Platform, Graphics and Performance

GeniE (All Versions from 6.0-03) Graphics window goes blank

The Windows Update KB3205394 for Windows 7 64 bit systems has the side effect that if the GeniE window is maximized the graphics window goes blank when focus is changed to outside GeniE. The display goes back to normal when refreshing the display (move mouse over model, rotate model etc).

The current workaround is to not maximize the GeniE window, but instead size the window manually (to almost fit the screen). We do not recommend uninstalling security updates.

Back to top

GeniE (All Versions): out of memory

Sometimes a memory error similar to this is displayed:

CMofaMainApp: Exception caught os_err_out_of_virtual_memory - os_get_adress_space:VirtualAlloc(0x38000000, 201560064) failed

Since GeniE employs a database called Objectstore, there is a limit on the maximum total size of the database. By default this limit is 128MB, but by defining an environment variable OS_PSE_AS_SIZE, the maximum size can be increased up to approximately 1GB (OS_PSE_AS_SIZE = 0x20000000). If you are using 64 bit computer then you may use 0x40000000 (applies to versions V5.1-11 and V5.2-04 and onwards).

If this environment variable is defined too large, the application will not start. Also notice that the change above will make databases created prior to this change unreadable. To import such databases you must first set the variable back to the value it had when the database was created.

Please see the attached screenshot (Env_var_1.JPG) on how to set this variable. Using 64 bit version of GeniE might solve such problems too. Please see the attached document.

Please see the attached document.

Back to top

GeniE (All Versions): Problems with graphic display such as wrong colors or slow response

If you are experiencing problems with the graphic display in GeniE you may try turning hardware acceleration on/off.

The switch for hardware acceleration is found in the GeniE menu: View > Options... > General tab > Hardware acceleration.

Press the X icon to switch on/off

See also the FAQ: Performance problem on ATI MOBILITY RADEON X600 for adjusting the amount of hardware acceleration

Back to top

GeniE 6.4-08: How to solve 'HOOPS has reported graphics errors with dx9 startup' message

If DirectX 9 isn't properly installed on your PC, you may receive the following message in GeniE:

HOOPS has reported graphics errors with dx9 startup If the GeniE graphics window is not functioning ...

  • Please make sure DirectX is installed correctly
    • The DirectX End-User Runtime can be installed using the Sesam Installer or from the Microsoft Website.
  • The graphics driver can be changed manually
    • Open a workspace in GeniE and choose View->Options->General Tab->Select Graphics Device
    • To toggle different graphics devices click the icon to the left of the "Select Graphics Device" text

To solve this, please download and install DirectX 9 from Microsoft's website:

  • After the download has finished, unzip the files to a folder on your hard drive.
  • Double click the DXSetup.exe file to start the installation.

After you have installed DirectX 9, you can modify the Graphics device to use in GeniE by navigating to View|Options and select the General tab.

There, you will be able to select Graphics Device DirectX 9, OpenGL or OpenGL2 by clicking on the icon in front of "Select Graphics Device".

Back to top

GeniE: Graphic performance via Remote Desktop Protocol

Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) does not allow GPU rendering by default. That means the graphic superiority of host computer cannot be exploited during remote session. This can lead to reduced graphical performance when GeniE try to use DirectX or OpenGL GPU display drivers on the host computer.

This issue can be easily corrected by modifying the group policy on the host computer to allow the use of GPU rendering during a Remote Desktop session. Your IT department might be able to help you to do this.

Back to top

GeniE: How to solve "Unknown error in HOOPS display kernel during update" error

If you receive an error message while using GeniE with the following message:

*Display update failed.*

*Unknown error in HOOPS display kernel during update.*

*Display service unexpectedly crashed. Save workspace and restart application.*

Please report issue to DNV Software

Please follow the steps below to solve this issue:

Terminology The following documentation refers to graphics drivers and GeniE graphics drivers.

The graphics driver is the system level software provided by your Graphics Card supplier (most likely Intel, NVIDIA or ATI) to interface between Windows and the GPU. This is supplied with your operating system or graphics card.

The GeniE graphics driver is the software used by GeniE to interface with the graphics driver defined above and is supplied with GeniE.

There are several GeniE graphics drivers provided. At the time of writing these are OpenGL, OpenGL2, DX9, DX11 and Auto. The default is Auto. This setting will attempt to choose the best GeniE graphics driver based on the hardware on your particular machine.

Step 1: Upgrade your graphics driver. Check to see if there is a newer version of the graphics driver or drivers for your machine. Note that some laptops in particular may have more than one GPU from different vendors, typically Intel and NVIDIA or Intel and AMD.

The easiest way to upgrade a graphics driver is to start Device Manager, open the Display Adapters tab, right click on one of the available GPUs and select Update Driver Software. Select Search Automatically for update driver software.

If Windows finds a newer driver follow the instructions to install it and restart GeniE.

