For reasonable performance, it is recommended that an Intel system running IDV have at least a 1.2 GHz processor and 1 GB memory (RAM). Performance will be even better with faster processors and more memory. Detailed requirements are listed below.
| 1.1.0 | Operating Systems and Java Versions |
| 1.1.1 | Disk Space |
| 1.1.2 | System Memory and Processor Speed |
| 1.1.3 | Graphics Cards |
| 1.1.4 | Internet Connection for Downloading the IDV, and for Data Sources |
The IDV is known to run on the following operating systems:
| OS | Version |
|---|---|
| Windows | 2000, XP, Vista(1) |
| Linux | Fedora Core 4, 5, 6 (2) |
| Mac OS-X | 10.3.1 or later(3) |
| Solaris/SPARC | Solaris 9+(4) |
| Solaris/x86 | Solaris 10 (Intel)(5) |
If other platforms fully support Java 2 (version 1.5+) and Java 3D (version 1.3.1 or higher) (e.g. AIX, IRIX) , they should also work.
Your graphics system must support 3D; make sure you have the latest video driver for your graphics card. This is included in the Windows operating system. On Linux the driver must support GLX, an X windows system extension to OpenGL programs.
NOTES:
(1)You must have
Direct-X version 8.0 or higher installed on your Windows system if
you use the Direct-X version of Java 3D.
(2)The version of the Mesa library that comes with
RedHat Linux may be incompatible with Java 3D packaged with the IDV.
If you experience X server crashes when exiting the IDV,
you will need to build and install Mesa from source
available at
http://www.mesa3d.org.
(3)Java 3D must be installed for Mac OS-X. For version 10.4 and
higher, it comes with the system. For previous versions, you can download
it here.
(4)OpenGL must be installed for Java 3D to run on Solaris/SPARC.
(5)For Solaris/x86 you must have Java 1.5 and Java 3D 1.4.0 (or later)
installed (comes with the IDV installer, or you can install yourself) and a
compatible video card. For more information, see:
https://java3d.dev.java.net/binary-builds.html
Using installer files, you will need about 50 MB disk space for the installer file, which will uncompress into about twice that size. These include Java and Java3D.
Recommended processor speed will vary by platform, but an Intel Pentium CPU with 1.2 GHz is about the minimum you would need for reasonable performance. You can run on a system as slow as 500 MHZ or even less, but response will be correspondingly reduced. In general, the faster the processor, and the more memory your system has, the better IDV performance will be.
The IDV also works on systems with stereo video cards. See the FAQ on video card for more information.
The IDV is designed to access data on remote servers on the Internet, as well as from local files. Downloading data from remote servers benefits from a fast connection to the Internet, since many data fields are large.