NVIDIA's Linux Driver Continues Offering Similar OpenGL Performance To Windows

[Hi-Angel]

Just for games bridgman. The only one I play myself is No Man's Sky, but I've run across two others in the last year that others wanted to play, though unfortunately I can't remember their names.

Ironically I'm not really a gamer because I don't enjoy shooting things or puzzles, and have always just wanted something kind of like Star Trek where I could just roam around and explore. And wow, I was so happy when I found NMS. It worked really well under Linux at first, but then they changed the game to require OpenGL 4.5 compatibility mode and I couldn't use the open source driver anymore.

Did you try running it with MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5 ?

[RussianNeuroMancer]

on the first one trying everything under the sun to solve the screen tearing problem to no avail

If you already tried Kubuntu 17.04, then contact tech. support.

[sdack]

The complaint is that the code is not open in the sense you can't legally change it and you can't include it in the kernel.
Which is a legit complaint today, but this was really the only way to have a working driver for Linux back when Nvidia's effort started.

If you wanted to change the readable code can you always provide a patch for it, which is what people do when a new kernel comes out for which the driver fails to compile. You couldn't do it if it really all was closed and there's been so far nothing illegal about that.

[muncrief]

Did you try running it with MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5 ?

Yes I did Hi-Angel. Actually I've tried MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5, MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5COMPAT, and MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=450.

MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5 causes Steam to crash at startup, while MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=450 doesn't seem to do anything. However with MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5COMPAT Steam starts up fine and shows the open source driver as OpenGL 4.5 as you'd expect (without that it shows the OpenGL 3.1 or 3.3 open source compatibility mode). However No Man's Sky is rendered in black and white during startup and then just a white rectangle with a blurry pointer after starting.

[muncrief]

If you already tried Kubuntu 17.04, then contact tech. support.

Someone mentioned that earlier RussianNeuroMancer, and I've never tried it. The next time I have an Nvidia system to set up I will though. Thank you for the information. My own system uses an AMD GPU so I can't right now, but I'm always trying to switch people from Windows to Linux and regularly work on a lot of other computers.

[thechef]

NVIDIA slowing down to performance parity with Windows (some benchmarks even slower). That's not okay. I expect to get advantages with the Linux 2 ring approach. If a graphics driver doesn't exploit this sufficiently I most say that the driver is probably too agnostic about the underlying operating system and must die.
I understand AMD was worse the whole time but mainly due to the proprietary stack having the same issue. Seems like the Radeon Open Source driver unleashes some more potential and is actually the only graphics driver in this universe that actually honors the hardware behind all this.

[smitty3268]

Yes I did Hi-Angel. Actually I've tried MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5, MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5COMPAT, and MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=450.

MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5 causes Steam to crash at startup, while MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=450 doesn't seem to do anything. However with MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.5COMPAT Steam starts up fine and shows the open source driver as OpenGL 4.5 as you'd expect (without that it shows the OpenGL 3.1 or 3.3 open source compatibility mode). However No Man's Sky is rendered in black and white during startup and then just a white rectangle with a blurry pointer after starting.

Just double checking - you did try setting those variables for the actual game rather than just Steam, right? I don't think Steam passes along variables to the games it launches unless you explicitly tell it to.

Set Launch Options

• Right-click on the game title under the Library in Steam and select Properties.
• Under the General tab click the Set launch options... button.
• Enter the launch options you wish to apply (be sure to separate each code with a space) and click OK.
• Close the game's Properties window and launch the game.

[muncrief]

Just double checking - you did try setting those variables for the actual game rather than just Steam, right? I don't think Steam passes along variables to the games it launches unless you explicitly tell it to.

Set Launch Options

• Right-click on the game title under the Library in Steam and select Properties.
• Under the General tab click the Set launch options... button.
• Enter the launch options you wish to apply (be sure to separate each code with a space) and click OK.
• Close the game's Properties window and launch the game.

No, I'd never tried that smitty3268. But I did just now and the results were the same. But thank you for taking the time to help with the suggestion.

I didn't expect it to work though because I've created a custom script called Wine Manager that sources an entire environment before launching anything in a bottle. It enables very fine grained control of Wine environments and also dynamically creates custom XDG menus complete with hierarchical submenus. I know there's PlayOnLinux but it doesn't allow as much control over bottles, and the menus are a mess. However it's great for people who don't know how to compile or install different versions of Wine, my script doesn't do that automatically. My script is also command line driven so it's nowhere near as easy to use. I'm thinking of working on a Java version with a GUI though, and if I ever do I'll of course release it for free.

[bug77]

NVIDIA slowing down to performance parity with Windows (some benchmarks even slower). That's not okay. I expect to get advantages with the Linux 2 ring approach. If a graphics driver doesn't exploit this sufficiently I most say that the driver is probably too agnostic about the underlying operating system and must die.
I understand AMD was worse the whole time but mainly due to the proprietary stack having the same issue. Seems like the Radeon Open Source driver unleashes some more potential and is actually the only graphics driver in this universe that actually honors the hardware behind all this.

Have you seen one (1) driver that does what you claim this driver should do?

[eydee]

There is no reason to buy Nvidia for Linux today.

Yes, there is, considering that the most powerful AMD card available today is the RX 560. Not nearly fast enough for many people.