TechNote (Archived)

Troubleshooting 3D rendering effects

Troubleshooting 3D rendering effects can be troublesome and confusing. Director renders your 3D images to the stage in one of several ways which depend on the hardware (video card), software available and or hardware drivers being used.

Generally, hardware rendering will produce the best results. The latest 3D graphics cards make use of features like 32-bit rendering, multi-texturing, alpha blending (transparency), anti-aliasing, and other features that improve 3D rendering speed and quality. Director 8.5 and Shockwave 3D perform best on the newest graphics card drivers available. Support for DirectX 5.2 or better is critical for Windows graphic cards. Support for OpenGL1.1.2 is critical for Macintosh Graphics cards.

Mac OS and Windows NT machines can only take advantage of #opengl and #software renderers. In these cases, openGL would be the preferred renderer but depending on hardware configurations, video card, and video drivers, using openGL may not be possible. A listof all graphics cards and drivers tested by Macromedia QA and is a good place to check the compatibility of your operating system and video drivers.The 3D Shockwave engine will determine which renderer is best suited for each machine. This means the setting a developer has set as thepreferedRenderermay be changed by the Shockwave player because the particular hardware playing the movie is unable to meet the preferred settings or the system is using an unsupported driver.

The following table illustrates the available 3D renderers by operating system:

Windows 95	Windows 98/98SE ME	Windows NT	Windows 2000	MacOS	Performance
directx7.0	directx7.0	NA	directx7.0	NA	best
directx5.2	directx5.2	NA	directx5.2	NA	better
opengl	opengl	opengl	opengl	opengl	good
software	software	software	software	software	average

Note:Some users may experience best results when using directX5.2

Troubleshooting and optimizing your system for Shockwave 3D content
Before continuing, make sure your system meets Macromedia's recommended 3D Authoring and Playback requirements. Follow the steps below to update the system, as necessary.

Windows

	Pentium II or Pentium III-class CPU, 500 MHz or better
	A current "second generation" 3D graphics card with 8 MB or more of video RAM - see note below
	Windows 95 OSR2.1 or newer
	DirectX version 7 or newer
	128 MB System RAM
	8 MB video RAM
	DirectSound compatible sound card

Macintosh

	G3 333MHz or better
	OS 9 or newer
	OpenGL 1.1.2 or newer
	128 MB system RAM
	A current "second generation" 3D graphics card with 8 MB or more of video RAM - see note below

Note:The term "current", as applied to hardware accelerated 3D graphics cards, refers to products released in 1998 or later. These products are often referred to as "second generation 3D graphic cards."

1	Compare your system against the system requirements.
2	Update installed video card drivers.
3	Check the driver version against unsupported driver list. Update the driver, if one is available.
4	Update to DirectX 7 or newer on Windows systems (except for Windows NT users) and to OpenGL 1.1.2 for Macintosh systems.
5	Test your system and check which renderer it is using by going to the Hardware Test Movie (available soon).