Former AMD Developer: OpenGL Is Broken

[Detructor]

nVidia blob drivers are OK, problem is with AMD ( bad drivers ) & Intel ( only OpenGL 3.3 on Linux )

I've a desktop PC (AMD graphic card HD5870) and a Nvidia laptop that would like to differ to the extreme with your statement. NVidia sucks. The driver does not work correctly and installing it in the first place is a pain in the ass.

[curaga]

And internet people blame other people without any checking, true to tradition :P

Aras is not exactly new to GL. Him not using Linux is unrelated.

[Aleve Sicofante]

Now a developer on the Unity3D game engine is speaking up about OpenGL too: http://www.gamingonlinux.com/article...ut-opengl.3818

I just want a good API people don't bitch and moan about as a gamer myself.

All I can see from these devs is they have been used for too long to a particular API (D3D) and are just too lazy to learn something new (new for them, that is).

This particular guy even goes as far as saying:

I’ve no idea about Linux. I know there are binary drivers for NV/AMD, and open source for Intel – but no idea about whether Linux people update drivers, or whether they come with OS etc.

Go figure...

[Kraut]

GLSL is inefficient. Compiles everytime you run the program... without trickery it will run multiple times. He suggests that opengl switch to having shaders pre-compiled.

Drivers cache compiled shaders and you also can do it yourself with ARB_get_program_binary. You only have to compile on the first start. The only disadvantages are that you can't control the threads that the compiler is using. And some developers don't like it to ship there shader source code in plain text.

Threading.

Agree here! This seems to be one of the biggest advantage of mantle that does not run any background threads what so ever.

Texture data handling.

Don't know enough about that to comment.

Too many ways to do the same thing. Makes the api/tutorials/documentation confusing. Even in openGL 4.4 has multiple ways of doing one thing.

This is actual several problems you mention here: First the documentation is shitty. Its hard to read diff files. And I often find corner cases that are not covered by the documentation/api.
That's why mesa developers are doing: "If it is not documented we look what nvidia drivers are doing and do that, too!"

And also the loved "there are multiple ways to do X. You have to guess what way has more performance. And to make it more interesting some ways may even outright kill your performance! Also its different on each vendor!"

Error handling.

I would like to write about that but this forum thread does not own a active OpenGL context and therefore the standard forbids me to comment at all.

[_SXX_]

And Microsoft ships over Windows Update the Drivers from Intel, Nvidia and AMD. Even if you not a Gamer, you get a new Driver version for your GPU.

AMD legacy drivers shipped though Windows Update don't have OpenGL support and you can't easily replace them from official websites! Intel drivers shipped though Windows update are always outdated for 3-6 months and some versions also lack of OpenGL support.

I also listed number of other issues on @Liam's website...

[Ancurio]

The author has posted a follow up (mostly replying to Timothy Lottes): http://www.joshbarczak.com/blog/?p=196

[Nille]

Now a developer on the Unity3D game engine is speaking up about OpenGL too: http://www.gamingonlinux.com/article...ut-opengl.3818

And Microsoft ships over Windows Update the Drivers from Intel, Nvidia and AMD. Even if you not a Gamer, you get a new Driver version for your GPU.


@BeardedGNUFreak

[BeardedGNUFreak]

D3D is garbage and a dead end API.

It's use is restricted to the dying desktop PC market and the dead Xbox platform.

Khronos has been absolutely kicking ass over the past five years or so. After the painful transition to the modern OpenGL APIs back in the 3.0 days the API is an absolute joy to work with.

When even long time hardcore Windows developers like Valve have the OpenGL version of their games running faster than their D3D version the Khronos guys are doing an amazing job keeping OpenGL the top graphics API in the world.

I don't know if this latest clown crying about OpenGL is the same guy from a week ago that turned out to be nothing more than some former Microsoft employee essentially babbling about how OpenGL wasn't D3D. Nor do I care.

As long as D3D lacks the amazing OpenGL type extension system it will continue to be joke of an API in comparison. It was a braindead design decision by Microsoft to have D3D 'levels' which results in bleeding edge user hardware features sitting wasted and unused until Microsoft craps out a new D3D version. Dumb but on par for the company also responsible for the Windows Registry, Active X, the Xbox RRoD,etc.

[liamdawe]

Now a developer on the Unity3D game engine is speaking up about OpenGL too: http://www.gamingonlinux.com/article...ut-opengl.3818

I just want a good API people don't bitch and moan about as a gamer myself.

[ua=42]

I wonder how many people actually read the blog post, some of the responses seem to be countering points he didn't make.

Points 1 & 2 of his blog involve saying the current state of the drivers is fairly spotty. But that would be fixed if there was more resources used at the different companies to actually implement Opengl. He doesn't really have a problem with these issues as they would be fixed if openGL became more popular. (Though it is kind of a chicken and the egg issue.)

Here is the list of things he think are fundamental problems with opengl.

• GLSL is inefficient. Compiles everytime you run the program... without trickery it will run multiple times. He suggests that opengl switch to having shaders pre-compiled.
• Threading.
• Texture data handling.
• Too many ways to do the same thing. Makes the api/tutorials/documentation confusing. Even in openGL 4.4 has multiple ways of doing one thing.
• Error handling.