more complicated

[tarheel_hax0r]

A while back, I started some threads about the OpenGL/Mesa graphics that are at the heart of LabVIEW [and I suppose the reason that LabVIEW can support cross platform porting to Linux/OSX/Solaris/etc]:

OpenGL hardware acceleration for the LabVIEW's OpenGL graphics engine?

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=105103

Tips for tweaking graphics hardware acceleration of Mesa & the mesa.dll implementation on Win32 platforms?

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=106579

In summary: The Mesa implementation of OpenGL on Win32 platforms does NOT support hardware acceleration.

Just now, however, a thread was started over at Slashdot, which indicates that the situation for Win32/Win64 could become much worse: In the next generation of Microsoft operating systems, OpenGL will only exist as a software layering over [or "wrapper around"] the underlying DirectX software, i.e. OpenGL will no longer exist as a separate infrastructure, and LabVIEW graphics performance could take an enormous hit:

Windows Vista May Degrade OpenGL

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/06/177251

Definitely something to keep your eye on.

[tarheel_hax0r]

About a third of the way down the main thread, there's a good subthread here:

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=158252&pid=13259310&threshold=-1

It looks like the hardware manufacturers [ATi, nVidia, 3Dlabs, etc] are calling on the software manufacturers [like National Instruments] to join with them in applying pressure on Microsoft to change this approach to OpenGL.

[tarheel_hax0r]

It looks as thought the situation could be a little more complicated than the initial headlines suggested, and there are a fair number of people on the Slashdot thread who are defending Microsoft's approach.

Anyway, it's definitely something the LabVIEW community needs to be aware of.