TitaniumGL 3D drivers (linux version)

[darkbasic]

Geri, how long did it take to write it? Also why doesn't it work with vesa?

[Geri]

darkbasic: the software rasterizer take 2 weeks back then. i made a bet with a drunk graphics programmer with big ego, becouse he calimed that i will not be able to write a faster rasterizer on a core2duo, than the performance of a 3dfx voodoo1. i won a crate of beer for it, becouse it was 8x faster than a voodoo2.
the opengl backend (function implementation, matrix handling, state tracker, etc, all) was taken months to do. i restarted the parallelisation of the rasteriser several times (3-4x), before i was able to find the most efficent one. that taken weeks. since that, i take care of the software 1-5 day in every month since years. maybee 2400 hours in it totally. ~ 20k codeline in C

Also why doesn't it work with vesa?

i dont know

[allquixotic]

Yes it is malware, because it calls external URLs from within itself. It is also written by windows guys.
Actually I see that coming, as Geri is the one developing closed source game and refusing to opensource it even partially.
The reason why it is closed source: they want to do anything they want (no limits), like running stolen GPL or proprietary code, call websites or open popups etc.

Lets see, if I can separate good intentions from bad. Can you set up official site (oh, you have one, good!), then require basically everyone using it to register.
This is done by going to the website and getting SN for free. There are some ads. Goal achieved.

Now you can open your library, no?

If you answer with "No", this means our code uses hidden backdoors or contains illegal stuff (just like all proprietary drivers, lol).

ln -sf /bin/true /usr/bin/firefox

Done. If necessary (i.e. if the software tries to get "clever") I'll make it so that every time I boot, before X starts (and loads libGL), a script runs that randomly renames my Chrome binaries and the directory they reside in and creates a desktop shortcut to the real path with a random file name. I don't need Firefox but it is installed, so I can basically either remove it or rename the link if I wanted to keep it.

Next up in the "annoy the piss out of the users" arms' race: statically embedding libQtWebkit into libGL so that it can forcibly popup a browser even if the user doesn't have any detectable browser binaries installed.

Next up after that: write the advertisements themselves to the raw framebuffer of the video card.

Next up after that: install a kernel module that uses the TPM to verify that the system is using a signed kernel binary, then use the kernel module to directly write to the raw framebuffer of the video card.

... You get the idea...

This leads down a very dark path. How far you go is basically limited by how much money/inclination you have to go down it. But the fact remains that if you HAD the resources you'd probably do it. It's a mindset -- and it's the wrong one.

3 euro, lol, it's not even worth 1 red cent.

P.S. -- If the software were actually useful and didn't try to annoy the user, I might actually be inclined to donate much more than 3 euro to support the developer. There's a saying in the U.S. -- You get more with honey than with vinegar.

This software reeks of vinegar.

[Kano]

@Geri

3 € is not much, but most likely i would wipe out that command by 0 bytes for 0 €. Maybe you could get more donations when you say for about 1000 € collected you provide the source or so.

[kbios]

ln -sf /bin/true /usr/bin/firefox

Done. If necessary (i.e. if the software tries to get "clever") I'll make it so that every time I boot, before X starts (and loads libGL), a script runs that randomly renames my Chrome binaries and the directory they reside in and creates a desktop shortcut to the real path with a random file name. I don't need Firefox but it is installed, so I can basically either remove it or rename the link if I wanted to keep it.

No need to do such things: just put a file called "titaniumgl_license_31242676" under / or /tmp/ and it should skip the ads (if I understood it correctly).

[crazycheese]

alltoxic, kano: yeah you understood that.
But please do not reinvent methods of cracking / protecting, please don´t. Im not using that thing, and will not be using it; but the tendecy you started to roll is predictable and wrong. Actually anytime something valueable goes closed source, and starts adding dirt (toolbars, plugins, autoclickers, codecs, changing start pages - look, Im involved too...), exactly this ball starts rolling.

But I think the thing is that that blob may not be opensourced, for the reasons I stated (two of them). If this is right, we will have to rely on consciousness of those upstream with access to source. And trust is a weakness. Frankly speaking, it was not vista that forced be to look at linux, but exactly trust in closed source that got cracked and its update trojaned.

You should speak to the lead developer, Geri, should you desire. I know you don´t care about linux much though, but its affecting you as well.

[Kano]

There are several reasons why more or less nobody will use it on Linux anyway.

a) The performance tests ran on an extremely fast intel 6 core system, the target user will never have got so much cpu power.
b) Even the most simple driver with 3d support should be able to beat it on lowend hardware.
c) When cpu power would be there the 32 bit only support is a joke (maybe this could be fixed by other devs if the source code would be available). Some server boards have got 2d only chips, there might be a use case there at max.

It might be ok to run his game engine on win as long as it works as direct3d wrapper, no idea if it is faster in that mode than other implementations. If there are 10 linux users of that software worldwide it would be a huge success.

[blackiwid]

why do you not opensource it, if you dont want to give it away for free (and get back maybe nice patches), give out a price tag, with that 3 dollar registering stuff you will not raise much money. So say a price maybe we find enough people who are willing to pay enough to you that you are willing to opensource it, or do you have big plans with it in the future? I think it could maybe have some technics mesa devs could learn from and write own code that is inspired by your work, that could maybe (dont know much about it) come to help at least a bit thousends of people, so it helpes basicly nobody, its good enough to play around for 2hours for a few people and then delete it in this state.

[madjr]

why do you not opensource it, if you dont want to give it away for free (and get back maybe nice patches), give out a price tag, with that 3 dollar registering stuff you will not raise much money. So say a price maybe we find enough people who are willing to pay enough to you that you are willing to opensource it, or do you have big plans with it in the future? I think it could maybe have some technics mesa devs could learn from and write own code that is inspired by your work, that could maybe (dont know much about it) come to help at least a bit thousends of people, so it helpes basicly nobody, its good enough to play around for 2hours for a few people and then delete it in this state.

+1

@Geri

3 € is not much, but most likely i would wipe out that command by 0 bytes for 0 €. Maybe you could get more donations when you say for about 1000 € collected you provide the source or so.

+1

agree, i think we can get Geri some more funds this way. Will be happy to help him.

[cb88]

Kickstarter page then? If he agreed to it at least that would be one way to get alot of publicity and generate some cash for him to open source it.