Archicad 26 and DPI issue on 4K monitors under Windows 11

[Paul King]

Has anyone solved the issue of ArchicCAD 26 displaying with 'fatter' lower resolution linework than earlier versions on same workstation (i.e. same hardware, same Windows version, same graphics driver etc) ?

This is with Archicad 26 version 4019 and using same 'Advanced Redraw Options' settings in Archicad 26 as with Archicad 24.

The consequence is that adjacent linework in detailed areas visually merges together into a blob far sooner than it normally does when zooming out, and small differences in line weight are hard or impossible to distinguish.

[Paul King]

Hi, 'I feel your pain' as they say, but if you read the full thread above, there is a solution, and an explanation included (The graphics engine is tuned for small monitor scaling).  There is probably no problem with your graphics card or hardware.

For me, after performing the suggested registry tweak, ArchiCAD 26 looks fine again.

The only remaining issue being that the mouse pointer is tiny.

[MASz]

This is still an issue in Archicad 27.

I lodged in ac27 beta, they didnt fix it and it took a lot of encouragement (to put it mildly) getting them to recognise it as a still existing problem. At this point i still have no idea if they'll actually fix it in 28. Not that that's acceptable anyway, it is a major bug that should be fixed in Archicad 26 and 27.

Here is the claim from Graphisoft:

"The DEF-9464 bug was fixed back in AC 26, and we did not get complaints for a few months.

The scaling should be set to 100% to fix the issue as far as I know. Other workarounds are resetting the Registry Editor (which might be the best) and turning off 2D antialiasing."

The bug is not fixed. They have tried to fix it and have changed the behaviour of it, but it still a bug. It is never acceptable for Graphisoft to suggest that display scaling should be set to 100%. This is unusable in a lot of set ups, for instance laptops with higher resolutions or 4k+ monitors. Display scaling is a totally normal, recommended feature of Windows. Archicad 22 was supposed to solve all this. Workarounds are not solutions either, and even Graphisoft generally advise you not to use RenderingAPI -1. I do not know why it was acceptable to launch in this state, nor why Graphisoft consistently screws up when it comes to display scaling. It suggests they do not do their own testing correctly and have repeatedly failed from a quality control perspective. It also raises questions about Archicad support providing misinformation to customers.

I have suggested that there should be a toggle in work environment for the 2d drawing infrastructure, Given that it is bugged and the registry entry is not obvious. This was ignored.

It goes beyond looking blobby and blurry, linework doesn't even connect properly. You need to get an accurate display of your 2d drawings to be able to work effectively.

If display scaling were to work correctly, then the drawings should look same regardless of what display scaling you have set Windows to. This is the case with the old drawing infrastructure. If you set display scaling to 350% for instance, then that really demonstrates the problems with the scaling. I have attached an example.

And no, it is not valid to say "well 350% is set too high". The point of this exercise is to clearly demonstrate the erroneous scaling behaviour and it should be easily reproducible by anyone using Windows, regardless of display.

[henryL]

Sad to report that the problem is still present in version 28.

[MASz]

Yes, still present.

I had tried to lodge it yet again in the beta. It was marked as "Waiting for decision" and then never updated.

I put in a support ticket and the useless response from Graphisoft was as follows:

The original report and bug DEF-9464 were fixed in AC 26 updates and in AC 27. This was about thicker lines in 2D on Windows with 175% scale.
If you are experiencing something still, then it must be a different issue. 
 
What do you see? Do the workarounds mentioned in the older ticket help?
 
 Previous Notes from GS : The scaling should be set to 100% to fix the issue as far as I know. Other workarounds are resetting the Registry Editor (which might be the best) and turning off 2D antialiasing.
 
 I would recommend keeping the graphic driver up dated and maybe trying a reinstall of AC, but it should have been fixed already.

I replied telling them that this is incorrect, the issue has not been fixed as has previously explained on multiple occasions. 

[Paul King]

Although I originally started this thread, and things were certainly never 100% fixed under AC26 & 27 I am glad to say the 4K scaling display issues seem to have finally gone away for me under AC28.

Linework is now all crisp, menu text is correctly scaled, dynamic curser finally correctly scaled - all straight out of the box (no tweaks needed)

Silly suggestion - make sure you have true line weight set to OFF when testing line quality while zooming out

Hairlines should always look fine at any zoom, but fatter/true weight lines are more affected by drawing position of the line vs nearest row of screen pixels in the display, so are less perfectly consistent when zoomed right out, & you can get a bit of fuzziness/loss of detail that way - but no more than has ever been the case.

I am running:

AC28.0.0 v3001 NZE

Windows 11 23H2   Build 22635.4445

Display Scaling 175% (text etc)

Display resolution 3840x2160

Gforce RTX3080

NVIDIA Driver 560.94

Driver Type DCH

[MASz]

Attached is a screenshot from AC28 at 350%. Turning off view true line weight did not affect appearance much here. It's definitely still bugged, though the performance is inconsistent.

[Paul King]

OK, I just tested and can verify the issue when display scaling is set to 350%.

I have two 50" 4K monitors side by side, and with one set to scaling 350% and the other set to 175%, dragging the same ArchiCAD window from side to side between them, the issue appears and disappears.  Line weight become cruder, and door swings and other curved lines become visibly and crudely segmented (as reflected in the screenshot above).  Almost as if the windows display scale factor is being improperly applied by ArchiCAD to the display of drawing geometric content itself rather than just application menu text, icons & cursors etc. 

I then tried dragging a PDF of an ArchiCAD drawing backwards and forwards between monitors, but saw no such issue with changes in line thickness or curved lines - so the issue does seem to lie squarely with ArchiCAD.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Paul,

Could you also attach screenshots about the issue?

[Paul King]

Hi Laszlo

Side by side screenshots below.  True line weight is off.  Larger image is 350% display scaling, smaller image is my standard 175% display scaling.  

Essentially, the 350% screenshot on the left looks like the line weights are being scaled up as well, not just the application window text & icons.  Ditto the polygon resolution of the curves. (may be hard to make out the 'curve' vertexes unless you view image at full size, preferably on a 4K 50" monitor - please ensure your developers all do have monitors like this, otherwise they may not recognize the problem)

While I am personally happy at 175% scaling, the reason people might need 350% is not because they can't see the line work unscaled, but because they can't make out the application window text and dynamic feedback/ cursors etc unscaled.   The app window content itself should be left unscaled by default (though a separate display scaling control for content line weights might be useful for really huge monitors where user or their intended audience in a presentation sits very far away from monitor)

This issue will only get worse as people migrate to 8K 70" monitors (remember when we though 14" was extravagant & unnecessary & would never catch on? 🙂 )

[MASz]

The point is that it is bugged. 2d drawings should appear the same at whatever display scale. The display is still inaccurate at 175%, to the point where I would not recommend anyone to use this drawing infrastructure especially at 4k. It results in all sorts of artifacts, such as lines not being connected:

 

The takeaway should not be that it's only a problem at 350%. Graphisoft have tried to use that argument on me and it is incorrect. The only reliable option is to use the old drawing infrastructure with anti-aliasing off so you're actually able to read your own drawings. Otherwise you are subjecting yourself to unreasonable risk.

It really blows my mind that something as basic as being able to read your own drawings is not a priority for Graphisoft. I have lodged this is a bug repeatedly since the AC26 beta and they still have not properly acknowledged it or done anything to address it. That's not even getting to the performance problems with this new drawing infrastructure. And yet, this is the default drawing infrastructure.