Softimage and 4k monitors

[mirkoj]

Now with 4k getting more affordable, more people will run into similar issues as I just did.
Just got my first 4K monitor, 32" asus PA328. All is great except one small thing...
Windows 10 scaling doesn't work with softimage. As soon as I start it there is message that SI supports only small fonts. All menus are messed and unsubale.
On the other hand on 100% scale things are getting rather small.

As we all know AD will not do anything about this so we are stuck with what we have.
So what do you guys think, is there maybe some other hack or something could help solve this issue,
or this is how we will be also stat being pushed to other solutions as well as SI starts lagging behind in some areas that we didn't expect from first, like 4K monitor support

[luceric]

you should be able to fix this with the method here:
http://www.danantonielli.com/adobe-app- ... plays-fix/

.manifest files are xml files so you can just open them and look at what it sets

[mirkoj]

unfortunately no luck, everything is a bit blurred, to much for long hours every day use and worse of tat is that all text boxes are filled, even when you put new values it doesn't show it.

[luceric]

unfortunately no luck, everything is a bit blurred, to much for long hours every day use

Even if we figured how to fixed the second problem (perhaps DPI or font scaling settings need to be on 100%?), this first part cannot be fixed.
What the manifest trick does is tell windows to zoom up the application. XSI is all bitmap-based and it'll always look blurry when zoomed up.

[FXDude]

On top of the suggested fix (Thanks LucEric! I looked around was about to post that same link thanks!)

you can also disable "DPI display scaling" in the link shortcut properties running XSI (especially for 30" or more)

Cheers!

[mirkoj]

so it is doable to disable ONLY for SI when running it but keep it on for the rest?
That would help as well.
care to help how to do it I was looking in shortcut properties but couldn't find anything related to that?
thanks

[FXDude]

Yes sorry that was for links pointing to exe's

In this case you can do it in the XSI.exe properties in the compatibility tab.


So the 1st fix disabling 'DPI Aware' with manifest makes XSI interpret DPI settings being set to 100%
(remaining at 96 points or 100% and 'brute force' resizing up to your 120% or what you set your DPI to)

and the 2nd of disabling display scaling on the .exe prevents resizing and resampling of the interface (for 1:1 pixels).


4K must be great for Ice Trees and expanded explorers!

[mirkoj]

and still no luck have both fixes in place, on xsi.exe and in registry plus manifest.
same thing happens, first message from Autodesk that it only supports small fonts, then all input text boxes are not working.
Well maybe I'm just doing something wrong, hopefully someone else will run into this too test and have it working
Thanks for the time

[lard]

So what is the largest monitor Softimage will work with under Win 7 & Win 10? This could effect my choice in future upgrades.

[whurst]

and still no luck have both fixes in place, on xsi.exe and in registry plus manifest.
same thing happens, first message from Autodesk that it only supports small fonts, then all input text boxes are not working.
Well maybe I'm just doing something wrong, hopefully someone else will run into this too test and have it working
Thanks for the time

Hi mirkoj,

i guess the Softimage GUI and PPG has an own event and painting queue. I didn't swear it, but my guess is that XSI didn't use any kind of Windows API for the display.

I had a screen recording program installed, that could capture single openGL windows, and on XSI he found tons of openGL windows. This is the reason why i think it does not use Windows API at all, because XSI paint it self on the openGL panes. And this is why i think the DPI setting will not have any effects.

Well, except XSI will query the DPI setting from Windows and scale the stuff by it self, i would suggest to contact the support ... but ... ah ... anyway ... damn it ... my fault ... go ahead ...

[FXDude]

Wouldn't this be a good candidate for the LAST CHANCE TO FIX STUFF thread?

Without suggesting making it DPI aware, or at-all reingeneering the interface
(or to make things humongous for HiDPI 13" screens)

But to make the quite few text bits that are affected by DPI settings, independant of whatever windows DPI may be (making them reffer a single and *fixed* metric) .

For those few bits to not fall apart when setting DPI to anything else than 100%.
now that global DPI settings is more often wanted or needed to be changed.

[mirkoj]

lard, you mean largest resolution?
well 1440p is looking nice,
next one 3840x2160 things starts to get a bit smaller, still bearable on 32 inch and if you have good eyes
but I would guess that with that resolution under 30 inch, things are getting really too small.
honestly.. smaller icons are something I will gladly bear with when getting so much extra pixels.
as a matter of fact I plan to add 2 more of these to fully replace 3x 1440p 27inch setup with 3 times 2160p 32 inch one.

[luceric]

high DPI is just a bad idea for XSI, but maybe you can a 4K monitor as your second monitor, and use the 96 DPI monitor as your main one for XSI.

I just tried XSI again on the 4K. The manifest trick actually did not really work, the edit boxes and sliders in the property pages were all messed up and showing garbage - which you have in your screenshot.

However, we were able to fix that particuliar badness with the "compatibility troubleshooter", which is available by right clicking on xsi.exe and going in the compatibility tab and chosing the correct responses ("app runs but doesn't display correctly"). However, xsi did not scale up to a usable size. Maybe you can figure out something.

[FXDude]

Hum. Is it just me? because I didn't see an "app runs but doesn't display correctly" option.

It seem at least at first glance that the 'compatibility troubleshooter' is like a 'Wizard' for existing things in the 'compatibility' tab in properties.

( maybe in Win10? )

Also, how about, without changing DPI, perhaps increasing all font sizes in the DPI control panel page dropdown under the "Change only the text size" heading, and increase all of the 5 font sizes ?
(to have -some- things bigger like in the explorer items, Menus, etc)

Would some things, apart headers titles and things like that, remain too small ?