[rctech]

I have some older tablets that I want to only stream audio to. It would be nice if XBMC had some startup flags that would disable the need for DirectX3D or 21st-century-fangled video drivers ;-). Thanks for your consideration.
rich

[Ned Scott]

Not sure I follow you. I don't believe XBMC requires DirectX3D or any special video drivers.

[spiff]

we require direct3d to render the gui. not happening. (even the fastest of i7's can only yield ~ 12-15 fps on average running sw rendering).

[Ned Scott]

For Windows, but a lot of Windows tablets can run linux. Also, I don't think he cares how fast the GUI is rendered if he's using it for audio only...

[rctech]

While I appreciate all of the developers efforts to make the gui perform and look spectacular; one of the first things I usually try to do is to turn off any extra animations, active skins, visualizations, screensavers, etc. It makes it look pretty, but it's not my style. Function over form. CLI over GUI when I can do it quicker. etc.
Yes these tablets are old, and some can be even gotten for about $20 or free if you look hard enough. Windows Media player will minimally do what I need for audio, but it would be cool to have some of the additional XBMC addon and remote capabilities; Have a single XBMC interface to run all of the multimedia systems, be it video, slideshows, or even just audio.
As for sw rendering, for just the control interface, 2fps will work for me. Just render the static control screen for me to click or type something. I dont need crossfades, blinking buttons, or mouse-over menu/picture popups. In this case, I dont mind clicking down to the (sub)menu i need (to select a playlist, for example).

This is just a friendly request for a minimalist gui mode.
Thanks again for your consideration.

rich

[rctech]

Oh also, I had another post last week asking if there was an older version of XBMC that I could download and try, that might not have the Direct3D requirement. The only response was a "me too!".

Does the community archive older stable versions somewhere? I understand there would be no support.

Did XBMC always require Direct3D (which I could see since it came from MS XBox-land)?

Thanks for comments.
rich

[bobo1on1]

Implementing this is a massive amount of work, and on top of that you have to keep supporting it for years. I don't see this happening any time soon.

XBMC has always required gpu acceleration, through Direct3D or openGL.