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 | XP, Vista, 7 (32 or 64 bit)(1) |
| Linux | Fedora Core 9, 10, 11(2) |
| Mac OS-X | 10.5 or later(3) |
| Solaris/SPARC | Solaris 9+(4) |
| Solaris/x86 | Solaris 10 (Intel)(5) |
If other platforms fully support Java (version 1.6+) 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. On Linux, the driver must support GLX, an X windows system extension to OpenGL programs.
NOTES:
(1)You must have
Direct-X version 9.0 or higher installed on your Windows system if
you use the Direct-X version of Java 3D.
(2)The version of the OpenGL library must support
GLX 1.3..
(3)Java 6 must be installed for the IDV to run on Mac OS-X.
For those IDV users running on Mac OS-X 10.5, you can upgrade your Java version either by installing Snow Leopard, or by installing the Java update avaiable
here.
Please note that Java 6 is only available for Intel based Macs and that the update above only works on 64 bit systems. If you have a 32-bit Intel based Mac, you can get Java 6 by upgrading to Snow Leopard.
If you install Java from the update, you'll need to make it your default Java:
To find and/or update your default Java version, follow these steps:
https://java3d.dev.java.net/binary-builds.html
Using installer files, you will need about 80-90 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. 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.