On Tuesday 09 August 2005 13:30, Jack wrote:
So is the linux kernel playing catch up with some other kernel/os? I thought that Linux was pretty much a frontrunner. Also, I've noticed that certain GUI aspects of certain OSS window managers were finding their way into other places like the Windows desktop. Also, if games need to stop supporting such big and powerful cards as Radeon 8500s and 9700s then you might want to take a look at what is wrong with the game software and not the hardware or OSS drivers. Sloppy coding is after all sloppy coding. GIGO. But hey what do I know. I don't play 3D games they give me
It's not a matter of sloppy code but merely advances in hardware capabilities. The newer video cards feature pixel and vertex shaders and hardware transform and lighting -- all of the capabilities make for more realistic scenes; attaining the same result in software would require nothing short of a small supercomputering cluster. For all intents and purposes, the OSS drivers for ATI and NV cannot be used to play anything newer than Quake 3 Arena (a game that is now around 6 years old). That's a serious limitation. The proprietary drivers from ATI are half-asked, token implementations of their Windows equivalents. They have long-standing bugs which ATI seems rather un-interested in fixing.
Anyone doing any serious gaming or 3D modeling and design in Linux is using NVidia's high-end consumer cards or their Quatro workstation cards (very expensive).
All is not bad on ATI's side though: the OSS driver writers will probably have the best Composite/Xgl implementation, first, when its ready.
I have an NVidia 5700 thats starting to show its age but can still play some damn sweet games from its era.