What do you need on a Windows PC if you use a library that uses OpenGL?

Question

I am looking at adding 3D functionality into my application. For this I will probably use the QtOpenGl library, but it's not entirely clear if this requires anything special on my customers' PC's.

• Will my customers need an OpenGL video card?
• Will my customers need an OpenGL driver?
• Is a minimum Windows release required?
• Or does it require something else to be installed on the customers' PC's (besides Qt itself)
• Or will it run out of the box?

Thanks

Answer 1

• Will my customers need an OpenGL video card?

Not neccessarily, there's always the software rasterizer fallback.

• Will my customers need an OpenGL driver?

Preferrably. But there's always the software rasterizer fallback.

• Is a minimum Windows release required?

Yes, Windows NT 4 or Windows 95B

• Or does it require something else to be installed on the customers' PC's (besides Qt itself)

Ideally the customer has installed the drivers for his graphics card, as they are distributed by the graphics card maker. Until Windows Vista this was the case anyway. Since Windows Vista, Windows ships with stripped graphics drivers: Microsoft has that policy to remove the OpenGL-ICD from the bundled drivers. So customers have to install the original drivers from the vendor directly. Without vendor OpenGL-ICDs you'll only have the OpenGL-1.4 emulation shipping with Windows Vista/7. For anything beyond, the customer must install the original drivers.

• Or will it run out of the box?

Most likely, but the performance may not be the best, if the vendor drivers have not been installed. My recommendation: Do it like the games: Upon programm start detect which graphics card is present and if the right drivers are installed, and if not, inform the user about it and offer to go to the vendors website to download and install the right driver for his box (that's how I do it).

Answer 2

All modern computers support OpenGL, according to their web site . From personal experience, it will run out of the box with no additional setup required, but you will have to distribute an additional DLL file (QtOpenGL.dll) with your program.