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needs to perform complex calculations to display 3D images in 2D. Consequently, to
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reduce the burden on the operating system and increase the speed of applications, 3D
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accelerator cards were developed, which use the graphics processor on the graphics
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card instead of consuming valuable CPU resources.</para>
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<para>Most video cards work with Ubuntu, however sometimes you may need to
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activate the 3D acceleration. The first step is to check the 3D acceleration status
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on your computer.</para>
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<title>Checking 3D Acceleration Status</title>
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<para>To check the status of 3D acceleration on your Ubuntu computer:
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<orderedlist numeration="arabic">
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<listitem><para>Open the command line terminal: Applications - Accessories - Terminal</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Type the following command in the <emphasis role="strong">Terminal</emphasis>
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window and press <emphasis role="strong">Enter</emphasis>:</para>
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<screen>glxinfo | grep rendering</screen>
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<para>If the 3D acceleration works, the following result is displayed:</para>
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<screen>direct rendering: Yes</screen>
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<para>If not, the following output is displayed, which indicates that the
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you will need to enable the 3D acceleration for the video card.</para>
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<screen>direct rendering: No</screen>
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<title>Enabling 3D Acceleration</title>
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<para>The process of enabling 3D acceleration varies with the type of video card
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you use. Verify the type of video card on your computer and follow the specific
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<para>To enable 3D acceleration on a 3D Nvidia video card:
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<orderedlist numeration="arabic">
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<listitem><para>Install the <emphasis role="strong">nvidia-glx-legacy</emphasis>
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and <emphasis role="strong">nvidia-settings</emphasis> packages for older
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versions of the card, including TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra, GeForce1 or
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GeForce2.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Install the <emphasis role="strong">nvidia-glx</emphasis>
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package for newer versions of the card.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>To enable the new driver, run the following command in the
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<emphasis role="strong">Terminal</emphasis> window:</para>
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<screen>$ sudo nvidia-glx-config enable</screen></listitem>
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<listitem><para>You can adjust the settings of the new drivers by running
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the <emphasis role="strong">nvidia-settings</emphasis> application.</para>
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<para>To enable 3D acceleration on a 3D ATI video card:</para>
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<orderedlist numeration="arabic">
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<listitem><para>Install the <emphasis role="strong">xorg-driver-fglrx</emphasis>
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package.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Configure the computer to run the new driver by running
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the following command in the <emphasis role="strong">Terminal</emphasis>
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<note><para>sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg</para></note>
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<listitem><para>Accept automatic detection of your video.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Select <emphasis role="strong">fglrx</emphasis> as the
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driver.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Follow the rest of the instructions as appropriate.</para>
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<listitem><para>Restart the machine for the changes to take effect.</para>
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<para>You should now be able to......</para>
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card instead of consuming valuable CPU resources. Almost all modern graphics cards
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do have a built-in acceleration for displaying 3D.</para>
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<para>Ubuntu can utilize the 3D capabilities of a graphics card for desktop effects. Example of these effects are the placement of the desktops on a rotating cube, windows have shadows, and motion effects.</para>
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<para>The effects are enabled by default and can be controlled from the <emphasis role='strong'>Appearance</emphasis> menu. From here the desktop effects can either be completely disabled or enabled. The number of effects can be controlled via the <emphasis role='strong'>normal effects</emphasis> and <emphasis role='strong'>extra effects</emphasis> setting.</para>
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<para>If a graphics card has either no 3D capabilities or support for 3D is missing from the Linux drivers for the card, you will be notified that <emphasis role='strong'>desktop effects could not be enabled</emphasis>.</para>
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<title>Working with Files Using Nautilus</title>