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Update your graphics card driver

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. Some older graphics cards may not support all features: see this note on materials.

If you see overly jagged lines and edges, you may be able to smooth them by increasing "antialiasing" in the advanced section of your graphics card settings, and/or choosing "quality" (appearance of graphics) over "performance" (speed of graphics).

Windows downloads (XP, Vista, Windows 7)

Several versions of Python are in common use. The versions of Python and VPython must match. If you are new to VPython, see How to run VPython.

Python 2.7

First, download and install Python-2.7.1 (Important: Let it install in C:\Python27)
(There is not a VPython version for Windows 64-bit Python, but this 32-bit version of Python works fine on 64-bit Windows machines)
Second, download and install VPython-Win-Py2.7-5.72

Python 3.1

First, download and install Python-3.1.3 (Important: Let it install in C:\Python31)
(There is not a VPython version for Windows 64-bit Python, but this 32-bit version of Python works fine on 64-bit Windows machines)
Second, download and install VPython-Win-Py3.1-5.72
The new Python 3 series is deliberately somewhat incompatible with the older Python 2 series. The main difference for the purposes of VPython programs is that instead of print "hello" you now say print("hello"). You can make programs work the same with Python 2.x or 3.x by using the new print format and placing the following statement at the start of your program (note the two underlines before future and the two underlines after future):

from __future__ import print_function, division

For Python 2.6 and 2.7, this statement invokes the new Python 3.x print format and division scheme (that 3/4 is 0.75, not zero as in the past). This statement is ignored by Python 3.x.

There is not yet a version of VPython for Python 3.2, because some of the modules on which VPython depends are not yet available for this very new version of Python.

Python 2.6

If you need to use Python 2.6 because some modules are not yet available for Python 2.7 or Python 3.1:
First, download and install Python-2.6.6 (Important: Let it install in C:\Python26)
(There is not a VPython version for Windows 64-bit Python, but this 32-bit version of Python works fine on 64-bit Windows machines)
Second, download and install VPython-Win-Py2.6-5.72

Older versions of Visual

What is installed

The VPython installer installs the vis and visual modules, the numpy, FontTools, Polygon, and ttfquery modules needed by VPython, and VIDLE, an improved version of the IDLE program editor, into C:\PythonXY\Lib\site-packages. A shortcut to VIDLE is placed on the desktop which references the VPython example programs.

VIDLE only

Here is a separate download of VIDLE, which is installed by the VPython installers. This is useful only in special situations.

How to run VPython

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.

Conditions of use

In support of the 3D text and extrusion objects, the Windows installer includes some 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: In the folder C:\PythonNN\Lib\site-packages\vis, edit the file site-settings.py to uncomment one or the other pair of Python statements. 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.

Download for Windows