Re: [Visualpython-users] VPython troubles on Windows Starter?

[Bruce S. <Bru...@nc...>]

Shaders, which are programs that run in Graphics Processing Units
(GPUs) on the graphics card, are invoked by VPython only for programs
that involve materials such as materials.wood. VPython attempts to
identify computers that lack GPUs (a netbook might well fall into that
category) and just display objects without materials, and issues a
message to that effect. The message is just informational; the program
should run, just not display with material properties.

>From the download page at vpython.org:

Materials such as wood will work with graphics cards that support
Pixel Shader 3.0 ("PS 3.0"). See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_shader#Hardware. Some materials may
work with graphics cards that support PS 2.0, but other materials may
need to be manually disabled: In the folder
C:\PythonNN\Lib\site-packages\vis, edit the file site-settings.py to
uncomment one or the other pair of Python statements. If the graphics
hardware does not support pixel shaders, the material property is
ignored. If you think you should be able to use materials but have
trouble with their display or performance, we highly recommend
upgrading your video card drivers to the latest version.

Bruce Sherwood

On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 10:04 AM, Jim Deane <jim...@gm...> wrote:
> One of my exchange students from Italy has an EEEpc (a netbook) with Windows
> Starter Edition on it.  She has installed VPython (using Python 2.7 from the
> VPython.org site) twice, and we keep running into errors when trying to run
> VPython files.  I'm sorry I do not have the errors written down, but I
> believe one of them was a compile error having to do with the shader (or
> some combination of keywords like that).
>
> I have not had a chance to sit down and fully go through the install with
> her, but before I start troubleshooting on my own (with the associated
> language difficulties), is there a known problem with running VPython on a
> netbook running Windows Starter Edition?
>
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