GPU Issues

Martin

Hi All,
I am building SatNav device running Rpi 3B+ and of course Emteria OS. I would like to use two navigation SW - MapFactor Navigator and Waze.

MapFactor Nav allows to chose type of map rendering - software or hardware. If I chose software rendering then MapFactor works well without problems. But hardware rendering causes freezing whole system and only turning off and on helps.

Waze is probably using only hardware rendering and it causes freezing of system too and in addition rendering often causes black white flashing of displayed map. All other displayed elements are OK, only map is randomly disappearing and flashing. I think, it is easily reproducible with zoom out button. If map is well zoomed out, then it starts to flash.

I tried to modify various OpenGL parameters in build.prop file and various graphics developer settings but nothing helps. It looks as Emteria has serious problems with using of GPU for rendering.

My last experiment was to try competing Raspberry Android build - RaspAnd (Oreo build) with installed Waze. RaspAnd Oreo build is practically unusable because of performance reasons but Waze is working without rendering issues there.

So my question is: Is possible to update graphics subsystem drivers/libraries in Emteria OS? Because it looks as new Oreo is working well.

BasicItStuff

That last part is interesting, unusable and good hardware rendering.

Martin

practically unusable = usable but with patience

IKS

@Martin RPi3 has only 256 MB of GPU memory. A single application without any effects will use up to 20 MB for drawing a single activity with 1280x720 (for higher resolutions this may increase very fast). I don't believe that this limitation can be solved by emteria.OS.

Other distributions don't use GPU at all (e.g. by relying on the software implementations like swiftshader), which makes them slow and barely usable. Personally, I don't believe this can be the right way of doing it.

Martin

Thanks @IKS for response. I am pretty sure that usage of GPU is right way but I have strong suspicious that there are problems which I described.

I am using low resolution 800x480 and I think that navigation applications don't do complex graphics activities. Nevertheless, my RPI 3B+ is totally freezing and Waze has problem with drawings of map background (black-white flashing). Of course, it can be some bug in Waze, but it looks that this is Emteria/Raspberry specific problem.

This is why I had a question if some update of graphics/OpenGL drivers is possible. In some another thread I read that you are going to move to new kernel version. Is it true?

Described problem can be specific for 3B+ or my RPI can be damaged. So, if somebody have similar problems, please respond. Or if somebody uses Waze on an current or older RPI (e.g. 3B), please respond how it works?

Thanks

kknott

So it sounds like he should try running waze and allocate a larger amount of gpu mem for higher resolutions? I’m having gpu issues too (ffmpeg h264 video) and I’m looking for a solution, the errors seem to indicate gpu is implemented properly but some errors suggest otherwise.

IKS

To avoid parallel discussions, I will close this thread. Please feel free to comment on my latest posts in #574