How to determine if a proper OpenGL driver is available

[baegsi]

Is it possbile to programmatically determine if a proper OpenGL driver is installed? How could I do that?

[Skippy0]

     GL11.glGetString(GL11.GL_VENDOR);
      GL11.glGetString(GL11.GL_VERSION);
      GL11.glGetString(GL11.GL_RENDERER);

Or check the extension-string.

If this is not what you want, define "proper drievr".

[princec]

LWJGL won't even create a display if you've not got proper a hardware ICD installed. (Except if you force it to with a system property)

Cas

[baegsi]

No, I mean how do I determine if my game will run on your machine? When I can retrieve vendor, version info etc I already know that it is going to run, don't I? My problem is that I need to tackle installations where no / or only a dated driver is available on the current machine and I have to prompt "please update your driver" or do other actions.

[baegsi]

LWJGL won't even create a display if you've not got proper a hardware ICD installed. (Except if you force it to with a system property)

Cas

Exactly. How can I check this before creating a display?

[princec]

Well, if you set the property before creating the display it'll load up the Microsoft generic GDI renderer if there's no hardware drivers and you can then check the gl version and renderer strings.

However it's probably a waste of time even getting that far. I suggest you simply attempt to create the Display and if it fails and you can't get any other mode to suit you you can put up some kind of dialog or open a webpage.

Cas

[baegsi]

Well, if you set the property before creating the display it'll load up the Microsoft generic GDI renderer if there's no hardware drivers and you can then check the gl version and renderer strings.

Which property do you mean?

[princec]

org.lwjgl.opengl.Window.allowSoftwareOpenGL

(we ought to change the name to Display here I suppose)

Cas

[elias]

org.lwjgl.opengl.Window.allowSoftwareOpenGL

(we ought to change the name to Display here I suppose)

Cas

Done.

- elias