Direct3D, *not* OpenGL 
Author Message
 Direct3D, *not* OpenGL

Is there a way to do some hardware-accelerated 3D in Tk on Windows with
Direct3D ?
I am aware of Togl, but it looks like it binds only to an OpenGL
implementation (eg Mesa), which you need to install first. Any
equivalent for D3D ? Or even for Glide (3dfx) ?

-Alex



Sun, 16 Jun 2002 03:00:00 GMT  
 Direct3D, *not* OpenGL
I do not know if it solves your problem, but OpenGl is native on Windows now,
and thus is hardware-accelerated.
You do not need to install it first, except if you have an old version of
windows95. But in this case, do not use Mesa (which is a software
implementation).

Laurent

Quote:

> Is there a way to do some hardware-accelerated 3D in Tk on Windows with
> Direct3D ?
> I am aware of Togl, but it looks like it binds only to an OpenGL
> implementation (eg Mesa), which you need to install first. Any
> equivalent for D3D ? Or even for Glide (3dfx) ?

> -Alex



Sat, 22 Jun 2002 03:00:00 GMT  
 Direct3D, *not* OpenGL

Quote:


> > Is there a way to do some hardware-accelerated 3D in Tk on Windows with
> > Direct3D ?
> > I am aware of Togl, but it looks like it binds only to an OpenGL
> > implementation (eg Mesa), which you need to install first. Any
> > equivalent for D3D ? Or even for Glide (3dfx) ?

> I do not know if it solves your problem, but OpenGl is native on Windows now,
> and thus is hardware-accelerated.
> You do not need to install it first, except if you have an old version of
> windows95. But in this case, do not use Mesa (which is a software
> implementation).

> Laurent

Oh, thanks for the info. Can you define "now" ? What versions/service
pack guarantee the openGL DLL ? What's its name ?

Also, another problem with Togl is that (AFAIK) you still need C to
actually draw into the widget, there's no script interface to the OGL
primitives. Do you know of an alternative ?

-Alex



Sat, 22 Jun 2002 03:00:00 GMT  
 Direct3D, *not* OpenGL
Salut Alex,

Quote:

> Also, another problem with Togl is that (AFAIK) you still need C to
> actually draw into the widget, there's no script interface to the OGL
> primitives. Do you know of an alternative ?

Claudio Esperan?a's TkOGL defines a Tcl script interface to OpenGL. It
doesn't seem to be maintained anymore and the highest official version is
for Tcl7.5/Tk4.1. However I use a modified version that works with Tk8.0,
and with some minimal effort would certainly work with higher versions.
Although stated as "preliminary release" by the author, I find it very easy
to use and very stable (no crash for nearly 2 years), a really mature
package. I can send you the source and binary. It works fine on Win98/NT
with either software or hardware-accelerated OpenGL, and it also works on
Unix.

The other Tcl OpenGL interface I know is provided with SWIG as an example on
how to wrap an existing library with a Tcl interface. Never tested, but
should provide a one-to-one mapping. Anyway, TkOGL provides a very
Tcl-friendly interface (its interface is close to Tk widget commands). All
the dirty work of window creation/management is handled nicely so that an
OpenGL viewport can be used as any regular Tk widget (including bindings).

A last alternative is to use VTK: the Visualization Toolkit:

        http://www.kitware.com/vtk.html

It is a complete visualization toolkit (as its name says) that include
OpenGL display functions and modelization features. But I find it a bit
overkill for simple 3D jobs (the source archive is multi-megabyte large).

See you, Fred
--

---------------------------------------------------------------
"Theory may inform, but Practice convinces"
                                                    George Bain



Sat, 22 Jun 2002 03:00:00 GMT  
 Direct3D, *not* OpenGL

Quote:

> Salut Alex,


> > Also, another problem with Togl is that (AFAIK) you still need C to
> > actually draw into the widget, there's no script interface to the OGL
> > primitives. Do you know of an alternative ?

> Claudio Esperan?a's TkOGL defines a Tcl script interface to OpenGL. It
> doesn't seem to be maintained anymore and the highest official version is
> for Tcl7.5/Tk4.1.

Yes, that's why I'm not using it !

Quote:
> However I use a modified version that works with Tk8.0,
> and with some minimal effort would certainly work with higher versions.

Wow !!! Exactly what I was looking for !

