calibre 4 viewer render noise

GlennMaples · 12-30-2019, 08:03 AM

First--great product, tireless service!

Annoyance with viewer in 4.7 (just updated from 3.xx). Sorry if already posted, but did not find where this behavior was logged.

There is cruft/noise visible in the reader. Most of the time in the left margin area, but also on the RHS occasionally. I have seen this in several fonts including Baskerville and the default viewer font. Noise will appear in blank areas as well as connected to "legitimate" letters. Size ranges from a pixel to perhaps the size of a comma.

Not a big deal, but does detract from reading experience -- especially when the noise is adjacent to characters. The severity maybe related to font choice. I have seen pages of say 20 lines where there are 4 or 5 render errors. I use a fairly large font, but not ginormous.

A couple of examples included. Thanks,

kovidgoyal · 12-30-2019, 09:57 AM

This is an incompatibility between Qt WebEngine (the toolkit the new calibre viewer uses) and your graphics drivers. Try updating the drivers, it might help.

GlennMaples · 12-30-2019, 04:01 PM

Thanks for the quick response, Kovid.

Some info:
I have a new Lenovo with both an Intel HD 630 integrated and a Nvidia 1650 -- using the integrated only at this time. I don't know what, if anything, Lenovo is tweaking on the 630 driver before they are re-packaging it.

I'll play around with it, but not sure if it is feasible to try the Intel driver directly, as I would have to turn off updates for it to stick. I know that the new graphics framework is part of your long-term plans. So, not a huge deal but it (the new framework)does seem pretty finicky.

Thanks again,
-glenn

GlennMaples · 12-30-2019, 04:09 PM

Forgot to say, drivers are all updated. I did see a bug where a dev was having problems with the hd 630 crashing qt 3d studio, the ticket was not addressed.

JSWolf · 12-30-2019, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlennMaples

Forgot to say, drivers are all updated. I did see a bug where a dev was having problems with the hd 630 crashing qt 3d studio, the ticket was not addressed.

Try running Calibre with the Nvidia 1650 and see what happens.

I'm running Calibre on my laptop with Intel HD Graphics 5600 with no problem. So I see no reason your 6300 should not work. Just go to the Intel website and grab the latest driver for Windows 10 and install it and maybe thing will work.

dan2the6th · 12-31-2019, 01:21 PM

This is the same issue I posted about earlier. I still have the little black dots randomly showing up in the margins. There ARE no updated drivers for my Windows PC. I actually have two video adapters on my Dell Inspiron, the built-in Intel UHD Graphics, and a NVIDIA GeForce MX150. I have tried running the book viewer using BOTH of these, and the dots show up regardless.

Not a major annoyance; I just live with it.

GlennMaples · 12-31-2019, 07:09 PM

Yeah I would have suspected it would run fine; it is a pretty common iGPU. And it does run, the viewer is just degraded a bit.

There are several things wrong with this laptop so I will probably try again in a month or so with the intel drivers after Lenovo tries again on whatever they are doing to the drivers.

Thanks again sir and happy New Year.

-glenn

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Try running Calibre with the Nvidia 1650 and see what happens.

I'm running Calibre on my laptop with Intel HD Graphics 5600 with no problem. So I see no reason your 6300 should not work. Just go to the Intel website and grab the latest driver for Windows 10 and install it and maybe thing will work.

GlennMaples · 01-02-2020, 06:10 PM

I did a bit of looking around, and it appears that some of the incompatibility between qt webengine/chromium/ and various GPUs (especially intel) can be related to your power settings if you are using a laptop. That is -- battery saver (etc) can make them worse and high performance can make it better.

I went from battery saver to performance and it appears to have made it better. Of course, could be Hawthorne effect/wishful thinking :-)

FWIW,
-glenn

Quote:

Originally Posted by dan2the6th

This is the same issue I posted about earlier. I still have the little black dots randomly showing up in the margins. There ARE no updated drivers for my Windows PC. I actually have two video adapters on my Dell Inspiron, the built-in Intel UHD Graphics, and a NVIDIA GeForce MX150. I have tried running the book viewer using BOTH of these, and the dots show up regardless.

Not a major annoyance; I just live with it.

dan2the6th · 01-03-2020, 02:31 PM

Umm...where do you find these settings? I see oodles of battery and power settings on my Windows 10 laptop, but no obvious choice between battery saver and performance.

GlennMaples · 01-03-2020, 03:15 PM

HI Dan,

On many laptops, if you click on the little battery icon in the task bar, it will open up the power choices. Otherwise: in windows 10: settings...power and sleep settings and then I think it may vary by mfg. If you give me the mfg and OS I would be happy to try to be more specific.

So that is a good thing to know, but...

The more I play with the laptop & Calibre viewer, the less convinced I am it is making a difference. :-(

My initial tests on the same passages showed marked improvement, lately I'm seeing more graphic "farts". So, being in "performance" mode may be making a difference, but it is certainly not eliminating it.

Annoying, but not a deal breaker to me. Not to sound like an advertisement, but Calibre is still the best thing since free p**n. Although I do worry about other issues if Kovid moves more infrastructure to use QT.

There was a thread detailing how to use the old reader; if it is worth the effort you might try that,

-glenn

Quote:

Originally Posted by dan2the6th

Umm...where do you find these settings? I see oodles of battery and power settings on my Windows 10 laptop, but no obvious choice between battery saver and performance.

