You can view the svn patch here, that fixes the issue…
http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-blender-cvs/2009-January/017657.html
A bit more info, as well as a link to info on why the older version of Blender used this “fix” method of drawing, can be veiwed here…
http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-taskforce25/2009-January/000271.html
If any you do have any thoughts or suggestions, this is the main mailing list for active developers - I’m sure they would enjoy finding out more about the problem, and how to solve it.
http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
Alternatively, you could post some ideas regarding what the issue might be, and any potential solutions to try out, in this thread, and I’ll pass the link on to the relevant Blender developers.
Many thanks in advance for anyone who can give any assitance…
Mal