VideoLAN Client (VLC) and the 2 'OpenGL video output' options on Windows

profvolup

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What video player do you use to watch the 240 fps videos?
TIA
I use VLC, but you have to adjust the input codec to OpenGL for it to work.
VideoLAN Client (VLC) for Windows.
Navigate as follows to change the video codec if you have issues.
  • Tools -> Preferences(simple) -> Video
On Windows**, this SuperUser screenshot may be of help in both identifying, as well as the 2 OpenGL options, depending on the version of VLC and Windows.
Screenshot:
w9HQY.png



Technical Background (including Windows specifics):

VideoLAN Client (VLC) wasn't originally designed as merely a media player, but a cross-platform, remote media stream solution in the mid '90s, hence why it uses OpenGL (Graphics Library). Despite popular assumption, OpenGL isn't just for 3D Transforms.

OpenGL is a full 2D, media and other library solution, allowing both full screen and windowing environments atop, as well as ... remote display. E.g., it's a popular API for ATMs, kiosks, medical devices, airport monitors, etc... especially replicated screens remotely (one source, multiple displays), for embedded non-Windows (on Windows, the Windows NT Graphical Display Interface and Explorer.EXE 'gets in the way'). Because of this, OpenGL 5.0 eventually became Vulkan, so more low-level, direct API wrapping can be used, as most GPU vendors were doing this with OpenGL already (and most C/C++ devkits are unifed for either DirectX or OpenGL on specific GPUs), but Vulkan standardizes it far better.

OpenGL itself is based on SGI's Integrated Raster Imaging System Graphics Library (IRIS GL) for its MIPS/Irix RISC/UNIX platforms, but in a IEEE POSIX/C (UNIX) agnostic way. Microsoft also embraced it in the early '90s for Windows NT, and supported it from Day 1. Unfortunately DOS7/Win4 "Chicago"(Windows 95) performed poorly with OpenGL (long, technical story in how 386Enhanced mode works, still at the heart of Windows 95/98/Me, not just Windows 3.11), and what would become Direct2D, including DirectDraw for 'video overlays,' Direct3D and the subsequent 'DirectX' series of libraries, began.

nVidia was one of the first GPU vendors to start offering a full, OpenGL Installable Client Driver (ICD), implementing most of OpenGL 1.x, on Windows around 2000. Since then, most OpenGL applications will run, with caveats, largely around how the GDI and other aspects of the underlying Windows NT (Windows 2000, XP, Vista and later are NT-based, version 6 in the case of Vista and later -- hence why 'KernelEx' and other extensions are required to run NT5+, aka 2000/XP and later, apps on Windows 95/98/Me). That's why the "OpenGL output driver for Windows" differs, because it uses some Windows-specific functions for direct GPU APis, instead of using OpenGL.

But the full "OpenGL output driver" also exists to provide a full set of API support using standard OpenGL (or Vulkan). This maybe more compatible with some rendering unless, of course, your GPU drivers don't support all the OpenGL API calls, like some do not on Windows, as Microsoft does not include modern OpenGL support around GPUs as standard in Windows. Non-Windows platforms, like POSIX-based (from GNU/Linux to non-GNU like ""Android" and Darwin BSD OS aka "MacOS X" and "iOS") have full, standard OpenGL (libgl.so -- "shared object," like "dynamic link library" in Windows) implementations in software (e.g., Mesa), and then hardware implementations replace with accelerated portions.
 
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