3D Hardware Accel. Problem

Dear Programmers …

i’m usin Nehe Tutorials … i’min lesson 7 … i found that the Graphics Performance is tooo SLow … i don’t know why … my PC Specs …are

P4 1.8GHZ/512KB
256MB DDR
ASUS TNT2M64 32 MB AGP4X

i’ve played many games that was developed using OpenGL [ Return TO Castel of Wolfstein ] it ran tooo smoooth … now i’m rotating a single cube with 3 Textures … and it ran slow … [ FPS is Low ] … i dono Why ?? … the game contains lots of objects … and it ran smoothly … i’m using Linear [ as most games do ] … i think that the program is running in software mode

How can i enalbe … or detedct that the 3D Hardware acceleration is enabled or running in my program … ??

Please Help Me …

i’ll be Glad for any Help …

ThanX Great Programmers …

hmm, I believe that opengl autodetects hardware support, so I don’t think you can change that. You could be linking with opengl.dll instead of opengl32.dll, but thats unlikely, what pixelformat are you using? If its unsupported that might be the cause of your troubles

if you go full screen that should help, also use triangle strips to construct the box. Also if you are using glut to draw the cube this can slow things down abit, or at least thats my previous experiance.

you can chceck current driver by glGetString… and use fullscreen and try varius resolutions and color depths… (and as usual i may be wrong )

take care, there are several versions available of the opengl libraries under windows : microsoft, silicon graphics, mesa…
I think only microsoft’s enables hardware acceleration.

The microsoft opengl driver is software only so is very slow. You need to make sure that the program is linking to the nvopengl32.dll (might be a little differnet) Thats the Nvidia opengl dll that supports hardware acceleration on your gfx card.

Make sure you have nvidia drivers installed, if not go to their website and download one (current ones are 30.** which will work but you would be best with something like the 12.50 which were best for the TNT2s).

Make sure that you are being hardware accelerated, get Nehes lesson 24 http://nehe.gamedev.net/tutorials/lesson.asp?l=24 It will show you your gfx card name and opngl version etc. Make sure it says somehting like Opengl 1.2 and has the TNT2m64. If it says something about microsft then you are in software mode.

Alternatively your gfx card is a little old and would be fairly slow. An upgrade even to an old second hand GF1/2 would be excelent.

Tim

Hmmm, i don’t know how Nehe-Tut’s are working in its speciality - but, a major error of beginners is the following programming fault:
The part where you are applying the textures to your cube is a line called “glSelectTexture(xyz)” (aware of that i don’t know how Nehe-Tut’s are written!) - the bug is easy: with the glSelectTexture() (or was it glSelectActiveTexture() ?) each frame the whole texture-data is transfered from main-memory to your cards-memory - and with 3 textures, each a size of 512x512x3/x4, this is a very relevant amount of data which could be the possible slowdown-fault - so, what you have to do is: kick glSelectTexture() out of your program and start using a technique “called texture-objects” (i don’t know if Nehe-Tut’s are explaining this!) - this works with glGenTextures() and glBindTextures - the trick is: now, the complete data hasn’t to be transfered each frame; instead the data is transfered only once !
So, i’m not sure but this coulb be possible your slowdown-bug - i may be wrong, so don’t rely-on-100% on my comment

Oh … thanX every bode … i’m really glad with all this help …

i’ve already setup the nVidia Dentator XP drivers on WindowsXP … it’s version is 30.14 … i think it’s the Last one … i’m using “GL_LINEAR” at texture Filtering may be this is slowing the program … but all games uses this Filter . the other Filters are tooo blocky … this one is nice …
i’m really to confused … i thought that OpenGL is Fast on my PC …

any way thanX Great Men