G3 workaround?

I know the minumum configuration says G4. I know the software automatically detects that I only have a G3 iBook and hence refuses to even start. I accept that if there is a workaround, this isn't going to be the best way to play SL. But can it be done at all?

There are PCs in the house that I can use to play SL (the only way I can log in, at present), but "my" machine is the iBook. (Ok, I also have a Sun Ultra 5 running Solaris 9, which does me even less good for SL.) The iBook in question is a 12" 600MHz PPC G3 with 256 MB RAM, looks like an ATI RageM6 video card. Running OSX 10.3.5. I usually connect to the internet using Airport, but I could plug in a wire for this purpose if it would help. Upgrading the RAM to extremes would be a darn sight easier than having to get a whole new machine.

If it can't be done, I'll save my pennies, but it's going to be a long wait. The G3 itself isn't all that old. It's newer than the PC I'm using, in fact. What's the problem? Is it the video drivers or something?

Thanks,

ND

IF your G3 can run sys 10.3 then it should work, deepening on your chip speed.

SL can't run with any earlier versions of SY 10.

Nope, I'm on 10.3.5, but when I try to run Second Life, I get a popup "Second Life requires a processor with AltiVec (G4 or later)."

According to http://www.simdtech.org/altivec, "AltiVec(tm) is Motorola's trademark for the first PowerPC SIMD extension. AltiVec was jointly developed by Motorola, IBM, and Apple. This same SIMD technology is called Velocity Engine by Apple. When IBM talks about this particular technology option they use VMX, the technology's original code name.

Motorola has shipped two microprocessor generations with AltiVec inside. Motorola calls these generations G4 and G4+. Apple uses processors with the G4+ core, but Apple does not use the G4+ moniker."

According to another web page at this site, "SIMD stands for Single Instruction, Multiple Data. A SIMD system packs multiple data elements into a single register and performs the same calculation on all of them at the same time."

Ok, I can see this is a performance enhancer. But why should the SL client depend on it? If I want to try to run SL on a machine that's a bit slow, isn't that my lookout?

Just trying to understand this limitation....

ND

my iBook is a 1GHz G4, which averages around 2-5fps. (10+ if I go to the edge of the world and stare at nothing ) so I don't even know if it would run if you got it to work. Expect framerate <1 fps.. more like several seconds-per-frame.. and a spinning beachball most of the time.

As for the video hardware.. how much memory does it have? it has to be at least 32mb.

If you do get it to work, I think LL should buy you a new powerbook and put the G3 on display in their office.

Just a guess, but it sounds like AltiVec uses a different instruction set.. (like MMX on pentium PCs) so if the client is written for it, without a fallback to non-AltiVec code, it can't run. You would need some kind of AltiVec emulator, which would be insanely slow.

Thanks, that makes sense.

Cool pic of Anthy, btw.

ND