VisAD w/ 3D on MacOSX 10.4

[Don Murray]

Hi All-

Tom Rink wrote:
> Not to my knowledge since Java3D 1.5 is still in pre-release
> status.  However, in my opinion, the JOGL pipeline for Java3D
> will become increasingly important, particularly on OSX, since
> Apple has apparantly stopped it's porting of Java3D at v1.3.1.
> 
> We haven't done much testing of VisAD against v1.4, and I've
> been meaning to give 1.5 with JOGL a try on the Mac - just
> not enough time.  If you want to, and lets us know what you
> find, that would be great.

Slightly off topic, but I'll relate a couple of experiences
we've had using versions of Java 3D > 1.3.2 on several platforms.

- 1.4 needs GLX 1.3 and if I remember correctly, 1.5 needs 1.4?
This created problems on several platforms for our VisAD
based application (IDV)
  - Windows - problems with old video drivers not supporting GLX 1.3
              Updating drivers solved the problem, but was an extra
              step that we didn't want users to go through.
              Also, Direct-X version needs Direct-X 9.0
              Older video cards do not support Direct-X functions
              even with update.
  - Linux  - not all systems support GLX 1.3 yet.  Xvfb still at 1.2
             so background rendering can't be done.  We had to stay
             with 1.3.1 (Blackdown).  We couldn't get offscreen rendering
             to work with 1.3.2.  If anyone has been successful with this
             please let me know.  Eventually, the 1.3.1 libraries will
             be outdated with current libc versions.
  - Solaris-X86 - Java 3D 1.4 works with version 10 so we now have
             a version on that platform
  - Solaris-SPARC - no problems with 1.4 that we encountered.
  - Mac OS-X - we just use the Java 3D that comes with 10.4

When we do run with Java 3D 1.4 on platforms that support it,
we don't have any problems with VisAD.

Haven't tried 1.5 since as Tom says, it's still in development.

Don Murray

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