[Mesa3d-users] National Instruments' LabVIEW Mesa Implementation? [Hardware Optimization for Win32?]
From: Nathan S. <ns...@nc...> - 2005-02-15 23:39:03
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Does anyone have any tips about optimizing hardware acceleration of = National Instruments' LabVIEW Mesa Implementation on Win32 platforms? I = ask because LabVIEW feels a little slow to me [especially on older = hardware], and when I upgrade our graphics cards, I'd like to get = something that is known to work well with NI's Mesa. Apparently NI puts all their Mesa stuff in one giant file, called = "mesa.dll" [almost 1 MB in size], which in e.g. LabVIEW 7.0 exists as = [variously] C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 7.0\resource\mesa.dll C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\Mesa\mesa.dll C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\LabVIEW = Run-Time\7.0\mesa.dll That's about all I know of NI's Mesa, other than one mention in a = LabWindows forum [LabWindows is a slightly different product than = LabVIEW itself] which indicates that if you update your LabWindows/CVI = Runtime, you might get a newer version of "mesa.dll": = http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=3D180&message.id=3D13948 Anyway, are there any good chipsets and/or graphics cards that work well = with NI's Mesa? Or are there any bad chipsets and/or graphics cards that = I should avoid? And are there any configuration files or Registry = settings that I could tweak to get better performance? Finally, we've got some older machines that don't have AGP slots: Does = anyone know of a good PCI card that would work well with NI's Mesa? = Likewise, are there any PCI cards that I should avoid? For instance, I = know that e.g. the DRI project doesn't support Matrox's PCI cards [but I = don't know whether that would have any bearing on NI's Mesa]: = http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/Matrox?action=3Dhighlight&value=3DCategor= yHardware Thanks for any suggestions you might have! |
From: Brian P. <bri...@tu...> - 2005-02-16 00:46:34
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Nathan Smyth wrote: > Does anyone have any tips about optimizing hardware acceleration of > National Instruments' LabVIEW Mesa Implementation on Win32 platforms? I > ask because LabVIEW feels a little slow to me [especially on older > hardware], and when I upgrade our graphics cards, I'd like to get > something that is known to work well with NI's Mesa. > > Apparently NI puts all their Mesa stuff in one giant file, called > "mesa.dll" [almost 1 MB in size], which in e.g. LabVIEW 7.0 exists as > [variously] > > C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 7.0\resource\*mesa.dll* > C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\Mesa\*mesa.dll* > C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\LabVIEW > Run-Time\7.0\*mesa.dll* > > That's about all I know of NI's Mesa, other than one mention in a > LabWindows forum [LabWindows is a slightly different product than > LabVIEW itself] which indicates that if you update your LabWindows/CVI > Runtime, you /might/ get a newer version of "mesa.dll": > > http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=180&message.id=13948 > <http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=180&message.id=13948> > > Anyway, are there any good chipsets and/or graphics cards that work well > with NI's Mesa? Or are there any bad chipsets and/or graphics cards that > I should avoid? And are there any configuration files or Registry > settings that I could tweak to get better performance? > > Finally, we've got some older machines that don't have AGP slots: Does > anyone know of a good PCI card that would work well with NI's > Mesa? Likewise, are there any PCI cards that I should avoid? For > instance, I know that e.g. the DRI project doesn't support Matrox's PCI > cards [but I don't know whether that would have any bearing on NI's Mesa]: > > http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/Matrox?action=highlight&value=CategoryHardware > <http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/Matrox?action=highlight&value=CategoryHardware> > > Thanks for any suggestions you might have! If you're interested in hardware rendering, you don't need Mesa at all. Just use the native OpenGL library/driver. Mesa, on Windows anyway, only does software rendering. Historically, various sci-vis apps on Unix/Linux have used the hardware-accelerated OpenGL library when present, and used Mesa's software rendering as a fallback when the former was absent. That said, I don't know anything about LabVIEW or how it uses Mesa. -Brian |
From: Nathan S. <ns...@nc...> - 2005-02-16 00:52:12
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> Just use the native OpenGL library/driver. Whose OpenGL library/driver? Do MSFT operating systems ship with OpenGL [i.e. non-DirectX] stuff pre-installed? I thought that was the whole problem... Anyway, for me at least, I need to learn as much about this "mesa.dll" that National Instruments ships with LabVIEW [whether or not it can be accelerated in hardware, and, if so, which cards/chipsets offer the best drivers]. |
From: Brian P. <bri...@tu...> - 2005-02-16 01:00:34
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Nathan Smyth wrote: >>Just use the native OpenGL library/driver. > > > Whose OpenGL library/driver? Do MSFT operating systems ship with OpenGL > [i.e. non-DirectX] stuff pre-installed? I thought that was the whole > problem... Well, if one buys an ATI or NVIDIA or 3Dlabs card (for example), it typically comes with a CD-ROM with drivers and misc programs. The user will install the software from the CD-ROM, or download a newer driver from the vendor's website. They'll have hardware-accelerated OpenGL at that point. I don't know what sort of OpenGL drivers, if any, are included with a stock Windows XP installation. > Anyway, for me at least, I need to learn as much about this "mesa.dll" that > National Instruments ships with LabVIEW [whether or not it can be > accelerated in hardware, and, if so, which cards/chipsets offer the best > drivers]. Maybe another reader can comment on that. Have you contacted the vendor of LabVIEW? -Brian |
From: Nathan S. <ns...@nc...> - 2005-02-16 03:21:07
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> Have you contacted the vendor of LabVIEW? I've started a thread about it over at the LabVIEW forums, but I haven't gotten any replies yet. |
From: Karl S. <k.w...@co...> - 2005-02-16 01:12:17
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At 05:52 PM 2/15/2005, Nathan Smyth wrote: > > Just use the native OpenGL library/driver. > >Whose OpenGL library/driver? Do MSFT operating systems ship with OpenGL >[i.e. non-DirectX] stuff pre-installed? I thought that was the whole >problem... Windows comes with an OpenGL library. Typically, when one installs a video card, they also install OpenGL 'ICD' drivers that are called by the Microsoft OpenGL library. If no ICD exists, the MS OpenGL will perform software rendering and/or use some pretty basic acceleration provided at the GDI level - not sure. In any case, you really need the vendor's drivers to fully leverage the card. >Anyway, for me at least, I need to learn as much about this "mesa.dll" that >National Instruments ships with LabVIEW [whether or not it can be >accelerated in hardware, and, if so, which cards/chipsets offer the best >drivers]. As Brian said, Mesa for Windows is software rendering only. It is unlikely that NI or anyone else has added hardware acceleration by talking directly to the hardware on the card. Perhaps Mesa could use the ICD interface - not sure. That being said, see http://www.scitechsoft.com/products/ent/gld_home.php SciTech did contribute the code to layer Mesa on top of Direct3D and it is in Mesa's CVS repository. But no one has really worked on it and it is not complete. It is possible that NI is using the SciTech product, but you'd have to ask them. Karl >------------------------------------------------------- >SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide >Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. >Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. >http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click >_______________________________________________ >Mesa3d-users mailing list >Mes...@li... >https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mesa3d-users |
From: Nathan S. <ns...@nc...> - 2005-02-16 03:21:22
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> As Brian said, Mesa for Windows is software rendering only. It is unlikely > that NI or anyone else has added hardware acceleration by talking directly > to the hardware on the card. Perhaps Mesa could use the ICD interface - not > sure. Well, if NI's Mesa can't do hardware acceleration, that would explain why it feels "slow". |