Dolphin doesn't render OpenGL anymore, it gives unresponsive black screen instead

[windyboy]

My specs:
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro x64
Processor/CPU: IntelⓇ Core™ i3-3217U @ 1.8 GHz
Video Card/GPU: IntelⓇ HD Graphics 4000
Memory/RAM: 6GB
Dolphin Revision Currently Using: 5.0-5044

OpenGL used to work very well with me (better than DirectX 11, which causes annoying sparkles). Then one day, Dolphin just gave me the black screen and became unresponsive, although there was no 'Not responding'. It has happened to me for days now



Yup, reinstalling Windows always resolves this damn problem. You know, I don't want to reinstall Windows just to get OpenGL to work in Dolphin. Is there any way to fix this? (I'm also using the latest version of Intel driver)

*Additional info: while opening Dolphin, I checked Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Cache\Shaders directory, and I noticed this:



OpenGL cache files don't create any bytes at all! What the hell?!

[JonnyH]

Make sure you get the latest GPU drivers off intel.com - don't just rely on windows update.

Also, generally the Intel OpenGL windows driver appears to have multiple issues - generally DX is recommended there. If there's another driver bug you're hitting ("sparkles"), then there's nothing Dolphin can do, only Intel can fix their own bugs.

(It would be nice if Intel actually started caring about OpenGL driver quality in windows. Perhaps if people actually started returning the devices that don't work, as they're not fit for purpose, in enough numbers they might actually do something)

You could also try Linux - in my experience the Intel Linux graphics driver has fewer issues.

[windyboy]

(08-09-2017, 02:06 AM)JonnyH Wrote: Make sure you get the latest GPU drivers off intel.com - don't just rely on windows update.

Also, generally the Intel OpenGL windows driver appears to have multiple issues - generally DX is recommended there. If there's another driver bug you're hitting ("sparkles"), then there's nothing Dolphin can do, only Intel can fix their own bugs.

(It would be nice if Intel actually started caring about OpenGL driver quality in windows. Perhaps if people actually started returning the devices that don't work, as they're not fit for purpose, in enough numbers they might actually do something)

You could also try Linux - in my experience the Intel Linux graphics driver has fewer issues.

Thanks, but my PC games are not yet available for Linux so I don't want to install it now. I use a program to check my OpenGL, and it says my OpenGL 4.0 works fine. So confused :/

[JonnyH]

(08-09-2017, 02:17 AM)windyboy Wrote: Thanks, but my PC games are not yet available for Linux so I don't want to install it now. I use a program to check my OpenGL, and it says my OpenGL 4.0 works fine. So confused :/

It saying it supports "OpenGL 4.0" just means it claims to support that version of the API. It's not the driver version in itself, but more a list of features it claims to support. It's normal for there to be multiple driver versions released for the "same" OpenGL version as bugs are fixed, performance improved, or any other improvement that's possible in the driver.

The intel driver version looks like it's the number after "Build" in GL_VERSION - and that looks out of date:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/97499/Graphics-for-3rd-Generation-Intel-Processors

lists "15.33.45.4653" as the latest, which looks quite a bit newer than the number listed on yours (assuming they can be compared - they often like changing what the numbers mean)

[Craftyawesome]

The d3d issue was fixed only on intel hd 4600 and newer. There is some builds that work around it at https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-4-0-1288-and-over-causes-sparkles-in-d3d (before ubershaders)
As for the the opengl issue a full close of dolphin would boot opengl properly for me. You could try clearing cache if that doesn't work.

Also there is two version numbers (something with 10 and something with 15). IDK why.