plib-devel

[Plib-devel] [OT] FSAA with ati's fglrx

[Bram S. <br...@sa...>]

Hi there,

This is not strictly a plib matter, but I think there a quite a few
smart people on this list how may be able to help me out.
And my posting on comp.os.linux.x had zero resonse.

All I'm trying to do is enable FSAA on a Radeon9700 with fglrx.
I have in my xfree cfg:

         Option "FSAAEnable"   "yes"
         Option "FSAAScale"    "4"

I tried 2x, 4x, 6x, but I always get contradictions in my XF86Config log,
because first, xf86 tells me:

(**) fglrx(0): Option "FSAAScale" "4"
(**) fglrx(0): Option "FSAAEnable" "yes"

And later in the log, I get:

(==) fglrx(0): HPV inactive
(==) fglrx(0): FSAA enabled: NO
(==) fglrx(0): FSAA Gamma enabled

What the heck is going on here????

glx works just fine for me, as this glxinfo output shows:

OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON 9700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 1.3.4641 (X4.3.0-3.14.6)

I'm really puzzled.

     bram

Re: [Plib-devel] [OT] FSAA with ati's fglrx

[Steve B. <sjb...@ai...>]

Bram Stolk wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> This is not strictly a plib matter, but I think there a quite a few
> smart people on this list how may be able to help me out.
> And my posting on comp.os.linux.x had zero resonse.
> 
> All I'm trying to do is enable FSAA on a Radeon9700 with fglrx.
> I have in my xfree cfg:
> 
>         Option "FSAAEnable"   "yes"
>         Option "FSAAScale"    "4"
> 
> I tried 2x, 4x, 6x, but I always get contradictions in my XF86Config log,
> because first, xf86 tells me:
> 
> (**) fglrx(0): Option "FSAAScale" "4"
> (**) fglrx(0): Option "FSAAEnable" "yes"
> 
> And later in the log, I get:
> 
> (==) fglrx(0): HPV inactive
> (==) fglrx(0): FSAA enabled: NO
> (==) fglrx(0): FSAA Gamma enabled
> 
> What the heck is going on here????
> 
> glx works just fine for me, as this glxinfo output shows:
> 
> OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
> OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON 9700 Generic
> OpenGL version string: 1.3.4641 (X4.3.0-3.14.6)

Two questions:

1) Does the MOBILITY version of the Radeon 9700 even support
    FSAA?  I know the mobility chipsets have quite a few limitations
    compared to the regular 9700.

2) How much graphics memory do you have?  Turning on FSAA consumes
    a LOT of graphics RAM - especially at higher screen resolutions.
    Does FSAA turn on when you set the screen size to something
    really tiny (like 640x480) ?

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
HomeEmail: <sjb...@ai...>    WorkEmail: <sj...@li...>
HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
Projects : http://plib.sf.net    http://tuxaqfh.sf.net
            http://tuxkart.sf.net http://prettypoly.sf.net
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Re: [Plib-devel] [OT] FSAA with ati's fglrx

[Bram S. <br...@sa...>]

Steve,

Thank you for the suggestions.

> 1) Does the MOBILITY version of the Radeon 9700 even support
>    FSAA?  I know the mobility chipsets have quite a few limitations
>    compared to the regular 9700.

According to ATI's website, mobility Radeon 9700 does 6x fsaa:
http://ati.com/products/mobilityradeon9700/features.html
They call this SmoothVision(tm)2.1 :-)

> 
> 2) How much graphics memory do you have?  Turning on FSAA consumes
>    a LOT of graphics RAM - especially at higher screen resolutions.
>    Does FSAA turn on when you set the screen size to something
>    really tiny (like 640x480) ?

xfree86 reports 64Mb video memory.
I tried a 640x400 resolution (no virtual desktop).
This still does not do FSAA.

I'm starting to think that this is a linux driver thing.
Unfortunately, ati does zero linux support.
Nvidia's linux support is so much better. I occasionally write
to their linux feedback email address, and I often get usable
responses from them.

    bram

PS: I cannot check FSAA under windows, as this laptop was bought
     with debian pre-installed, although m$ tax was paid :-(

Re: [Plib-devel] [OT] FSAA with ati's fglrx

[Steve B. <sjb...@ai...>]

Bram Stolk wrote:

> I'm starting to think that this is a linux driver thing.
> Unfortunately, ati does zero linux support.

Yep.  At work (where we buy the very best cutting edge graphics
cards at a rate of several thousand per year and use ONLY Linux),
we've had no success in getting ATI to talk to us.  We initially
planned to support nVidia, ATI and 3Dlabs products - but ATI's
drivers are so poor and our ability to pass on bug reports and
get them looked at is ZERO.  So now, we don't even bother to buy
one of each of their cards for evaluation anymore.

Individual developers have zero chance of getting help from them.

3Dlabs are also very good at Linux support - and I certainly
recommend their hardware if you want to get into GLSL shaders
and such like.  But for home use, they are kinda expensive.

> Nvidia's linux support is so much better.

Yes - we've had many phone conferences with their developers and
talked Linux issues with them.  They are *reasonably* responsive
and their drivers are really solid and reliable.

If you buy one of their higher priced 'Quadro' cards instead of
the consumer-grade 'GeForce' range - you'll find their Quadro group
are even more responsive to questions.

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
HomeEmail: <sjb...@ai...>    WorkEmail: <sj...@li...>
HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
Projects : http://plib.sf.net    http://tuxaqfh.sf.net
            http://tuxkart.sf.net http://prettypoly.sf.net
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
GCS d-- s:+ a+ C++++$ UL+++$ P--- L++++$ E--- W+++ N o+ K? w--- !O M-
V-- PS++ PE- Y-- PGP-- t+ 5 X R+++ tv b++ DI++ D G+ e++ h--(-) r+++ y++++
-----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----