Subject: [Nel] 3D software mode

From: "neuser jean-philippe" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 17:53:07 +0100

is it possible to run Snowball demo and Nel without a 3D accelerated card. 
I m not interested by 3D stuff graphics but by all others stuff 
IA , bots, world, network ... 

It s possible to install or make an opengl software driver ? 

thanks for all.

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From: Vincent Caron <[email-masked]>
Date: 11 Feb 2002 19:19:58 +0100

> It s possible to install or make an opengl software driver ? 

Yes. Windows provide a (limited) default OpenGL driver which works in
pure software mode, otherwise the Mesa3D (OpenGL clone with software
rendering and 3DFX support) is available on any platform. Note that
you'll get horrible framerates since Snowballs is texture and polygon
greedy. You can setup the demo to be a bit nicer with polygon count
(landscape tesselation params), and I guess you can hint Mesa3D to
render only a fast subset of GL operations (such as a 'wireframe' mode,
etc).

Ground-level answer: you can start developping with NeL under Windows at
once (you automatically have the vital minimum). Under Linux, install
Mesa (use your distro packages). But if you manage to compile, expect a
horrible running experience, if you have this experience at all :)