OpenGL Hardware Acceleration

SDL Development
1

Heyas,

I was hoping someone could explain some things for me;

How does the computer decide to use Hardware Acceleration, it states that my
card (MX400) is OpenGL and DX8 compatible, does that mean that if either is
detected the card takes over, who makes this decision (the CPU I guess).
Where does SDL sit with this? and finally How do I tell if H/A is being
used. (I have a fast computer so slow down is not a good indicator.)

Kieran Farrell
:wq_________________________________________________________________
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2

Hi!
Actually, SDL may help you to decide …
SLD_VideoModeOK(width,height,bpp,SDL_OPENGL); if this function returns
anything >0 then your video card supports OPENGL in
widthheightreturn_value. I think (I might be wrong) if instead of
SDL_OPENGL you use SDL_HWSURFACE, you can detect directX-compatibility. (I
guess, this only works under windows…)
Anyone tell me if I’m wrong,
cheers,
St0fF.

At 16:07 21.03.2002 +1030, you wrote:>Heyas,

I was hoping someone could explain some things for me;

How does the computer decide to use Hardware Acceleration, it states that
my card (MX400) is OpenGL and DX8 compatible, does that mean that if
either is detected the card takes over, who makes this decision (the CPU I
guess). Where does SDL sit with this? and finally How do I tell if H/A is
being used. (I have a fast computer so slow down is not a good indicator.)

Kieran Farrell
:wq

Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com

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3

Heyas,

I was hoping someone could explain some things for me;

How does the computer decide to use Hardware Acceleration, it states that
my
card (MX400) is OpenGL and DX8 compatible, does that mean that if either
is
detected the card takes over, who makes this decision (the CPU I guess).
Where does SDL sit with this? and finally How do I tell if H/A is being
used. (I have a fast computer so slow down is not a good indicator.)

Your program must use DirectX or OpenGL explicitly, and then your OS
will use the right driver for you.

But even if you request HW accelaration, you may not get it if you request
features not implemented on your board. For example, you may choose a
blending
mode not available on that board but supported in the graphics API (DirectX
or
OpenGL) that you’re using, then the driver will emulate that mode in
software.

You can think of SDL as a portable DirectX that uses OpenGL for the 3D
graphics.

To know which driver is being used, do the following (OpenGL only):

printf (“Version %s, Vendor %s\n”, glGetString (GL_VERSION), glGetString
(GL_VENDOR));

And see if it is the same information as your driver

Paulo Pinto (aka Moondevil in demoscene)
pjmlp_pt at yahoo.com – http://www.progtools.org
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok

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----- Original Message -----
From: kjfarrell@hotmail.com (Kieran Farrell)
Subject: [SDL] OpenGL Hardware Acceleration