NVIDIA Tegra With Open-Source Graphics Is Coming

[Figueiredo]

I wonder why this strategy doesn't work for the desktop cards.

Because most desktop cards are menat to run windows, and most tegra parts run android. What is interesting is that future tegra parts (project denver, boulder and the like) are rumored to have a scaled down version of the desktop GPUs, so if nvidia is commited to this, it could end up being really relevant for desktop GPUs as well.

[Jam66es]

I wonder why this strategy doesn't work for the desktop cards.

[curaga]

As far as I understand, the depth-buffer is 16 bits, just like on the Tegra 2.

Oh, didn't know that. Certainly sounds like an issue for the more advanced games there, like shadowgun.

[kusma]

I see...sorry if I sounded pretentious but I'm sure there may be others out there who could help you out if you have limited time on this project

You have nothing to be sorry about Writing a modern graphics driver is a huge project, and I would certainly have to rely on help from others if I were to do this. And I feel rather confident that someone will step up to he task as the required documentation is available; the tegra is a pretty wide-spread SoC, and the benefits from an open source driver are many.

[DeepDayze]

I've been heavily involved in the development of proprietary OpenGL ES drivers before (for the ARM Mali series), so It's not that I'm not able to. It's more that it's not where my level of ambition is -- at least not yet. I don't want to promise things I might not follow through on.

I see...sorry if I sounded pretentious but I'm sure there may be others out there who could help you out if you have limited time on this project

[AJenbo]

I just find a lot of flickering in many games because of z-fighting

[kusma]

Care to elaborate?

As far as I understand, the depth-buffer is 16 bits, just like on the Tegra 2.

[curaga]

Tegra 3 has good performance, but the z buffer seams limited.

Care to elaborate?

[AJenbo]

Tegra 3 has good performance, but the z buffer seams limited.

[kusma]

If you aren't quite able or skilled enough to write a complete 3d driver there may be others out there who could help you out on that

I've been heavily involved in the development of proprietary OpenGL ES drivers before (for the ARM Mali series), so It's not that I'm not able to. It's more that it's not where my level of ambition is -- at least not yet. I don't want to promise things I might not follow through on.