[Dri-devel] tdfx-3-1-0 + aasli-1-0 = SLI-ish?

[Colin B. <col...@co...>]

OK, I know that SLI isn't "officially supported" yet, but I have some test results that are either encouraging or discouraging.

I took the latest DRI CVS (from tdfx-3-1-0-branch) and the startlingly old Glide CVS (from aasli-1-0-branch), compiled them together with lots of metaphorical duct tape, and got at least something running.  All "original" numbers were measured using XFree86 4.1.0 and the Glide3 CVS trunk.

Caveats:
- To compile tdfx-3-1-0-branch, modifications were made to the Matrox drivers.  No harm done, I hope.
- To compile aasli-1-0-branch, I used the configure.in from the main trunk of Glide 3.  Once again, no harm done hopefully, but I'm not sure.
- I'm not sure whether SLI is enabled, as the renderer string still reads Voodoo4, but "when SLI is supported, glGetString(GL_RENDERER) will read Voodoo5 instead of Voodoo4" and SLI isn't supported yet, is it? ;-)
Results: (all tests were run at 1024x768x32@60Hz)
Tuxracer originally ran at around 50 fps on the old drivers, but now it only renders in software for some reason.  I'll investigate and post a followup.

BZFlag originally ran (in the standard CTF map) at 55-80 FPS (depending on view complexity).  It now runs at 80-90 FPS.  All textures, however, seem to be blue-tinted except for the ground texture.

Descent3 originally ran (wildly fluctuating) from 10-30 FPS.  It now runs at 40-70 FPS, with no rendering errors (even with packed pixels, which used to cause artifacting).  The opening menu, which used to render at 640x480, now renders fullscreen.

Heavy Gear 2 originally ran smoothly except when the view was composed  of many explosions.  It now runs smoothly all the time, but all explosion, weapon, text, and player model polygons have become un-textured and blue-tinted.  All background polygons render blue-tinted but properly textured.  The opening menu now renders at fullscreen instead of 640x480.

MindRover originally ran smoothly except when large amounts of smoke were visible.  It is now unplayable, due to similar texturing problems as are witnessed in Heavy Gear 2.

The GLX demos and xscreensaver modules that utilize OpenGL work well, with one exception: Lament.  Lament, which uses texturing, suffers similar problems to Heavy Gear 2 and BZFlag.  The rotating cube, originally yellow, is red, and the lighting (originally white) is blue.
I know I may be seeing things that aren't there, but there seem to be noticeable increases in speed over my original X server, so I'm just reporting this in case every Voodoo5 user's dream has come true... ;-)

-- Colin <vog...@us...>

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