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Icculus Grows Fond Of Open-Source GPU Drivers

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  • Icculus Grows Fond Of Open-Source GPU Drivers

    Phoronix: Icculus Grows Fond Of Open-Source GPU Drivers

    Ryan "Icculus" Gordon, the famed Linux game developer, in the past has sharply criticized open-source Linux graphics drivers as not being mature and putting the Linux desktop into a dangerous position. In speaking to Ryan this weekend, his views on the open-source graphics drivers have changed...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Seems like the FOSS video driver situation is at an exciting tipping point. "Good enough" to run Humble Bundle means more people running the stock FOSS driver and more motivation to contribute to it. Add to that a source engine game hopefully coming to Linux will translate to even more incentive to get the FOSS video drivers in great shape. Things are looking good.

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    • #3
      Simply put, Ryan has reversed his views on open-source GPU drivers.
      FOSS drivers now better for sure. Thanks to AMD, now I can finally play Amnesia (almost high settings, only SSAO disabled).

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      • #4
        Originally posted by RussianNeuroMancer View Post
        FOSS drivers now better for sure. Thanks to AMD, now I can finally play Amnesia (almost high settings, only SSAO disabled).
        If you reread the article carefully, you will notice Gordon never mentioned AMD. I wonder myself why (no irony).

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        • #5
          I'm amazed at how far the FOSS drivers have come as well. Just a few months ago I was happy to get around 24 fps in Oil Rush. I just played it today, and it's getting a solid 30fps (Radeon HD5770, 1920x1080, low settings).

          I have about 55 indie games on Desura, and i'd say 90% of them run beautifully. It's true that most of them are not so graphically demanding, but it's still damn impressive compared to just last year. The fact that I don't have to install a buggy crashy graphics blob is icing on the cake.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by crazycheese View Post
            If you reread the article carefully, you will notice Gordon never mentioned AMD. I wonder myself why (no irony).
            I don't think he has anything against AMD. It's well known that he usually runs NVidia stuff with the proprietary driver, simply because his work demands him to have a stable full featured driver. I would guess that he just doesn't own any modern AMD hardware.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by benmoran View Post
              I don't think he has anything against AMD. It's well known that he usually runs NVidia stuff with the proprietary driver, simply because his work demands him to have a stable full featured driver. I would guess that he just doesn't own any modern AMD hardware.
              I?m sure there is much more behind. But the only positive thing I?d like to type is that I suggest AMD keeps up what it has promised with GCN and linux opensource. Especially because of GCN. But no hopes.

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              • #8
                @Qaridarium
                I don't have any Oil Rush texture flickering or any other display problems with
                Code:
                GLX version: 1.4
                OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD TURKS
                OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.2
                OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20
                launched from Desura using the 3.4 kernel on AMD Radeon HD6600M. I also used to get texture flickering with Oil Rush, but not anymore.

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                • #9
                  i'm sorry but the oss drivers for nvidia suck doney balls. They render systems unbootable in many cases and if they work they are glitchy as all heck. no enterprise distro (i am looking at you, centos) should ship it as default, the default should be vesa and the user should be given the option to activate the Nouveau with a big warning that it might kill all the puppies.
                  I would never in my life buy a system with an nvidia chip. Nheever, ever. It's obvious that one should take their business to brands that care about Linux support. companies like intel, realtek, ralink, and atheros.

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                  • #10
                    It is interesting... I was speculating on his current opinion on this matter in another thread if some of you would remember.

                    As for why he did not mention AMD, it is probably just that he never had the opportunity to try out the free radeon drivers with the hardware he has. It does not really matter, as so much is shared (especially between the radeon and nouveau drivers, as well as Intel to a lesser extent) that if you have a good experince on one, it bodes well for the rest.

                    Also, nouveau has arguably had the most progress in the past few years as AMD was so much more ahead. For instance, take my rather common onboard GeForce 6150 SE that came with my motherboard and then compare my external Radeon HD 4670. When Fedora 13 was released in 2010, the radeon could play Doom 3 and many other older titles, although it lack S3TC support at the time. Nouveau could not even launch glxgears.

                    With Fedora 14 in November 2010, nouveau started rendering things, but it could not even get a game like Rune to draw right. Fedora 15 released last May proved to be the one to hit the jackpot for both. radeon switched to Gallium and got S3TC support, and nouveau could finally actually start handling 3D tasks. That is a fairly impressive transition.

                    If you want to keep on trolling crazycheese, I suggest you ask Gordon first. He is very receptive to inquiry, as long as it is not about UT3.

                    As for why he would not want to move, he only recently got married and now has a two month older daughter. He has a lot more on his plate now than he used to. I am not surprised if he is happy doing what he is doing now - porting Humble Bundle titles and living in North Carolina. It is time for the next generation of icculus's to emerge.

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