Why Does 3D acc have to be such a problem?

mikecore · Guru Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 342 Location: Toledo, Ohio

I don't understand why 3D has to be such a problem.

I have an ATI igp card in my laptop and a gforce 3ti200 in my desktop

both don't have 3D acc working I try to follow the guides and believe I'm doing everything right but I guess I'm not cause other seem to make theres work I just can't get mine to work

why does it need to be this difficult? seems like you realy have to hunt around for patches and stuff patch this and that don't build this into the kernel
why does the MM/love kernels support ATI IGP but Gentoo kernels don't ?

im really a noob thats most of the problem but seems like with all the post regarding ATI the deve would have patched gentoo kernels to support ATI
without a problem.

pianosaurus · l33t Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 944 Location: Bash$

The biggest problems is that the big companies in 3D hardware won't release any specifications. That makes it rather hard to create drivers. ATI is not very nice to the Linux community by not releasing binaries either. That is why most people here use nvidia (including me) even though ATI's cards are in many's opinion (including mine) superior.
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Jake · Veteran Joined: 31 Jul 2003 Posts: 1132

I use nVidia's drivers (nvidia-kernel in portage) for my GF3 TI200 and 3D acceleration works. My laptop's ATI FireGL9000 works in FreeBSD with Xorg DRM and kernel DRI, or in Linux with DRM/DRI or ATI's drivers (also in portage). If you have to use an mm or love kernel, you're probably using the slower DRM/DRI that just merged support for a bunch of ATI cards recently. I would think ATI's drivers would work better and faster.

oldosadmin · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 3:41 am Post subject:

It doesn't have as much to do with NVIDIA not WANTING to release specs as it does with NVIDIA not being ABLE to release specs due to agreements with other companies, ip licensing, etc.
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mikecore · Guru Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 342 Location: Toledo, Ohio

I did get it all working both my gforce3ti200 and the new gforce2 400mx that i bought for my other computer.

But my ATI laptop still don't work

Skraut · Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 3:50 pm Post subject:

I'm in the same boat, with ATI on a laptop which doesn't work.

3d is such a problem because it is so specialized and so proprietary.

Both AMD and Intel chips accept x86 instructions, and in essence, speak the same language. (I'm igoring the Athlon64 for simplicity)

Nvidia and ATI chips each speak completely different languages, and neither will release the details for fear that the other one will gain an advantage (despite what they claim about 3rd party ip rights)

So therefore the only way to speak through the hardware is through a closed source interpreter (the driver) which is their way of keeping their hardware implementation a secret.

Nvidia has done a decent job with their drivers, ATI, has not.
Obviously the ideal situation would be open source drivers, but that will never happen, neither side wants the other to see what they are doing.

So this is what we are stuck with. The problem is in the open source community we are used to having control and being able to improve the software. With this situation, we are forced to live with the whims of one company (one of the reasons many of us quit using Windows in the first place)

As Linux users therefore we can not make purchase decisions based on benchmarks, or which is the better product. We are forced to pick based on the company's track record in providing us the drivers we need.
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placeholder · Advocate Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500

Well, it is indeed a major problem with ATI, but with nVidia it is actually easy. So the question should be, "Why does 3D acc have to be such a problem with ATI?"

Well, I suppose that ATI is mainly at fault here, but supposedly they are making better drivers which will be like the catalyst drivers.

truekaiser · l33t Joined: 05 Mar 2004 Posts: 801

actualy i don't think opening up their source for their drivers would hurt them much if at all. basicly all the driver do is tell the system where and how to move the data around and usealy(if all the stuff they impliment is in hardware) will give little clue on what said hardware does.

besides don't you think each one has perchased the others cards to reverse enginer the cards anyway?

pianosaurus · l33t Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 944 Location: Bash$

John5788 · Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2004 1:44 am Post subject:

my 3d acceleration is perfect on a nvidia card
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pianosaurus · l33t Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 944 Location: Bash$

IvanHoe · l33t Joined: 05 Oct 2002 Posts: 658