I haven’t used my CNC for a while. I booted up the computer and loaded gSender only to see the message " you don’t seem to have WEBGL" and the screen was light in colour with no visualiser showing, I use the onboard GPU.
After some web surfing and tests I do have WEBGL as both WEBGL1 and WEBGL2 are green. Using Chrome:gpu it shows that WEBGL is up and running in Chrome. The only program effected is gSender. I reinstalled it but it was the same UNTIL I imported my machine settings then all worked fine.
That night I turned the computer off, rebooted it next morning - same problem Imported the setting again and fixed.
Last night I left the computer running but asleep. Woke it up this morning, launched gSender and same problem.
This time I had to close gSender, reopen it then import the settings to get it to work.
I use V1.2.2 as I have had various problems with some later versions and V1.2.2 has been rock solid up to now.
To me it sound like a computer problem more than a gSender problem. Device driver says my graphics driver is the latest.
Visualizer is blank
This is most likely related to webGL not being enabled. You can check inside Chromium/Chrome by visiting https://webglreport.com/ and checking that both WebGL 1 and WebGL 2 have the green ‘supported’ banner. If these aren’t present, then to enable webGL:
Thanks
As I said in my post, WEBGL1 and WebGL 2 are both green. Chrome reports that " Use hardware acceleration when available" is enabled.
Chrome:GPU reports
WebGL: Hardware accelerated
WebGL2: Hardware accelerated
WebGPU: Hardware accelerated
Disabled WebGL Extensions (that section is blank)
Under chrome:flags there is no “Disable WebGL” selection. There is only
WebGL Developer Extensions (disabled)
WebGL Draft Extensions (disabled)
These are both for developers, so it says.
Can I check on gSenders Electron builder for any settings?
I think the problem may have been resolved. Thinking back, when I first turned the computer on after the break, Micro$haft did an update. It was after this the problem occurred.
This afternoon, I found another Micro$haft update awaiting. Did the update and the problem seems to have gone. Turned the PC off and on numerous times, did some restarts and gSender loads perfectly. Still got my fingers crossed but i’ll send an update after a few days of turning off and turning on.
The problem is now intermittent and Webgl settings are now changing with the problem.
When its working, typing Chrome:gpu reveals Webgl and Webgl 2 and WebGPU are all active and are set for hardware accelerated.
When its not working they are set to software acceleration with hardware acceleration disabled although hardware acceleration is enabled in settings.
That’s strange as you would think it would be one or the other?
Well, after some research, I have found that my Intel Graphics HD 3000 onboard graphics and my NVIDIA GT540M add on graphics card (which are fine for Autodesk Autocad, Fusion 360, Blender Rendering etc. etc.) do not meet the lofty ideals of Chrome and hence gSender.
They are fine with Firefox and Edge but not Chrome. Since gSender relies heavily on Chrome for its Electron section, any problems with Chrome’s acceptance of graphics and acceleration is reflected in gSender.
Both my graphics card have the latest drivers and are working properly is just that Chrome doesn’t approve.
Why Chrome approves on one boot then rejects on another (hence the intermittent nature) is beyond me. You would think it would work all the time or not at all.
Can the software engineers at Sienci explain why gSender needs hardware acceleration to that extent? Maybe they could look at a solution that will allow people with older computers to keep using gSender. If it cant be fixed then I have a choice:
buy another up to date computer so I can use gSender just because gSender uses Chrome and Chrome doesn’t approve.
keep my old computer (which is fine for every other program) and look elsewhere for a CNC program.
Any help from the Software guys would be appreciated.
Thanks.
I was led to believe that gSender relied on something called Electron builder that ran via Chrome?
All diagnostics I’ve read about on the Web with this problem mention checking Chrome.
I found this
" Electron is a framework for building desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS . By embedding Chromium and Node. js into its binary, Electron allows you to maintain one JavaScript codebase and create cross-platform apps that work on Windows, macOS, and Linux — no native development experience required."
@Lappa I wonder if you are confusing Google Chrome with Chromium?? I do not and will never have Google Chrome on any of my PCs. Yet, gSender runs just fine on the three that it is installed one. I don’t pretend to know much about this, but I wanted to mention it here since you may be looking in the wrong place for a solution. Good luck.
Maybe I am but when I did searches for problems causing the WebGL error, all of them referred to Chrome and stated to check the settings in Chrome for accelerated hardware, check Chrome:GPU, check Chrome:flags. None mentioned Edge or Firefox etc.
Since the only program that raises a WebGL problem is gSender, and Web searches associate WebGL problems and Chrome, well ……
Maybe one of the software guys would like to chime in with some information?
Thanks for the reply.
Can you explain why I can get gSender to work by forcing Chrome (not gSender) to use the NVIDIA card? It doesn’t work if I force gSender to use NVIDIA.
It’s a laptop computer ( see the use of PC is earlier posts) and Chrome is the browser that was on there before it got relegated to do the CNC and laser work. I don’t need Chrome as a browser anymore but gSender won’t run by itself unless, as I said on my post above, Chrome is forced to use the NVIDIA Graphics card. ie. for some reason , gSender won’t work without Chrome. Hope that’s clear.