6 Replies Latest reply: Oct 20, 2011 1:48 PM by unique_screenname_here RSS

    Pixel Bender Noob

    designII Community Member

      I downloaded and installed it, restarted, still, no matter what I do or open, the pixel bender filter remains gray. I'm using a dell Precision 380, with a Quadro 3450 video card, Windows XP Pro, 4 gigs of ram. Thx for any help. I searched these forums first, but could find no similar question. Also using CS5 extended.

        • 1. Re: Pixel Bender Noob
          unique_screenname_here Community Member

          Is "Enable OpenGL Drawing" also disabled in Photoshop's preferences? Have you installed the latest NVIDIA-provided graphics drivers for your graphics card?

          • 2. Re: Pixel Bender Noob
            designII Community Member

            Hi unique, thx for your response. "Enable open GL" is checked in CS5 preferences. I am limited to only two drivers for my card. I use Autodesk's Alias Surface Studio, and stick to the recommended drivers.

            • 3. Re: Pixel Bender Noob
              unique_screenname_here Community Member

              Okay, the drivers may pose a problem although I suspect they are probably not the cause of this problem as the Photoshop preference is not grayed out. What is the mode (colorspace and bit-depth) of the images you are trying to process?

              • 4. Re: Pixel Bender Noob
                anthonym_1

                I strongly believe your problem is not the video card or the drivers for that card, but Windows XP Professional. I had many problems getting Windows XP Professional (64bit) to

                work with my Nvidia card and drivers when trying to get CS5's flick panning and rotate screen functions to work, which rely on Open GL. After several weeks of patches and

                work-arounds and despising the idea of upgrading my OS,  I finally gave up and just updated my OS to Windows 7.  I thank myself to this day.

                • 5. Re: Pixel Bender Noob
                  designII Community Member

                  Thanks for all of your answers. I believe I had downloaded the 5.1 version but I am running 5.0. I am upgrading to a new computer today with better video, more ram, and win7. I will try again after they swap machines.

                  • 6. Re: Pixel Bender Noob
                    unique_screenname_here Community Member

                    Yeah, WinXP is a bit of a headache as anthonym_1 noted. My advice would be to install the 64-bit version of Win7 while you're making the change. Make sure to put a decent graphics card in your machine while you're at it--you don't need to go overboard but a DX11-capable card with a good amount of video memory (I look for at least 1GB these days) and plenty of shader cores should do the trick.