Q. Do I need a special video card to run McIDAS-V?
A. 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. See
Operating
System Requirements for more information.
Q. Why does the display go gray or get corrupted when I resize my McIDAS-V
display?
A. ATI cards do not always work
correctly with the OpenGL version of Java 3D under Windows. If you experience
problems with corrupted displays (sets of triangles, spurious lines, weird
looking displays) and have an ATI card and are running Windows, try the
following:
- Right click on the Windows Desktop and select Properties from the
pop-up menu.
- From the Settings tab, make sure the color quality is 16 bit.
- Click the Advanced button and select the OpenGL tab. Depending on
your card, either click the button for Force 16 bit buffer (or something
like that) or click on the Compatibility settings button and click
the "Force 16 bit" radio
button.
- Click the OK buttons to exit the Display Properties dialog.
- Try McIDAS-V again and see if it works better.
- If not, try using the Direct-X installer instead of the OpenGL installer.
Q. If I'm having problems with the OpenGL version under Windows, can
I run the Direct-X version Java 3D?
A. If you are using the version
of Java 3D distributed with McIDAS-V (1.6.0), you can switch between the
OpenGL and Direct-X versions of Java 3D with a command line switch. If
you are using runMcV.bat to start McIDAS-V, edit that file and uncomment
the appropriate line. If you have your own script for starting McIDAS-V,
add in the -Dj3d.rend=d3d option to your start line (before
-jar or class name).