AMD Catalyst 10.2 For Linux Gets Direct2D

[d2kx]

Yeah, 10.2 and newer. Funny thing is that the new accel. method is supposed to finally fix the issues with slow window 2D operations under composite managers (slow window resizing and all that), but the driver is having problems with said managers. The problem doesn't seem to be related to the new accel. mechanism (on or off, Kwin effects still cause a black screen), but maybe they messed up something with the changes.

Are you part of the beta program? I don't want to break the NDA but what I was going to say with my post is that for the beta program members, Catalyst 10.3 was the first driver to introduce Direct2D, not 10.2.

[Melcar]

Are you part of the beta program? I don't want to break the NDA but what I was going to say with my post is that for the beta program members, Catalyst 10.3 was the first driver to introduce Direct2D, not 10.2.

Yes. I belong to the dark brotherhood too. Anyway, I always loose track of those things. Too many numbers. The 10.2 stream did have it, but I didn't catch the announcement until the later stream was introduced.
With 10.2 it simply does not work right, and since it's not an "officially" released feature, you won't get support and feedback for it. Very little point of using it right now. Of more concern too me it that KDE4 desktop effects don't work .

[Pfanne]

Yes. I belong to the dark brotherhood too. Anyway, I always loose track of those things. Too many numbers. The 10.2 stream did have it, but I didn't catch the announcement until the later stream was introduced.
With 10.2 it simply does not work right, and since it's not an "officially" released feature, you won't get support and feedback for it. Very little point of using it right now. Of more concern too me it that KDE4 desktop effects don't work .

im using kde 4.4 with fglrx 10.2 and an hd4570 and everything works like a charm.

[Melcar]

KDE 4.3.5. Will try moving to a newer version and see if it's any different.

[jasa68]

I do have to admit to that of Pfanne there around the thing of that it works, definetly indeed there is no much wrong in the current drivers other than that they do not instantly support some new kernels or if there comes some small changes upon random things on.
I had previously ATI card myself, now going on Nvidia for some reason on, i'd guess indeed that of better support cause of more activity on driver development that can be somewhat read from the drivers pages too on their site.
I would say on comparement of ATI and Nvidia current thing would be only that of that Nvidia got their vdpau acceleration widely accepted, seemingly cause it was simple to insert into that of the main code and does indeed work rather nicely (unless some random person reads xine-vdpau post and makes consideration based on that it could have some issues).
And now they are still considering that of some random 2d acceleration of how it could be improved, really ... for what cause it would land on ? They could claim that of smoother scrolling of some random web pages that were designed to have random banners and such or just those 4+ flash comercials around to slow down the experience.
Seemingly that of the main target would be those of with the laptop with less memory on that for graphics.
And from own view i would say that mentioning idea of even throwing new accelerations upon with name of direct2d would make application devels reconsider even if they would be willing to be supporting something like that, or seemingly why they wouldnt just use those of already existing ones until those would be proved to be "too old" for the new desktop usage.
Only main issues i saw back on the older days with ATI card was some random wine issues of unproper rendering of objects and good video acceleration (texturedvideo was rather new by back then and not sure how it is today).

[blindfrog]

Haha still no support for the ancient xserver 1.7.x

Proper opengl 2.1 support for free drivers can't come soon enough

[jasa68]

Haha still no support for the ancient xserver 1.7.x

Proper opengl 2.1 support for free drivers can't come soon enough

I wouldnt rate those of the free drivers on those of the company made ones either, they should know best their hardware and their limits on. And seemingly ATI has it's own thing on currently, trying to think something new that would not be possible on other companys products that would be again waste of time thinking of as it wouldn't be accepted quickly around or at all.

Also from some past memory of i wonder now if they would be considering around with those of the desktop UI creators of how to add "accelerated" effects upon, like simple mouse drawing of whole desktop area painting it and how to make sure the GPU would do the calculations and show the effect of background changing colour, if i remember right XP never had any type of acceleration on that either and speed drawback was directly on the size of the area drawn blue with the selection "effect".
Indeed the thing is still that of desktop is not completely GPU "accelerated" on and those of the application (like video player) does that of using the real thing if they were made for that cause.

On some point they throw that 2GB memory into graphics card and consider, well now we can add all those icons into cards cache so they could be shown right away when their time comes and not considering that it would still take long time to load all those around, even if none would be shown either on desktop at any point, taking still that of the speed from OS startup.

The main thing would be still that both desktop and graphic cards should be made in same portait and on Linux that comes troublesome when there are multiple of those and some person out of nowhere comes and thinks he can make a new one and do it better, without just accepting the idea of that one desktop could be made in some conjuction of that of how drivers/graphics cards would use those and for reason being minimalistic would be just stripping down those gadgets (only few use) and throwing that as some random other "distribution".

Well there is that of xorg-server for everyone and i wont be using time around (atleast yet) to see how all those desktops use that on their own either or what is the real thing on Xorg either.

(Sorry for long posts too, i just write what i think not too much checking either on things)

[elmo23x]

for me it is broken...

KDE 4.4 will not start with my 5770.

[jasa68]

for me it is broken...

KDE 4.4 will not start with my 5770.

Well if some KDE 4.x works for you you aint loosing too much, only bit better layout of where some random things are shown around, like those widget adding menus and such, yes i still admit it's considered to be new desktop but nothing out of normal in thing of just using the computer whatever the purpose would be, runs applications same way around other does.

And some random distribution could seemingly force you to upgrade into that new version on too that does not work or breaks things.

I wonder why really if there wouldnt be any real security vulnerabilities in the older one and new one would not been thought fully either.

I had KDE 4.4 running, now on Gnome, same old thing on.

[Melcar]

Moved to KDE 4.4.x and the same thing. Desktop effects produce a black screen with the drivers. I hear people are having problems with Compiz too. Everyone should really flood the bugzilla tracker with tickets. Who cares if they don't respond. They do read those and the more tickets the easier it is for the issue not to get buried and forgotten.