Mesa 7.1 Released, X.Org 7.4 Coming!

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Mesa 7.1 Released, X.Org 7.4 Coming!

Tungsten's Brian Paul has today announced the release of Mesa 7.1. New in this open-source library used by Linux graphics drivers for providing OpenGL support is autoconf-based configuration, assorted DRI driver enhancements, reduced dependencies between the X server and Mesa, GL_EXT_texture_from_pixmap extension for Xlib driver, GLSL (GL Shading Language) support for the Intel 965, and ATI Radeon R500 (X1000) series support...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NjY3Nw

[Extreme Coder]

Ok, I have a few questions:

- Does this release support OpenGL 2, even for a few cards?

- Does it support 3D on X500 cards? And is it usable? Can I run Compiz, or simple 3D games, or video using Xv? And performance?

- does the GL_EXT_texture_from_pixmap extension help in anyway in regards to Compiz/Compositing?

Thanks!

[Nille]

Ok, I have a few questions:

- Does this release support OpenGL 2, even for a few cards?

No the Free Drivers hang on 1.3 from 2001 ( and no texture compression is not an argument this is already in 1.3 )

- Does it support 3D on X500 cards? And is it usable? Can I run Compiz, or simple 3D games, or video using Xv? And performance?

I think so

[TechMage89]

Yes mesa 7.1 does support the r500 cards, and they work pretty well. Unfortunately, they only have about OpenGL 1.3 right now, and the 3d performance is about half of what you get with fglrx (2d performance is better, though). In short, r500 cards are easily usable, but the support still lacks features and performance.

OpenGL 2 (and one day, possibly 3) are supposed to come with gallium3D, but gallium has been held up by the DRM rejiggering. Fortunately, it looks like GEM will become the standard, and gallium support can be built on that.

[Extreme Coder]

Yes mesa 7.1 does support the r500 cards, and they work pretty well. Unfortunately, they only have about OpenGL 1.3 right now, and the 3d performance is about half of what you get with fglrx (2d performance is better, though). In short, r500 cards are easily usable, but the support still lacks features and performance.

OpenGL 2 (and one day, possibly 3) are supposed to come with gallium3D, but gallium has been held up by the DRM rejiggering. Fortunately, it looks like GEM will become the standard, and gallium support can be built on that.

Ah.. I see. Thanks!
Too bad Gallium will start being usable for stable use by the end of next year or something..
And why can't Mesa implement a newer GL release?

[some-guy]

- does the GL_EXT_texture_from_pixmap extension help in anyway in regards to Compiz/Compositing?

GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap is required for compiz
(@ Michael, isn't it a typo (GL_ instead of GLX_ ?))

Ah.. I see. Thanks!
Too bad Gallium will start being usable for stable use by the end of next year or something..
And why can't Mesa implement a newer GL release?

Gallium is re-architecturized mesa, to support OpenGL 2 and 3

[jeffro-tull]

I can use Kwin's compositing in KDE4 on my X1300. It's not ideal, but it works. So I would imagine that you could use Compiz with your X500.

By the way, I'm running Gentoo with the x11 overlay (scripts to pull and compile from the git master branches), so I'm only a few days behind what's current.

[grantek]

GL_EXT_texture_from_pixmap extension for Xlib driver

So I guess that means compiz can now run without any sort of 3d card, entirely on the CPU (or not, if there's other extensions it depends on). I wonder how much CPU it requires for a typical desktop...

[mityukov]

I can use Kwin's compositing in KDE4 on my X1300. It's not ideal, but it works. So I would imagine that you could use Compiz with your X500.

By the way, I'm running Gentoo with the x11 overlay (scripts to pull and compile from the git master branches), so I'm only a few days behind what's current.

Why X11 overlay? I thought Radeon os-driver, already provide good support for Xv (via TextureVideo)?

http://wiki.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature


In general, I think I can live without OpenGL 2/3 for now. Just let 2D(EXA), Desktop Effects and Video playback work flawlessly. ;-)

I understand, that Video/3D apps will flicker in Window mode, when Desktop Effects on, till somebody implement DRI2.. But I'm expecting that there are no reasons no to play them played correctly in the following cases:
- Desktop Effects: OFF -- Video/3D to be played correctly in both Window/Fullscreen mode;
- Desktop Effects: ON -- Video/3D to be played correctly in Fullscreen mode.

Can we really expect something like this?



And finally: what about AIGLX? Isn't that required for normal functioning of Compiz-like WMs on ATI/AMD cards? Or, this is a part of Xorg (how to check fo which Cards 7.4 has hardware-accelerated AIGLX)?


P.S.: please forgive me so many questions. I liked the news too much, and can't stop myself :-p

[ivanovic]

Uhm, "overlay" is what in gentoo are external repositories for debian/ubuntu. Those are just "overlaying" the content of the normal package manager tree and thus providing some additional packages and other versions. The portage overlay for X11 eg includes git ebuilds for xorg stuff. It has *nothing* to do with video overlay stuff, it is package manager wording.