INFO: About Graphics Cards and Driver
The information in this article applies to:
- GlobFX Composer 1.0.9
About Graphics Cards
The Graphics Card (also called Video Card) is the hardware component of your PC that displays windows, graphics and 2D/3D animations. It is directly connected to your monitor.
There are many types of Graphics Cards, more or less powerfull. The less powerfull (more than 3 year-old) are hardly able to display 3D Games and GlobFX Movies. The more powerfull cards can display stunning games and graphics.
For displaying GlobFX Movies, you need a middle-range Graphics Card. For example, a NVIDIA TNT2 or GeForce, an ATI Rage 128 Pro or Radeon or a Matrox G200 / G450 are far enough for running GlobFX Movies and creation tools.
To get the name of the Graphics Card currently installed on your PC:
- Click the Start button, point to Settings, then click Control Panel.
- In Control Panel, double-click the Display icon.
- In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tag. You may read the name of your Graphics Card under "Display:".
You can click the Advanced button and select the Adapter tab to get additional information.
About Display Drivers
The Display Driver is the software component used by Windows to access your Graphics Card. It is provided by the vendor of the Card.
Old Display Drivers have serious bugs that may prevent Windows from correctly displaying GlobFX Movies.Therefore be sure to run an up-to-date Display Driver.
Download an up-to-date Display Driver at:
-
NVIDIA:
Supported Drivers Version is at least 6.50.
Download at http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx. -
ATI:
Download at http://ati.amd.com/products/index.html. -
Matrox:
Download at http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/corpo/support/drivers/home.php.
About Graphics Drivers
The Graphics Driver is the software component used by GlobFX Composer and GlobFX Player to access your Graphics Card.
GlobFX Composer and GlobFX Player allows you to choose between two different Graphics Drivers:
-
OpenGL
The OpenGL Graphics Driver is automatically installed on your system when you install the Display Driver from your Graphics Card vendor.
-
DirectX
If you want to use the DirectX Graphics Driver, be sure a correct version is installed on your system by running dxdiag.exe.
Both DirectX 7 and DirectX 8 are supported by GlobFX.
Download DirectX at http://www.microsoft.com/directx/.
You can specify your preferred Graphics Driver at any time:
- In GlobFX Player: On the File menu, click Preferences and choose OpenGL or DirectX.
- In GlobFX Composer: On the File menu, click Graphics Driver and choose OpenGL or DirectX.