Troubleshooting Graphics Card Issues

If you want to visualize scenarios with STK, your computer's graphics performance is a critical factor. Graphics card technology changes often, and AGI has found that when customers have problems using STK's 3D graphics features, the problem is often related to their graphics card. Incompatible or poor performing graphics cards are the reason for several common STK issues, such as:

  • interruptions in the 3D Graphics window as you animate your scenario
  • trouble visualizing terrain and imagery
  • slow or unresponsive performance from the application

This topic comprises procedures to fix common problems that are the result of poor graphics card performance.

About graphics cards

AGI recommends using a computer with a dedicated graphics card, specifically one made by NVIDIA. Graphics card drivers — software that communicates between the graphics card and the operating system and applications on a computer — are updated very frequently. Check for new versions of the drivers for your graphics card often and install updates as frequently as you can when they are released.

Troubleshooting procedures

Below are some methods to address graphics card problems. If these procedures do not fix the problem that you are having with STK, contact AGI Technical Support.

After installing STK, confirm that your graphics card is up to date and ready to support STK. You (or your system administrator) should complete the following tasks.

Run the AGI graphics card utility

You can use the graphics card utility to confirm, without opening STK, that your graphics card is up to date .

To run this utility, follow these steps:

  1. Open the utility by opening the Windows Start menu and typing “graphics”.
  2. In the upper portion of the menu, select Graphics Card Information.
  3. In the AGI Graphics Card Info window, you can confirm that your graphics card drivers are current. The utility will warn you if the drivers are older than six months, but you can see the exact date of the last update in the Drive Date row. If the drivers are more than a few months old, update them. Even if your computer is new, you should check the status of your graphics card drivers. Graphics cards often are not installed with the most recent drivers.

Run the Graphics Card Info report

To determine the OpenGL version of your graphics card and which extension it supports, take the following steps:

  1. Open STK.
  2. Select the Help menu from STK's main toolbar and then select Graphics Card Info.
  3. In the report that STK displays, look for:
    • The lines that are labeled Driver Version: and Driver Date:. These lines tell you how recently the graphics drivers have been updated. You want to use the most recent drivers that are available for your graphics card.
    • The line Version: displays the OpenGL version. Confirm that it is version 2.0 or greater.
  4. If you need to contact AGI Technical Support, please include the contents of this report with your inquiry.

Run the Graphics Tests Runner

At the end of the STK installation process, you can test your graphics card's performance by clicking the test button in the final dialog box. If you are installing a version of STK earlier than 11.1, or if you want to run the test after you have finished the installation process, you can open the test application by browsing to it in Windows. It is located at <STK install folder>\bin\GraphicsTestsRunner.exe.

If you need to contact AGI Technical Support, please include the contents of this report with your inquiry.

For optimal performance, you must keep the drivers for your graphics card up to date. If the drivers are more than a few months old, update your drivers. Even if your computer is new, you should check the status of your graphics card drivers. Graphics cards often are not installed with the most recent drivers. Take the following steps to update your graphics card drivers:

  1. Close STK and open a web browser.
  2. In the web browser, search for the make and version of your graphics card along with the word “drivers”. You should find the manufacturer’s website.
  3. Download and install the latest drivers available from the manufacturer.
  4. Open STK and run the Graphics Card Info report from the Help menu to confirm that the latest drivers have been installed.

AGI recommends that, at a minimum, you update your graphics card drivers whenever you install a new version of STK.

If your computer has both an integrated graphics chip set and a dedicated graphics card, you should ensure that it is using the dedicated card rather than the integrated chip set. Take the following steps to determine if your computer has two graphics cards and ensure that the dedicated card is being used:

Confirm that your computer has two adapter IDs

  1. In STK, run the Graphics Card Info report from the Help menu.
  2. If the report shows two adapter IDs, your computer probably has two graphics cards: an integrated chip set and a dedicated graphics card. If so, follow the steps below to change your graphics card settings to use the dedicated graphics card.

Select the correct graphics card

  1. Right-click your Windows desktop.
  2. Select the control panel for your computer's graphics card. This command is usually displayed in the menu as "<manufacturer name> Control Panel." For example, if you have an NVIDIA graphics card in your computer, you will see NVIDIA Control Panel in the menu.
  3. Select the 3D properties page or tab. In the NVIDIA Control Panel, it is labeled "Manage 3D settings."
  4. In the Global presets menu, select the Preferred Graphics Processor option.

Windows is often set to automatically select the graphics card. You want to change this setting so that you can specify the dedicated graphics card. There are two options for making this change:

  • High performance NVIDIA processor: Every application will always use the NVIDIA card (including STK).
  • You can set the path to STK and set Windows to use the NVIDIA card for specific programs.

AGI recommends using the dedicated graphics card for Windows and all programs, but if you are concerned about the battery life of a laptop computer, you may want to select only those applications that need to use the dedicated card (such as STK).

Running STK with remote applications (such as Microsoft Remote Desktop, VMWare, Microsoft Virtual PC) may not support the minimum OpenGL requirements. Some capabilities will not be available.

For more information on running STK in a Virtual Environment, please read the article Does STK Run in a Virtual Environment? in the AGI Knowledge Base.

The Solar Panel Tool may not perform well on a computer that does not have a graphics card that supports OpenGL 1.2.

All AMD and NVIDIA graphics drivers support OpenGL. Most Intel graphics drivers also support OpenGL.

If your computer has old Intel graphics drivers, you may need to install a separate driver to support OpenGL.

To confirm that your graphics card supports OpenGL 1.2, open STK and run the Graphics Card Info report from the Help menu. Scroll to the end of the report and find the Installed OpenGL Platforms field. The version that should be listed is OpenGL 1.2 or greater.

If your graphics card or drivers do not support OpenGL 1.2, STK will use CPU processing for the Solar Panel Tool, and performance will be substandard. Or, you can turn off the GPU Accelerated Analysis. To do this, open STK and then open the Edit Preferences window. On the General page, clear the Enable GPU Accelerated Analysis check box.

If you do not see a globe in the 3D Graphics window in STK, you may have a graphics card that does not fully support OpenGL version 2.0 or greater. The 3D Graphics window requires OpenGL 2.0 support.

If STK pauses and does not respond when you try to open a new scenario, and your computer has the latest version of the drivers for your graphics card, you might need to disable Online Operations. Take the following steps:

  1. Open STK
  2. Select the Edit menu and then select Preferences.
  3. In the Preferences dialog box, select the Online page.
  4. On the Online page, clear Allow Online Operations.

    5. You will lose any functionality in STK that requires an internet connection if you disable online operations.

  5. Close STK and then reopen it.

If you can't insert an object into your STK scenario, and your computer has the latest version of the drivers for your graphics card, you might need to use models with a lower resolution than the default. To configure STK to use lower resolution models, take the following steps:

  1. Open STK.
  2. Select the Edit menu and then select Preferences.
  3. In the Preferences dialog box, select the OpenGL page.
  4. On the OpenGL page select the Force MDL models on scenario load check box.
  5. Close STK and then reopen it.