Intel Linux Driver Finally Handles 8x MSAA

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Linux Driver Finally Handles 8x MSAA

Intel's Linux graphics driver is finally onto supporting 8x multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA), assuming you're using the latest-generation Ivy Bridge graphics hardware...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTE0MjY

[Redi44]

Will it be part of Mesa 8.1?

[1c3d0g]

May I ask how one changes AA/AF on Intel Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge GPU's? As far as I can tell, DRIconf does not expose these settings and asking around in other forums haven't given me a single answer.

[Kayden]

May I ask how one changes AA/AF on Intel Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge GPU's? As far as I can tell, DRIconf does not expose these settings and asking around in other forums haven't given me a single answer.

As far as I know, it's up to the application---you'd just go into your game's graphics setting screen and select what level of antialiasing you want. The OpenGL driver will simply do whatever it asks (assuming it's supported). I suppose we could add a driconf option to drop back to single sampling, but I'm not sure what the use of that would be.

Also, for what it's worth, we actually don't support 2x MSAA---the hardware just doesn't do it. Sandy Bridge offers 4x, and Ivy Bridge offers either 4x or 8x.

[1c3d0g]

As far as I know, it's up to the application---you'd just go into your game's graphics setting screen and select what level of antialiasing you want. The OpenGL driver will simply do whatever it asks (assuming it's supported). I suppose we could add a driconf option to drop back to single sampling, but I'm not sure what the use of that would be.

Also, for what it's worth, we actually don't support 2x MSAA---the hardware just doesn't do it. Sandy Bridge offers 4x, and Ivy Bridge offers either 4x or 8x.

Oh, I see. The thing is: if for instance Chrome/Chromium displays a 3-D rendered object (WebGL etc.), I suppose Chrome/Chromium itself will need to have an option to toggle AA/AF on/off, right? Perhaps it should be put in the about:flags section until the setting is stable enough for mainstream use. Am I right?

Secondly, on Windows there's a very useful option to adjust the different color settings of the monitor directly through Intel's graphics control panel. This is useful for a notebook display, as it doesn't have the physical buttons to adjust RGB settings, so controlling it through the GPU is a good alternative. Is there a way to do something like this in Linux? If there's a way, I haven't found an easy solution yet.

[Kayden]

Oh, I see. The thing is: if for instance Chrome/Chromium displays a 3-D rendered object (WebGL etc.), I suppose Chrome/Chromium itself will need to have an option to toggle AA/AF on/off, right? Perhaps it should be put in the about:flags section until the setting is stable enough for mainstream use. Am I right?

Right. I just checked Firefox; it seems to have a webgl.msaa-level key in about:config. Not sure about Chromium. I imagine as WebGL matures and becomes more mainstream they'll offer more polished settings for this.

Secondly, on Windows there's a very useful option to adjust the different color settings of the monitor directly through Intel's graphics control panel. This is useful for a notebook display, as it doesn't have the physical buttons to adjust RGB settings, so controlling it through the GPU is a good alternative. Is there a way to do something like this in Linux? If there's a way, I haven't found an easy solution yet.

I'm not aware of a way to change RGB settings, sorry...though display really isn't my area of expertise. It does sound useful. As an aside: we've tried to stay away from vendor-specific control panels and instead develop APIs that all vendors can use to expose the necessary mechanism...then GNOME, KDE, and other groups can write GUIs that are consistent across vendors.

[smitty3268]

Oh, I see. The thing is: if for instance Chrome/Chromium displays a 3-D rendered object (WebGL etc.), I suppose Chrome/Chromium itself will need to have an option to toggle AA/AF on/off, right? Perhaps it should be put in the about:flags section until the setting is stable enough for mainstream use. Am I right?

Chrome and Firefox both default to having it on for all WebGL right now. It looks like Firefox defaults to 2 on my machine, though, so I'm not sure what that does on Intel. Off, i suppose? Not sure about what level Chrome defaults to.

Edit: The WebGL spec specifies that it is supposed to default to AA = on, so i guess that makes sense. The javascript can change the setting when it creates the context.

[RussianNeuroMancer]

Secondly, on Windows there's a very useful option to adjust the different color settings of the monitor directly through Intel's graphics control panel. This is useful for a notebook display, as it doesn't have the physical buttons to adjust RGB settings, so controlling it through the GPU is a good alternative. Is there a way to do something like this in Linux? If there's a way, I haven't found an easy solution yet.

At least for KDE there is KGamma.

[agd5f]

Secondly, on Windows there's a very useful option to adjust the different color settings of the monitor directly through Intel's graphics control panel. This is useful for a notebook display, as it doesn't have the physical buttons to adjust RGB settings, so controlling it through the GPU is a good alternative. Is there a way to do something like this in Linux? If there's a way, I haven't found an easy solution yet.

You can adjust the gamma via xrandr or gnome color manager.
http://projects.gnome.org/gnome-color-manager/

[ChrisXY]

Secondly, on Windows there's a very useful option to adjust the different color settings of the monitor directly through Intel's graphics control panel. This is useful for a notebook display, as it doesn't have the physical buttons to adjust RGB settings, so controlling it through the GPU is a good alternative. Is there a way to do something like this in Linux? If there's a way, I haven't found an easy solution yet.

Aaand I'm, the third one answering:

 ~ % xgamma --help
usage:  xgamma [-options]

where the available options are:
    -display host:dpy       or -d
    -quiet                  or -q
    -screen                 or -s
    -gamma f.f              Gamma Value
    -rgamma f.f             Red Gamma Value
    -ggamma f.f             Green Gamma Value
    -bgamma f.f             Blue Gamma Value