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Author Topic: Significance of OpenGL Version?  (Read 12065 times)

ronaldefarmer

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Significance of OpenGL Version?
« on: January 16, 2015, 10:57:43 pm »

Anim8or seems to work fine with Windows 8.1 running in Virtualbox, but I see that the OpenGL version is 1.1 in the VM as compared to version 4.1 when actually booting to the Windows partition. What is the significance of the OpenGL version in terms of Anim8or's functionality and performance? What difference (if any) should I expect to notice?
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Claude

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Re: Significance of OpenGL Version?
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2015, 03:35:57 am »

ronaldefarmer

As far as functionality is concerned,you would loose the OpenGL
renderer and in the working viewport all the features related to the ARB and GLSL shaders:per pixel lighting calculation,bumpmap... + Anti-Aliased OpenGL in the workspace also.
You would have basic vertex lighting calculation.

Performance wise,you would loose this improvement,faster OpenGL Rendering since it probably uses vertex arrays not part of OpenGL 1.1
http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php/topic,4796.0.html

Hope I didn't forget anything.

Claude
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ronaldefarmer

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Re: Significance of OpenGL Version?
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2015, 02:27:59 pm »

Thank you Claude, I think I understand more clearly now. And on closer examination, I find there is actually a much bigger difference in Anim8or's workspace performance than I initially thought.

I have one more question: Do I have any options as far as upgrading OpenGL on the virtual machine? Thanks for your response.
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Claude

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Re: Significance of OpenGL Version?
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2015, 04:13:09 pm »

Not knowing the first thing about Virtualbox, I had a quick look
at virtualbox.org.
The manual mentions Guest Additions and among these
Hardware-accelerated graphics,but Windows 8 is not listed
and OpenGl version neither.You might want to read this:
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#guestadd-3d
On the forum,I found this:
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=65549
According to users,it's not really  working yet.

Might want to use their forum to get more info if you want
to go further.
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ronaldefarmer

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Re: Significance of OpenGL Version?
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2015, 06:06:44 pm »

Thanks again for the information, Claude. I read what I could find in the Virtualbox manual and forum about OpenGL in Virtualbox. It appeared that I should have OpenGL 2 from what I read. I wasn't sure it was strictly a Virtualbox issue. I don't really know much at all about OpenGL and graphics drivers. I really appreciate your help.
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AlecJames

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Re: Significance of OpenGL Version?
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2015, 05:04:33 am »

Does Anim8or run on Windows 8.1 outside of virtual box?  I'm not using 8.1 as yet.
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ronaldefarmer

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Re: Significance of OpenGL Version?
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2015, 09:07:13 am »

Hello AlecJames:
Yes, it does. I run Anim8or in Windows 8.1 on my desktop and in Windows 7 on my laptop. I have not noticed a difference.
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Steve

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Re: Significance of OpenGL Version?
« Reply #7 on: February 22, 2015, 06:55:13 pm »

The version in the upper corner is temporary.  It's there to make it easy to see if you are using the new OpenGL code paths or not to help me debug problems with some people's computers.  You can toggle back to the old one with the Options->Debug->NewOpenGLRenderer command.

I plan on removing the old path (and the notation in the upper right corner) when I'm closer to make this all an official release.
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ronaldefarmer

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Re: Significance of OpenGL Version?
« Reply #8 on: February 22, 2015, 10:06:53 pm »


  You can toggle back to the old one with the Options->Debug->NewOpenGLRenderer command.


Cool, this made points and edges visible in point edit mode when running in Anim8or in Virtualbox. Maybe there will be a new video driver for the Windows 8 VM by the time you get around to removing the old path.
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