> that means, the Ballon3D detects itself if openGl is usable 
> or not and if not switches to softrenderer ?

This question doesn't make sense as stated.

"Balloon3D" is a low-level interface which can be used by applications
in a variety of "modes":
* software only: use the builtin software renderer
* 3DAPI: Uses platform API for rendering:
    * software only
    * hardware accelerated
On Windows, we even have the choice between OpenGL and Direct3D which is
controlled by a VM preference (and cannot be influenced by Balloon3D at
this point). IOW, there are at most five "modes" that Balloon3D could be
used in at this point: builtin/software, D3D/software, D3D/hardware,
OGL/software, OGL/hardware.

It is the APPLICATION that can request certain modes from Balloon3D and
specify the capabilities they want including if HWA is required or not
and various other things. Whether or not to fall back on software
rendering (either builtin or through the platform API) depends on the
application not on Balloon3D. For Wonderlands this is true (e.g., they
use software rendering by default) for Croquet it is not. In fact, for
Croquet even OpenGL is required and any attempt to run it in D3D mode is
likely to crash.

So essentially the answer to the question is: Balloon3D _can_ detect the
presence of hardware support for the current platform API. Whether any
application makes use of that information or not is an entirely
different matter. Balloon3D can _NOT_ detect the presence of OpenGL
directly and it can _NOT_ detect if that is "usable" in the context of
some application (aka "do the drivers crash?", "is it too slow?").

  - Andreas

> -----Original Message-----
> From: squeak-dev-admin at lists.squeakfoundation.org 
> [mailto:squeak-dev-admin at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On 
> Behalf Of Hans Nikolaus Beck
> Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 7:02 PM
> To: squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org
> Subject: Re: programming (fast) 3D in Squeak
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> that means, the Ballon3D detects itself if openGl is usable 
> or not and 
> if not switches to softrenderer ?
> 
> Greetigns
> 
> Hans
> 
> >>
> >>is Ballon Hardware accelerated (via openGl ) or not ?
> >>
> >>Greetings
> >>
> >>Hans
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >Yes, it is, although a purely software renderer exists for platforms
> >without OpenGL or Direct3D.  You might also be interested in Croquet
> >(www.opencroquet.org), where you can download a pre-alpha 
> release of a
> >Squeak-based multi-user 3D environment that allows you to use OpenGL
> >directly.
> >
> >Joshua
> >
> >
> >  
> >
> 
> 
>