703437 - Changing 3D Application settings in the AMD Catalyst Control Center (like forced anti-aliasing) causes the text in ThunderBird to change in appearance.

Status: NEW

(Core :: Graphics, defect)

Description

[Craig Nobbs]

Attachment: Screenshot of ThunderBird with issue showing.

Issue:
Changing the 3D Application settings in the AMD Catalyst Control Center causes the text in ThunderBird to change appearance.


Summary:
In the AMD Catalyst Control Center, I changed the "Gaming" --> "3D Application Settings" options to force Anti-Aliasing and all other options to the maximum in favor of quality (over performance).

I opened ThunderBird and the issue was self evident.


Notes:
- If ThunderBird is already open when the settings are changed within the CCC, then the change in appearance will not take affect until ThunderBird is closed and reopened.
- I've included a PNG screen shot of ThunderBird with the alteration apparent.  I only edited out some personal information.
- The text on the desktop is not affected by these settings.
- FireFox is not affected by these settings.
- Changing the CCC settings back to their defaults does correct the issue the next time that ThunderBird is reopened.


Steps to recreate the issue:
1. Open the Catalyst Control Center (Advanced View)
2. Click on the "Gaming" menu item
3. Click on the "3D Application Settings" menu item
4. Uncheck any "Use application settings" check boxes that are checked
5. Adjust all slider bars to the right (highest quality)
6. Click the "Apply" button
7. Open ThunderBird


Version Information:
ThunderBird 8.0
AMD CCC
   Driver Packaging Version   8.892-110914m-125030C-ATI	
   Catalyst Version           11.9	
   Provider                   ATI Technologies Inc.	
   2D Driver Version          8.01.01.1186	
   Direct3D Version           7.14.10.0860	
   OpenGL Version             6.14.10.11079	
   CCC Version                2011.0908.1355.23115	
   AMD Audio Driver Version   7.12.0.7702	
Windows 7 Pro 64Bit Service Pack 1 (with all critical and optional updates)

Comment 1

[Craig Nobbs]

Attachment: Screenshot of CCC settings.

Comment 2

[:aceman]

What is actually the problem? Can you describe it? Only that the text reacts to the settings change? Is the text ugly now? I can't judge from the screenshot.
Thunderbird (and Firefox) is kinda a "3D application" in recent versions. It uses Direct2D, DirectWrite, Direct3D and other HW accelerated technologies using your graphics card.
The one relevant here could be DirectWrite (for text rendering).
Please paste contents of Graphics section of Help->Troubleshooting info.
If you do not wish this, you could disable DirectWrite (gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled) in Options->Advanced->general->Config editor.

Comment 3

[Craig Nobbs]

Attachment: Screenshot of ThunderBird without the issue.

Comment 4

[Craig Nobbs]

The issue is that the text changes in the way it is displayed.  If becomes distorted: somewhat italic and fuzzy looking.  It affects all text within ThunerBird; the main window, the options screen, email rendering, etc.

I did change the gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled settings as suggested and there was no immediate change nor was there after restarting ThunderBird.

Here's the Help->Troubleshooting Graphics information :
Adapter Description: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
Vendor ID: 1002
Device ID: 6899
Adapter RAM: 1024
Adapter Drivers: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
Driver Version: 8.892.0.0
Driver Date: 9-8-2011
Direct2D Enabled: true
DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.1.7601.17563)
ClearType Parameters: ClearType parameters not found
WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 0.0.0.686)
GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 10

Comment 5

[:aceman]

OK, from the new screenshot I see all of TB UI got fuzzy, even icons. So it seems everything gets antialiased, not only text.
Has anything changed in the Troubleshooting info when you set gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled to 'false'?

Ok, then try to set layers.acceleration.disabled to 'true'

Comment 6

[Craig Nobbs]

Attachment: layers.acceleration.disabled set to true

Comment 7

[Craig Nobbs]

When I set layers.acceleration.disabled set to true, it appeared as though I was looking at ThunderBird through a thick piece of obscured glass.  Look at the screen shot to see the affect.

When moving the mouse over different elements, the currently highlighted element returned to the slightly distorted appearance (not normal) and each time a different element was subsequently highlighted, other elements would become increasingly more blurry.

In the layers screenshot, I took the capture after I moved my mouse from the top of the list down to the highlighted item.  This affect also happened on the menu elements, in the options screen, and the config editor screen.



