How can I use Panel without using the Visual Studio Designer?

Panel is a regular Windows.Forms.Control. If for some reasons it does not show up in the toolbox, you can add the panel programmatically to your forms. Take the following steps:

1) Create the panel programmatically via 'new Panel();'

2) Add the panel to the Controls collection of the form (or of the control if you intend to use Panel in a more complex form setup)

3) Do the setup of your form in Form_Load or in any other load event handler.

4) In difference to a setup which is done in Panel_Load, here you will have to call Panel.Scene.Configure() manually after your setup is finished.

Can I use ILNumerics Visualization Engine if I don't use Visual Studio?

Visual Studio supports you significantly in integrating the ILNumerics Visualization Engine. The necessary steps needed to take without Visual Studio are not covered by our support services. Therefore, we recommend to use Visual Studio in order to utilize ILNumerics.

Does the Visualization Engine utilize any Hardware Acceleration

Yes. OpenGL. The SW renderer based on GDI+ is a full featured fallback only.