BetterRed · 01-03-2020, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dan2the6th

Umm...where do you find these settings? I see oodles of battery and power settings on my Windows 10 laptop, but no obvious choice between battery saver and performance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlennMaples

On many laptops, if you click on the little battery icon in the task bar, it will open up the power choices. Otherwise: in windows 10: settings...power and sleep settings

The Control Panel may have some Power Options.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlennMaples

Although I do worry about other issues if Kovid moves more infrastructure to use QT.

What makes you think he'd do that, given the frequency he has to workaround Qt bugs and deficiencies I would have thought he'd be looking to reduce calibre's dependence on Qt.

BR

GlennMaples · 01-04-2020, 04:00 PM

In my experience, when development switches platforms, generally there is a thought to put more on that same platform in the future. Otherwise you are taking on a lot of pain for not enough gain.

To be sure, I have absolutely no insight into future development plans for Calibre. I do trust in Kovid. :-)

DNSB · 01-04-2020, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlennMaples

Annoying, but not a deal breaker to me. Not to sound like an advertisement, but Calibre is still the best thing since free p**n. Although I do worry about other issues if Kovid moves more infrastructure to use QT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BetterRed

What makes you think he'd do that, given the frequency he has to workaround Qt bugs and deficiencies I would have thought he'd be looking to reduce calibre's dependence on Qt.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlennMaples

In my experience, when development switches platforms, generally there is a thought to put more on that same platform in the future. Otherwise you are taking on a lot of pain for not enough gain.

To be sure, I have absolutely no insight into future development plans for Calibre. I do trust in Kovid. :-)

Part of the issues you are seeing are not due to reliance on QT but rather changing the QT component used. Kovid was using QTWebKit which has been poorly supported for the last couple of years and has moved to QTWebEngine which is, theoretically, better supported. Going by the experiences of Kovid with calibre and KevinH/DiapDealer with Sigil, there are quite a few glitches in QTWebEngine which have bitten both programs.

kovidgoyal · 01-04-2020, 09:48 PM

calibre used to use Qt WebKit, that has been deprecated and no longer maintained. Which is particulary dangerous since it means it no longer gets security updates. The replacement for it is Qt WebEngine, which calibre 4 has now moved to. And as a matter of fact, calibre actually makes less use of Qt WebEngine than it did of Qt WebKit, precisely because Qt WebEngine is rather fragile and heavyweight. That is why for instance, the main calibre GUI no longer uses webkit/webengine to display and edit comments.

12-30-2019, 08:03 AM	#1
GlennMaples Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2010 Device: none	calibre 4 viewer render noise First--great product, tireless service! Annoyance with viewer in 4.7 (just updated from 3.xx). Sorry if already posted, but did not find where this behavior was logged. There is cruft/noise visible in the reader. Most of the time in the left margin area, but also on the RHS occasionally. I have seen this in several fonts including Baskerville and the default viewer font. Noise will appear in blank areas as well as connected to "legitimate" letters. Size ranges from a pixel to perhaps the size of a comma. Not a big deal, but does detract from reading experience -- especially when the noise is adjacent to characters. The severity maybe related to font choice. I have seen pages of say 20 lines where there are 4 or 5 render errors. I use a fairly large font, but not ginormous. A couple of examples included. Thanks, Attached Thumbnails

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12-30-2019, 09:57 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,345 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	This is an incompatibility between Qt WebEngine (the toolkit the new calibre viewer uses) and your graphics drivers. Try updating the drivers, it might help.

12-30-2019, 04:01 PM	#3
GlennMaples Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2010 Device: none	Thanks for the quick response, Kovid. Some info: I have a new Lenovo with both an Intel HD 630 integrated and a Nvidia 1650 -- using the integrated only at this time. I don't know what, if anything, Lenovo is tweaking on the 630 driver before they are re-packaging it. I'll play around with it, but not sure if it is feasible to try the Intel driver directly, as I would have to turn off updates for it to stick. I know that the new graphics framework is part of your long-term plans. So, not a huge deal but it (the new framework)does seem pretty finicky. Thanks again, -glenn

12-30-2019, 04:09 PM	#4
GlennMaples Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2010 Device: none	Forgot to say, drivers are all updated. I did see a bug where a dev was having problems with the hd 630 crashing qt 3d studio, the ticket was not addressed.

12-31-2019, 01:21 PM	#6
dan2the6th Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2014 Device: iPhone XR	This is the same issue I posted about earlier. I still have the little black dots randomly showing up in the margins. There ARE no updated drivers for my Windows PC. I actually have two video adapters on my Dell Inspiron, the built-in Intel UHD Graphics, and a NVIDIA GeForce MX150. I have tried running the book viewer using BOTH of these, and the dots show up regardless. Not a major annoyance; I just live with it.

01-03-2020, 02:31 PM	#9
dan2the6th Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2014 Device: iPhone XR	Umm...where do you find these settings? I see oodles of battery and power settings on my Windows 10 laptop, but no obvious choice between battery saver and performance.

01-04-2020, 04:00 PM	#12
GlennMaples Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2010 Device: none	In my experience, when development switches platforms, generally there is a thought to put more on that same platform in the future. Otherwise you are taking on a lot of pain for not enough gain. To be sure, I have absolutely no insight into future development plans for Calibre. I do trust in Kovid. :-)

01-04-2020, 09:48 PM	#14
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,345 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	calibre used to use Qt WebKit, that has been deprecated and no longer maintained. Which is particulary dangerous since it means it no longer gets security updates. The replacement for it is Qt WebEngine, which calibre 4 has now moved to. And as a matter of fact, calibre actually makes less use of Qt WebEngine than it did of Qt WebKit, precisely because Qt WebEngine is rather fragile and heavyweight. That is why for instance, the main calibre GUI no longer uses webkit/webengine to display and edit comments.

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