If you have more than one GPU listed in the Display Adapters setting then you can try updating all of them. On a hybrid laptop the default settings are normally that one GPU, typically from Intel, runs when the laptop is on battery and the higher performance GPU, typically from NVIDIA or AMD runs when the laptop is connected to an external power source and/or an external monitor. These settings can be over-ridden but that is machine specific.

In some cases Windows may not find a new driver but you may find a new driver on the website of your computer manufacturer or on the website of your GPU manufacturer. In some cases the latter will not install as the computer vendor has not approved it.

A note on GPU graphics drivers: Graphics techniques used in most modern design systems such as GeniE are very complex as are the third party drivers that transfer the graphics commands from the CPU to the GPU. Bugs are relatively common and upgrading, or downgrading, driver versions is something every design professional is likely to have to do at some point. If there are no problems then dont upgrade, but if serious problems are encountered then seeing if a newer version is available should always be the first step - unless of course the problems started after a driver version upgrade, in which case reverting toan older more-stable version would be recommended.

If a problem such as this is resolved by changing a driver version (Step 1), by changing the GeniE Graphics Driver (Steps 2 and 3), or by disabling GPU hardware acceleration for your entire machine (Step 4) then it would be useful if you could report the GPU type and driver version to DNV Support. In some cases, if we can reproduce the issue, we may try to follow up with the GPU manufacturer to try to get the bug fixed.

Step 2: Try different GeniE Graphics Drivers If Step 1 does not solve your issue, you can try changing the GeniE Graphics Driver. This can be done in View->Options->General->Select Graphics Device.

Assuming you are using the default Auto then try in turn DX11, DX9, OpenGL2 then OpenGL in turn.

Starting GeniE with command line options: It is necessary to load or create a new workspace in order to change this option. It is therefore possible the error dialog may prevent the setting from being changed. If so you can start GeniE with a command line option that specifies the desired graphics device.

Starting GeniE with command line options is described in Section 4 of Volume 1 of the GeniE documentation.

On a command line type Genir /? to display a help dialog listing the available command line options. For example, to select opengl start GeniE with GeniEr /graphicsdevice=opengl. Note that this command line option only overrides the option currently set in the View Options dialog - it does not change it. Therefore if you find you can successfully start GeniE this way then you may wish to also change the Select Graphics Device option once you have a workspace loaded.

Step 3: Force GeniE to ignore GPU graphics If none of the GeniE graphics drivers used in step 2 work then you can force GeniE to ignore the GPU and execute all graphics commands on the CPU. This means that GeniE will not access the third-party graphics driver installed on your machine.

This option is Hardware Acceleration, also in the View->Options->General tab. The corresponding command line option to turn off GPU based hardware acceleration is /hardwareacceleration=off.

For this setting we strongly recommend you choose the OpenGL driver e.g. GeniEr /graphicsdevice=opengl /hardwareacceleration=off.

Step 4: Disable GPU acceleration on your entire machine:

Obviously this should only be a last step as it will affect the performance of other GPU hardware-accelerated applications as well as GeniE although it could quickly be used as a first check to see if the problem is GPU-related or elsewhere.

  1. Choose Start > Control Panel.
  2. Double click Personalization and select Display Settings.
  3. Click Advanced Settings.
  4. Click Change Settings on the Troubleshooting tab.
  5. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider to None.
  6. Click Apply and then click OK to accept the new setting and close the dialog box.
  7. Click OK to close the Display Properties dialog box.
  8. Restart Windows.

If, after trying all these steps, this error is still present or GeniE crashes then it is likely there is an issue elsewhere. In this case please send your model and data to DNV support as there may be a specific issue caused by the data you are using.

Back to top

Nauticus Hull, Nauticus Machinery and Sesam: Supported operating systems from October 1st 2014

Microsoft has announced that official support for XP ended on the 8th of April 2014. Windows XP has been superseded by other versions of the windows operating system, most recently Windows 8.1

Following the end of official support by Microsoft, all future versions of Sesam, Nauticus Hull and Nauticus Machinery after 1st October 2014 will not support XP.

Windows 7 and Windows 8 are primarily based on 64bit technology. This means that all new releases of Sesam, Nauticus Hull and Nauticus Machinery after 1st October 2014 will support Win7 and Win 8 on 64bit platforms.

We appreciate that this change will potentially be significant for some of our customers. all views/feedback on the current proposal are welcome and should be sent to the.

Back to top

Below are the minimum and recommended hardware configurations. SUPPORTED OPERATING SYSTEMS The Sesam 2014 Release has been tested on the following operating systems:

  • Windows XP, 32 and 64 bit operating systems; Service Pack 3 is required for XP 32bit.
  • Windows 7, 32 and 64 bit operating systems
  • Windows 8.1, 64 bit operating systems. Notice that the programs marked with Non-maintained in Chapter 8 have not been tested on Windows 8.1

We strongly recommend the use of computers that support and have installed 64 bit versions of the windows operative systems.

