Heimer 4.5.0 crashes without DirectX 12

[sergeevabc]

OS Windows 7 SP1 x64.

Heimer 4.4.0 works fine.

Heimer 4.5.0 (all of a sudden!) requires d3d12.dll.

Do we really need DirectX 12 to draw a few rectangles and arrows between them?

[juzzlin]

The default graphics back-end might have changed in Qt. No changes in Heimer regarding this.

[sergeevabc]

@juzzlin, well, in that case using the latest version of Qt to compile Heimer is a bad idea, because it cuts off your user base. Obviously, users in many parts of the world, from poor Brazilian favelas to the destroyed neighborhoods of the Middle East, cannot keep up with the California golden boys who are constantly upgrading their hardware and OS.

Please, check if there are compilation switches to lower the system requirements (DirectX 12 is overkill, because even large games like Bioshock are happy with DirectX 9-11). Or consider using the older Qt compilation engine (like @hanna-kn does with Eqonomize).

[juzzlin]

The windows version of 4.5.0 seems to even work in Wine in Linux.

Please test the attached build.

heimer-4.5.0-win32.zip

[sergeevabc]

Please test the attached build.

The same error upon launch.

[juzzlin]

@juzzlin, well, in that case using the latest version of Qt to compile Heimer is a bad idea, because it cuts off your user base. Obviously, users in many parts of the world, from poor Brazilian favelas to the destroyed neighborhoods of the Middle East, cannot keep up with the California golden boys who are constantly upgrading their hardware and OS.

I'm myself living in Finland, using Ubuntu 22.04 (which is free, BTW) on an old desktop PC, so yeah.

[juzzlin]

I'm not sure why Qt needs Direct 3D 12 now. According to this even QtQuick (and we are using the legacy widgets) is still using Direct3D 11 and Direct3D 12 must be explicitly switched on:

https://www.qt.io/blog/direct3d-12-support-in-qt-6.6

Maybe the Qt 6 in MXE has been configured differently.

However, I believe that OpenGL was used as the graphics API when Heimer was cross-compiled against Qt 5. I tried to force OpenGL back, but apparently it didn't work.

[sergeevabc]

to: @cmaureir, @torarnv

Guys behind Qt, the core idea of programming is to provide tools that solve problems. The masses are looking at you, hoping to reduce the level of mundane suffering by means of widely accessible computers and apps. If some Qt6-based calculator can no longer add 2 plus 2 until a user has Windows 3000, DirectX 12 and a fan glowing in the colors of the rainbow flag, you have lost the way of progress. This is not progress, guys, you're wasting your intelligence and letting the masses down by entrenching the gap between a few who can meet the ever-increasing demands of Qt and the rest who cannot. You can do better.

[juzzlin]

I tried to build the old cross-compilation Docker image, but of course it didn't work anymore:

[download]    expat-2.3.0.tar.bz2
MXE Warning! Downloading expat from second URL.
MXE Warning! Downloading expat from backup.

Download failed or wrong checksum of package expat!
------------------------------------------------------------

[juzzlin]

For QtQuick applications it's possible to force OpenGL on Windows, but I cannot find a way to do that for a legacy Widgets-based application. Maybe there still is a way.

This is what I tried to do in main.cpp:

// Force Qt to use OpenGL
QSurfaceFormat format;
format.setRenderableType(QSurfaceFormat::OpenGL);
QSurfaceFormat::setDefaultFormat(format);

[sergeevabc]

Maybe there still is a way.

I found Nekoray by @parhelia512. That app is built with Qt6, has GUI and runs without errors on Windows 7. Perhaps he/she could share an insight on how this became possible.

C:/Test/Nekoray/
├── config/
├── generic/
├── imageformats/
├── networkinformation/
├── platforms/
├── styles/
├── tls/
├── geoip.db
├── geosite.db
├── nekobox.png
├── nekobox_core.exe
├── nekoray.exe
├── qt.conf
├── Qt6Core.dll
├── Qt6Gui.dll
├── Qt6Network.dll
├── Qt6Widgets.dll
└── updater.exe

[sergeevabc]

I guess this is a dead end. There is a way for sure, but it is unknown to us.