Quote:
> Although stated as "preliminary release" by the author, I find it very easy
> to use and very stable (no crash for nearly 2 years), a really mature
> package. I can send you the source and binary.

Please do !

Quote:
> The other Tcl OpenGL interface I know is provided with SWIG as an example on
> how to wrap an existing library with a Tcl interface. Never tested, but
> should provide a one-to-one mapping. Anyway, TkOGL provides a very
> Tcl-friendly interface (its interface is close to Tk widget commands). All
> the dirty work of window creation/management is handled nicely so that an
> OpenGL viewport can be used as any regular Tk widget (including bindings).

Yes, that's the very cool stuff about TkOGL. Only I believed it was
obsolete. Thanks for the good news !

Quote:
> A last alternative is to use VTK: the Visualization Toolkit:

>         http://www.kitware.com/vtk.html

> It is a complete visualization toolkit (as its name says) that include
> OpenGL display functions and modelization features. But I find it a bit
> overkill for simple 3D jobs (the source archive is multi-megabyte large).

Same here :)

Thanks again,

-Alex



Sat, 22 Jun 2002 03:00:00 GMT  
 Direct3D, *not* OpenGL


Quote:
>Oh, thanks for the info. Can you define "now" ? What versions/service
>pack guarantee the openGL DLL ? What's its name ?

    Win95 OSR2
    Win98 and NT4 as shipped

    The DLLs are OPENGL32.DLL and GLU32.DLL. The actual Installable
Client Driver (ICD) is loaded by OPENGL32.DLL. To make sure that the
latest ICD is installed, check the board manufacturer's website or
http://www.glsetup.com. If no ICD is available for the installed video
board, OPENGL32.DLL will fall back to software rendering.

    Jon Leech
    SGI



Sat, 22 Jun 2002 03:00:00 GMT  
 Direct3D, *not* OpenGL

Quote:



> > > Is there a way to do some hardware-accelerated 3D in Tk on Windows with
> > > Direct3D ?
> > > I am aware of Togl, but it looks like it binds only to an OpenGL
> > > implementation (eg Mesa), which you need to install first. Any
> > > equivalent for D3D ? Or even for Glide (3dfx) ?

> > I do not know if it solves your problem, but OpenGl is native on Windows now,
> > and thus is hardware-accelerated.
> > You do not need to install it first, except if you have an old version of
> > windows95. But in this case, do not use Mesa (which is a software
> > implementation).

> > Laurent

> Oh, thanks for the info. Can you define "now" ? What versions/service
> pack guarantee the openGL DLL ? What's its name ?

> Also, another problem with Togl is that (AFAIK) you still need C to
> actually draw into the widget, there's no script interface to the OGL
> primitives. Do you know of an alternative ?

> -Alex

http://www.elf.org/pub/frustum01.zip is a togl widget hacked to run
scripts packaged with a SWIG wrapper for opengl, glu, and a few
additional extensions.  It's deficiencies partly inspired ffidl so I
could rewrite the opengl wrapper in pure tcl, but I'm using it, or a
slightly revised version, for a contract.

-- rec --



Sun, 23 Jun 2002 03:00:00 GMT  
 Direct3D, *not* OpenGL


Quote:

>http://www.elf.org/pub/frustum01.zip is a togl widget hacked to run
>scripts packaged with a SWIG wrapper for opengl, glu, and a few
>additional extensions.  It's deficiencies partly inspired ffidl so I
>could rewrite the opengl wrapper in pure tcl, but I'm using it, or a
>slightly revised version, for a contract.

I also like TkSM - it's a high level interface for OpenGL.  It too has
not been updated in a while, but I was able to get the 1.3 version
to work a while back without much difficulty.  TkSM lets you define
polygon based objects, give them textures, add light sources, and control
them, all in Tcl.  There also a vrml widget, but that one core dumped on me.
I haven't been able to find the author's new email or web site (if any),
Irving Hsu.

A quick Google search found it at:
http://www.mirror.ac.uk/sites/sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/lang/tc...

Unfortunately, Irving's old TkSM web page at
http://www.isr.umd.edu/~ihsu/tksm.html is now 404'ed.
--
Tom Poindexter

http://www.nyx.net/~tpoindex/



Sun, 23 Jun 2002 03:00:00 GMT  
 
 [ 8 post ] 

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