[Vis5d-users] Re: Vis5d UNIX -> X-server on PC/Windows?

Hi Conrad,

> I know that there is a version of Vis5d that compiles under Windows, but
> has anyone successfully run Vis5d on a UNIX machine but set the DISPLAY
> environment variable to a PC/Windows machine running an X-server? I know
> that the X-server needs to support the GLX extensions. Under Labtam's
> X-WinPro I get the same message that Jose Pereira reported:
> > Error: couldn't get RGB, Double-Buffered, Depth-Buffered GLX visual!
> Using Hummingburd's Exceed and an older 8MB PCI graphics card, I got
> "out-of-memory" error messages. After upgrading the video card, I get no
> error messages and Vis5d starts up the two windows, but the graphics
> display window remains completely black all the time.

David Holland reported the same problem and got the
following advice from Michael Boettinger:

  If your graphics card offer hardware accelerated OpenGL you
  may want to try out Hummingbird Exceed 3D:
  (http://www.hummingbird.com/products/nc/exceed/index.html)
  This is a commercial X-Server software with OpenGL extensions.

  First of all: it works.
  I have tried to run Vis5D on our Onyx2 with X-Display set to my
  PC (PII 400 MHz, Diamond Fire GL4000 Graphics card, 10 MBit
  Ethernet connectivity). Depending on the selection of visualization tools
  (e.g. Isosurface, Isolines,..) the responsiveness of the 3-D-display is
  not bad - but far away from anything you could get locally on the SGI.
  But it works with my setup definitely better than pure software rendering.

Here was David's response:

  I have followed your suggestions and I can now display Vis5D on my PC
  X-server.  As you suggested, I have tried the Hummingbird Exceed 3D product
  which has the OpenGL library.  That software installation got rid of the
  software error message

  Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display "my sgi:0.0".

  I still received the hardware error message

  Error: couldn't get RGB, Double-Buffered, Depth-Buffered GLX visual!

  So I switched to a video card with hardware OpenGL as you suggested and now
  all works fine.  The card I am using is a "64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS
  (Dell)" product.  Thanks for your help.

Good luck,
Bill
----------------------------------------------------------
Bill Hibbard, SSEC, 1225 W. Dayton St., Madison, WI  53706
hi...@fa...  608-263-4427  fax: 608-263-6738
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/vis.html