Linux Flash Player Is GPU Accelerated

Adobe has been using the GPU to accelerate the Flash Player when displaying full-screen content since their December '07 Flash Player update, but with the Flash Player 10 Beta, new GPU acceleration modes are supported -- even on Linux. While the Windows version of Adobe's Flash Player is using DirectX for acceleration, the Linux version is hooking into OpenGL.

In a new posting on the Adobe Penguin.SWF blog, the details surrounding this OpenGL acceleration within the Flash Player is covered. The article is fairly in-depth, even going down to what OpenGL extensions are being used and how they are attempting to detect systems capable of hardware-based acceleration. Unfortunately, those using Compiz will have the OpenGL acceleration disabled due to SWFs being unstable in this configuration. The article also explains why X-Video isn't used and how RGB scaling via OpenGL is the future of Flash.