As for the gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled, it appears as though making the change in the config editor has no affect.  The line in the troubleshooting section for DirectWrite Enabled is true, even when set to false.  The sections below were copied from the troubleshooting information after the change was made in the config editor and ThunderBird was restarted.


gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled = true
  Adapter Description: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
  Vendor ID: 1002
  Device ID: 6899
  Adapter RAM: 1024
  Adapter Drivers: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
  Driver Version: 8.892.0.0
  Driver Date: 9-8-2011
  Direct2D Enabled: true
  DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.1.7601.17563)
  ClearType Parameters: ClearType parameters not found
  WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 0.0.0.686)
  GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 10

gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled = false
  Adapter Description: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
  Vendor ID: 1002
  Device ID: 6899
  Adapter RAM: 1024
  Adapter Drivers: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
  Driver Version: 8.892.0.0
  Driver Date: 9-8-2011
  Direct2D Enabled: true
  DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.1.7601.17563)
  ClearType Parameters: ClearType parameters not found
  WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 0.0.0.686)
  GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 10

Comment 8

[:aceman]

Interesting effect :)
But what is the troubleshooting info when layers.acceleration.disabled is set to true?

Comment 9

[Craig Nobbs]

Here's the paste of layers.acceleration.disabled set to true.  I've also included a paste of that information with gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled.


layers.acceleration.disabled = true, gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled = false
  Adapter Description: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
  Vendor ID: 1002
  Device ID: 6899
  Adapter RAM: 1024
  Adapter Drivers: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
  Driver Version: 8.892.0.0
  Driver Date: 9-8-2011
  Direct2D Enabled: true
  DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.1.7601.17563)
  ClearType Parameters: ClearType parameters not found
  WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 0.0.0.686)
  GPU Accelerated Windows: 0/1


layers.acceleration.disabled = true, gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled = true
  Adapter Description: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
  Vendor ID: 1002
  Device ID: 6899
  Adapter RAM: 1024
  Adapter Drivers: aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx64 aticfx32 aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64
  Driver Version: 8.892.0.0
  Driver Date: 9-8-2011
  Direct2D Enabled: true
  DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.1.7601.17563)
  ClearType Parameters: ClearType parameters not found
  WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 0.0.0.686)
  GPU Accelerated Windows: 0/1

Comment 10

[:aceman]

Ah, I thought that was enough to disable all acceleration. Then also please search for a pref containing Direct2D and disable those. I am not sure how it is called, I do not have any Win7 machine around.

Comment 11

[Craig Nobbs]

There are two prefs with Direct2D in them.  They are "gfx.direct2d.disabled" default=false, and "gfx.direct2d.force-enabled" default=false.

Changing gfx.direct2d.force-enabled to true didn't change anything even after a restart of ThunderBird, however changing gfx.direct2d.disabled to true seems to resolve the issue, even before restarting ThunderBird.

As I was testing, changing the pref "gfx.direct2d.disabled" from false to true, back to false, and then to true again, it crashed ThunderBird and sent a report to Mozilla.

One other thing that I just noticed is that with all of ThunderBird's config prefs set to their defaults, when the CCC is set to the high settings, there is noticeable input lag.  For example, moving the mouse quickly up and down the list of emails, the highlight selection bar lags behind the mouse cursor.  However, when the CCC settings are at defaults, the highlight selection bar stays under the mouse cursor at all times.

Changing the gfx.direct2d.disabled to true also seems to have eliminated the input lag at the same time as seemingly correcting the rendering.

Comment 12

[Craig Nobbs]

In addition to my last comment, setting gfx.direct2d.disabled to true makes ThunderBird highly unstable.  It's crashed three times since enabling it.

Comment 13

[:aceman]

That is quite strange, it should be more stable as it disables the HW accel features that are usually sources of crashes.
Can you find the crash reports generated by TB and post the crash IDs here?
(http://kb.mozillazine.org/Breakpad)

gfx.direct2d.disabled is the correct pref to toggle. Leave gfx.direct2d.force-enabled at FALSE.

Comment 14

[Craig Nobbs]

Here are two of the crashes, the third one isn't showing in the ViewAbout Extension for some reason.

https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-3e8076f3-4e6a-40d5-bc98-75ad02111121
https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-651bd904-9055-4ecd-8e34-a09682111121



For the moment, I'm running the defaults and just swapping the CCC manually when I need the high settings on.

