VOGONS


Changes

Topic actions

First post, by GoldFinger

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Poll: Migrate to OpenGL 1.3

  • 3 votes (100%) 3 votes (100%)
  • No votes No votes

Hello all,
I would like your full attention here as I would like to expose some points to discuss.
I plan on doing a conversion of OpenGLide for OpenGL 1.3 compliance, abandoning the OpenGL 1.1 specification, not only this would reduce lots of code as it will be faster to not check the 1.3 version in every function used.
I do not see much sense in supporting 1.1 any more as almost all video boards now conforms to OpenGL 1.3. Maybe the only boards that do not support it are the very old ones and even if we stick with 1.1 these same boards would problably not have enough speed to run OpenGLide anyway.
Well for the boards that do not have OpenGL 1.3, they could use MESA that has a great software mode and is 1.4 compliant.
I think we could greatly improve OpenGLide speed by doing this, let me hear from you guys.

Reply 1 of 17, by CraigG

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Great idea.
I agree about the older cards, if they can't support Opengl 1.3 now, then what chance of them running anything at all and at a decent speed ?

One thing I would love is Beta testing.
I own soo much software that I can easily test almost any of the older software out there.

I don't know if you plan on uploading any new versions (beta or not) to sourceforge, but I think it will help make this great wrapper even better.

Athlon 64 3000+ stock
MSI NForce 4 K8N Neo Platinum
2Gb RAM
nVidia Geforce 6800GT stock clocks
SBLive! Platinum + Audigy ZS2 Drivers
WinXP Pro SP2

Reply 2 of 17, by Glidos

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Hmmm, that's a surprise. I wouldn't have thoght this would give any speed increase because the tests happen at most once per Glide command... I must be missing something.

I can see it would clean up the code though, and make it smaller.

Reply 3 of 17, by GoldFinger

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

You are right about it being called once per Glide function, but the speed does not come only from it, it comes from the simpler, smaller code and some changes that can be done to speed everything, like using the new combiners, the separate Color and Alpha combiners implemented and other things.

Reply 4 of 17, by CraigG

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Hey look everybody, I'm the invisible man all of a sudden. And on most of these forums.

Perhaps I just won't bother anymore.

Athlon 64 3000+ stock
MSI NForce 4 K8N Neo Platinum
2Gb RAM
nVidia Geforce 6800GT stock clocks
SBLive! Platinum + Audigy ZS2 Drivers
WinXP Pro SP2

Reply 6 of 17, by Stiletto

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Don't let the lamers get you down, Craig. As you know, there's busloads of 'em.
lamers.JPG

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

Stiletto

Reply 7 of 17, by Nicht Sehr Gut

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
CraigG wrote:

... I'm the invisible man all of a sudden. And on most of these forums.

Eh? Where did this come from? If anything, I need to spend less time here.

Geez, I'm about to hit 1000 posts.

Reply 8 of 17, by Glidos

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
CraigG wrote:

Hey look everybody, I'm the invisible man all of a sudden. And on most of these forums.

Perhaps I just won't bother anymore.

Sorry, and after you sent me all those nice games. I'm having big problems finding time at the moment, so I'm dotting about replying just to odd posts here and there.

I'll look at Screamer soon, promise.

Reply 9 of 17, by Glidos

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
GoldFinger wrote:

You are right about it being called once per Glide function, but the speed does not come only from it, it comes from the simpler, smaller code and some changes that can be done to speed everything, like using the new combiners, the separate Color and Alpha combiners implemented and other things.

Get you now. You've got other uses of 1.3 in mind and carrying on keeping 1.1 compatibility is going to be more and more of a pain. I wondered about using the combiners myself. I read through that stuff quickly, and my first thought was "Ooh they've added all the Glide functionality to OpenGL". Maybe we can put right Redguard's use of alpha textures. I realised since we talked about it before, the problem wasn't how alpha textures were interpreted; the problem was not handling the case where the alpha unit uses the texture but the color unit doesn't.

Reply 10 of 17, by Snover

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Originally posted by Nicht Sehr Gut
Geez, I'm about to hit 1000 posts.


Hah! I scoff at your measly 996 posts! 😉

In all seriousness, the fact is that cards that aren't 1.3-compliant probably won't be able to run OpenGLide as it is now.

Yes, it’s my fault.

Reply 11 of 17, by DosFreak

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Does the V3+ line support OGL v1.3? 😉 Not that it matters but there are alot of weird Voodoo owners out there....

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Make your games work offline

Reply 12 of 17, by GoldFinger

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Well,
I will try to do a slow upgrade to OpenGLide, I will start using Extensions that are in OpenGL 1.3 but do exist in 1.1 like the secondary_color that almost all boards have. And things like that, later on we can do the combiners with an if in mind so OpenGL 1.1 boards (like voodoo) will run but not that great. (well they have native Glide).

Reply 13 of 17, by Stiletto

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
DosFreak wrote:

Does the V3+ line support OGL v1.3? 😉 Not that it matters but there are alot of weird Voodoo owners out there....

Hey! I resemble that remark. 😀

At least I'm not a 3dfx-worshipper. Then you'd have a problem on your hands. 😀

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

Stiletto

Reply 14 of 17, by Nicht Sehr Gut

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Stiletto wrote:

Hey! I resemble that remark. 😀 At least I'm not a 3dfx-worshipper.

Well, you should appreciate the GeForce FX. A real-life hybrid of 3dfx and the GeForce.
http://www.nvidia.com/

Reply 15 of 17, by Stiletto

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

What makes you say that?

[EDIT]
Oh, wait... "3dfx" -"3d" = "fx"
"Geforce" + "fx" = "Geforce FX".

I get it! It was a joke, right? 😀

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

Stiletto

Reply 16 of 17, by Nicht Sehr Gut

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Stiletto wrote:

Oh, wait... "3dfx" -"3d" = "fx"
"Geforce" + "fx" = "Geforce FX". I get it! It was a joke, right?

Actually, it was kind of nice to see the tech guys from NVidia to openly state that this was the first GeForce to blend in ideas and tech from 3dfx into a GeForce card. They're being very up-front about it.