I am temporarily on a broken box so dont go crazy but.....

When I tried to install VO It gave 0 errors however my box is lacking full open gl support.

The installer needs to check the system better and REPORT any problems to the user so they can be corrected.

It's up to the user to make sure their system requirements are there, not the installer to babysit the user's administration.

--Enthusiastic Slackware user

Honestly given the flexibility of VO and its low requirements, this seems more your problem than the devs.

Instead of reporting an error, I say they should add an ascii-mode for people without GL!

http://asciimation.co.nz/

In this case it is my problem due to a broken box however...

The install is the first encounter a player has with VO and it needs to go as smoothly as possible. Dumping the player in a different video mode with not a single word as to why the game failed leaves a very poor first impression. Having the installer do a close inspection of the system and report any possible problems leaves a far better impression. An even better impression can be had if any missing drivers can be fetched during the install.

VO is suppose to be a commercial program - Problems make the game look bad no matter whos they are.

Just checking if GL is available is a good idea and I do agree with that. Being able to tie into common package managers to optionally install any needed dependencies would be a nice touch, but that's getting pretty far into fluffy extras land.

Anyone running a computer in this day and age that can't play vo is not surprised when things don't work on a regular basis.

Custom Linux users who forget to install gl also do not need to be considered

Installers that check for system reqs and stop you from trying are jerks. I've had those things prevent apps from working more often then my own hardware, drivers, or libraries.

Reporting the presence of a potential problem and refusing to run are two separate things.

Indeed - Simply dumping the player into a bad install with out a single word is also ugly.

Not every distro in linux installs every library and not every open gl is going to be compatable with vo.
3d acceleration is another thing that isnt always enabled - My gnome install leaves it off untill I load up the nvidia driver....

Granted a lot of linux users are well versed in configuring thier systems but VO like any other professional / commercial grade program cant assume thier users have more intelligence then a turnip. Lately I have also noticed that the major distros are not including / allowing some of the basic confuguration software they use to. SAX2 was just recently dropped by Suse for example.

Finally trying to figure out why VO simply dumps with nothing to go by can be rather challenging unless your use to poking thru the error logs. If a few simple checks can stop a hundred trouble tickets then the extra effort is easily justified.

Do other games on Linux check whether a minimum version of OpenGL is supported when they install?

RPMS does a lot of checking for them....
Not that it matters. - What others do is irrelevent to what VO should do.

what vo should do is fallback to aalib

Is there even a reliable way to check whether 3D is working or not on every distro with every hardware combination possible?

Maybe a better idea, would be leave the installer alone, and when you run VO and it fails to create a 3D window on Linux, pop up an error that suggests OpenGL is broken, or not installed.

I can think of some situations where I install VO before my 3D driver, and wouldn't like the installer telling me things I already know.

It could always fall back on the open source version too.

http://a1k0n.net/code/vosource.c.txt

[edit]

Here's an x86 - 64bit Universal Linux build, it will only run in a terminal.

http://vo-noobs.com/vo/vosource

"Is there even a reliable way to check whether 3D is working or not on every distro with every hardware combination possible?"

No, but you can at least check if OpenGL is available and whether or not DRI is enabled, and display a warning. I assumed that was all he was asking for.

Also, garbage trucks that compile into spaceships are awesome.

No, but you can at least check if OpenGL is available and whether or not DRI is enabled, and display a warning. I assumed that was all he was asking for.

I still think this would be a better idea to do on client failure to open on Linux(yeah). But the installer shouldn't check.

Also, garbage trucks that compile into spaceships are awesome.

a1k0n rocks [ ]
a1k0n isn't here to blame [x]

Not every 3D setup uses DRI... while a quick check on "Renderer string" output from GLXINFO can reliably provide that information.

But Yoda is partially right... for me, installer should CHECK and REPORT on HW renderer, but still allow installation, just like ET:QW and other linux games installers do, since you can install the game before the proper 3D drivers, or simply wanna try if your CPU is powerfull enough to render 3D games...

Direct rendering alone is no longer enough. If it says "No", then no support, but "Yes" can be misleading. Better approach, check both "direct rendering" and "renderer string":
* Enabled 3D acceleration:
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ironlake Mobile (Intel, 3D works)
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD PALM (Open source Radeon, bad 3D, SW renderer)

* Disabled 3D acceleration:
direct rendering: No (If you want to find out why, try setting LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose)
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect

Can other players post those 2 lines from their boxes?