Comment 15

[:aceman]

Is it possible to create some exception (profile) for Thunderbird in CCC so that those settings are not applied to it?

From the crash reports, it seems to be crashing inside the ATI driver (atiumdag.dll). Mozilla probably can't influence that much...

Comment 16

[Craig Nobbs]

--- Relevant to post ---
The CCC doesn't appear to have application based profiles like nVidia's control panel does.  For the time being I've just been swapping the profiles manually as needed.  Honestly though, I'm not worried about the crashes.  It's the issue that ThunderBird has with rendering when the CCC settings are modified that I wanted to report.


--- Semi-Relevant to post ---
The reason that I'm reporting it is for those people, who far out number the likes of us, that have only a working knowledge of PCs and just "expect them to work".

In the case of this issue, a PC gamer is likely to modify the settings in the CCC to make the games they play look better.  Ignoring the fact that essentially all modern games have settings within to modify the appearance of the game, some people will do this.  Almost none of them are likely to be able to correlate the change in the CCC to changing the way that ThunderBird looks.

As a matter of fact, it is because I wanted The Elder Scrolls:Oblivion to be able to have HDR and antialiasing that I ran across this issue.  I had made the changes in the CCC and played the game which looked a tonne better.  After I quit, I didn't even think to change the CCC settings back.  All other applications that I use daily were working correctly.  Then as I went in the ThunderBird, I saw the blurriness.  I rebooted and it was still there.  Being a PC technician by trade, I backed out the only changes made within the last day and found it to be the CCC settings.  Changing them back to defaults reversed the issue.

But therein lies my reason for reporting this: almost all other PC users would have simply chalked it up to a ThunderBird bug and suffered with it until they had enough and uninstalled it.

While I am content myself changing back and forth the CCC profile, others will not be; assuming that they even figure out that CCC caused TB to change the way it's viewed.

(Sorry, long winded)

Comment 17

[:aceman]

Yes, thanks for your report. It is true what you say. Many people will wonder why TB is changing. They do not realize it is a 3D application now so gets affected. On the other hand, you get what you wished for: ignore application settings and force some global settings (like anti-aliasing). So you may get unintended rendering for which the applications were not prepared. 

What happens in Internet explorer 9? Do you have it? It should also use Direct2D. Is it affected?

I'll leave this now to the relevant developers to decide what to do with this bug.

Comment 18

[Craig Nobbs]

I do have IE 9.  It is not affected by the settings being changed in the CCC.  I have tried some 20 different applications such as MS Office, Open Office, Paint Shop Pro, IE, Chrome, EA's Origin, Steam, Display Fusion Pro, and others.  The only non-3D game application that was affected by the changes in CCC is ThunderBird.

Comment 19

[:aceman]

Because none of those programs uses 3D features. Only Firefox and Thunderbird does (for whole its UI). IE9 should too, I don't know why it is unaffected. Maybe we should investigate that. Chrome in some version does some HW acceleration too, I don't know what it uses for it. I think Opera 12 is aiming there too, maybe you could test it.
You write Firefox is also not affected. That is strange, it uses the same base engine as Thunderbird. We should investigate that. I'll confirm the bug on the base of your tests even though I can't reproduce it myself (do not have relevant machine).

Comment 20

[Craig Nobbs]

Opera 11.52: Not affected
Chrome 15.0.874.121 m: Not affected
IE 9 32bit: Not affected
IE 9 64bit: Not affected

Additionally, I believe that the Windows 7 (non-basic OS) UI also uses 3D for the Glass effect of window title bars, the task bar, and the start menu.  None of those are affected by the changes either.

Comment 21

[:aceman]

I said Opera 12 (http://www.opera.com/browser/next/).
Yes, Win 7 UI (Aero) uses 3D but maybe not Direct2D, or it may be able to ignore some settings from CCC. I would not compare it to normal applications, it could be higher-privileged.
What is the version of Firefox you tested that does not have the problem? You wrote Thunderbird is at version 8.0.

Comment 22

[Craig Nobbs]

Both FF and TB are the current release public stable builds, being 8.0.  I'll get back to you on Opera 12.  I couldn't find it originally.  Thanks for the link.

Comment 23

[Craig Nobbs]

Opera 12.00 Alpha:  Not affected

Comment 24

[:aceman]

It seems bug 689742 will help here.