Back to top

End of support for Windows XP

Microsoft has announced that official support for XP ended on the 8th April 2014. Windows XP has been superseded by other versions of the Windows operating system, most recently Windows 8.1. Following the end of official support by Microsoft, all future versions of Sesam, Nauticus Hull and Nauticus Machinery will not support XP after 1st October 2014. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are primarily based on 64bit technology. This means that all new releases of Sesam, Nauticus Hull and Nauticus Machinery will support Win7 and Win 8 on 64bit platforms after 1st October 2014. We acknowledge that this change will potentially be significant for some of our customers. Please contact us on software.support@dnvgl.com if you have questions or comments.

RECOMMENDED HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

Below are two recommendations on hardware as well as more details on graphics drivers that should be used together with GeniE.

Minimum hardware recommendation This configuration is typical for tasks normally limited to beam jacket and topside design analyses including wave and pile/soil analysis. The configuration is also applicable when making super-elements built up of shell and beams. Furthermore, hydrostatic and smaller HydroDynamic analysis (frequency domain) can also be carried out.

Graphic card: Open GL compatible. May be integrated with processor (e.g. Intel HD). If not OpenGL support, use DX9 as provided in the Sesam installation

Memory: 2 GB

Processor: 1.75 GHz Dual core

Storage: 100 GB

Display: 17 supporting 1280x1024, alternatively laptop 15 supporting 1280x1024 64-bit version of Windows operative system

Preferred hardware recommendation This configuration should be used for all other tasks than mentioned above.

Graphic card: Separate OpenGL compatible graphics card (NVIDIA or ATI) with 512MB graphics memory. If not OpenGL support, use DX9 as provided in the Sesam installation.

Memory: 4 GB

Processor: 3.0 GHz

Storage: 250 GB

Display: 24 supporting 1920x1200 (or-1080), alternatively laptop 17 supporting 1920x1200 (or-1080) 64- bit version of Windows operating system

Graphics drivers for GeniE

The graphics driver is the system level software provided by your Graphics Card supplier (most likely Intel, NVIDIA or ATI) to interface between Windows and the GPU. This is supplied with your operating system or graphics card. The GeniE graphics driver is the software used by GeniE to interface with the graphics driver defined above and is supplied with GeniE.

Use of DX9

DirectX 9.0 (DX9) is the preferred GeniE graphics driver and it is the default on installation. DirectX 9.0c Runtime version 9.27.1734 distributed on June 2010 or a later version of DirectX 9 must be installed on your system. The Sesam installer will install DirectX 9.0c.

Note that although Windows 7 and 8 come with DirectX pre-installed, GeniE uses extra components and so DirectX must be explicitly installed using the Sesam installer or from the Microsoft website. The GeniE DX9 driver is supported on any DirectX 9.0 compliant graphics hardware (Microsoft Shader Model 3) with the latest vendor-supplied drivers.

DirectX 9.0c was first released in August 2004 so older systems will not support the DX9 driver.

Use of OpenGL

GeniE supports two different OpenGL drivers. The standard GeniE OpenGL driver (OpenGL) is a legacy driver that attempts to support all OpenGL 1.1 hardware. The GeniE OpenGL2 driver (OpenGL2) is a shader-based driver that is offered as an alternative should a user encounter problems with other drivers. It attempts to support all OpenGL 2.0+ hardware.

Driver Fallback/OpenGL on Intel GPUs

Each time a workspace is opened GeniE detects if there are any problems reported with the current GeniE driver and if so falls back to another GeniE driver until eventually software rendering is used. The word Fallback will be shown in the title bar if this has happened.

Due to problems with Intels graphics drivers GeniE also attempts to detect if it is being run on an Intel GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) and if so it falls back to the GeniE DX9 driver if possible or to the GeniE OpenGL Software driver. The latter provides no GPU hardware acceleration and so will be slow for large graphical datasets.

This test is done each time a workspace is opened so that on hybrid systems where an Intel GPU is paired with NVIDIA or ATI, GeniE will run the driver specified in the GeniE options on NVIDIA or ATI card, but will fall back if a workspace is opened with the Intel GPU active.

When to consider upgrading your graphics driver It is strongly advised you upgrade your graphics driver if you are using an old system (>3 years) and have not upgraded the driver

  • you have installed Windows 8 on hardware introduced prior to Windows 8
  • you encounter graphics problems within GeniE

Although it is perhaps stating the obvious, if you have no graphics problems using GeniE there is no need to upgrade your graphics driver. It is always possible that a newer version of a driver may have bugs not in your current version.

Upgrading the graphics driver is usually best done via the Display Adapter properties dialog in Windows Device Manager.

Back to top

Xtract (All) - Material properties of boundary conditions are displayed

When color coding material properties, if the model has spring boundary conditions, each spring will be color coded and displayed in the legend.

Back to top