AMD Adds OpenGL 3.0 Support To Graphics Drivers 102
arcticstoat writes "Just a few months after The Khronos Group unveiled the Open GL 3.0 spec last year, AMD has included full support for the new API in its first WHQL driver of 2009 — Catalyst 9.1. OpenGL 3.0 requires DirectX 10-level hardware, such as AMD's Radeon HD series of GPUs. However, unlike Direct3D 10, OpenGL 3.0's features can be enabled on both Windows XP and Vista, as well as Linux and Mac OS, which could be a bonus for game developers looking for a broad base of customers. The Khronos Group claims that OpenGL 3.0 has a 'rough feature parity' with Direct3D 10, and it provides Shader Model 4.0 support, including features such as the Geometry Shader. The Khronos Group also says that the new API will interoperate with the GPGPU API OpenCL, which could allow OpenGL 3.0 to compete with the Compute Shader promised in Microsoft's DirectX 11 API."
Re:waiting game (Score:4, Informative)
Depends whether their games target the Wii and PS2/PS3 systems as well... The install base of PS2 systems is huge and new games are still being made, and the Wii is selling very well. If they target OpenGL then everything but the xbox is an easier port.
Re:waiting game (Score:5, Informative)
Lets not forget the 10% approaching Mac OS X. While game developers may think otherwise, users _hate_ bootcamp to run games or Cider (Windows) games under OS X. Under OS X, native 3d is OpenGL.
Re:waiting game (Score:5, Informative)
In actual fact, porting between GL3.0 and DX10 isn't that hard. It's all SM3.0/SM4.0 shaders that just need to be ported. Everything else is more or less createBuffer/createTexture etc. Porting legacy OpenGL code is a royal PITA though. There just aren't any equivalents for immediate mode/display lists/fixed function etc. Sadly, it's easier to port a DX10 app to GL than it is to go the other way around...
Re:Lock In (Score:5, Informative)
Assume for sake of discussion that game companies using DirectX is a bad thing.
It's OK. No console developers are writing code using DirectX (barring those targetting windows) - We have XDX for the xbox, but's thats not the same thing at all.
Also I'm not sure where this myth about openGL being used on consoles has come from, because the truth is very different. We are actually writing rendering code in SDK's specific to Wii and PS3. There is no OpenGL support. (There are some really crappy openGL wrappers that are too in-efficient to be useful if that's what you mean?)
Awesome... (Score:5, Informative)
Not really all that surprising. I predict there will be many posts saying, "Ha, so when do the open-source drivers get this support?" so let me say it here, first.
OpenGL 3.0 support will be added to Gallium3D as it becomes supported, and Radeons will gain that support when they are added to Gallium3D. There is no timetable for this support.
Re:Linux (Score:3, Informative)
OGL 3.0 drivers for linux came out in december.
Re:Linux (Score:3, Informative)
Give up on the closed source driver, apparently the open ones are coming along in leaps and bounds.
Re:cheap cards that support it? (Score:5, Informative)
Hope ATI fans won't get mad at me but from what I read and watch, it will be a nvidia unreleased card. VIA/S3 started to do really interesting things too as releasing a DirectX 10 card and having Linux support pages for some products too.
They (S3) say their hardware already supports OpenGL 3.0 http://www.s3graphics.com/en/products/desktop/chrome_530gt/ [s3graphics.com] , I bet it works too... Issue is, there isn't any sign of Linux driver for it. See what I mean?
The GPU supporting it is one matter, having a decent/supported driver on all systems is another. Drivers really, really matters. Let me give a example, on Tiger OS X (10.4) I get 130 FPS from same benchmark executable while on Leopard (10.5) which has way better kernel and OS architecture, system chokes to 50-60 fps. I still run Quad G5 (PPC) so I suspect lack of interest/time from Apple/Nvidia.
Re:Awesome... (Score:5, Informative)
Currently there are zero (0) devs working on OGL 3.0 support in Gallium, and one (1) dev working on Radeons in Gallium.
"Months" is what we'd all like, yes.
Re:waiting game (Score:4, Informative)
Uhm. PS2/PS3 and the Wii do not support OpenGL
This is correct, though they both utilize openGL-esque APIs. Mesa wrappers are already showing up for the Wii.
BBH
Re:hmm (Score:4, Informative)
Immediate mode is bad because it limits the driver from performing certain optimizations. The driver can't know that you always send it the same static vertices, so it can't, for instance, compile the shebang into an optimized triangle list which is stored in video RAM, eliminating the upload of the vertex data every frame. Instead you should use display lists or Vertex Buffer Objects (VBO).
Fixed function is bad because almost none (all?) of the current hardware works like that any more. They will instead convert the fixed function stuff to shaders and use that. Afaik that will also limit the stuff the driver can optimize, and may result in a lot of unnecessary computations. Instead, use vertex and pixel shaders.
Though of the two, immediate mode is by far the worst.