How long before I can play 3D games WHILE running compiz!?

[humphreybc]

Hi, I have specifically registered for this forums just to ask one question. How long do I have to wait before I can watch flickerless video and play 3D/openGL games without having to disable Compiz first?!

[grantek]

42

(i don't know the units)

People have been talking about pre-release versions of Catalyst 9.4 having a lot of improvements though.

Personally, I just use the "Compiz Fusion Icon" tray applet thing :)

[humphreybc]

42

(i don't know the units)

People have been talking about pre-release versions of Catalyst 9.4 having a lot of improvements though.

Personally, I just use the "Compiz Fusion Icon" tray applet thing :)

Haha. Oh okay that's good news, when is 9.4 supposed to be out? Will Ubuntu update manager automatically update it for me or will I have to download it from ati.com and install it myself?

Yeah I have that as well but you see switching to metacity screws up the positions of som of my screenlets on the desktop and they don't return to their normal position when I go back to Compiz. Also AWN doesn't work in metacity mode. It's an ugly workaround really... we should have better support as clients of ATI/AMD and running a fast becoming popular operating system.

[Qaridarium]

Haha. Oh okay that's good news, when is 9.4 supposed to be out? Will Ubuntu update manager automatically update it for me or will I have to download it from ati.com and install it myself?

Yeah I have that as well but you see switching to metacity screws up the positions of som of my screenlets on the desktop and they don't return to their normal position when I go back to Compiz. Also AWN doesn't work in metacity mode. It's an ugly workaround really... we should have better support as clients of ATI/AMD and running a fast becoming popular operating system.

http://support.amd.com/de/gpudownload/fire/Pages/fire_linux.aspx

amd has release a 9-3 beta for the firepro 8700 !

i think this file will run on all Carts..

[Boerkel]

That's just not true. You can download version 8.563, but Catalyst 9.2 is already version 8.582. It was just a typo of Michael...
And even the allmighty Catalyst 9.4 won't fix the flickering. At least the beta/rc doesn't. I won't expect a solution too early... As far as i know the fglrx needs a dri2-implementation to solve the flicker-problem.

[humphreybc]

So when can we expect this flickering thing to be long gone as it already is with the Nvidia counterparts?

And when is 9.4 released?

[FunkyRider]

Maybe catalyst 10.4?

or Open source driver would implement 3D acceleration AND solve the flickerness before FGLRX ever have

[humphreybc]

10.4... :S When will THAT be released?? Next year? What on earth do ATI/AMD do all day... sit on their hands and play tiddlywinks?

Do the current open-source drivers fix this issue? I sort of had a play with them (I think) last week but can't remember whether they were the correct ones... this FGLRX/binary/proprietary stuff has got me quite confused. Which is which again?

[lordmozilla]

You're pretty much going to have to swap before you go in 3d mode. But really this issue isnt just ATI, I mean its the same for my intel laptops and my Nvidia 8600GT.

ANywyas 3dgames slow down alot when compiz is running in the background i always find.

Make yourself a new useraccount when running a 3dgame and make a script to start a new xserver running a really light window manager just so you can start games.

I wish people would stop insulting ati devs, I mean where is that going to get you? Have you ever written a driver for something as complex as an entire range of graphics cards?

[humphreybc]

Hmm good thing I don't play games too often anymore. I would like to use Google Earth without having to switch to metacity all the time though. Oh well, just one of many small things that are preventing me from completely getting rid of Windows unfortunately. I suppose in another year or so things will have improved dramatically... support and widespread knowledge of Ubuntu is increasing exponentially, which is great!

[lordmozilla]

considered running another ubuntu VM without metacity using virtualbox or similar? Or even using windows? THen you can have google earth fine. Or starting a new xserver.

There are so many ways of doing it. And really do you need compiz? I mean windows has nothing even close and no one complains yet when this beta piece of software doesnt work perfectly everyone goes : "oh no since compiz doesnt run i must go back to windows!!"

[humphreybc]

Haha I never said it didn't work, and is it beta?? I wouldn't have known!! Seems to work really well and i'm impressed beyond words. I'm too addicted to the wobbly windows to go back to windows now... it's just so... mesmerizing. The best thing is to get a sweet song playing and then grab a window and make it dance to the beat. Ahhh good times.

[bridgman]

Here's the current status as I understand it :

With fglrx, video through Xv should redirect properly and be flicker-free in a window under Compiz, while 3d apps (or video through OpenGL) will flicker unless you run the app fullscreen and have Compiz set to "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows". I can't comment on future plans for fglrx in this area.

There were a couple of reports of crashing when unredirecting a window with the current fglrx drivers, ie going fullscreen with that Compiz setting, don't know if we have been able to repro that in house yet.

With the open drivers, the situation is similar. Video through Xv redirects properly and is flicker-free even in a window. There is code for tear-free Xv playback but that assumes running *without* a compositor. 3D still draws directly to the screen, so you will get flicker with 3D apps or video through GL unless you run fullscreen and tell Compiz to "Unredirect fullscreen windows".

If you run the work-in-process next generation open code (KMS+GEM/TTM+DRI2+radeon-rewrite) then 3D redirects properly so you can get flicker-free 3D under Compiz (and your 3D apps spin on the Compiz cube).

Lordmozilla's point that running 3D apps under Compiz does put some load on the GPU and affec your performance, so users with anything but a high end card may still end up either running games with Compiz off or using the "unredirect fullscreen windows" option to bypass compositing for fullscreen apps (and running their games fullscreen).

[Melcar]

Fglrx already allows flickerless games with Compiz, as long as they're in fullscreen. This has been the case since the 8.11 drivers if I remember right. Windowed games will still flicker like mad unfortunately. Flickerless video playback ha started with the 9.2s; it's still not stable in that it often kills X, but I'm sure further testing and fixes should alliviate that.
Open source drivers have flickerless video playback already. What I find amusing is that they don't have flickerless games. Only some (Nexuiz) are able to function with no problem, while many others (Alien Arena, Warsow) suffer from flickering even if you have the game in fullscreen.

[Zhick]

What I find amusing is that [the foss drivers] don't have flickerless games. Only some (Nexuiz) are able to function with no problem, while many others (Alien Arena, Warsow) suffer from flickering even if you have the game in fullscreen.
That doesn't sound like it has anything to do with the drivers. It's propably your window-manager. compiz? I know back when I tried compiz the unredirect-fullscreen-windows-option seemed sort of broken. but I was also using fglrx back then.
Or maybe the games are not really running as fullscreen but as maximized borderless window.
I don't experience any flickering when using fullscreen 3d-apps (including war$ow) and with KWin's compositing and radeon.

[humphreybc]

If you run the work-in-process next generation open code (KMS+GEM/TTM+DRI2+radeon-rewrite) then 3D redirects properly so you can get flicker-free 3D under Compiz (and your 3D apps spin on the Compiz cube).

Where do I get this, and is it easy to install and reliable?

[bridgman]

If you have an app which doesn't work properly in fullscreen the easiest workaround for now seems to be wrapping the app with a script to turn off compiz, run the app, then re-enable compiz after the app finishes. I haven't played with it much but here's a link :

http://shiben.blogspot.com/2007/06/fedora-7-compiz-nvidia_20.html

This approach is useful even if you don't have a flicker problem, since running a compositor does eat some GPU cycles. If you have a big screen and a small GPU (either a 4-pipe GPU or a narrow / slow memory bus) the overhead from compositing can be pretty significant.