vscode: Broken rendering after updated to 1.66.0

Issue Type: Bug

Not sure how to reproduce, but my VS Code instance becomes broken after updated to 1.66.0.

Texts are rendered in strange way. All of the menu, side bar, text editor, issue reporter and other components are affected.

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VS Code version: Code 1.66.0 (e18005f0f1b33c29e81d732535d8c0e47cafb0b5, 2022-03-30T05:50:14.623Z) OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19044 Restricted Mode: No

System Info
Item Value
CPUs Intel® Core™ i5-9400F CPU @ 2.90GHz (6 x 2904)
GPU Status 2d_canvas: enabled
canvas_oop_rasterization: disabled_off
direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok
gpu_compositing: enabled
multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on
oop_rasterization: enabled
opengl: enabled_on
rasterization: enabled
raw_draw: disabled_off_ok
skia_renderer: enabled_on
video_decode: enabled
video_encode: enabled
vulkan: disabled_off
webgl: enabled
webgl2: enabled
Load (avg) undefined
Memory (System) 31.93GB (19.24GB free)
Process Argv –crash-reporter-id c37a94d8-788e-4c0d-b2a8-ce3c14d630e9
Screen Reader no
VM 0%
Extensions (16)
Extension Author (truncated) Version
project-manager ale 12.5.0
gitignore cod 0.7.0
vscode-eslint dba 2.2.2
git-extension-pack don 0.1.3
githistory don 0.6.19
xml Dot 2.5.1
gitlens eam 12.0.5
vscode-favorites how 1.10.2
rest-client hum 0.24.6
plantuml jeb 2.17.2
svn-scm joh 2.15.3
solidity Jua 0.0.137
vscode-language-pack-zh-hans MS- 1.66.1
vetur oct 0.35.0
scala sca 0.5.5
vscode-open-in-github ziy 1.3.6
A/B Experiments
vsliv368cf:30146710
vsreu685:30147344
python383cf:30185419
vspor879:30202332
vspor708:30202333
vspor363:30204092
vswsl492:30256859
vstes627:30244334
pythonvspyl392:30443607
pythontb:30283811
pythonptprofiler:30281270
vshan820:30294714
vstes263cf:30335440
vscoreces:30445986
pythondataviewer:30285071
vscod805cf:30301675
pythonvspyt200:30340761
binariesv615:30325510
bridge0708:30335490
bridge0723:30353136
vsaa593cf:30376535
vsc1dst:30438360
pythonvs932:30410667
wslgetstarted:30449410
vsclayoutctrt:30451275
dsvsc009:30452663
pythonvsnew555:30457759
vscscmwlcmc:30438804
vscgsvid1:30447480
pynewfile477:30463512

About this issue

  • Original URL
  • State: closed
  • Created 2 years ago
  • Reactions: 1
  • Comments: 20 (3 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

I think I solved my issue. Since this only happens when enabling GPU acceleration, I thought it might be related to NVIDIA control panel settings I changed. Turns out, long time ago I followed some Youtube video to enable Multi-Frame Sampled Antialiasing (MFAA). Once restore to the default Off, the issue is gone. Those who still has this problem could try restoring NVIDIA settings to default.

I think I solved my issue. Since this only happens when enabling GPU acceleration, I thought it might be related to NVIDIA control panel settings I changed. Turns out, long time ago I followed some Youtube video to enable Multi-Frame Sampled Antialiasing (MFAA). Once restore to the default Off, the issue is gone. Those who still has this problem could try restoring NVIDIA settings to default.

I can confirm that this was exactly the culprit here too. Also followed a “tutorial” to turn the MFAA setting on globally 😅. For me, this broke font rendering not only in VS Code but all Electron applications universally, e.g. MS Teams, Joplin, etc. With MFAA off in the NVIDIA Control Panel, all is back to normal.

Continuing the merged https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/147982, here:

  • Changed graphics card.
  • Updated driver.

Still the same fog.

Appending --disable-gpu in the shortcut’s “Target” field fixes it.

Can you see if it still reproduces when disabling the GPU support in VSCode? You can do that by running VSCode from the command line like this: code --disable-gpu

If that helps, you can permanently configure this option via:

  • Command Palette search for “Configure Runtime Arguments”
  • Set disable-hardware-acceleration: true
  • Restart

I rollback to 1.65.2 and seems everything back to normal.