[Plib-users] Re: [Flightgear-users] ..ran '/usr/local/bin/gl-info'...

[Arnt K. <ar...@c2...>]

.Jacek, Cameroon and Curt, it appears I have a mean 
combination of poorly supported video card and Red Hat 
Linux 7.1.  According to ATI, mach64 is not on ATI's 
"todo list", not even for wintendo.  Xfree86.org and 
the DRI-people are looking for people who can do mach64 
acceleration.  

""Øyvind Hagen\" \"" wrote in norwegian, and I translated:
> 
> In article <3B6...@c2...>, "Arnt Karlsen" <ar...@c2...>
> wrote:
> > ..how much texture memory do you feel a flightsim needs, 
> > out of my 8 MB vram, as a starting point?

..here I'd like input on FlightGear requirements

> Like I said, this is hard to know in advance.  Some programs
> (like gears) use none, while other programs use more than 40 MiB.
> Most OpenGL programmer usually do reasonable texture handling, 
> only keeping the neccesary textures in the video card memory.
> However, some drivers fail here.
>
> Texture compression is also nice when you're low on vram,
> but I dont see ATI Rage supporting this.(couldnt see any 
> such extention mentioned when you ran glinfo.)
> 
> Remember that you will be able to play the game even if you 
> dont have enough vram to hold the textures.  You only get 
> lower performance as textures are fed from AGP/system memory.
> 
> > Øyvind Hagen wrote in norwegian, and I translated:
> >> Consequently you cannot run ATI Rage at 1600x1200x16bpp with
> >> HW-accelleration. 3 x 1600 x 1200 x (16bpp/8) = 11250KiB > 8MiB
> >>                                       ^ stencil- & Z-buffer + 2
> >>                                       color buffer
> >
> > ..the "2" became a "3". What is it?
> 
> I forgot Z- & stencil buffers in my last calculation.
> 
> > ..3x800x600x(16/8)=2.75 MB + texture memory on top of that?
> 
> Yup, this is what you should go for. Run 800x600x16 on your other X
> server.
> 
> > ..a 50/50 split between texture and everything else -> 964x724.
> >
> > ..another possibility is 1280X1024, which needs 7.5 MB vram and gives 512 kB
> > texture memory?
> 
> Believe me, far below what you need...
> 
> > ..anyone else who know/have heard/believes/feels anything about 
> > other buffers than those Øyvind has mentioned, which are suppprted 
> > by ATI Rage IIC agp 8MB???
> 
> ATI Rage, afaik, supports _only_ front & back buffer, Z-buffer &
> stencilbuffer.
> 
> Other nice handy buffers include accumulations buffer, pbuffer, multi
> color buffers. Then fun extras include extra set of font & back buffers
> which can be used for stereoscopic effects (3D with LCD glasses) or
> regular red/blue 3D glasses. All these buffers are supported by the 
> more mature cards.
> 
> Remember, we only speak of _hardware_ buffers. Some of these buffers 
> available for ATI Rage, but only in SW( which defeats the whole point.)
>
> 
> > ..X v4.x.x appears to make its own modelines on the fly.
> > How do I overrule the modeline generator in X v4.1.0?
> 
> No idea.
> 

..to fill in the good people of the FlightGear, plib 
user mailing lists and news:no.it.os.unix.linux.diverse:

..os: Red Hat 7.1 with all known erratas to date,
I run XFree86-4.1.0-0.9.1 from rawhide at 
1600x1200x24bpp@60Hz on a 8MB ATI Rage IIC agp card, 
screen is an half burned Sony GDM-2038 that needs a
custom modeline to "yaw" it back in, from 1/3 out.

..this "yaw" trick is needed for _all_ modelines.

-- 
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;-)

  Scenarios always come in sets of three: 
  best case, worst case, and just in case.