MechWarrior 2: Resource Forum

Col.Kell wrote:Speaking of OpenGL, Sky, I believe this may be why MechVM won't work on my laptop. Is OpenGL hardware or software operated? If it's software, where can I get a download for GL and what might you recommend?

OpenGL can run hardware-accelerated or in software emulation, depending on the implementation of the API (application program interface). One open source implementation is Mesa3D, which includes Windows software drivers. It's possible that this will let MechVM run on your laptop, but I cannot guarantee anything. Look here. Please let me know if it works.

I was on mesa3d.org, and I was redirected to sourceforge, I am curious which one(s) I am supposed to download. What am I to do?
Thanks for your patiance.

Unfortunately, the Mesa3D guys do not provide compiled drivers ... this is unusual for an open source project. I don't suppose you want to compile and install the drivers yourself, so I guess we're back where we started. Sorry.

Are there any driver updates for your graphics card?

The only thing I can compile and install are Mercnet missions.
I will have to check if there is an update for my graphics card.

If this doesn't work out, my mom does have her Vista.

Hey! I think I may have something!

I just downloaded Ubuntu Linux while I was up north visiting a friends house who had an 860kbps download speed.

Do you think Linux comes with OpenGL drivers? Because I am somehow able to view all these unique 3d screensavers that use GL.

How do I get MechVM to run under Linux? I recall that I commented on one of your screenshots and you saying something about "that's why there's the source code".

It has basic, generic GL built in (mesa or something), but for better performance one typically installs proprietary (Nvidia, ATI, whatever) drivers. If they're available for your card, Ubuntu usually can usually install this pretty easily (but your mileage may vary: research first, try searching Ubuntu support, etc.).

I compiled an earlier version of MechVM sometime back and it worked ok but Skyfaller said that there were "limits" to its performance in Linux. See viewtopic.php?f=24&t=111 I do not know if these limits are still there or not.

Edit: I see mesa was already discussed earlier in the thread. Oops

You might be able to run the Windows version of MechVM out of the box under Ubuntu if you use Wine, but I haven't used it myself in some time. Still, it might be interesting to know if the Win95 versions run in Wine. Wine has a reputation of being more compatible with older apps than Vista, because the older API versions are emulated better than in Vista.

PRJPP can help extract and insert files under Windows if MechVM doesn't run. I could even add an option to unpack entire MW2.PRJ archives. However, as I presume your main goal is to see WTB's in MW2.PRJ, you might want to compile MechVM from source under Ubuntu. You will need to have the following packages installed: gcc, gpp/g++ (not sure which), mesaglut/freeglut, freeglut-devel, qt-devel, possibly more. Open a console window and type "qmake; make", then report me any error messages you get. However, if the compile runs through, just start MechVM by typing "./mechvm". The Linux version does not allow installing MW2 yet, but that would do little good anyway. However, you should be able to import mechs from an installation and visit the MechLab.

Not sure which is the last version I tested under Linux, so be prepared to run into trouble. I can offer only limited assistance with this right now. I might just test the current code base under Windows and Linux tonight and release it as an update.

I'll need to upload a new version of MechVM for compiling under Linux. Hopefully I can provide it tomorrow.

The following commands can be used to download the required packages:

sudo apt-get install freeglut3-dev
sudo apt-get install g++
sudo apt-get install libqt4-dev

Bringing this topic back up again, now that I have Windows Visual Studio Express as a compiler, I'll give Mesa3D a try.