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For proper performance, it is important to update the driver for your graphics card, especially if you have a Radeon card. For a desktop machine, go to the web site of the manufacturer of the graphics card. For a laptop, you should normally go to the web site of the laptop manufacturer, though for NVIDIA you may now find a newer driver available from NVIDIA.
To use Visual 5.3 (includes new 3D text object) for Python 2.6:
First, download and install Python-2.6.5
Second, download and install VPython-Win-Py2.6-5.32.exe
Start the program editor with the "VIDLE for Python" shortcut on the desktop
or on the Start menu.
Open an example program -- for example, bounce2.py.
Press F5 to run (or use the Run menu).
Every time you run, your files are automatically saved (if you have changed them).
Choose Visual on the Help menu for documentation.
To obtain the older Visual 5.11 for use with the older Python 2.5:
First, download and install Python-2.5.4
Second, download and install VPython-Win-Py2.5-5.11.exe
In support of the 3D text object, the Windows installer includes some font-handling modules that include Polygon, for which the following conditions apply: "Polygon is being distributed subject to the following conditions: This distribution contains code from the GPC Library, and/or code resulting from the use of the GPC Library. This usage has been authorized by The University of Manchester, on the understanding that the GPC-related features are used only in the context of this distribution. It is not permitted to extract the GPC code from the distribution as the basis for commercial exploitation, unless a GPC Commercial Use Licence is obtained from The University of Manchester, contact: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby/gpc/".
Materials such as wood
Materials such as wood will work with graphics
cards that support Pixel Shader 3.0 ("PS 3.0"). See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_shader#Hardware. Some materials
may work with graphics cards that support PS 2.0, but other materials
may need to be manually disabled; see instructions in the site-settings.py module
in the Visual package in your site-packages folder. If the graphics hardware
does not support pixel shaders, the material property is ignored. If
you think you should be able to use materials but have trouble with their
display or performance, we highly recommend upgrading your video card
drivers to the latest version.
Other features new in Visual 5, such as transparency and local lights, work with all graphics cards.
What is installed
The VPython installer installs the Visual 3D module, example programs, the Visual documentation, and VIDLE, an improved version of the IDLE program editor, into Lib/site-packages/visual in the Python folder. It also installs if necessary the numpy module, which Visual requires. A shortcut to VIDLE is placed on the desktop which references the VPython example programs.
Here is a separate download of VIDLE, which is installed by the VPython installers available above.