Troubleshooting

Windows: Changing the Active Graphics Engine

In some cases (to the best of our knowledge, this will only happen due to an old graphics driver), FastRawViewer cannot use the automatically selected graphics engine.

When this happens, one of the following warnings is displayed:

OpenGL mode, unsupported version of OpenGL

FastRawViewer informs the user that the version of OpenGL made available by the OS is not recent enough for the program to operate, and offers to manually switch to the graphics acceleration through DirectX 9 (see below, the section “Manually Changing Graphics Modes”)

OpenGL mode, context is not initialized properly

FastRawViewer informs the user that the version of OpenGL available in the system does not support the features necessary for the program to operate, and offers to manually switch to the graphics acceleration through DirectX 9 (see below, the section “Manually Changing Graphics Modes”).

DirectX9 context is not initialized properly

FastRawViewer informs the user that the version of DirectX available in the system does not support the features necessary for the program to operate; and switches to OpenGL, which will be used upon the next program launch.

DirectX11, context is not initialized properly

FastRawViewer informs the user that the version of DirectX 11 available in the system does not support the features necessary for the program to operate; and switches to DirectX9, which will be used upon the next program launch.

Manually Changing Graphics Modes

When installing FastRawViewer on a Windows platform, several additional items are installed into the Start menu, which allow one to change the graphics engine without launching FastRawViewer

(if the automatically selected graphics engine turns to be inadequate, then access to the settings is impossible, as the program itself cannot be launched).

The following is accessible:

Windows XP – Windows 7, Windows 10 (and Windows 8 with an installed Start8 or Classic Shell)

Windows menu – All programs – LibRaw – FastRawViewer, Set Graphics Mode to:

Windows 8/8.1, access through the list of Windows 8 programs

LibRaw, Set Graphics Mode to:

The Registry scripts shown above must be used in the case that FastRawViewer informs the user that the available version of OpenGL is inadequate and suggests switching to DirectX.

Scripts that switch video modes will disable Process RAW data on GPU mode, should you wish to continue using it, please switch it back manually via Preferences – GPU Processing

OpenGL Error Warning when Starting the Application

During the first start-up, FastRawViewer may warn the user of an error with the graphics subsystem, showing the following dialog window:

This window indicates that the graphics driver cannot process those sub-routines that FastRawViewer needs to execute on the video card.

Possible solutions:

  1. Switch to the other version of the graphics engine (if you're using OpenGL – change to DirectX and vice versa). A description of the engine switch is given in the previous section.
  2. Update the driver of your video card to the newest version.

If neither of the above-listed helped you, copy the error message using the ‘Save to file’ or ‘Copy to clipboard’ buttons and send it to our tech support at http://www.fastrawviewer.com/contact/Technical-support or support@fastrawviewer.com

Black Screen in Image Display Window

When opening a file, a black screen is shown instead of the image.

This problem is due to some incompatibility between FastRawViewer and the installed graphics drivers.

Possible solutions:

  1. Switch to the other version of the graphics engine (if you're using OpenGL – change to DirectX and vice versa). A description of the engine switch is given in the previous section.
  2. Update the driver of your video card to the newest version.

If neither of the above-listed helped you, turn on the debug log (see below «Debug Information»), restart the program, open a RAW file, and send the debug log to tech support at http://www.fastrawviewer.com/contact/Technical-support or support@fastrawviewer.com

Screen does not fully update

When moving to the next file, or when changing the white balance or the contrast curve, the screen does not fully update, and square-shaped areas filled with the previous image remain.

This problem only happens for Windows XP, and only for old Intel graphics cards (845G and the like).

Solutions:

  1. Turn GPU Processing – GPU Compatibility settings – Refresh window after image changed: to Slight resize  in the Preferences.

When turning on this setting, the application window will twitch by one pixel for each image redraw.

  1. Upgrade to Windows 7 – Intel graphics drivers for Windows 7 do not have this problem.

Other problems

If your problem is not listed above, then, to make troubleshooting faster, please turn on your Debug Log, (see below) and when contacting support please attach a copy of the debug information.

Debug Information (Debug log)

To turn on the output of debug information, turn Other –Debug log messages in the Preferences to ‘All’.

After turning it on, the Debug log appears in the Help menu, and pressing it will display a window with the debug info:

The contents of the window:

  • Can be saved in a text file (the Save to file button).
  • Can be copied as text into the clipboard (for applications which expect text in the clipboard: most email applications).
  • Can be copied as HTML into the clipboard (for applications which expect 'rich text' in the clipboard, like text processors).

When turning to tech support, please remember to attach the debug log.