S3TC Is Still Problematic For Mesa Developers, Users

[peppercats]

Did they ever consider asking for permission to be allowed to use it?

[curaga]

Yes, Via is still fairly strong in the embedded sector (gambling machines, digital signage).

[Kivada]

Getting one large screen isn't the only use case for such cards. If you want to display simple things at different locations, this is a perfect way to do this.

As opposed to lining out to coax and using a splitter and a spool of RG-6 cable to run it to a bunch of cheap TVs? Convert to video over Cat5/5e/6 and back again?

If you don't already have the screens it's cheaper then VGA/DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort cable if you need to run it more then the few feet of cable the screens came with.

If you don't already have some of the pieces on hand there are there are allot of ways to skin this cat.

[droste]

Uh, if you need to go THAT big why not go projection or get a few 100" screens? If you actually had to render something on screens of a decent resolution instead of just play back video or static images then even a GTX Titan wouldn't be anywhere near enough grunt to not end up a choppy mess.

Getting one large screen isn't the only use case for such cards. If you want to display simple things at different locations, this is a perfect way to do this.

[Kivada]

So you are really not aware? They just stopped selling to the consumer market and only focus on professionnal, like medical imagery (some IRMs are made by Matrox for instance) market.

I guess it's the same for VIA.

Actually no I was not. I take it this is strictly embedded?

A while back, when I was looking around for a new monitor in the same resolution bracket as ye olde IBM T221 none of the high end screens I could find like the Eizo FDH3601 mentioned anything about Matrox even though they claimed they where for the medical/engineering/etc. market.

Even so, you'd think that the bigger players would be pushing them out, it's not like AMD and Intel don't make embedded x86 systems. Hell, Intel is trying to shoehorn x86 into a cellphone power envelope these days.

They are still on top with respect to "head count": http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/pr.../m9188pciex16/ 8 heads!

Uh, if you need to go THAT big why not go projection or get a few 100" screens? If you actually had to render something on screens of a decent resolution instead of just play back video or static images then even a GTX Titan wouldn't be anywhere near enough grunt to not end up a choppy mess.

[doom_Oo7]

If they are just sitting back and collecting licensing checks then they as a company shouldn't exist anymore. Produce or die.

So you are really not aware? They just stopped selling to the consumer market and only focus on professionnal, like medical imagery (some IRMs are made by Matrox for instance) market.

I guess it's the same for VIA.

[droste]

Matrox at least sold stuff like the Triple Head To Go, though that is largely unnecessary due to GPUs having as many as 6 outs these days, doubt there where all that many people actually connecting them to laptops that only have a single video out.

They are still on top with respect to "head count": http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/pr.../m9188pciex16/ 8 heads!

[Kivada]

Oh, it's been a long time we didn't see a Matrox graphic card, they must be dead too

Matrox at least sold stuff like the Triple Head To Go, though that is largely unnecessary due to GPUs having as many as 6 outs these days, doubt there where all that many people actually connecting them to laptops that only have a single video out.

If they are just sitting back and collecting licensing checks then they as a company shouldn't exist anymore. Produce or die.

[GreatEmerald]

How are ASTC or ETC1/2 replacements for S3TC?

• ETC is implemented in software for all desktop drivers atm (and it is very unlikely MESA impl. them in hw before the blob ones do)
• ASTC isn't exposed yet by any drivers as I know (nor is it known how many gpus are able to do it in hw)

So is the future of MESA really to uncompress all current & future texture formats and to not support a single hw accel. compressed texture format?

My view of the future:

• ASTC is too complicated, so there won't be many compression libs (see M$'s BC6/7). Neither will there be much driver/hw support. So it won't ever get popular.
• ETC could easily gain popularity (better quality than S3TC), if it would be supported by drivers, but I don't see that in the (near) future

So it still isn't the fault of the engine/content devs that S3TC is preferred.

Eh? So you're saying that you think it'll fail due to it being too new?.. IIRC ASTC is part of the OpenGL spec, so drivers will have to support it if they want to claim OpenGL compliance. Not necessarily in hardware, but if you're supporting it in software, might as well also have it accelerated. So yes, it's still not the fault of the developers that S3TC is preferred, but it will be in a few years. Or, you know, they will stop preferring it.

[doom_Oo7]

When is the last time you say any of their products for sale let alone anyone say they own one? The last time they where even semi interesting was when Nvidia was showing netops at CES with the ION2 chipset being powered by the dual core version of the VIA Nano, a combo that never saw the light of day as an actual product.

Since then AMD and Intel's low end CPU and GPU systems blew them out of the water for the same money spent giving nobody a reason to buy VIA/S3.

Oh, it's been a long time we didn't see a Matrox graphic card, they must be dead too